As with many Japanese visual novel games, Umineko no Naku Koro ni Saku: Nekobako to Musō no Kōkyōkyoku is quite the mouthful. The title translates to When The Seagulls Cry: Symphony of Catboxes and Dreams, which doesn’t really have any bearing on the plot at all. It’s just a funny name that’s hard to parse.
For the purposes of simplicity, we’re going to cut the title down to Uminkeo When They Cry, which is also the name of the franchise. It’s fine to use the two interchangeably here since Umineko no Naku Koro ni Saku: Nekobako to Musō no Kōkyōkyoku is actually a compilation of the first eight episodes of the Uminkeo When They Cry franchise, which combines both Umineko no naku Koro ni: Majo to Suiri no Rondo and Umineko no naku Koro ni Bara: Shinjitsu to Gensō no Nocturne into a single, albeit extended, title.
With that explanation out of the way, just what the heck is Uminkeo When They Cry? It’s a longstanding Japanese visual novel about a family that arrives on a secluded island in order to discuss divvying up the ancestral fortune. The family patriarch is dying and as is often the case with the ultra-wealthy, nobody wants a huge fight over money.
Which of course is exactly what happens, but with a twist. Instead of just arguing with words on paper, there’s an old family curse that actually starts killing people. Mysterious murders continue until there’s just one character left, who then embarks on a mystical journey to parallel dimensions to solve the murders and figure out what’s really going on.
The final solution is complicated and involves sex reassignment and genital mutilation. That’s as far into spoiler territory as I’m willing to go.
If you speak Japanese, there’s an 11-minute trailer you can watch that reveals Uminkeo When They Cry will hit the PS4 and Switch on January 28 along with a bundled copy of the spinoff fighting game Golden Fantasia CROSS and three short story expansions. There’s no word on an English translation or a Western release, so stay tuned.
Source: Anime News Network
