Twilight of the Golden Witch

Twilight of the Golden Witch
Developer07th Expansion
Publisher07th Expansion
Arc TypeAnswer
ReleasedDecember 31, 2010 (C79)
Word Count131,315 (~438 pages) (Trick Ending)
133,299 (~444 pages) (Magic Ending)[1]
Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chronology
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Umineko no Naku Koro ni Tsubasa

Twilight of the Golden Witch is the eighth arc of the Umineko no Naku Koro ni series as well as the fourth and final arc of Umineko no Naku Koro ni Chiru. The story follows Ange Ushiromiya as she is pulled between the whims of two Game Masters: BATTLER and Bernkastel.

Introduction

Plot

The story continues directly from the ???? of the previous game. BATTLER gives Ange Ushiromiya a golden key, telling her that she will have to make a choice at the end of his story.

The Halloween Party

BATTLER's tale opens with a Halloween Party attended by the entire Ushiromiya family and their servants. Most notably, a 6 year-old Ange Ushiromiya is present and plays the part of the protagonist for the duration of the party. Ange finds the entire experience to be incredibly off-putting due to how strange her family seems to be acting. Prior to the party, Ange was under the belief that Kinzo was a terrifying individual and that the Ushiromiya family was largely hostile towards one another. However, during the Halloween party, Kinzo greets everyone quite happily and the entire family gets along very well. The family even performs a gift exchange, something Ange had never seen the family do before. Ange becomes irritated with the inaccuracies in BATTLER's story but agrees to wait and see how it plays out. During the party itself, several characters pose riddles to Ange at her request. Ange wins a golden coin for each correct answer. After answering everyone's riddles, the party ends as Ange falls asleep on the couch. The rest of the family speak on Ange's future while Genji Ronoue carries Ange to bed in the parlor. BATTLER announces the start of the after-party, which is attended by the various supernatural beings that have appeared throughout Umineko no Naku Koro ni.

Shortly after the start of the after-party, Ange wakes up in the parlor. She sees a cat standing by an open window and follows it outside. When BATTLER learns that Ange has vanished, Bernkastel appears. She claims that she has found a way to serve as Game Master alongside BATTLER and challenges both BATTLER and Beatrice to a final game, promising to release Ange upon her loss.

The Final Game

Main article: Umineko no Naku Koro ni Timeline (final game)

The final game is a showdown between Bernkastel and the husband-wife team of BATTLER and Beatrice with Lambdadelta mediating. The final game is designed to be a simple mystery story, one completely devoid of any magical influence. The final game is bound by a set of rules:

  • The definition of 'culprit' is 'one who murders'.
  • It is possible for a culprit to lie.
  • It is possible for a culprit to lie even before committing murder.
  • Characters who are not culprits only speak the truth.
  • Characters who are not culprits may not cooperate with a culprit.
  • A culprit must carry out all murders directly, by their own hands.
  • A culprit must not die.
  • A culprit must be among the characters appearing in the story.
  • Purple statements are as absolute as red truths. However, the culprit alone may lie with purple statements.
  • The Reader will tell no lies. In other words, outside of spoken statements, there are no lies in the narration.
  • [Lambdadelta] guarantee[s] that it is possible to pinpoint the culprit with this information.

Upon correctly answering the final game, the 6-year-old Ange will be chased by Goats who relentlessly mock her as they give chase. She is saved by Erika Furudo and EVA-Beatrice. Bernkastel confronts the 18-year-old version of Ange and invites her to a place "better suited for drinking tea." The 18-year-old Ange returns to the study of Featherine Augustus Aurora, at Bernkastel's request. Bernkastel clarifies a fact that Ange hadn't yet realized; if BATTLER is Game Master and she is the challenger, then the two are opponents working towards opposite goals; BATTLER isn't trying to show Ange the truth but mislead her. Featherine presents Ange with a locked book, claiming it to be the diary of Eva Ushiromiya.

Ange returns to the after-party and confronts BATTLER for lying to her. She summons EVA-Beatrice and a litany of Goats swarm the island, each of whom represent one of countless theories formed about the Rokkenjima massacre. The humans retreat to the second floor of the mansion while the supernatural beings remain on the first floor to fight off the Goats. The witches and their furniture fight against the anti-mystery Goats while the Goats who are anti-fantasy are dealt with by Willard and Dlanor. Meanwhile, Beatrice opens a door to the Golden Land in Kinzo's study to serve as an escape route.

Ange breaks into the chapel to retrieve the Book of the Single Truth, the diary of 1998's Eva Ushiromiya. The diary is sealed inside a crystal, which Bernkastel melts. Using the key that BATTLER had given her, Ange unlocks and reads the diary. Upon learning the truth, Bernkastel takes Ange's key and Ange is returned to the moment in time frozen by Bernkastel during the ???? of Banquet of the Golden Witch and plummets from a skyscraper, refusing to acknowledge the truth as she falls.

Ange's bloodied form eventually returns to the Golden Land, where her family and the various supernatural beings had taken shelter. She reconciles with each of them and resolves to steal back the key that Bernkastel had taken. Lambdadelta uses her abilities to sneak both Ange and BATTLER into the City of Books, wherein Bernkastel is planning a massive party that culminates in the public opening of the Book of the Single Truth. The Golden Land's gates are met by a vast number of ships ferrying more Goats intent on destroying the Game Board. The ships are led by Erika Furudo. In a ploy to stall the ships' attack and allow BATTLER and Ange enough time to steal back the key, Beatrice negotiates with Erika, claiming that Lambdadelta had provided several "powerful friends" to aid against Erika's fleet. This successfully stalls Erika for some time, however Erika eventually sees through Beatrice's ruse and orders her fleet to destroy the Golden Land. This results in a war between the army of Goats and everyone hidden in the Golden Land. After breaching the Golden Land, the Goats are quickly overwhelmed by the attacks of various characters. Erika is forced to retreat after being attacked by Kinzo, Krauss, Rosa, Kyrie, Rudolf, and Dlanor. The Goats slowly break and destroy the Golden Land while Beatrice tracks down and duels Erika.

Meanwhile, Ange, BATTLER, and Lambdadelta search for the key among the City of Books. They are nearly found by Bernkastel, however Lambdadelta buys time by confronting Bernkastel herself, allowing Ange and BATTLER to reach the key while she does so. Lambdadelta and Bernkastel prove to be evenly matched despite their respective immense powers. The fight is interrupted by Featherine Augustus Aurora, who orders Bernkastel to fetch the key. Lambdadelta attacks Bernkastel before she can do so, leading Featherine to pause time and rewrite this part of the story so that Lambdadelta is killed, though she is unsure as to what should kill Lambdadelta, resulting in her leaving some details blank. When Featherine resumes time, Lambdadelta is immediately killed by an unknown force. Erika appears and informs Bernkastel of Beatrice's defeat and the total annihilation of the Golden Land. A triumphant Bernkastel kills BATTLER and attempts to kill Ange, however she is stopped by Ange's use of Endless Nine.

Using her powers as the Witch of Resurrection, Ange revives everyone who had perished in the Golden Land, as well as Lambdadelta. Featherine congratulates Ange on her victory. The revived BATTLER again gives Ange the golden key as two doors appear before her. Beatrice performs for Ange something similar to to what she had performed for Maria in previous arcs, wherein she produces a piece of candy after showing her empty hand. She asks Ange a question: Was it magic or a trick?

The Real World

Intermittently throughout the story is a side-story in the real world. An unknown person is found bleeding out on the highway by Ikuko Hachijo, who brings them back to her mansion. This person has suffered some brain damage, resulting in near-total memory loss. Ikuko gives them the temporary name "Tohya Hachijo" until they recover enough of their memory to remember their name.

Magic Ending

If Ange responds by saying Beatrice had performed magic, she opens one of the two doors. When Ange walks through the door, she is again returned to the point of time in the ???? of Banquet of the Golden Witch wherein she is about to jump from a skyscraper. She steps back from the ledge and sits on the roof of the skyscraper. The bodyguards who had been chasing her catch up and she asks them for a cell phone with which to call Tetsurou Okonogi. She gives him ownership of the Ushiromiya Group in exchange for organizing a fake death for her so that she may live in private as a writer. Ikuko Hachijo announces at the convention of Witch Hunters that she has changed her mind and Eva Ushiromiya's diary will not be made public.

On October 6, 1986, Battler and Beatrice stand in the ruins of the Japanese military base hidden on Rokkenjima. The two set off in a motorboat, taking a gold ingot with them. Beatrice asks Battler to close his eyes and kisses him. When he opens his eyes, Beatrice and the ingot are gone; Beatrice had jumped into the sea, using the ingot to weigh her down. Battler jumps after her and the two sink towards the depths of the ocean.

Trick Ending

If Ange responds by saying Beatrice had performed a trick, she opens one of the two doors. When Ange walks through the door, she is returned to the point in time following the Tea Party of Dawn of the Golden Witch wherein she is on Captain Kawabata's boat en route to Rokkenjima. Depending on how the player answered the questions in the Halloween party, Ange throws either a doll of Beatrice or a can of mackerel into the ocean. She turns to Juuza Amakusa and openly speculates that the uninhabited Rokkenjima would serve as a perfect closed room both for Tetsurou Okonogi to wrestle control of the Ushiromiya Group and for the Sumadera family to quietly eliminate Kasumi Sumadera; she believes that the Sumadera family is going to ambush and kill her on the island and Amakusa would then kill the Sumadera's hitmen and Kasumi herself, making it seem as though both sides had managed to take each other out. Ange evidences this by informing Amakusa that she had looked through his bag of guns, questioning him on why he had brought a sniper rifle and an old handgun. She reveals that she had taken the handgun herself and shoots both Amakusa and Kawabata, killing them. Erika appears alongside her as Ange vows to carve out her own future.

Characters

The Ushiromiya Family

Servants

Witches and Demons

Other

Media

Chapters

Volumes

Trivia

  • Like Matsuribayashi-hen, the final arc of Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, Twilight is the only arc in Umineko no Naku Koro ni that allows for player choice:
    • During the Halloween party, the player chooses which slice of cake Ange takes. This is, truthfully, a false choice as the slice that the player chooses will always have a winning almond in it.
    • Similarly, the player is responsible for choosing which answer Ange picks during the quizzes at the Halloween party. The overall story plays out the same regardless of whether the player guesses correctly or not, however each character who poses a quiz to Ange has a scene wherein they discuss Ange and the story of Umineko as a whole that is only seen if a correct answer is given.
      • Correctly answering every question results in Kinzo placing a doll of Beatrice by Ange when she falls asleep at the end of the Halloween party. He gives her the doll again at the climax, right before she walks through one of the two doors determining the ending. If even one question is answered incorrectly, Kinzo instead gives Ange a can of mackerel bearing Kumasawa's face at both of the previously mentioned points of the plot. This has no impact on the story.
    • The player has to choose the correct culprit for the final game in order to continue the story.
    • The player is given the option to choose between one of two endings at the story's climax.
  • Kyrie and Rudolf's riddles during the Halloween party mention 3 girls, Miyoko, Satoko and Rika, all of whom are characters in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.

Notes

  1. ^ Listed word count does not include TIPS.

See also

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