gghghghghghghghghghghghghghghghgh
This is it. This is what made Umineko my favorite story ever. Chiru. For some people, they say that the second half of Umineko was weaker than the first half, but I disagree. Chiru is where we finally get to the heart of the story. The focus slowly drifts away from the old "Could this locked room be solved by this trick X?" to "I'm not worried about the obvious stuff, like murders and tricks. What did you, the Golden Witch Beatrice, think, and why did you do what you did? What were you hoping for?" And finding out the heart of one of the most complex and fascinating character, Beatrice, was an experience that solified her position as one of my favorite characters among fiction. After you're finished with Chiru, I also recommend you to check the manga, especially the manga version of Episode 8. Some people may disagree with me, because the EP8 of the manga added a lot of new stuff that may or may not go against the message of the visual novel. But I think it's best for you to see for yourself. The manga is more or less considered a Director's Cut, because Ryukishi added a lot of manga-exclusive chapters, and they're kind of divisive among the fandom. Some people hate it, others love it. I'm in the latter camp, so I'm probably very biased. But even if you don't end up enjoying it, experiencing it is at least something you should do once. Because, hell, who says no to more content? And if after that you're still craving for more Umineko content, there's the extra arcs, Hane, Tsubasa and Saku. Some of those are just funny non canon sidestories, others delve deeper in some characters like Gohda and Cornelia. And Saku in particular is even considered by some as EP9, albeit not as long as a main EP. And if EVEN after that you're still craving for EVEN MORE content. There's fanworks too. In particular, I highly recommend Witches and Woodlands, where the cousins, Beatrice, Dlanor and Erika join together to play a session of D&D. This story will stay with me forever.
This is my Top 1 piece of fiction ever. I haven't read or played anything with a story as engaging as Umineko, that made me laugh, cry, hate, love, vibe to the amazing soundtrack, and much more. Truly, reading Umineko is both a blessing and a curse. A blessing in the sense that you'll read one of the best, if not the best story out there. And a curse, because once you enter the rabbithole that is Umineko, there's no way out, and it'll undoubtly consume many hours of your life. Hell, I can't even count with both of my hands the number of Let's Plays of Umi that I've watched on youtube, and it's kind of effing my social life too as I just can't stop rambling on about it to my friends that are just too stubborn to give this behemoth of a VN a chance (Bear in mind that this VN has over 100 hours of reading, and it's literally longer than the bible.) But if you don't mind long stories and want to experience peak fiction, this is for you. Umineko is at its heart, a mystery novel, and in it, a bunch of rich people from the Ushiromiya family attend the annual family conference at the patriarch's own private island, Rokkenjima. Obviously, after they arrive, fun things start happening, like murders, lots of it. And it's for our protagonist (and you, the reader) to solve the mysteries presented to you. I won't say anything more, because this story is something best experienced as blindly as possible. But if you're new to this VN, there's something I recommend you to do before reading: Install either 07th-mod or Umiproject, they're both ports from the console version of Umineko, which is a MUCH better version of this one, as it adds new and improved graphics, and also the amazing voice acting with seiyuus such as freaking Daisuke Ono as our protagonist, Battler. (Wait, is that a JoJo reference?) Really, the voice acting in Umineko is top tier, as everything else is.
