Hoo boy, got the game on release date and played through it in five days. Sure was one hell of a ride.
Overall, I didn't enjoy the game as much as the first one. I don't know, maybe I expected someone other than Junko to be behind everything this time, even though the final case was pretty awesome, with Naegi and other making dynamic entries and all that. Somehow the school was a better place for the killing game in my opinion, with a clear, enclosed space, and not spread around like in this one, even though the island setting made it possible for the scenery to be more varied.
As for the deaths... I would have gladly given Sonia in exchange for Gundham. During the fourth trial when I eventually found out the truth I was just shouting NO NO NOT YOU at the screen, hahaha. He was definitely my favorite character of them all, it was so sad to see him go. And the implied notion that Gundham did it all to sacrifice himself for others made it hit even harder. He died on his feet, stayed true to himself to the end. He was the true Overlord of Ice. Goddamn I loved him.
I was expecting "Byakuya" to stay alive until the end, but they managed to throw quite curveball right in the beginning. It's a shame how the Ultimate Imposter reveal was kind of rushed, it could have been much better. Peko's trial and the aftermath was definitely one of the highlights of the whole game, didn't expect Fuyuhiko to become one of my favorite characters after that. Mikan went flat out mental during her trial, and it was pretty crazy. Her execution was weird, though. Pretty much the same "that's it?" reaction that I guess many others had.
I honestly expected Soda to die during the first chapters, he seemed like an obvious "the guy who dies first", but I'm glad he stayed alive. He was one of my favorites, design-wise. As a character he wasn't anything special, but an honest good guy with a knit cap, can't really hate him. Sonia, on the other hand, I felt had nothing going for her aside from the hilarious attempts to curse appropriately. Akane seemed like a survivor from the beginning, no real surprise there.
But then Chiaki. Oh God whyyyyyyyy. Definitely one of the favorites. Especially during the last case, holy hell that was brilliant.
Oh, and Nagito. He was bloody brilliant character. Never liked a guy so messed up in the head so much. He was written so well, and especially after going through his hope fragments he became one of my favorites, despite how he acted like an asshole so many times during the main game. Can't really remember another character in any game that I had so much mixed feelings with. And his corpse was pretty much the most shocking image in the whole game.
The ending along with the final case was awesome, especially the awakening part. It wasn't as great as the HOPE part of the first game, but all the plot twists and the ending made it all worth it. I was really glad to see Naegi again, he is one of my favorite protagonists ever, for some reason. Even though he could be seen as generic. The voice has to be one of the deciding factors, Hinata's voice didn't have such an impact, especially with the "SORE WA CHIGAU YO".
I could have written a lot more but I don't feel like throwing a huge wall of text that has been discussed here earlier for quite a bit, so I decided to include just the most pressing thoughts after playing the game. Still have some Monokumas and only few items missing, and a no-damage trial and a perfect Island Mode run to play. Definitely going for a platinum trophy.
Oh and Hiyoko was just freaking annoying. Definitely the worst character in the whole game, nothing good about her.
