Hou's ready to revisit Hinamizawa?

“Welcome back!” —Rena

Terrible pun in the title aside, I'm back, Rena's back, and so are you (we hope).

It's been a while since I last posted, but there's some great Higurashi news to share!

First are new details on the upcoming release Higurashi When They Cry Hou. As most of you probably know, 07th Expansion first released Higurashi back in 2002, before moving onto Umineko When They Cry, Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni and Rose Guns Days. Now, 12 years later, you will be able to get your hands on a new instalment in the series.

Higurashi Hou combines re-releases of the previous entries in the series with new stories. Here are the full contents:

• Question arcs "Higurashi When They Cry (Onikakushi-hen, Watanagashi-hen, Tatarigoroshi-hen, Himatsubushi-hen)"
• Answer arcs "Higurashi When They Cry Kai (Meakashi-hen, Tsumihoroboshi-hen, Minagoroshi-hen, Matsuribayashi-hen)"
• Fan disc "Higurashi When They Cry Rei (Saikoroshi-hen, Hirukowashi-hen, Batsukoishi-hen)"
• All the original extras and minigames
• Sound novel version of Higurashi Outbreak, a story which was originally included with the first press limited edition version of the soundtrack to Twilight Frontier's Higurashi Daybreak.
• A brand new story: Higurashi Outbreak ~Kamikanshi-hen~
• Sound novel version of Hinamizawa Bus Stop, the original playscript prototype for Higurashi When They Cry

As you can see, that's a lot of content, which is evident by the fact that it comes on two DVDs!

Higurashi When They Cry Hou will be released on 17th August at Japan's Comiket Market. The official website is now up, and you can already preorder this release from AmiAmi. There are only limited quantities, so be quick!

(Note: Higurashi Hou is only available in Japanese. There are no plans to release a translation at this time, official or otherwise.)

Onto the second piece of news…

Yesterday (3rd July) marked the start of Anime Expo, a big… anime expo in Los Angeles. Attended by all the big players in the anime industry, I'm surely not the only one who considers it the E3 of anime, and by extension, visual novels!

Visual novel publishers JAST USA, MangaGamer and Sekai Project each held panels showcasing their upcoming releases and making exciting new announcements.

The one announcement that is relevant to this blog came from MangaGamer, and concerns their upcoming Steam release of Higurashi. A while back, it was announced that it will feature a completely new translation. Well, that's not all that's new!

MangaGamer announced that this Steam release will feature completely new sprites drawn by artist Kurosaki from visual novel studio Caramel-Box!

I'm sure a lot of you will agree with me when I say the artwork looks absolutely kaii~. Full details currently aren't confirmed, but those who wish to play Higurashi using the original sprites will also be catered for.

Higurashi will be released episodically on Steam, expected to start later this year.

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That's all the 07th Expansion news. …For now, anyway. Spider Lily Translations will have some announcements to make in the coming months, so stay tuned to our blog.

Also, do check out the other great Anime Expo announcements from JAST USA, MangaGamer and Sekai Project. There are some good ones, including a Steam release of Key's kinetic novel Planetarian (I know, we can't believe it either!).

We would also like to draw your attention to Sekai Project's Kickstarter projects for Steam releases of two awesome visual novels: WORLD END ECONOMiCA -Complete- and fault milestone one -director's cut-.

I think that's all for today. Until next time~

The unforgiving flowers have bloomed… The Second Night patch and digital downloads are out!

Over two years since Ronove made that first introductory blog post, the project has finally reached completion. Yes, that's right. It's been a long time coming, but Higanbana - The Second Night can now be enjoyed in English with our translation patch, available to download from our homepage.

Not only that, but the original Japanese versions required to play Higanbana are now available as digital downloads from MangaGamer.com! A lot of effort has been put into making these games available for you all, so please check out the product pages for The First Night and The Second Night!

I'd like to thank everyone who has been a part of this project, from the translators to the beta testers. Big thanks also go to those of you who have supported us on this long journey. We have completed our mission and are happy to be able to call it a job well done.

Even so, we are aware that although we pride ourselves on the high quality of our releases, there is still room for improvement. Therefore, if you do encounter any problems (bugs, typos, etc.), please let us know in the comments or via our email address below so that we can address these in future versions of our translation.

contact (AT) spiderlilytranslations (DOT) com

For now though, please enjoy Higanbana - The Second Night!

Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni trial

Hello again,

Spider Lily Translations are proud to announce that the free trial version of Higanbana no Saku Yoru ni is now available in English!

The trial features the first three chapters of The First Night, which will offer you a couple of hours' worth of content to help you decide whether you wish to purchase the full version.

Speaking of purchasing, we realise it's not easy for those living outside of Japan to acquire copies of Higanbana. Therefore, we are currently working on providing a simpler means to do so. We'll have more news on this in the coming weeks.

As for The Second Night, we are very nearly ready to release our translation patch and are still hoping to do so by the end of next month.

For the moment though, we hope those who haven't yet experienced Higanbana will enjoy reading the free trial version, now available from our homepage.