2 months later, just finished Umineko. and it felt me in tears. here are my thoughts. (i was wrong on SO MANY LEVELS.)
[https://www.reddit.com/r/umineko/comments/1ndo1tu/i\_am\_reading\_umineko\_almost\_completely\_blind\_just/](https://www.reddit.com/r/umineko/comments/1ndo1tu/i_am_reading_umineko_almost_completely_blind_just/)
2 months ago, I shared my thoughts and theories on Umineko. Now that I've completed EP8, I can finally share my thoughts and say that I WAS COMPLETELY OFF THE MARK (for the most part) 😭.
I'd like to specify that I did read the tea parties after this post, thanks to u/NintendoggyYT's DM. I'm sorry I didn't read those earlier, my excuse is that since the game gives you an achievement for completing said episode before reading the tea parties, I just assumed the tea parties were the equivalent of those optional post-episode sections in Higurashi where the cast is gathered to discuss said episode. So YES I did miss the small bombs on my first playthrough.......... thankfully mistake corrected!
Now I can start by saying this in red: I LOVED the story and what it stood for, reading through each character as they try to live their lifes as best as they could with the power of their own magic. I expected the last 2 episodes to blow my head yes, but I didn't expect to shed tears at the very end. What truly made me cry was realising that Battler (or should I say Tohya now) survived, but returned absolutely wasted and devastated after the nightmare he went through on this island. Honestly I feel like he went through much worse than Ange did... As for the twist with Sayo, it made so much sense to me that they were the mastermind. Their backstory had me feel so sorry for them.
As for the mysteries, plot twists and murders in the question arcs... I don't even know what to say MAN, I was SO WRONG. when I realized that most of these were essentially the fruit of illusions created by Sayo/their accomplice(s), I lost my shit, especially for EP3 1st twilight, and all of EP4 really. Absolutely brilliant, Enoshima has some heavy competition in the mastermind field. At least I'm happy I called what was up with magic early on in the story.
*Thaaaaaaaat being said,* I do have some criticism to make (light because Umineko is a solid 8.5 out of 10 for me):
1. I thought the VN itself was way too long and the pacing not the greatest. 2. I loved the concept of the narration tricking me with the illusions (the goats, the sisters of Purgatory etc), however I thought their introduction felt extremely clunky, to the point it almost got me out of the story, like, I initially thought "what the heck is this... what's the point in reading if it's just been magic creatures all along". Fortunately I quickly understood what I was looking at so don't take this one too much to heart. 3. Some female characters were again, just like in Higu, sexualized way too much. 4. I thought the game to be very punitive toward people who aren't exactly the brightest at solving riddles and mysteries (me right there). The game doesn't even tell you explicitly what happened in the question arcs (the confrontation between Clair and Will did not help me that much) and sometimes it felt very frustrating more than anything else, but hey I guess that's just skill issue 5. and although I love the ending and what it stands for (knowing the truth isn't the only think that matters, think of your mental health, live your life and cherish your good memories rather than the bad ones), I wasn't 100% a fan of how it was brought up, as to me knowing the truth behind a tragedy is extremely important. I'm aware that's not the point of the story but yeah.
And I'll finally end this thread by posing some questions about stuff I didn't fully understand:
* What's up with the anonymous letters in EP4?? Who sent them?? was it Tohya? * Also, about the Single Truth, was what was shown at the end of EP7's tea party really the truth of what happened? If so, how did Battler and Sayo survive (before the latter jumped into the ocean) since they were both shot? (at least for Sayo) * In any case, that doesn't change the fact that Rudolf and Kyrie were the true culprits, does it?
In conclusion: I loved Umineko no naku koro ni and I'm looking forward to rereading it in the future. Ryukishi was probably right when he said that he'll never write something as good as Umineko again
Thank you all for reading! <3