Higurashi When They Cry Hou - Ch.7 Minagoroshi Reviews

Nipah~

Made me throw up so like, probably the best one so far lmao

January 12th - [b]Higurashi When They Cry: Minagoroshi[/b] - 23h - (100%) 10/10 - Started 6/12/2025 - 6 Days Taken - Beat the chapter, read all the tips and the staff room. Here's my review: [b]Pros:[/b] Minagoroshi starts with a bang by diving deep into the overarching mystery of [spoiler]how the chapters are linked together and how Rika ties into that.[/spoiler] This immediately hooks the reader because of how different it is compared to the rest of the story. This also subsequently applies to [spoiler]Rika's[/spoiler] very unique POV. It uses this POV to highlight the chapter's main story of fate and how miracles happen. [spoiler]Rika struggles with fate quite a lot, whether she should succumb to it or fight with her will. At first, Keiichi teaches her that a will can overcome fate that is caused by a weaker will.[/spoiler] The chapter proceeds to escalate the wills it throws at [spoiler]Rika[/spoiler] and see if [spoiler]she[/spoiler] can overcome them. It starts [spoiler]with the board game during the club activity which is Rika's tutorial for changing fate. The main challenge and test of Rika's will in the chapter is Teppei taking Satoko. This was nicely foreshadowed by Rika saying that whenever Teppei takes Satoko, she gives up in that world. She has to do something she's never done before in her 100 years of being alive (mentally at least). The quality of the world and Rika's newfound will to change fate prevents her from doing so in the current world. Overcoming that obstacle and saving Satoko teaches Rika another valuable lesson. For a miracle to happen and change fate, everyone involved needs to have a strong will and believe that the outcome they want is possible.[/spoiler] Then we arrive at the final obstacle which is [spoiler]Rika's death.[/spoiler] This seems surmountable since [spoiler]everyone is ready to save Rika,[/spoiler] but then [spoiler]the main cast goes home since it's late. Now that Rika and Satoko are alone, defeating fate looks impossible. Their efforts allow them to escape and survive a bit longer, but ultimately their resistance is futile.[/spoiler] That is until it is revealed in the greatest plot twist of the chapter, [spoiler]that the rest of the cast never left. This moment made me jump out of my chair at how surprising it was. This restores their ability to change fate, but ultimately it doesn't work out because there was actually one person who didn't believe in the miracle. That person was Hanyuu, who's been telling Rika all chapter to not get her hopes up and to just accept fate. This comes as a shock because Hanyuu can't do anything besides talk to Rika, so how does her not believing make a difference? Even though Hanyuu can't do much, she can still be a source of encouragement and motivation for Rika, which means she can make a difference in changing fate, no matter how small. On a meta-level, this also applies to the reader who's in a similar position to Hanyuu, because they are also a bystander to the events of the story. The player won't believe that Rika can succeed either because they know that there is one more chapter after Minagoroshi. But despite that, when the rest of the cast showed up to save Rika and Satoko, I regained my hope and started believing in a miracle just like Rika did.[/spoiler] Outside of Minagoroshi's focus on fate, it also reveals a lot of overarching mysteries. [spoiler]The true nature of Oyashiro's curse, the disaster and Higurashi's main villain.[/spoiler] It does so in chunks, leaving the reader wanting to know more at each step. These reveals also have some foreshadowing, such as [spoiler]the government's ineffective solution for preventing another gas disaster and Takano's strange behaviour in Ch3 after Keiichi kills Teppei.[/spoiler] Despite all the reveals, Minagoroshi still leaves some mysteries up to speculation, such as [spoiler]who the person in the opening sequence is, how they are aware of you, the player and what caused Satoko to go insane.[/spoiler] On top of this amazing story, Minagoroshi has some absolutely fantastic music, my favourites are C-examination, Fearlessness, White Mist Peak, Hollow and LIVE. With special note to C-examination and White Misk Peak since they elevated their respective plot twists to new heights. [b]Neutral:[/b] The one middling aspect of Minagoroshi is that the main plot of [spoiler]saving Satoko[/spoiler] does drag the pace down a bit during the third segment of the plotline, but that slight blemish is heavily outweighed by the great aspects the plotline provides.

the more i read the more i believe higurashi would work better as a not connected series of short thriller stories

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