@Kidfried@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy@Ralizah
Well peeps, I’m only now finishing the first trial 😅
It was way longer than I expected.
I went back to read the group’s early Ch1 reactions and I suppose my impressions are exactly in line with what you all thought.
I suspected Shuichi initially (well, after briefly falling for the Gonta red herring) and then was really put out when it became apparent
Kaede was the culprit. And the worst part is how her motives were so pure, trying to save the group and all. Then to sacrifice herself and not take advantage of the first kill perk, just to try to flush out the mastermind in the trial, it’s all so sad. I’m quite disappointed as well to not have her around. ...Unless there’s a Junko-like plot twist again where we see her again.
I actually like Shuichi though. The High Schooler Ultimate Detective trope is overplayed in the series and in Japanese games in general, but it really fits here. Shuichi is charming enough to carry the game I think, even if he’s no Kaede.
As for the new trial mechanics, I think I’ll like them. Psyche Taxi didn’t show up and that’s the one that I disliked in the demo.
As for characters - I still like my avatar girl Kirumi, although we really don’t have much background on her yet, but she’s so devoted; I can’t imagine she’ll resort to killing. Also a fan of Maki and her strange split personality traits of being the ultimate child caretaker and yet hating children. Miu is... well, all the crassness for shock value is prone to get old if she doesn’t add some depth to her personality, but I think she might improve since there is an allusion that she does have this weird vulnerability as well and appears to be compensating for something. Angie’s annoying but I think it’s so cute how she bobs her head back and forth 😂. As for the guys, Kokichi is about to get on my last nerve with his antics and attempts at manipulating everyone and I hope he’s next to go. My favorite of the boys is probably Ryoma because he’s so pragmatic. And he seems like he’s going to end up killing someone for a good cause, like Kaede did. We’ll see.
Overall it’s a great game and I’m really enjoying it. I’m quite impressed. Sorry I’m running a bit slow. Every time I sat down to play, something came up. Vita battery dies, urgent phone call, a sudden headache ... always something. 😅
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Oh yeah, and you reminded me i wasn’t heartbroken when Monokid was pushed into the piano spikes. He was pretty annoying. In fact all the Monocubs are irritating. But I guess that’s the point. But I’m already having convulsions everytime I hear “Rise and Shine Ursine!” And “So long, bear well!” 🤮 😂
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
After multiple games of bear puns in various Danganronpa titles and Zero Jr's incessant rabbit puns in Virtue's Last Reward, I'm very over the 'animal villain making cringy animal puns' thing, lol.
Currently Playing: Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition
@PSVR_lover@nessisonett@Ralizah@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy It does impress me how these things can be translated over because although I’ve no knowledge of the Japanese language, I’m sure bear puns don’t translate directly.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
I’ve underestimated the length of these Chapters. It’s been a while but I don’t remember the chapters, and the trials in particular, to be this long in the previous entries.
But I did finish Ch2. A great chapter. And all I have to say is:
Nooooooo!!!!!!! Kirumi! Gone!
Do I even want to keep playing?! 😭
And I will say, that with the death of Kaede, Kirumi, and Ryoma — most of my favorite characters are gone.
Ryoma was the most interesting of the boys, with the dark and tragic past, his sadness and feelings of guilt and want for restitution. Then to find out his motive video was empty because he cared for no one... it’s just too much. 😢 I wanted to see more of his arc.
And Kirumi, the ever servile and gracious maid, who could do anything. A real superwoman. RIP Kirumi. RIP.
So now we’re stuck with an bunch of whiney spares and treacherous imbeciles. 😜 (Can you tell I’m a little bitter?)
I’ll admit that Kaito has grown on me with his forceful big-brother persona. And Maki has become even more interesting with the twist at the end! Very much looking forward to getting to know her and what this is all about.
Gonta, the epitome of “Why use many word when few word do trick?”- is charming in a simpleton sort of way. And Himiko is cute the way she acts like a 5 year-old playing “make-believe”. The others, are just quirky and odd so we’ll see if I warm up to them.
I do agree that there is a lot more strange off-the-wall random dialogue intermixed with the brilliant philosophical and ingenious storytelling. The goofy nonsensical tangents seem more plentiful this time around, led mainly by the Monokubs. Other characters also just carry on and on at some points in the trial, droning about nothing of consequence. At least Miu’s crass one liners are short and usually humorous. But Kokichi’s frequent multiple personality disordered style antics and Angie’s repeated references to Atua ad nauseam ... It just slows down the flow of the trial. The series is known for the crazy and shocking dialogue and plot, but some of these feel a little like filler this time around, but I realize I’m still early in the game, so I might come around and understand more of the reasoning later.
But yes, the mysterious storyline and brilliant deceptive web of narrative is still there and wonderfully done and I look forward to finding out more.
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Thanks for the correction, 😅 you’re right about that. I’ve corrected it in my post for posterity.
And hey, no worries. See how things go and if you feel up to it, then rejoin the discussion if you’d like. I was worried that you were holding off on any updates due to my tardiness, but your own illness is a much more worrisome issue. I’ll not make a big deal of it since you specifically hoped wouldn’t, so I’ll just say I’m glad you’re feeling better and hang in there. You’re my hero for spending all day around all those infection spreading walking Petri dishes we call ‘children’ 😜
Look forward to you’re forum engagement as much or as little as you feel inclined. We all have those lulls in our gaming interests, so it’s no problem. 😄
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy Sorry to hear about your sick spell. Definitely glad it wasn't covid! You have more guts than I do: I'd be terrified to step into a room full of children right now.
@KidfriedWell, most of the characters are non-white, since they're asians. In general, the lack of ethnic diversity in Japanese media is a reflection of their own society, which is, like... 98% ethnic Japanese? Something like that. In fact, the few times black characters do pop up in Japanese media, they're typically Americans.
Good thoughts. I agree that the killer's motivations in the third trial were a bit lackluster overall, although I enjoyed the very brutal and off-the-wall execution.
@Th3solution It's not your imagination. The game has the longest trials in the series.
I'm glad I never got attached to Kirumi. Her 'perfect maid' schtick definitely made her suspicious to me, so I figured she'd end up as the killer in one of the trials.
The cast takes a while to warm up to, but I felt like certain relationships forged over the course of V3 were more touching and layered than anything in the first two games. It'll be interesting to see how you feel about everybody by the end.
Currently Playing: Resident Evil Village: Gold Edition
@KidfriedI thought they'd retconned the entire series at first, too. I don't really think that's the case, though. DRV3 takes place in an alternative universe where the original DR stories were always fiction, just like ours. In the DRV3 universe, they just happen to love the property so much that it grows in popularity to the point where they actually emulate the goings-on of the property in this warped reality show.
Thematically, however, they did very much light the entire property on fire. It's controversial, but it's actually a really cool approach: rather than just let the series die randomly, or especially leave it in a place where it can persist endlessly, Kodaka wanted to do something radical with his baby. So he brutally deconstructed his own series, and used the opportunity to have a dialogue with fans: about the nature of fiction, about the corrosive effects of unrestrained market forces on art, how an endless case of sequelitis saturates and destroys properties, and, more broadly, the nature of human life itself. DRV3 ditches the absurd hope/despair dichotomy of previous games and hones in on a deeply existentialistic message about freedom and meaning in an absurd universe.
The way it thematically dissects the series is the reason I think it's best as any given person's final Danganronpa game. The game works as a story on its own, but it also dialogues with a player who has made their way through the various games and is presumably a fan who doesn't really want it to end. Some fans feel like it's "fan blaming" or otherwise angry at its audience, but I didn't get that sense at all: I don't think the bloodthirsty audience of the DRV3 universe is really a 1:1 stand in with the player (crucially, DRV3's in-universe fans know the participants are flesh and blood humans, which obviously adds a whole other moral dimension to proceedings). I think the creator respects fans of his property enough that he decided not to treat them like children and used this game as an opportunity to really communicate with them in a way that doesn't happen too often in this industry. The impression I get, then, is of someone who really appreciates his fans, but also someone who is ready to step away from his creation before success becomes its own undoing. This is reaffirmed by the fact that the significant amount of post-game content feels like a celebration of the series, where he brings characters together from every piece of DR media to create the ultimate piece of official fan-fiction.
The ending is hugely controversial in general, and it won't surprise you to find out that a number of fans consider it an insult to them. That's going to happen any time a series doesn't outright pander to its fanbase and try something different. Others kind of dislike The Truman Show/The Running Man vibes to the whole 'fake reality show' twist, but I felt like V3 did a much better job of taking that same idea and interrogating it in such a way that it became much more meaningful as a result.
I have mixed feelings about it but it was enjoyable nonetheless.
I do think that the murder mechanisms were a little more hokey than usual, although I really liked the way that the katana was used to re-lock the room from the outside. The sickle placement and disposal left some doubt in me (no one noticed him placing it and removing it?), not to mention the fact that Angie only bled conveniently under the floor and nowhere else (perhaps Kiyo cleaned up any other splatter on the floor?)
I was really waiting for the reveal that Tenko was actually Angie’s killer. As facts were coming out, I was really hoping for that scenario so we could see how Monokuma was going to handle the fact that the blackened had already been killed by someone else and whether Tenko’s murderer would have been punished or not. I was hoping they would let Kiyo live and be unpunished for Tenko’s murder, being the second one, and how that would have made him (them?) a target for the next murder because people (namely Himiko) would seek revenge for Tenko’s death. But alas, he was the culprit for both murders, so what do I know. He conveniently could be punished in the traditional way.
Definitely not sad to see him go though. He was creeping me out big time and only got worse with the whole “forbidden love” thing going on. If there’s one thing about Danganronpa — it sure knows how to make you feel uncomfortable.
As for the earlier parts of the chapter with the student council and Atua, it was okay I guess. I see where you’re coming from @Kidfried regarding the message being about how people cling to religious faith for hope during times of hardship. I didn’t really deduce that originally from Angie’s fanatical ramblings, but now I can see it based on your bringing it to my attention. Angie was always at least happy in her own tone-deaf world view. Perhaps there’s some value in that. Reminds me of the message in the novel Lord of the Flies.
But she’s gone now. And with what we have left, clearly Maki is the star of the game for me now; really starting to enjoy her. Shuichi and Kaito are good too. I have a love-hate relationship with Kokichi and his antics. He’s such an agitator, egomaniac, and smart-aleck that I can’t stand him. He reminds me of some people I know. But in truth, he plays his role well, like The Joker, he strikes me as one of those sociopaths who “just likes to watch the world burn.” Miu, well what is there to say for her — she’s just a one-trick pony so far and seems to still be there for one-liner shock value. At least this chapter she drifted (at least temporarily) from her usual sexual obsessive remarks to being absurdly disgusting about her bowel movements instead. Ugh 😂. Gunta, Tsumugi, Himiko, Keebo.... they’re all just “meh” still so hopefully some of these get to shine in the upcoming chapters.
The chapter was still really enjoyable and although my progress is slow, I enjoy the time I have with it. I’ll probably start spending less time on the casino activities and collecting all the gifts and more time with progressing story because I really want to see where this thing goes. My guess is that Maki, Shuichi, Kaito, and Kokichi are in this for the long haul ‘til the end. The others are all bound to be murdered or take a turn as the blackened. Tsumugi seems to be the sketchiest right now. She has zero personality, so either they’re saving her for a big reveal like they did with Maki, or she really was designed to be a disposable character and will be easy to kill off as a throw-away victim.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
I liked this chapter, more than the previous one and it had me guessing up until the end.
I didn’t think of Gonta until the middle of the trial when Kokichi implicated him. In my mind I was half expecting that Gonta would come out as the culprit and suddenly start talking in an educated and sophisticated tone and reveal that he’d been playing the “stupid” card the whole time as a diversion. I would have liked that. Alas, his motivation for killing was more altruistic.
Kokichi has really antagonized himself from the group at this point and so I’m curious what happens, as I feel like someone will want revenge on him. And what the heck is going on with Kaito? Some kind of infection? Is he going to turn into a zombie? 😂 I guess playing this alongside RE2 has me thinking zombie apocalypse.
As for the actual murder and the whole virtual world setting, I really liked the change of pace of having a virtual murder.
One question though, I seem to recall that in one of the first two games, I think it was the first one, that there was a case where one student was a mastermind that tricked another student into murdering someone but in that case Monokuma held the one who planned it culpable for the murder. Am I remembering that right?
Amyways, I’m not terribly attached to many characters at this point except Maki and Kaito. I sure hope Kokichi gets his due for tricking Gonta into murder though. We shall see.
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy I can’t remember where you left off, so I didn’t tag you on my spoilers for Ch 4, but if you’ve made it that far then feel free to give me your thoughts.
I’ve been playing the game at a slow pace but I enjoy it in 1-2 hour sessions every couple days. Each chapter seems to take about 6 or more hours for me.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
@Th3solution You're probably thinking of the third trial in DR1, where Celeste convinces Hifumi to murder Taka and frame Hagakure before murdering him herself. It's important to note that she soiled her hands as well, though, and, with Hifumi dead, she was the only blackened to punish. Kokichi convincing someone to kill another member of the cast is horrifying, but not a strategy they could use to "win" the killing game.
I really, really liked the angle of the fourth chapter. Having to explore the possibilities and limitations of a murder within a video game (sort of) was super interesting. Also, like DR2's third chapter, I LOVE the foreshadowing involved. I was never a big fan of Gonta, but I really liked the tragedy of his circumstances, especially in light of knowing the "truth" he was exposed to. Kokichi is an easy character to hate, but I really like how his character arc evolves over the course of the game. I think you'll agree once you play further in.
@Foxy-Goddess-Scotchy No problem. I’m continuing in at my pace and if/when you get a chance to jump back in I’ll be interested in your thoughts. This is a good chapter and the writers really are quite creative and skilled to keep coming up with these scenarios.
I hope I can make headway in Ch 5, but I’m also really enjoying RE2 and I flip back and forth depending on my mood. Also being able to play DR3 on Vita means I use it if I fancy some portable game time.
“We cannot solve our problems with the same thinking we used when we created them.”
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