The ''

Higurashi When They Cry is a Japanese murder mystery dōjin soft visual novel series produced by 07th Expansion that comprises the first two entries of the ''When They Cry'' franchise. The series focuses on a group of young friends living in the fic ...

visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

series Series may refer to: People with the name * Caroline Series (born 1951), English mathematician, daughter of George Series * George Series (1920–1995), English physicist Arts, entertainment, and media Music * Series, the ordered sets used in ...

is originally produced by the Japanese dōjin soft maker 07th Expansion, but features games produced in collaboration with

Alchemist Alchemy (from Arabic: ''al-kīmiyā''; from Ancient Greek: χυμεία, ''khumeía'') is an ancient branch of natural philosophy, a philosophical and protoscience, protoscientific tradition that was historically practiced in Chinese alchemy, C ...

and

Twilight Frontier , known as Tasofro for short, is a Japanese ''dojin'' game developer. They are best known for their collaborations with Team Shanghai Alice (ZUN), which include seven official games in the '' Touhou Project'' series. Productions Games Music C ...

. The games take place in the fictional Japanese town of Hinamizawa, and the stories revolve around a group of young friends and the strange events that occur in the village. The games have been released for

Microsoft Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

PCs, the

PlayStation 2 The PlayStation 2 (PS2) is a home video game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on 4 March 2000, in North America on 26 October 2000, in Europe on 24 November 2000, and in Australia on 3 ...

, and the

Nintendo DS The is a handheld game console produced by Nintendo, released globally across 2004 and 2005. The DS, an initialism for "Developers' System" or "Dual Screen", introduced distinctive new features to handheld games: two LCD screens working in tan ...

handheld console A handheld game console, or simply handheld console, is a small, portable self-contained video game console with a built-in screen, game controls and speakers. Handheld game consoles are smaller than home video game consoles and contain the cons ...

. ''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni'' is a series of

murder mystery Crime fiction, detective story, murder mystery, mystery novel, and police novel are terms used to describe narratives that centre on criminal acts and especially on the investigation, either by an amateur or a professional detective, of a crime, ...

visual novels that requires relatively little player interaction as most of the

gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and pla ...

is composed of reading text which signifies either dialogue between characters or the inner thoughts of the protagonist who the player assumes. The games utilize intermissions where the player can obtain several TIPS which allow the player to read various supplementary information that may or may not be useful in solving the mystery. The series debuted in Japan on August 10, 2002 with ''

Onikakushi-hen The ''Higurashi When They Cry'' visual novel Video game series, series is originally produced by the Japanese dōjin soft maker 07th Expansion, but features games produced in collaboration with Alchemist (company), Alchemist and Twilight Frontie ...

'', the first in a series of eight original games divided into the "question arcs" consisting of the first four games, and the "answer arcs" consisting of the latter four. The answer arcs shared the common title ''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai''. An additional fandisc known as ''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei'' followed, and was the final game in the series produced by 07th Expansion. The eight original PC games were released in English by MangaGamer with the first four games released in December 2009. The last four games, however, were released individually starting with ''Meakashi-hen'' in February 2010. Alchemist has released six more games based on the original series, two for the PlayStation 2 and four for the Nintendo DS. Twilight Frontier produced a dōjin game 3D versus

third-person shooter Third-person shooter (TPS) is a subgenre of 3D shooter games in which the gameplay consists primarily of shooting. It is closely related to first-person shooters, but with the player character visible on-screen during play. While 2D shoot 'em ...

game entitled ''

Higurashi Daybreak is a Japanese dōjin third-person shooter developed by Twilight Frontier, first released on August 13, 2006 and is based on the popular visual novel ''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni''. The game is Twilight Frontier's first attempt in making a 3D ga ...

'' which was later ported to the

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

Cavia ''Cavia'' is a genus in the subfamily Caviinae that contains the rodents commonly known as guinea pigs or cavies. The best-known species in this genus is the domestic guinea pig, ''Cavia porcellus'', a meat animal in South America and a common ...

and Alchemist.

Original releases

''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni''

''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai''

''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Rei''

Expanded releases

''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Matsuri''

''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kizuna''

''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Hō''

''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Sui''

Other series

''Higurashi Daybreak''

References

External links

''Higurashi no Naku Koro ni''
at 07th Expansion
''Higurashi Daybreak''
at

{{07th Expansion

Titles A title is one or more words used before or after a person's name, in certain contexts. It may signify either generation, an official position, or a professional or academic qualification. In some languages, titles may be inserted between the f ...