I think I generally said what I thought about each episode as I went through them so this won't be that interesting, but alright.
EPISODE 1Before all the magic and metaworlds and such are introduced Umineko is just a pretty boring mystery. Part of my disinterest may be because I'd already seen the anime, and for this point in the story I honestly think the anime functions better because it doesn't have to worry about metagame aspects yet and that's when it get ridiculous to keep all the details and animate all the stupid things that happen. None of the characters stood out yet, and the character that got the most focus besides Battler was Natsuhi who sucked until EP5.
The first day is boring as hell and I skipped through most of it. I understand the necessity of introducing every character but there's fu
cking 18 of them and none of them made a difference until they actually did things later on. All I remember of the second day is the first two twilights, Battler arguing with Eva about...something, I can't remember what the mystery was there, and the scene with System 0 when Natsuhi flips out. Without the metagame I didn't really give a sh
it.
Standout tracks are Goldenslaughterer, System 0, Bring the Fate, Dead Angle, and Nighteyes, and I guess Prison STRIP. None of them play until the second day, almost all the other tracks are sh
it albeit they generally do their job in terms of creating atmosphere.
EPISODE 2BEATO
Most important addition there. Since this episode had some sh
itty characters as the focus everyone still sucked except Beatrice and Battler now that the game had really started. Well, Rosa was awesome too, eventually. That's all that puts it over EP1, if you take that and the magic out its even sh
ittier.
The metagame's pretty weak at this point,
Battler is incompetent so its entirely onesided. The arguments aren't very good, it's just fun because Beatrice is such an evil bi
tch.
The magic explanations were pretty cool and new at the time albeit they're entirely overshadowed by everything in the future. Biggest standout moment is the very end with the banquet and Rosa beating up goats. Other than that there was, like, Kanon vs one of the Stakes in the worst fight in the series. There must've also been something else because I know Shannon did something but I can't remember what it was at all so that might have been worse.
Standout tracks are Worldend Dominator, Black Lilliana, and Answer. Less than EP1, but it had WORLDEND DOMINATOR and the general quality is up, so that's okay.
EPISODE 3This is really where the story sort of manages to settle in to what it ends up becoming later. EP3 and after feel like they have a very different tone than EP1 and EP2. Whereas the first two episodes were effectively mysteries with some horror elements, EP3 became very fantastical and absurd. After the first mystery with the chain of closed rooms, which is actually one of the more clever ones, there isn't really a mystery any more until the last murder. (Speaking of which I can't remember what the explanation there was. Eva already found the gold so "Beatrice" shouldn't have killed him, and as I recall Eva couldn't have done it.) The rest of the episode is all about Eva-Beatrice being crazy and other people being awesome in combating her, and it's great.
Since I am forced to say something about Eva-Beatrice, and I would anyways since she made this episode, I can just point back to what I said before. Everyone that faces her looks like a total badass, so as a villain, she succeeds fantastically. Also her facial expressions are fu
cking hilarious. As a character herself, I didn't like her much. You'd think I would because I like all the other horrible insane people in this story, but nope. I think the main reason is her particularly childish sort of insanity is something I don't really care for.
Ronove and Virgilia were very helpful additions for adding some character interactions during the metagame and making it more fun to read. Ronove was definitely one of the cooler characters at the time, and it's too bad he never really did anything except chill in metaworld and beat the sh
it out of Jessica. Virgilia got the same sort of treatment as Ronove after this episode where she was always on the sidelines except for her one part in EP4, but the magic fight in this episode was very cool. It pretty much marked the turning point from the feel of previous episodes to everything after. It also led into the introduction of the Braun tube concept so that all this sh
it sort of made more sense. And then of course Beato was amazing in this episode the entire way through, and the ending was glorious.
Standout tracks are Fake Red Shoes, Mother, Happiness of Marionette, Dance of the Moon Rabbits, Prison, Thanks for Being Born, Tsubasa, Paradise Lost, activepain, and I think miragecoordinator first played in the Tea Party but I can't remember for sure. So that's a load more than the last two episodes, even 4 of them are basically Happiness of Marionette variants. I think EP4 has more.
