Well...actually it does have something to do with Higurashi even though it has a different story plot.
Higurashi was really a game between the two witches, "Frederica vs. Lambdadelta". The BAD ENDs are Frederica losing to Lambdaedelta and the GOOD ENDs are Frederica winning against Lambdaedealta. Second paragraph
There are more references than that. Like in episode 3, Frederica threatening Lambdadelta that she'll tell her the real culprit in Higurashi no Naku Koro ni, the use of the word Kakera in the episode 3 tea party (since those refer to the alternate worlds and such like in Higurashi), Tsurupettan song in episode 2 (with Rena emote thing flying across the screen), Frederica saying Ni-pah at the end to encourage us to continue on our quest, and Okonogi is in episode 4 but as some rich market person).
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