Danganronpa: Academy of Hope and High School Students of Despair

So here what I feel about DR 3: it was never going to be like the games as the games have FTE to talk to a character to get a deeper perspective on said character and with it being an anime makes sense to as to why it was fast paced in the future arc.

For the story: it makes complete sense to me as to why Junko used mind control: because she lazy, as it was never about despair or hope it's about how bored she is thanks to her real talent of analysis as she knows every thing and more then the expert just makes the world worthless and dull to her except with "despair" being the only thing that excites her even then has a diminishing effect over time and her original plan for hope's peak academy stoped as her personal "despair" after killing her boytoy in DR 0 made her change course to make the killing game, so her breaking class 77-b individually would not fit with her ways of doing things.

Speaking of class 77-b it makes sense to me as to why there's no hard feeling, as outside of something else making them, none of them would hurt each other despite their zany personalities unlike class 78 were some of them had the compulsion to kill if it came to it.

With Chiaki I can agree with you that she underutilize in 3, should have been the main character in despair arc.

With future arc most of the story beats of what previously happened makes sense here to, as with the mind control that only chisa known about to used when it was the most effective to do the most damage in the foundation while using munakata to drive a wedge against makoto.

So all in all I can't see the bad in DR 3 like its not as great as the games are but it not the worst thing in the series, I guess it's just how the fandom expectations run wild from each installment were I came in after everything was done so my mind just was ok with it overall.

I hate DR 3 because it character assassinated Mukuro and missed the entire point of her characterization in her few scenes in 1 and in IF.

She was supposws to be a victim of Junko like the others, just one in a different way. She's supposed to be numb to the suffering of those she doesn't know well, not revel in it. It feels like they just wanted to make her Junko 2 when she was never that.

...While it is bad, though - Despair Arc in particular, I think its assassination of Mukuro, Twilight Syndrome, awful pacing, lore contradictions with Zero and the like, are far worse then Future Arc mostly being just very dull - it's not the worst of Danganronpa. Ultra Despair Girls is far worse, Killer Killer is about as frustratig in terms of wasting its concepts, and Togami legitimately broke me while reading it.

3/10.

I don't think Mukuro's character was assassinated as she was crazy for Junko in both DR 0 and IF also AI Junko shouldn't be trusted with the twilight syndrome as her main goal is body snatching and she'll do any to reach it.

And what makes UDG bad for you? Also what lore contradictions does DR 3 against DR 0?

Edited by The-Azure-Star-Of-Orion on Feb 2nd 2024 at 4:23:38 AM

Do you have any non-3 example of Junko half-assing any project? At least the Hope's Peak killing game is extremely high-effort, the corruption of Class 77 as described in DR 2 is supposed to read like a long-term project, and the plan to inject Enoshima Alter-Ego into the New World Program has a lot of moving parts she needed to meticulously setup before Class 78 was locked in school.

by the time of chapter 3 in DR 1 she hit celestia hard as she was the easiest egg to crack then had a downward spiral of being sloppy after that chapter of being impatient and do what comes as the easiest opinion, as for the other two AI Junko is a liar overall so her word can't be trusted with out backup and her being in the NWP is on Izuru then her and just took advantage of it.

Honestly, Mukuro is a character that's been poorly served by pretty much every sequel - though IF was pretty cool. Danganronpa canon's pretty much just slapped the label of "Junko's incestuous devoted slave-follower" on her and called it a day which. Uh. Gross.

But back in DR 1, there was a genuinely interesting character in the brief snippets of dialogue we got to spend with her.

This one snippet of conversation is more engaging than literally every post-DR 1 Mukuro appearance combined. Mukuro flat-out saying to Makoto, "What if all this Ultimate Despair stuff was just a childish fantasy we invented when we were babies? Is it okay for me to grow up, let it go, and want something more out of my life?"

That's simultaneously the most interesting piece of characterization ever written for Mukuro and the most epic burn ever delivered to Junko.

But it's pretty much been completely decanonized as a thing Mukuro would ever, in a million years, say.

EDIT: Incidentally, DR 1 implies a bit of friction in Junko and Mukuro's relationship the other direction too; Junko's own dialogue suggests she killed Mukuro out of bitterness and resentment over Mukuro joining Fenrir.

Junko's officially stated reason for killing Mukuro is because Mukuro's too ugly and stupid to convincingly portray her, but then she goes on:

The Despair Twins don't really seem to see eye to eye on things very well, to homicidal results. But follow-up appearances didn't care to flesh this particular detail out at all.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Feb 2nd 2024 at 10:08:31 AM

to be frank even in IF she was devoted to Junko by the end as she keeps the "Junko" outfit to help understand her sister better, just shows us that there's only two people she views as her lifetime CO's as nothing else matters to her.

Edit:more like Junko just used an excuse to justify killing her sister.

Edited by The-Azure-Star-Of-Orion on Feb 2nd 2024 at 10:07:12 AM

Junko already had an excuse to justify killing her sister. The excuse was, "Mukuro was too ugly and stupid to convincingly portray me, so I had to do it. No other option, really. This was purely a logical and reasonable decision that I made."

Her going off about Mukuro abandoning her and being a disgrace to the family is an off-the-cuff deviation from her excuse.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Feb 2nd 2024 at 10:10:20 AM

just sounds like an add on to the excuse.

IF basically implies Mukuro's had no one in her life who's acted lile they give a fuck about her besides Makoto and Junko, conaidering Makoto was legitimately the first person to smile at her.

Like, it does very much come across from IF as her being someone who's been cut off from any other real connections besides one with her abusive sister, and especially with IF also showing us that she's moreso numb to suffering then anything else, she's more... detached then evil.

Which is why imo 3 missed the entire point by making her just like Junko, when both THH and IF very much imply that she's not that at all, she's just someone who's been cut off from any other real connections in life.

Which is, itself, a weird twist in characterization from THH. Mukuro bailed on the family at a young age to go join a mercenary group. She only returned after they were forcibly dissolved under political pressure. That doesn't really scream "Mukuro is in an abusive codependent relationship with her beloved sister, who is the only person she's ever cared about except Makoto, and who she would do anything for."

THH painted a picture of the Despair Twins in which Mukuro doesn't really care about all of this despair shit; She outgrew it years ago and has other ambitions she wants for her life, but came back to Junko when she ran out of options. And in which Junko was all smiles and happy to take Mukuro back to help with her grandiose plan; But bitterly resented her in secret and packaged a bit of petty revenge into her machinations.

Which would be a fascinating dynamic to explore, but I guess they didn't wanna.

The team's just... aggressively disinterested in Mukuro as her own distinct character. Hell, they're still having her impersonate Junko in every appearance to this day, even though that was only a thing she did for the sake of the plan in DR 1; She and Junko both attended Hope's Peak High together, no disguise involved. She's never received her own distinct Mukuro sprite set because she is defined solely as Fake Junko and nothing more.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Feb 2nd 2024 at 11:34:02 AM

Again not how I view mukuro as she always had a codependency issues with Junko that IF showed and we only have Junko word on what she feels in THH about her.

Also to add, Junko is the type that the more she likes you the more in danger you are in as that's why she made the killing game in the first place.

Edited by The-Azure-Star-Of-Orion on Feb 2nd 2024 at 11:43:55 AM

So for a lighter topic: what new gameplay mechanic would you add in a new Danganronpa game as for me I would add two, #1 is to add a distrust gauge where if that person doesn't trust you they would make the trial harder to the point of a bad end, #2 is a kill or be killed moments where the one of the other has the ability to kill you but you have the ability to fight back but if you killed them it's also a bad end.

Edited by The-Azure-Star-Of-Orion on Feb 3rd 2024 at 2:09:35 AM

So Bring in Zero Escape elements.

fitting, since the Distrust mechanic from Beta Danganronpa eventually ended up in Zero Escape by VLR.

It's also similar to the Decision Game from Zero Time Dilemma.

A Danganronpa/Zero Escape mash-up with a branching timeline based on who murders who could be interesting.

I would not mind that being one of the 49 remaining Danganronpas that they owe me.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Feb 3rd 2024 at 8:56:17 AM

Kodaka's Next game is that final game from the initial pitch of 5 from Too Kyo Games, Limit x Despair, which is actually a collab with Uchikoshi, and its apparently, according to him in a recent tweet, the craizest story he's written to date.

When you have Uchikoshi as a Director and co writer, its definitely gonna be nuts.

I saw the picture in that article, it looks like an action game.

Not really a "mechanic" per se but I would like it if the final standoff against the culprit (or someone sticking up for them or whoever) would involve the player playing a unique minigame related to their talent to corner them, as opposed to a random rhythm game. Some sort of card battle against Celeste for example.

that's a good idea.

Alright I'll never get to play the Danganronpas but I followed along with most everything... until Danganronpa 3 Killing Harmony.

You’re experiencing the series wholly through summaries or something?

it's not, as V3 takes place in a world that Danganronpa exists in then it became absurdly popular to the point of actually making a killing game show with actual real death, kinda like digimon tamers

Fix'd

Edited by The-Azure-Star-Of-Orion on Mar 23rd 2024 at 6:21:43 AM

What Azure said. Thats not how it works at all.

The true premise of V3 is probably the most widely misunderstood out of any of the games and has spawned a lot of outrage over it. Specifically, the revelation that all preceding Danganronpa entries were works of fiction.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Mar 28th 2024 at 1:19:23 PM

I've always been confused about the outrage. It's pretty much impossible for them to retcon it into being fictional when it's already fictional. And it's not like the revelation that it's fictional within that world is used to add to the world of the previous games or anything, but instead the focus is on how the franchise affected the universe of V3.