#{ V; This is a New Hope’s Peak | Post DR3 }

[harmoniamusica-a]

Verses ~ Alternate Worlds

Note for people who haven’t finished the game, there are spoilers.

Verse 1 ~ Main Verse | Playing a Melody

Just any random interactions are untagged.

Verse 2 ~ InGame Verse | { V; Trapped like Rats Waiting to be slaughtered | Chapter 1 }

   In this verse, everyone has just been forced to play the killing game and she’s trying to find a way to escape. She’s very optimistic and trying to help keep everyone’s spirits up but the stress is getting to her.

Verse 3 ~ Alternate Game Verse | { V; The Truth will Forever be Lost | Protagonist Kaede }

     Very quickly she realized this game was rigged from the start as Shuichi was found guilty of a crime he didn’t commit. Having to watch him die for her own crime has sparked an indescribable hate for the mastermind. Keeping his hat as a momentum, letting it block her view after deciding to carry on his memories she does everything in her power to keep everyone alive. But will it even be enough to end this killing game...?

Verse 4 ~ Alternate Verse | { V; Welcome to Hope Peak Academy  | HPA verse}

     This is a verse for any interactions with DR1 & 2 characters, especially in the academy. It can be either Post DR3 or non-despair verse but Kaede is the Ultimate Pianist. She simply wants to make as many memories as possible during her time at the Academy. You can think of it as the Talent Development Plan verse in that sense.

Verse 5 ~ Pre-game | { V; Looking for a Reason to Live | Pregame Kaede }

Pre Game About

Verse 6 ~ Alternate Verse | { V; This is a New Hope’s Peak | Post DR3 }

     This is pretty much Post DR3 with Makoto Naegi as the new headmaster of this new school which accepts students on a slightly different basis. Kaede is a new student that has applied to Hopes Peak Academy after being recommended by many famous spectators of her performance. She’s excited by this new turn of events and just like in verse 4 wishes to make tons of memories. Just now the cast of previous games are adults and some are dead.

[s-ound-wave]

I just finished NDRV3 last night (a bit late I know) so bear with me because I have a theory that’s probably already been done to death but -

So everything Tsumugi said was a lie. Well, nearly everything. She (and Team DGR) did implant new memories into the 15 characters, and they possibly weren’t ultimates. They also weren’t heading into space, there was potentially no meteors, that entire backstory is a lie. In fact, everything from the Flashback Lights we can rule as a lie, unless cross referenced with something else (that’s not Tsumugi’s own testimony, I’ll get to her in a bit). That’s pretty much the entire game chucked out.

Except...

a. Prologue:

 Kaede refers to herself as Kaede Akamatsu. Shuichi, likewise, refers to himself as Shuichi Saihara.

Obviously, given what we’re told by the game about Rantaro, he’s the only one who seems to know what’s going on, that it’s a Killing Game. An interesting point is that he asks ‘who is behind all this’, either suggesting that the 52nd game was drastically different, or that his Killing Game was under much different circumstances than we’ve been led to believe. 

The personalities aren’t all that drastically different. Miu is still foul mouthed, for example. 

Kaede trues several times to ask the Monokubs something, ‘If you guys are the Monokubs, then-‘, presumably asking where Monokuma is. Her sprite while she says this is her shocked one, with sweat on her face and mouth slightly open. It’s not really the face of someone who voluntarily joined up. Neither is how her and Shuichi claim to have gotten there, before the first Flashback Light - being thrown into a car by weird men. 

This is followed up by the Monokubs changing the topic to Ultimate Talents, which Kaede responds that she has a skill she has a skill she devotes herself to, but that she wouldn’t call it an Ultimate Talent. This is said while her sprite is in the ‘crossing arms and looking down’ pose, looking rather crestfallen or concerned. It’s a bit of a stretch, but I’m going to say that this interaction implies that Ultimate Talents exist in this world. 

 Monotaro gives the game away by saying ‘See, according to the backstory, there’s this Ultimate Hunt goin’ on.’ I’m half tempted to ignore everything the Monokubs and Monokuma say, considering I’m not sure how much of it is regular Danganronpa 4th wall breaking and how much is meant to be hints at Tsumugi’s claims at the end. He does say something interesting, claiming that ‘The first thing we need you guys to do is remember your true selves’. Monophanie backs this up by saying ‘need to reclaim your sealed talents’. Both of these could be for the fictional audience’s benefit, if we take what Tsumugi says at face value. 

Kaede’s reaction to Monokid saying there’s going to be a killing game is a shocked sprite, and, in her thoughts ‘K-Killing Game...?’. Again, not really the actions of someone who signed up for a Killing Game willing. 

This is everything usable in the prologue, as far as I’m aware.

b. Chapter Six Trial

There’s no reason for there to be so many discrepancies between the characters’ memories and the canon events of the first two games. Tsumugi is portrayed as some uber fan, why would she settle for less than perfect? The justification that Tsumugi gives is flimsy at best.

Tsumugi, as Makoto Naegi, says ‘If what I said is the truth, then Hope’s Peak Acaemy was...’ when Shuichi brings up the Cospox. Notice the ‘If’.

The places seen when Tsumugi as Chiaki claims that everyone is a huge DanganRonpa fan are - Japan, Australia, England, America and one other place I can’t identify.

When it’s revealed that it’s the 53rd season, the white V changes to a pink 5. Pink is used in DanganRonpa to symbolise lies (and blood, but it’s the wrong shade of pink for that)

What’s the in game justification for the NDRV3 cast not having any memories of the other games? Or Tsumugi not cosplaying as characters from the other games? (Other than the obvious real world justification that those games don’t exist)

I find it odd that Tsumugi as various characters keeps saying ‘DanganRonpa inspired’.

Gonna point out that they made a kid into a robot. Just gonna throw that out there. This has nothing to do with it I just think it’s fucked up that within a matter of second they took a normal teenager and made him into a walking talking surveillance robot.

Shuichi’s supposed audition video. The Shuichi in this claims that he’s a huge fan of DanganRonpa and has always wanted to be in one. Shuichi in chapter one does not recognise Rantaro, a previous contestant, or the Monokubs. He always reacts with fear and shock in the prologue, contrary to how he acts in the audition video.

Right after the wardrobe change. The change here is that there’s an extra bit after Kaede says ‘K-Killing Game?’, where Shuichi says ‘You mean... we were selected!?’ With the happiest expression on his face. This is not shown in the prologue, obviously. I’m doubting that this actually happened, and that it’s not just another trick by Tsumugi to bring them further into despair.

‘Well, if you’re going to call fiction a lie... Then yes’ this line stands out to me for reasons I can’t explain right now.

Kaede’s audition tape. She says she has no faith in humanity, and yet in the prologue worries over Shuichi and acts in ways one who has no faith in humanity wouldn’t really act.

Kaito’s audition tape. Yeah, no, guy didn’t come off like that at all. I think you get the drill.

c. Tsumugi

 Cospox. This is what she uses to justify how she can cosplay as Junko Enoshima while the everyone still thinks she’s real, by claiming that Junko (and the cast of DR and SDR2) are fictional in the world of NDRV3. Problem: She can’t cosplay as Kaede, someone she herself claims to see as fictional. This could mean either that the cospox itself is a lie, or that Kaede isn’t ‘fictional’.

She never claims her own talent was imparted onto her with the Flashback Lights

Interestingly enough, when giving her certain gifts (the prop carrying case is one) her eyes with swirl, like she’s under the effects of Despair. This also happens during the trial, and a few other times during her FTEs. AS far as I’m aware, she’s the only character in NDRV3 who does this.

In her third FTE, she says ‘This is the ‘Cosplay is Fun’ episode’.

The ‘cosplaycat criminal’ line that gets Shuichi thinking that Junko Enoshima and Hope’s Peak is actually real.

Tsumugi says that she’s been working for 53 seasons on the show. Assuming you have a murder once a week like we see in all three DanganRonpa games, and have 16 victims, that’s 14 weeks of murder as it goes until there are two students left. So 14 weeks x 53 = 742 weeks or 14 years, 2 months and 3 weeks of murder. This also means Tsumugi is at minimum in her 30s. This is assuming that she’s telling the truth, of course.

d. Misc

Maybe a bit of a stretch, but the D.I.C.E logo and the Future Foundation logo look similar.

Why is the History of Hope’s Peak Academy book even here, let alone in Kokichi’s lab? All it does is reveal all of the inconsistencies in Tsumugi’s fake memories.

Actually, the labs in general are a bit odd. All of them are really stereotypical, it reminds me of when I’m designing a house in the Sims for a character who’s athletic so there’s just sports equipment everywhere. 

So my theory is as thus:

NDRV3 doesn’t take place in a world where everyone is obsessed with DanganRonpa and watches Killing Games all day. It takes place in the regular old DanganRonpa universe (possibly where people watch Killing Games), some time after the events of DR3.

Tsumugi is a part of the Remnants of Despair. I’m guessing that either a) They are actually putting on a Killing Game reality show so they can watch people slip into despair then climb into hope then slip into despair again (this could be part of why previous survivors carry over) or b) something else, like studying Ultimate Talents in a slightly more gory way than Hope’s Peak was.

Tsumugi being part of the Remnants of Despair would also explain why the memories are imperfect. She worships Junko, she’s obviously going to play up her actions and downplay the actions of everyone else, it’s a classic propaganda move, and everyone who could have told them about the inner workings of Hope’s Peak Academy is no longer part of the Remnants of Despair.

I’m also going to toss out there that Team DGR might be another name for the Remnants of Despair. This isn’t based on anything, other than their running of Killing Games and it’s the organisation Tsumugi is a part of.

All of this is speculation and quite a bit of reaching, but I had fun doing it and not the pressing assessment that’s due today so that’s all that matters, right? I might update this post from time to time.

[sanctferum]

Dangan Ronpa V3

OK, got my copy of the game. Gonna be trying to liveblog my thoughts on Dangan Ronpa V3 here. May contain spoilers for the rest of the series, since I’ll be referencing past games/animes/novellas, so if you’re not caught up on all that don’t read these, that means YOU, Eric.

I managed to make it to release date almost entirely unspoiled regarding plot details, so here’s what I DO know:

Anything covered in pre-release material

Anything covered in the demo

The names and mechanics of some of the new trial stuff (Mind Miner, Psyche Taxi, Lies/Perjuries, V-spot weaknesses, Scrum Battles, the new multiple-argument-at-once thing, etc. I’m still not entirely sure what Scrum battles contain of, as those weren’t covered in the demo. It’s possible they could be the new Bullet Time Battle/Panic Talk Action, I suppose - I haven’t seen a V3 equivalent to that mentioned. I also heard that rebuttal showdown returns, though that wasn’t in the demo either - makes sense, it wasn’t introduced till chapter 2 in DR2.)

The names and Ultimate talents of the students, except the usual “Ultimate ???” that every Dangan Ronpa seems to have. The demo also gave me a bit of a look at their personalities.

The school mode/island mode equivalent includes characters from DR1 and DR2 (dunno about DRAE or DR3). Some of them have had their voice actors altered, possibly? In the demo, Hajime definitely sounded different than in DR2.

There’s a dungeon crawler unlocked post-game.

I heard there’s a true ending, which implies multiple endings.

Things that I don’t know are of course, plot stuff. Who lives, who dies, who kills whoever it is that dies in whatever chapter, how many chapters there are, who the mastermind is, what the huge shocking endgame plot twist is gonna be, what the deal is with the academy the students are trapped in, whether they were attending or planning to attend the academy before being trapped inside, what the V in Dangan Ronpa V3 means aside from a way to differentiate it from the DR3 anime, etc.

Some thoughts I have before I begin:

Supposedly this game is not in the same continuity as the previous games, but rather is a full reboot of the series. Despite this, I find it very hard to believe Junko Enoshima won’t turn out to be the mastermind or connected to the mastermind somehow. I dunno how much of this statement is even a joke.

There might not be a mastermind, for that matter. It’s possible that this time around, Monokuma will truly be its own independent AI encased in a robotic/plush body. I dunno. If there is a singular mastermind, it’s strange that the Monokubs and Monokuma need to interact with each other at all.

The presence of Ultimate students makes me wonder what the backstory for the whole Ultimate thing is gonna be. This is a reboot, so it’d be kinda lame if the developers just took the Hope’s Peak thing and changed the name of the school.

Speaking of Ultimates, our protagonist this time around is actually a genuine Ultimate! No “you got lucky so you got accepted here”, or “you just paid a shit-ton of cash to technically be a student here but you have no actual talent” or “you’re the heroine cause you’re related to a previous protagonist”. Kaede appears to actually, genuinely possess a respectable Ultimate talent - that of a piano player.

So, before I start up the game, I might as well make my guesses as to who lives and who dies.

I’m gonna start out by saying that Kaede is gonna survive, since she’s the main character and that K1B0 is fucked, on the basis of no AI or robot surviving till the end of a Danganronpa game or anime.

I don’t have most the other students names memorized in front of me so I’ll just call them by their Ultimate talents.

Kaede, Tennis Player, Child Caretaker, Artist, Entemologist (I remember his name, it’s Gonta, and he is an aspiring gentleman), and ??? will make it to the end.

K1B0, Astronaut, Neo-Akido martial artist, Magician, Supreme Leader, Detective, Anthropologist, Inventor, Cosplayer, and Maid will all die.

Besides my reasoning for K1B0...the astronaut, magician, and Supreme Leader all have executions that I can very easily imagine, the cosplayer would be able to pull off a murder disguised as someone else, the anthropologist has a very off sense of morality and whenever he talked about humanity I am reminded of Nagito Komaeda talking about hope, the Neo-Akido girl I can see being a victim, for the irony in having a Neo-Akido master be unable to defend herself from the killer, but also with her being killed by another girl for the even bigger irony (she’s a huge misandrist in case you didn’t know). Don’t have any strong reasoning either way for Inventor or Maid. Detective...Kyoko survived the entire original DR series, though it was a close thing in DR1 chapter 5 and an even closer thing in DR3. So, with that in mind, I can’t see this guy making it. I would not be surprised if he was killed early on, in chapter 1 or 2.

Other predictions: Inventor and Magician are gonna really hit it off - one makes inventions that let you function while sleeping, the other is constantly low-energy and wants to sleep.

K1B0 and Anthropologist are gonna have friction, since Mr. “humanity is...beautiful” probably won’t include a robot in that regard. Then again, he is a creation of humanity, so who knows. If they don’t get along, K1B0 is gonna go ham on anthropology guy with his whole “robophobia is bad” thing?

And one final note: in the grandest tradition of Leon’s duck face and Ibuki’s nose, I find the neo akido girl’s facial expression hilarious. You probably know which facial expression I’m referring to. If not, it’s this one: 

tfw degenerate males?

[ladylucindae]

[Poison]

For those of you who don’t know. “Poison” is Komaeda’s character’s song. It’s a bonus track for the Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls Progressive Album. It was also used for the Island Mode in Super Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. It can be found on YT with english subtitles. I believe “Poison” is Komaeda’s song directly dedicated to Hinata. It also explains Komaeda’s feelings about what has to be done. There are subtle hints which showing he knew everything about Hinata’s “true identity”. It’s extraordinary how analazying it can lead to DR3/SDR2.5 hints! I wrote an interpretation after watching SDR2.5. That means all hints from OVA are included. For those of you who are interested, rest of the post is under “read more”.

ANOTHER SONG’S ANALYSIS: ABSOLUTE’S HOPE BIRTHDAY

ARTIST: ???

WARNING: POST IS HEAVILY KOMAHINA RELATED.

SONG’S WORDS ARE IN “”.

STAGE I: Komaeda is explaining his geniuine feelings. “I wish I meet the biggest hope, glistens than other which” He wishes to see blinding hope which leads to everyone’s future. “I want to see a desire, glistens than anyone else” He wants to see someone’s desire, which will change everything he knows about miserable world. “I love, and want to understand him more than anyone else” “…more, more than anyone else…” Then, he confess his love to Hinata and express desire to understand him as if he sees only him as someone capable to change their future.

STAGE II: Komaeda understands with all knowledge he possesed  that all of them needs to sacrifice something for hope to born. “I have no need for worthless things - anything ordinary and boring” Komaeda admits he never wanted to be classified as ordinary or have something in common with normal people. “What meaning is there to words that will neither be deadly poison nor cure?” He is confused now, when he knows the truth. Hinata is Reserve Course Student and within him is sleeping Izuru Kamakura. “I don’t care if nobody understands me” Komaeda is determined to kill himself and no one can stop him. “It’ll only take one second for the world of our [beliefs] to fall apart, after all” Dying is merely a moment but will cause everything to change.

STAGE III:  Komaeda is embracing despair while smiling at hope. “I [believe] that hope will overcome despair and shine” Komaeda highlights word believe thinking about Hinata. “And will offer my pulsating heart” “For the sake of that brilliance, I’ll tear apart my chest” He is believing no one other than him can do it. Only that way,  Hinata can change into their hope. “Until the very last drop trickles down and wets my lips” He will fight for it till the bitter end even if nobody understands.

STAGE IV: Komaeda is trying to give Hinata courage to accept his decision from the past. “Ordinary and boring people are the majority, because the world is filled with weaklings” Komaeda is commenting about Hinata being a Reserve Course Student. “You’ll only be able to make a giant killing once you stand before the abyss of despair” Komaeda admits that great things are made from the greatest sorrow. Hinata killed himself to be Izuru Kamakura. “There’s no way for everyone to soar” They have to move forward no matter what. “Because the world of our [beliefs] is so cruel, and takes but a second to change” World is cruel and in one moment all we believe can fall apart from knowing the truth.

STAGE V: Komaeda is wondering about Hinata’s decision but still wants to believe in him. “Believing that hope will overcome despair and shine” He reminds Hinata what is really important for them to make a new beginning. “Will you show no hesitation when drinking the poison poured into that glass” “Or will you abandon it at the end of much indecision?” What will Hinata do? Will he fall into despair from knowing the truth or reborn as cherry blossom? “I am merely watching over you, to whom the last choice is given.” Komaeda accepts the fact he is no longer with him directly. He entrusted all his hope to him.

STAGE VI:  Komaeda describes his vision of Hinata’s victory over despair. “The worst incident in the history of mankind has left this piece of land devoid of life, but the seeds are budding again” Their old lives are destroyed but they are able to wake up from very long despairful dream. “The sprouts of happiness should be able to blossom with much vibrance and strength…” They can find their happiness again if they are strong enough to try.

STAGE VII: Komaeda is speaking directly to Hinata. “I [believe] that hope will overcome despair and shine” He says again he believes Hinata is able to overcome his past. “And will offer my pulsating heart” He is not scared to become a sacrifice for him. “For the sake of that brilliance, I’ll tear apart my chest” He is believing in future they will create together. “Until the very last drop courses through my body and overwhelms me” Hinata’s feelings will reach him even if he no longer will be there.

STAGE VIII: Komaeda says his last words as if he is not here anymore. “I wish I meet the biggest hope, glistens than other which” He wanted to be a part of Hinata’s hopeful future. “I want to see a desire, glistens than anyone else” He wanted to see Hinata’s determination when he was facing  Junko and Naegi. “I love, and want to understand him more than anyone else” He confess to him once more because he is truly in love with him. “…more, more than anyone else… ” He wants to believe that time their spend together will make Hinata understand Komaeda’s  true feelings.

COMMENTARY: I want to add something as side note. Title: “Poison”  and other part  -deadly drug- has different meanings even if they are very similar without context.  if we consider all SDR2 events with interpretation: A) Poison which Komaeda used to kill himself and Nanami. It’s a superficial stratum. B) Deadly drug - Komeada’s love to Hinata which was one of the causes of his death. One of the other possibilites is that  “deadly drug” means his and Hinata’s admiration to Hope’s Peak Academy. They both can be accurate at the same time. That’s a hidden deep meaning stratum. As usual, I’m grateful that you’ve made that far! Comments are really apperaciated.

[hentaihunblog-blog]

Dangan Ronpa v3: Killing Harmony

New Post has been published on https://hentaihun.com/blog/2018/03/28/dangan-ronpa-v3-killing-harmony/

Dangan Ronpa v3: Killing Harmony

Welcome back to the World of Dangan Ronpa. Monochrome mascots, pink blood, 16 students locked in a closed area and murder around every corner. In this new game we follow protagonist Kaede Akamatsu, the Ultimate Pianist  as she wakes up in a strange enclosed cage containing a school, dorms, and various ‘Ultimate’ labs. They are being kept here by not just Monokuma, but also the monokubs. Monotaro, Monosuke, Monodam, Monokid and Monophanie. Who are apparently Monokuma’s children? Can robotic bears even have children? Who cares!?

In the prologue you go around and meet with the other Ultimate Students. This killing games roster of talents include. Ultimate Robot, Ultimate Supreme Leader, Ultimate Cosplayer, Ultimate Artist, Ultimate Entomologist, Ultimate “Mage” [Magiancian],Ultimate Astronaut, Ultimate Maid, Ultimate Anthropologist,Ultimate Child Caregiver, Ultimate Inventor, Ultimate Tennis Pro, Ultimate Detective and of course the Ultimate ???.

In the first chapter, Akamatsu teams up with the Ultimate Detective, Shuichi Saihara to try to find the ‘mastermind’ behind everything and investigate the mystery of why they are being kept locked up. Meanwhile, Monokuma introduces two motives to the group. The first motive, the “First blood perk.” meaning you could kill, own up for it, graduate, with no class trial involved. So basically, a get out of jail free card for the killer. The second motive, a time limit. If there has been no killing in two days time, they will all perish. So with this, it becomes imperative that they find the mastermind quickly.  Saihara discovers a hidden door in the library and the two of them come up with a plan to monitor it with hidden camera’s and catch the mastermind…

If only things went that well.

And honestly, this is all I can really say about the game without spoilers because this game does not pull it’s punches. When it first came out in Japan, I made the grave mistake of thinking and saying “It’s only chapter one. How much can it spoil?” I made the grave mistake of underestimating Kodaka. I will never be making this mistake again in any future games he is involved in. Also, another thing to be said, if you are here and are not going to make it past the picture of Monotaro because you want to avoid spoilers. I should note, that even by Dangan Ronpa standards the executions in this game are a little more brutal the the ones in the previous games. So if you liked the previous installments but struggled with watching the executions. That is something to note for V3.

With that being said as in my previous reviews of this game series, here’s a picture to distract you and let you leave if you want too before I start picking away at the spoilers. This time, check out this cool picture of Monotaro. Isn’t he a good boy?

Still with me? Good. So as the time limit approaches we see a group of the students head to the basement and then, the sensor goes off showing that the camera’s in the library have activated. Akamatsu and Saihara make their way to the basement and we find Rantaro Amami, the Ultimate ??? dead. This is unprecedented for a lot of reasons. First, this is the first game to kill the student with the unknown talent but also because Amami was featured heavily in the promotional materials and had a character design very reminiscent of Komaeda’s design from Super Dangan Ronpa 2. He was set up entirely as a red herring character and was made for the entire audience to think he was more important then he was. This was not the only deception from the promotional materials either though.

so at the end of chapter 1. We are left with the realization that all of the promotional material has duped us completely and that Akamatsu is not the protagonist but instead it’s Shuichi Saihara, the Ultimate Detective, which is both a good and a bad thing if you ask me. It’s interesting to have a detective as the main character as opposed to a support character like in Dangan Ronpa 1. However, it takes away the satisfaction of having a female protagonist in a main series game, something that a lot of the fandom was really excited for. It was neat to have the character you were playing as up until this point be the killer though. With only a few omitted details of actions, you realize that you set up the entire murder for the most part…of course. If we are being blatant about spoilers by now, you know that Akamatsu did not kill anyone in fact and the mastermind was truly Amami’s killer but it doesn’t take away from the fact that she did set up a way to murder someone and had the intent.

I could sit here and reflect on my thoughts on every trial, but this review will probably be long enough as it is without that. So the story progresses from here in a very standard Dangan Ronpa manner. sometimes even more exaggerated then before, such as having a secret killer among the group. This time, there is two. Having the true talent of the Ultimate Child Caregiver be the Ultimate Assassin. Having the Anthropologist be a serial killer of women. The standard chapter 3 double murder. Having the big bara sweetheart die in chapter 4. Chapter 5 be the death of one of the trial point trio and to top it all off. The inevitable tie in to the rest of the series and the reappearance of  everyone’s favorite psycho, Junko Enoshima.[though this time, through her #1 fangirl, our mastermind, the Ultimate Cosplayer. Tsumugi Shirogane.]

This is where the writing becomes questionable and the fandom splits down the middle on how they feel about it. v3, the v being the roman numeral 50 is the 53rd season of a popular reality show produced by Team Dangan Ronpa. It claims that all 3 games have been a part of this franchise and none of it from the Hope’s Peak saga to now was real. You can take that at face value of course. The ‘never real’, ‘all a dream’, ‘all a tv show’ trope however is often viewed as poor writing. I can certainly see where Kodaka was going with it, he was making a commentary on not just his own series. The horror of writing a series about people killing one another and having thousands of people enjoying it. There is also some commentary to be said on what is expected from game sequels.

Oddly enough, I saw a post about the New Smash Brothers that reminded me of a lot of the points that v3 was trying to make. How fans want things to be the same, but different, but they don’t want anything changed and they want it the way it was in x game in the franchise.  That’s why v3 consisted of so many throwbacks and things that the fandom has come to expect.

However, true to the games ideas and nature of the idea of ‘Truth vs Lies’ in the after credits there is some doubt thrown in the idea that all of the series had been fictional. While v3 might have, the Hope’s Peak saga may of existed and it is ultimately left to the player to decide what they want to believe. What is the truth and what is the lie. I think if in fact the Hope’s Peak saga was real, it puts a even more chilling social commentary on the narrative. How we dramatize and fictionalize real life tragedies, and how this fictionalizations can become more known then the truth of the situation and the tragedy itself. [Example: People not knowing that the Titanic was real when the movie came out.]

This may not of been the intention that Kodaka was going for. Honestly, in the end, v3 left a lot of fans of the series polarized about how they felt. Which can be both a good and bad thing, was it the best ending for the franchise? No. Was it worth playing and exploring the ideas and getting to enjoy the colorful cast that Kodaka laid out for us this time? Absolutely. The writing was not perfect. It was ambitious, the game is collectively larger then the first two games combined and it was in production simultaneously with DR3 Future and Despair arcs. So the attention of the writers was drawn thin and both productions suffered.

What did not suffer though, was gameplay. For the most part, the trials functioned like the ones in the previous games however with slight improvements and new additions here and there. They certainly improved the Hangman’s gambit [Thank god], the logic dive was slightly easier this time around and other gameplay elements have been tweaked. However, by far the most popular addition to the trials was the scrum debates in which the cast is split down the middle and they have to argue their points against one another.

Outside of the main game there is plenty of side material as well. Of course, the standard school life mode [Salmon Mode], in which you can finish off the Free Time Events that you were unable to obtain in the main story and date the other members of the school. There is also the board game mode, called the Talent Development plan which is pretty much the cross game non-despair AU the fandom has wanted for ages. You collect character cards through a gacha machine by getting coins in the other side bonus mode. A rpg style dungeon with Monokuma shaped Monsters. The talent plan is fun and you get a lot of character interactions that are otherwise impossible. Such as Izuru Kamukura/Sakura Oogami or Kaito Momota/Mikan Tsumiki. Fair warning though, it may cause odd cross series crack shipping [please, can more people support Mukuro/Amami? It’s sooo good! Their interactions are so pure!] Last but not least of the side material for the game is the casino. In which you can play various mini-games to get tokens where you can either buy gifts for your classmate or unlock the Ultimate prize. A key to the Love Hotel.

The love hotel event will trigger when you have a key and pick a character and you will visit them in a dream. In which you can see their ideal fantasy. It’s um, something, and considering how many coins it is to get a Love Hotel key it’s very unlikely you’re going to go through and get all of these unless you are collecting clips for youtube or are just extremely obsessive about completion.

In conclusion, while the writing is spotty in places and the plot is a mess the game is still very fun and I honestly think it is more then worth the time it takes to play it. The characters are fun and the gameplay makes for a good experience. As for the ending, what is the truth? What is the lie? Was the entire series a reality show or was the tragedy real and it just faded into obscurity over time? I personally like to think it was the second one…but that’s just a theory…a…wait, best not get myself sued for copyright.

~MidnightDevont

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[harmoniamusica-a]

@sailock

     It was a new school semester, everyone had gotten along well enough, and it seemed like it was going to be a great year. There she had made friends with the Ultimate detective, and today she invited him to come listen to her play. Of course, like the piano freak she was, she got there a bit early and began playing it. Convincing herself it was just to warm herself up as she wanted to show him how well she could play the grand piano. The school had the best quality of keyboard though this was the only one as she was the single student that needed a piano for her talent. Which is why she might have been a bit unaware of when her company in the afternoon came to her having started playing without him.

     As she finishes playing Chopin, she smiled to herself, letting out a sigh before turning her head to check the time. Only to see the Ultimate Detective having waited patiently for her to finish playing. Her face turned a beet red as she got up feeling like she had been rude keeping him waiting. “S-Saihara-kun! You should have spoken up, how long have you been standing there?!” She squeaked out just a bit, feeling a bit flustered and embarrassed by the fact she kept him waiting. He probably only heard her from in the middle of it, and she was mostly playing around so who knows if he even liked the song she picked out for ‘practice’.

    “A-Anyway up, so how you like it? I was mostly just warming up so not exactly my best, but I hope it made you smile.” She stated, feeling just a bit sheepish over the fact she started playing without him.