Golden Fantasia

第一の晩に、鍵の選びし六人を生贄に捧げよ。

『うみねこのなく頃に』

On the first twilight, offer as sacrifices the six chosen by the key. 

"Umineko: When They Cry"

It was almost ten years ago that I read Nikaidou Reito's Jinroujou no Kyoufu ("The Terror of Werewolf Castle") and when I tackled that enormous story on the blog, I decided to discuss each of the four volumes seperately, even though the four pockets formed one story together, so the first three books didn't even explain the mysterious murders that occured at the titular castle. But the story was just so insanely long, I knew I was going to forget things while reading it (and other books in between), so I opted to do those 'incomplete' write-ups on each book anyway. Which is basically the same reason why I am writing this post today.

People who have played the visual novel game series Umineko no Naku Koro ni ("When the Seagulls Cry"), released in English as Umineko: When They Cry, are probably quite aware that it's insanely long. And I am also sure a lot of people who frequent this blog have already played Umineko, for I often see the name mentioned in the comments and sometimes people from Umineko fandom even link to specific book reviews on this blog because apparently those books served as inspiration for the games. Anyway, Umineko is a pretty well-known mystery multimedia franchise created by 07th Expansion (with Ryukishi07 as the main writer), as there have also been anime, manga, novel and drama CD adaptations of these games, which is probably why people often assumed I had played the games, and I had to disappoint them. Heck, I'm sure a lot of people only started to develop an interest in Japanese mystery stories because of Umineko. Hardware preferences etc. meant I only recently started on these games with the Switch version (which collects all the available material at this moment) released in January 2021. Oh, I can also reveal I have not played/seen Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, and certainly won't even think about it until I'm at least done with Umineko.

This post however is not meant to be a full review of Umineko: When They Cry as I'm literally just halfway through the main game (you may have noticed me mentioning my blind playthrough memo on the blog this last month). The main story consists of eight episodes, which were originally released between 2007-2010. The first four episodes, Legend of the Golden Witch, Turn of the Golden Witch, Banquet of the Golden Witch and Alliance of the Golden Witch are collectively known as the Question Arc, which basically pose the main mystery for the players to solve. The remaining four episodes on the other hand I believe don't spell out the solution literally, but do give you more pointers/show off a bit more of what's behind the curtain, allowing the player to solve the mystery. As of this moment, I have only finished the first four episodes, but I decided to write something down already before I move on. The series is available on a wide range of systems from PC to PS3, PSP, PS4 and Nintendo Switch and probably more and then there's all the adaptations too. I probably don't have to mention that the English version of Umineko: When They Cry Question Arc has been available on Steam and GOG for some years now, but if you hadn't played the games yet and this post managed somehow to pique your interests (Do note that the Switch version I played has different art assets and therefore looks differently). The manga has also been released officially in English I believe.

The story of Umineko is set in 1986, on the private island Rokkenjima. Rokkenjima is the property of Ushiromiya Kinzou, an man who after World War II managed to bring back fortune and fame to the fallen Ushiromiya clan. Some say Kinzou's success came from his unmatchable luck, others say it was the result of his ruthless and overwhelming aura that annihilated any enemies in his path, but there are also rumors that Kinzou, who has more than an interest in the occult, had a pact with the Golden Witch Beatrice, whom he summoned. According to the stories, she bequethed him with a mountain of golden ingots, which was what got Kinzou's rise to power starting. Whatever the cause was of Kinzou's success though, by 1986 Kinzou has grown old and health-wise, he shouldn't have much time left. In recent years, he's stayed cooped up in his study and become completely absorbed in the occult , even having a portrait of the Golden Witch Beatrice made in his house, along with an epitaph with a curious riddle which is supposed to lead to the gold treasure and revive Beatrice. Oldest son Klaus and his family still live on Rokkenjima, though they hardly see Kinzou anymore. Kinzou's other three children Eva, Rudolf and Rosa still come back once a year in the fall, together with their own families, ostensibly for a fun 'family gathering', but as all four children have always been terrorized and abused by their father, they can't wait for him to go so they can inherit his immense fortune.

On October 4, 1986, three genereations of the Ushiromiya clan gather again on Rokkenjima, just in time before a storm arrives. For the four grandchildren George, Battler, Jessica and Maria, it's a nice family meeting, but their parents however are all desperate for money, and are willing to do anything to get some money from Kinzou, who however seems to have become completely kooky by now, as he longes for a reunion with the Golden Witch Beatrice. When the storm finally reaches Rokkenjima and cuts it completely off from the outside however, the tragedy starts. On the first night, a mass murder occurs in the garden shed, and it had been signed by a creepy occult symbol. The survivors try to contact the mainland, but the radio's out and with the storm raging on, there's no way out off the island. After the first shock fades away however, the survivors start noticing little suspicious things about the murder, like the question of why the garden shed was locked, while the key to the shed was kept in the servant's room. But as the day continues, more and more people are killed and some of them even under seemingly impossible circumstances, with for example everyone having an alibi for the time of the murder. By the time it becomes clear that thesemurders happen according to the riddle on the epitaph, it's already too late: the Golden Witch Beatrice revives and nobody survives.

Despite not surviving the Rokkenjima massacre however, Battler refuses to believe in the existence of magic and Beatrice herself, so our witch decides to have a game with Battler: the events on Rokkenjima are "reset" and from a parallel dimension, Beatrice and Battler look on as the murders on Rokkenjima happen all over again, though the details of the events play out differently this time, with other kinds of impossible murders and other victims. In this game, Beatrice maintains that every impossible occurrence, including the locked or otherwise impossible murders, are made possible because she's the Golden Witch Beatrice and that she committed the murders with magic, while Battler has to prove that these murders are not the result of magic, but committed by a real-life person. As they observe each 'new' version of the Rokkenjima murders, they hold discussions on how a situation could've been created by a human, or whether magic would be the only possible explanation for events. They go through this twisted game again and again, resetting the 'board' of this insane fantasy mystery game again each time, with Battler struggling every time to come up with a comprehensive human explanation for the events. 

As I mentioned above, the so-called Question arc of Umineko: When They Cry consists of the four episodes Legend of the Golden Witch, Turn of the Golden Witch, Banquet of the Golden Witch and Alliance of the Golden Witch, which take close to ten hours each and all four episodes present a different version of the Rokkenjima murders: while the base story of the Ushiromiya clan gathering on the island is the same each time, the murders all occur very differently, and the focus in each episode lies elsewhere too, with some episodes focusing more on certain characters, or opting to show more of the family history or build-up or aftermath of the family gathering. Umineko: When They Cry is however quite different from the novel adventure games I usually discuss here: there is no interactivity whatsover in these four episodes, and you're just reading the story. You don't have to make story-changing choices, nor does the game ever test you (the player) directly by quizzing you on theories. You're just a bystander to Battler and Beatrice's back-and-forth on magical vs non-magical murders. Personally, I'm not that big a fan of novel games that don't have any interactive elements: as a person who got started on novel games with the Chunsoft games like Kamaitachi no Yoru and 428, figuring out the right route down a flowchart is my jam! 

The 'game' element of Umineko: When They Cry therefore lies outside the game: each of the episodes challenges the player to see if they will subject to the fantasy 'solution' offered by Beatrice or try to solve the mystery themselves, for at least these four first episodes don't actually explain how the murders in each seperate episode were committed or feature any game mechanics that allow the player to check whether they were right or wrong about the case. Starting from the second episode on, Battler will try to come up with theories to explain not only the impossible crimes that occur in the episode in question, but also of previous episodes, but often his theories are either shot down entirely, or have too many open questions to feel satisfying. None of the episodes have a proper denouement where it's shown that magic was never used in the Rokkenjima murders, so it's up to the player to come up with a theory that explains things. This is made harder by the fact that the Golden Witch Beatrice will often show "her interpretation" of the events, resulting in many scenes that are most definitely fantasy, with witches summoning magical beings to commit the murders, and it's up to Battler and the player to figure out how to explain the results of the same scene, without actually accepting the "explanation" that the crime was committed by a witch. The meta game-element is also seen in the concept of Red Truths introduced in the second episode: a statement made in red is true. Meaning that even if you don't believe that X was killed by a magic stake in that one scene, if it's stated in red that X was killed, you do have accept that specific fact. This is basically the function of third-persion narration in mystery fiction: a fair-play mystery novel should never blatantly lie to the reader in the third-person narration. The unreliable narrator is of course a subjective narrator and in that sense, Beatrice is most definitely an unreliable narrator, but any statements she makes in red are true regardless of her status, which brings some interesting dynamics to the deduction battles between Beatrice and Battler, as Beatrice can sometimes kill off a complete theory of Battler just by making a red statement that contradicts a fundamental premise. 

The idea of a single work of mystery that doesn't actually reveal the truth to the reader reminds me of two of Higashino Keigo's books featuring Kaga Kyouichirou: Dochiraka ga Kanojo wo Koroshita ("One of the Two Killed Her") and Watashi ga Kare wo Koroshita ("I Killed Him") both don't say who's ultimately arrested for the murders in those books, nor is a detailed explanation given to the reader as to how Kaga managed to identify the killer, so the reader has to solve the whodunnit themselves, with or without the extra help in the sealed commentary pages.

This is just an 'update' post on my progress on Umineko: When They Cry and I still have half of the story to read through, so there's little I can say about the quality of the mystery at this moment. As you may have noticed however, I've created a Umineko no Naku koro ni playthrough memo page, where I wrote down my thoughts each time I was done with an episode, dotting down what scenes I thought were suspicious, and what implications they might have. I'm probably very wrong, but if you have played the games already, it might be fun to read through them (they're ROT13 protected). One thing that's noticable about the murder situations in Umineko however is that a lot of options are left open with the impossible crimes. Some locked room murders are basically only "impossible" if you believe some characters aren't in cahoots or something like that, which is also pointed out in the episodes themselves. This is often the case to leave the possibility open that the murders could be committed by either magic or by a human hand, but it does result in murder situations where the mystery seems to lie mostly in the fact that the reader isn't given enough specific information about each murder scene. Even when Red Truths are later introduced (sometimes also concerning earlier episodes), things often feel a bit vague (perhaps on purpose) and even the "rules" of Umineko, as a game that challenges the player to solve the mystery, aren't always made clear. For example, each subsequent Umineko episode will give out background information that is probably also applicable to previous episodes, but it is never stated as such, so the game is being intentionally vague to make the reader assume something, but as none of the rules are ever told to the reader, Umineko is never really trying to be fair. A good mystery story with fantasy elements will usually set down clear limits so the reader knows whether their theories remain within bounds, but even though Umineko has the Red Truths, those colored short statements only cover the bare minimum of the events that are actually shown and don't really give the player a good idea of what should be considered part of the game and what not.

Which reminds me: Umineko: When They Cry is insanely wordy, and to be honest, I feel like the game always needs like twenty lines to convey a message that had already been conveyed after the first two lines. At times the writing simply feels too self-indulgent.

Of course, it's clear that Umineko: When They Cry takes inspiration from the famous four Japanese 'anti-mystery' novels, Kokushikan Satsujin Jiken ("The Black Death Mansion Murder Case"), Dogura Magura, Kyomu he no Kumotsu ("Offerings to Nothingness") and Hako no Naka no Shitsuraku ("Paradise Lost Inside A Box"), with its focus on occult topics, the family of four with Western names, the unreliable narrator/presentation and its open-ended approach to "truth" but that does mean that story of Umineko, at this point at least, never feels like a tightly plotted Queen-like mystery novel where the logic will pull everything straight at the end.

Anyway, this was just a quick (but too long) post to say I'm now halfway through Umineko: When They Cry. At this point I honestly can't say whether the conclusion will be rewarding enough considering the interesting set-up, but writing the entries in the Umineko no Naku koro ni playthrough memo page has been interesting enough, and it'll be fun to see I at least got on the right track regarding the various solutions to the many versions of the Rokkenjima murders. A more indepth post regarding how Umineko:When They Cry works for me as a piece of mystery fiction, will follow when I'm finally done. Considering the length of these episodes, that make take a few months again though. Depending on what happens in the coming episodes of Umineko:When They Cry, I might continue working on the playthrough memo, because I'm not sure whether it's still going to present new murders or not and if there's anything for me to update in the first place. Guess I'll find out when I go back to the game. Obviously, I'd very much appreciate those who have played the game already to not spoil or even nudge nudge wink wink hint at the events awaiting me!

Original Japanese title(s): 『うみねこのなく頃に』 「Legend of the Golden Witch」/「Turn of the Golden Witch」/「Banquet of the Golden Witch」/「Alliance of the Golden Witch」