Game or Manga?

[Rutana]

Hey, maybe some of you could give me an advice :)
After I saw a review of the Anime, I got pretty interested in Higurashi and already thought about getting the Mangas (since the Anime adaptation doesn't seem that good... XD), but now thanks to the Steam Sale for Anime Games, I wonder what's better to start the series with - Manga or Visual Novel?
Both seem to have their advantages (Manga = all available, Game = seems to be a lot cheaper in the long run), and I have a hard time to decide.
Any suggestions?

[The Light Of Dawn]

I'd say start with the Vn. It's about 6- 10 hours long and it has some nice music (IMO).
Also, the anime is piss poor compared to the game and the manga.

[Ohagi-Chan]

The manga will be quicker to finish, both because of the time it takes to read each arc and because the entirety is already available.
It is less detailed plotwise and dialogue-wise than the visual novel but you won't miss any clues that were more obvious in the visual novel (99% of the time).

The manga has a very nice visual style that captures the mood as best it can without accompanying music, which puts it on roughly the same level as the visual novel, which for the most part has to rely entirely on sound to capture the mood (hence "sound novel"). Personally I found that the mood was even more potent in the manga on very rare occasions.

A major difference is the price, you'll end up paying something like $80USD for the entire VN series on Steam, which will be finished in a few years (a good pace if you rarely have time to read).
The manga will end up costing you something akin to $150USD for the entire set, it has one additional arc "Onisareshi-hen" which is not available in any other format, but there are four products that are queued for steam release that do not have a manga counterpart.

Forgive me if the prices are wrong, I based them on what I'd pay, living in New Zealand, buying them on Google Play.

Between the three formats, the manga has the greatest level of graphic gore and violence, but still slightly pales in comparison to the VN for capturing themes of Hysteria. Family values are about the same between the two, mayne slightly stronger in the VN. These are some of the major themes of the series, so weighting their importance should be considered.

[Veltharis]

It really just comes down to how long you are willing to wait versus how much money you are willing to spend. For the purest experience, I'd say try the first VN to see how it matches up to your expectations. Assuming it does, you'll then need to decide whether you can wait patiently for the later chapters (i.e. stick with the VNs) or want to power straight through the entire story at once (i.e. go with the manga).

As someone with a full collection of the manga, though, I'm inclined to say get both though...

[Rutana]

Thank you so much for the answers :)
I will get the first VN within the sale then, and check it out first.
Again, thank you so much! You really helped me out ^.^

[Davilis]

I'm an insane Higurashi fan, and I can wholeheartedly recommend both. Alternatively to getting the steam version of the VN, you could look into getting the older (and admitedly less pretty) version of the VN. That way you'd have the complete AND detailed iteration of the series as it stands now.

Also, I thought the Higurashi anime was pretty good. Art was certainly not the strong suit (*cough*DEEN*cough*), but it was still fantastic.

[Ohagi-Chan]

Well they *could* go looking for that, but I'm not certain of where you can still get that old game.
Besides that, most people find the gramatical and spelling errors of the first half to be very off puttng.

I remember thinking something along the lines of "There's a mistake at least once every ten minutes".
Considering how many ten-minutes passed before the stories ended, there were plenty of opportunities to become less invested in the story. It was of course, a good story regardless.

[CrimsonRose29]

I ,myself, just started the visual Novel and to my delight, things are starting to get creepy.
As for the anime, I wouldn't totally discredit it without trying it out.
I agree with one of the posters that the art is a bit lacking , but overall the series was really good.
So good that it motivated me to read the VN .
To answer your question, both the Manga and anime are based off the visual novel. So if you want the full original experience , I would recommend the VN over the Manga adaption

[Loli Hunter]

"since the Anime adaptation doesn't seem that good"
if it wasn't that good it would not have gotten an 8.2 score on "MyAnimeList". Even good animes rarely get much over 8 there. Anime is fantastic and for me personally it's always more fun watching animated characters and hearing their voices instead of just reading. Sure the art of the 1st season is kinda dodgy but I actually liked it. The art gets way better at season 2 and on further ovas

[kilicool64]

Originally posted by ╬ PzKpfw VI Tiger ausf. H1:

"since the Anime adaptation doesn't seem that good"
if it wasn't that good it would not have gotten an 8.2 score on "MyAnimeList". Even good animes rarely get much over 8 there. Anime is fantastic and for me personally it's always more fun watching animated characters and hearing their voices instead of just reading. Sure the art of the 1st season is kinda dodgy but I actually liked it. The art gets way better at season 2 and on further ovas

How many of the people who voted for the anime there have read the VN though? Chances are many of them don't even know of its existence. General consensus among those who dislike the anime seems to be that it would be decent if judged on its own, but really pales compared to its source material.

[Undying Zombie]

I will be honest I have not read much of the manga. I would say the VNs but like I said.. Have not read much of the manga..

Also those that claim the anime adaptation was not that good is full of it. Its one of the better anime versions of vns/manga I have seen.

You should try Tsukihime. Almost no one is willing to even accept that the anime exists. Its bad, though its not as bad as people act.. But it is bad. The worst I have seen adaptation wise.

[Davilis]

Originally posted by Undying Zombie:

I will be honest I have not read much of the manga. I would say the VNs but like I said.. Have not read much of the manga..

Also those that claim the anime adaptation was not that good is full of it. Its one of the better anime versions of vns/manga I have seen.

You should try Tsukihime. Almost no one is willing to even accept that the anime exists. Its bad, though its not as bad as people act.. But it is bad. The worst I have seen adaptation wise.

Tsukihime anime? No such thing.