New Higurashi game enrages fans for using AI

It seems that mystery and horror are no longer confined to the bloody village of Hinamizawa. A massive controversy has just erupted online after fans discovered the evident use of artificial intelligence in the promotional images for a new interactive project based on the legendary franchise Higurashi no Naku Koro ni (Higurashi When They Cry). The company SoulStudio announced with great fanfare the launch of SoulChat, a service through the LINE application that promises to immerse players in the original story by interacting directly with the characters, but the move completely backfired.

Deformities and inconsistent backgrounds

The first chapter of this experience, based on the dark Onikakushi-hen arc, is scheduled to launch this coming April 17th. However, upon revealing the project's first illustrations, the Japanese otaku community didn't take a second to notice the classic and embarrassing AI errors. Users immediately detected unnaturally shaped hands, hairlines and clothing merging nonsensically, and most painful for the fandom: generic backgrounds that look nothing like the real locations. It is worth remembering that Ryukishi07's masterpiece is famous for tracing real-life locations in Japan, such as the mythical Furude Shrine, so seeing versions distorted by algorithms was considered an insult to the saga's attention to detail.

The studio's silence in the face of fandom fury

Social media quickly filled with complaints and disappointment. Followers accuse the production company of tarnishing the legacy of the original art and demand immediate clarification on whether such tools were used, even calling for all material to be redrawn before the release date. While the debate over ethics in the industry continues to burn, SoulStudio has only limited itself to boasting that they use proprietary technology for the chat response system, but so far they have maintained a deathly silence regarding the disaster in their visual art.

Knowing that the developers plan to adapt more narrative arcs through 2028, do you think fans will boycott this chat service or will they eventually accept the use of AI if the written interaction is worth it?