Danganronpa: Academy of Hope and High School Students of Despair

Nah, Kokichi's Komaeda if he was obsessed with truth and lies instead of hope and despair.

So I'm going to start recording the first game with my PS4 Pro's recording feature since my OG Elgato decided to fizzle out on me. I'm still a little unsure on what's blocked and what's not... is it everything past chapter 1 like V3 or...?

I think V3 is the only game with a recording lock.

Not sure if this is the right thread for this but I took a look at the most recent Too Kyo Games interviews yesterday.

Question: How many hours does a playthrough of Danganronpa V3 usually take?

I believe got through mine in about 29 hours, according to my Steam profile.

....Anyone else other then me think that The Bomb Inside Her would make a darkly hilarious anime if it was defictionalized?

I wouldn't watch, but you do you.

Okay, so I've been spoiled that Kaede dies and Shuichi takes over as the protagonist. But I'm wondering how this affects FTE's. If I get friendship fragments with Shuichi as Kaede, will I have friendship fragments with Kaede when I play as Shuichi later on? Do the friendship fragments from the other students carry over? Are the FTE's with the other students the same for Kaede and Shuichi or do they have different events?

Edited by Druplesnubb on Jun 25th 2019 at 11:28:53 AM

Each character has 2 events for Akamatsu and 5 completely different events for Saihara.

So I finished the game. I found chapter 2, 3 and 4 somewhat lackluster but chapter 1, 5 and 6 more than made up for it. Chapter 1 does the best job at tricking the player. Even as someone spoiled on the twist it was still jawdropping to see how the whole thing was actually set up. Chapter 5 rivals the equivalent chpater of the last game for craziest scheme in Danganronpa history. I was also spoiled on the big twist in Chapter 6, and the matermind's identity wasn't too hard to figure out, but seeing it in action was still incredible. The villain of this game is a huge step up from Junko. Overall I'd say that my favourite students were Kaede, Gonta, Shuichi, Maki and Tsumugi.

Edited by Druplesnubb on Oct 16th 2019 at 11:13:38 AM

Yeah, chapter 1 and 6 are easily my favorites throughout the franchise, and Ouma and Shirogane are among my top 5 favorite characters of all time. I'm glad you enjoyed V3 this much.

Some more thoughts on the game:

Apparently a lot of people think that Shuichi should have been the Decoy Protagonist and Kaede the true protagonist. While that could be done the part that nobody seems to mention is that you'd have to rewrite both Kaede and Shuichi's perosnalities for it to work properly. The whole point of Shuichi is that unlike Kaede he's not fit to be the protagonist at first, and it's only through Kaede's support that he can take on that role. This is what gives the protagonist swap a greater purpose in the story besides just shocking the player, and just switching Kaede and Shuichi without changing their personalities to account for this is Completely Missing The Point.

Chapter 3's greatest crime is that it introduces a compelling cult plot and then has a murder that is completely unrelated to said plot and much less interesting. Angie was a way better villain than the actual culprit, and while other such cases like Sayaka, Aoi, Nagito, Miu and Kokichi all had their personalities and motivations strongly intertwined with the case, Angie just gets offed while getting candles for something unrelated and has her entire plotline silently dropped. The only part about her and the Student Council that was even relevant was how the former only let the latter into her room. What if Angie was the culprit and you had to convince the Student Council to vote against her? Or, as I originally thought, Tenko killed Angie to protect Himiko but then got killed by a trap that Angie had set up beforehand? Then there's the fact that this case introduces the possibility of a killer getting off scot free just to have it be a red herring.

I'm not the only one wishing that there was more to the virtual world in Chapter 4, right? Imagine if you could have Free Time Events in it, or return to it in future chapters? At least it gave this chapter the most adorable closing argument ever. Speaking of the virtual world, how could Miu move her real body while being strangled in the virtual world?

I figured out the what of Trial 5 fairly early, but the why caught me completely off guard. Kokichi successfully challenges Nagito for the title of maddest lad in Danganronpa.

So according to the YMMV page Tsumugi is apparently seen as a downgrade compared to Junko, and I can't say I agree. Junko can be amusing at times, and you accept her existence because why else would someone set up a killing game, but her motivation is ridiculous and the way she destroys the world and convinces hundreds to commit suicide just by talking to them even more so. She's also the main source of all the "blah-blah-hope-blah-blah-despair" talk that was always the least interesting and most eyerollworthy part of these plots. Tsumugi by comparison makes far more sense as an antagonist. She's a TV writer who's really invested in her program being the best it can be and doesn't care that it involves killing people. I also found her manners generally more amusing than Junko's. My big complaint with her is that she doesn't really have a role before the end, which is also something you can say about Keebo.

I'm very partial to the theory that this is actually inside a computer program like Danganronpa 2, and that the victims and culprits don't necessarily die for real (though they might lose all their memories of the game). The main clue in favor of this is the resurrection ritual that Monokuma handed out, though it also would go a long way towards explaining how society at large is so fine with this show. I don't think it invalidates Shuichi's point at the end because the participants still go through real trauma from thinking that their friends die. It would also explain why Tsumugi is a tv writer despite looking like a teen, as well as the cospox and her superntural disguise abilities. Though all this could be explained with Tsumugi just looking really young or her "true" form just being another disguise, Tsumugi just being really good at disguises and having the background staff help her out, and Tsumugi either being allergic to certain fibers or using some kind of special effects trick to turn herself pink. The deaths not being real would also explain Tsumugi putting herself in such a risk. Even if she's willing to die for her work it's hard to imagine the rest of the staff being willing to risk one of the show's writers like that, and it would be a pretty lousy end if the mastermind was killed for something unrelated without the killer even knowing that she's the matermind at the time. Monokuma can't be too blatant in protecting her either without revealing the truth. It's repeatedly shown that even with all the control, planning and cameras, unexpected things can still happen during the show. The biggest strike against the theory is that Tsumugi came across as genuinely accepting her death at the end, though she could be lying for dramatic effect or killing herself in the real world afterwards.

My biggest beef with the plot is probably that Shuichi basically rejects Kaede's speech about searching for the truth by the end, driven home all the more by Kaede's death being a prime example of how not knowing the truth can lead to terrible things, but I can kinda see where they're coming from if that speech was based on ideas planted into her by the writing team.

Which leads me to my final question, which is just how much do you think that the writing team controlled things? The characters major personalities were obviously planned out, as were the motives, but it seems hard to imagine that absolutely everything was planned. Korekiyo seems like he could have killed at any time, and there were a ton of different people who might have killed someone due to the motive videos. Kaede, Miu, Keebo and Kokichi all show that things don't always turn out like the writing team expects.

I personally think they sketched the backstories and personalities out, as well as the key relationships, and then just let everything go nuts. I can't imagine that Chapter 1 or Chapter 5 went the way they hoped, and if they were puppeting them ever step of the way, then Chapter 6 definitely wouldn't have happened that way.

As for everything else, I agree with you on pretty much everything, though I'm not sure if I feel the same about Kaede and Shuichi. I personally think that it could have worked with a bit change in the framing - paint Shuichi as a different sort of protagonist, and Kaede as the standard perky female sidekick. I suppose you could have Kaede be worried that she won't be able to measure up, but with Kaito's encouragement, she manages to come into her own. Perhaps Tsumugi could have been disappointed that Shuichi was offed to early, but Kaede makes a much better protagonist, so it's for the best?

I don't know, that's one way they could have done it, at least. I have no problem with the bait-and-switch, but I think the point of contention for me (and a lot of other people) is that they chose to do it the one time they gave us a female protagonist (in a main game, that is). And this is coming from someone who likes Shuichi.

Btw, if you're interested in a story where Shuichi is executed instead of Kaede, I heavily recommend I'd Trade My Life For Yours. There's also Three-Point Shot, which sees Tsumugi exposed and executed in the first trial. Both are good, though I personally think that I'd Trade My Life For Yours is a bit better. It also has a (non-canon, but that doesn't really matter for fanfic) sequel one-shot that uses the "it was all virtual reality, nobody actually died" theory, but with the twist that both canon and the original fic took place.

Edited by KarkatTheDalek on Jul 2nd 2019 at 7:24:18 AM

I think that's my issue with Shuichi.

I'm kinda over the whole "To be a Badass" who learns how to nut up sort of Character Development so he just kinda feels like a retread of Makoto, only Shuichi's an even bigger wimp.

The whole character who's not fit to be a main character but grows into being a main character by having their balls drop is pretty typical.

Edited by slimcoder on Jul 2nd 2019 at 4:20:34 AM

Oh right, another thing I forgot to ask. According to the YMMV page the lead writer apparently said that Korekiyo was meant to be an obvious culprit. Could I get some more info on this and why it was written that way?

Edited by Druplesnubb on Jul 2nd 2019 at 1:58:00 PM

Thats not what happens with Shuichi at all. He completely rejects main characterdom, while Makoto embraces the ultimate Hope title.

If anything, he grows the most balls out of all the protags by not actually being one.

Eh he's still growing a spine regardless.

Which is apparently inherently bad, somehow?

For someone who says that fiction and its tropes shouldn't be taken seriously, you seem to be taking the idea of Shuichi supposedly being another DR main protagonist, growing a will an dall, very seriously.

Its like a lot of people missed the point of V3's final twist.

Eh I can understand it but that doesn’t mean I have to like it after all. I’m just not into what they went for in the end.

Also I’m not sure when I said fiction & tropes shouldn’t be taken seriously.

Edited by slimcoder on Jul 3rd 2019 at 11:50:50 AM

A while back Spike Chunsoft were hireing people to do 3D models for Danganronpa, but nothing ever came of that. I wonder what happened.

Anyway, I'm excited to Too Kyo games' projects! (And Kodaka did say that he might return to Danganronpa if they are successful enough!)

I remember fans speculating that they could be working on a fighting game since apparently they were looking for someone to help them work on an action game. That could be fun/interesting. I do wonder what game of that, if anything though. I saw some speculation that they were hiring people for that Zanki Zero game that came out recently but it's not like that's been confirmed.

Did anyone else get a Vile Villain, Laughable Lackey vibe from Kokichi and Gonta (especially in Chapters 2 and 4)?

I'm finally done with the biggest fan project of my life. The V3 artbook, fully translated.

Wait what was that in Ki-bo's profile about there originally being a zombie character in DR 2?