Seeing as how most people reading this are probably already familiar with Ougon and want to know what's special about the Steam version, here's me:

• The rollback netcode in Golden Fantasia is vastly improved over the original Japanese release; I've been able to play cross-coast and cross-continent matches with hardly any issues at all. After the most recent patches, playing with friends, either in the US or abroad, has given me zero issues. The old rule of "play within your coast or don't play at all" no longer applies.
  
• The translation, which is provided in part by the Umineko translation group Witch Hunt[witch-hunt.com], is serviceable; everything you'd expect to be translated is present, including the UI, story mode, tracklist, and command list. A launch-day bug caused some text to remain untranslated (which you may have noticed in early reviews), but those issues have since been resolved.
  
• In the latest patch, MangaGamer has added keyboard rebinding, which didn't exist in the original game. This has made Golden Fantasia much more pleasant to play for me, as I don't have to fiddle with vjoy to use my standard control scheme.
  
  If you cared about Ougon because you enjoyed its versus, Golden Fantasia's netplay is a big enough step up to warrant the purchase. If you cared about Ougon because it's an Umineko spinoff, the spectacle of the story and gameplay are arguably worth the plunge.
  
  Also, I totally recommend everyone new check out the Ougon Mizuumi Wiki[wiki.mizuumi.net] for more specific information on character playstyles, moves, and frame data.

Not so easy when your opponent isn't 9 years old, eh, Rosa?

Get stepped on by Beatrice in real time

I can punch Erika Furudo in the face.
10/10

I love everything about this game, seriously.
The problems people complained about (like the untranslated moves sets) in the negative reviews below have been solved, so don't worry about that.
I personally find a little bit difficult to use the keyboard, so I suggest you to take a gamepad -if you can.
And yeah, I am GLAD there's a Princess mode that let people like me (totally unskilled with fighting games BUT in love with Umineko) to enjoy however the experience. <3

I am so happyyyyy ☆☆☆

First of all keep on mind this is a game made with fans of Umineko on mind. A lot of the dialogue, movesets, endings and fanart, and the Meta system are all refences to the original work. So if you're planning to get into this When They Cry story, I recommend you to read either the Visual Novel or the Manga first (Avoid the anime like the plague).

However, as a game on its own Golden Fantasia is a very solid fighting game and quite stands out with very unique mechanics never seen in any other game of this genre. A tag battle system with each character having unique passive abilities makes very interesting combinations with their gimmicks working together (And individual HP to fuse together, making tanky teams or glass cannons). Each character has simple command lists with many of them sharing the same inputs, so casual players can quickly learn their favorites and master basic combos. And the super bar takes a very different route with the active character building bar for their partner.

But if you're fan of Umineko you'll know what really stands out of this game is the Meta system. This is where many of the big showdowns will come with each player countering each other's Meta by spending super bar, or failing to do so as the winning side will have not only their two abilities active but also infinite supers for a brief seconds. Depending of your team the Meta activation can have more importance than others (Characters like Bernkastel abuses the Meta with a powerful super and longer Meta duration. While some others will just use it to cancel moves in the middle of a combo or to nullify the opponent's Meta).

The flaws of Golden Fantasia might show when compared to the competition. The rounds of this game can be very long depending of the teams, so you might want to lower the HP if battles are feeling tedious. The combos you can pull out are very straightforward and there might not be much to experiment with, and if so most likely requires a lot of super bar which makes them situational (Maybe the exception is teams with Virgilia due her ability). Lastly is the fact that is a PC fighting game, and even though got a highly improved netplay compared to the original release there won't be many players from a franchise mostly known for its Visual Novel.

I am gonna heavily recommend this game for Umineko fans no matter if you read the Mangagamer version, the fan translation by Witch Hunt many years ago, or the Manga (The Anime as I said, just no). For those who just saw this game in the store I'll say to give it a try as well, but since is a spoilerfest right from the first minutes into the game you must really not care about the original source and wanna try something very different from other fighting games.

If only you could play as Magical Chef Gohda

finally
i can <Die the Death!> <Sentence to Death!> <The Great Equalizer is Death!> other people


...IF ANYONE ACTUALLY PLAYED THIS GAME

Erika Furudo.

i get to play as Battler Ushiromiya and Battler Ushiromya is very cool so this is a cool game

nuff said