Avisch

I actually didn’t play too many games from this year. Mostly catching up on older games and older visual novels. So once this once again serves as a lesson that I need to “catchup with the times”

However with the sudden release of the Umineko episode 5 translation patch. I get to write and thus “win”.

Every release of Umineko consistently shows why I love visual novels as a medium. You show off beautiful atwork, music, and writing all at once.

Having made it through a great deal of the game. I feel fine calling it “game of the year”. By odd chance of fate/coincidence/pre-planning of Comiket/etc, the sixth game will be released on the 30th, and I have no doubt that it is deserving of the “Visual novel of the near-end of the year of 2009″ award.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru: End of the Golden Witch

I will keep spoilers to a minimum.

Episode 5 of course deals with the crazy aftermath of Episode 4 which dealt with the crazy aftermath of every episode of the series so far.

I like to think of this episode as slightly returning to the basics of Episode 1. I consider all episodes of Umineko to be good, however Episode 1 probably scared me most of all of them.
Episodes 2-4 don’t exactly tone down the horror aspect, as much they bring in action-sequences which balance the horror. But Episode 5 reinforces the idea of a human culprit which disturbs me to no-end as it very hard to imagine one socipathic person walking around and slicing people one by one in a relatively isolated environment.

Every episode of Umineko has gotten progressively darker, though Episode 5 finds a new way to torture it’s viewers by conveying the mental anguish of two particular characters (Battler and Natsuhi).

The character development is once again a strong point. I really enjoy how Ryukishi07 is being fair with each character. We already know a great deal about Eva and Hideyoshi, George and Shannon, Jessica and Kanon, and Rosa and Maria, and so the story thankfully spares us by not even touching on their backstory (as that would be redundant), instead we focus on the two aforementioned characters. We finally get an understanding of the relationship between Natsuhi and Krauss

The music shines once again. Featuring some beautiful classic sounding pieces. Bread of the Lord, The Great Detective Knows, Green Laughter, hello your dream.

There are some pacing issues with the story I have. But compared to Episode 4 they aren’t as bad. My main complaint with Episode 4 was the focus on Ange’s sad past, which I felt was already clearly conveyed by the ending of Episode 3.

Battler’s growth throughout the series remains, and Im very curious as to what he will do next, as the end of Episode 5 has given him a extraordinarily awesome upgrade in both knowledge and power.

Beatrice is not actually seen as much as she usually is. But the importance of her relationship with Battler remains evident.

Overall I think the highlight of this Episode was Battler’s growth, new ideas about the murderer, and Dlanor.

Let me talk about Dlanor. When I first heard of her, my mind instantly thought that should would be a heartless, psychotic, crazy lady. However I was mistaken, that role is given to another character introduced in this Episode.

Dlannor rather than just being AWESOME additional character, Has become nearly my favorite character in fact. I don’t wish to spoil much, but I’ll she is quite a kind person.

In conclusion. It is a great piece of work, and I hope my wall of text has not blinded you.

If you want to disregard all my writing (in the case that you don’t like visual novels), imagine a giant post about how Assassin’s Creed I was like the annoying bug ridden beta of Assassin’s Creed II and how Assassin’s Creed II is worthy of being a great game of this year.

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