The Higurashi: When They Cry visual novel series is originally produced by the Japanese dōjin soft maker 07th Expansion, but features games produced in collaboration with Alchemist and Twilight Frontier. The games take place in the fictional Japanese town of Hinamizawa, and the stories revolve around a group of young friends and the strange events that occur in the village. The games have been released for Microsoft Windows PCs, the PlayStation 2, and the Nintendo DS handheld console. Higurashi no Naku Koro ni is a series of murder mystery visual novels that requires relatively little player interaction as most of the gameplay is composed of reading text which signifies either dialogue between characters or the inner thoughts of the protagonist who the player assumes. The games utilize intermissions where the player can obtain several TIPS which allow the player to read various supplementary information that may or may not be useful in solving the mystery.
