has anyone played higurashi yet? and is there anything i should know before playing it?

i intend to play the game and watch the anime eventually, but i'm not entirely sure what i'm getting into. i probably will go into it completely blind though, not sure i'm emotionally ready for something like that though. I WANNA PLAY SOMETHING LIKE NEKOPARA OR SOMETHING FIRST LMAO anyways, i'm gonna start playing vns through one game or another. it might just be the psychological visual novel instead of the cutesy cat girl one. ALSO!! if anyone knows of some good free visual novels to play lemme know!! oh gosh, i just remembered i have to finish 100%ting doki doki literature club. anyways, probably gonna buy all the parts to nekopara and higurashi. i wish we had more vn's localized on the ps2 T^T

anyways sorry for the rant, any and all comments are appriciated wrether it's higurashi or vn related