Please read the
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni wikipedia article that has been made before you ask questions. I made the the wikipedia article as detailed as I can which may answer your questions beforehand.
Brief rundown of the arcs and chapters in sequential order for quick reference in the future:
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni ("Question" arc)- Onikakushi-hen
- Watanagashi-hen
- Tatarigoroshi-hen
- Himatsubushi-hen
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Kai ("Answer" arc)- Meakashi-hen
- Tsumihoroboshi-hen (the TV anime will go up to here)
- Minagoroshi-hen
- Matsuribayashi-hen
EDIT: Also, I'm going to try to keep this FAQ section as clean as possible, so I will be moving some irrelevant posts to the correct thread and what not from time to time.
EDIT2:
Please do not ask incessant questions regarding the availability of an English patch of the original doujin game version of
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni. Questions like these pop up everytime an anime based on a game comes along, and the answer is the same all over: little to no one in the English speaking world had an interest in this game before it aired, so there exists no such thing.
By the time it does get translated several months from now, there will be another game-based anime that will come along and people ask the same question again for that title. By that time, people would've already finished watching the other show and they'll lose interest. I can already forsee people saying the exact same question when
Tsuyokiss or
Yoake Mae Yori Ruri Iro Na starts airing. It's the same cycle over and over.
If you want to play the game, BUY it and play through it with a Japanese dictionary on hand. Besides,
Higurashi no Naku Koro ni isn't that expensive like an ero-game or consumer game anyway. If you can spare 1500 yen (plus shipping) you can get the whole question arc (Onikakushi-hen~Himatsubushi-hen) in one disc. And if you can spare another 1000 yen (plus shipping), you can get the answer arc that is out right now (Meakashi-hen~Minagoroshi-hen) in one disc as well.