Board 8 > Zelda plays Danganronpa for the first time (spoilers)

(+) Yeah! (+)

I started playing Danganronpa, after having bought all 3 games on a Steam sale. And I just realized this is a great chance for a playthrough thread. I've just finished Chapter 1.

This playthrough is mostly blind, because I have little self-control and I keep checking wikis/TV Tropes for things I've not yet finished, so I learned a few things I shouldn't have.

- I got spoiled that Leo was the first case's culprit right after the case started, though I didn't know the details.
- I know the fashionista girl is behind everything. Or something like that. And I guess she's probably alive.
- I know there is some terrorist organization that wants to spread despair.

To make this more fun I'll make sure I don't read any spoilers from now on. I don't know who will die next or any of the killers.

Anyway, some bullet points.

- Makoto is not the most interesting lead but he's passable. And it's a bit weird how the other characters keep telling me I have to be the one to solve the case. I mean it's a videogame but could be less forced.

- He is right that everything is Monokuma's fault though. This is Hunger Games. I'm surprised Makoto isn't considering killing someone yet. I can't feel bad for Leo or Sayaka for wanting to do it.

- Purple Headed girl is my favorite character, and I guess she's Ultimate Detective.

- I made a bet to myself that Leo was going to be the first victim, because he's one of the least interesting kids. Came close enough. Didn't think Sayaka would be it because she was saying she would be a secretary, so I was hoping for a Maya Fey dynamic. The reveal that she was the one who tried to kill first was very cool.

- Most of the characters are cliche, but I could see some of them having hidden depths. Like the programmer and the swimmer, and the rich guy.

- The writer girl is my least favorite character by far. Please let her be a murderer so I can catch her at some point.

- Monokuma is a solid villain, though he gets repetitive sometimes.

- New bet: the next victim will be the clarivoyant dude. Simply because his schtick is getting old.

- This game is great overall, which is to be expected from what is basically Ace Attorney and Hunger Games crossover. I could do with a few less action gameplay (like that rythim game). On the other hand, the comic book making part at the end of the trial was super cool.

You are now tracking this topic.
---

One advantage of being spoiled about Leo is that I could see the expressions in his face during the trial. They went from confidence to fear to despair as he realized his goose was getting cooked. Which is something I guess I'd only have caught on a replay.

Also I love how this game is basically mafia with slightly different rules. I've already spent some time thinking on how a mafia game based on Danganronpa would be like.

This game is great overall, which is to be expected from what is basically Ace Attorney and Hunger Games crossover. I could do with a few less action gameplay (like that rythim game). On the other hand, the comic book making part at the end of the trial was super cool.

Danganronpa 2 is a better game than Danganronpa 1 solely for having much better trial minigames.

It's like how Mass Effect is a great game, but then Mass Effect 2 doesn't have the Mako.
---

DR 1 is pretty solid. It's fun and all, but the trials are fairly simple. Don't be discouraged by that though because 2 and 3 ramp it up to 11
---

Mega Mana posted...

This game is great overall, which is to be expected from what is basically Ace Attorney and Hunger Games crossover. I could do with a few less action gameplay (like that rythim game). On the other hand, the comic book making part at the end of the trial was super cool.

Danganronpa 2 is a better game than Danganronpa 1 solely for having much better trial minigames.

It's like how Mass Effect is a great game, but then Mass Effect 2 doesn't have the Mako.

Hangman's Gambit
---

excuse me i think you mean improved hangman's gambit
---

:weary:
---

So winning cases unlocks more areas. In most games like this, new areas tend to be randomly unlocked for plot reasons ("you are now prepared to go pick that evidence up"). So this is cool game design, since it doesn't try to come up with excuses for broken bridges, it's a game in-universe.

Archive room behind library will totally be relevant.

Ok one thing I dislike is how this game cuts down entire dialogue paths if you click a certain thing first. I clicked the boy's locker room and missed talking with the 3 girls who were in the pool room, then got skipped to the next scene. Sometimes I can load the game to go back and catch missed parts, but sometimes I haven't saved in a while so it isn't worth it.

Celeste might be my 2nd favorite char. I like how she acts so obviously evil yet she's dropping truth bombs left and right, I wanna see her backstory.

From now on, Biker Guy's name is Kuwabara. This is canon.

Byakuya will totally be a killer and will be fun to take down. He has Ace Attorney villain written all over him.

Byakuya has a point though. Food could be poisoned. Granted, any kind of killing done with people around is extremely risky because you have to avoid getting caught, but it could be done.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

From now on, Biker Guy's name is Kuwabara. This is canon.

Nah, he's Josuke. His gang is even named Crazy Diamond
---

tag

---

Zigzagoon posted...

Mega Mana posted...

This game is great overall, which is to be expected from what is basically Ace Attorney and Hunger Games crossover. I could do with a few less action gameplay (like that rythim game). On the other hand, the comic book making part at the end of the trial was super cool.

Danganronpa 2 is a better game than Danganronpa 1 solely for having much better trial minigames.

It's like how Mass Effect is a great game, but then Mass Effect 2 doesn't have the Mako.

Hangman's Gambit

To be fair, actual TRIAL mini games that keep similar debate- things like Absorb Bullets or Rebuttal Showdowns- were introduced/improved. But... Improved Hangmans Gambit
---

Tag im working on 3 right now

1 >3 >2 so far (not really spoilers but could be interpreted as spoilers) 2-5 best chapter though

---

So yesterday I socialized with Sayaka, Chihiro and Kyoko.

Today I went for Kuwabara and Celeste.

Kuwabara invited me to join his gang. Alright. Also I gave him a bike seat which he really liked.

Celeste teaches me her strategy to win at gambling. "Be lucky". Gotcha. Also gave her a burned bread. Not sure if she liked it.

They both raised my skill points, but no new skills. So far Sayaka was the only one to give me a new skill, and the one who revealed the most juicy backstory stuff.

Kuwbara makes a promise as a man not to make Chiriho cry again. Danmit Kuwabara, don't do that, now you're gonna die.

Plot is now implying I should socialize with Byakuya and Toko. Byakuya doesn't wanna talk. Toko does. Death flags raising for Toko, since the last time the plot railroaded me into socializing, it was Sayaka. Let's see if she is more tolerable now.

I give her some legendary pen. She goes full tsundere. I guess her book's genre and the tsundere levels rise through the roofs. She runs away while screaming in tsundere. I unlock a second skill, Vocabulary, so I think this was a success. Still don't like Toko much, though.

Sakura next. I love how this huge muscular thing is named Sakura. Anyway, I give her a god of war thingy and she likes it, but no new skill. She has a cool backstory though, being a MMA fighter who is training to defeat someone.

So the conclusion is that if I want new skills, I need to talk with whoever the plot is railroading me to.

So Makoto wants to eat something at nighttime. Celeste is investigating the locked bedrooms, savvy goth that she is. Chihiro is going to the warehouse for "reasons". Hmm.

Kuwabara and Taka do a sauna endurance contest and now they are bros. I saw that coming the moment they started the contest. Gonna be sad when one of them dies. Also I love how Kuwabara's dubbing is full of "you son of a bitch" and other swearing.

Toko has a crush on Byakuya. A pretty creepy one, actually.

More free time? So I talk to Hina, give her a swimsuit, learn some weird stuff about towels. And get more skill points.

Clairoyant dude heard something like explosions and shots from the outside. I bet this is like Portal where the world is ending while I'm trying to escape. And Monokuma will reveal the world that I wet my bed unless I kill someone. Not a very effective threat, Monokuma. But in a group of 12, chances are someone has a secret worth killing for.

So it's Chihiro. Didn't see that coming. Well it makes sense in retrospect, because since the start I was expecting her to add to the game with her programming or math skills (especially since the opening shows her in a cool scene surrounded by computers), and so far she has just been shyness and "I'm sorry" over and over. So I guess she was made to be one of the least interesting kids from the start. Totally assumed Kuwabara was going to die and make her cry though, and it got flipped around.

Byakuya is being a cold bastard, but I'm liking him more. Gonna bet he is not the killer, because it's too obvious. The plot is hinting that whoever did it is a cold blooded monster, so it will be someone who looks more innocent. Maybe Kuwabara, or Toko, or Hina. Or maybe Taka who was totally okay with revealing his secret yesterday, except he wasn't.

I'm liveblogging stuff as I see it, but let me know if it's boring so I might reduce the word count.

Nope! Very much enjoying. Just really have nothing to say right now since you're still in the middle of the chapter.
---

So the murder happened at the girl's locker. A boy couldn't enter it because of the machine gun. Which is why it's totally going to be a boy. You can't fool me, I was raised on PW.

Byakuya seems like he's being set up to be the main suspect so I'll exclude him. It could be it's either Kuwabara or Taka because they got a lot of development yesterday so the game could be setting something up. I like Kuwabara so let's go with Taka (inb4 I'm wrong, damn Kuwabara don't die yet).

As for the others, I'm not sure if learning Hifume's dark secret would be, huh, interesting. Fortune teller dude is somewhat more likely. He's one of the least developed, if the game wants to go through the road of offing the most boring ones first. I guess he's secret is that he's a fraud?

They say no accomplices, but the victim herself could be a unknowing accomplice. Maybe she let a boy in. WIth that theory it would be Kuwabara, since it's someone she trusts. Then again it could be something more simple like entering the girl's locker from the pool.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

They say no accomplices, but the victim herself could be a unknowing accomplice.

Yeah, this was pretty much immediately where my head went too. Not because it really made sense to me, but going so hard on "no accomplices" just screamed "haha there was an accomplice, we tricked you".
---

Toko: "Nice! I'm going to be dropped off."

...

Genocide Jack, huh. Well that would be a secret worth killing for. Whoever did it picked a good target, though. Sayaka was a newb, trying to challenge an athlete to close combat. But this one went straight for the weakest target.

Secret council rules the world. Cool. And the plot clearly wants me to think it's Toko and she has a split personality. I'm gonna guess she is really Genocide Jack but this time it wasn't her.

Chihiro liked to hang out with boys instead of girls. She refused to train with girls and went out at late night to avoid being seem. She was sad for being weak. And the posters in the lockers suggests their genders have been swapped. Calling it now: Chihiro was transgender.

The extension cord Byakuya was using to read is missing, and is obviously the one used in the murder. The case file is also missing. Could it be Byakuya, after all? But then why would he give me all that info?

Trial next.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Chihiro was transgender.

Oh boy...
---

hombad46 posted...

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Chihiro was transgender.

Oh boy...

---

kevwaffles posted...

ZeldaTPLink posted...

They say no accomplices, but the victim herself could be a unknowing accomplice.

Yeah, this was pretty much immediately where my head went too. Not because it really made sense to me, but going so hard on "no accomplices" just screamed "haha there was an accomplice, we tricked you".

I'm here trying to guess plot twists since the start.

Another possibility is that Byakuya is the killer and he knows Toko is GJ because he spent time investigating her in the past. Now he wants to lead Makoto into finding that out and accusing her. Would explain how the killer knows GJ's MO.

I was saying no to Byakuya because I thought the game would set him as the main suspect, but it seems it's setting Toko now.

Using the word "schizo" to figure out dissociative identity? I'm not sure those two are even the same condition.

They are not.
---

...

...

Toko is now in my Top 5.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

...

...

Toko is now in my Top 5.

Genocider Sho is great. That's her Japanese name, which I prefer because "Genocider" is silly and fun.
---

Seems like there is something off about Byakuya being the guy

Maybe Chihiro is the killer and she switched clothes with Byakuya so we vote wrong and let her get away?

*_*

Called it.

It's a trap!

Would still waifu.

Also Chihiro was a crossdresser and not actually someone that identified as trans.
---

Dark Young Link posted...

Would still waifu.

Also Chihiro was a crossdresser and not actually someone that identified as trans.

Well this is a Japanese work so it's common for trans characters not be explicitely called that because Japanese are conservative.

I mean just recently in One Piece was character was obviously portrayed as trans but they didn't call her by the T word or by her genre.

Likewise there is the trans kid from Steins Gate, who is never referred as a girl even though she is obviously one.

In the West, characters will be fairly referred by their genre, but apparently that's still a taboo in Japanese fiction.

You're opening up a can of worms, but I mostly side with what you just said. Many people don't, though.

Finished the case.

So here is what I got right: Toko was the serial killer but not the case killer, Byakuya was a fake out, and I almost got Mondo right too. And the Chihiro is a dude thing.

But I got really confused in the middle when it was revealed Byakuya set Toko up and yet the game still went with the "Byakuya would be too obvious" angle. I didn't understand why he had set up the crime scene even though he was innocent.

Turns out he did it for the lulz. Because he is a total psycho. Like I said before, he will be fun to take down. I do question whether this was a good move though, because he is now a top suspect in every case from now on.

And again, Kyoko for MVP. She pulled a Phoenix Wright and used a bluff to bait the killer into contradiction. This is the second case she pretty much solves by herself and just leaves me to do the heavy work. Someone make her the MC already.

And noooooooo Kuwabara. Damn, you were cliche but I liked you. Very sad story, too. Will miss you.

(And I also admit Chihiro was waifu material. Damn)

Finally, turns out there is a mole AND an extra student. Gonna assume Junko is the mole since I already got that spoiler, but it's better not to speculate it further since it's spoiled material. Sorry about that. Or maybe it's Kyoko. Hmm.

Anyway, what a great case. Even better than the first one. We had multiple fake outs, and it revealed a lot of things about Byakuya and Toko which will be relevant since they are still around.

Will be fun to have a known serial killer hanging out with the cast and they just having to live with it.

Dels posted...

You're opening up a can of worms, but I mostly side with what you just said. Many people don't, though.

I mean I can't confirm or deny either side, but that's because the Japanese refuse to be straightforward about it. I'm assuming this is just another attempt by them to be progressive while avoiding the taboo.

Welcome to the wonderful world of Chihiro arguments
---

Hbthebattle posted...

Welcome to the wonderful world of Chihiro arguments

I'll pass on it while I can.

Genocide Jack is quite the presence in this game.
---

I did the same as the OP, except I marathoned DR1 over the weekend, so I can read this topic safely.

I'm on case 3 of DR2 now.

Mega Mana posted...

Danganronpa 2 is a better game than Danganronpa 1 solely for having much better trial minigames.

That sword-slashing shit is absolute bottom tier garbage. It made zero sense when it was explained, and I literally failed because I ran out of time trying to figure out what to do. Then, even after I watched a video of someone else doing it so I understood the mechanics, it was still obnoxious AF.

I can see that people complain about Improved Hangman's Gambit, but once you realize what it's doing, it's actually not bad. Just have to be patient while you wait for the letters you need, but with a little proactivity it's really easy. It's easily better than any of the other new crap they added to this game, considering the best of them is like 3/10. Honestly, I have yet to see anything about DR2 that I like better than DR1, other than some QOL stuff like traveling is easier and playing the new gumball machine is way faster. Oh, and there are more boobs. I guess that's a pretty significant improvement from only having Aoi to look at.
---

azuarc posted...

I'm on case 3 of DR2 now.

Yeah, see, you haven't gotten to the "fun" Improved Hangman's Gambits yet.
---

azuarc posted...

I'm on case 3 of DR2 now.

DR2 best Danganronpa.
---

MrSmartGuy posted...

azuarc posted...

I'm on case 3 of DR2 now.

Yeah, see, you haven't gotten to the "fun" Improved Hangman's Gambits yet.

Still can't be worse than the sword game.
---

Yeah I don't remember Rebuttal Showdown being all that bad. Maybe V3's version was better and I'm remembering that, though?
---

The "improved" hangman woes are actually another casualty of DR2's rushed localization, apparently. From the guy that did the original DR1/2 LPs:

I thought DR2 Hangman was actually more fun than the original's in small doses, and that's what you get in Japanese. It's almost always short words -- the character count tops at 9, but most words are still kept at 3-5 characters. The word choice is precise - always very clear and there are never repeated characters (one exception to this in chapter 6, though I assume this one is exactly the same in English).

In English? The two words in chapter 1, both 4 characters in Japanese are 13 and 10 in English. The game isn't designed for long words, but the translation team completely failed in considering the game's design and opted for the laziest translation of the terms used.

I'm not saying HG is a good minigame -- it isn't by any means. But it's not as bad as English DR2 is making it seem.

---

Why was DR2's localization rushed? Did the first one just do really well?
---

Speaking of "Improved" Hangman....

Are the scare quotes a localization thing that was put in for snark, or is it like that in Japan as well and the devs named it like that to point it out?
---

kevwaffles posted...

Yeah I don't remember Rebuttal Showdown being all that bad. Maybe V3's version was better and I'm remembering that, though?

Rebuttal Showdown was pretty damn bad on PC for me, as I never really figured out how to do diagonal slashes on the keyboard.

I still prefer it over "Improved" Hangman, mostly because rule of cool.
---

I never had too much issues with Rebuttal Showdown beyond that one during Chapter 2, but I used a controller
---

Tag
---