Well, wow.
UNMARKED SPOILERS AHEAD FROM DR1 AND DR2
Can't believe how a spoiler runied part of the game climax to me. I was trying to find the name of the first game's protagonists before I started the game, then when I found a page with their names on it, it had a spoiler about Junko being an AI. Fuck, that ruined the whole "Cuz it's a game" revelation, since with that I made up my mind that they were locked in a SAO kinda world the moment Usami transformed that chicken into a cow, and that was in the prologue.
Talking about SAO, it gave me a lot of vibes from that, with the people locked in machines, the virtual world, dying in the game meaning death in the real world, etc.
My favorite characters (Ibuki and Chiaki) died, but the other two that I liked (Fuyuhiko and Akane) survived. Akane reminded me a lot of Aoi Asahina, my favorite from DR1. The others that survived I just couldn't stand (Kazuichi and Sonia). They were the most boring characters ever, especially Kazuichi. In DR1 I only didn't like one survivor (Ultimate Clairvoyant guy). The team at the end of the second game reminded me vaguely the team from the first game's ending: the athlete, the master/submissive pair, the unlikable guy who eventually became likeable.
The arcs that I liked the most were the Fuyuhiko one and the MC's. Discovering that you were pratically one of the big bads was cool, and the scene where Fuyuhiko stabbed himself was awesome. He had a great turnaround, because I initally hated him, then after the eye patch he became very good in my eyes.
Some of the pictures shown in the last trial gave some insight about who they were before, right? Akane was the one who kept fasting to reach maximum hunger despair, Kazuichi were the one who killed people with a machinegun, Fuyuhiko were the one who implanted Junko's eye, at least that's what I understood. The one who had sex with Junko's dead body and the one who gave her/his parents away didn't become clear to me. It also could be that those cases were not related to the characters, but I thought the graphics were pretty close to what they were (beanie on Kazuichi, hair on Akane, eye patch on Fuyuhiko).
The 4th wall breaking in this game was huge, especially in the end. Final Fantasy, Ace Attorney, Pokemon, Professor Layton, "characters inside a game", etc. Talking about the end, the Queen was back, at least. Yes, I like Junko a lot, she's one of my favorite characters of the whole series, even though I thought it would be better if she was left in the first game only. Her voice acting was one of the best in a english dub that I've ever heard. It might be clumsy and cliche but if they continue with the series they should do a Saw style villain, somebody trained or influenced by Junko. Hell, something even better to me would be to separate Junko from Monokuma, but I guess she's too big to do that now (pun not intended).
After all, I liked the game a lot, and Hinata was a cool protagonist, especially when he went all super saiyan in the end.
EDIT: I loved when I discovered by myself Miharu's killer. I thought something like "Well, it was one blow to the head, instant death, with a long club like weapon. There is only one person that could do that here in one hit, and that is the Ultimate Swordsman." Boom, nailed it. Of course, her relationship with Fuyuhiko surprised me, but still I was happy to deduce the killer before the trial.
