A masterpiece amongst visual novels.

I've never been a fan of the horror genre, but Higurashi is an exception. Higurashi is different because it doesn't take "generic" horror cliches such as extreme amounts of gore or jump scares. If you've watched the anime or played the VN already, yes, I agree, it does take a while to get to the scary parts. But the build-up and the contrast makes it worth it. If you went into this game blind without even reading the description, you might even start to think it's just another romance visual novel. The lightheartedness of the beginning contrasting with the slowly ascending terror makes reading and continuing addicting.

I played the game with the voice patch installed. However, Higurashi is by origin a sound novel, where just the sounds alone are capable of giving you a great experience. But do yourself a favor and install that voice patch anyway. The voices help bring the characters to life, and it helps set the mood with the cute to evil switches.

If you've never experienced Higurashi When They Cry before, you're in for a ride. One playthrough won't be able to satisfy all the countless questions going through your head after the ending. Read it again and live in the world of Hinamizawa again, and try to figure out the mystery yourself and where things went wrong. Before you know it, you'll finish the game at 3 am, and not sleep until 11 am in fear of Rena waiting at your door.

A masterpiece amongst visual novels. I've never been a fan of the horror genre, but Higurashi is an exception. Higurashi is different because it doesn't take "generic" horror cliches such as extreme amounts of gore or jump scares. If you've watched the anime or played the VN already, yes, I agree, it does take a while to get to the scary parts. But the build-up and the contrast makes it worth it. If you went into this game blind without even reading the description, you might even start to think it's just another romance visual novel. The lightheartedness of the beginning contrasting with the slowly ascending terror makes reading and continuing addicting. I played the game with the voice patch installed. However, Higurashi is by origin a sound novel, where just the sounds alone are capable of giving you a great experience. But do yourself a favor and install that voice patch anyway. The voices help bring the characters to life, and it helps set the mood with the cute to evil switches. If you've never experienced Higurashi When They Cry before, you're in for a ride. One playthrough won't be able to satisfy all the countless questions going through your head after the ending. Read it again and live in the world of Hinamizawa again, and try to figure out the mystery yourself and where things went wrong. Before you know it, you'll finish the game at 3 am, and not sleep until 11 am in fear of Rena waiting at your door.