LogFAQs > #952555531

All of this isnt even mentioning what I hated about the game from the start, and that was the absolutely nonsensical motivation of the despair virus. I mean, sure, by the end you sort of know what was going on and this sort of thing is a lot more forgivable with that context. But, at the time, did ANYONE enjoy the despair virus? It is basically Monokuma choosing both the murderer and the victim, and I feel like I utterly muttered this is bullshit more times during this case than I did at any time over the last year combined. I mean, just from a what makes Danganronpa interesting perspective, it was always that sort of anyone can kill anyone tension underneath the surface. And then, in this case, it was well one person could kill one other person and also the reason for doing so was asinine. The despair virus might make more sense with the context of the ending, but it sure as hell didnt make sense at the time. A magical virus that could do anything it wanted to anybody is long past where Im willing to suspend my disbelief, and I was onboard with the magical bear sending an old man into space from the get go of the first game. I like that Danganronpa has this unique flair and I dont even mind that it is silly and asks you to suspend your disbelief for a lot of little things. But this was too much. This wasnt as much suspending your disbelief as it was asking you to lock it in a submarine driven by unicorns and burying it at the bottom of an ocean of spaghetti. It is less egregious now, but that didnt make it any more fun to deal with at the time.

So that was a lot of ranting and raving about stuff I hated, but I don't actually totally hate this case. There's a lot of fun touches here if you can get away from the dumpster fire of stuff I mentioned. I know Mikan is a character that seems to get a lot of hatred around here, but I actually like her turn at the end. Her voice actress was fantastic, and this is yet another example of how much better the voice acting is in this game than in the last one. Like she went from ditzy klutz to hysterical lunatic to unfeeling psychopath sometimes in back to back to back lines, and all of it was really well acted. It was a nice to get a live peak at an Ultimate Despair too, once you figured out what the hell was going on. You get little glimpses at the end and the brief scene with Nagito and Hajime in the ship, but this sort of insanity was nice to see. You can say people were grafting body parts on to them and humping corpses, but actually hearing Mikan talk for a while is a nice compliment to just telling us about all the gross stuff theyve done. I wouldnt have minded Mikan as a villain at all if it wasnt for the stupidity of the whole despair virus surrounding it, and it was a good enough finale for a case I hated.

Well, except for the execution I suppose. I teased before that there was only one other execution that was even close to 1-3 in terms of how much I disliked it, and this is it. I at least like the homage to the iconic scene in Dr. Strangelove, and the play on strange and love is at least moderately clever. The scene itself though is kinda a let down, especially with how great 1-2 was in comparison. Her flying off on a giant arm works as an homage to Dr. Strangelove, but it is like they just stopped there and didnt try to think of anything else clever. Mikan riding off into the sunset with a horny look of her face is basically all we get here and this is probably the execution that has the least going on. It is the same thing from start to finish without any fun or interesting twists along the way.

Of all the cases I dont like, this is the one with the most interesting trial, too. While the evidence tying Mikan to the conference room was extremely heavy handed, I actually didnt mind the rest. Figuring out the locked room and how she created two of herself was actually pretty clever, even if I thought the reason for having two was stupid as hell. The trial was at least interesting to follow a long with and I hadnt pieced everything together beforehand, just who was the actual culprit. I mean, there was a lot of little story stuff I liked in this chapter. Ibukis concert and Hiyoko/Fuyuhikos growth and Hiyokos little shrine at the start and all the reactions to it. Theres a lot of really good stuff here surrounding some stuff I really, really dont like. I feel like this would be the kind of case Id be much more charitable to on a replay, because if you take out the despair virus and some dumb stuff about the crime itself, this is actually a pretty solid chapter. Unfortunately, thats a lot like saying if you take the needles and Ebola virus off of this pizza, it is actually a pretty good pizza and the bad stuff is so bad I cant really take this case out of the lowest tier. It is at least approaching entertaining though unlike all the other cases Ive ranked.

Before I close up I want to go on one unhinged conspiracy theory rant here. I have no clue what the official word on this is, but it almost feels like Hiyoko dying was some sort of weird last minute addition to the case. I dont think it makes the most sense for her characterwise, and also the game pretty much focuses entirely on Ibukis murder where Hiyoko is almost purely an after thought. Like I said before we dont get what the murder weapon is or even a murder location. Like I think I vaguely remember a wiped away blood stain on the stage of the music venue. Is that really where were supposed to assume the murder took place? How would that even be possible? Did Mikan chase down Hiyoko, drag her all the way back to the stage and then slit her throat and then immediately cover it with something so the blood stain wasnt too huge? Did Hiyoko wander up to the stage of her own free will even though Mikan was in the process of murdering someone else? I dont have a really good understanding of the time line here, and thats because the game doesnt really care enough to explain it to us. My crazy pet theory based on absolutely nothing other than my own conjecture is that Hiyoko originally doesnt die here. The development team either kills someone else or has one body, but then after playtesting or something, they decide to switch it up and just sort of ham-fistedly shove Hiyokos death in chapter 3. Whatever forgiveness she was cooking up with Fuyuhiko gets cut short and the game barely talks about the events of her murder because theyre just trying to work it into the context of a preexisting case as easily as they can. Again, I have no evidence to support this but I BELIEVE IT IN MY BONES.

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Moops?
"I thought you were making up diseases? That's spontaneous dental hydroplosion."