Danganronpa 1/2/V3 retrospective (Marked Spoilers, but still)

[mido9 51]

So I beat Danganronpa V3 today after almost a year and a bit of delaying and being lazy playing games I don't even remember, and now I beat all 3 DR games that aren't ultra despair girls, so I thought I'd say what I liked about it.

I started playing DR right after the PC release of 2 came out in early 2016 and didn't know what to expect. I knew who the mastermind of the first game was based on a spoilerish image I'd seen maybe a year later that didn't make sense at the time but made a lot of it later, so what can you do. I REALLY liked it as my first DR game, like it's legit one of my favorite games ever, all the characters were lively and likable and even persona games didn't compare to how awesome they all were, and there were very few I disliked(namely kukichi, teruteru, nekomaru), and it got me really hooked on the series. Also, hopeman was the best dude ever, and some of the other characters I liked a lot like Ibuki, Peko, Hiyoko, Chiaki, Sonia, all awesome, and Fuyuhiko I didn't care for/hated at first but after ch2 he was so great.

Spoilers for chapter 5 of Danganronpa 2 are here:

Spoiler

Also, him killing himself off just to provoke hope was pretty fantastic.

 

Spoilers for chapter 6 of Danganronpa 2 are here:

Spoiler

The ending really got crazy. Like, I had figured out what jabberwock island was when I looked at all the evidence, which is easy enough, but I did not know the actual purpose of it. The reveal of the idea that this was all to protect the 16 contestants inside was an amazing reveal to me, and junko just suddenly showing up and then getting beaten by usami and chiaki, and the dramatic moment as they all push the button were all so so good, like incredibly good.

 

After playing DR2, I decided I had to play DR1 and got it.

DR1 is... fine, I guess. Like, it set the stage for the whole series of course, and if it hadn't been as big of a hit as it was we wouldn't have all these masterpiece games, but still, I feel like it's not that good anymore. Like, many of the characters in it are either completely forgettable or just don't have enough likeability, like they just don't DO anything much. Also, in comparison to 2, the class trials felt much flatter and less involved/interesting other than the last trial. Also, since I'd played 2 I was 100% certain of who the villain in DR1 was, so there goes that too, but the ending was still surprising/interesting.

Like, the dudebro characters are practically all forgettable. Leon, biker guy, the one in the white clothes, all suck. Yasuhiro isn't all that great too, and neither is the cosplay fat guy. Byakuya was also sort of boring, and not in a squidward straight-man sort of way.

The characters I liked were Chihiro, Celestia, Kyoko, Ogre, Toko, and Aoi, everyone else feels like filler, basically, especially like I said, all the dudebros.

Spoilers for the first 3 chapters of Danganronpa 1 go here:

Spoiler

 Also Sayaka dies instantly, celestia and chihiro die quickly.

Also, I feel like the area they're in wasn't very fun. Like, the school they're in felt cramped and didn't have a lot of gimmicks or anything which made the class trials very exciting, and I know I'm comparing it to 2 but I played that first, and after playing V3 I am doubly affirmed by this.
Spoilers for ALL class trials in Danganronpa 1 go here.

Spoiler

11037 are you kidding me?

Anyway, I can barely remember the other class trials, other than that ogre suicides, biker guy gets vaporized, celestia gets burned.

 

Much later on, I got danganronpa V3. I remember getting it right when it came out in late 2017, actually, but had delayed playing it a lot, and only finished it just earlier today.

I got the game and liked basically all the characters. Like, the only character that I didn't REALLY like was Ryoma Hoshi, more than any other game it felt super sad to see any of them that died, die, I liked Angie, Gonta, Himiko, Keebo, Kaede, Kaito, Kirumi, Kokichi, Korekiyo, Maki, Miu, Tenko, and Tsumugi.

Like seriously, I liked all of them A TON except Ryoma and Rantaro, who are boring, and Korekiyo, who is a weirdo, but Korekiyo is still fine, honestly.

The class trials and murders this time around were set up even better than all the previous ones, they all gave thrills and chills, the setups were massive, the plots were elaborate, the stories and motives were huge and got the ball rolling better than the previous games/made things much more exciting, they were good.

Also, the theme of the game is much better than in DR1, the academy is much bigger, there's a courtyard, the ultimate labs are cool, there's more gimmicks in it, more wild stuff happens like the opening of the new areas, areas like miu's lab make this a much more "anything can happen!" theme than DR1, etc. A lot of the game's secrets were very obvious to me, though, since I knew about DR1 and DR2's endings and this setup looked suspiciously similar.

Also, the Monokubs are greaaaaat. Like, sure Monokid can basically eat a bag of dicks, but Monophanie, Monotaro, and Monodam are such funny comic relief even in comparison to monokuma from the last two games.

Also, Kokichi, maaaaan, that is the wildest ride I've been on ever, forget hopeman, Kokichi is the craziest and best written character, what a ride.

Spoilers for ALL class trials and my reaction to them in DR3 go here:

Spoiler

 

Seeing Kaede get executed in chapter 1 is legit one of the saddest moments in games ever, seriously, the way you see her face get choked and the emotion on it and the final frame of seeing her hanged, dead, is the saddest.

Kirumi's death in chapter 2 is also incredibly sad, like seeing her almost get out, bloody, beaten, with her clothes ruined, scars all over her, and other misery and getting denied, then seeing her despaired face was horrible, then you see the final frame of her silhouette, splatting all over the ground, bloodied and ruined, that is horrific, and sad. I do feel like she's one of the lower liked characters, like she's the honorary 4th least liked character, but whatever.

Korekiyo, I went whatever, he's demented.

Gonta in chapter 4, man that is saaaaaaad. Like, so sad. Especially when you later find out about everything.

Chapters 5 and 6 were huge and I'll talk about them later.

 

Spoilers for chapter 5 are here:

Spoiler

Chapter 5 was a really great setup, having a murder where you don't know who was murdered was awesome and made the trial feel so much more involved than previous ones, especially since you don't know at all most of the time what happened. It's so clever. It also went back and forth with new info over and over, so yeah.

 

And now I gotta talk about the ending because that's obviously all you clicked on this thread to see:

Spoiler

 

Honestly, I was spoiled on the idea that it's all a TV show, but I thought like DR1 it was a TV show for the remaining outsiders and thought "well what's so bad about that then?", but then I reached it and found out the premise and REALLY disliked it. It wasn't very good at all, and going "dude you don't want danganronpa to continue you bastard" doesn't make it not a silly concept. Even just a normal ending would've been fine.

...but then I thought about it from the perspective of the characters themselves and thought, yeah this is a pretty fitting conclusion for them. I know it's a crazy circular logic of "the fiction's reaction to being fiction makes them likeable", but seeing all the characters defy their fiction just made me appreciate their fictionality and writing more.

...and then the double reveal of finding out they're all alive and maybe even going to the "real world", which feels like it's either meant to quell the anger of anyone who disliked the ending since you could just interpret that however you liked(what if the real wurld is a parallel dimension IN danganronpa's canon, too and doesn't mean players amirite?), and I liked it too. Only 3 survivors really is just sad, though, but Maki Roll surviving is all I could've asked for.

A good ending to a masterpiece series.

 

A bunch of other comments about some of the characters:
Maki is really great and seeing her go from evil to nice was good character development.

Kaito is such a bro, he was so great all the time and did so much for everyone.

Angie and Tenko are fun. Like, they added so much comic relief/general silliness and were always nice to see.

Himiko is sorta lame. Like, I like how she gets better, but she still doesn't really feel like an impactful character all the time, or a funny one either.

Shuichi... man Shuichi. He's a story in himself, and he's the best, he works so great off everything happening.

 

Other comments:
I haven't played School Mode or Island mode in ANY of the games. Like, I played DR2's island mode right when I unlocked it, and it was too confusing to me, I didn't want to minmax or get unlucky with gets or so on so I didn't care for it.

DR1's School Mode even less so since I didn't like the characters.

DRV3 though... The Ultimate Talent Project is an awesome thing, like it just wrapped the whole series in a nice bow, and seeing more and more character interactions practically from across the entire series like seeing Tenko spar against Aoi and Akane is awesome, and it makes me really appreciate danganronpa in its full totality, even if I didn't like SOME minor squabbles.

The RPG mode is very cool, too.

Maybe I'll actually play this game's Island Mode, why not, right? Especially since I hear it's more energized and awesome than the last two.

One more thing:
These games' OSTs are absolute BANGERS.

LIKE, HOT DAMN, THE MUSIC IS SO GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD.

Everything about this game's music is great, from the theming, to the memorability, to the catchiness, to how goofy they can be, to how fitting they are, it's all such a masterwork of music.

Musics like HOPE SEARCHING and DESPAIR SEARCHING to the class trial Nonstop Debate Theme to Monokuma's Theme to the Danganronpa intro music to Monomi's theme to Monokubs Theme to Beautiful Lie to Scrum Debate to Becoming Friends to all the others is so incredible. Even just looking at the TVtropes page for awesome music makes me love the series more: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/AwesomeMusic/DanganRonpa

IT'S ALL SO GOOD. Like, I always think OST is one of the best parts of a really good game, and this is just right up my alley.

Goodbye, Danganronpa, one of the best serieses ever made.

[Mitcher Green 17]

the only reason i'm up commenting is cuz of nour so be grateful

i feel its such a waste you started with 2 and then went back to 1. a lot of things in 2 become amazing because it relies on you being familiar with 1. the oppressive school environment in 1 was supposed to be the norm, so when 2 hits you with an unrealistic and surreal island, it turns the usual formula on its head. 1's characters were memorable (although quite flat i agree) is simply because of how straightforwardly they played to their own tropes (that can be seen in practically every aspect of their characters. their visual designs, abilities(aka how they kill or get killed), personalities, etc), so when 2 gave you characters that doesnt play to them as much and become their own characters, that also becomes a subversion. this continues on into v3 because v3 makes them non-characters in DR terms. most of the characters' talents dont match up to their personalities beyond the most surface level (which considering the reveal is entirely justified), the murders barely depend on their abilities (the story still does though, important distinction to make) and by ch 6, the game literally states that all of their characters are entirely meaningless. they're reduced from fictional characters to just being regular people, which plays into v3's overall message that at first sight overturns everything in 1 and 2 but on closer look really doesnt. basically these games in order create an overarching set of themes and ideas that are developed and subverted and ultimately built upon to the 3rd game and it becomes rlly rlly amazing if you can try to grasp that larger picture.

[Mitcher Green 17]

btw put this thread in games smh

[LordCowCow 840]

3 hours ago, Mitcher Green said:

btw put this thread in games smh

agreed idk why it's here, gonna move it to Video Games

[mido9 51]

3 hours ago, Mitcher Green said:

btw put this thread in games smh

That's like putting a /v/ thread in /vg/, you know what I'm sayin'? Those threads are more long-form and continous, this is more one-off.

 

3 hours ago, Mitcher Green said:

the only reason i'm up commenting is cuz of nour so be grateful

i feel its such a waste you started with 2 and then went back to 1. a lot of things in 2 become amazing because it relies on you being familiar with 1. the oppressive school environment in 1 was supposed to be the norm, so when 2 hits you with an unrealistic and surreal island, it turns the usual formula on its head. 1's characters were memorable (although quite flat i agree) is simply because of how straightforwardly they played to their own tropes (that can be seen in practically every aspect of their characters. their visual designs, abilities(aka how they kill or get killed), personalities, etc), so when 2 gave you characters that doesnt play to them as much and become their own characters, that also becomes a subversion. this continues on into v3 because v3 makes them non-characters in DR terms. most of the characters' talents dont match up to their personalities beyond the most surface level (which considering the reveal is entirely justified), the murders barely depend on their abilities (the story still does though, important distinction to make) and by ch 6, the game literally states that all of their characters are entirely meaningless. they're reduced from fictional characters to just being regular people, which plays into v3's overall message that at first sight overturns everything in 1 and 2 but on closer look really doesnt. basically these games in order create an overarching set of themes and ideas that are developed and subverted and ultimately built upon to the 3rd game and it becomes rlly rlly amazing if you can try to grasp that larger picture. 

I'm grateful to both of you, thanks.

Also, I still felt the idea of "oh this place sure looks placid and peaceful... except it's actually an infinite hell" in danganronpa 2, and the opposite idea of "this place looks like hell except it's actually heaven reveal at the end of DR1" so I'm fine with it. The meta aspects and overarching themes went over my head, and honestly even just understanding them and their intent now doesn't add anything to the experience at all to me, just feels like devs trying new self-contained themes with big changes and giving fancy justifications for how it means more than just a new theme.

Edited February 4, 2019 by mido9