higurashi when they cry hou chapter 1 is... a game. it's definitely a game. if you want to play it, you've gotta be in for the long haul & be prepared for a LOT of exposition and build-up before you get to the horror that higurashi is known for. i slogged through it with the help of some others (being my friend saude & my bf) dubbing over the dialogue with stupid voices. in the beginning, it really just feels like a weird slice-of-life vn. like ddlc (the best example i could think of for those who arent familiar with vns), but with........ 10x as much buildup. first play session lasted around 3 hours and we only had one 'scary' section. there's also some uncomfortable &... weirdly sexual dialogue? which i wasn't a fan of, even if it's only being used for humour.

however, when i passed through all of the exposition and made it to the real horror parts of the game, it was incredibly interesting. even with the limits of the visual novel genre, the game created such an amazing atmosphere when it needed to. i personally played through using the classic sprites, which made the game feel even more unsettling imo - something about the even more exaggerated proportions and the huge eyes that turn soulless and empty was much more chilling than the updated ones.

the plot is also really interesting, and i want to buy the next game in the series asap to find out what happens next. i usually struggle a lot with getting invested in things like visual novels despite my love for the genre because of my admittedly poor attention span, but i managed to finish higurashi ch1 in just over 11 hours (not counting any time spent reading the extras) in the span of 2 days. while i don't find myself particularly attached to any of the characters, i know enough about them & their personalities and quirks to sympathise with them and want to know what happens to them.

i do appreciate how much content there is for a free first chapter of the series, too. assuming the other chapters are just as long, the £5-£6 price range for all of them actually seems pretty reasonable. it does bother me slightly on the surface that you have to buy the 'full game' in a bunch of separate parts, but i understand it anyway because there are a lot of chapters that total up to like, £50. spacing them out gives people time to play one chapter while saving up money for the next.

there are a lot of steam achievements too, which although it isn't pertinent to the gameplay, did pleasantly surprise me. i love having achievements to collect in games. the achievements are only really for reading the whole vn & all the extras, but i like the incentive they give for you to go through everything.