Full series spoilers for the main arcs of Higurashi here, although I recommend tagging anything outside the main 8 chapters and Saikoroshi with [spoiler].
I’ve been thinking about how many complain that Ryukishi’s stories are too long, and I wonder how things might be different if he tried to write his monolithic series’ in a more streamlined format. So, I came up with this fun idea for a topic.
How would you condense the entirety of Higurashi into 3 games? Have at it!
When I think about condensing it more seriously, it actually hurts a bit because of the level of the world building, the events, character development…to leave anything out feels actually a bit painful. This order completely leaves out the explorations of The Sonozaki family, the Houjou family, and full characterization of Keiichi and Rena despite Tsumihoroboshi-hen including their backgrounds. I think it would need to be tweaked or re-written to have the same impact as the original. But that being said if I were to get to the heart of the story (as in for Rika’s perspective with Hanyuu, and overcoming her repeated deaths) in an overall sense, especially including the poems by Frederica Bernkastel, this would be my order:
Game 1:
Tsumihoroboshi-hen (Atonement chapter)
At the first time, I do my best to try again
against the inevitable tragedy.
In the second time, I become disgusted
towards the inevitable tragedy.
The third time, disgust is overwhelmed into painfulness.
But by the seventh time, this all becomes a farce comedy.
-Frederica Bernkastel
Tsumihoroboshi-hen basically is a nice arc to set the theme and stage of Hinamizawa, of the disease, of Oyashiro-sama’s curse, how it affects individuals, and also ties into the next Game (Minagoroshi-hen) following. It also has the setting of the GHD that ties into Takano’s story, as the main antagonist and her connection and involvement explained in depth in the final game, Matsuribayashi-hen, it would be set up as a foreshadowing from the first Game in this order. This arc covers Keiichi and Rena well too.
Game 2:
Minagoroshi-hen (Massacre chapter)
I wanted to know the world that was outside of the well.
So I tried hard to get out from the bottom of the well.
I wanted to know the world that was outside of the well.
So I climbed up numerous of times despite falling down over and over again.
But then I realized it.
The higher and higher I climb, the pain increases when I fall down again.
When my interest in the world outside of the well began to equal the amount of pain,
That was when I finally realized the meaning of the story to Der Froschkönig.
-Frederica Bernkastel
This arc covers Satoko, Satoshi, Mion, and Shion, as well as the Sonozaki family. We also understand about the repeating timelines here. We understand and can review past arcs or timelines as a whole through the fragment scene with Rika and Hanyuu. This is the “core” arc so to speak about the riddle of Hinamizawa so it’s included in the middle as the climax so to speak. This arc is basically showing the core message of Higurashi as well (as did Tsumihoroboshi) about trusting your friends, coming together, and to find a resolution. Of course the ending of this arc is critical as well into the finale and discovering about the main issue or reason for the problem in Higurashi, and antagonist, Takano Miyo
Game 3:
Matsuribayashi-hen (Festival Accompanying chapter)
Everyone has a right to pursue a happy life.
The difficult part is to be given that right.
Everyone has a right to pursue a happy life.
The difficult part is to fulfill that right.
I too have a right to pursue a happy life.
The difficult part is to work out a compromise for that right.
-Frederica Bernkastel
Our final game. This arc dives into Takano’s past right after showing her as the main antagonist and explores her background. Of course the events in this arc and the characterization of the past characters are settled in the first two games as well so we have a feel for them. The resolution is that Takano is overcome and Rika can live out her days happily with her friends, not needing to worry about dying or being killed by Takano.
Additional of Game 3 or perhaps as an extra to tie into Umineko: Saikoroshi-hen (Dice Killing chapter)
That’s about I think perhaps a good way to condense the story, I don’t necessarily like it since there is so much left out, and so many events and characterizations left out. As well, the futility /catching a glimpse of sympathy into just what Rika and the others had to endure over and over is lost on this short version too. However, I tried to think of condensing it into: beginning (sets the tone of the story and the problem) - middle (as the climax and revelation of the antagonist), and end (resolution and overcoming of the problem/antagonist). Very by the book type of condensing.
Some people I’ve talked to have suggested condensing them in order of appearance (make 1-3 one game, 3-6 the next, then 7-8 into one) but i wonder if you could pair up the question arcs with their respective answer arcs, combining 2 and 5, 1 and 6, then 8 and… i guess 4 as a flashback in the middle?
Obviously we’d have to shuffle the order a bit, so we start Game 1 in arc 2 and switch perspectives between Shion and Keiichi, being super upfront about how Shion is the killer. Then we move into Game 2 which explores Keiichi and Rena’s relationship and expands on the importance of their friendship and the group as a whole, maybe Keiichi and Rena are both killers in this Game and Keiichi repents at the end and saves Rena? We skip Arc 3 and 7 entirely (Satoshi and Satoko are covered briefly in Game 1) and move straight into the final arc for Game 3. Game 3 consists of the Rika/Hanyuu reveal and we have sepia-tone flashbacks to Rika’s time with Akasaka in arc 4 which eventually leads into the big payoff when he saves everyone later, basically use the big massacre scene from arc 7 but insert Akasaka at the end to save everyone. After that it’s all gravy.
Obviously it’s a lot of information to condense and i haven’t covered every plot point, this^ is more of a skeletal structure than a detailed map.
I feel like starting with Atonement is a bad idea, because what are we atoning from? It completely overlooks the necessity of the question arcs in the first place.
What I’d do is have the first game incorporate a mix of elements from 1, 2 and 3: the ultimate bad ending. The second game would be a mix of 6 and 7, and the final game would tie up all the loose ends and finish with defeating Takano.
Well, the title itself is after all more in connection to the Question arcs originally. I was not going by the titles but the content of the arcs themselves. After all there is not a true “atonement” in a sense in the Atonement arc because of the TIPS at the end still shows a bad end; indeed Rena breaks free from her paranoia which in a sense is the atonement but does not give anything concrete towards the overall story. In the condensed version, way to achieve atonement for the tsumi (sins) would be explained in Minagoroshi which explains the repeating timelines and the tsumi (sins) of the characters in review. The Question arcs seem a bit redundant to include if you want to condense it right into being Rika’s story about the repeating timelines and avoiding her fate of June 1983, I feel so.
(There’s also an interesting thing in that, though Rika never directly murdered anyone in the timelines, you could say she comitted the biggest tsumi over and over in the Shinto sense - going against the “natural order of the universe/nature” is tsumi, and she and Hanyuu did just that over and over by repeating time. In a sense, it can be said Rika was the ultimate “murderer” making her friends endure the suffering and murders repeatedly for her own happy future. The ultimate tsumi. Kami can commit tsumi too, so Hanyuu would be at fault as well. It’s interesting to me when I think about it.)
I think you’re thinking about the story structure too rigidly. I’m proposing changing quite a bit of the story, melding elements together into a three part structure.
Part 1: Bad End, showcasing all the trials they need to overcome.
Part 2: Path to resolution is highlighted, but they haven’t fully resolved everything yet. This also reveals that Rika is the protagonist and she’s endured many timelines.
Part 3: Resolution.
Yes, indeed! I wanted to make it rigid and clear-cut and structured right down into the core of it. After all, I tend to see things “without love” 
(Joking, joking). In any case, including the Question arcs is good for characterization and also to understand the trials and tribulations of just what the repeated timelines entailed. However, strictly speaking, if Rika is the true main character, they can end up feeling redundant as well. To Rika’s story as the main character - the stories of Keiichi, Rena, Mion, Shion, and Satoko in detail may as well be side stories. (Of course truthfully, I love the Question arcs too, and I don’t think they are simply side stories. I’m taking a role of a “harsh editor who needs Higurashi to be concretely condensed” and see where that viewpoint creates. As myself, I couldn’t have the heart to cut it.)
I mean, wasn’t this a minor plot-point and real life problem for Ryukishi in Umineko?
From what I remember, he meant to write Land of the Golden Witch with the content of Banquet, Alliance and End altogether (he even called it in-game its lost masterpiece in EP8). However he did not, as people in the japanese fandom were complaining EP2 was too difficult and frustrating, so he made things easier for the readers in EP3…
…Ironically, some people ended up figuring out Beatrice’s identity by that EP too, and also a big part of the epitaph enigma as he well said in the Answer of the Golden Witch books, which triggered him to made matters more difficult again from that point on (I’m not completely sure if it was in the Answer books, but in an interview, I remember that he describing his surprise of seeing people linking the train lines thing was pretty funny).
In either case, while I’m curious about how Land could turn out to be, I’m pretty satisfied with the less condensed version we got (the only problem is probably the pacing for the middle part of EP4, and even that was well presented enough, besides being exhausting to read). There’s just so much content packed in his works anyway, it could turn much worse than that if he tried to fit everything in one single segment (unless it’s Higurashi, they did that pretty well in the console releases, with a multiple route system with bad endings and everything)
The thing with condensing Higurashi is that, unless there’s a really good writer that can really compress the series in a good way, we will have another Anime situation on our hands. Because while the Higurashi anime might be famous as a horror series I feel it fails as a mystery (you know you failed when the author had to create an extra arc in the second season just to give the audience extra clues), just because they tried to fit 6 arcs into a 26 (24?) episode series. So in order to compress it I think we not only have to mix several things together and also, probably, to change some of the characterisation.
If I would try to do that I’d probably put ep 1 & 3 with a bit of 6 in the first Episode and maybe have Keiichi be the one on top of the school (after going crazy from seeing Satoko being abused and then getting paranoid over her uncle seemingly still being alive even after Keiichi had killed him) instead of Rena and in the end kill everyone with a bomb. Then I would have ep 6-7 be Episode 2 where it’s Rika’s turn to go crazy (because of something similar to above) and Keiichi remembering his actions in Episode 7 and saving her only for Rika to be killed by someone who’s identity isn’t revealed to the audience. Then finally in Episode 3 we have ep 4 & 8 where we learn more about what Rika have gone through, who has murdered her in all the arcs and then finally everyone getting together to save the day.
It’s probably not good (or at least not even half as good) but it could be one way to do it.
Now you probably noticed that I left out 2-5 and that’s because I think they’re actually so much different from the other arcs that it would be difficult to compress them in any meaningful way. That’s because I see the two arcs as something focuses completely on Shion and Mion while the other characters are just standing in the background, being mostly brought up push the story forward (notice how Keiichi is mostly just reacting in Watanagashi, instead of being active like in Onikakushi, and just someone who triggers Shion in Meakashi). My suggested arcs, on the other hand, would focus on Keiichi and Rika which makes it difficult to make ep 2 & 5 fit. Or at least that’s what I think.
Condensing the 8 main chapters into a trilogy is pretty difficult. 4 question arcs and 4 answer arcs together make an even number. It would make more sense if the 8 chapters are condensed into 4 games (even number). First two games would be about question arcs and the last two would be the answer arcs. Condensing it into 3 games sounds like a real challenge though! The middle episode would serve as a transition maybe?
4 is too easy. That’s why 3 
I think it’d work well to combine 1-2-3 into the first movie, 5-6 into another, 4-7-8 into the last one.
I’d start with Tsumihoroboshi, it is extremely well-written and doesn’t give out too much about the story and has a nice resolution. Tatarigoroshi would also make a nice introductory chapter, even if Onikakushi is great I like the despair of this arc. Minagoroshi would be a nice middle chapter exactly because it seems to me it was written with that goal in mind, and it really plays well its part. For a definitive ending I’d use Outbreak, while it’s not a happy ending, it’s still a good ending in my opinion.