Umineko no Naku Koro ni (literally ‘When the Seagulls Cry‘) is a popular murder mystery sound novel created by the authors of the equally famous Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. The story takes place in the year 1986 at a small, secluded island named Rokkenjima, owned by the head of a wealthy family. After a typhoon traps a number of visiting family members on the island, strange and deadly events start occuring.

The English fan translation of Umineko no Naku Koro ni has become well-known for having received official sanction from the original creator, Ryukishi07 of the doujin circle 07th Expansion. Having even a character in one of the episodes named after the group, the Witch Hunt were able to strike a deal with HOBIBOX to make the Japanese game available in the West through DRM-free download.

Over the course of the project the Witch Hunt have kept a very tight release schedule, releasing the translation of each episode before the following episode was released in Japan. For the last episode it took a year time before the full translation was released, the deadline eventually having been set to December 31, as 07th Expansion had announced it would then release a booklet with solutions to some of the puzzles and mysteries.

The Witch Hunt has kept a track record of finishing their translations before the release of the next episode, so as to give fans a chance to read the game before discussions of the next chapter become widespread. No plans have been announced concerning the release schedule of the episode 8. The translation is released as a Windows installer, a Mac installer and a cross-platform zip archive. It is compatible both with the DVD version and the download version by HOBIBOX.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni (literally ‘When the Seagulls Cry‘) is a popular murder mystery sound novel created by the authors of the equally famous Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. The story takes place in the year 1986 at a small, secluded island named Rokkenjima, owned by the head of a wealthy family. After a typhoon traps a number of visiting family members on the island, strange and deadly events start occuring.

HOBIBOX have collaborated with 07th Expansion in the past to create a number of Higurashi audio drama CDs and mobile phone ports of the games, and they were responsible for creating the physical CD copies of MangaGamer’s Higurashi translation that were first made available at Anime Expo this year. The Witch Hunt has also had a special relationship with 07th Expansion, as the doujin group has publicly given full, official approval for their translation and even added a reference to the translation group in episode 4 of the game.

As is usual with games by 07th Expansion episode 4 also contains the first three episodes, while episode 6 includes both episode 5 and 6. Following episodes will be made available by HOBIBOX as their respective translation patches are released.

Ryukishi07 mentioned in his email that he was quite surprised that even people outside of Japan can now play his game and was very moved by the passion translators put into translating such a long piece into English. In closing, he mentioned that he will warmly watch over this endeavour and hope that everyone will continue to enjoy Umineko no Naku Koro ni. This is very likely the first time a Japanese game producer has given official approval to a fan translation of a non-free game (although game creators have given kudos to a fan translation before) and hopefully this will encourage future collaborations.

Please note that (as pointed out in the comments to this article) this does not mean Witch Hunt’s project is the official English localisation or that Witch Hunt is in any way affiliated or related to 07th Expansion; it is merely a translation project which has received approval and support from the original creator.