Backlog Dialogues

Backlog Dialogues

Backlog Dialogues is the nerd culture podcast where we dig you out of your backlog, BEFORE it buries you. We attempt to bring a literary eye to nerd culture media, like video games, films, TV shows, and more. Think of us like a book club, but for video games and other types of media. Our second backlog-buster is: When They Cry!

Episodes

December 17, 2025 93 mins

Our When They Cry map is becoming increasingly useless. As the storm rages and our ship drifts in to uncharted waters, we continue to be plagued with more questions than answers. Just what can the red truth not say? Just how many goats can Beatrice summon? What is Rosa's problem anyway? And for that matter, why does Beatrice get so mad about the subject of love? The answers to these questions will not be contained in this episode.

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It's time for a new rule! Umineko has been going easy on us for a chapter and a half now, but this week it shows its cards and reveals that we're in for a very different story. As the First and Second twilights happen again, this time with a far more grotesque display, Beatrice reveals just how much magic she can muster - and it turns out to be a lot! But the game truly begins when Beatrice introduces the rule that will change ever...

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And now, Umineko truly begins. As the family returns to Rokkenjima, Battler and Beatrice begin a game of their own, a contest to determine if a Witch is behind the murders on the island, or if a human could pull any of these bizarre cases off. Pseudo-logical arguments and lots of yapping abound in this episode, as Beatrice makes a bold first move, showing her in the flesh on the island!

This week on Backlog Dialogues, we prove devi...

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Umineko's second episode starts by focusing on the lives of the two young servants on Rokkenjima, Shannon and Kanon. Both yearn for love, both yearn to be human, both yearn to be free from their fates as furniture. But Shannon makes moves that Kanon can not, and the mysterious witch Beatrice sees an opportunity to facilitate her revival through the servant's desires...

This week on Backlog Dialogues, we search for the one true elem...

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For our first Umineko minilog, we venture west, with our first Western RPG discussion, Obsidian's Medieval Murder Mystery game, Pentiment! The Bavarian village of Tassig and Kiersau Abbey play host to the lives of many people, including visiting artist Andreas Maler, who gets swept up in the murder of a valuable patron of the Abbey's Scriptorium. We discuss the nature of truth in history, the role of religion in the lives of people...

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It's time for a godcast, for real this time! We delve in to the TIPS, discuss the adaptations, and more. And of course, for all you witches out there, the spoiler section awaits.

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Now that we've hit the end of a When They Cry chapter, it's time for an after party! Join the characters as they discuss the story like usual - wait, what? WHAT?! HUH?!?!?

This week on Backlog Dialogues, the End of the Beginning.

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Everyone is dying! After Eva and Hideyoshi are found dead in a room sealed by a chain, Kanon gets killed in the boiler room, Kinzo's body is found, and tensions run high! As the storm rages, truth is washed away, leaving nothing but rubble and questions. Who was that mysterious person Battler saw as the clock struck midnight? The only answer we can hear are the sad cries of the seagulls...

This week on Backlog Dialogues, we once ag...

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Oh fuck, six people are dead! In the middle of the night, someone killed Krauss, Gohda, Rudolf, Kyrie, Rosa, and Shannon and dumped them in the shed, then painted a strange occult marking on the shed door! The baroque and grotesque murder mystery begins this week as Battler takes it on himself to question the people around him and try to prevent his Aunts from increasing the body count further now that Natsuhi has pulled Kinzo's fa...

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The Family Conference is disrupted by a strange event - Maria claims to have received an umbrella and a mysterious letter from a woman claiming to be the Golden Witch, Beatrice! The not-so-peaceful atmosphere of the island begins to roil as the typhoon blankets it, cutting it off from the world. Is there a 19th person on the Island, or does one of the 18 people have a secret?

This week on Backlog Dialogues, we get a bit paranoid.

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Our story begins by introducing a family. A family of rich assholes. Meet the Ushiromiyas, a family led by a domineering dilletante, Kinzo, and his four backstabbing offspring, Krauss, Eva, Rudolf, and Rosa. It's time for their annual family conference, and the four siblings are jockeying for money and power. But our hero, Battler, doesn't care about that, he just wants to catch up with his cousins Jessica, George, and Maria, and e...

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As Summer gives way to Autumn, so too do the melancholic cries of evening cicadas give way to the haunting cries of seagulls after a storm. The soundscapes are changing, but the discussions are not. Backlog Dialogues is back, and we're following up Higurashi by discussing Umineko When They Cry! In this episode, we reintroduce ourselves and what we're doing, and get the audience settled in for a cozy mystery on that old standby, the...

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We're still on break, but we are here with a bonus episode as a listener request, just in time for Watanagashi! Join us as we discuss the surprisingly good 2016 Live Action adaptation of Higurashi When They Cry, as well as the many difficulties we had in watching it that make it a hard recommendation anyway. Discussing Regional Idol Groups, Tokusatsu Stars, Prolific Character Actors, and roughly twenty minutes of yapping about othe...

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It's the season finale for Backlog Dialogues, and what better way to send off Saikoroshi than a Minilog about a game for true witches, Undertale. Join us as we discuss the many characters and endings of 2015's smash indie success and summon all our determination to see it through. Plus, bonus heresy as suitable for a minilog paired with Saikoroshi! Oh what fun.

This week on Backlog Dialogues, we take a look at ourselves in the mirr...

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Its the Maebara show, with our very special guest star, Hanyuu Furude! YAAAAAY! Its time to play the board games, its time for squirt gun fights, its time to meet the club mates on the Godcast show tonight! Its time to put on theories, its time to penalize, its time to raise the curses on the godcast show tonight "Why do we discuss it all here?" "i guess you need to know its like a kind of magic to talk about this show!" ...

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Rika has to make a choice, and the responsibility for that choice cannot burden anyone but herself. Will she kill her mother and return to the world she fought for, or will she live in this world and attempt to improve herself here? Is she a human, or a witch? Perhaps a certain orange haired street magician has the answers...

This week on Backlog Dialogues, we accept the world we are in, and bid farewell to witches.

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In her search for the fragment that prevents Hanyuu from finding her, Rika's depersonalization continues as she lashes out at Satoko for bullying her. Is this world real, or is the world she came from a fabrication of this world's Rika's sad mind? Rika consults Doctor Yamamoto, setting off a chain of events that leads to both the possibility of this world's Rika finding happiness but also a terrible truth that provides Bernkastel a...

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Rika has arrived at the 1983 of her dreams, and is riding high off the success. But in her arrogance, she fails to remember the important lessons from train safety PSAs and plays in traffic, finding herself in a nightmare bizarro Hinamizawa where no one likes her and Hanyuu isn't around. Can Rika find her way out of the labyrinth and back to her world again? It's time for the coda of Higurashi, Saikoroshi, and its far more introspe...

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For our penultimate Minilog for this season, we look in to one of the most impactful stories of adolescence anime has to offer. A coming of age tale about growing to become the best person you can be, about the people that change you as you grow and that you change in turn. A tale about the changes one experiences in their body as they grow.

A tale about being the most powerful psychic in the world, and how that doesn't make you sp...

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We've made it to the end - or have we? As we explore the many facets of Matsuribayashi's post story elements, as well as the anime and manga adaptations of the work, it becomes clear that Ryukishi07 still has a bit more to say in this idealistic fantasy world of his. So join for this penultimate Godcast as we prepare for one final voyage.

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