Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Mei, the new Higurashi RPG on mobile, will be launching in Japan on September 3. Multiple screenshots for the game were published as well, revealing it's using a battle system with auto-attack and ATB, with skills to trigger once your gauges are full. The kind of battle system often found in gacha games. We knew since the game's announcement that it's an RPG, but it's the first time we're seeing screenshots of it. Be sure to check our translations of the game's story and the new characters' profiles.

As you can see from the screenshots, developing studio D-techno made the typical-est of typical looking gacha RPG. You can get your marks really easily if you've already played one. Even if you don't understand Japanese.

Now with its own gacha game, and a new anime, Higurashi is back in full force in 2020. The only thing left is to turn Rena into a VTuber. Which seems unlikely as the franchise, instead of riding the bland wave of VTubers, went for a traditional, old school radio show with the seiyuu, airing on Niconico. We'll tell you more about that in a follow-up article soon.

Some of the Higurashi Mei cast also shared their impressions on Twitter.

Mayu Sagara, who voices Higurashi Mei protagonist Ichiho Kimiyoshi, mentioned she's been into Higurashi since she was a kid so she's pretty happy to be part of the franchise now. Yes, Higurashi as a kid sounds pretty scary.

Higurashi Mei also completed its pre-registration campaign, with over 100K players pre-registered for the RPG's launch:

In related news, the Sinoalice Higurashi collab also revealed all its characters and nice short trailers. We got to see Rika and Hanyuu most notably:

The new Higurashi anime adaption will start airing on October 7. A second cour will be coming on January 7, 2021. Meaning the series will be around 26 episodes in total. All the seiyuu from the original anime are back, and it was also confirmed the Watanagashi arc will be adapted. Here's the anime's latest trailer:

The Steam English version of the first Higurashi chapter is currently free. As for related When They Cry games, an ultimate version of Umineko is coming someday in Japan on PS4 and Switch. We'll get news about it on September 3. The newest When They Cry game series, Ciconia, is also ongoing. Lastly, Ryukishi07 and Entergram are also working on Kaleidoscope of Phantasm Prison, coming on December 17 in Japan on PS4, PS Vita, and Switch.

Higurashi RPG, Higurashi When They Cry Mei is coming to App Store and Google Play. Only in Japan needless to say.