Port Higurashi mobile exclusive arcs to modern platforms.ケータイ限定「ひぐらし」作品贄捜し編と心崩し編の移植をお願いします
Port Higurashi mobile exclusive arcs to modern platforms.ケータイ限定「ひぐらし」作品贄捜し編と心崩し編の移植をお願いします
The Issue
What is Higurashi?
Higurashi When They Cry (ひぐらしのなく頃に Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, lit. When the Cicadas Cry), or Higurashi for short, is a murder mystery visual novel that was first released on PC about two decades ago. It was divided into 8 chapters, also known as arcs, which were about 10 hours worth of content each. Many extra arcs have been released since then in various forms. A popular anime adaptation was released shortly after its initial release in Japan. From 2020 to 2022, multiple sequel entries in different mediums were released, renewing interests in the series.
What are the mobile phone exclusive arcs of Higurashi?
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ひぐらしのなく頃に_(携帯電話アプリ)
During the airing of the original anime series in 2006 and 2007, numerous Higurashi contents were released in Japan on mobile phone services i-mode (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-mode EZweb (https://segaretro.org/EZweb and Yahoo! Keitai (https://segaretro.org/Yahoo!_Keitai
https://web.archive.org/web/20101124143844/http://contents.dwango.jp/games/higurashi/
Contents from dwango were released as part of their collection named 携帯ゲーム百選 (100 selections of mobile games). The most notable of them are Niesagashi-hen (贄捜し編, lit. Sacrifice Searching Chapter) and Kokorokuzushi-hen (心崩し編, lit. Heart Breaking Chapter), two visual novel story arcs exclusive to these mobile phone services. They feature new characters based on the artstyle of the animation and stories supplementary to the main story.
The following image shows 3 of the exclusive characters in the arcs (top right, bottom left, and bottom right).
Gameplay footage of Niesagashi-hen can be watched here: https://youtu.be/UgxM_fbq7XE
Why port these arcs to modern platforms?
These contents have never been released outside of the aforementioned mobile phone services mostly exclusive to Japan. What is worse is that these services are getting shut down as time goes on. The store of i-mode has been shut down in late 2021 and the service will end altogether in 2026.
https://twitter.com/gamepresintl/status/1465698006154772480
If actions aren’t taken soon, these valuable contents might forever be lost in time. For this reason, it would be great if the two story arcs exclusive to old cell phones can be ported to either PC, modern cell phones, or video game consoles in some shape and form. It would be great to preserve them in this way so that they can become accessible to people once again, regardless of whether they are getting translated into English at first.
How can you help?
On October 23, 2022, Ryukishi07, the author of the series, was asked during an event on whether it is possible to release those two arcs on modern cell phone platforms. He answered that the copyright of the contents is owned by DWANGO and the matter all depends on them. Coincidentally, DWANGO is currently a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, which is conveniently involved with the relatively recent Higurashi works, the Gou-Sotsu animation and the Gou-Meguri manga.
In order to convince the companies that these contents can gather enough interest and will sell well if people have a way to access them, please sign this petition and show your support! You can also help us by spreading the word via social media, Discord, or really any other means of your choice. Try to get creative (i.e drawing artwork, making videos, etc.)! If you have any ideas at all on how to spread the word or convince people to sign this, feel free to let us know! We're always open to suggestions.
Luckily, awareness for the preservation of old Japanese mobile phone games, especially those related to services like i-mode, has been increasing recently. There is even a company that has been remaking i-mode games on Switch and PC, including some from other parties.
https://gmodecorp.com/gmodearchives/
If the companies that made the games and those that participate in remaking these types of contents see a lot of support for this petition, they may be swayed to actually re-release those contents in some way, or at least be encouraged to do something about them. Every single signature matters and counts towards something, whether you believe it or not. If you're even remotely interested in visual novels or seeing more old mobile phone contents being preserved in general, we implore you to sign this!
Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpCicada
Our Discord server: https://discord.gg/6gtKUjS
141
The Issue
What is Higurashi?
Higurashi When They Cry (ひぐらしのなく頃に Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, lit. When the Cicadas Cry), or Higurashi for short, is a murder mystery visual novel that was first released on PC about two decades ago. It was divided into 8 chapters, also known as arcs, which were about 10 hours worth of content each. Many extra arcs have been released since then in various forms. A popular anime adaptation was released shortly after its initial release in Japan. From 2020 to 2022, multiple sequel entries in different mediums were released, renewing interests in the series.
What are the mobile phone exclusive arcs of Higurashi?
https://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/ひぐらしのなく頃に_(携帯電話アプリ)
During the airing of the original anime series in 2006 and 2007, numerous Higurashi contents were released in Japan on mobile phone services i-mode (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I-mode EZweb (https://segaretro.org/EZweb and Yahoo! Keitai (https://segaretro.org/Yahoo!_Keitai
https://web.archive.org/web/20101124143844/http://contents.dwango.jp/games/higurashi/
Contents from dwango were released as part of their collection named 携帯ゲーム百選 (100 selections of mobile games). The most notable of them are Niesagashi-hen (贄捜し編, lit. Sacrifice Searching Chapter) and Kokorokuzushi-hen (心崩し編, lit. Heart Breaking Chapter), two visual novel story arcs exclusive to these mobile phone services. They feature new characters based on the artstyle of the animation and stories supplementary to the main story.
The following image shows 3 of the exclusive characters in the arcs (top right, bottom left, and bottom right).
Gameplay footage of Niesagashi-hen can be watched here: https://youtu.be/UgxM_fbq7XE
Why port these arcs to modern platforms?
These contents have never been released outside of the aforementioned mobile phone services mostly exclusive to Japan. What is worse is that these services are getting shut down as time goes on. The store of i-mode has been shut down in late 2021 and the service will end altogether in 2026.
https://twitter.com/gamepresintl/status/1465698006154772480
If actions aren’t taken soon, these valuable contents might forever be lost in time. For this reason, it would be great if the two story arcs exclusive to old cell phones can be ported to either PC, modern cell phones, or video game consoles in some shape and form. It would be great to preserve them in this way so that they can become accessible to people once again, regardless of whether they are getting translated into English at first.
How can you help?
On October 23, 2022, Ryukishi07, the author of the series, was asked during an event on whether it is possible to release those two arcs on modern cell phone platforms. He answered that the copyright of the contents is owned by DWANGO and the matter all depends on them. Coincidentally, DWANGO is currently a subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, which is conveniently involved with the relatively recent Higurashi works, the Gou-Sotsu animation and the Gou-Meguri manga.
In order to convince the companies that these contents can gather enough interest and will sell well if people have a way to access them, please sign this petition and show your support! You can also help us by spreading the word via social media, Discord, or really any other means of your choice. Try to get creative (i.e drawing artwork, making videos, etc.)! If you have any ideas at all on how to spread the word or convince people to sign this, feel free to let us know! We're always open to suggestions.
Luckily, awareness for the preservation of old Japanese mobile phone games, especially those related to services like i-mode, has been increasing recently. There is even a company that has been remaking i-mode games on Switch and PC, including some from other parties.
https://gmodecorp.com/gmodearchives/
If the companies that made the games and those that participate in remaking these types of contents see a lot of support for this petition, they may be swayed to actually re-release those contents in some way, or at least be encouraged to do something about them. Every single signature matters and counts towards something, whether you believe it or not. If you're even remotely interested in visual novels or seeing more old mobile phone contents being preserved in general, we implore you to sign this!
Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/OpCicada
Our Discord server: https://discord.gg/6gtKUjS
141
The Decision Makers
Supporter Voices
Petition created on October 24, 2022