Yesterday, I, a humble reader and gamer, succesfully finished the eight novel of Umineko no naku koro ni. I call absolute win! I got the extra ending, and I think I also got the perfect ending as well!
You might ask then, after four years of reading on my on and off time, did I feel pleased with the ending? Did this game novel deliver something fitting for people who must have used a awful lot of time on this, tossing away nights before the computer, while the music plays higher and higher as you put the volum up each time you know by the music that something epic is about to happen. HELL YEAH this delivered!
The seventh game gives us all the last clues off the tale of Beatrice and the reason for the birth of her game and what was Battler’s sin, and you might then have wondered what was left on the eight game? The eight game is made to lay Rokkenjima to rest inside the cat box, this is the last fight for rest from everyone that appeared on this island, and they will go out with magic and shotguns held high!
Like the 4th game, the 8th game once more focuses on Ange and her quest, and this time it is up to you as the player to lead her in the way you think is right. There is a riddle contest at first, where you have to collect enough medals to get a extra ending, then it is what probably everyone has waited for! A chance to take up the challenge and solve the murder! With a lot of clues and some new rules, you are picking out the people you think did the crime for this special game. Later in the end, you will decide what sort of ending you want. If you want to keep beliving in a trick, or if you want to in the end believe in the posibillity of magic. You will get a good or a bad ending depending on your answer.
~spoiler thoughts~
I am not sure if I am right on this, but it sort of seems like while in Higurashi, where the miracle that they looked for where a fragment, or reality where everyone survived, and while it might have been hinted to the chance that this might happen here as well, it is in the end clear that there is no such thing as the chance of a world where everyone survived. It might be just this world that Ange was from that is locked, but it also seems like all the pieces and players also know that no matter what, they can’t return alive, they are all dead, and what has given them the chance of making all the differnt games, is the fact that the island is closed inside the cat box. Because no one knows what happened everyone can make their own tales of the island, and their own theories, and each of these tales becomes a fragment, and because no one knows who died in the explosion of the island, there is always the chance that some will return.
Ange’s search for the truth can destroy that hope, as the truth of what happened, if it is given to the present in 1998, will break the cat box apart and deny a chance for all of them to be alive.
So, while Higurashi were a search for a happy future where everyone lives, Umineko keeps up with the tema of illusion and mystery, and a happy ending is where everyone is still dead, but the mystery will create an illusion where they can all live forever in the Golden Land.
And even in the end it is never told to us who were the killer, something that will keep the cat box closed, and new tales will continue to be made by people that think they know who the killer were.(I believe in the Battler theory XD, because that is what makes most sense with the reactions from Ange. She would not have freaked out over the truth if it was not her family that did it. And also the reaction from Tohya makes more sense, as he might not have minded Battler’s memories so much if there was not something dark as a massmurder hidden inside them.)
But then again, I am not sure if this accouts for a ending to all the games Beatrice and Battler fought, or just the one where Eva returned home and had to adopt Ange. Either there are more realities, or this one world is the only truth.
I have thought too much over this XD. Well, I sort of hope there will be a finishing anime of this, but just because there are some scenes that will look fantastic animated! And if they put more effort into a Umineko anime and don’t just focus on the boobs, it could be amazing!