Umineko no naku koro ni

If the "When They Cry" title sounds familiar, then you probably know about Higurashi no naku koro ni - similar name format, right? Same author!
Literally "Umineko no naku koro ni" means "When the Seacats Cry"-er, I mean, "When the Seagulls Cry"
(Higurashi no naku koro ni means "When the Cicadas Cry")
If you're familiar with Higurashi, either the anime/manga or VN, then you should know more or less what to expect from Umineko - a fair number of gruesome deaths.

Technically speaking, neither Higurashi nor Umineko is a Visual Novel (VN), although lots of people refer to it that way, especially in abbreviation, because they're actually a new type of media, called a Sound Novel.
Unlike most VNs, where the player exists inside the game and can make choices in actions and speech, in SNs, the player is outside the story (for the most part, depending on how you perceive certain scenes, I suppose), but as readers, we still have a responsibility to stay alert!
See, in Umineko, the game is one played between the writer and the reader - we must determine which parts of what we've been shown are accurate, and somehow draw out the truth at the core.
It's certainly possible to sit back and let Umineko take you on a ride, but if you stop thinking you'll probably become confused and/or frustrated.
Umineko is a challenge - will you accept it?

Now, I know many Western fans of 2D works are often limited to the adaptations of many stories since the originals are either not translated officially (or even unofficially sometimes) - media like light novels and VNs are probably the least translated (along with regular novels, naturally) due to high amount of text compared to media like manga. A series with high popularity has a chance of being translated (I believe the Haruhi light novels are being translated, currently?) but medium or low popularity series leaves the non-Japanese-speaking fanbase high and dry.
Fear not! If you watched Umineko and went "uh.... what the hell?!" then I would urge you to check out the original work - the Sound Novel - which our friends at the Witch Hunt continue to diligently translate each time a new Episode comes out.
The patch system they use, and their translation, has even been given the author's blessing
All you need is a copy of the game, easily and inexpensively purchased from a fine retailer such as amiami (link is for Episodes 1-4 to get you started) and the patch from Witch Hunt and you're all set to go!

Now that you're all set to play, what should you expect?

The screen you're greeted with upon starting.

The Episode 4 DVD contains Episodes 1-4 - each Episode is a whole game in and of itself.
You would be wise to play them IN ORDER otherwise you will be VERY confused, I promise you.

Witch Hunt has thoughtfully included a feature that helps non-Japanese speakers catch some difficult to translate nuances from the original Japanese.
With Umineko, it's all about the details, so this is a smart addition on their part.

Yes, Umineko is a fictional story....

But the building you see here actually exists in Kyu-Furukawa Gardens in Tokyo, even though the story is set on a fictional island near Nijima, in the Izu Islands.

WTC wouldn't be complete without a creepy loli character...

Welcome to Rokkenjima >D

After you make it through the prologue, you're treated to an opening movie:

The 'gameplay' style of Umineko is unlike anything I'd seen before, probably due to the massive amount of text the story contains, making it more like a novel with some pictures and awesome music than a VN where the focus is on the art.
It might seem a little awkward at first, and certainly the prologue is not quite as gripping as it might be (starting the story off with three old guys talking about alcohol and chess? oh Ryuukishi, where's your fanservice?) but I found the format fitting for the content.

I won't lie, Episode 1 starts out pretty slowly, and if you're hoping for people just hurry up and get murdered already you're in for a long wait - I don't think anyone gets bumped off until at least halfway through, but this is something important that the anime left out:
Why should we care about anyone in this massive cast (that only gets more massive with each Episode...)?
Why would we care if any of them died at all? They're just people we don't even have time to memorize the names of before someone bashes their faces in, as far as the anime is concerned.
The Sound Novel takes the time to let us get to know a little bit about each character in turn, so that it starts to feel like they might be part of our own family.
(Also, Battler comes across as twice the idiot in the anime (I mean, okay he's incompetent, but this seems magnified because of the nature of the media XD;), poor guy.)

Episode 2 is really where the plot picks up, but if you haven't read Episode 1 you'll be utterly lost, so you really can't skip ahead.
I'm not a horror connoisseur, but I got thoroughly creeped out by the atmosphere to the point where I couldn't bring myself to leave my desk in the middle of the night o_o; but I persevered! even though I generally dislike being scared XD;

The SN gives the reader a much greater understanding of what's going on, and is full of little important details that never made it into the anime - which, although people give DEEN the blame, is really mostly due to Umineko being a massive work: Episodes 1 through 4 get progressively longer.

Now, another reason to go the SN route is to get a jump on the conclusion of the story (an anime series that may or may not even be made). Episodes 5 and 6 are both completely translated as of right now, and Episode 7 will be released in Japanese at this summer's Comiket in August. WH will probably finish translating that before Episode 8 (largely thought to be the final episode) comes out at the end of December if they have time, but don't take that as a promise! ^^;

It's a little hard for me to properly explain this series without giving huge spoilers, so I'll just note a few of my favorite aspects of the series and the subsequent fandom:

• the music. ohmygod THE MUSIC. The bgm for Umineko is simply amazing and I won't lie - if it hadn't been so ridiculously good I probably wouldn'tve stuck with the series. Between setting the mood and just being generally awesome, it's worth the read just for that.
  
• the discussions that are sparked by the ambiguity and puzzles inherent in the story. I frequent the animesuki Umineko subforum to read (and sometimes contribute) to the latest theories and speculations that have appeared as new Episodes are released.
  
• Umineko will change the way you view the world. okay, maybe that's a little dramatic, but it's definitely altered my perception of things both real and fictional and I think it would be difficult to not feel even a small shift in your thought processes as a result of this story.

I really recommend you check it out, whether you've watched the anime/read the manga or not.
If you have any questions about the series, please feel free to ask.
But please don't ask me how to obtain the software illegally. For $28 you get four book-length Episodes - I'd say that's a pretty good deal.

これはちょっとながいですから、後で訳します。トピックは「うみねこのなく頃に」とその英訳です。「うみねこ」がまだ知らないなら、wikipediaを使わないほうがいいですよ。ネタばれがいっぱいあるかもしれません－＿－；
つまり、「うみねこ」が大好きです！ぜひ、ぜひ読んでみて下さいね！