When They Cry Rika's Story Game ScreenCap Preview

This is a screen shot from the PC computer fan-game I made.

To download to playtest:
higurashirpg.blogspot.com
Please leave comments if you do~

The game is 75% Visual Novel, 25% old-fashion rpg.  It uses mostly anime pictures but uses the story from the manga as well as original stories.

Story

At start of the game you begin with Akasaka on a undercover mission to rescue a kidnapped victim. On his journey he meets Rika, who seems to know what the future will hold. Rika is trying to find a way to break her fate by visiting the parallel versions of Hinamizawa, each will end with her death. In this game she mostly stands back and watch the events unfold since she lost hope of ever changing things. By playing through the chapters, she will learn that she has to keep fighting her fate.


Characters



Keiichi Maebara

Keiichi Maebara, a young boy who has recently moved to Hinamizawa with his family, and begun to adapt to life in the countryside. Keiichi has a natural charisma which allows him to make friends easily. Since Hinamizawa is a small town of about two thousand people, with only a single school, there are not many children around his own age; he easily meets the others his age and becomes friends with them.

Weapon: Baseball bat
Abilities: Skills


Rena Ryuugu

One of these good friends is a girl named Rena Ryuugu. She, like him, is new in Hinamizawa, having only returned from Ibaraki. She has an obsession with things she considers to be cute generally, others do not agree and she will often scavenge for such things at the local dump and bring them back home. Before she met Keiichi, Rena became friends with a girl one year older named Mion Sonozaki.

Weapon: Bill Hook Cleaver
Abilities: Becomes Powerful when in "Cute Mode"


Mion Sonozaki

Mion Sonozaki acts as the leader of the group and is the president of their club. Mion has a tomboyish personality, a facade for a girlish side she keeps hidden from the others. Mion has a twin sister, Shion, who lives in the nearby town of Okinomiya. Although their personalities are quite different, she and Mion have switched places in the past, and the change is nearly indistinguishable.

Weapon: Dual-Water Pistols
Abilities: Sonozaki Arsenal of weapons and defense

Satoko Hojo

A clever girl who is quite skilled at setting traps when playing games with her friends. She usually has an energetic and mischievous personality, but this hides a past full of trauma. Satoko also had an older brother named Satoshi.

Weapon: Skipping Rope Whip
Abilities: Traps!
Special: Gives friends ability to lure enemies into traps when in party.

Rika Furude

She is revered by the villagers as the heir of the local shrine and plays the role of a shrine maiden in the annual Watanagashi Festival. Despite her young age, she sometimes expresses a type of wisdom which would normally be beyond her years, and is quite fond of sake. Rika is also the girl who becomes the central figure, so that Hinamizawa can avoid a tragic end. Helping her is Hanyu though only Rika could see her.

Weapon: Knife
Abilities: Control Time

Mamoru Akasaka

He is a young police investigator of the National Security Forces. He befriended Rika while investigating a case in Hinamizawa four years ago, where he learns of a prophecy. He is likely Rika's best chance to break her fate.

Weapon: Martial Arts
Abilities: Martial Arts

Natsumi Kimiyoshi

Natsumi just arrived in Hinamizawa, she has to stay at a family friend's place till her mother got better after a nasty divorce. She has shrugged off the beliefs and culture of her ancestral home at Hinamizawa, as well as the warnings from her overly-superstitious grandmother. It does not take long till she is embroiled in Oyashiro's curse.

Weapon: Mother's Kitchen Knife
Abilities: Rituals

Shion Sonozaki

Mion has a twin sister, Shion, who lives in the nearby town of Okinomiya. Although their personalities are quite different, she and Mion have switched places in the past, and the change is nearly indistinguishable. Shion is able to use a wider range of weapons and skills.

Weapon: Tazer
Abilities: Sonozaki Arsenal of weapons and defense

Jirou Tomitake

Jirou Tomitake is a freelance photographer who occasionally visits Hinamizawa (Around three times every year). He gets along well with Miyo Takano, because of their similar interests in photography. Despite being only an occasional visitor, he seems to know a fair amount about Hinamizawa's past (Specifically the Hinamizawa murders).

Weapon: Martial Arts or Camera
Abilities: Powerful Transformation


Game Features


This game is mostly visual novel-based, there are some rpg intermissions to create extra depth and features for fans of the series. I am working with both the anime and manga, hand in hand, though I do have to leave some of the scenes out due to not meshing or too elaborate to redraw.
The game has a lot of hours of gameplay (about 6-7 so far), and covers character levels 1-11.
Currently the game contains seven story arcs and a free-play area.

Himatsubushi-hen (Time Killing Chapter)

Akasaka Mamoru , a young police investigator from Tokyo who comes to Hinamizawa in order to investigate a kidnapping of a politician's grandchild. Soon, he too becomes implicated in the mysteries of Hinamizawa.

Nekogoroshi-hen ( Cat-Killing Chapter)
After losing a bet, Keichi, Mion, Rena, Satoko and Rika parade around the town in costume. When they come to fork in the road they decide to go to Yagouchi a nearby village which was abandoned. Once there Keichi learns the mystery of strange haunted quarry there from Mion and Rika as they debate whether or not to check it out.

Hinageshi-hen (Poppy Flower Chapter)

All is not right in Hinamizawa when Mion returns from prep school finding her friends are acting weird to her. It is then that she discovers that this Watanagashi Festival will be her last.

Aoginozomi-hen (Reverence Chapter)

After the Watanagashi Festival, Oishi becomes suspicious that Natsumi was involved in the recent murders. Can she clear friends names or will she become the next victim of the curse?


Tsumihoroboshi-hen (Atonement Chapter) [2 Parts]

Rena discovers the true nature of her father's girlfriend Rina and forms a deep hatred for her. And while studying Takano's scrapbooks, Rena starts to unveil the truth behind Oyashiro-sama and Hinamizawa's dark past. To save everyone she has to take desperate measures.

Yakusamashi-hen (Disaster Awakening Chapter) (2 Endings)

Satoko notices Rika's odd behavior and hears her speaking of her inevitable murder; Rika denies Satoko's questions about it.

Hirukowashi-hen (Daybreak Chapter) (3 Parts)

One day, Rena accidentally swallows something in her mouth during her usual treasure hunting. According to Rika, the seal of the sacred "Fuwarazu Magatama" pairs were broken and Rena must have accidentally swallowed one of them. The magatama holds mysterious magical powers in which a person that has the red magatama will blindly fall in love with anyone with the white magatama.

Minagoroshi-hen (Massacre Chapter)

After completing certain tasks in the other chapters, this chapter opens up. It is told from the perspective of Rika Furude. Most notably, the true identity of the murderer is finally revealed in Minagoroshi-hen. After Minagoroshi-hen, one more effort is needed to seal the story into a good ending.