Could it be possible that the update was supposed to happen later but due to whatever reason, perhaps an error in communication, someone updated the page early?
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There’s no way it was an error. Most likely an attempt to throw us into confusion.
At the very least, Ryukishi DID talk about these things at 07th Expansion Party, that is a fact.
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Oh fuuuuuuuck. I need that.
Think it might be “When The Owls Cry”- fits in with the Dubai skyline and the white feathers, in my opinion. Also, they have a distinctive sound-hooting- just like cicadas and seagulls.
But I really like the angel interpretation- Tenshi no Naku Koro Ni sounds amazing.
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Is the Japanese word for owls also 4 syllables long?
Not really, the collected word for owls is フクロウ (Fukurou) written in katakana and not hiragana like the animals in the earlier titles.
Plus owls are seen as bit as a lucky charm in Japan which I feel don’t really fit with the Higurashi cicadas or the Umineko gulls.
One other possibility that might fit the city theme in the next game might be pigeons. While the kanji doesn’t really fit the theme (鳩 hato) there might be a specific type of pigeon that does. I’m trying to look for one right now
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…I see no flowers.
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I was getting worried, with Trianthology, that 07th Expansion’s production values were just getting way too high! I’m relieved that the classic amateur vibe is still so prevalent
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I wonder if the backgrounds will be animated like Trianthology’s, or if they’ll want it to be more consistent with Higurashi and Umineko’s static backgrounds.
Well, I guess the rain in Umineko was animated.
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I vote yes to static backgrounds. I like Umineko’s PS3 backgrounds but I certainly wouldn’t mind bringing back the static backgrounds.
I think that animated backgrounds aren’t bad, so long as they stick to the filtered photograph aesthetic. Part of what made me fall in love with 07th Expansion’s works were their incredibly vivid and realized settings. I think Ryukishi really understood the importance of atmosphere to a VN.
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I really didn’t mind the blurry photo aesthetic (actually loved it!) but it needs to be 16:9 this time around and have voice acting (sprites might end up being so-bad-it’s-good again so no comment on that front).
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The tall skyscrapers make me think of big businesses. Maybe something to do with the people at the top of large corporations covering up murder? Murdering each other? It’s like to have murder, whatever scenario it’s in.
That’d certainly be different from the usual WTC, and having big companies surely opens up the possibility of an open world.
And for the feathers, who knows? M̶a̶y̶b̶e̶ ̶i̶t̶’̶s̶ ̶s̶e̶t̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶U̶S̶A̶ ̶a̶n̶d̶ ̶i̶t̶’̶s̶ ̶c̶a̶l̶l̶e̶d̶ ̶w̶h̶e̶n̶ ̶t̶h̶e̶ ̶e̶a̶g̶l̶e̶s̶ ̶c̶r̶y̶.
Whatever it is, I’m really looking forward to seeing what it’s about! Particularly because I got into Umineko and Higurashi way too late to be able to speculate as we go along!
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Part murder mystery, part financial thriller? I’m in!
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I don’t think it’ll have voice acting. 07th Expansion is still a doujin group, and of their more expensive endeavors like Rose Guns Days and Trianthology didn’t have voice acting, I can’t see WTC5 having voice acting either. I think Trianthology was widescreen, though, so that at least is likely.
Ahh, Alchemist and Kaga Create don’t exist anymore either, so who knows if this will have a console release? I know Sui was bought by another company and they’re distributing it, so… maybe?
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It would seem from the financial and commercial Vista given in the teaser that the next mystery will probably involve murder over money.
My theory is, given the overall fashion of the WtC series (I.e. a series of murders culminating an an event of a massacre) it’s entirely possible that it might feature a group of companies trying to best each other by murdering the competition over something like owning the largest market stake or something thereabouts (like the ten tons of gold in Umineko). It could also be the other way around where they murder each other to prevent their companies from falling into collapse (it’s hard to tell when Ryukishi07 is the one writing it, after all). So the series of murders takes place and then by some disaster the market crashes, resulting in a full-scale public riot against the corporations creating something similar to the mob mentality of Hinamizawa. Of course, this sounds very similar to Dangan Ronpa, which I won’t elaborate on because spoilers.
But anyway, I can see there being a lot of angles to this kind of plot and it’s something that can be played over and over again with several different variations. We might get to see Okonogi, possible Amakusa and Ange for a cameo, maybe it’ll go into the past and feature Rudolf and Kyrie, or possibly Rosa’s company or even Krauss’s or Eva’s management of their respective companies in their time. (Higurashi Minagoroshi-hen spoilers) They might even feature ‘Tokyo’ behind it all.
Of course, this is blind theorising, so I guess we’ll find out more from the first episode release.
Like @Echo, I got into the series quite late and had both spoiled in finding out the details of the plot, so I’m only too happy to join the hype at this stage.
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Hmm, I don’t see it like that. From what @Isae has posted at the beginning of the thread, that Ryukishi is aiming for the concept of an open world, I don’t think your companies concept works with that. Meaning that, these companies would present like what, a few executives, some other maybe mysterious workers lower in rank and maybe the executives’ loved ones. That would make a tight cast of characters with connections to one another, and while I may be completely wrong here, from the words ‘open world’, I understand a city in which possibilities of somebody random, who may not seem connected at the mystery at first, or maybe somebody even hidden, that the other characters should find can be the culprit or involved in the mystery somewhat. Open world means a world free to explore, thus I think that maybe Ryukishi means exploring this whole city, however random it may seem and finding obscure connections in some parts. And I mean no offense, but the companies trying to outdo one another setting that you came up with is… well, pretty boring to me. It could be incredible if done well, of course, but it is a bit dull to me. And like you said, Vayalite, that the When They Cry series always culminate in a massacre and you think that will be possible here too, which is completely possible… I wouldn’t like that, I’d like something new and a story coiled up completely differently. As for cameos, they’d be nice, but I’d rather have this story have no connection to the previous games, like I said, I want something new in many aspects. Also, I don’t think anybody here should analyse the visual much, I don’t think it contains any clues or anything, it’s probably just the city in which the story will take place.
Speaking of, have any announcements been made in regards to whether or not there will be a manga counterpart of this (which I think it will)?
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Now that that aspect is being questioned, it makes me wonder once again what exactly the major differences in this series are going to be compared to the previous… It’s possible, I think, that the open-world structure might be the only major change, but since that seems to be by no means certain at this point, I’d like to codify what I currently perceive as the major elements of the When They Cry formula in previous series. I’m not sure how useful these points will be, but I’ve been wanting to share my conception of some of them for a bit.
Using my own names for the aspects (there might be better names or already-established names out there):
- Mystery: The events of the series raise questions for the audience and challenge them to figure out the secrets behind what’s going on.
- Question-completeness: It is possible from the audience’s perspective to solve, if not all of the mysteries raised thus far, then at least all of the main mysteries pertaining to some central question or set of questions, by the time the final question arc concludes. (This is not something I can directly attest to, having neither read beyond the question arcs for either series nor assembled the core answers for either, but I have heard it in multiple places.)
- Looping structure: The arcs, from the audience’s perspective, at least appear to cover multiple different versions of the same time period, and contain many similar events.
- Threat of zone collapse: By the end of an arc, a tragedy may be shown to occur that wipes out all or almost all of the population of the main setting of that arc’s parent series.
The first two elements here, I believe, are much more integral to the spirit of the series than the latter two, but in my experience the third and, to a lesser degree, the fourth both contribute to the feeling of it. However, I do think the fourth point is the most likely of any of them to be abolished or significantly altered this round, if any.
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“Who pressed the button to fire the nuke?”
Now I’m thinking of Punchline 
I still hold on to my own theory, and say…
tenshi no naku koro ni?
Whenever I see this image, the feathers remind me immediately of Gabriel.