Backlog Dialogues

For our Minilog this week, we're covering a truly strange Weird Japanese Thing series, Migi and Dali! We follow the Titular Twins as they pretend to be the same person while investigating the death of their mother in a tale about revenge, forgiveness, individuality, and some extremely strange methods of child rearing. It's got everything you could want - strange maybe demon children, strange maybe demon parents, good dogs, a kid th...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...