Sorry 'bout the untagged spoilers. Here’s the blurred one.
EP 1-7 spoilers: Local shounen protagonist is thrown into a seinen and debates OCs and headcanons against a cosplayer with a tumblr.
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That description reminds me of a certain other work by a fellow mystery VN writer which a lot of people I know swear he reads some Ryukishi stuff before he writes his own (and of course, many people in /jp/ actually claims they indeed are friends, and they also have Uchikoshi Kotaro as a friend in common), as there are some Umineko references and similar meta plot devices everywhere.
As for the name of said work that matches a lot with this:
[Spoiler for some other VN you all may have interest in]
DanganV3
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Your post makes me want to gouge my heart out at missing the chance to ask Ryukishi at Acen 2015 if he was friends with Kodaka and Uchikoshi. This regret tears at my soul now, thank you. @danpmss
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I may do it for you if there’s a 07th Expansion stand in the next Comiket. I’m curious about that myself, as some of my reliable friend sources also say they indeed do know each other (and there’s that “photo” of the three of them that was posted on /jp/ long ago which I only hear about it, but that nobody post there again to confirm… heck, this is one of the biggest rumors at this point, some people even tried asking him on twitter about it iirc).
About Uchikoshi it’s kinda confirmed, they even made a little talkshow session together about their creative methods for elaborating their storytelling in general last year. Uchikoshi and Kodaka are pals and they even made a “roasting” sketch with each other in a Spike Chunsoft event not so long ago.
Must protect those smiles (the talkshow thing): <3
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@danpmss you made me use my trap meme for this one:
The real summery of every WTC work ever:
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THE CLASSIC!
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Very curious indeed. Glad to know that since, as far as I’m aware, Umineko seemed to borrow a few writing queues from Zero Escape in regards to its mystery and meta-narrative aspect (do not know myself unfortunately since I have yet to actually complete a Zero Escape game, which I really should!)
The curious part for me is that there’s a lot of conflicting stories about Uchikoshi and Kodaka actually. Some rumors say that they’re friends and Kodaka found him a creative inspiration and mentor figure for Dangan Ronpa, and others say that Kodaka stole a lot of ideas for Dangan Ronpa from Uchikoshi and made off with being Spike’s big VN IP. Maybe if Ryukishi was friends with both of them, that would lead more credence to a theory of Uchikoshi, Kodaka, and Ryukishi being in a cool friend circle and influence each other’s works in interesting and positive ways. The intrigue in the world of VNs sure is vast…!
Like, I wouldn’t quite say that Umineko borrowed anything other than maybe the unreliabilty in the narrative from “Ever17” (and even then it’s orchestrated in such a completely different fashion, it’s hard to imagine it’s from there were he got the full picture). And before that we already had some other examples, like “Sayonara o Oshiete ~Comment te Dire Adieu~” (that’s much more in the lines of Ryu’s structure than Uchikoshi’s are).
That one and “Kusarihime ~Euthanasia~” could probably be the closest to Ryukishi’s plot devices in their own way, besides also being fairly different in many instances. But even then, it seems he didn’t really read them (to be fair, they were only so much similar as well), as he gave Key in special most of his Visual Novel-related influences’ attention (and a bit for Type Moon as well, especially for the engine they gave him for Higurashi, if I’m not mistaking).
To make things more organized, I would put it like that (excluding direct actual visual novel influences):
Uchikoshi for one goes with espectacular Pseudoscience knowledge and implements it as a storytelling technique in all of his works (Zero Escape trilogy being more of a collection of his older (Infinity Series) works’ themes and plot devices in one huge story divided in three parts).
While Ryukishi uses of his work and life experiences to construct most of the themes and messages, while inputting some considerable literature knowledge and concepts from worldwide classics, and some studies that were influenced by their concepts (I could refer myself to many shinto-related material, and also some mystery writers he explicitly mentioned in Umineko as if it was a love letter to their legacy, but I would be more inclined to give more attention to the actually deep stuff he did with his meta-layered structure for Umineko, the “La Divina Comedia”/Jung’s Collective Unconscious thing that is so apparent after giving a fair look into all of the content).
As for Kodaka, he seems to like playing with investigative, storytelling, meta-fictional and otaku culture related tropes altogether in a huge crazy mix with over-the-top unique characters and premise. And at that, averting, heavily deconstructing and even straight pointing them out by name and everything (LOL) during the game itself. Kodaka’s games are an absolute joy to read because of that (it’s my definition of a fun crazy mystery ride besides some minor problems here and there), especially when he really knows were it would hurt the most in the players’ eyes when it comes to leaving everybody despaired (primary theme in the series) .
NOW THEN, TO REMAIN IN TOPIC:
I have one for Umineko EP2 me and my friends did sometime ago during a match of Cards Against Humanity online.
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There may or may not be anyone in this room, but regardless, no one here knows how to play chess.
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Full series spoilers:
That awkward moment when you realise you all wanna bone your uncle.