How Higurashi When They Cry Was Born: Ryukishi07 Reveals the Franchise’s Humble Beginnings

Higurashi When They Cry began as a small project made with almost no resources, long before it became one of Japan’s most influential visual novels. To celebrate the 25th anniversary of 07th Expansion and reaching 77,777 followers on its official X account, Ryukishi07 decided to revisit how it all began and shared a curious story on his Twitter.

Here’s how Higurashi was born:

“When I first decided to create Higurashi, my partner BT confessed that he thought I had lost my mind. At the time, we were a group producing cards for a game called Leaf Fight. We printed around 100 to 200 copies of these card sheets, but including a CD-ROM with a sound novel alongside them was undoubtedly a bold decision for us back then.

We sold 50 copies of Higurashi at Comiket. We sent another 50 to customers by mail, pretending there had been a shipping error and offering to send our next work for free if they shared their feedback. We were desperate to get at least one or two more people to read the story.

In total, we produced 100 copies of the Watanagashi arc and 200 copies of the Tatarigoroshi arc. BT suggested releasing the Onikakushi arc for free on the 07th Expansion website, so we did. Since the scripts for the Watanagashi and Tatarigoroshi arcs were also included in the free release, people on 2chan realized they could read them just by opening the corresponding files, which caused quite a stir.

The next print run was 500 copies. The one after that, 2,000 copies. It became clear that we had reached our limit with manually burning CDs, so we outsourced production to a factory. The number rose to 20,000 copies. Then 80,000 copies. And so on.

Dear BT, I think 07th Expansion has come an incredibly long way. But my soul remains in the same place as it was back then: in that room, surrounded by countless empty cans, where we all slept on the floor together during development.

I offer my sincerest thanks to the team supporting 07th Expansion today! And my deepest gratitude to every follower who supports Ryukishi07 now! Thank you all so very much!”

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Amazing, isn’t it? Pretending to send the game “by mistake” just to gain fans and feedback is a strategy that probably wouldn’t work very well nowadays. What an incredible story Higurashi has, right?