うみねこのなく頃に - エピソード1 - Legend of the Golden Witch Trial Edition
Rate / Catalog
Rate / catalog Rate / catalog another release
In collection Want to buy Used to own
うみねこのなく頃に - エピソード1 - Legend of the Golden Witch
Trial Edition
2008 •
07th Expansion
Windows
Download
JP
Show all 15 releases
Write review
Player modes
Single-player
Media
Download
Franchises
In collections
Release details
It has its issues; the anime humor is near universally bad and leads to some character traits I feel could've been removed, the start is slow, the logic of how different realms work can be kind of annoying to follow, some plot points/confrontations are weirdly contrived but everything else is special and cool.
I love its premise, the push/pull of its main dynamic, the music, the constant intrigue of new identity mysteries, a lot of the character arc concepts I've seen so far, any time something it’s doing reminds me of another thing I enjoy as a means to dig deeper, and Sayaka Ohara’s voice performance as Beato is simply divine. Brainrotting hard about it since finishing and this is the “worse” half.
"(Character)'s business was like a seesaw. In a seesaw, you can go up and down, and to go up, you need someone else on it. (Character)'s company was like this. Now imagine a seesaw in a playground where no kid was interested in playing with it. Without another kid, the seesaw would never go up. (Character) couldn't find someone else to participate in their business, so it wouldn't get off the ground, hence why their company was like a seesaw."
Like yes lmao thank you, I get the metaphor already. That's a particularly egregious example but there's a lot of overstuffed roundabout narration that's like this, and it's taxing getting through it all. I'm not sure if this is a product of translating the original Japanese script or what.
Overall so far, I'm not entirely convinced that this VN is "peak fiction" or whatever, but I can definitely see why people like it. The writing is a little too rudimentary for me, and the whole game has that uniquly theatrical anime-melodrama vibe that I find grating. But I'd be lying if I said it hasn't been engaging; it's stylistically bold, and the core mystery - though somewhat overly opaque and sloppily developed - has kept me theorizing and thinking about it. It sure takes its damn time, though!