Dschehuti here. Interesting that you are tagging theories about a theme of the club drifting away from each other. I had a conversation yesterday where it struck me that Ryukishi was involved in a story with such a theme already: Country Girl from Trianthology!
Well now, that's very interesting! Ryukishi does like to revisit and reuse his themes, so that seems a potential point in the theory's favor.
...Given that Piece shows up in Saku, I guess I really should add Trianthology to my "even more Ryukishi07 works to read list." orz
xaki does a lot of odd time and some of the most extreme stuff I’ve posted is his (see here: https://vgm-in-irregular-time-of-the-day.tumblr.com/post/148752956478/day-400-umineko-no-naku-koro-ni-rhythm-changer)
This game has a higher % of xaki music than most game sound team’s he’s been a part of that I’ve known him for, and unsurprisingly that means there’s a huge set of music that’s quite to my tastes! Only recently was this soundtrack pointed out to me despite me having loved xaki music for a long time, huge thanks to the friend who I was introduced to this ost from! More stuff to come from this game in the future.
Back to that other game! It’s hard to find the time (especially since I’m not used to reading an entire VN in Japanese) but I’ll try to move forward a little bit and at least get to the third story before the end of the month.
But first, I have to apologize − contrary to what I said it seems like the first story “Country Girl” wasn’t written by Ryūkishi07, but by Tanaka Romeo so… mea culpa.
So I picked up from where I stopped, when Keiko was hospitalized, read a bit ahead and… then the story stopped in the middle and we got back to Alice and her rabbit. Yes, that’s where the 07th Expansion weirdness is starting to kick in − instead of finishing this story, we get thrown right away in the middle of the second one: a romcom parody called School Love Adventure (Although It’s Kinda Silly to Call It That) (yes, that’s the full title). And shit only gets weirder from there.
And in this game, you have choices! And if you pick the wrong choice… the camera zooms back to the point of view of someone playing the game, calling it crappy and turning it off, and it's a game over. There seems to be two kinds of "bad endings" − either the MC falls in love with a girl and they live happily ever after, or he decides to ditch everything and live his life as a slob playing games forever. Thankfully, if you click "continue" the game brings you back right before the choice even if you haven't saved.
By the end, there’s a weird twist, or hint of a twist. First the MC wonders if he's in the freaking Truman Show because there's no way so many girls would be after him, and as I kept deliberately picking game over options (because any options but the first ones lead to happy bad endings), things started to get a little clearer… In several endings, we got a glimpse of the player's face which was none other than Mikihiko from the "Country Girl" story. And in case it wouldn't be obvious enough, one of this story's girls namedrops one of the characters from Country Girl out of nowhere, to the bafflement of the MC − and mine. And just as things start to get really weird, we get back to the Metaworld before switching to the third story, Vespio 2438, a space opera.
I have no idea how they're gonna connect that to the first two stories, but now this game's got my full attention.
Regarding SLA, while the fact that new (Ryuukishi-drawn) girls appear out of nowhere every minute only to give you bad endings seems like a potshot at clichéd romcom games, I really dig said girls' designs, so I kinda hope they're not one-off jokes… but I doubt it, as they're clearly meant to be shallow clichés − you got the serious stuco president, the passionate sports club captain, the cool distant beauty, the Cute Clumsy Girl who's Late for School with a Toast of Tardiness, the Ojou, and the girl who's in an arranged marriage with the MC. Oh, and there's a Rika/Bernkastel expy among those girls, because of course there is.
But even putting aside all the meta-meta-shit, SLA part 1 was actually really fun to read for its sheer absurdity, and I laughed more than once.
Well then, see you next time to start Vespio, and I’ll leave you with a bunch of random pretty pics!
Kujou Yukina (with posters of Shannon and Terumi from Hotarubi in the background)
Kirihara Hinata
Takatori Fuuka
Miumiya Hinako
Kuonji Miho
Dlanor trying to make ends meet between two executions.
Shion and Satoshi in the poster behind. D’awww.
Black Ops Duty: Call of Battlefield. Or something.
Not pictured: the girl who comes to abduct you in a helicopter at the end. No, really.
Hi! With a friend, I decided to create a discord server for the When they Cry series (Higurashi, Umineko and Ciconia) as well as other series from the same author (Higanbana, Hotarubi, Trianthology, Rose Gun Days). The server is pretty new but don’t hesitate to join!
https://discord.gg/eDu4Avm
ps: any form of discrimination is forbidden (racism, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, etc) and this server is lgbt+ friendly.
Are you a 07th Wonderland lover? Then you might want to join the 07th Wonderland community in discord. we're always looking for new people and we have over 100members already. our server offers news and fun activities too, such as Umineko CROSS 2D fighting game netplay, penalty games, chess, and much more. many of us love roleplay and gaming. the only requirement for you to join us is that you like 07thExpansion and follow our rules. if you became curious now but are still unsure whether to join or have any questions left, feel free to contact the server owner which is myself. @ryuuguu-rena . Anyway, if you’d decide to join us, here’s the link. https://discord.gg/JBQ6UgB
