Welcome to the first post in The Visual Novel Den. I’m a Higurashi fan and wanted to show off my current collection as an initial post here. This community is a work in progress but hopefully this post will give an idea of what it will be about and how to show off a visual novel collection.
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My collection is still very small but awhile back, I found all of these from the same seller on Ebay and was given a pretty hefty discount by buying them all at once. It was just under $300 for all and only one of them wasn’t complete in box. It also took just over a month for them to arrive due to import and customs but was so so worth it.
The DS Ports
For those of you that don’t know, the original Nintendo DS was released in the United States without any region restrictions. That means that if you know Japanese, you can easily play these without needing to import the console. The future iterations of the DS family were a different story. These ports of the original story were a bit different than the original PC release in several ways (sourced from here - heavy spoilers there, take with a grain of salt due to being a fan site):
- multiple additional arcs added (most split between each cartridge and based on the canonical extended works)
- the original ending was expanded with more backstory given to several characters
- most of the content that was released in the Playstation 2 port was ported over to the DS; I could be wrong, but I don’t believe this includes all of the extra content from the two expansion releases
- a small handful of choices added that lead to alternate endings
- updated sprites
- new menu options added to improve playability on the DS
The Playstation 2 Ports
There were three different releases (minus the Collector’s Edition, which I’ll show off at the end). The first one (with Rena staring at the viewer and a blood colored cover) was the base game release. It contained censored versions of the original story (due to requirements by both the console manufacturer - Sony - and Japanese copyright law at the time), introduced new sprites, backgrounds, and cutscenes, and required players to make choices to reach different arcs and unlock new characters to play those arcs. The final arc was heavily altered from the original PC release, though, and is considered an alternate bad ending to the greater lore.
Then there’s the release with Rika on the cover. That’s the standalone complete expansion that retold certain arcs from the perspective of different characters as expanded answer arcs. These are currently heavily debated on in the community about whether or not they are essential reads or canon to the main story.
The final release is the one with Rena on the cover smiling with clouds in the background. That’s the Append release which required the original release to play and a save file with certain arcs unlocked to access. This was basically a budget way to upgrade the original with the new content if a player owned the original. It looks pretty nice but for the convenience, I would recommend the expansion complete version for your collection if you want to play this release.
You will need an imported Playstation or play using an emulator to these ports. There are no complete English fan translations available and like most visual novels, this is a very text heavy story. The new answer arc additions from the expanded release have not and will probably be ported over to the modern releases through official or 07th Mod means.
See here for a complete rundown of these ports and their differences.
The Playstation 2 Limited Collector’s Edition + Custom Memory Card
The Memory Card was an 8MB one to celebrate the release of the original Playstation 2 port and just came with custom faceplates and slots for storing up to four memory cards. There’s not much to it and I haven’t tried testing mine out (due to a lack of console). I purchased it for the novelty more than anything else.
The Collector’s Edition box was a different story. It has my favorite Higurashi art work for its cover. I think Rika looks like a total badass standing there front and center with her ritual staff ready for combat. The back cover was a rework of the back of the original release and, in my humble opinion, more pleasant to look at. This release included all of the following:
- a complete soundtrack (unopened)
- the original releases of Matsuri (the Playstation 2 port)
- a burned police report style “Making of” book with various different illustrations, information about the creators, and plot discussions about things that fans may not pick up on in their first playthrough
- a collection of “Welcome to Hinimazawa” postcards with custom sprite work, backgrounds and character profiles for the main cast in a custom envelope
Where Do I Want to Go From Here
I hope to someday import the newer console ports, more of the manga (not shown in the pictures), and the spinoffs for the PSP and PS Vita handhelds. There was a prototype Game Boy Advance port that was passed out in limited quantities at various conventions but it is so extremely rare that I’ll probably never find it.
My Closing Thoughts
I hope you enjoyed this post. I also hope that you join in on this new community. If you have your own collections you’d like to show off, use this post as a template and then spin it your way. Let’s figure this community out and talk about Visual Novels.