New player here! Just finished episode 2 and would like to give my thoughts (Full spoiler warning for up to the end of episode 2)

I read somewhere that a big difference between Higurashi and Umineko is that while they're both mysteries, Higurashi is a horror story as well while Umineko is not. I'd like to meet this person so that I can call them a big fucking liar. There is no way in Hell that a story with a scene where goat demons psychologically torture a mother by force-feeding her the remains of her family while making fun of her hidden resentments towards all of them (including her own daughter) isn't a horror story. A story where a witch breaks a teenage boy down so thoroughly that he's stripped naked and put on a chain leash only to be led to a demonic ball where he is ripped apart and devoured by goat demons is a horror story, and I don't care what anyone else says. Those last few scenes fucked me up. I finished the episode and then went to work, but couldn't get the ending bits out of my mind the whole time.

Even if the ending genuinely scared the shit out of me, I will say I liked Episode 2 even more than 1. The obvious stand-outs are the battles between Beatrice and Battler whenever a locked room puzzle appears in the story. Those are a blast to read and sometimes are a sorely needed bit of comic relief as they try and take the piss out of each other. I also think Aunt Rosa is a more interesting "final parent" than Natsuhi (I wonder if every arc will have a final parent that protects the kids and gets a good amount of character development in the story).

I also LOVE Beatrice as a villain (Heck, quick guess, Beatrice is the genuine main villain of all of Umineko even if she doesn't turn out to be the culprit). She's endlessly entertaining and gleefully evil... most of the time. What's strange is that she seems to actually have some sort of sympathy towards Kinzo, and I found it fascinating that at the end, she just... plays a little game of chess with Kinzo like she's just catching up with an old friend. Kinzo also seems to lament about some sort of big sin he committed against her and how much he wants t o apologize. Unfortunately I am pretty sure I was spoiled on what his big sin was (>!something about how he fell in love with a girl named Beatrice a long while ago, that Beatrice died, he went insane with grief, the daughter they had together looks a lot like og Beatrice and so Kinzo in his madness mistakes his daughter for his dead lover and rapes her, and the current Beatrice is the product of that rape.!<)

Anyways, guess I was right about the witch being real and there being a major supernatural element to the story. As for the locked rooms, here are my guesses.

Guess #1: I actually figured out right away that the key was stolen in the middle of the night and then put back in the envelop. Score one for me! I do not really have any concrete guesses as to the culprit, but I do have a wild speculation that is probably wrong, but more on that later. I actually felt like this locked room was too easy to solve, like it was meant to be a beginner level challenge to ease new players into the "game".

Guess #2: I deliberated on how much I wanted to take the events of the rest of the episode at face value. One key to solving Higurashi was >!realizing that not everything that the characters faced were presented with 100% accuracy, and that many events were presented through the filter of the character's biases and paranoia.!< However, I've decided to say that, no, the magical murders presented in this episode happened as was told. Besides the first six murders, all other murders in this episode were done with magical methods, and the culprit was Beatrice or one of her underlings.

Guess #3: I previously gave the idea that Maria was possessed by a witch which is what causes her abrupt personality shifts. I rescind this guess for two reasons. One, Maria states that "there is only one Maria" when talking to her mother while being chased by the goat demons. Two (and I can't believe I didn't realize this), but if she had a friendly witch in her body, she would tell everyone about it because she's obsessed with witches**. There's no way she wouldn't tell her mother about the cool witch friend she has in her head. So, either Maria really has some sort of split personality, or she** is possessed by a witch but doesn't know about it. I'm leaning towards the former.

As for my previous guesses, I'll give myself credit and say Guess #6 in my last post was technically correct, but it is more nuanced. I would absolutely consider Rosa to be an abusive mother (I strongly believe that there is literally no circumstance where it is okay for a parent to beat their child), but what makes Rose interesting is that she acknowledges that she isn't always a good mother and that she struggles with her anger issues towards Maria. I honestly thought it was beautiful when Rosa asked Maria if she still wanted to be with her while fleeing the mansion since she felt like she was such a bad mother, but then Maria told her that it doesn't matter, that she doesn't care about "good" or "bad" mothers because Rosa is and always will be her one and only mother.

As for my wild speculation...

Speculation: The culprit for the first six murders is Maria, assuming she has a malevolent witch who has possessed her without her knowledge. I'm calling this a speculation because I am almost certain that I'm wrong, but it's a big gut feeling of mine that I can't shake.

In the spirit of "the rules" of Beatrice and Battler's game, I'm making up my own rule: if I label something as a guess, that means I'm throwing my weight into it (so to speak) and claiming that I believe that the guess is, in fact, correct. If I am wrong, you all get to, I don't know, metaphorically point and laugh at me. Speculations do not have my full backing and are more like me wondering out loud about a particular wild theory. No pointing and laughing if they're wrong!