There’s something about the ps sprites that I really dislike for both series - the characters look too tall and thin (like someone just stretched them to fit the entire screen) and they always have a distressed, defensive posture (arms to close to the torso, holding arms or purses too tightly etc. - that’s a bit more visible in Higurashi than in Umineko though). Not to mention the drawn backgrounds which just look way too off and out of place for me because of the weird perspectives and cartoony style.
I played Umineko years ago with the original sprites and enjoyed them, you can really tell that Ryu put a lot of love into them. However, I am really curious to play with the pachinko sprites as well - despite the fact that some female characters seem to have beach balls instead of breasts!
I do enjoy Higurashi’s steam sprites a lot, though. They really make the characters pop out of the background.
And did I mention I love the picture backgrounds, because of their more serious and mature vibe? I remember years ago when I stumbled upon someone teaching you how to make them in photoshop… lost the instructions, but it seemed to work.
Edit: Been playing Umineko with the steam pachinko sprites for a while, they’re actually quite good! (Battler still looks a bit weird, but the others are ok and they blend in very well with the backgrounds)