Higurashi no Na ku Koro ni Jan (ひぐらしの 哭 く頃に 雀, When the Cicadas Cry Mahjong) is a based on the Higurashi no Na ku Koro ni characters competing with each other in a popular Japanese board game mahjong. The game was first released as an arcade video game on July 16, 2009 before getting ported as a standalone game on the PSP on November 12, 2009. The game features traditional Riichi Mahjong rules, which are customizable, however, unlike normal Mahjong, this mahjong game is a one-on-one battle, as opposed to the usual 4 players.

The players also have special abilities, known as cheats (イカサマ, ikasama), with each character having different amounts of each cheat per game.

The game's opening theme is Kuroi Hana, performed by Yui Sakakibara, and the ending theme is Anata wa Watashi no Kagami, performed by Local Bus.

Once a round begins, the player will see Mahjong tiles appear on their screen. The premise of Japanese Mahjong is to make a winning hand; it has to have 3 Sequences and or Triplets and 1 pair. The player then draws and discards tiles, rearranging their hand accordingly to make it a winning hand.

Once all 18 tiles have been discarded by the opponent and the player in a round, the following two text may appear before the next round: "テンパイ (Tenpai)" or "ノーテン (No-Ten)". Tenpai just means your hand is ready and it needs one more tile to win. No-Ten means your hand isn't ready. You'll gain a small amount of points if your hand is tenpai and the opponents is no-ten.

If you want to score higher, that's possible by arranging the tiles in your hand to form a Yaku. Japanese Mahjong has a lot of them. Some of the simples ones include:

It's advised to play with a list of Yaku ready, which can be found all over the internet. It's important to note that Higurashi no Na ku Koro ni Jan also accepts some Local Yaku such as Shanron chonchu and Renhou. The opponents do not seem to aim for them, however.

As stated above, these aren't all Yakuman. Lists of them can be found through online sources. The game also does accept Kazoe Yakuman.

If you see a blue message box appearing with the messages チー (Chii) or　ポン (Pon), this means you can open your hand, doing so makes gameplay a bit more difficult. When opening your hand, you use the tile your opponent discarded to complete either a sequence (Chii) or a triplet (Pon) in your own hand. After opening your hand, you won't be able to make a Riichi bet and you won't be able to discard any of the open sequence/triplet tiles as well. Victory with an open hand is only possible if you have a Yaku ready in your hand by the time you reach Tenpai.

The game features three main modes, as well as some extras found in the option menus.

(オヤシロモード in Japanese) The main story mode, featuring Keiichi as the only playable character. At the start of the story, the club has planned a Mahjong tournament and it's about time Keiichi heads out and participates. Suddenly, Keiichi receives mysterious vials of medicine from an unknown source, with a note stating the village is in danger and this is the only cure. Keiichi takes this as a prank, until he is challenged by his first opponent. Realising this isn't a joke anymore, he then runs around the village challenging his syndrome-infected friends to a game of Mahjong to save them from a potential outbreak. A mysterious entity gives Keiichi special abilities throughout his journey if the Hinamizawa Syndrome bar is raised by one level.

If the Hinamizawa Syndrome bar is not filled to L5 by the time Keiichi beats stage 7, a bad ending will occur where Takano convinces Keiichi that everything was an elaborate prank by the entire village. Keiichi, satisfied with this answer.png.png, turns around to leave. Takano then shoots him in the back of the head.

If the Hinamizawa Syndrome bar is filled to L5, a good ending occurs, where upon beating Takano, Keiichi hears a mysterious voice beckoning him to the Furude shrine. Once he arrives at the Furude shrine, an unknown yet familiar entity spawns before him, Oyashiro-sama, transporting him to a weird dimension, and challenges him to a game of Mahjong. After beating Oyashiro-sama, Keiichi remembers that the girl before him is Hanyuu, he gives her the last piece of medicine, and he snaps back into a reality shortly after, where he is walking home from school with everyone, including a human version of Hanyuu, someone who never existed in his previous fragment, but he strangely feels acquainted with. Even though it feels like one, Keiichi knows what he experienced wasn't a dream and appreciates everything he learned from the Mahjong competition.

Cheats in this game mode can only be acquired by picking out cards on screen that appear every time the player wins a match. By levelling up the Hinamizawa Syndrome, mysterious entity multiplies or gives the player a random cheat(s). The Ippatsu Riichi cheat is always given after the player continues to play as Keiichi gives one of his game-over speeches.

(部活モード; "Bukatsu Moodo" in Japanese) Essentially "Free-play mode", where you can have a match using any combination of two characters, if you win a special cutscene plays involving an embarrassing punishment game for the loser. If the player wins a match against a character and plays another game directly afterwards, they get a little more cheats as a bonus.

(部活モードえくすとら; "Bukatsu Moodo ekusutora" in Japanese) The other half of Jan's story mode and a PSP exclusive, where Mion uses a cursed set of Mahjong tiles, forcing Keiichi to perform a ritual where he has to defeat 8 female opponents in a row to seal the curse.

Though they are not playable like Keiichi, Ōishi, Tomitake, Irie and Okonogi make minor appearances in the dialogue.

Also known as 継足し編 (loosely translated as Extended-Leg Chapter) is a series of six small bonus scenarios available in the Option Mode after completing Club Mode Extra. They do not have a relation to one another story-wise and scenario four and five do not even have a mahjong match available in them. After completing a scenario, some bonus gallery pictures are unlocked.

(おまかせモード in Japanese) Roughly translated as "Help-Me Mode" or "Lend-Me-a-Hand Mode" is a setting that can be toggled on or off anytime the player opens the settings menu during any match. Once this setting is activated, the player loses control and the game battles the opponent for them. Activating this mode doesn't guarantee a win.

Lastly, the game contains Option Mode, where the player can change the rules to their liking, change the difficulty, and view cutscenes, CGs. If the player beats Oyashiro Mode, they can get access to a bonus gallery, featuring exclusive images made by guest artists, alongside special original voiced scenarios, similar to Drama CDs.

The following characters do make an appearance in Bukatsu Mode, however, their Oyashiro Mode exclusive appearances do not make a comeback in Bukatsu Mode.

A manga series with the same name was released in 2009. It is an adaptation of the Bukatsu Mode Extra story from the PSP game, featuring The Club playing mahjong as an after school club activity. Later, in 2010, another version of Higurashi no Na ku Koro ni Jan was released, Tsubamegaeshi-hen, which seems to be partially based on the Oyashiro Mode, but instead contains a particularly bad end.

Official website: https://www.marv.jp/products/higurashi_jan/index.html

pt-br:Higurashi no Naku Koro ni Jan