GAME REVIEW | Everything Goes To Hell In Third "Higurashi" Chapter
The ball seems to be rolling for the Higurashi series, as it didn't take very long for Chapter Three to release following Chapter Two. Umineko, the successor of the Higurashi series, is also prepping for a release soon as well. But in this volume of Higurashi, we get to the last Question Arc chapter: Tatarigoroshi, a definite step up from the previous chapter.
The story in this Higurashi chapter puts the focus on Keiichi once again, but we learn more about his friend Satoko's home situation, along with his brother Satoshi. Issues of domestic violence and child abuse are raised, and as a result, Keiichi also becomes a villain seeking the murder of someone. In the midst of all of this, more questions are raised, as more inexplicable occurrences happen. Unfortunately not even a fraction of these are explained in the chapter, making trying to predict the actual culprit or rationalize the weird phenomena difficult.
The story is much better this time around, as it's interesting to see the story from the perspective of someone who becomes a murderer. It's the last of the Question chapters, so maybe some of the abstract events in the story will get explained in the next chapter. As a self contained story, though, it's pretty good. The game does claim that it's the shortest of the chapters, but perhaps due to its translation into English, it ends up being almost as long as the first chapter at about 13-16 hours.
Two new characters also show up, although one of them is really an older character that now has a character portrait to accompany them, adding a few more layers to the overall story. If you loved the previous two volumes, of course it's a no-brainer to pick this up. Newcomers, of course, should get all three and play those in order. It's a great series, so they highly come recommended. If you have a Mac or Linux system, it will run on either, so no worries about the platform there. In truth: the Higurashi series is a solid buy.
VERDICT:
The Good: You learn more about Satoko and Satoshi's past, and the main character becomes a villain, which is interesting.
The Bad: The soundtrack scratchiness might be intentional at this point, but it doesn't change the fact it's annoying.
The Ugly: The story this time is harder to work out as to the meaning behind any of it.
SUMMARY: Tatarigoroshi takes the opportunity to make the protagonist a villain, an interesting move that puts this volume above Chapter Two.
FINAL GRADE:
Review code provided by MangaGamer
