Other attributes
Higurashi When They Cry is a "sound novel", a variation of visual novel with a focus on sound and atmosphere.[4] Gameplay is restricted to reading individual scenes, during which characters are displayed as static two-dimensional sprites.[5] The versions of the game ported to home consoles additionally feature voice acting provided by professional voice actors.[6] The narrative of the game is divided into separate story arcs, named "chapters", which become accessible in a sequence strictly established by the developers.[4] The narration is conducted on behalf of various characters.[7] After reading a certain amount of text within a chapter, playback ends. At this point, the player is invited to save the game, as well as read "tips" that reveal details of the game's setting that were not present in the main story. The tips may also encourage the player to deduce the reasoning behind the narrative's mysterious events.[4] The chapters of the game are divided into two categories – "question arcs" and "answer arcs". Each question arc is a self-contained story taking place in an alternate reality, while each answer arc is based within the same scenario as a certain question arc, and help the player formulate a more accurate vision of the events of the pertaining question arc. Each chapter is assigned a "difficulty rating"[8] that indicates the complexity of the mystery. Upon completion of reading a chapter, all previously opened tips and images of individual scenes in the form of a gallery become available to the player from the main menu. In addition, the player can access a feature entitled the "Staff Room", in which writer Ryukishi07 discusses and examines the chapter,[9] or the "All-Cast Review Session", in which the characters break the fourth wall and debate about the events of the chapter.
Shirakawa, Gifu, the village used as the basis for Hinamizawa.[10][11]
Higurashi: When They Cry takes place in the fictional village of Hinamizawa (雛見沢) in June 1983. Shortly before then, the main character, Keiichi Maebara, moves to the village and befriends classmates Mion Sonozaki, her twin sister Shion, Rena Ryūgū, Rika Furude and Satoko Hōjō. Keiichi soon learns of the village's annual Watanagashi Festival, a celebration to commemorate and give thanks to the local deity Oyashiro. Hinamizawa initially seems calm and peaceful, but shortly before the festival, Keiichi learns that from 1979-1982, after the festival, one villager would die and another would disappear. This series of mysterious incidents remains unsolved, and is named the "Oyashiro Curse" by the superstitious villagers.
With the exception of the fourth chapter, all of the first 6 chapters feature a different scenario showing what unfolds in June 1983. In all of them, the day after this year's festival, police discover the corpse of visiting freelance photographer Jirō Tomitake, who appears to have torn his throat out with his bare hands, and the charred body of Miyo Takano, a nurse in the village clinic. Keiichi, or one of his friends, attempts to investigate the mysteries of Hinamizawa and the Oyashiro Curse, only to fall into paranoia and homicidal rage. In some of the timelines, a few days after the festival, Rika's body is found in the family shrine dedicated to Oyashiro, and on the same day, a cataclysmic release of swamp gas wipes out the village's population.
The answer arcs reveal that each of the preceding arcs were alternate realities in which Rika tried and failed to save her and her friends. As a priestess of the Furude Shrine, Rika can communicate with the spirit Hanyū, who served as the prototype for Oyashiro and is the ancestress of the Furude clan. Each time Rika died, Hanyū would transfer her to another reality; however, the very ending of Rika's life is not retained in her memories when she transfers, obstructing her from knowing the cause of her death. In the final two chapters, Minagoroshi-hen and Matsuribayashi-hen, it is revealed that the village's local clinic is secretly a government institute investigating a mysterious parasite in the village that causes Hinamizawa Syndrome; a disease that induces paranoia, delusion and homicidal rage in its victims before causing them to tear out their own throats. This disease is responsible for instigating the characters to commit murders in the previous arcs, and some of the incidents in the previous years were caused by it.
The rest of the incidents were caused by Miyo, who had killed Tomitake and faked her own death. She used the Oyashiro Curse as a cover for the incidents. Hinamizawa Syndrome manifests in those who move a distance away from the "Infection Queen", who releases a pheromone that prevents the aggravation of the villagers' condition, or in those who begin to experience extreme stress. The women of the Furude clan have all acted as Infection Queens, and Rika is the sole remaining member of the clan after the death of her parents in 1981's incident. The theory by Miyo's adoptive grandfather, Hifumi Takano, is that if there is not an Infection Queen, then all of the village will succumb to the syndrome and a mass outbreak of violence will occur.
In some of the realities, Shion, succumbing to Hinamizawa Syndrome, kills Rika; however, life in Hinamizawa goes on as normal, showing that Hifumi's theories had been exaggerated. In most of the realities, Miyo kills Rika, and the threat of the mass outbreak convinces the government to massacre the village, with the release of swamp gas being a cover story. Miyo's motive is to vindicate the work of Hifumi and force his work to be recognized, after he was mocked and shamed by the government and scientific community for his thesis about the disease.
After several hundred loops, Keiichi becomes either vividly or subconsciously aware of the previous ones, allowing him to avoid several critical points where various characters would be murdered or driven insane. In the final loop, Matsuribayashi-hen, the group asks Hanyū to join them, and the spirit manages to manifest a physical body. With her assistance, and all of the knowledge and allies they have formed along the way, they thwart Miyo's plan, and go on to live happy lives afterwards.
In the secret ending, Rika travels back to the past to prevent Miyo from suffering the traumatic childhood that led her to becoming who she was.
