Higurashi, Matsuribayashi-hen

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We at MangaGamer are proud to announce the upcoming release of Higurashi: Matsuribayashi-hen, available on July 15th. Matsuribayashi-hen marks the 8th and final chapter in the Higurashi series. All the players and all the pieces have finally been arranged. This will be the end one way or another, but will it be the end Rika and the others seek? Or will it be the end they’re struggling so hard to prevent?

In honor and celebration of our release of Higurashi When They Cry Kai Matsuribayashi, the final chapter in the Higurashi saga, we’ll be offering a one week sale on all the other chapters in the Higurashi series! The sale will run from July 15th, when we release the final chapter of the series, until July 23rd. If you haven’t picked up your copy of this thrilling tale yet, now’s your opportunity! We hope you all will take this chance to enjoy the exciting murder mysteries of Hinamizawa!

Higurashi When They Cry:
€ 36.95 (US$ 46.33)→€ 23.95 (US$ 30.03)
Higurashi When they Cry Kai Meakashi
€ 19.95 (US$ 25.02)→€ 14.95 (US$ 18.75)
Higurashi When They Cry Kai Tsumihoroboshi
€ 19.95 (US$ 25.02)→€ 14.95 (US$ 18.75)
Higurashi When They Cry Kai Minagoroshi
€ 19.95 (US$ 25.02)→€ 14.95 (US$ 18.75)

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62 Comments

  1. So will this include the previous 3 Kai arcs as well?

  2. Now that all of the chapters will have been released, are there any plans to offer them together, maybe at a somewhat lower price?

    • This, I like Higurashi a lot but I’m just not willing to pay for all the individual Kai arcs seperatley even if I do like the story. A grouped version like the release of the Question Arcs is what I’m waiting for, as are many other people I would assume.

      • +1

        I too would only consider buying a grouped set. Put simply, a grouped game is more convenient.

        Not to mention how ridiculously high priced 80euros is. I don’t mind rebuying but I paid 2100 yen for my physical non-DRMed JP copy.

        That being said, I gladly bought your 30$ AX hardcopy of the question arcs. (I would have paid up to 40 for it) I would pay up to 60 for a hard copy of the answer arcs, grouped together.

        • I’m going to fourth (fifth?) this. I’d been holding off on making up my mind on whether or not I was going to buy the latter half until I saw this announcement, but I’m simply not willing to pay over $100 for the second half of the series. Especially as the first half being grouped and the second half not would irrationally bug me forever.

  3. Will REI be translated?

    • That all depends on you guys, and how many show they want more Higurashi.

      • WE DEFINITELY WANT REI!!! 😀

      • I swear to God, I’ll buy Rei if it comes out. If I’m so much of a dork for this series that I’ve bought the original doujin version of the game series (including Rei), the PS2 version of the game, Daybreak and its sequel, the PSP mahjong game (and I don’t know how to play mahjong), and your releases; you can pretty much count of me to buy an english release of Rei

  4. Let me be blunt. I’ve been following this game for awhile and I’ve got to say with this you’ve lost a customer.

    Firstly you don’t bring over the music, mini games, and the extras. The music is understandable, if annoying. The lack of other features? Is not. Even then I’d be annoyed and still probably buy it if your translation didn’t have severe grammar issues. If the community needs to release a patch for the translated game, that says something.

    Secondly there’s the price, yes you can say that it cost you a bit to bring it over and that you’re passing the price onto the customers, but that doesn’t fly. We’re obviously not paying for a good translation, we’re obviously not paying for the original music and minigames, and seriously the art is NOT a good draw alone. What on earth are we paying for? If you guys need to charge this much for the game then you either need a better negotiation team or better translators.

    Thirdly, the lack of packaging the games. As someone who was willing to shell out for all the Sims expansions when they came out, I know just how much of a pain it is to install multiple games at once. Yes I want to buy the finished game because of a lower price, but also because then I don’t have to do the lovely parade of installs.

    All in all I want Rei, but if this is the sales model you’re going to use for any future releases? I’m fine with it not being picked up by a company and waiting for the fans to translate it. As for this set of games as long as it remains unbundled, I’ll either play it on my friends’ computer or just stick with the anime.

  5. It might just be a coincidence, but did you happen to know that your release date, July 15th, is also Battler Ushiromiya’s (Protagonist of Umineko No Naku Koro ni) birthday?

  6. I’ll be waiting for Higu Rei and Umineko series so well *o*

    • Umineko already has a translation project, while I would purchase it if it was given an “Official” translation, I can’t see it selling as well since WitchHunts translation is wildly available while Higurashi had pretty much no translation.

  7. Back in December, I bought Higurashi for 37 euros. To complete the story, I must buy the rest of the story. At the time I bought Higurashi, I had expected the answer arcs to be 37 euros as well. Now, even with the temporary sale, it’s 65 euros for all of Kai.

    I will refuse to buy any of MG’s Higurashi Kai chapters until the entire package is available for 40 euros or less, permanently.

    • Just because you subjected yourself to unrealistic expectations doesn’t justify changing the prices to meet your demand…

      • Unrealistic? This is how the games were sold in Japan, why expect anything different? Also, Mangagamer did implied they would release Higurashi Kai the same way as Higurashi and just change the format to avoid delays. Even with the new prices, €64.80 is still much more expensive then one would expect when buying the original game.

        • The corresponding original games were sold in Japan as doujin releases, and hence the cheaper price. When you start selling them (overseas) in a for-profit endeavour, the people outside 07th Expansion whose materials were used in the production would probably want a chunk of the money. I believe this is why they cannot afford to lower the price that much. If we ignore the royalties issue and just look at it in terms of text size when comparing the two halves of the series, I believe Kai should warrant 50 euros compared to the first four arcs’ 37 euros.

          • “(…)Kai should warrant 50 euros(…)”

            And yet the promotional price is already much more expensive. If it really was €50 or even €60 (without promotion) I believe it would be considerably less crying over.

        • Well VDZ has already declared that he won’t pay more than €40 for all of Kai so your “less complaining if prices were €50-€60” theory isn’t working for at least one person. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying your claim is unreasonable…

          If honestly, if you’re such a purist when it comes to paying the same price as the Japanese do, then you won’t mind paying 70-90USD for their other big title games? Because I’m quite sure that if the purist faction (assuming there’s more than one of you) were willing to pay that much for the other games Manga Gamer releases then I can see a precedent for Japanese pricing of their future releases.

          • Except I’m not a purist. I don’t care what the prices in Japan are, I just want the prices of the MangaGamer release to be reasonable.

            MangaGamer released Higurashi at a time where all new releases were 37 euros. At the time I bought Higurashi, I knew that to complete the story I would also have to buy Higurashi Kai later. I spent 37 euros to buy Higurashi, and prepared to spend another 37 euros for the rest of the story.

            Then, MangaGamer suddenly raises the price of Higurashi Kai to 80 euros (now temporarily a bit less expensive). I accept that it may be difficult for MangaGamer to keep the price low. If they had no reason at all to do this, this would just be a scam equivalent to a bait-and-switch trick. MangaGamer would be no more than mere scammers, and I would completely boycott them if that was the case. They probably have some reason to not offer the continuation for 37 euros, so I will tolerate it as a customer.

            However, you cannot expect me to buy Higurashi Kai after what MangaGamer has done. In business, the customer ‘votes’ with his money. To pay for a service means saying that you find the service worth the money: you indicate that you approve of the company’s actions and encourage them to continue acting in the way you offer money for.

            I approved of their localization of Kira Kira and Higurashi, and the way they offered those products (price, actual product, etc). That is why I paid money to purchase these games, to support them and encourage them to localize more good games in the future. (I also bought Da Capo during the sale, but in hindsight it wasn’t worth 25 euros. Oh well.) However, I cannot approve of the way they handled the localization of Higurashi Kai. As I do not support their actions regarding their title, I will not pay them any money for it; think of it as my ‘NO’ vote. In any part of the entertainment industry, your money comes from customer satisfaction. To not satisfy your customers means not receiving money. As a customer, I am not satisfied with the way MangaGamer handled this case, so they will not receive any money from me until I am satisfied. That is all.

            Just like MangaGamer has no obligation to change its prices to my liking, I have no obligation to buy MangaGamer’s games. And as long as their prices aren’t to my liking, I will not buy their games.

          • VDZ,
            For you, specifically, the problem isn’t even about buying their games anymore, it’s simply you subjecting yourself to unrealistic expectations and then blaming Manga Gamer for it. Manga Gamer never alluded to the prices of the later chapters would be €37, you told that to yourself; you have only you to blame for it.

            You choose to see the final four chapters as one complete package when it wasn’t being sold as such; once again, you subjected yourself to those standards. You can call it Bait & Switch if you want, since it’s your little fantasy world at this point, but to blame it on Manga Gamer for setting a price point that’s really not very unreasonable, over their product is still just you looking for an excuse to justify your own expectations.

          • MangaGamer never specifically said Higurashi Kai would be 37 euros, sure. But every new title was sold for 37 euros at the time. To put half of a story on sale at that time makes people expect that the rest of the story will also be 37 euros, as that is the default price and there was no indication of any kind that the price for Kai would be any different. It’s creating false expectations.

            If you’re buying manga volumes, and you’ve bought four volumes for $10 each, and when the fifth and last volume is released, and it’s suddenly $25, would you go ‘oh, sure’? Nobody ever said every volume would be $10. But isn’t it a reasonable assumption to make when all previous volumes have been $10? Wouldn’t you feel screwed if you suddenly had to pay over twice as much for something you had reasonably expected to be the normal price, especially if it’s something you have to buy in order to understand the story you’ve paid for so far?

            I wouldn’t mind if it were two random, unrelated games that suddenly had such a price gap. However, in this case, it’s different. You’re putting the customers in a position where they have to choose between either paying a lot more than they originally wanted to pay, or never being able to finish the story they have paid for.

            If it weren’t for me trusting that MangaGamer has a valid reason for doing this, I’d say it’s no more than a simple scam.

            But hey, even if I were ‘in the wrong’…I’m the customer here. I have the right to decide not to buy MangaGamer’s products. No matter how unreasonable my demands, if MangaGamer wants my money, they must fulfill them. If they think that’s not worth it, they just aren’t getting my money.

          • Your own words: you can’t compare manga to visual novels.

            You’re working under the assumption that this is one complete product. Once again you have your own expectations and you somehow think Manga Gamer is suppose to fulfill it. Manga Gamer is treating it as five different products, you see it as one…

  8. As someone who’s probably going to buy it minutes after it goes on sale, I’m really looking forward to Matsuribayashi – can’t wait! And let me add my call for Rei, too!

    For all the comments about prices – the answer arcs are much longer than the question arcs. Since I timed my playthroughs when I did them, (on auto forwarding) the question arcs lasted 51 hours while just the first 3 answer chapters alone have lasted 63 hours. I guess Matsuribayashi will push that over 80 hours – so at least 1.5 times as long.

    So those who expect them to sell the questions and answers for the exact same price – it’s not going to happen! You could argue that all the answers should sell for more like 1.5 times the price of the question arcs rather than 2 times, but equal prices? That’s unrealistic.

    • I’m sorry but no, the arcs maybe longer but that doesn’t mean much. An equal pricing is not unrealistic in the least, especially not for a grouped version which I imagine would sell a lot better then the individual releases have been since a lot of people like myself are not willing to buy every arc individually.

      • I agree with you that a combined version would probably sell some additional copies – from food to clothes to games, offers like that work. And I wouldn’t be surprised if MG do eventually release a bundle for that reason (I’d still doubt it’d be exactly the same price, personally), but they won’t do so just yet, to maximise the money they make so they can stay in business and continue bringing us more games in the future.

        I think the amount of content is a fair stick (alongside translation quality, age of game, etc) to set prices against, since the more content – the more work it involves for kouryuu and the likes to translate – and that (and licenses) is what costs MG money. Hence Da Capo and Suika costing more than everything else.

        Over at JAST, is it wrong that Raidy 2 is more expensive than Raidy 1, as it has more content? Here at MG, I know it’s not exactly the same situation (you don’t need to buy them to fcomplete the story) but Kira Kira Curtain Call and Edelweiss Eiden Fantasia were less expensive than their main games – should it have been that these were actually the same price even though they offered less content?

        • Da Capo and Suika cost more because back then, Manga Gamer was still “testing” the market. At least that’s the argument they gave. Although, I’m pretty sure there were other reasons, I don’t think it was a quantity issue that made them inflate those titles.

        • The problem is that we’re not getting all the content. We’re not getting all of the original music or minigames. If they said “hey we got the rights for the music and added the minigames back in, so we’re going to have to up the price” that’s one thing. But that’s not the case.

          Now go over to your local bookstore. You’ll notice how some comic/manga volumes are thicker then others? Yes, and sometimes in the same series too, but there’s all around the same price, aren’t they? There’s a reason for that, raising the price in the middle of the series will lose customers, plain and simple.

          • In the hopefully not immortal words of VDZ, you can’t compare manga to visual novels.

          • Okay fine then. You’re buying an anime series, the first series comes out for about 30$ a dvd, and it gets packaged for about 50$ later on. Then the second season comes out that explains everything and wraps up the plot and suddenly the price gets raised to about 80$ for that part of the series. Bait-and-switch? you’re darn right it is. I could make this same comment with a number of situations. Cars, electronics, the list goes on. It doesn’t matter what it is. Skeevy pricing practices are skeevy pricing practices.

          • In the hopefully not immortal words of VDZ, you can’t compare anime to visual novels.

            You’re looking at this as one complete package to which it isn’t being sold as a complete package. For all intents and purposes, it’s being sold as five different products and so it gets priced as such. By your logic, MahouYo should be priced the same as Tsukihime and Kagetsu Tohya because it’s part of the same franchise and by getting all three, you find the deeper meaning behind the story.

  9. I hope that you guys sell well so that you’ll bring Rei over. Rei’s the end, the last one. But it has all resolving plot points. Important connections are made and the series is closed. Rei just might be the most important one. (After Matsuribayashi-hen of course)

    • Yeah, Rei actually makes connections to Umineko, I’m sure of that, even more now after I read the episode 6.

  10. Seriously, so many people complaining over price… How many games are you all used to buy per month since it’s so bad?

    Anyway, I’m looking forward to this.

    • Many of these people aren’t use to buying their games…Many have developed a convoluted sense of entitlement and would much rather resort to pirating than supporting the fledgling industry that’s bringing it over to them in the first place.

      • Congrats on making that nice sweeping judgment there. I guess you missed the part where I said I was willing to pay 30 bucks or so every few months for a quality product. Also considering that I paid about 50 for a bl game at one point, I think I can say I support the industry.

        What I don’t support are games without the features and shoddy translation work. I don’t support companies jacking up the price midway through the series and then saying that they won’t bundle the second part of the series. And lastly I don’t support how they’re blaming it on “BAWWW the big bad pirates and low sales made us do it!”.

        If a product doesn’t sell, you have to look at all the reasons it’s not selling and stop making excuses for yourself. If a company can’t do that, then I’m sure not going to support it.

        • The fact that my sweeping judgement seems to have found a target in you certainly says a little bit…

          You realize that if the mini-games were left in there, then $30 per chapter would be the least of your worries, right?

          • That I don’t like when people try to dismiss legitimate concerns with “stfu and accept your game (that you paid for)”? Why yes, it does say that.

            And what is this horrible eldrich abomination that’s in the mini games? Have you stared into the abyss of the minigames? -and did the minigames stare back into you? What horrifying truths did you glean from this?

          • I’m saying that the licensing needed to include the mini-games would send the price through the roof…that lovely $30 upward estimate of yours probably wouldn’t even cover the production costs, per unit. Seeing as to how Manga Gamer’s digital distro minimizes overhead, that says a lot…

          • Not really. A translation job is a translation job, and those are worked out in advance. Even if they didn’t follow this model and couldn’t afford to pay the translators enough to bring everything over, then perhaps they should have passed on the product. Because if you’re having problems like that early on, it’s a good indicator of problems down the road.

            Moreover We visual novel folks are quite vocal about things being left out. Just see how people reacted to the censorship and what got cut in Animamundi. Anybody who’s even got a passing interest in Visual novels knows that a “little feature” can mean a drastic loss in sales, and one that would far outweigh the cost of bringing it over.

          • Why could the French release get the minigames and still be 20euros for two chapters?

            http://www.hinamizawa.fr/

            I don’t know if they got the music or not but it does bring to question how well mangagamer is at negotiating.

          • Protip: I’m not talking about translation.

            To quote Zalas:

            The corresponding original games were sold in Japan as doujin releases, and hence the cheaper price. When you start selling them (overseas) in a for-profit endeavour, the people outside 07th Expansion whose materials were used in the production would probably want a chunk of the money.

          • Yeah but the french release is still cheaper. And I don’t think they’re doing charity translations there. So either they’re using magic to gain a profit, or you’re talking out of a certain back end of your anatomy.

          • Just for the sake of theory, since there is no way of knowing:

            Maybe it’s true that Mangagamer ended up with a bad deal, and the french managed to negotiate themselves to something better.

            But MG may be stuck with what they have now, with a signed contract and all, and that sucks. That doesn’t necessarily mean they are trying to cheat anyone though. Licenses can be a pain.

          • @ jyuichi

            The mini games were taken out of MangaGamer’s release because they couldn’t be ported to BGI. pbsaffran, if I remember correctly, is still using ONScripter.

            20 euros for two chapters would mean… 40 euros for 4 chapters. That’s the same price.

  11. Wait wait people, I agree that the current price for all of Higurashi Kai is a bit to expensive compared to their release of the Question arcs, but many of you are drastically over reacting and need to shut the hell up. First off, MangaGamer has never said they do not intend to release Kai bundled together, hell as far as I know they haven’t even commented on that yet so I don’t know where you got the idea that they are refusing to do that but it’s clearly incorrect. Second off, the way the translation for Kai is no different then what they did for Higurashi, the only difference of course being that they are releasing the Kai arcs individually compared to the bundled together Question Arcs.

    I’m sorry you feel ripped off that you didn’t get your music and pointless mini games (seriously no one gives a damn about those, you people only care because they weren’t included) but that was out of MangaGamers hands whether you like it or not so their is no point in yelling at them for it, they’ve even mentioned that their is a possibility of being able to patch in the music etc. if they are able to get the licenses for them down the road. Also, generalizing people together as “no good pirates who don’t pay for their games” is stupid and doesn’t actually make you any better then the people you are looking down on. Quite frankly the entire argument is stupid and I’m ashamed to have even taken a small part in it, you all should be to.

  12. I buy Matsuribayashi-hen yesterday…it goes on sale for cheaper today… D’OH!

    Also, another vote for Rei, here.

  13. I got the e-mail about the price reduction and release of the last Answer Arc, and I just knew that I’d have to get it. I’m a little upset that they aren’t combined in one set like the Question Arcs, but maybe they’ll release a download for it later. If not, it doesn’t really matter all that much. At least we actually get Higurashi in English :D.

    I’m hoping that my contribution to the sales of Higurashi will motivate and enable MangaGamer to get the rights to Rei as well.

  14. @ Nameraka

    It’s €20 for all four Question arcs actually:

    http://www.toutdasie.com/product.php?id_product=1692

    It is true, however, that they sold the first two arcs for €20. The money they made from that first release is probably why they could afford to sell the Question arcs at such a low price.

    As for the content, the BGMs, sound effects and mini games were all left intact. The only thing missing from the French release is two backgrounds as far as I know.

  15. Hello,
    I guess I should explain why the price of the french translation is low.
    First of all, I’m doing the release during my spare time. As much as I want to earn big money with it, I’m not delusionnal enough to believe this is going to happen overnight – so I translated the game whenever I had time. Me being both the translator and producer means that I don’t have to pay myself for the translation – I spare a big 6-digits amount of money in investment doing so (roughly 95% of the total costs)
    I am considering shifting the price up for “kai”, because I will have three expensive licence fees to pay instead of two right now. But this may first happen when I release games 5 to 8, actually.
    I got to keep all bgms because I went thought the trouble of licensing them.
    I got to keep 4 minigames instead of 7 – 3 minigames would have required extreme licensing from other companies. (anime studios, authors, TV stations, etc, both in Japan and in France)
    Of course, being a professionnal translator for so long, and being able to use PONScipter, I also spare costs with the programming, the implementation of text and the reviewing of the text – the problem being that I end up knowing the text “by heart” and thus after a certain point, I just don’t see the mistakes anymore. (After 75 rounds of proofreading, I still had blatant typoes and words missing altogether…)
    So, yeah. That about sums it up. I’m probably never going to actually make money on the game sales alone – unless I sell 15 times more than what I produced so far. (i.e. it’s not really going to happen) I just hope that MG can somehow get by with their sales – apprently they got their act together with Kai, it would be a shame if their efforts were not to be rewarded.
    Good luck! and buy the french release please 😉

  16. Just thought I’d chalk up another point for Rei getting translated. Thank you very much if you decide to take it up!

  17. I vote for Rei

  18. Yeah, I’d love for Higurashi Rei to be translated.

  19. I would also like for Rei to be translated.

  20. I would love also that Rei can be translated. We all want it!

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