I can safely say that I had
no idea what I was getting into. I almost thought I was smarter than the case for a scant few moments, before it totally tipped my confidence over its' head. I legitimately thought it was Kazuichi for a while - him talking about the breaker and the clear signs of someone trying to overload it struck me as something that he, mechanically minded as he presumably was, would think of. I was, of course, dead wrong, and
continued to be dead wrong, up till the point where I
really had to finger someone. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself.
I'm really bummed that Byakuya's dead, even though I really should have seen it coming - he was a guaranteed victim the moment that he uttered that there would be no victims as long as he was around. But I think, after a whole game of totally hating Byakuya (albeit a shift to grudging respect), it was almost cathartic to see how he'd seemed to grow... both physically
and emotionally. Even if it was unclear how much he actually appeared to remember from the first game, even if for whatever reason, he'd forgotten (or that was part of the memories that Monomi may or may not have taken), that there was still an obvious imprint of the impact that the last killing game and the people he endured it with left on him. Despite his clear abrasions, being around him felt a lot more comforting than it did in DR1, which I imagine was the point, but still.
And I really couldn't help but smile, when it came out during the trial that Byakuya died doing his best to fulfill his promise; he died doing something amazing, and definitely something he
never would have done in Danganronpa 1. Although, it still stung knowing that Byakuya did practically everything right in that situation to guarantee everyone's safety, and he still died for the trouble. He was a hero till the end, though. ;_;7
Let's talk about Nagito, though. Wow. What a fucking psychopath. I thought he was, y'know, kind of a cool character when I first started playing the game. I already mentioned how you felt like Kyoko, and he felt like your Makoto, the plucky, sincere amateur that doesn't say a lot of new stuff besides platitudes about trust, but occasionally comes up with clever observations. The role reversal struck me a lot, and probably what helped me lower my guard so much about him. I was convinced that he was going to be the most reliable character in the game, and when the other shoe dropped, and he started ranting on about how he wanted to see hope overcome despair, his fixation on seeing who's 'hope' would succeed... well, his claim that he was actually the murderer. That fucked with my head hard.
It fucked with my head hard enough to almost believe that he
did do it, and he'd been something like a Sayaka-esque trap (in the plucky assistant with the dark side), only he'd live to see his execution. Because at that point, I couldn't believe how someone could sound like he was sounding and still not be the killer. It was totally crazy. Like, the worst possible inversion of Junko's character - a warped obsession with 'hope' that seemed to contradict the whole principle of it - and this casual attitude and tone to what he was saying, no matter how awful it sounded. But in the back of my mind, I did know that it couldn't have been him. It was too easy, and I'll admit this is where this thread came in because I recalled a lot of people talking the case up, and I didn't think that ending
there would be, well, worth the hype.
So, of course, he didn't kill anyone. He'd meant to, which I think is almost as bad, but still. I was kinda lost on who, then, until the news about the Fire Door came out and I realized there was only one possible answer; my favourite male character.
I know a lot of people disliked Teruteru, but honestly, I really liked him from the get-go. His perverse nature was, admittedly, a little much at times, but I recall his line about him being the 'pervert that everyone likes' and I found it hard to disagree. His easygoing nature made him fun to be around, and I think a lot of the baggage of his 'pervert archetype' wound up being really offset by his, ah, unbiased approach to it. I think it helps that Todd Haberkorn's performance was totally spectacular, and Teruteru's jaunty carefree spirit translated incredibly well into his voice delivery. Even being the killer, I found it hard to hate Teruteru. I really bought all of his rationalizations - who he'd meant to kill, why he did it, what he'd meant for. I know Monokuma tried to twist it into an inherently selfish and ugly act (and in many ways, yes it was), but I think it was kinda clear how he managed to rationalize it all to himself, and how he'd never meant for any of it to go this far.
And that flashback to him leaving his restaurant and his mom for Hope's Peak. Holy shit, that devastated me. He just loved his mom, guys. He just wanted to see if she was safe. ;_;
His execution is probably the worst one I've... uh, probably ever seen, too. Mondo Butter was pretty bad, but this was a whole new level of terrible. I can't even begin to imagine how terrifying and painful it'd be to die that way. Especially when somehow I let myself believe, at the very beginning, it was going to end with those missiles. Then I was like '...I guess that last missile is about to finish him off?' and then I saw him covered in flour and... augh. Augh. The escalation (and bait and switch inherent to it) really caught me off guard. Why is it that food-based executions are so terrifying.
All this hurts even more knowing that none of it had to happen if Nagito weren't fucking insane, though.
Overall, very tense, totally amazing case on par with the best of DR1 already.
