Danganronpa: Academy of Hope and High School Students of Despair

Johnny Yong Bosch? I don't know if it was confirmed by him, but yeah, that's what people are saying.

Finally on the sixth trial. "And not just that, some even tried to have children with Junko's dead body..." From the birdmanronpa translation I'd thought someone tried to implant her uterus in themselves or something. Theoretically that would be more horrifying, and yet, the one I'm more grossed out by is...

It's just that one line in the first trial.

"Nagito, did you forget? Or are you just pretending you forgot?"

It has that Adachi "I don't care about anything" vibe to it.

As someone who has heard of Bosch through Persona 4, yep, it's him.

edited 12th Sep '14 11:14:01 PM by phoenixdaughterAM

Good to know I was right.

What I'm not happy with is how they've changed just about everything.

Closing Statement has had it's difficulty ramped up considerably because you only get to use what pieces they give you, Hangman's gambit is unpleasantly hard to keep in check, and I don't get what they didn't like about the Bullet Time Battle. The final blow is rather annoying, to be honest.

Closing Arugement, I think works out better. It only changes the difficulty slightly and I still found it easy enough to match the pictures.

(Improved) Hangman's Gambit can burn in the pit of deepest despair though.

Annnd, mostly how I got around the PTA is holding down the X button and firing off on a whole round of statements. Though, reloading is a bit of an issue.

It's impossible to do PTA without the markers because I still can't match time with the song's rhythm so I have to go off of timed button presses, which isn't as simple for PTA... but I've never had my concentration meter run out this time around. Last trial will probably change that. But when the markers are running, I find it pretty reasonable, since you can lock onto multiple statements and reload multiple bullets. Not that I'm any better at it because fuck rhythm games, but.

I like how the Closing Argument lets you see what each of your panel choices is supposed to represent, since they were sometimes ambiguous last game. The rest, I don't notice much of a difference. It's a little easier to focus with more limited options, but not enough to make a difference.

(Worsened) Hangman's Gambit I can never forgive, of course.

Also, platting this game's going to be a pain in the ass. One trophy is for getting all the Magical Monomi items... of which there are 60, and which are random drops by the monsters. Except the game lets you get repeat presents, which are entirely useless, and I think different stages and difficulties all have different random drops.

And I really don't like Magical Girl Monomi much. And I plan on Platting this one. Le sigh. I smell a That One Achievement going to be added to YMMV page soon.

Hm, for some reason I thought IF might have more dynamic stuff behind the text, like sprites or something, in the usual VN style. But that would mean Mukuro sprites and it's obvious that we're never going to get those.

While I'd still rather if IF was somehow tied to the first game and we got Zero with the second, it's not at all bad to have IF tied to SDR2. They're pretty thematically similar and all that, considering Mukuro's struggle is more like that of the SDR2 kids.

Maybe they'll Zero into the Another Episode release?

It would be pretty cool if that was true.

The official translation of IF is pretty awkwardly written, though. The dialogue in the games are generally not bad, but the prose here is... ick. I don't know how much of it is because of how the original was written or translation weirdness, but they'd managed to make something decent of the games' dialogue, so I somehow had higher expectations for this.

Also does every battle take ten minutes or what... In the Mukuro vs Sakura battle, the fantranslation said it took ten seconds while the official has ten minutes. I sure hope it's supposed to be the former because Naegi is bleeding out the whole time.

I'd say ten seconds. It was only across the hall after all.

I wish a publisher would pick up DR: Zero and publish it over here. Heck, I'd take a digital only release of that, if it'll work that way.

I don't get why Matsuda constantly is insulting the amnesiac girl though. Are we supposed to find that endearing? It just seems like he's taking advantage of her memory loss.

Solving the Twilight murder game... ugh. I had to look up a walkthrough to remind myself of what each character was like (thankfully, I only needed a reminder of the first, and could guess the rest), and then I spent longer than I have on any other case in the game, trying to figure out the murder weapon. Use Swimsuit with Gravel? How the heck am I supposed to figure that out?

Once past that, I'm having a much easier time. But, if I'm playing double mean, I'm likely to run into problems later on.

Ah, it seems IF was originally packaged with SDR2, so it's not that likely Zero's going to come with DRAE since Zero is already published as a book. So, yeah, a publisher picking it up might be the best possible option. IF's format is pretty sub-par anyway, what with the single bookmark and no way to skip to whatever chapter.

I hope we wouldn't have to buy the two books separately if it came out that way, but I'd probably drop money on it regardless of what format it came in. Digital's way more convenient for me, though.

Yeah, none of the new Zero characters are particularly endearing to me, but Matsuda's really a piece of shit. Though in his position I'd probably do the same. Even just the trait of being an amnesiac with obsessive love for you and who will forget even if you try to get her to stop bugging you - that sounds pretty unbearable, doesn't it? But of course she can't learn from his unpleasantness and she's forced to interact with him anyway, so it's pointless.

Yeah, Ryoko having affection for a person who doesn't show much compassion back is pretty annoying too. It's hard to care about a character who has so little self-esteem in themselves. Also idk if I care much for Junko Enoshima obfuscating being a Cloud Cuckoolander. I know Monokuma would do stuff like that sometimes in Monotheater, but I always got the feeling that her and Monokuma were two different personas.

edited 13th Sep '14 3:57:43 PM by Scherzo09

Confession time: I may or may not have decided to play Dangan Ronpa on an emulator (please don't yell at me). The ROM can't play sounds during cutscenes or Ballot Time and doesn't have School Mode, but it otherwise works fine.

I should've gotten that Cool and Collected skill way sooner. I had no idea crosshair drift was that bad.

-glares with great intensity-

Just get a vita. It's already struggling long enough without people just skipping over it for one of the few hits that it's managed to produce so far.

And the drift, I didn't ever notice. I've a very fast trigger finger, so I can hit what I aim for before it has a chance to go off target. Worms 4 Mayhem has given me more trouble than this.

And I've made it up to case 4. I really didn't want to see her turn up as a victim.

edited 13th Sep '14 11:47:03 PM by ekimmak

As much as I'd like to, there's this thing I don't have that I'd really need. I believe our people call it "money".

Plus, if I got a Vita, I'd really only be getting it for Dangan Ronpa and SDR 2.

Also replaying DR 1, and now I can't unsee that 'Junko' is just Mukuro wearing a wig. The eyes are totally different.

edited 14th Sep '14 12:58:51 PM by Scherzo09

I didn't really notice that. Wow. though I did notice that Mukuro had freckles when I was playing yesterday.

My crosshair drift problem is fixed. I got the Serenity skill, which eliminates it completely. Had I known that, I would've finished Sakura's free times sooner or have done more of Ishimaru's rather than wasting one on Togami. Nonetheless, I did get the skill from Sakura and I did finish her free time events, so I'm satisfied.

edited 14th Sep '14 3:07:57 PM by Explosivo25

Heh, the island mode bad end is kinda creepy. Which reminds me that a school mode bad end should exists that I don't recall if I've seen.

I've been collecting hope shards so I don't know how most trip ticket conversations are like, but Chiaki's convinced every trip is a date. Future trips will determine whether the game is being really unsubtle about its OTP or if I am validated in calling all trips "dates".

Also, in an FTE, Souda brings up how he wants to work on a rocket ship. Buddy, do I have good news for you.

x7 That said, I'm always most pleased when that girl's onpage. Ryouko's interactions with her are better than with anyone else.

Physique-wise, eyes/freckles/bust are the major differences, and with a direct overlay comparison you can also see their default standing poses are slightly different. Even so, there's no way their bodies should be that similar given their incredibly different lifestyles. I can't see Junko even doing so much as working out, since she'd probably get bored super fast.

And regarding skills from characters, in SDR2 the only ones that are mutually exclusive with each other are Chiaki's and Gundam's. They're not direct upgrades or opposites of each other so that was totally unnecessary, game. Now I can't replay the final trial relying solely on the strength of my bonds with my friends...! or whatever. Although Togami's is the "find more monocoins" one, so it's entirely useless if you're getting it as you play island mode.

Well Junko's a model, either she maintains that figure or just has it as part of her Fashionista talent.

One thing I do like about DR 2 over DR 1, among other things, is how it better contextualizes what Hope and Despair are. In 1 I felt like most of the time Hope and Despair were treated as an abstract dualism, that you could sub them out for Light and Darkness a lot of the time and it'd still mean the same. In 2 I felt it actually made Despair and Hope mean something concrete. It kinda shows in Nagito's screwed up interpretation of Hope which I kinda think is skewering the first game a little; while he's right that Hope needs Despair to overcome to be meaningful, his idea that someone's hope, which he basically defines as merely a capacity to overcome obstacles, is something someone is predestined to have and cannot change, something they're 'doomed' to do. And I think the game kinda says there's no difference between that kind of hope and despair. Despair is a submission to your environment and the past, a belief we are powerless over our own destinies. And I think DR 2 addresses that way more head on than DR 1 does.

edited 14th Sep '14 9:38:22 PM by Scherzo09

Also is it just me or was Makoto's sister redesigned for Another Episode?

Also I love how Genre Savvy Makoto is about what the 'video from home' is going to turn out to be.

edited 15th Sep '14 7:34:18 AM by Scherzo09

But Mukuro should not have a model's figure.

Well, she is two and a half years older or so compared to when the video was taken. Plenty of time to mature a little and grow an ahoge. Even if the DR kids are immune to such things. In SDR2 we saw how much Saionji changed in perhaps 3-4 years, so it's fine for Komaru.