...wow.
I'm going to have to agree with many of the non-game players here, overall the series was amazing. Only Watanagashi failed to keep me on the edge of... well, the bed technically, I figured I'd love this one after Episode 4, and I did, and Tatarigoroshi is STILL one of my favourite arcs despite how much people complain about it. As for the supernatural element...well, I'll deal. I think it helps I've already read a certain visual novel which did pretty much the same thing with the whole 'keep trying until you get the right result' theme going on to soften it up for me, and Higurashi is handling it better than that did. Not exactly impressed with it, but if that's the limit I'll let it slide.
So, obviously, it had bad parts, which have pretty much been covered. The music was a huge disappointment overall (there were a few good tracks, but with the game's OST at hand it just added insult to injury. The Rena vs Keiichi theme was good but, surprise surprise, it was pretty much just a remix of Main Theme, which was the best track to start with
After finishing the series I just kinda stayed still for a bit then fired up ZERO followed by 彷徨いの言葉は天に導かれ and it worked wonders. Seriously Kenji, what were you doing? The animation was also crappy, and while I doubt they will go round fixing it for the DVDs I'm not giving up hope until the third comes out with the
ladder scene and proves me wrong. Sometimes it was really good (especially during the final crying scene with Rena, she looked so pretty there) but... yeah. Skipping stuff I can deal with, but I wouldn't have minded seeing the Rena/"Rika" scene at the dump. Oh well, they WERE short on time.
So basically, I loved it. This series will definitely go down on my favourites list and I'm looking forward to reading Minagoroshi when the patch is complete. Until then I'd rather try and work a few things out for myself rather than go on a self-spoiling rampage. That's just no fun
(oh and btw, for game players, when DID 彷徨いの言葉は天に導かれ play? It wasn't the fight was it? >_<)