
This week’s edition of Free Game Friday is a bit of a cheat. I’m not posting all of Umineko, only the first chapter, which is available free and legally as a demo. And Umineko isn’t exactly a game- it’s a sound novel, which means that it’s WORDS WORDS WORDS with some pictures and music thrown in. The only “gameplay” aspect of is trying to solve the game’s many mysteries.
I’ve posted this in spite of all that for two reasons. Firstly, I’ve talked to several people here about playing this game, and they’ve expressed interest. Secondly, the English translation for the game’s 5th chapter is due out any day now, and I am so psyched about it that I feel compelled to do something, anything, that’s Umineko related.

Without giving too much away, Umineko no Naku Koro ni is a murder mystery that takes place during the Ushiromiya family conference on a small, secluded island. The island is rumored to be home to a witch named Beatrice, and also rumored to be hiding 10 tons of gold. Underneath a portrait said to be the witch, there is a mysterious epitaph that contains a riddle. It is said that whoever can solve the riddle will receive all the gold and become the new head of the Ushiromiya family.

As the screenshots I’ve posted may indicate, the art the game uses might be off-putting. I personally found that I got used to the game’s art very quickly, especially once I’d gotten involved in the story. There is some incredible music, and it’s excellent at setting the mood, especially once the game starts to get a lot creepier. This chapter of Umineko also gets off to a bit of a slow start. Most of the beginning is made up simply of dialogue and character introductions. After the first night though, things really start to pick up, and the time spent developing the characters really pays off.
Since this game uses an English patch, downloading is a bit more complicated. You can get the demo itself here. You can then get the English patch for the game, courtesy of The Witch Hunt, here for Macs, and here for Windows. Unpack the patch and move it into the folder your demo’s in. Make sure it’s in the same folder as ONScripter specifically.
If you’re using a Mac, hooray! You’re all done. Start up ONScripter to enjoy the game. If you’re using Windows, you have a little more work to do. You’ll have to set your computer up to work with Japanese. You can see how to do that for XP here and for Vista here. Once you do that, things should be good to go. Run ONScripter to start the game. If you have any additional problems, let me know and I’ll sort this out.
If you do wind up playing this and liking it, please let me know. I would love someone to discuss this with. If you’re interested in playing the other chapters, pm me on the forums or in the chat, and I’ll show you where you can get Chapters 2-4 and Chapter 5.