Suzumiya Haruhi no Heiretsu is the fourth game in the series centering around a high-school girl, Suzumiya Haruhi, based on manga and anime. Released only a couple of months after Suzumiya Haruhi no Gekidō, this game continues the story but loses the rhythm based games and plays almost entirely as a visual novel game. Unlike a typical visual novel with static backgrounds and fixed character poses, the game uses 3D backgrounds and dynamic characters with full voice-acting and lip-syncing.

The story takes place during summer vacation aboard the luxury cruise ship Oberon. The same day repeats over and over again, and by using recollections of events and actions encountered during previous time loops, the player can change the story. Aside from visual novel interface, the player has certain luxury to search around each scene and interact with objects, talk to other characters and unlock new topics key to the story unfolding. Certain event scenes contain "interrupt" mark which allows the player to react for a brief amount of time which launches an additional action or retrieves certain object for you, otherwise the default event scene if the interruption is not initiated in time.

Bonus menu includes various extras which are unlocked as you progress through the story mode:

- Model Viewer: 3D viewer of the characters with available rotation and animation
- Data Base: provides various statistics and info about the way you played the game
- Music Player: contains playable background music tracks from the game
- Event Viewer: playable movie events from the main scenario