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Glad to see this isn't dead.
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# ? Jun 16, 2024 02:24 |
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Umineko definitely has an issue with slow build-up in some of its episodes, but at least it's understandable here given it has to establish setting/characters. And it generally pays off by the end. Also, yeah, that's definitely a weird Maria-face.
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Not to nitpick OP but is there a maximum filesize limit on tindeck? The bgm's you uploaded there are extremely compressed and much smaller in size and quality than the tracks in the full game.
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Great to see that this is back.
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LeeDless posted:Not to nitpick OP but is there a maximum filesize limit on tindeck? The bgm's you uploaded there are extremely compressed and much smaller in size and quality than the tracks in the full game. It's from having to convert them to make them play. I'm pulling all the music files straight out of the game's BGM folder, but they're .oggs and Tindeck can't play those for some reason, so I have to run a converter and turn them into mp3s first. If the quality loss is too noticeable, could see if there's an alternative that'd take them as .oggs, I suppose.
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Oh boy, it's about to start. Here's when everything starts becoming more and more weird. Who gave Maria the umbrella? Nobody? someone is lying? Is Maria lying?
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Beatrice gave it to her, obviously. ![]()
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Finally got my hands on this game and I LOVE the music that came up during the conversation at the table. Serious conversation about witches/lying? NOPE! *doom-digga doom digga doom digga...* Maybe it breaks atmosphere from "serious" a little too much, but I love it.
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sokamish posted:Finally got my hands on this game and I LOVE the music that came up during the conversation at the table. Serious conversation about witches/lying? NOPE! *doom-digga doom digga doom digga...* Maybe it breaks atmosphere from "serious" a little too much, but I love it. The music from Umineko is quite good, it's one of those things that you end up listening to outside the game and then remembering certain scenes where the track is played, or when a certain mood change happens and a specific track will be played for said thing. Dr Pepper posted:Beatrice gave it to her, obviously. A witch? Impossible.
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Look man if you can't trust the word of an autistic 8 year old when she says a witch gave her an umbrella, who can you trust? ![]()
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Umineko's music is fantastic and is one of the big reasons for the series' success.
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Part Eleven: A Night of Intellectual and Elegant Murder![]() Dessert was some kind of chocolate cake accompanied by pear sherbet. Gohda-san enthusiastically explained the recipe as soon as this final dish was presented, but I quickly forgot the details. The guest of honor, Grandfather, was absent, the weather was horrible, and the person who had lent Maria the umbrella was still a mystery. When dinner ended, no one felt even one bit refreshed. ...It was too late now, but we realized painfully that taste wasn't the only important part of a meal. The whole atmosphere was also critical. Gohda-san, the supposed conductor of this musical piece called dinner, did his best to enliven the place, dropping little jokes left and right, but apparently not one of them succeeded. After taking orders for after-dinner coffee, tea, and orange juice, he left for the kitchen. As soon as he disappeared, Krauss oji-san spoke. ![]() ![]() Eva oba-san grimaced slightly. ...I had already heard that she was not on good terms with Krauss oji-san, but now I could clearly feel it. When I looked around, I noticed that my father and Rosa oba-san were also grimacing. Anyhow, it looked like there was something besides the weather that was troubling all of them. ![]() ![]() Hideyoshi oji-san laughed as he spoke, but without his usual brightness, so I could vaguely imagine just how complicated their adult conversation had actually become. On top of that, even Natsuhi oba-san and Kyrie-san, the people he had directed his comment to, ignored him as though they hadn't heard anything. ...I didn't know what kind of conversation they had been having while the kids were away, but it reminded me of how Father had said he had stomach cramps when we had arrived at the mansion. The family conference might have been a playful reunion to us kids, but it was definitely different for the adults... When Hideyoshi oji-san was ignored by the other adults and an awkward silence fell over the room, Kyrie-san spoke up. ![]() As opposed to...what, exactly? Trying to climb up from something involving a paper hat? Rampant nepotism? ![]() ![]() Hideyoshi heartily agreed as if they really had been talking about that, but that was probably wrong. Kyrie-san had been obviously trying to avoid talking about something. However, if Kyrie-san had determined that this was the best course of action for now, then she was probably right. Taking this into account, I'll cast aside my suspicions as to the cause behind Eva oba-san and Dad's bad moods... At long last, the serving cart returned, filled with coffee and tea. Kumasawa-san and Shannon-chan served it to everyone. Gohda-san then explained that, with this, tonight's dinner was over. If I had been able to eat in a more cheerful mood, it might have been the best dinner in my life. It was a shame that this best dinner couldn't have been had under the best conditions. ![]() Maria looked like she was really excited about the occasionally crashing thunder. Maybe she wanted to quickly finish eating and run over to the window. She had been fidgeting for a while, waiting for the meal to end. ...Some people are afraid of thunder, while others find it interesting, and Maria was apparently one of the latter. Therefore, when she heard from George-aniki that dinner was over, a huge smile broke across her face. She then stood from her seat, took out her hand bag - which she had set under her seat, never having left it even while she was eating - and began fishing around inside of it. No one seemed particularly concerned with this behavior... ![]() ![]() On the front of the envelope, the Ushiromiya family crest - the One-winged Eagle - was done in gold leaf. Furthermore, the fact that it was sealed with dark-red wax made it clear that this was not something that Maria could have brought as a prank. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() As Nanjo muttered that, even us kids could understand why everyone seemed to be frozen solid. The envelope that Maria held was one of the Ushiromiya family head's custom-made envelopes for private use. ...In other words, it could only mean one thing. This envelope contained a message from Kinzo. Well. Another +1 to people Kinzo (sometimes) likes, perhaps? Guess Genji was wrong. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Or not. Also, consider. Beatrice is basically a god, probably just as capable of summoning up crazy poo poo as Kinzo. The servants recognize her as another master. She could have probably shown herself to any one of them and handed them the envelope, if so inclined. Or even picked one of the siblings to reveal herself to and use as her proxy, probably. Yet of all the options available, with their various degrees of impressiveness, the one she picks to play messenger to the Ushiromiyas is an autistic nine year old. I'm not sure there are words to adequately describe that level of contempt. ![]() Battler tried to joke about it, but no one went along with him. ![]() Maria casually opened the envelope. ...It was sealed only with wax, so she just had to remove the sealing wax to open it. ...That sealing wax fell onto the desk. Hideyoshi hastily picked it up and stared fixedly at it. He then set it in the center of the table, where Natsuhi, Kyrie, and Nanjo glared at it. In the sealing wax, the Ushiromiya family crest - which was also Kinzo's personal crest - the One-winged Eagle was imprinted. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() One after another, all of the siblings, from Krauss on downwards, rejected Nanjo's statement, saying that the envelope that Maria was holding had not necessarily been sent by Kinzo. They were afraid. Kinzo's intentions were written in there, and they feared from the bottoms of their hearts that it might be some decidedly unfavorable announcement regarding the inheritance. ![]() All of you are the worst. But after much consideration, loathe as I am to leave any of you a single yen, I have decided to bequeath to you my ten tons of gold, to be divided equally among you. This comes with the condition, however, that it is to be promptly melted down, and you are to dipped in it to make bitchin' lawn decorations for the next owner of the island. Then Beatrice gets everything. With hate, Kinzo ![]() ![]() ![]() Maria nodded forcefully. ![]() ![]() Battler said it to Jessica in a small voice, trying to act tough, but Natsuhi heard him clearly and glared at him with threatening eyes. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() As all of the relatives stared fiercely at Maria, she spread the letter open with a rustle... ![]() ![]() You'd think Krauss would know better by now than to try and apply normal logic to anything Kinzo does. ![]() ![]() Oh Rosa. You should really tone down the praise. Don't want her to get too full of herself, do you? ![]() (clickable) ![]() Her voice actually changes for this section. It is much less annoying than she normally sounds and I kind of wish it was her normal voice. Particularly because it proves she is in fact physically capable of speaking two sentences without an “uu-”. Took a video of her reading the letter, so go see for yourself. Said video also provides a look at the voices Krauss (Jūrōta Kosugi) and Natsuhi (Emi Shinohara). ![]() And hey, there's another possible reason for Kinzo still being alive. All that absinthe has some Elixir of Life mixed in. ...Or perhaps absinthe has been the Elixir all along? ![]() ![]() ![]() Although I suppose the lack of uuing could just be magic. She is doing pretty well with the letter for a kid who was stumbling over chunks of the epitaph earlier. Unless, I guess, even the words of the epitaph themselves are crazy difficult in Japanese. Wouldn't put it past Kinzo, but hell if I'd be able to tell. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Battler made a face as if to ask, "If I can't make fun of this, what can I make fun of?" At the same time, some of the adults' faces were pale, while others looked completely shocked. ![]() Terrible as the terms he agreed to were, gotta give Kinzo some credit for building in an escape clause. How many other people try that with their Faustian bargains? ![]() ![]() ![]() ...Granted, he then hosed up that escape clause by making it ridiculously hard to use, but at least it was there. And had about 40 years of abject disappointment before it was finalized. ![]() Krauss was staring at the sealing wax as though he was trying to burn a hole through it. Eva and Rudolf were doing the same over his shoulder! ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() Nanjo: The only person present who understands. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() What Kyrie said was something that all of the siblings wanted to be made clear. Upon reflection, they realized that Kinzo's strange epitaph had always hung in the hall beneath the portrait of the witch, and while it had long been whispered that the one who solved the puzzle would receive everything, ...no one had ever clearly stated it. It was just something that everyone had hoped might be true. That had, right here, right now, been clearly expressed by Beatrice's letter! It clearly specified that everything of the Ushiromiya family would be given to the one who found the gold. But apparently it wasn't clear enough on the accompanying point for anyone to to put two and two together with the epitaph, since the whole “find the gold ASAP or you will all die horribly” bit seems to have flown over everyone's head... ![]() ![]() The door to Kinzo's study was being violently, violently beaten against over and over again like a percussion instrument. The screams coming from the other side were Krauss's, Rudolf's, and sometimes Eva's voices. It was the siblings, who were trying to intrude upon Kinzo's study to question him about the truth behind that mysterious letter. Kinzo was eating. An elegant tablecloth was set over the desk, and the fabulous dinner that had colored the table down in the dining hall was once again laid out. ![]() ![]() ![]() And so the cast jumps to 19, as Kinzo casually invites YHVH Himself to dinner, presumably just because he can. Maybe He gave Maria the umbrella? ![]() ![]() Kinzo coolly tasted his food. Genji quietly lowered his head and took a single step back. ...As he did, Kanon, who stood in reserve like a shadow behind and to the side of Genji, opened his mouth. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() And the TIPs section adds Beatrice's letter for easy reference as well. Again, same as it appeared earlier, just without the sibling chatter in between chunks. Or, well, mostly the same. ![]() ![]() Here it says “...you may feel...” instead of “...you will may feel...” in the first part, though that's presumably just them catching a typo. And in the second paragraph, the earlier version claimed Beatrice would “lose” her right to the gold, while this says she would “loose” the right. Lose is probably the correct one there, but offhand memory and a quick look through future TIPs and the text dumps don't confirm it reliably enough to remove that little bit of room for alternate interpretation. ![]() ![]() ![]() Next time: Chessboards and ingots
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Oh hey, we're getting pretty close to the main plot kicking off. Looking forward to the speculation once it does. ![]()
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If Beatrice is like the Devil, does that mean all of the gold comes in the form of fiddles?
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Wow, that Maria-letter-reading voice is a lot better, even if it sounds nothing like a 9-year-old. The combination of that music and that voice acting is amazing.
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Here's the point where the story kicks off and becomes really interesting.DrakePegasus posted:If Beatrice is like the Devil, does that mean all of the gold comes in the form of fiddles? Where do you think the background music comes from?
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Probably late on this, but I was always really appreciated of the character bios and TIPS section the game includes. It helped a lot in the early game when I was learning the setting.
KamikazePotato fucked around with this message at 15:03 on Oct 16, 2012 |
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DrakePegasus posted:If Beatrice is like the Devil, does that mean all of the gold comes in the form of fiddles? It means they were all way off when they were speculating about the beloved hometown from the epitaph a little while back. Kinzo's branch of the family was actually living somewhere way the hell over in Georgia back in the day.
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Shiny777 posted:It means they were all way off when they were speculating about the beloved hometown from the epitaph a little while back. Kinzo's branch of the family was actually living somewhere way the hell over in Georgia back in the day. Suddenly Battler flirting with his cousin makes sense. ![]()
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The PS3 release of Umineko was in 720p. Do the art assets need to be shrunk down to 640x480 to work with the PC version? I don't know the limitations of the NScripter engine.
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LeeDless posted:The PS3 release of Umineko was in 720p. Do the art assets need to be shrunk down to 640x480 to work with the PC version? As an aside, Umineko is actually one of few native 1080p PS3 titles.
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There really isn't much of a limit to how large an Nscripter window can be.
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Dr Pepper posted:There really isn't much of a limit to how large an Nscripter window can be. I've never encountered an NScripter game that natively runs higher than 640 x 480. LeeDless fucked around with this message at 08:32 on Oct 17, 2012 |
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If you open a file called ons.cfg in the folder the game is in, you can make the game any window size you want by putting in "window-width=" and the resolution you desire. The game will automatically scale up. The small resolution assets you see in most of them is primarily due to them being amateur works.
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Wait a second. Due to the typhoon, nobody can leave the island which means they can't actually "find" the gold unless it is on the island itself. That would be very unlikely given OP's hint that knowledge of Asian geography is required to solve the riddle. Or is the clause fulfilled as soon as anyone on the island say, "I know the gold is at XXX and my reasoning is this..."?
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Jeek posted:Wait a second. Due to the typhoon, nobody can leave the island which means they can't actually "find" the gold unless it is on the island itself. That would be very unlikely given OP's hint that knowledge of Asian geography is required to solve the riddle. Either that, or Rokkenjima is somehow sculpted to scale to represent a part of Japan? Wouldn't put it past Kinzo. I am mostly unfamiliar with Umineko aside from the first ten or so episodes of the anime, so I'll have to ask - does the mystery follow Knox' rules? I have heard that the deal with the witches and black magic is there for obfuscation, but is it otherwise a fair mystery?
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Fightest posted:
The magic and stuff does start to play a bigger role later on. Though I will say that from what I can remember, at least Umineko 1-4 are solvable as fair mysteries. As are things like the epitaph and Beatrice. But it isn't that easy and the smoke and mirrors that are thrown at you don't help matters.
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Omniphile posted:Wow, that Maria-letter-reading voice is a lot better, even if it sounds nothing like a 9-year-old. The combination of that music and that voice acting is amazing. Fishy aroma, originally called ''Letter reading theme'', does that in this series. So, we reached the headstart of this wild trip, a letter was given to Maria by Beatrice the golden witch and the 10 tons of gold are in place as a bet. Kinzo doesn't have his head ring, according to Nanjo, and Battler is unable to joke about anything. This is a normal day at the Ushiromiya's.
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The mystery is indeed fairly solvable. The first four episodes provide everything you need to work out the who-dunnit and how-dunnit for all of them. The why-dunnit pretty much requires Chiru, though, if memory serves. We'll eventually see whether or not Kinzo/Beatrice's game with the gold and epitaph is winnable, and the game eventually brings up whether Knox and Dine's ruleset is actually applicable. That's about all I can say there. Walterion posted:So, we reached the headstart of this wild trip, a letter was given to Maria by Beatrice the golden witch and the 10 tons of gold are in place as a bet. ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() (USER WAS PUT ON PROBATION FOR THIS POST)
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Shiny777 posted:The why-dunnit pretty much requires Chiru, though, if memory serves. So we need to get an endangered animal before solving the mystery then? ![]()
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Shiny777 posted:The mystery is indeed fairly solvable. The first four episodes provide everything you need to work out the who-dunnit and how-dunnit for all of them. The why-dunnit pretty much requires Chiru, though, if memory serves. You can figure that out without Chiru, but a lot of the hints to the why-dunnit (arguably the "point" of Umineko) are a lot easier to miss.
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jonjonaug posted:You can figure that out without Chiru, but a lot of the hints to the why-dunnit (arguably the "point" of Umineko) are a lot easier to miss. When we reach Chiru, I will express my feelings about it. I will just say this, it feels rather off in several points.
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Hm, did you notice that around the time Maria presents the letter (looking it up, it's precisely at the point when she calls herself Beatrice's 'Messenger'), the narrated segments switch from Battler's first-person narration to a third-person narration which, up to this point, was only used in scenes where Battler was not present? That most certainly means something, although I'm not quite sure what. But I hope we'll get more of that, I love this kind of stylistic experimentation. I've only read the Umineko mangas, so experiencing the original work is going to be a treat, I just know it ![]()
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Trying to be as non-spoilery as possible, I can say that's entirely deliberate on the part of the author. You'll want to keep an eye out for that kind of thing in the future.
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LeeDless posted:Trying to be as non-spoilery as possible, I can say that's entirely deliberate on the part of the author. You'll want to keep an eye out for that kind of thing in the future. There's alot of stuff happening in the series after a while, and I think part of the theory making gets shut down by other theorymakers who may or may not take what is said the wrong way.
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I find it odd that Shiny was put on probation. With the reason being he did not read the op and posted spoilers. The guy made the op and I don't think he posted spoilers (other then that black thing but no clue what that is.)
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MonsterEnvy posted:I find it odd that Shiny was put on probation. With the reason being he did not read the op and posted spoilers. The guy made the op and I don't think he posted spoilers (other then that black thing but no clue what that is.) I think Slowbeef didn't realize Shiny777 was the OP. I had a good laugh when I saw it though, can't say I've ever seen an OP probated for spoiling his own LP before.
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The dangers of having a STUPID NEWBIE avatar... I'm pretty sure that this has happened before, though. Or it might have been something similar in one of the Diplomacy games.
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Woah, Shiny was probated for spoilers in his own topic? That's....something else.
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# ? Jun 16, 2024 02:24 |
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He'll look back on this moment and laugh, no doubt.
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