start HERE (dreamwidth) or HERE (wordpress)

personally I prefer the dreamwidth translations because I find the layout easier to navigate. I couldn't tell you if one is better or more faithful than the other in any way on a translation front. as far as I know they're both solid

after you finish main story, I recommend reading each of the prelude events in release order. these give a strong introduction to all the country groups as well as the full tonal range of the writing which is. wild. the range is wild

(sorry to south though since they got the soft intro event... sorry... they're really good characters and not all south events are like that I promise...)

PRELUDE 1 (WEST): dreamwidth translation wordpress translation

PRELUDE 2 (CENTRAL): dreamwidth translation wordpress translation

PRELUDE 3 (EAST): dreamwidth only

PRELUDE 4 (SOUTH): dreamwidth only

PRELUDE 5 (NORTH): dreamwidth only

after reading main story + preludes you will probably have a good idea of which characters you like, so you can read their affection and location/spot stories. you can find them at the bottom of the healingbonds index page here

the wordpress affection stories are here and the location stories are here

here are some of my personal recommendations:
- Granvelle Castle (Arthur)
- Riquet affection story
- Snow and White affection stories (to be read in succession, Snow first)
- Cavern of Time (Bradley) + ALSO READ THE SUB-EPISODES
- Blanchett Castle (Heathcliff)
- Nero affection story
- Shylock affection story
- Figaro affection story + Marsh of Epidemics

Figaro's affection and location stories can be read in either order they are both a lot in completely opposite directions.

I also recommend Lennox's story a bit but there are probably others that are more impactful to read. Shylock and Lennox mostly slid in because I feel their affection stories give a somewhat different/more complete understanding of their character than someone might have if they skipped them...

commenting for eventually seeing what mahoyaku is all about

ivoryandhorn: grips ur shoulders

come to me

I think one of the easiest selling points for me to explain for the writing of mhyk is it has the most compelling and interesting execution of immortality I have ever personally encountered. like, the psychological impact of everything changing around you dramatically over and over across hundreds of years

that does sound really interesting

oh right. once a person has read through main story + preludes + whatever affection/location stories you like, then come the etude events, then all the ballad events Except east ballad (you can still read east ballad before first anniversary but if you like Heathcliff and Shino a lot I recommend going south ballad -> first anni -> east ballad for. reasons.)

after that both I and healingbonds start petering off and you will finally have to resort to the terrifying master doc of translationsMahoYaku Resource Masterlist

oh wait healingbonds also doesn't have north ballad. well it was kind of dull anywa-

the link to the first anniversary story on the healingbonds index page is up top here, under main story part 1

my hope is to simplify things because the doc is extremely confusing and overwhelming to look at but mhyk is honestly pretty easy to read. the stories are pretty short and easy to read for a vn (voice of a person still trying to consume umineko)

I am adding two pictures per character for visual reference, roughly in order of appearance in main story

Murr Hart choosing two of these was hard because I am critically weak to Murr cards. I basically just picked the two that hurt me the most to look at and it worked out for range.

Cain Knightley yes that is his actual name

Heathcliff Blanchett

Shylock Bennett there are some characters where I do not feel like I can convey why I am obsessed with them with just two images or even their entire card gallery and Shylock is one of them. picking for his surface level appeal is easy but I will never feel confident about the second image

Oz Fatherlord

Snow has rounder/wavier hair than White. alive

White has straighter hair. dead

Mithra I thought it would be harder to get Mithra across in two images but actually this basically sums it up.

Owen I saw the second image and lost my fucking mind so I had to put it in. this did put a lot of pressure on the first choice to then have to cover for both "horrid nightmare gremlin" and "exceedingly cute" for Owen's character appeal but I did my best

Owen and Cain have the gay CLAMP heterochromia

Bradley Bain really every Bradley card is so deeply Bradley that I felt like I could put anything down, so I picked the one that showed the most cleavage and then put down the megane card to cater to my own bad taste. in hindsight this is made for a pretty bad irresponsibly chosen Bradley set

but choosing irresponsibly based on my dick is exactly what Brad would want for me

Faust Lavinia no commentary needed

Shino Sherwood my son boy

Arthur Granvelle this is a TERRIBLE set to show his range/character appeal but listen. I am in agony. I don't know how to convey to you my feelings for Arthur. please love him

Nero Turner actually I feel very good about this set for the duality of Nero.

Riquet Ortiz Religion

Chloe Collins

Rustica Ferch he is pure and wonderful and terrifying

Rutile Flores I expected Rutile to be easier to make a set for than it was. he has a lot of very pretty cards that would also probably be very misleading out of context. same for Arthur

Mitile Flores personally I love that he's an angry powerhungry baby but there aren't really ssr arts that convey that well

Figaro "Garcia" these were incredibly easy to pick because they're right next to each other on his gallery and I could not set up a better joke if I tried

Lennox Ram 190cm tall sheep man

I don't know if it's possible to get across why you should love Arthur just by showing people Arthur. You're valid.

did any of us know we were going to be ruined by arthur? no.

starts crying

clarification on reading order because the masterpost doc is a little off:
1. main story 1
2. preludes
3. affection/spot stories
4. etudes
5. 1st anniversary
6. concertos -> rhapsodies*
7. 2nd anniversary
8. main story 2

* the concerto and rhapsody events are by different writers than the main writer and you can tell. they are skippable in the same way I have skipped all of the seasonal events in this reading order list where there is still good info in them and it is good to read them at some point, but it also isn't necessary to read them before reading other things

update: I have started compiling a recommended reading order gdoc so that I can just put it at the top of this plurk so it's easy to find

???????/ I DIDN'T LIKE THIS PLURK?

not that i would necessarily be able to find it even if i did but

this is why I'm pinning it in every discord server/group chat known to man

i have now also liked this plurk.

even though i know it is additionally pinned in the household server

LKSDMF

I finally linked the subtitled youtube playthrough of main story 1

I kept forgetting about it.