Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Celebrating All Things Spooky: Higurashi When They Cry Chapter 8

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video Games  8 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
Oct 202025
 

We’re finally here.

After 4 years of talking about Higurashi, ever since I played Onikakushi back in 2021, it’s time to talk about Higurashi When They Cry Chapter 8: Matsuribayashi.

Wrapping up Higurashi during our spooky games celebration only feels fitting, but at the same time, it almost feels out of place. This final chapter of Higurashi might be the one where the “horror” description applies the least. After the previous chapter finally provided clear answers about what is happening, this chapter was all about finding the solution.

As a result, it’s much more straightforward, with no huge shocks or twists, and there were a few points where it felt like things went a little too smoothly.

Click for major Higurashi Chapter 8 spoilers
The main thing I disliked was how easily the Mountain Dogs were taken out. The previous chapter introduced them as a dangerous force to be reckoned with, even though the kids managed to hold their own for a while, but here it felt like they took them out a little too easily.

Rika catching the bullet also felt a bit strange. Just saying it’s a miracle wasn’t satisfying when the previous miracles are specifically due to characters coming together and helping one another. I know, we’ve got some overt supernatural elements already, but I’m not sure how I feel about that specific part.

But I’ll forgive it everything for the emotions it managed to make me feel this time around. Last time, I wondered if we’d get to learn the antagonist’s motivations, and not only did this chapter deliver, but it did so to such an extent that I found myself feeling bad for the antagonist despite everything.

Whenever a story can provoke such an emotional reaction toward a character who previously seemed irredeemable, that’s great writing. I love that sort of thing. It makes the conclusion that much more satisfying.

Now that we’re at the end, I want to take a look back at Higurashi as a whole. The first chapter still stands out to me as the most intense, especially since you know nothing about what’s going on. The sheer paranoia of that chapter is unmatched. The next few chapters each had their own focus, showing tragedy from different angles and provoking more emotional moods. Chapter 4 in particular was where I felt I could finally start piecing together a theory.

It’s funny to look back on the later chapters now, because when I started the Answer Arcs, I felt like none of my questions were being answered, but now I can see how they did provide me with pieces of the puzzle.

Chapter 6 brought back the intense paranoia the very first chapter had (quite fittingly), and then Chapter 7 brought everything together by providing answers at last in time for the final conclusion here in Chapter 8. Higurashi goes through many different tone shifts across the chapters, but when I view them as a whole, it all feels natural. I would say my favorite parts ended up being Chapter 1, Chapter 5, and Chapter 7, although they’re all good.

Higurashi When They Cry gave me a 70-hour journey through a mysterious but ultimately satisfying story. There are still some bonus arcs I’ll want to check out eventually, but now that I’ve read Higurashi When They Cry Chapter 8: Matsuribayashi, the main journey is complete. I’m happy I saw Higurashi through to the end at last.

Celebrating All Things Spooky: The Children of Clay

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Reviews, Video Games  5 Responses »  Tagged with:
Oct 172025
 

Today we’re going to talk about The Children of Clay, a very short horror adventure game that came out earlier this year.

You play an archaeologist studying a strange artifact. After a brief bit of text to set up the premise, you’re given control to start investigating.

You have a magnifying glass, a collection of reference books, and a few other tools. With only a bit of guidance, it does a good job of making you feel like a detective. To use the reference books, for example, you have to type in the key word you want to look up.

It also uses stop motion animation, which is interesting.

Now, when I say it’s very short, I mean it takes less then 15 minutes to complete. However, it packs an impressively creepy atmosphere into those 15 minutes. Without being a truly Lovecraftian game, it captured that sort of essence of investigating the unknown. I’d love to see what this developer could do with a full-length horror game.

The Children of Clay is short, free, and creepy. It’s the perfect game to check out this October.

Celebrating All Things Spooky: ZENO

 Celebrating All Things Spooky, Video Games  10 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
Oct 132025
 

Earlier this year, I learned about a short horror game called ZENO, so I decided to play it this October!

(I mistakenly thought it was an RPG because of the way it’s described, but it’s really more of a horror adventure game. It was just made with RPG Maker.)

Two young men wake up together in a mysterious facility, with no memory of who they are or how they got there. The door is locked and won’t open until they’ve been handcuffed to each other, after which point they leave and find files telling them who they are – and one of them is a genius psychiatrist while the other is a homicidal maniac.

They have to work together to get out by solving puzzles to unlock each new floor of the facility.

There are threats in the facility, as well, so from time to time you’ll be chased and need to run from screen to screen until you lose your pursuer.

While not excessively dark, the story deals with horror themes like murder and cannibalism. It has some interesting twists and quite a few endings. After I finished the game with the normal endings, I used a guide to get the true ending (although there are still several endings I didn’t seek out).

My one criticism of Zeno was going to be the English translation, since a lot of lines were awkward or used abbreviations (“sth” for “something” was a common one, but a character responding to a very serious revelation with “I C” made me laugh out loud), but after finishing it I learned that in the time since I downloaded it, a newly proofread version was made available. That’ll teach me not to download a game months ahead of time and not check the page again before playing it! I haven’t tried the proofread version, but it should be an improvement.

Anyway, ZENO is an enjoyable short horror game that I was already going to recommend playing despite the translation issues, so now I’m even more confident in my recommendation. It seems there are also some side games, so I may check those out sometime as well.

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