Seraphim

ATRI -My Dear Moments- , a VN developed by Frontwing and Makura is going to be released on Steam in a few days by ANIPLEX.EXE (whose site seems to be still inaccesible from EU )
Steam page
I'm really looking forward to it - it is written by Konno Asta, and directed by Yow, both of which were in charge of Konosora (If My Heart Had Wings). And there's a cute robot girl there
Also, it looks very nice, and the screenshots suggest that it will have multi-language feature, so if translation turns out to be wonky, there will be original text available

The VN is all-ages originally, so at least there should be no bitching about censorship

It won't. They've already said that it will be released in the end of the month, if not later.
" It's time for the news! Matsuribayashi has been coming along great, with @orian34 making great progress since he took over. From the script count, he should be around the middle already. There's a 100% chance we will miss the 30 days ETA (since the game was released in May 14th), but I believe that if we keep this pace, we should be talking about the release by the end of the month. No promises, though. Let's see what happens next week!"
The full statement.
As for the spoiler, there's nothing major in it. I only said the year the story takes place and if it's related to Higurashi or not
You can start Umineko before Chapter 8, as long as you only read the first episode in order to avoid all spoilers [as what can spoil the end of Higurashi is only shown in the beginning of episode 2].
But if you want to avoid this risk, you could start reading Ciconia, that as for now doesn't have any relation to the other games, besides character references.

Just finished chapter 7 of Higurashi, somewhat later than expected due to me being pretty busy this past weekend.
As of right now, the 07th mod for Chapter 8 has yet to be released. The previous ones have been completed roughly a month after the release of the chapters themselves, and if that's the case this time as well, I'm still on schedule to read that chapter this coming weekend. Otherwise, I'll have to put off reading it until the mod is released.

About Umineko, were you in the discussion we had on 07th Mod's discord channel these days? There are in fact characters in Umineko that spoil some of Higurashi's twists, but as for the one that you mentioned, it's not the same character, but just a red herring [according to Ryukishi himself]. About when Umineko takes place:
 
 

Just finished chapter 7 of Higurashi, somewhat later than expected due to me being pretty busy this past weekend.
As of right now, the 07th mod for Chapter 8 has yet to be released. The previous ones have been completed roughly a month after the release of the chapters themselves, and if that's the case this time as well, I'm still on schedule to read that chapter this coming weekend. Otherwise, I'll have to put off reading it until the mod is released.

I don't remember the exact details, but there's
 

In any case, it isn't a big deal in the grand scheme of things. These are really just my spontaneous thoughts right after finishing Chapter 6, and they're all based on assumptions and information I was provided there. It isn't unlikely that my opinion will change one way or the other once I get some perspective on things. I still have two chapters to go and I expect that quite a few things will have been turned on their head by the time I'm done.

Actually, I remember reading somewhere that Ryukishi himself was a bit unsatisfied with how he handled certain aspects of mystery in Higurashi, and he tried to improve them in Umineko. And I'm pretty sure he succeeded, so...
Ever17 spoilers.
 

huh, first, I didn't like the end of Raging Loop.
As for Higurashi, all I can say is that some of your theories are spot on, but others are far from the truth. Chapter 7 explains A LOT and will probably answer your questions, tho.
About Chapter 1,
After you read Higurashi and Umineko [and possibly Ciconia, although it's far from finished], I'd recommend you to take a look into the Infinity Series. I won't spoil you or anything, but if you liked When They Cry you'll definetely enjoy Infinity. [Never7, Ever17 and Remember11]

Finished up Raging Loop a couple of days ago and now I'm done with chapter 6 of Higurashi.

Raging Loop

Like I mentioned in a previous post, I'm not that into werewolves, which initially put me off when I considered reading this VN, but I'm glad I actually decided to pick it up. The pacing of the story felt just right and the story itself turned out to be a more exciting read than I expected, with quite a few twists and turns right up until the end. I did see through some of them long before the reveals, but everything leading up to that point was so well executed that it felt satisfying nevertheless.
I really appreciated how you, after clearing the game, unlock a toggle in the options, with which you can activate a ton of internal monologues mixed in with the normal dialogue and narration to get a better understanding of everything that's going on and why certain people act in certain ways. It's a function I'd love to see in Higurashi, to be honest. And so, while we're on the subject...

Higurashi, chapter 6

First off, I agree with @Dreamysyu that this is the best chapter (so far, at least). Anyway, onward to spoiler territory.
This turned out to be one of my longest posts here so far, but maybe that's not so strange considering the extent to which Higurashi puts the mind at work.

So, I finally finished this and it was a very nice read overall. Maybe not a master piece, it does have some weaknesses, but it was certainly an entertaining story.
The good stuff:
I think the VN was rather well paced for most of the part. While some parts might have felt a bit generic and lengthy, they usually weren't too long, because the VN iterates beween slice of life and plot arcs. In that regard, the VN felt rather well organized anyway. It had several connected cases and a bigger overarching plot arc. That's at least for me one of the best ways to write a story, because it gives you a feeling of progress if you can finish a case and then there's new stuff coming to keep you interested. On the other hand, there's still a bigger overarching plot with each case being one piece of its puzzle pieces. I also found the story reasonable explained for a super-natural thriller. They did neither try to overcomplicate nor overexplain things. There are some clear rules how the Bodach world works and they tried to stick to those for the most part, with some smaller unknowns left to keep the mystery. I also liked the protagonist. He was proactive and had a clear mind.
I also appreciate that they didn't try to bore me to death with a time loop. Taking a 5 hour story, stretch it to 10 hours and then further multiply it to 50 hours via time loop isn't something unheard of. If a plot arc is over, then it IS over and you don't have to go through it again a dozen times.
It's also nice, that despite delivering a full story full of murder mystery, you still get heroine routes with several H-scenes each, even if the routes felt more like extended epilogues. Although the VN has some rather creepy scenes and darker moments, it still keeps the mood comparatively light. Even if it's a bit darker than the 9-nine series and has more plot focus, I'd still also classify this as a story-moege mix. There was also considerable effort put into the VN, to pull that off. I counted well over 150 CG's im the image gallery, which is massive. Most VN's keep it well below a hundred - usually more in the ~70 region. I think Aokana had a similar CG count - probably even more and the quality was higher though.
I also played all routes, even Hatsune's, which is saying something. But granted, the routes itself weren't that long.
The not so good stuff:
I think most of my complaints could be summarized with one word: the execution. The moege roots of its creators are gleaming through in almost every aspect - art, sound and writing. While the VN does have some creepy scenes, it can feel almost undistinguishable from a generic slice of life of moege in its more peaceful scenes. Although this is a murder mystery, the whole mood and style isn't really comparable to darker counterparts like Kara no Shoujo. The VN also had some problems how to switch between the lighter and darker parts, especially at the start.
It also suffered from a severe disregard of male characters. I found almost all male character sprites and voices lacking. That's a typical moege problem. All the effort goes into the girls, while male characters barely make it beyond idiot-friend. And then the weird poses of some of them. Take Hidenori for example, he always has its arm at its head - ALWAYS. Rule number one for every character artist: If a character has only one pose, always use a neutral one, NEVER EVER a special gesture one. Tomonari's was almost worse. I think the only male character that was kind of okay was the detective. Since some of the male characters had important roles, you can't just leave them in the dust like that. Fortunately, at least the event CG's with them were usually better.
Writing and story was also a bit uneven. Some parts were actually pretty good. I think I liked the first case with the restaurant the most. It had good foreshadowing, decent introduction into dream diving and an intense finale. On the other hand, the case directly after felt more like 'monster of the week'. Character motivations were also relatable on paper, but with the cheap sprites and voice acting of male characters, they often came across as rather generic and one-dimensional.
The heroines were a bit overshadowed by the omni-present Madoka. That made it difficult to follow the fast switch into a heroine route after the main plot. It's admittedly not an easy thing to get right considering the circumstances. And I'm pretty sure I've seen worse in story VN's, provided they even have heroine routes which certainly isn't a given.
The last thing I want to mention is a bit of a, let's say 'luxus complaint' - the VN lacks a bit of 'flair'. The cool characters of a Dies Irae, the engrossing atmoshere of a Kara no Shoujo, or just the pretty character art of a Palette or Purple Soft title. While the female character sprites of Sakura no Mori † Dreamers aren't bad, they have just a front pose and the facial expressions could have been better. I played that in tandem with Senren Banka and Yuzusoft puts more effort into those things than anyone else, even if I'm not sure if they also have back poses like Palette.
Conclusion:
Although my complaint section is pretty long like usual, most of it is still more on the nitpicking side. They got the important parts right I think.
Heroine ranking: Madoka > Mahoro > Kureha > Hatsune > Mifuyu
Overall rating: 7.5/10
It doesn't reach the 8 in my book, mainly because of the problems with the male characters, but it deserves an upper 7 rating. It was certainly the best VN I've read this year so far, even if that doesn't say much. But I do appreciate what Moonstone tried to achieve here and for the most part they did succeed I think. I hope they keep that up and even improve with their future titles.

Nothing quite screams "gem" like the first coming of the titty spider.

Finished Al Somnium Files 
Overall a pretty satisfactory murder mystery with plenty of pseudoscience thrown in to keep you from being able to *logically* deduce the truth behind the murders until they literally spit out the secret behind said pseudoscience at you some 80% of the way through the VN. It's definitely not like Danganronpa/Ace Attorney where you can figure out the culprit early on/throughout; you'll have to wait until nearly the end for this one to learn the truth. Still was very entertaining just going through the motions though.

First off, I have this BGM playing on repeat as I type this. Glad Spike Chunsoft was able to come up with another catchy interrogation theme~

Let's get the introductions over with. In Al Somnium you play as (first name) Date Kaname, an amnesiac (go figure) police officer/detective/agent of Metropolitan Police Department's (MPD) secret elite Advanced Brain Investigation Squad (ABIS). The ABIS have access to a highly classified technology known as the PSYNC (PsychoSYNaptic Neurological Connection(?)) system, our main pseudoscience plot element machine that allows one individual designated as the PSYNCer to connect and neurologically dive into another individual's- the PSYNCee's-subconscious in order to find the secrets hidden within their "Somnia", or dream realm.
So I thought this VN would have a pretty straightforward formula akin to, say, Danganronpa, which had a basic flow consisting of 1. Murder happens 2. Gather evidence 3. Solve the murder through class trials. Rinse repeat for 6 Chapters. Al Somnium would do the same: have a murder, gather evidence, then bust the perp through PSYNCs, rinse repeat right?! LOL NOPE!!! Instead what you basically get is a narrative where the once the first murder happens, you then go on a massive wild goose hunt chase only to always be a step behind and playing catch up wondering who the eff the killer is for nearly the entirety of the story. The further you go, the more bodies pile up, and instead of finding answers, you'll only pile on more and more questions. I'm making this sound like a bad thing, but I think it was actually pretty well done and effective at keeping you engaged purely on the WTF IS GOING ON, I NEED TO KNOW!@# aspect.

Date is missing his left eye, which is instead replaced by an ABIS provided advanced artificial intelligence eye-ball dubbed Aiba (clever right?). Aiba serves as Date's main investigation partner/companion- she's the Navi or Midna to Link from the Zelda series. Really great partner character, I really love stories that are able to incorporate a partner for the main protagonist. Other characters include Mizuki (Date's tsundere 12yr old roomate living with him due to special circumstances); Iris Sagan (18yr old rising-in-fame net idol) and her mother Hitomi Sagan (raised Iris single); Ota (24yr old otaku/Iris fanboy), So (a shady gruff politician). A decent bunch. Minus So.
Iris Sagan. Net idol. Best Girl fo' sho
 

There is an accessible at all times Flowchart where you can return/jump to any point of the story at anytime. If you know Spike Chunsoft, you know the significance of these Flowcharts >.>


Gameplay was satisfactory, although unfortunately was never able to achieve the same thrilling highs as Zero Escapes' escape rooms or Danganronpa's Class Trials imo. Throughout the entirety of the story you are given moments to cursor-point-and-click the backgrounds for extra scenic info/banter between characters. This ultimately degrades into a fluff/padding mechanic: you will never be able to miss key information that a certain Kara no Shoujo was infamous for (in that it locked you into a bad ending for missing something in one of the point and click investigation segments). So 80% of the time you will be clicking a chair in the background just to result in "this is a chair" description, but you'll find yourself checking everything anyway just so you can completionist grey out everything on the map and see all the character banters if any. Quite a chore. You can probably shorten your playthrough of this VN by half if you completely skip clicking everything.
 
Interrogation scenes. They're honestly pretty barebones and lackluster interrogation scenes compared to the bombastic DR's Class Trials or Ace Attorney's back and forth Courtroom Trials since this VN doesn't revolve around this gameplay mechanic like those aforementioned do. They were fairly entertaining to playthrough though, mainly because of that catchy theme that plays during them (linked in the youtube vid above). But yeah I would've liked there to be more substance to them.

PSYNC/ entering Somnia worlds: the flagship core gameplay mechanic of Al Somnium Files. This is the trumpcard method Date utilizes as an agent of ABIS to interrogate key persons of interest. By Psyncing with them and entering their subconscious (Psyncees are usually rendered unconscious/sedated beforehand), Date is able to visit their Somnia, an ethereal dream realm where the Psyncee is "the author, director, and actor of their play" (without any conscious control over it), and Date is the Psyncer "the audience witnessing this play".

It's all very abstract- the VN shifts to a 3D free roam surreal environment where you can move around and perform tasks while in another person's mind with the goal of breaking through their Mental Locks to reveal their secrets buried deep within. Btw, did I mention that PSYNCs have a 360 sec (6min) time limit? Any further and the Psyncer risks having their mind/consciousness absorbed by the Psyncee completely. Walking around and performing Actions consumes Time, so Date is always racing against the clock. It's an artificial way to add difficulty to this gameplay, but you're never really punished too hard for failing since you can always reload and then skip to where you last left off.
Unfortunately, even this flagship PSYNC mechanic left me feeling unsatisfied: while there are indeed some epic wow moments to be had, most of the time Somnia experiences are RNG/trial and error based; you cannot logically deduce what action would progress you deeper into someone's mind. What should I do with this fan? Blow on it? Kick it? Grab onto it? Whoops one choice was wrong. Whoops the second choice was wrong. Whoops the third choice is wrong. So the fan's not the answer, how about that random pot over there? Shit, out of time, gotta restart and try again.
One of the lategame PSYNCs is ESPECIALLY guilty of this: After going through a fairly lengthy and confusing labyrinth to break through several Mental Locks and actually running fairly low on time by the end of it, the devs actually had the gall to slap you in the face and choose from (not really spoilers i guess?)
 
 To give credit where it's due though, here are some Somnia moments I enjoyed: (MASSIVE SPOILERS)
 
Other random misc. comments/thoughts/moments: (ULTRAMASSIVE SPOILERS):
 
Overall this VN is a solid 8/10. Engaging murder mystery plot that utilizes pseudoscience, fairly likeable characters, solid sound track, decent gameplay that has its moments. Didn't feel like ermergawd mindblown masterpiece, but was definitely a fun experience.

Oppai-lady

Umineko's is way less impactful than Higurashi's. While the latter restarts everything in each chapter, in Umineko the story goes on through each chapter.

Oh, right, I ran into a weird glitch in Higurashi. All of a sudden, a second Keiichi popped up. Made it kinda hard to take the scene seriously!

Yup, that's the plan! I've been putting it off for years just because people recommended playing Higurashi first due to there supposedly being some shared elements or something. I don't really know any details, but I guess I'll find out soon enough. I've seen a spoiler about Umineko containing
but I'm hoping that's something that's present from early on, like in Higurashi, rather than some game-changing reveal towards the end of the story.
Other than that, I've managed to dodge any information about Umineko, so it's basically a blank slate for me.

I've also started reading Raging Loop whenever I'm not reading Higurashi. I'm not usually a very big fan of werewolves, but it works well in this case and the story is pretty intense and engrossing right off the bat. My main concern is that my brain might overheat from the Higurashi + Raging Loop Mystery Combo Attack, so maybe I should start considering something like this:

Higurashi.
 

Oh, right, I ran into a weird glitch in Higurashi. All of a sudden, a second Keiichi popped up. Made it kinda hard to take the scene seriously!

Yup, that's the plan! I've been putting it off for years just because people recommended playing Higurashi first due to there supposedly being some shared elements or something. I don't really know any details, but I guess I'll find out soon enough. I've seen a spoiler about Umineko containing
but I'm hoping that's something that's present from early on, like in Higurashi, rather than some game-changing reveal towards the end of the story.
Other than that, I've managed to dodge any information about Umineko, so it's basically a blank slate for me.

I've also started reading Raging Loop whenever I'm not reading Higurashi. I'm not usually a very big fan of werewolves, but it works well in this case and the story is pretty intense and engrossing right off the bat. My main concern is that my brain might overheat from the Higurashi + Raging Loop Mystery Combo Attack, so maybe I should start considering something like this:

I'm reading it and I feel terrible not being able to read your spoilers, but I shall persevere.
The art is gourgeous, but I think the soundtrack is where thisi game really stands out. I stop reading for a minute or two every time a different track starts playing.
The only thing I'm diisliking is how the MC constantly says he is worthless, a nobody, etc etc. He does that every few minutes, and it seems pointless. He has friends, a house, a cat... seems fine to me.

Just came by to say that I'm loving your spoiler-free impressions of the story. Keep on going, I think the answers are pretty satisfying, although they may not be what you'd expect.
Oh, and play Umineko after it. It is even better than Higurashi.