Topic: Danganronpa

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I've finished the main story in Danganronpa V3, so going to throw some more in depth thoughts about it here. Overall I really enjoyed it. Danganronpa 2 is still my favourite, but this one was also a lot of fun.

After the marvellous Jabberwock Island in Danganronpa 2, going back to another school setting was a bit lame. But at least it was a big improvement over the Danganronpa 1 school, as there were a lot more areas to explore including outside areas. Likewise, the cast of Danganronpa 2 are still my favourites, but the Danganronpa V3 characters mostly grew on me throughout the game.

The trials were great in V3. Lots of twists and turns. I always suck at figuring out whodunnit, but it was fun trying to guess which things are red herrings. It's nice that there were lots of different mini-games during the trials, whilst still keeping the core focus on the debates. The only parts of trials that bothered me were the hangman mini-games. Too often I'd know what they were implying, but not the exact words wanted to describe it.

Chapter 1: So it's another school setting, but we're off to a strong start with Kaede. Her cheerful, enthusiastic personality is wonderful, and it's nice to play as someone with a well-defined Ultimate ability. She quickly became my favourite Danganronpa protagonist. Everyone forgetting their Ultimate abilities made me think that Monokuma was up to some shenanigans, perhaps he'd switched some people's abilities around. The big plot twist was very well done, I never would have expected they'd make a protagonist the blackened. That made for a very emotional punishment sequence. Rantaro's the big unknown here, clearly there's going to be a twist related to him.

Chapter 2: And now we're stuck as Shuichi. He's fine, and it's still great to be playing as some with an Ultimate ability, but I was way more fond of Kaede. And now we're buddies with Kaito. Having buddies in the world of Danganronpa never ends well, so from this point on I keep suspecting he'll be the next victim or blackened every chapter. Likewise, Kokichi is too into the death game, and he's super annoying, so I keep expecting him to be a victim or blackened as well. It was nice get more focus on Himiko, seeing her use her mage abilities to perform actual magic. And to reinforce the lesson of not getting too attached to Danganronpa characters, they kill off my other favourite female character, Kirumi. She was so cool. I sure seem to have a habit of liking female characters that end up getting killed in chapters 1/2. Ryoma was interesting and had a lot of potential for character growth, so it was a shame to lose him this early.

Chapter 3: Angie went from being a goofy one-note character to being a super annoying character, so I was glad to see the back of her. Tenko had been annoying up until now, but I was just starting to warm up to her. She seemed to be toning down on the whole "male degeneracy" complaints every other sentence, plus she did genuinely care for Himiko. Korekiyo had flown under my radar, but he was utterly horrific here. Glad to see him get his punishment. The resurrection ritual was a significant point here, making me suspect that the world might be a virtual world again. Surprised that resurrections didn't come into play again in later chapters.

Chapter 4: Little easter egg I noticed was in the Ultimate Cosplay lab. The two costumes on display were of Zanki Zero characters, which interestingly released a year after Danganronpa V3. The virtual world was a fun change of pace, further making me think that the main world was another virtual world. Gonta was my favourite male character in this game, so it was yet another emotional execution sequence. Gonta was always so nice, and trying to look out for the characters. I was also oddly fond of Miu for some reason, so it was a shame to see her go. After this, I was really hoping that Kokichi would die next.

Chapter 5: Finally seeing the outside world, but this has got to be a trick, right? It's always hard to tell whether Kokichi is telling the truth about being the mastermind or not. After seeing the body, I figured it would be Kokichi's. Having it as Kaito seemed too obvious, though I was starting to wonder whether that was a double bluff. It was a shame to lose Kaito, but I had been expecting him to die ever since Chapter 2. It was a cool twist to try and outsmart the mastermind and beat them at their own game. Kokichi was a complex character. He did a lot of bad things, but often had a justification for doing them. Maki is cool, so I was getting worried when it was looking like she'd be the blackened.

Chapter 6: Surprised to see K1-B0 survive this long. A metal body is advantageous in a killing game, so I expected him to be killed off earlier. Weird to see him actually do something major. He was alright, I didn't particularly like or hate him. Tsumugi being the big bad was a surprise. I was expecting the mastermind to be a 17th person, either Kaede's twin or some variation of Junko. Plus, I was expecting the 17th person to be controlling K1-B0, either directly or by manipulating him with his inner voice. It was cool at first when Tsumugi was cosplaying as Danganronpa 1 and 2 characters. I was expecting Tsumugi to have been inspired by the previous games to make her own killing game and spread despair into the real world. That would have been such a cool twist. But then it turns out that V3 was essentially a fictional world as well, which seemed lame in comparison. That outcome kind of made the background story and character development pointless. I don't particularly dislike that plot twist, but I'm not too fond of it either. The parallels between the "player" and the "audience" I took to be tongue-in-cheek, and not something to take seriously. It was cool having the plot twist in plain sight with the "V3", which I had naturally assumed meant Version 3.

Now I'm done with the story, I want to max out friendships with everyone and get their dialogue. After that, not sure whether I'll try to complete the remaining achievements. That'll depend on whether I get hooked on the post-game mini-games.

It does kind of feel like the end of an era. I found myself playing it at a slower rate towards the end, as I knew that it would be over once it's over. Maybe I need a new visual novel to get obsessed over. On the plus side, I can now read any Danganronpa conversations without having to be cautious about spoilers.