This is for both the Question and Answer arcs;

I for the most part enjoyed Umineko, it's a very verbose VN (Think fate/stay night, 100+ hours) but stays entertaining and engaging through most of it. It's essentially a mystery VN that challenges you the reader to engage with it and continue thinking, and to avoid giving up and simply passively reading.
The game presents this as a battle between the MC and the witch Beatrice each fighting to solve the story as a solvable traditional mystery, or an unsolvable fantasy story. This energy is kept through the first four chapters (Question arcs) and will ask you to go back and re-read previous chapters after giving you the clues to solve it. The next four chapters (Answer arcs) give more hints and stop one stop from completely solving the mystery and themes of the story.
Like many people I found the back half to be overly long, with WAY too much focus on fantasy elements. There is a fun in parsing the meaning and intent of the first half's fantasy writing, but the back half just feels superfluous.
Overall, glad I read it and recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind working and engaging with a story like this. The manga is also a great option for the second reading, cutting much of the unnecessary dialogue. And get ready to ruminate on, "Without love, it cannot be seen.".

This is for both the Question and Answer arcs; I for the most part enjoyed Umineko, it's a very verbose VN (Think fate/stay night, 100+ hours) but stays entertaining and engaging through most of it. It's essentially a mystery VN that challenges you the reader to engage with it and continue thinking, and to avoid giving up and simply passively reading. The game presents this as a battle between the MC and the witch Beatrice each fighting to solve the story as a solvable traditional mystery, or an unsolvable fantasy story. This energy is kept through the first four chapters (Question arcs) and will ask you to go back and re-read previous chapters after giving you the clues to solve it. The next four chapters (Answer arcs) give more hints and stop one stop from completely solving the mystery and themes of the story. Like many people I found the back half to be overly long, with WAY too much focus on fantasy elements. There is a fun in parsing the meaning and intent of the first half's fantasy writing, but the back half just feels superfluous. Overall, glad I read it and recommend it to anyone who doesn't mind working and engaging with a story like this. The manga is also a great option for the second reading, cutting much of the unnecessary dialogue. And get ready to ruminate on, "Without love, it cannot be seen.".