This line in particular makes me want to see a "what-if" story where Komaru and Toko head up Ultimate Despair 2.0, as a followup to the "break the controller" ending.
I really did like Komaru and Toko's relationship though. Toko was one of my least favorite characters in DR1, but I found myself enjoying her a whole lot more in this game so I guess that's a good thing. Komaru did get a bit tiring with her whole "I'm just a normal girl!" excuse, but she did grow out of it and I certainly enjoyed her more than her brother.
The game did a much better job with Fukawa than DR1. Some actual character developement was certainly welcome.
Grew fond of Komaru mostly thanks to their interaction too.
It's actually another nice moment how in the end.
The only time you directly control Fukawa (and not genocider) is to protect Komaru by taking the controller away from her before she can break it and become Junko 2.0
Toko gets beaten up for doing it and even refuses to take Togami over Komaru when offered.
She has come a long way.
Just finished the game. Story-wise, I think it's right up there with DR1 and DR2. Lots of twists and absurd/dark stuff, so it didn't feel out of place for a Danganronpa game. The whole ending sequence was crazy, as expected.
The gameplay frustrated me at some points though, not necessarily because of difficulty, but because of how boring it got for me quickly. How many times did you have to hear Toko say "it's one of those arcade machines again" over and over again? I would have preferred it if the game naturally implemented those sections into levels and let me figure out what to do myself instead of constantly reminding you "oh, you have to actually use your brain for this part" when you walk into the arcade rooms. Seemed like lazy design. And that section inside the Towa factory with the lasers can go fuck off and die. I was getting pissed because I ran out of Break ammo and it was stupid how you had to aim way up high to kill the Siren Monokuma.
I also have mixed feelings for the music in this game. The boss battle music and everything related to the Warriors of Hope was awesome, and so were the remixes to old DR themes, but I was not a fan of the Towa City music that plays with different variations throughout the game. It got old real fast for me and felt out of place for the majority of the game, especially when the vocals kicked in.
Another thing I was not a fan of was how most of the adults in the game where just colored as blue and pink. I get that they probably did it because of budget, or maybe even a style choice (like pink blood), but it just looked dumb during cutscenes and while you're in the resistance base. That kind of stuff just takes me out of the game and makes it less believable. I was looking forward to seeing what the outside world looked like after DR1, and it does a good job of setting everything up at the very beginning of the game, but from that point on, it's just bland and boring with identical-looking adults and the Monokuma kids. Again, I know it's Danganronpa and it's a Vita game, but I wanted to see a more "realistic" interpretation of the outside world.
But I always play Danganronpa games for the story, and this one delivers in that category. I loved Monaca and all the evil shit she did to the other kids (particularly Nagisa), the surprising character development and relationship between Toko and Komaru, the throwbacks to Junko, seeing Makoto and Byakuya again, etc. Can't wait to see what happens next with this series!
Also just finished, the Warriors of Hope being alive was something that bothered me, but the shadow in front of them in that picture looks an awful lot like one of the poses Nagito uses, so I wouldn't be too shocked if he had yet another scheme involving them somewhere down the line.
Said the in the main thread but will say it here, the Komaru/Toko relationship really made the game for me.
Did Cherami Leigh get bronchitis during the recording of the game? And then they didn't wait for her to get better before continuing? Because like around chapter 5 Komaru gets bodyslammed by puberty but then in the cutscenes she has her regular high voice.
Just beat the game, and this was super jarring. Like, she sounded totally different in some of the lines in chapter 5. Aside from that, I thought she did a really great job though
So is this hagakure novel worth reading? Can't say he was ever that interesting to me...
I'd say his improvement brought him from a completely hopeless, hapless, morally bankrupt idiot to a hapless, morally ambiguous idiot. Kanon was interesting, though. And the depths of Hagakure's foolishness is always a nice sideshow.
I went into this with low expectations for the gameplay, so I was pleasantly surprised when it turned out to be a competent action game with a creative central weapon. My main beef is with the way the enemy encounters were handled. Generally speaking, I would've preferred more intensive battles rather than the frequent meaningless encounters with small numbers of Monokumas simply charging at you to be gunned down / easily avoided. The endgame mob fights (just before boarding the Excalibur) when you've got shit coming at you from all directions were about as good as it got, at least outside of the excellent boss battles. Also disliked how the combat puzzles were typically split up into the arcade rooms, making it obvious how you were supposed to handle a situation and diluting the satisfaction of getting it right.
Outside of the final boss and the forced sections, I don't think the game benefited from allowing you to switch to Genocider. It's a ridiculously unbalanced ability and detracted from the tension, to the extent that I basically banned myself from using it. Would've worked much better if it had been toned down, at least for the higher difficulties.
Komaru and Toko's relationship was superbly handled, with Toko in particular getting the most emotive reactions from me out of anyone in the cast. It was genuinely moving to see how far she's grown since DR1. In comparison, the Warriors of Hope were a mixed bag, though that's partially due to my general dislike of child characters. I'm glad the lesser members were disposed of relatively early, leaving the superior trio to get the majority of the development. Monaca was an effective villain, though I didn't really like her until she dropped her hyper-childish demeanour towards the endgame. Kotoko's breakdown prior to her boss fight was horrifying and made it very difficult to keep a cool head while fighting her. Ditto (to a lesser extent) for Nagisa.
I don't have particularly strong feelings towards the overall story. It was compelling enough to make me basically marathon the game, but at the same time it was more predictable than the other DR games and didn't impress me to the same extent. Perhaps my expectations were too high. It did manage to set a new franchise standard for abhorrent content though, and the anime cutscenes were surprisingly well produced, so it's certainly memorable for that.
Overall, this was definitely a worthy purchase and I enjoyed it greatly, but I can't really compare it (favourably or otherwise) to the other DR games. I'll go back and mop up the rest of the collectibles shortly.
I have a lot of thoughts on this one, having just finished it maybe 15 minutes ago. I should probably let myself sit and think on it some, but a few initial thoughts;
1. I thought for sure we were going to see the DR2 cast in their Ultimate Despair status, but with just Nagito and Hinata showing up...well, I'm kinda disappointed how DR1-centric the focus of the story was in general.
2. The idea of the 'hit list' was intriguing, but when you have very little interactions with most of the characters on it, it felt like somewhat of a cop-out. Hagakure's mom was neat, and seeing Chihiro's dad die so suddenly made me all sorts of sad. I kinda called Yuta dying a mile away though...partially because I had just finished replaying Fallout New Vegas: Dead Money, so the idea of exploding collars is fresh in my mind.
3. I liked how surprisingly sympathetic the Warriors of Hope were. Like, they were brats, and are still clearly antagonistic. But Monaca was the only one I found myself truly hating.
I definitely have more thoughts to post, particularly about the segment in Chapter 3 that's downright offensive on so many levels. Buuuut...I figure I'll let the whole experience sit for now, so I can gather my thoughts on the subject properly.
I dunno if everyone knows this, but I just found an easter egg. When you fight Shirokuma, if you hit him with a Dance Bullet first, he actually dances like Monokuma does in the intro for the anime:
It is me or there were no notable twist in the game? perhaps because is right in the middle of DR1 and DR2 but the Towa involvement with Junko was show in DR2 right?
I just beat it. Had so much fucking fun. It was a really interesting take on the series, and I like how they managed to nail the feel of the universe/storytelling in a game with such a different gameplay style. My final time for my first playthrough was 19 hours 10 minutes, with most collection stuff above 80%. Probably gonna platinum this!
I didn't need them, but that's because i'm a gemini, born right near the last day of the sign's dates; cancer is the next sign over! And the poster with the zodiac symbols in the room sure helped too.
It is me or there were no notable twist in the game? perhaps because is right in the middle of DR1 and DR2 but the Towa involvement with Junko was show in DR2 right?
I have to say, it was nice as a little sidestory but doesn't come anywhere near 1 and 2 which were stunning and lingered in my head for ages after each twist. One thing which I personally disliked was the absolute abundance of Monokumas. They were obviously needed for the basic design of this game, but from a story point of view it seriously lacks the impact that having just one "intelligent" monokuma has like in 1 and 2.
obviously shiro/kuro take that role in a way and it would make sense DR3 will have a monokuma with AI as the main antagonist, but having fuckloads of them running around kinda takes the impact away
It is me or there were no notable twist in the game? perhaps because is right in the middle of DR1 and DR2 but the Towa involvement with Junko was show in DR2 right?
The Towa Group is introduced to us in DRAE, they have not appeared prior and the mystery of who produced the Monokuma units was always a mystery until now
although IF tells us that apparently Chihiro helped code their programming WOOPSIES!
Even then, I don't really get how you could say it has "no twists".
Finished it yesterday. Eventhough the story was very predictable, I'm pleased they just went for it.
Now it's time to plat this game and read Hagakure's story. Kinda wished they did more with the captives in the game. Kenshiro would one shot the big bang monokuma.
I wonder what happened between AE and 2. They caught the remnants of despair, but I have a hard time believing they did it in Towa city.
Also Monaca is my fav. She has the same eyes as Junko did.
Finished it about a half hour ago. I think the story peaked in chapter 4 when Tolo realized how much she actually cares for Komaru. In chapter 5 they really could've cut most of those fake outs and the long winded explanations, too. Toko choosing not to choose between Byakuya and Komaru was a really touching, well-earned moment though. I thought the ending was beautiful.
In general I think the game handled it's themes very well. I thought the pasts of the Warriors of Hope were conveyed very subtlely and tactfully in Kotoko's case. Komaru and Toko have the best characterization in the series so far. What a wonderful exploration and evolution of a friendship.
Actually playing the game became a bigger drag the longer it went with plenty of "Come on, really?" moments to boot.
You know what though? I actually think it's really well-designed, on paper. The puzzles, the different ammo/enemies types. It's a respectable effort on their part.
Some of those encounters though, Christ. There's a special place in hell for the dude that thought four floors of that laser field bullshit was OK.
So yeah, I quite liked the story. Maybe even more than DR2.
Did Cherami Leigh get bronchitis during the recording of the game? And then they didn't wait for her to get better before continuing? Because like around chapter 5 Komaru gets bodyslammed by puberty but then in the cutscenes she has her regular high voice.
I caught that too. I felt like it started mid-conversation when they saved Kotoko.
My theory is they recorded the scenes out of order and the latter stuff actually came first while she was still feeling it out. The things Komsru has to say are more dramatic, so I could see why NISA figured it was okay (if this is the case), but it's pretty jarring in practice.
RE: Komaru's voice, it seemed to me that they wanted her to talk significantly lower when she got serious as evidence of her maturing (just like her change in posture) but then they would randomly go really high pitched again which was strange. Overall though the voice acting and direction were stellar IMO. NISA has really gotten the feel for this series down.
But if I were to acknowledge it, the reasoning behind it would probably have been that Monaca didn't really want the Warrior's of Hope dead but at the same time wanted Komaru to experience their deaths to help her grow into the second generation Junko. If that were the case, it would explain why Monaca wasn't trying to become a second generation Junko herself, because she knew she was too soft to kill her own friends. Instead, she figured Komaru could fill the role after a massive mental breakdown.
That being said, everyone being alive is way too lame so I'm just going to say it didn't happen. All the kids except Kotoko and Monaca are dead. End of story.
Oh, and Monaca's legs didn't magically heal, either. She wasn't standing in that picture. Nope.
RE: Komaru's voice, it seemed to me that they wanted her to talk significantly lower when she got serious as evidence of her maturing (just like her change in posture) but then they would randomly go really high pitched again which was strange. Overall though the voice acting and direction were stellar IMO. NISA has really gotten the feel for this series down.
But if I were to acknowledge it, the reasoning behind it would probably have been that Monaca didn't really want the Warrior's of Hope dead but at the same time wanted Komaru to experience their deaths to help her grow into the second generation Junko. If that were the case, it would explain why Monaca wasn't trying to become a second generation Junko herself, because she knew she was too soft to kill her own friends. Instead, she figured Komaru could fill the role after a massive mental breakdown.
That being said, everyone being alive is way too lame so I'm just going to say it didn't happen. All the kids except Kotoko and Monaca are dead. End of story.
Oh, and Monaca's legs didn't magically heal, either. She wasn't standing in that picture. Nope.
With Jataro and Masaru, it makes sense why they're alive. Their "executions" are just other kids dragging them away. Nothing concrete about that. The other Warriors of Hope question whenever both of them die, with Monoca throwing a fit causing Kotoko and Nagisa to back down from finding out.
Nagisa somehow surviving being crushed with only a few bruises is bullshit though. But this is the same series where somehow Junko had a "functional" corpse after being crushed in the DR1 finale, so the series doesn't really take getting crushed that seriously.
I know there's translations of Zero online, but I've never heard of anything for Kirigiri, just summaries on the wiki.
I'd love to see both get official translations. If they're part of the canon universe, I want to be able to read them, and considering the fanbase for this series, I think they could be profitable, particularly since neither of them are particularly lengthy from what I've heard.
Edit: Doing some more research, the Kirigiri novels do seem to be denser than I thought. I still want them though.
With Jataro and Masaru, it makes sense why they're alive. Their "executions" are just other kids dragging them away. Nothing concrete about that. The other Warriors of Hope question whenever both of them die, with Monoca throwing a fit causing Kotoko and Nagisa to back down from finding out.
Nagisa somehow surviving being crushed with only a few bruises is bullshit though. But this is the same series where somehow Junko had a "functional" corpse after being crushed in the DR1 finale, so the series doesn't really take getting crushed that seriously.
I wouldn't be surprised if Masaru, Jataro, and Nagisa were originally written to die and consequently we'll never see them again. I can believe Kotoko was always meant to be saved by Toko at her execution because of how much of a role she plays in Chapter 5, but it's just so obvious to me that the other three were supposed to die. Like, was it really supposed to be that the three characters disappear in an animation that has always been an execution scene and their only reappearance is a drawing in the credits? There's just no way.
I'll probably eat my words when they play a major role in 3.
I wouldn't be surprised if Masaru, Jataro, and Nagisa were originally written to die and consequently we'll never see them again. I can believe Kotoko was always meant to be saved by Toko at her execution because of how much of a role she plays in Chapter 5, but it's just so obvious to me that the other three were supposed to die. Like, was it really supposed to be that the three characters disappear in an animation that has always been an execution scene and their only reappearance is a drawing in the credits? There's just no way.
I'll probably eat my words when they play a major role in 3.
Well, what contradicts that is the very fact that the credits image of them still being alive exists. I wouldn't be surprised if they were originally written to die but then Kodaka changed his mind at a late time, and that image was added in to make it clear that they're still there.
The first thing that comes to mind is that picture was a complete afterthought, which is why it was just inserted into the credits without any context. Maybe as a means to calm people who would have gone crazy for some reason or another if the game ended and they turned out to actually have been killed, or because some last minute idea for the Warriors of Hope in the future of the series came to Kodaka, and what could have been a surprise twist in a future game ("they actually survived!") was actually inserted into the same game as a tease.
I wouldn't be surprised if Masaru, Jataro, and Nagisa were originally written to die and consequently we'll never see them again. I can believe Kotoko was always meant to be saved by Toko at her execution because of how much of a role she plays in Chapter 5, but it's just so obvious to me that the other three were supposed to die. Like, was it really supposed to be that the three characters disappear in an animation that has always been an execution scene and their only reappearance is a drawing in the credits? There's just no way.
I'll probably eat my words when they play a major role in 3.
Just because they end up playing a major role in 3 doesn't mean they weren't initially supposed to die. It sounds like Kodaka only recently started on the story for 3, so he could have just had an outline prior to that with nothing set in stone.
Probably pretty obvious, but I just noticed that Kurokuma and Shirokuma are Junko's hairbobbles, or at least fairly close to it.
It's pretty heavily foreshadowed that none of the Warriors of Hope died, not just the ending tease. Even the dialogue after you beat Nagisa hints at him surviving. Might just be an excuse to not kill off kids and we'll never see them again, but it did feel like a bit of a loose end that could be explained in the future. Be interesting to see how, or if, they try to tie any of this up within the regular killing game format.
I just finished the game and while I liked the story for the most part, I reeeeeeeally hope Monaca isn't the main big bad of DR3. The plot's biggest failing is easily how it handled the child villains, who keep alternatiing from way too goofy and slapstick even in comparison to Junko/Monokuma to suddenly way too graphic and depressing backstories every few minutes. Felt incredibly jarring and a way to try and make a set of villains who were more fucked up than Junko, but it just felt sort of cheap in a series that previously had an amazing villain. Biggest example was Kotoko; not the type to really label something as 'problematic' or whatever, but the child prostitution angle was horribly handled. It didn't have remotely the impact even stuff that was less plot-crucial like
Celeste lying to a previously goofy, nice and non-violent Hifumi about being raped to get his help
in the first game's third trial did. Similarly every other child abuse backstory was blunt and spelt out to you by characters who were otherwise way too cartoony in a game already populated with giant homicidal bear robots.They could still have those elements and use them well and they already have in previous games, so I really don't know if I the villains being little kids meant they felt they had to pull back on certain dramatic elements? But then the various notes you find of adults getting increasingly broken about their kids murdering them felt suitably creepy, so like, even in the same game there's far better examples of villainous kids than the actual villains.
The reveal with Shirokuma and Kurakuma (who I both really liked as side-characters regardless) as the two halves of the Junko AI in DR2 was great, and part of me's wondering if it'd have been possible to rewrite AE so it downplayed the Warriors of Hope and played up those two more? The setting of homocidal kids was great, just the main people leading them just didn't really 'click' with me like most Danganronpa stories normally do and the two 'kumas could've been in the game more to fill the void Monokuma only being a personality-less drone left. I laughed a ton at Kurakuma's dumbass ramblings were regardless, despite how bizarrely short his screentime was.
I dug everything else more or less though, including the buildup to both DR2 and DR3 with that really cool final anime scene. Toko also went from the character I probably cared the least about in DR1 to being one of my favorites, they totally nailed fleshing her out. Funny that in a game that suffers from trying to up the ante so much with its villains to try and force you to give a shit about them that they could make DR1's more cartoonish Ultimate feel three-dimensional and relatable.
Komaru sorta got on my nerves at times though HOLY SHIT YOU'RE 'NORMAL' WE GET IT FUCK
Probably the weakest of the three DR games, but if nothing else I'm glad I played it to experience a really fantastic character arc for someone who was initially more of a funny gimmick than a fleshed out person in the original game.
Kurokuma was surely voiced by Amanda Miller, but I didn't recognized either VA when I heard Shirokuma ingame. Most likely Amanda as well, but in a really soft voice.
Kurokuma was surely voiced by Amanda Miller, but I didn't recognized either VA when I heard Shirokuma ingame. Most likely Amanda as well, but in a really soft voice.
DanganRonpa on a whole has an absolutely stellar English voice cast. Probably the strongest of any series I've ever played. So many incredible standout performances.
DanganRonpa on a whole has an absolutely stellar English voice cast. Probably the strongest of any series I've ever played. So many incredible standout performances.
Yeah, different personalities of Junko had different VAs, so I don't think Erin had any part in either of the two of this game. Of course, she's still in the game as Genocide Jack, and still amazing at it.
Also was happy to see them not call her Genocide Jill in this like they did in DR1. Genocider Sho is still the superior name(JPN only), but I'll take it. There was an error earlier in the game though when Komaru knew that the Genocide Jack serial killer was a female(referred to Jack as "she" and "her"). At the time when the news was talking about it, the police had no knowledge about the killer really, especially not the gender. Kind of made me wary of Komaru for a bit of the game.
DanganRonpa on a whole has an absolutely stellar English voice cast. Probably the strongest of any series I've ever played. So many incredible standout performances.
Well I mean, the ending flat out shows Hajime busting them up to rip out Junko's AI. There could be a way but eh, it seems unlikely.
Agreed that the English cast for these games are great. Even though I wasn't super jazzed on them story-wise, I felt the Warriors of Hope sounded good (Jataro despite how weird he was sounded genuine, socially-awkward kid) and were spot on for goofy characters who could sound angry and scared when they had to.
Kurokuma was surely voiced by Amanda Miller, but I didn't recognized either VA when I heard Shirokuma ingame. Most likely Amanda as well, but in a really soft voice.
On underused characters, I was surprised by how little Genocider seemed to be in it, considering the massive Toko focus. She got a few scenes, but overall really didn't seem to be around too much.
Jack was used really well, I think. She's like seasoning. A dose is good, but too much can ruin the meal. I think the spots they did choose to insert her into the plot were good and made sense and weren't too numerous. And that contributes to them elevating Toko as a character, too, which is quite arguably the game's biggest achievement.
There was already too much kurokuma considering how annoying he was. Though he was pretty pointless as a character, you could remove him entirely and the game would be no different.
Jack was used really well, I think. She's like seasoning. A dose is good, but too much can ruin the meal. I think the spots they did choose to insert her into the plot were good and made sense and weren't too numerous. And that contributes to them elevating Toko as a character, too, which is quite arguably the game's biggest achievement.
Nagito was way less creepy in this game but man, seeing him back really brought back all those creepy memories from DR2. If people played this before DR2, they would be spoiled by his motivations.
