07th Expansion, one of the most popular doujin game studios, will be launching very soon a new game part of their iconic When They Cry visual novel series: Ciconia When They Cry. 07th Expansion's co-founder Ryukishi 07th published several messages on Twitter on July 26, revealing more about Ciconia and the current state of 07th Expansion.

First off, Ryukishi 07th mentioned many are wondering if Ciconia When They Cry is a one-shot or will have sequels, as in new Episodes. Ryukishi 07th revealed that Ciconia When They Cry will be made of four Episodes in total. The upcoming Ciconia game is the first Episode.

This is shorter than the previous entries in the series. Higurashi When They Cry and Umineko When They Cry were both made of eight main Episodes in total. However, it doesn't necessarily mean Ciconia in total will be shorter.

Ryukishi 07th also mentioned how Ciconia When They Cry will be sold at a higher price than all their games so far. It's particularly more expensive than back when they first released Higurashi. Ryukishi 07th spoke about how back then, he would sleep around four hours a day, and was in a life situation where he could freely use his time and energy. However, he's much older now and doesn't have the luxury to do this anymore.

Ryukishi 07th's main and favorite job at 07th Expansion is writing the games' scenarios. In order for him to keep focusing on this task, a large number of 07th Expansion's veteran staff is helping with Ciconia's development. All of 07th Expansion's staff is now considerably older than when they worked on Higurashi, whose first Episode released at Comiket 62 in August 2002.

Ryukishi 07th mentioned how 07th Expansion is no longer a group of "mad young people" who could pour all their time and skills into their independent work. Some have taxing day jobs they need to balance their lives with. Some have health problems related to aging. Some got married and wish to spend more time with their families.

Ryukishi 07th explained they decided on Ciconia When They Cry 's higher price tag when taking all of this into account. Ciconia will be sold for 3500 yen plus Tax in Japan. It is sold higher than past 07th Expansion games. Ryukishi 07th mentioned he feels quite sorry about it, especially seeing Higurashi's Episodes were sold for around 1000 Yen.

At the same time, Ryukishi 07th believes that Ciconia When They Cry is a game that was only made possible thanks to all the situational changes they experienced in life. Ciconia is a game they could only make right now.

Ryukishi 07th added that Ciconia has high-quality screenplay, and how the game's script is over 400 000 characters in Japanese. In his final tweet, Ryukishi 07th asked us to look forward to Ciconia and to please preorder the game if you're interested.

Ciconia When They Cry is being localized by The Witch Hunt, the same group which translated Umineko. Ciconia is supposed to be launching simultaneously in and outside Japan, with MangaGamer handling the distribution in the west.

Ciconia was initially supposed to launch during Comiket 96 in August, but was later delayed to late September.

Later on, the 07th Expansion official Twitter revealed October 4 as the release date for Ciconia When They Cry. 07th Expansion is currently hard at work to finish the game before then.

Preorders for Ciconia opened on July 26 in Japan. As such, new screenshots of the game's Japanese version were published. They can be found below.

Umineko When They Cry Saku will also launch in Japan on October 4. Umineko Saku is a game containing all the Umineko Episodes plus a brand new one. It's an ultimate version basically. Screenshots for Umineko Saku's new Episode were also published.

Ciconia When They Cry's opening animation sequence was recently revealed as well.