Higurashi Console Arc Discussion

07th Discussion
#1

In Higurashi’s various console releases (Matsuri, Kizuna, Sui, etc.), there are a few arcs not present in the original series. These arcs sometimes introduce new characters, shed some light on the background events on the series, or present new scenarios altogether. While not written by Ryukishi07 himself like the original arcs, they were written by Alchemist with his input and direction. This thread is for people to discuss these various arcs.

  • Taraimawashi: What if, in Onikakushi, Keiichi had decided to trust Mion and Rena? This arc sheds a lot of light on the history of Hinamizawa and the mystery surrounding it.
  • Yoigoshi: A retelling of the original manga chapter with some additional characters. A group of young adults comes to the abandoned village of Hinamizawa, where they meet a woman claiming to be Mion Sonozaki seeking to protect the Sonozaki family.
  • Tsukiotoshi: An arc that centers around Keiichi, Rika, Shion, and Satoko. Similar in nature to Tatarigoroshi, except this time, Keiichi, Rena, and Shion all work together to rescue Satoko by any means necessary.
  • Someutsushi: A retelling of Onisarashi, the manga arc featuring Natsumi Kimiyoshi, with slightly different events and some new characters. Natsumi, a girl who lives in Okinomiya with her family, has her life thrown into chaos thanks to events in Hinamizawa.
  • Kageboshi: Another mutation of Onisarashi. Follows the story of Minai Tomoe, a policewoman who is investigating the events in Hinamizawa and Okinomiya. Working with Akasaka and Ooishi, she investigates the circumstances of Natsumi and her family.
  • Tokihogushi: An arc featuring Rena, Tomoe, and Nagisa Ozaki, a former classmate of Rena’s and relative of one of the boys Rena attacked. This arc sheds light on Rena’s background before moving to Hinamizawa.
  • Kotohogushi: This arc (originally included in Miotsukushi) is the story of Hanyuu in the days of feudal Japan. It introduces the ancestors of the Furude, Sonozaki, and Kimiyoshi clans and provides a look at Hinamizawa during ancient times.
  • Miotsukushi: An alternate ending to the series wherein Rika and Keiichi work together to try and prevent all of the tragedies of the series, only for new complications to arise. It deals with a lot of character arcs not resolved in Matsuribayashi, particularly involving Mion and Shion.

While unreleased outside of Japan, these arcs have some fans overseas. The most recent release, Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Sui, was released in April 2015 for PS3 and Vita by Kaga Create, which has since gone out of business while developer Alchemist has declared bankruptcy. You can still find copies on Amazon, but marked up considerably (PS3, Vita). It contains the vast majority of these arcs as well as all of the original ones (as well as some bonuses).

In the interests of not spoiling those who haven’t had a chance to play through these particular stories but may wish to, please make liberal use of the [spoiler] tag!

1 Like
#2

If anyone wants to see what the console arcs are like but doesn’t know Japanese, I’ve written lengthy summaries of them on my blog.

1 Like
#3

@Isae oh so you were the one who made those summaries, thank you a lot!

And I have a question, is Kothogushi-hen consideres 100% canon? All the story of Ōka and Hanyū before everything. Because I’ve heard that it is not completely cannon so…
And I really liked Kotohogushi and Meakashi the most, I’ve only read the summaries, but if I’m not wrong un miotsukushi they solve every mistery that could be left telling everything to the reader

#4

I personally don’t consider the console arcs canon, because Ryukishi didn’t write them himself. Others might feel differently.

Hmm, I’m not sure what you mean by Miotsukushi solving every mystery. If I recall correctly, it doesn’t solve anything more than Matsuribayashi did.

#5

Personally, I see the console arcs as canon in the sense that a lot of them fill in the blanks, and Miotsukushi could be an alternate ending. Ultimately, Ryukishi had to approve them, and I doubt he would have approved them if he considered them to stray too far from his canon. I doubt he had a lot of the backgrounds of certain characters written up. Now, I wouldn’t say they’re part of the core canon, but I think dismissing them entirely as not canon isn’t right, either.

Miotsukushi deals with, among other things, Rena’s family issues, Shion’s jealousy toward Mion and instability regarding Satoshi, and Keiichi’s guilt over his past on-screen, whereas Matsuribayashi only really hints at them at best. While it has some issues (particularly the Sui version), I think it succeeds where Matsuribayashi falls a little short in some respects.

#6

Those where the things I was referring to, when I said telling everything to the reader. If we consider them cannon, which shall we consider the real ending Matsuribayashi or Miotsukushi?

#7

I dunno, while there are things I like about Miotsukushi, I also think it has a lot of problems (not that Matsuribayashi doesn’t, but I think that has fewer problems overall.)

Plus I like Matsuribayashi’s backstory stuff a lot.

Edit: Also, which Miotsukushi are we talking about, the decent PS2 one, or the horrible Kizuna/Sui one?

#8

Actually, Miotsukushi and Matsuribayashi (at least in the Sui version, I still have to get through the PS2 version which I do think is the better of the two from what I hear) share the same backstory. The fragment world actually must be gone through to unlock both arcs, not just Matsuribayashi.

The main thing that I don’t like about Matsuribayashi is that nothing ever really goes wrong for the cast. There aren’t any complications, and overall, it feels like the characters have lucked into ideal circumstances instead of having to actually alter fate themselves. They have to work for everything they get in Miotsukushi.

#9

Well, Matsuribayashi is, without a dude a miracle fragment created just for Rika’s sake and her victory, that’s why nothing goes wrong with everything they do. In that sense I feel, when I read the summary, like Miotsukushi was a more human arc, with problems appearing to the group and not a path of roses to the “Happy Ending”. At this moment it is impossible for me to choose between Matsuribayashi and Miotsukushi because I haven’t read the second but I think that I’ll still choose Matsuribayashi even if I read Miotsukushi

#10

I think that’s totally fair. I’ll admit to being biased since Miotsukushi features a much more proactive Rika, really plays to my Keiichi/Mion biases, and has Takano realize her own sin at the end. It also peeved me a little bit in Matsuribayashi that Rika had to be told by Hanyuu that Takano was the culprit, which made her sacrifice in Minagoroshi feel really cheapened and useless.

That all being said, I can definitely see room for criticism. My ideal ending would be something that combines elements of Miotsukushi and Matsuribayashi, to be honest, but that doesn’t exist and is definitely not canon.

1 Like
#11

Really? Because a lot of the backstory/fragment-weaving stuff doesn’t seem to match that well with Miotsukushi.

For instance, in the ‘Tsumihoroboshi-hen Fragment,’ it says that Rule X was almost completely destroyed in this fragment, and Keiichi and the others will never succumb to the syndrome again. Yet, what happens in Miotsukushi? Shion and Rena almost (or actually do, depending on your choices) succumb to the syndrome again.

I guess the reason you said doesn’t bother me because [spoiler] I think things would actually be even easier than what happened in Matsuribayashi. Just tell Mion about Takano’s plan and then she can tell the Sonozakis who can then tell the villagers. BOOM. Takano’s plan is foiled. Remember, Takano’s plan relies on the villagers willingly packing themselves into various buildings (to be gassed, unbeknownst to them). So if they know about the plan, they obviously aren’t going to do that.

But that wouldn’t make for a very interesting arc, hence how Matsuribayashi went down.[/spoiler]

Don’t get me wrong; Matsuribayashi is far from being my favorite arc. In fact, if we exclude the backstory stuff, then it’s probably my least favorite arc.

Agreed.

1 Like
#12

Definitely. I’m not going to disagree that both Miotsukushi (especially the Sui version, cough) and Matsuribayashi have issues.

Regarding fragments: I haven’t played Sui in a while, but I think you unlock Miotsukushi before Matsuribayashi, and before you get to the fragments where the rules are solidified. I’ll have to check on that, but since it means restarting from a clear save, I’m not really looking forward to it.

1 Like
#13

Oh yeah, come to think of it, some fragments went with Matsuribayashi and some went with Miotsukushi. I can’t remember how it was in Sui, but on Kizuna it looks like the Tsumihoroboshi Fragment goes with both.

1 Like
#14

You’re definitely much more of an expert on it than I am, so I’m inclined to believe you.

Slightly related: do you know what happens in the Sui fragment for the Meakashi Bad End? I know it reveals how Keiichi ended up dead and what happens to Takano since she didn’t get to kill Rika, but I didn’t quite get what happened.

#15

I think I know which fragment you’re talking about.

[spoiler]Takano is devastated because the mass syndrome outbreak didn’t occur upon Rika’s death like her grandfather predicted, so his research was mocked.

She wanders into a park and spots Keiichi and Mion. She realizes that everything was the Sonozakis fault for pretending like they were behind everything and therefore causing Shion to get so paranoid. She gets agitated and starts scratching her neck. Then Mion leaves to use the bathroom and Takano kills Keiichi. Out of revenge towards Mion, I guess?

It doesn’t really reveal how Takano killed Keiichi. It shows a spray of blood, but at the same time apparently Mion was able to think he was just sleeping, so it’s really a mystery.

Then Takano is at a harbor and gets killed by someone. [/spoiler]

1 Like
#16

This isn’t so much about the console arcs as it is about how the original eight arcs were handled in the console ports. The more time goes on, the more I wish Alchemist had made the Higurashi console adaptions the right way. Instead they censored the shit out of it.

Plus, I’ve heard that Ryukishi really dislikes game choices as a writer. So what did they do? Cram the question arcs full of game choices. This really garbles the story.

You might just say that Alchemist sucks (or rather, sucked), but they managed to handle Umineko almost perfectly.

#17

I agree, if I’m going to be honest, it feels like for Alchemist’s Higurashi arcs, they spent all their focus on making the arcs as cruel as possible so most of them are absolute tragedy porn and the theme songs, which are pretty good. Like we all know how Miotsukushi infamously ends, and after all that hard work to get there, somebody that you got to know in depth in that arc is just… essentially the person who got the Old Maid and left to suffer. Not to mention that I’m not fond of most of the tweaks they made to the arcs based on Onisarashi (save for some semblance of a somewhat good end) especially since Ooishi and Akasaka’s roles in the console arcs were diminished. And I’m honestly so nit picky with it, but I haven’t ever really liked the Alchemist sprites (except for literally Lambda and one other character plus a design). because they’re so static and lack expression in the vast majority of them. Each Higurashi character in the Alchemist sprites has a max of maybe seven expressions, and that’s a disservice to the story.

I will say that they did a phenomenal job in the voice acting, though. Apart from the good parts I’ve mentioned (and going into a certain Au Au’s background), the console arcs do little good but draw attention to the series.

1 Like
#18

Yeah, that’s the main reason I wish Alchemist had done the console ports right. I can do without the new sprites/backgrounds/etc., but it would be nice to have voices to go with all the dialogue, since the voice actors always do an amazing job.

#19

The anime (and thus the console ports since they use the usually same VAs and they only cast Chiru and some manga/console exclusive Higurashi characters since obviously no animation exists for them). I like their choices for VAs, though, as they really know their characters so well (I always love the whole thing of Ryukishi’s telling Sayaka Ohara the truth behind Beato so she knew exactly what to convey and Daisuke Ono not knowing the meaning behind the “WELP HE JUST SIGNED HIS DEATH WARRANT” line. Ryukishi you clever troll.) I wish a patch existed for the Steam version that JUST had the voices, like screw the sprites and attempts at new backgrounds (I still laugh at the person on tumblr who drew the characters in positions that the picture angles conveyed, swat that Kinzo flying around!), I just want the voice acting!

I was surprised to know that the console ports put in choices, like literally the only arcs in WTC canon that even have choices (or stuff like it) are the final arcs in both series, and even then, the choices don’t even feel like choices (I made it vague as heck but spoilered to be sure). (since in one it’s just unlocking stuff to proceed to the main story and in the other it’s just quizzes and a [in my opinion] pointless choice since only one of the choices is even considered canon.) Like, if they can’t even respect the author’s wishes to NOT include choices, well, it’s no wonder Alchemist went bankrupt.

2 Likes
#20

I don’t think I have permission to start a new thread, so I’m posting this here… I’ve started a project to translate these arcs and port them to MangaGamer’s new PC version of Higurashi. The first release contains Someutsushi, fully translated, and hopefully the rest will come in the future.

Installation requires a copy of the Steam/MangaGamer version of Higurashi Ch4 Himatsubushi. Download links and installation instructions can be found on the Higurashi Console Arcs project page on GitHub.

I’ve never translated anything before, so the translation quality isn’t perfect. If anyone is interested in contributing, I’d really appreciate it! I’d like to get a more experienced translator working on the remaining arcs, or fixing any issues in the existing translation. It would also be nice to have an editor.

7 Likes