The games are built on the NScripter game engine and the Microsoft Windows operating system. The series focuses on a group of young friends living in a fictional village and the strange events that occur there in 1983. 'When the Cicadas Cry'), known simply as When They Cry for the North American release of the anime adaptation before 2020, is a Japanese murder mystery dōjin soft visual novel series produced by 07th Expansion that comprises the first two entries of the When They Cry franchise. Higurashi When They Cry ( Japanese: ひぐらしのなく頃に, Hepburn: Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, lit.