#Drv3 chapter 5 mystery

[whattheskyknows]

Chapter 5 au where instead of Maki breaking into the hangar, it's Tsumugi. She breaks in using an Exisal but doesn't reveal herself. Instead, she uses the voice changer using Maki's voice so both Kaito and Kokichi think she's inside. Tsumugi wounds Kokichi using the Exisal's gun and tries to kick-start another trial because everyone is too depressed to do anything (including Maki, hence why Tsumugi has taken matters into her own hands.) She leaves pretty soon afterwards, assuming Kaito will sort everything out (Kaito tells 'Maki' to leave, promising her everything will be okay.) Kaito and Kokichi are still both alive but Kokichi is gravely wounded and Kaito's illness is getting worse. Kokichi points out that it's strange 'Maki' didn't leave the Exisal and reluctantly reveals he thinks the true mastermind is trying to continue the game, bating Kaito to murder. Kaito believes him eventually and they both work together to trick the mastermind. I think they'd go down the hydraulic press mystery route, although there's a different outcome at the trial.

Stopping there because I kinda want to write this as a fic because I've already started to plan out what could happen lol

[brainrot-mx]

I DON'T KNOW WHERE ELSE TO POST THIS BUT HERE U GO ‼️spoilers hsr 2.2‼️

I am aware the danganronpa fandom is prolly really inactive rn and I also have no idea if the HSR fandom is on here BUT I HAVE TO SHARE MY IDEAS (saiouma mixed into hsr)

Kokichi would be an emenator of the Enigmata or Elation:

I'm leaning Enigmata honestly, but his lies and hatered for violence would be a great motivation for him altering history to prevent humanity from ever commiting heinous crimes ever again (like the killing game?)

The remark from Shuichi after the 5th trial about Kokichi being a lie itself would fit perfectly for being someone either made by a fictionologist (like Gallahager) or being an emenator

He's also incredibly smart which would help him with covering up history, twisting facts and generally messing with public opinion/knowledge about history in subtle ways by using lies

His belief that lies can be used for good also factors into this

Messing with anyonr related to Nous, specifically Shuichi here but I think the memebers of the Genius Society would hate him <3

As an Emenator of Enigmata, it fits that his backstory is very unclear and messy/dkesn't make sense even when you have clues (like DICE for example)

Him not being given any credit for his plan in chapter 5 also solidifies him being perfect for this, as he wasn't written down to be remembered, leaving him with no legacy and no history

I take his ultimate to mean he is the perfect leader, so he fills a groups gaps and the support or drive, depending on what is needed, which is what I think a leader should be. Here, it would be used the way he did in the DRV3, which is to say he turned people against him (either by writing down false history and acting it out or making the planet hate him specifically therefore throwing the repeating history off it's rails with a new factor)

A lot of people would mistake him for a Masked Fool. He is friends with a bunch of them though and uses it to his advantage

Because he is so elusive and has very similar ideals to Mythus, he'd probably be given a lot of power. Deciphering the messed up history and stories he leaves behind is a giant pain

Would go very heavy on the planets that constantly repeat their own history, especially if it involves lots of killing and unreasonable authorities doing it

Hates the IPC, constantly messes with their records and

HOWEVER for the Elation:

Being a Masked Fool or even an Emenator would fit him becuase he loves pranks and subtly changes the situation is ways to fit himself (which is a characteristic of Aha)

Messing with people, making fun of people, having his own agenda and generally orchestrating everything from the background works as well.

And Shuichi would probably be part of Genius Society and blessed by Nous, the Aeon of Erudition:

As is customary for anyone in the GS, he would live a life engrossed in his own work, trying to find the truth of cases across the cosmos

The cases he solves are very important, usually solving mysteries connected to important figures in the universe or were unsolved for years before being solved by him, prompting Nous to actually notice him

A lot of people dislike him for revealing corrupt leaders, especially the IPC, because he exposed how horrible they were and as a result the IPC was unable to invade his home planet

Accidentally solved a case where an Aeon was involved, it was a really big scale conflict/event and he got involved, then solved it

Is curious about the Aeons since (and because he was blessed by Nous). Has been invited to work on the Simulated Universe, where he tries to solve historical events like the Swarm, dissapearance of Aeons and what could've happened to them

Probably constantly getting fucked with by Kokichi, by having his records of cases and notes of findings from years ago altered. He gets targeted because of a case he solved earlier in his life, where he exposed that someone messed with the evidence, that person having been Kokichi

He always figures out when his records were messed with, while alse realising that Kokichi was the one doing it, but he could never solidly prove it, causing him to continue his research on the other

Their end comes when Shuichi fully realises who Kokichi is and finds out everything there is to know. None of the information makes sense, accept for the others name. He then dubs Kokichi a "living lie" and calls him by the only things he's certain is true, prompting the Eminator of Enigmata to start fizzling away, as he has become "real" because of Shuichi solidifying him as "real" and "true" by the use of his name instead of a "lie" and "nonexistent" or "altered"

(this is because the Enigmata wants history to be obscured and therefore untrue, which is why I believe it's Eminators would follow, having fabricated lives with no records to show their true history.)

Shuichi would then spend his whole life trying and forget Kokichi's true name, just so he could see him one more time.

[pottedplant53]

Danganronpa V3 Fic Recs!!

In my six years of being a Danganronpa fan I've read a lot of fanfiction, so I've decided to compile a list of some of my personal favourites (in no particular order) for your perusal. Contains very minor plot spoilers, but nothing beyond what the tags/descriptions will tell you. Enjoy :D

New Danganronpa V3BOOT: Killing Harmony Redux - EternalSailorNeptune_53.

Unique in the fact that not only is it a Talentswap AU, but a Simulation AU as well. The general premise is that DRV3 wound up being such a monumental disappointment of a season that Shirogane is forced to rewrite it and try again.

Something that stands out about this fic in particular is its characterization. It tweaks the personalities and backstories of the cast to fit their new talents, all while remaining fundamentally true to their canon counterparts. There's a new death order, new motives, and all of the jokes hit. It's really funny but also made me cry at a few points. Ships include SaiMatsu, KoreKichi, TenMiko and some ShinToujo.

Words: 598,513

Chapters: 53/53 (Completed)

2. The Powerful Skeletons Series - EternalLoveSong

Another V3 Talentswap AU, except this time it's a collection of shorter fics, currently about 27 of them, set in the same talentswap universe. It features Supreme Leader Maki, Assassin Kokichi, Inventor Shuichi, and Servant Rantaro to name a few, and each character gets the spotlight at some point. I don't have a lot to say about these but they're very good.

Words: 95,923 Total

3. Alternative Ending, New Beginning - CrowSandwhich

V3 Chapter 5 canon divergence AU, in which various factors (Maki) cause Kokichi's plan to backfire before he can complete it. Due to his injuries, he winds up confined to the hangar by the rest of the survivors, under the belief that he's the mastermind. Incredibly engaging, but tragically discontinued. Kokichi & Kaito centric, no ships.

Words: 36,523

Chapters: 6/6 (Discontinued)

4. Irreplaceable - apollo_python

Set many years after the events of V3. The participants of the final killing game have all disappeared under mysterious circumstances, with the exception of Shuichi and Kokichi, who've been out of contact and down on their luck since the game ended. At Shuichi's insistence, they take it upon themselves to find their missing former classmates. A Saiouma thriller/mystery with a heavy focus on their relationship. Ships include Saiouma, and background Kaimaki/Irumatsu.

Words: 31,827

Chapters: 3/? (Unfinished)

:D

[kkatastrophic]

Danganronpa Chapter 5 - V3 Daily Life:

SPOILERS AHEAD DON'T READ UNLESS YOU'VE PLAYED ALL OF CHAPTER 5!!!

ALSO, SPOILERS FOR THE MASTERMIND, BECAUSE I FIGURED IT OUT!!!

Cute Kaimaki to begin, because they're such cuties.

Aight, the people who haven't played should be gone by now!

--- The Start:

DANGANRONPA V3!!! DROP A MAKI HIMIKO FRIENDSHIP ARC THIS CHAPTER AND MY LIFE IS YOURS!!!!!!!!!!!!

(I love them both sm, and Tsumugi is great too, and Kaito, and KOKCIHI IS SO FUCKING MESSED UP I LOVE IT RAHHH!!!)

I'm listening to Linger aughhhh

BAHAHAHAH KEEBO ROLLING OUT OF THE HYDRAULIC PRESS IS SO FUNNY, IMAGINE THAT WITHOUT CONTEXT BAHAHAH-

"rush in peace Keebo"

HELP THE HIDDEN MONOKUMA IS BREAKDANCING

Also: Kokichi where tf are you? U gon die soon if you don't come bacl bbg.

--- THEORIES!!!

Maki FTE: "A daughter of a Yakuza leader. She was a child mistress with no ties to the gang. Her father loved her very much... which is why she was seen as dangerous. The yakuza's elites decided to have her removed, in case rival groups used her."

...

Natsumi Kuzuryu...?

--- MAKI AND KAITOOO!

MAKI TEACHING KAITO THE CROSSBOW, AUGH MY HEART OHH THEY'RE SO CUTE.

(Kaito's gonna die soon, he's planning a murder.)

ALSO, WHERE IS BB KOKICHI, HUH?!

Shuichi: While watching those two... I thought of a similar scene. Kaito struggling while Maki gave him instructions...

FUCK! KAITO YOU'RE GONNA DIE. KAITO DON'TTTTT

How lovely :3

"D-Dammit... why now? Why me? I haven't... even... gone to s-space yet..." say that shit again and I'm BAWLING, KAITO. BAWLING. BAWLING!!!!!

OMG ONE MORE FTE AND I FINISH ALL OF TSUMUGIS! YAY OMG I LOVE HER SM IM SO HAPPY AND EXCITED OMG OMG OMG OM GAHHHHH AUGHHHHH I LOVE HERRRRRRR!

--- Kaito Momota is NOT the luminary of the stars:

GUYS I JUST REALISED KAITO KEEPS MAKING SIMPSONS REFERENCES HELP

Kaito always says "WHY YOU-" or "Why you little-" or "Why, you better-" and stops halfway through. He's a goddam simpsons reference. Kaito Momota Ultimate Accidental Simpsons Reference.

Me when goddamronpa.

I CLEARED THE STUPID TUNNEL GAME IN 3 TRIES OMG HIMIKO SAVED ME, I ATE IT UP, AUGHHH I HATED THAT BUT I DID IT SO FAST OMG YAY

--- Gofer Project is a goofy ass name:

Bro the Gofer project chooses 16 students as the saviours of humanity... and they choose a mf who doesn't remember his talent, a ROBOT, a magician, a COSPLAYER and a bug guy...

Erm okay guys.

Why the hell is Kokichi controlling the exisals, I don't believe he's the mastermind what the hell.

Kaito punching people:

Shuichi, Kokichi, he just punches people.

Also Maki's voice line... goddam "STOP IT!!!" like goddam girl.

GUYS. KOKICHI JUST SAID "YUPPERS".

I say that quite often help-

"THIS SCHOOL IS MINE, I AM THE KING!" jesus okay chill out there blud.

--- Poor Shuichi...:

"There's no reason...to keep living."

"There's no reason to live."

"I don't care. If I...just kill my-"

Maki saving Shuichi rn.

Oh my fucking God, Junko is in the flashback light, if she's somehow the bloody mastermind again I'm gonna cry.

THE KILLING GAME OF THE 78TH CLASS??? *crying, screaming, KIYOTAKA IS ON THE SCREEN IN DRV3 GUYS!!!!* <- That image brings so much nostalgia omg.

Erm where is the SDR2 cast? They only get an honourable mention as "ReMnAnTs". What.

Bruh Makoto started the gofer project? AUGHHH MAKOTO FUCK OFFFFFFF ISTFG BRO-

"We just happened to be immune to the virus" <- Bro thinks he's special or smth.

IF I HAVE TO HEAR JUNKO ENOSHIMA ONE MORE TIME I SWEAR TO GOD BRO-

No guys, there's NO saving Kaito, he's sick. He's gonna die. He probably has the mysterious asteroid virus thing.

--- Guys I know who the REAL Mastermind is... fuck:

Kokichi isn't the stupid MM he's lying again.

Tsumugi: "Yeah. That's the sort of thing the remnants of despair or Kira would do."

Tsumugi Shirogane. It's you, isn't it.

Maki triggering the electro-bomb:

Keebo in the corner:

--- VICTIM ALREADY?!

Wait who the fuck is under the press?! WHO'S UNDER IT?! WHO IS IT AUGHHH

[alfiely-art]

As much as I love Raincode it's just. So rushed. I really wish they'd taken more time on it, to really make it shine. Because. With what we have I can't really recommend it to anybody except my friends who have to listen to me rave about it anyways

Game-play wise, Raincode reminds me of Danganronpa, Ace Attorney, and Persona 5 and I think the Raincode in my head incorporates stuff from those games. Like for example, imagine if:

We get a few days in-game that pass without us immediately tackling a mystery. Like how Persona 5 has a ton of time separating each palace, you get time to explore Kanai Ward and really get to know it.

While we're not working on the story-mysteries, we can pass the time by hanging out with our fellow detectives and Kurumi- possibly Makoto but maybe not. Or we can hang out with Shinigami!! Similar to freetime events and confidants.

We get more quests that aren't just "go talk to this person and then this person". Maybe we get little mysteries to solve. We could expand on the red rain!! On that wizard!! Why did they include that and then never do anything with it??? Maybe in the beginning we can do simpler cases, like finding lost pets and such! Like how Yakou said his job usually involves.

Can we get more gambling in Raincode actually. I spent a lot of time in DRV3's slots. It's a fun way to pass the time. Maybe we could even pay Halara back their shien

Have the other detectives there for the other cases. Chapter 4 did a good job having everyone involved, but the rest SUCKED ASS at that. In the games I listed above, we always have the remaining students/court members/Phantom thieves. And ofc not everybody is involved each time but it's more than what Raincode gives us (Yuma, helper detective, Peacekeeper, and the suspects + victim)

I just. Man I wanna replay it but it has no replay value for me... I replay Danganronpa every so often because there's so much to do and it's not just the same things over and over again.

[wackpedion]

1 12 30

YIPPEEE ok so

1.) Favorite Game?

SUPER DANAGRONPA 2: GOODBYE DESPAIR BY FAARR. the writing is the peak of the series, the mysterys and murders set up r amazing, chapter 2 with pekos and fuyuhikos relationship is so emotionally striking and not to mention the never-before-done attempted execution interruption LIKE that was just so cool. And then there are the characters and their relationships in general, it feels more of them are friends as opposed to like THH, they grieve and fight for each other. NAGITO IS ONE OF THE BEST CHARACTERS he is so well written and absolutely fascinating, and his relationship with Hajime is so gripping. CHAPTER 5 WAS SO GOOD the convoluted mystery, the emotional rollercoaster near the end, and once again THE MYSTERY whether it be how the murder was done, the intentions, and also what he found out etc. etc. WHICH LEADS INTO CHAPTER 6 BEAUTIFULLY DONE CHAPTER the way it confuses and throws the player through a whirlwind as reality falls apart and makes you question everything, hands you all these pieces, and in the trial itself THE TWIST AND TURNNSSS from finding out they're in a virtual reality, that they're the remnants of despair, Makoto turning out not to be actually Makoto, BUT THEN THE PREVIOUS SURVIVORS DO TURN UP FOR REAL, and then there's the whole Izuru Kamukura thing its. just so good. Not to MENTION how the whole thing ends and its themeing and messaging, that the future is what we make of it, and that all we can do is try etc. etc. PEAK DANGANRONPA GAME NO CONTEST I personally hold DRV3 closer to my heart but SDR2 is undeniably the best to me

12.) Least Favorite Unused Execution?

Ohh that's an interesting one. They're all kinda banger I think, but also my memory isn't the best. I think I'll go with Hifumi's as my least favourite

30.) Smartest Murder Plan?

HARD QUESTION esp going off of memory..... I THINK it has to be Nagito because like. dude literally had them cornered it was scheme upon scheme of making it look like a suicide when REALLY it was a murder he orchestrated on himself except NOBODY KNEW who the murderer was not Nagito not even the murderer themself and the only reason they made it out was because they took a guess that he was targeting someone, specifically the traitor, and the traitor outed themselves for the sake of everyone else.

Also I was tempted to say Mondo at first cuz the onlyyy fukn reason he got caught was his slip-up, but there kinda was. no plan. he committed the crime on impulse lol

[cosmical-flowers]

who's your top three favorite characters from enstars and danganronpa? im curious and havent found someone to talk to about danganronpa in a while hehe

mb i have to post this the day after this was asked because THERES A POST LIMIT???? Im so mad. Anyways. Characters!

Danganronpa + Fanganronpa:

1. Yuki Maeda (SDRA2)

I loveeee his character arc. I like the way he decides to cope with only being the Ult. Lucky Student. His growth from that as well is interesting to me! His backstory intrigues me as well. Hes awesome, top 5 blorbo of mine. His character design also looks cool, I like the school boy fit.

2. Kaede Akumatsu (DRV3)

I died in chapter 1, recovered, and died in chapter 6 again. I like her optimism in the game so much. Shes so cool!!! Also her character design is mad cute. Like the pink and the yellow??? YES!!!!!

3. Teruya Otori (DRA + SDRA2)

the games killed me. I did a character analysis for him cause I made a playlist for him and. HES ME FR!!!!!! i like him a normal amount trust. His character arc is cool and I like how he copes with the death of his friends (im sorry if you dont know dra mutual)

Danganronpa Maingames:

1. Kaede Akumatsu

same statement as before: shes awesome.

2. Makoto Naegi

i love my very plain protagonists so much. I like how he just has the Ult. Lucky Student, and while I’ve seen others talk down on themselves because of it (cough cough YUKI MAEDA), he’s like “cool!” And moves on. I like his optimism as well, and him coping with the killing game. Hes cool.

3. Sonia Nevermind

Hey. how do i mention that i never finished sdra. i erm. got to ch1 and stopped. so uh. I like her fit! It’s very cool. I also like her proper behavior (and I remember correctly from the manga, she also likes murder mystery / true crime. I haven’t read the manga in a bit though.) shes neat!

Enstars:

1. Shinobu Sengoku

he is just. !!!!!!! I like him :D I think his character is very interesting to look at tbh, especially after reading Scroll of the Elements and Chuunibyou. The way he decides to cope with loneliness is going like “oh! I think im meant to be a ninja because they’re always alone too!” And I respect that so much. As an only child myself, he’s just. Cool!!!!!!!

(I also struggle with Identifying voices sometimes in songs and if they’re too similar I cant point them out. He has a really identifiable voice so like when I listen to a song im like “THATS HIM!!!!!” And it makes me happy :D)

2. Subaru Akehoshi

The lore… uwagh. I love when really cheery characters are more than that because it’s me fr. Im happy go lucky, Im also sometimes sad!!! I also like Trickstar in general because I like the orthodoxness of the group (is that a word. prob not.) And he is just!!! Silly!!! He should be allowed to do as many antics as he wants. BIGBANG REFLECTION!! that song is so good.

3. Hiiro Amagi

difficult choice tbh. But gets the spot since he was the first one I had a major hyper fixation on. I like how he decided to deal with being in a new environment and what he does. I think of scout white lilies everyday too. Its one of the first ones I read. Anyways, I also like his red hair and how he has an undercut. Its awesome to me.

[198d]

also i think people miss the point that drv3's trial 4 isn't about the mystery. its about setting up the character dynamics and choices of chapter 5. people will say they want a character focused story and then miss the forest for the fucking trees with this shit. but i guess recognizing that really puts a wrench in any kokichi and shuicihi shipping because the latter completely rejects the ideology of the former

[fit-artichoke8738]

What Kiibo Detected in the Hangar in Ch. 5

So this scene has always been odd to me, and has led me down a variety of theory holes.

Kiibo is definitely detecting something that is making him feel sick, and he’s pretty sure it’s unrelated to the electro bomb. This is made more clear in the Japanese version, where he’s more direct and mentions nothing about malfunctioning.

[Due to image limit, I can’t include screenshots, but here’s a Rough Translation of Japanese version: “By the way... the atmosphere inside this building is kind of bad, huh.” “I don’t think its due to the electrobomb’s effects, and it’s not just me, everyone probably thinks the same...” “I’m starting to feel a bit sick.”]

Besides, given how they just threw and electrobomb outside the hanger and he was totally fine then, I’m inclined to believe his self-assessment. Whatever is affecting him is coming from inside the hanger and is unrelated to his electrical processes. And even stranger:

Tsumugi and Himiko apparently feel fine.

That’s strange. What non-electrical thing could be affecting a robot that humans couldn’t be affected by? And more specifically, a thing Kiibo thinks should be affecting everyone?

Kiibo very explicitly mentions in Ch1 how he can detect pollutants and “dislikes polluted air as much as the rest of you”:

So maybe it’s some kind of undetectable pollutant?

When first considering the possibility of Ouma faking his death in Ch5, my first thought, and probably the first thought of many others, was that the blood under the press was actually paint. After all, there is a painting arm for the exisals within the hangar.

However, paint has a fairly strong smell (Shuichi mentioned being able to smell the paint from the exisal painting arm earlier in the chapter), and if it was poured in such a large quantity, I can’t realistically believe the humans of the group wouldn’t notice it or be affected by it. Especially if the paint used under the press was paint used to paint a vehicles (in this case, the exisals)—that type of paint has an incredibly strong smell, and would give anyone a headache within seconds. There’s no way that no one would notice.

Besides, Kiibo can detect different scents as well, so I don’t think it’s something with a distinguishable scent.

So what else could it be? Some kind of poison, perhaps?

When the body under the press is discovered, the same eerie music that had been played when Nagito Komaeda’s body in DR2 was discovered was playing—“Sing the Empty Truth.” In his death plan, Nagito had used a type of poison that was most effective when vaporized, so my thought was maybe the music was a hint that a similar method was used here—maybe Maki had thrown some kind of airborne poison into the hanger and killed both Kaito and Ouma in a vengeful rage. However, that wouldn’t really make sense, and there’s a bunch of issues that arise as to how exactly she would go about doing that, and there’s no evidence that any poisons are available that would be effective through vaporization. Also, despite how shady she is, I really don’t think she would intentionally kill Kaito like that.

So likely not paint, likely not poison, what else is there?...

What would cause a robot that‘s sensitive to pollutants to feel sick, but leave the humans unaffected and unaware? It would have to be some kind of invisible, odorless, tasteless gas of some sort, but it’s not clear why such a thing would be in the hanger or why it’s even relevant. And I certainly had no ideas...

...Until I replayed Ch. 3.

“Burn the Necronomicon to ashes. Use caution! Be mindful of carbon monoxide poisoning!”

...Carbon monoxide, huh? What a strange detail to add to the Necronomicon...

Carbon monoxide is an tasteless, odorless, colorless gas that would fit the bill, and with low levels of exposure, humans would likely not experience any symptoms at all. A robot that can detect pollutants would know for sure, but humans could remain completely unaware. While it is an enclosed space, the hangar is very large, and it’s unclear when the Necronomicon would have been burned or how much carbon monoxide it would produce, so the gas produced definitely could’ve dispersed by the time Shuichi and the rest enter the hangar, but still remained potent enough that Kiibo could detect it.

Still kind of a long shot, though, right? Well, just a few scenes earlier, right before Kaito was captured, Ouma said this interesting line:

It’s a strange time to bring back the topic of resurrection, unless, maybe, it’s relevant to this chapter. And I dunno, the way he said that kinda makes it sound like he’s lyingggg.

[Though this would also imply that he knows of a way to ‘turn earth back to normal.’ Im not exactly sure what he means by that yet, but I guess that’s another mystery to figure out later.]

So maybe, there really was a victim in Ch5, and there is an actual body under the press—but whoever’s under there may be alive and walking around once again...

[evercelle]

how's chapter 5 of drv3? :0 (take ur time with this lmao)

uuuUUUUU MAN. best chapter in the game...!! i don't want to spend a lot of time word vomiting about it (tho i definitely have quite a lot of thoughts about it lol), so i'll limit it to my positive impressions:

ouma kokichi absolute MVP!! there were lots of little hints in the prior cases that ouma was always several steps ahead of everyone else, but this chapter really highlighted just how far ahead of the game he was. ouma u poor bastard... if only u had been capable of putting ur trust in other people (specifically, saihara, and much sooner) he absolutely would have thwarted the killing game. knowing just how close he came to exposing the truth/cornering the mastermind but failing still makes him really tragic...!!

setting up the mystery victims to be ouma + momota and slowly unveiling What Happened through the trial was great fun! chp 4 really ramped up the blind faith/cold cunning character foil set up between the two of them, and the payoff in 5 was excellent.

god harukawa has been through the fucking wringer in this chapter. i thought her confession to momota was very sweet (':

[hopeymchope]

An overview of the “Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp” AU

There are some interesting divergences from the other timelines within the reality of Danganronpa S — and I don’t just mean the obvious main plot in which the characters are about to graduate when they attend a VR summer camp. Some of this stuff is backstory that is only explained via specific character scenes you can get on Friendship squares. Some of it is just some throwaway dialogue casually referenced between unrelated characters. Some of it is blatantly stated during story cut scenes. And some of it is changes to the characters which... I can’t help but wonder if it’s caused by this writing team not “getting” the characters right, or if these are intentional deviations. 

So - without any significant spoilers - I’m going to run down 10 most noteworthy aspects of this new Danganronpa universe as revealed through “Development” mode and the progressively unlocked story chapters.

1) The casts of DR1, DR2, and DRV3 are graduating from Hope’s Peak concurrently in this reality. Ultimate Talent Development Plan portrayed them as classes 78, 77-B, and 79 respectively, but in DRS, they are all the same age and are simply in separate classrooms within the same year. (Which number class of Hope’s Peak are they in this reality? That’s... not specified as far as I’ve seen.)

2) Monokuma is a robot created by Junko, of course. He is not controlled directly by her as he was in DR1, however; he operates independently here, just as he did in UTDP and V3. And we learn that Hope’s Peak has let the little bastard run amok on campus for three straight years because they consider his presence/influence to be part of how Junko is developing her talents. *facepalm*

3) Usami is a robot (implied to have been created by Gekkogahara, althought she’s never named) to serve Hope’s Peak’s students... who the Monokuma robot forcibly converted into “Monomi” immediately on her first goddamn day of service. Because of COURSE he did.

Not even Kazuichi and Miu’s combined power can restore her Usami-ness.

4) Maki Harukawa is legitimately dual-talented here! Her “cover story” talent from the main V3 canon and from UTDP is now a legit, confirmed talent she has in addition to her secret one. She doesn’t fully understand why she has it or necessarily want to have it, but she still demonstrates that talent whether she intends to or not. 

5) Some of the playthroughs you have to do on the “Development” board game are absolutely non-canon, even within this AU. Specfiically: Izuru Kamakura, Usami, and Junko Enoshima. Do you have to complete playthroughs with them in order to reach the end of the canon story? Yes. Does anything you see in their cut scenes or Friendship Square scenes actually count as canon within that story? Absolutely not. These characters are definitively established in the main storyline to NOT be present within the Neo World Program. Funnily enough, however, some of these characters do share events with each other that can be encountered in either characters’ playthroughs... so I guess they share a bubble sub-universe?

*WAVES HANDS FRANTICALLY* THIS IS NOT REALLY HAPPENING. IGNOOOOOOORE THIIIIIIIIIIIS!

6)  As was the case with Ultimate Talent Development Plan, there are some story threads that run across multiple character playthroughs in the “Development” board game, so you can gradually build a more complete picture of what goes down during everybody’s time in the Neo World PRogram. I always liked that aspect of UTDP, and it’s cool to see it here once more. You can gradually piece together the story of various characters putting on a play, the mystery of the photos Mahiru doesn’t remember, These include the the characters putting on a play of “Momotaro,” the mystery of the photos that Mahiru doesn’t remember taking, the odd rivalry between Masaru and Gundham, and more.

7) Much weirder, there are some cut scenes/dialogue that are DIRECT FOLLOW-UPS to scenes from Ultimate Talent Development Plan! Even though this clearly isn’t the same AU as UTDP! For example: Hagakure has a scene where he’s talking about “Atua” and recommending that a character go to Angie to sacrifice some blood for Atua. Given that he shares no scenes with Angie in the entire game, this makes no sense unless you take into account the scenes from UTDP where Angie convinced him to believe in Atua. Furthermore, Tenko actually references this dialogue exchange from UTDP at one point. And Kaede seems to be doing her best to befriend Izuru Kamukura in a way that harkens back to their interactions in UTDP. As I said, it’s all kind of weird.

Tsumiki has sacrificed enough already, but thanks.

8) If you’re wondering “Does character x still have that one part of their backstory/personality that some fans didn’t like/wanted them to get over in the DRS universe?” Sorry, but the answer is almost universally YES. All the kids from Ultra Despair Girls still have the same experiences, they all still despise adults, and they remain determined to never grow up, and they remain completely worshipful of Monaca. The culprit of V3′s third chapter is exactly the same as they ever were, so if you didn’t like the reveals about that person’s nature? Sorry; it’s exactly the same here. 

There is ONE exception to this: The mastermind to DRV3, who has a secret side that is kept merely ambiguous throughout any given run on the “Development” board. This might be a world where they aren’t psychotic.

9) If you’re wondering “Is there a Despair plot in this universe?” the answer is “Yes.” The Despair plot isn’t unveiled until the final chapter that you can only unlock after completing Development mode with all 62 characters, though, so I’m not going to really get into it here. Suffice to say that it’s not the same one seen in UTDP, further cementing that this is a separate universe in spite of the references I mentioned under point #7 above. (And as I already stated elsewhere: Don’t start the last chapter without building up a strong team of characters in the Despair Tower. You’ll regret it if you don’t.)

10) Sadly, some characters seem to be more squarely fixated on one specific aspect of their character than ever before. A big example here is Toko Fukawa/Genocide(r).  Toko and her alter ego are more obsessed with Togami than ever before (which is really saying something). The characters are very near to graduation in this game, and yet Toko is still silently following Togami around like it’s Chapter 2 of DR1, constantly stalking him from the sidelines. The fixation is even more noticeable in Genocide Jack’s scenes, though, because almost ALL of them are centered around her non-stop obsession with her “White Knight.” She had a much broader range of behaviors within DR1, UDG, or UTDP, but the DRS universe pretty much narrows her down to being a Togami simp and little else. 

(...................... And this is just my two cents, but I legitimately suspect this is the current writing team desperately trying to insist that Toko and Jack/Syo are absolutely, completely straight. :-/)

She’s only got one thing on her mind now, and it’s not even murder.

Questions Without Answers:

- It is completely unclear what the Monokubs’ role within Hope’s Peak is. Who constructed them? Why? It is often referenced that they are supposedly “Monokuma’s children” (...so did Monokuma build them?), and for that reason, many of the students inherently distrust them. But they also are directly working in the interest of Hope’s Peak to serve the intention of this incarnation of the Neo World Program  (...did Hope’s Peak staff build them?), so for that reason, many students have befriended them. Ultimately, the latter group is correct; they are genuinely trying to be helpful through most of the story But we still never learn where they came from or why they behave how they do.

- Shirokuma and Kurokuma are here because...... why, exactly? Who built them (...Junko, I presume? Unless it was Monaca doing it for “Big Sis”?)  and for what purpose? I mean, Monokuma is already here. And Junkuro, too. Is there anything that Shirokuma and Kurokuma need to contribute? 

[transpanda-1]

Panda’s full rewrite of DR1 with explanation because she has nothing better to do before DND:

Put under spoilers because it’s long + dangan ronpa cringe

1. Sayaka is the actual protag, but Naegi is the bait and switch death protag instead of Kaede.

- (From what we’ve been told), Sayaka is “supposed” to be a critique twist of how oversaturated mystery series were with a guy protag and a sweet innocent assistant girl. The problem is jumping immediately to “kill the girl character as a twist instead!” always blows chunks. (Also if she still planned to kill someone, that would be an interesting “no one trusts you” emotional dynamic)

2. Fuck ALL of chapter 2. Chihiro lives. She’s trans. Fukawa is a true crime enthusiast. Also trans. Togami’s the killer. Not trans.

-Was originally the worst chapter in the entire series before DRV3. Transphobic, pluralphobic, letting a spoiled rich kid get away with desecrating a body, and it barely makes any sense. It sucks across the board just. EW! Change all of it!

3. Maybe actually do something with Ishimaru freaking out so badly he basically gets an introject of his dead friend?

-What’s the point of giving him a radical design and personality change if he just. Dies the same chapter? There’s no story there. This is a series about extreme grief, I’d like to see more emphasis on characters attempting to cope with what’s happening.

4. Maybe Hagakure should actually... have a presence?

-I get the point of a more comic relief character, but uh... by the end of the game the cast is so slimmed down there’s less of a point to having one? A character designed to defuse a situation between 12 characters becomes a little too effective when it’s, like, 5 or 6.

5. Make Monokuma actually a robot.

-There should be more emphasis on the fact that Monokuma is meant to be representative of extreme capital punishment and enforcement, and it’s tie in to systematically forcing people to commit crimes. (Think about how Naegi said it wasn’t the first two people’s faults that they killed each other, but Monokuma’s for putting them in that situation. That should be the vibe the whole game.) Making him a literal AI makes it easier to connect as a literal system without lived morals applied to it. And it makes it harder to blame a single person, like...

6. Basically completely overhaul Junko Enoshima as a character, and don’t make her take the individualistic blame for a completely societal structural failing

-As she stands now, Junko is a character who’s basically blamed for the destruction of the entire world “because she’s mentally ill enough”. She swaps personalities every couple of lines. She says she doesn’t feel anything but “despair”. “Demonization” is putting it lightly. And the thing is: We don’t even want to get rid of her depression, her plurality, etc. etc. etc., we just think it’s counterproductive to put all the blame on a single person. Her sister’s a child soldier for god’s sake, the world’s already plenty messed up before she showed up! She doesn’t even have to be good, just acknowledge she’s probably just a teen coping incredibly poorly with the world ending.

[quixotic-dragon]

Kokichi Oma’s Crocodile Tears   (MAJOR DRV3 SPOILERS)

Ah, good ol’ Kokichi Oma. The Ultimate Little Shit- and a controversial little shit at that! I’ve recently played v3, and Kokichi is the one character who always seems to be on my mind (aside from my fav, Keebo, of course) because he’s such a mystery. We never get to know what’s going on in his head, at least not openly, and many players are led to assume that he is a malicious troublemaker, or even an outright sadist. 

I’m going to take a moment to analyze Kokichi specifically during that infamous scene at the end of Chapter 4 because that is all that’s been on my mind as of late. 

Underneath the Keep reading, there WILL be major spoilers for the entirety of v3. There will also be a very long essay, but I will do my best to break it up so it is easier to read. Read at your own risk.

So without further ado, here is my analysis of and my thoughts on Kokichi, his actions, and his character circa Chapter 4:

INITIAL REACTION:

Before I go into how I feel about Kokichi now, I’m going to have a discussion about my thoughts on him while this scene was playing out. (I know my exact feelings because I was liveposting in a discord server as I played, haha)

At this point in the game, the player does not yet know that Kokichi is not the true mastermind, nor do they understand what Kokichi means by “winning” the game. 

I had personally been spoiled of who the v3 mastermind was (thanks a lot danganronpa wiki), so I recognized that Kokichi wasn’t the mastermind, however I did not recognize that he was trying to win the killing game via unconventional methods. So from my point of view, Kokichi had just intentionally murdered Gonta (and Miu) just to increase his chances of winning and had the nerve to shed fake tears over it. I was furious! (behold, my fury!)

Kokichi sobs over Gonta’s death, and I interpreted this as entirely fake tears. One of my friends suggested, ��i feel like there was a difference between like his / crocodile tears and this.” 

I was enraged at this suggestion and stood beside my initial reaction because I felt that there were no signs that Kokichi never cared for Gonta as anything more than an asset, so I could not trust Kokichi to have any real remorse for his death with such a manipulative relationship having existed. (Massive disclaimer that this is my interpretation of their relationship; if you have a different interpretation, that is totally fine and valid!)

At this point, I considered why Kokichi might be crying so intensely even if it was an act, and came to the conclusion that if there was any sort of truth in those tears that Kokichi would be upset for a different reason than Gonta. He would be upset because he was truly alone. Not a single living person wanted to spare him the time of day besides Gonta. And now that Gonta is dead, nobody wants Kokichi. Even though I was fully convinced he was a sadistic, evil bastard at this point, I still figured that he must’ve felt some sort of sudden and crippling loneliness realizing that the only person who cared about him in the slightest was dead.

This interpretation of Kokichi I had really didn’t change much until after I had finished the entire game and stopped to think about Kokichi a bit more; his heartfelt final words to Kaito felt like lies to convince him to play along (blackmailing Maki certainly didn’t help with that much either), and his whole trick felt less like him trying to help and more like him just trying to cause chaos for the hell of it in my mind.

So, in conclusion, my initial reaction to the Kokichi scene? I thought Kokichi was a heartless bastard whose only remorse could be crippling loneliness. Although my initial analysis while I was still playing was quite interesting, I have some different opinions on it now that I’ve taken a step back and viewed the game as a whole.

KOKICHI ONLY WANTS YOU TO THINK HE’S EVIL:

Surprise! Kokichi isn’t a sadistic fuck! Crazy right? 

Well, not really if you’ve watched/read any Kokichi analysis ever. However, Kokichi’s act seems to be a common thing that many casual players of v3 fall for. I certainly fell for it when I played, as you saw above!

It isn’t until far later in the game that it is revealed that Kokichi is the “supreme leader” of a pacifist prankster club (DICE), and it isn’t revealed until the end of Chapter 5 that Kokichi actually had good intentions in setting up his mastermind persona (although, as seen above, those good intentions are still very easily interpreted in a bad light).

So why does he bother to so obviously cry wolf at Gonta’s death just to double back on his persona ten-fold as soon as he’s called out on it? Because he’s just trying to sell his mastermind persona, not only to the other characters and the mastermind, but to the player themself. This is intended by both Kokichi and the writers themselves, made obvious by the fact that we get no real evidence of Kokichi being a benevolent person until long after this scene. (There are many moments in earlier chapters where Kokichi is trying to be helpful to the group or to a specific character, however every time he attempts this, it is painted in a negative light because he is either going against the protagonist’s will or achieving things in a more underhanded manner via lies or provocation). 

When I saw Kokichi crying for Gonta, my first thoughts were, “I am going to THROTTLE this fucking BASTARD.” Because even if those tears were real, Kokichi was still the one fully responsible for Gonta’s death, so I felt that he had no right to shed tears over it. If it weren’t for Kokichi’s crying during this scene, I would have been very suspicious of how suddenly his evil villain act amped up. If he hadn’t shed tears that were so obviously fake, I would not have been nearly as enraged with him, and therefore not nearly as willing to just accept the fact: “Well. Guess he’s evil now.”

Whereas I would’ve chalked the scene without crying to bad writing, the viewers of the killing game, and by extent the mastermind, would garner suspicion towards his actions. Although Kokichi was not aware that Keebo had direct contact with the outside world, he was very aware that the killing game had to have been broadcasted to somewhere. He had to ensure that he was as convincing as possible; that meant no “bad writing” mistakes could be left anywhere.

I stand by what I said before in that Kokichi’s crying in this scene is just a bunch of crocodile tears. However, with new context and information surrounding the situation, they probably weren’t devoid of emotion. Kokichi only allowed himself to cry here in order to properly double back on his new mastermind persona, however, unlike what I believed before, he most likely did feel remorse at the deaths of Gonta and Miu. He just broke his last standing moral code: don’t murder people. And he broke it by indirectly causing the deaths of two people he may have considered to be his friends. That’s heavy stuff! 

Kokichi is faking these reactions to the trial because he has to if he wants to deceive everybody. But... the best acting comes from the heart.

LONELINESS AND GUILT:

As I covered in my initial reaction to Kokichi’s breakdown, I felt as though he couldn’t possibly have any remorse for his actions, so he must have been devastated knowing that he would now be truly alone. This view was heavily influenced by Shuichi’s words after the trial... because they were true. 

After Kokichi criticizes the group for coming to Kaito’s aid, Shuichi turns around and tells Kokichi that he is the pathetic one because he will always be alone. There are no lies to these words. Now that Gonta is dead, and now that Kokichi has gone so far into his persona, not a single person wants to even be near him.

Now that I’ve established that Kokichi’s actions post-trial were most definitely an act and not representative of his true feelings, we can discuss what his true feelings may have been. I come back to the idea of Kokichi fearing being alone because, hey! My past ignorant self was actually onto something!

The acknowledgement that Kokichi feels remorse for his actions just makes this situation even sadder for him; not only did he just indirectly murder two people and has to put up with the guilt of that, but now, nobody cares about him either. Not that anybody in the cast cared for him all that much in the first place (aside from Gonta), but Shuichi’s words to him here seal his fate as the permanent outcast and assigned villain of the group. He had already been struggling with loneliness throughout the beginning chapters of the game, and now Shuichi - the only person he finds truly trustworthy (according to his little whiteboard, at least) - is confirming to him that nobody wants him. Ouch.

I am personally led to believe that a large part of the reason that Kokichi ends up sacrificing himself in Chapter 5 has a lot to do with the broken feelings he would’ve had under the combined guilt of his actions and the crushing reality of loneliness.

Would Kokichi have offered to sacrifice himself anyways given the circumstances? Probably, yeah. However, the way he was so accepting of his death reminded me a lot of Kaede in Chapter 1; she couldn’t allow herself to take the First Blood Perk because she felt that she had to atone for her sins, or she could never live with herself. Kokichi seems, in the moment, to be more than willing to die, perhaps for the same reasons. Not only would be feel like he has to make up for the deaths he caused, but he would also feel like he had nothing left to live for, at least not within the academy anyway.

Or maybe he was just tired from the poison, not from life. But who’s to say? We can’t see inside of his head.

FINAL THOUGHTS / CONCLUSION:

OK, so some final thoughts before wrapping this up: Holy shit, Kokichi is an asshole.

Even knowing the emotional turmoil Kokichi must have been going through, it was still infuriating to see him treat Gonta so poorly in Trial 4. Perhaps it was just a part of his act as well? Regardless, it really just did not sit with me well. Under no circumstance should Kokichi be continulessly yelling at Gonta while he’s crying from the insults, for real. But hey, at least if it was just another act from Kokichi, then he can rest easy knowing he certainly had me fooled.

...

So, in my opinion, Kokichi’s infamous breakdown was entirely fabricated. He had to fake both his tears and his sadism in order to fully convince the world that he was a force of pure malice in order to get away with what he had planned. However, despite his apparent change in personality, he never really was sadistic, and may have even cared for the people around him till the very end.

That’s all I guess  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

[themattress]

Danganronpa Chapter Ranking

Ranking all 18 chapters across the three games. 

First, I will rank each corresponding chapters over one another.

Chapter 1:

1. Welcome to Dangan Island + Destination Despair (DR2)

DR2 is the technical best of the series and it definitely has the strongest opening. While I actually prefer DR1′s prologue, DR2 definitely ups the stakes when it comes to the actual introductory murder mystery, creating a spooky nighttime locked room situation right off the bat and keeping you guessing as to how the murder went down. The high point, of course, is the revelation of Nagito’s true nature, which let you know that this is a guy to watch out for.

2. Welcome to Despair + To Survive (DR1)

Like I said, the prologue to DR1 is my favorite one - just the opening scene alone perfectly sets the tone for all that’s to follow, I also really enjoy getting to explore the school and interacting with the adorable Sayaka Maizono. The problem with this chapter is when Sayaka gets killed. Not only is the investigation a very standard one, but the mystery is too easily solved - Sayaka even wrote her killer’s freaking name down and most players will figure that out well before any of the characters do! I know this is the first case and all, but come on!

3. Ultimate Revival + My Class Trial, Our Class Trial (DRV3)

If DR1′s first chapter problem was being too easy to solve, this one’s problem is that it’s impossible to solve because the game withholds the key evidence for the sake of a twist - evidence that exposes the female protagonist you are playing as, Kaede, as the culprit! It’s a shame - despite some issues here and there (goddamn Monokubs...), I was liking the atmosphere this chapter was setting up with its ticking clock factor, the Ultimate Academy was well designed and kept distinct from Hope’s Peak, and Kaede was a wonderful, lovable protagonist the likes of which we hadn’t seen before in this series. But that one ending twist which results in her getting taken from us in favor of some dude ruins the whole chapter.

Chapter 2:

1. Boy’s Life of Despair (DR1)

Only DR1 manages to have its second chapter be an improvement over the first: with not only expansions on all of the characters and even the school itself, but a mystery that isn’t so easily solved because a certain rich douchebag deliberately tampered with the crime scene in order to make the case more challenging. The only mark I have against this one is the weird gender politics at play, and even then it’s not insulting or anything: Mondo’s toxic masculinity is even highlighted as his fatal flaw. And of course, this chapter gave us Genocide Jack. WIN.

2. Sea and Punishment, Sin and Coconuts (DR2)

While a step down from the preceding chapter, it’s not by much: this is still a quality chapter with quality character and plot development and a quality murder mystery. My biggest gripes are that it becomes obvious who the culprit is early into the trial and how they committed the murder but it takes a long time for the characters to decide on those things. If that wasn’t enough, the revelation of the killer’s motives is ridiculous, with two shocking swerves on top of each other, one of them a lie and the other one the truth. The actual scene leading to the execution, however, more than makes up for that with how emotional it is, with one of Derek Stephen Prince’s best performances in his career as Fuyuhiko reveals his inner vulnerability.

3. A Thin Line Divides Heaven and Hell (DRV3)

This second chapter is a HUGE step down from the first one. Shuichi is immediately a far blander, less compelling protagonist than Kaede was, there are too many detours before the murder happens, the mystery is way too convoluted and the culprit’s motivation is an even bigger shocking swerve than DR2′s, and the execution just goes full Saw to the point of being almost too uncomfortable to watch. In the end, it doesn’t even feel like this case mattered, it was all a drawn-out way of revealing the underwhelming “twist” to Maki’s true identity which only ended up working against her character. The best part of this chapter would have to be the body discovery, which is one of the most shocking and effective in the whole series.

Chapter 3:

1. A Next Generation Legend! Stand Tall, Galactic Hero! (DR1)

Third Case Syndrome hits DR1 the least out of all the games, as despite the problem of the class trial’s pay-off not matching the intensity of the build-up, it still doesn’t cheat the player in any way. The mystery is still well designed and on paper the crime is brilliant, and even the way it falls apart in execution makes logical sense given what has been established about Celestia and Hifumi throughout the game. There’s even fun to be had in the trial given Celestia’s legendary breakdown, plus her execution being among the series’ funniest.

2. Trapped by the Ocean Scent (DR2)

I like some things about this chapter, particularly early on: Fuyuhiko’s character development, Ibuki’s concert, Nekomaru’s sacrifice, Nagito continuing to be his delightfully twisted self, and Monokuma’s hilarious “Wizard of Monomi” movie. The build-up to the body discovery with that supposed suicide video is also legitimately scary. But it all falls apart in the class trial to a comical degree, with the revelation of the culprit having so much wrong with it I hardly know where to begin. Everything about Despair Disease in general feels like filler and a way to ax off three characters that Kodaka had no idea what to do with. It’s just a glaringly bad chapter.

3. Transfer Student From Beyond the Grave (DRV3)

This is where Third Case Syndrome hits its nadir: once again some legitimately good and scary build-up (including the requisite second murder happening halfway through the investigation when you’re not expecting it to) is destroyed by a farcical class trial that is riddled with plot holes, convoluted mechanics, and random extreme character turns that makes it clear that Kodaka was just doing all this to kill off characters he felt had reached their limits rather than staying consistent with what came before. Special mention must go to Korekiyo’s motives. While Celestia and Mikan’s motives aren’t sympathetic either, there are sympathetic reasons behind them. But with Kiyo, the reasoning behind his serial killing is...incest. Literal brother-sister incest. We had a potentially interesting, creepy character in Kiyo, but he was utterly squandered and turned into one big incest/see-saw meme. Such a waste!

Chapter 4:

1. Do Ultimate Robots Dream of Clockwork? (DR2)

One of the most challenging yet also one of the most unique and rewarding chapters in the whole series. The Strawberry / Grape funhouse is the stuff of nightmares, and the game doesn’t pull any punches in how horrific the situation inside it is, with the characters slowly starving to death and with the only way out being to either kill someone or brave a creepy life-threatening escape room. Then once the murder happens you get to play as Nagito during the investigation, getting further insight into his fucked-up mind before he pulls a morbidly hilarious 180 on his attitude and becomes a total condescending jerkwad rather than a creepy self-denigrating suck-up. And the investigation and trial amounting to figuring out how the funhouse is structured and how that structure was utilized in the murder is intellectually stimulating in the best way. Add to that one of the most emotional culprit revelations and executions and you have one of the greatest chapters ever put in a mystery-solving game.

2. All*Star*Apologies (DR1)

DR2′s fourth chapter is better, but DR1′s comes extremely close. Not only is it a locked room mystery where just about everyone except the protagonist and deuteragonist are a feasible suspect which leads to the most fun, challenging and satisfying class trial in the game, but it also ends up being the story’s emotional high point. The reveal of who actually killed Sakura and why, the reasoning behind why an innocent party tried to take the blame for it, and the long-overdue uniting of the Killing Game’s participants (even Byakuya!) against their true enemy, Monokuma...it’s powerful stuff that lingers in your memory long after it’s finished.

3. Live and Let the Languid World Live (DRV3)

Now don’t get me wrong: this chapter was the best one in DRV3 since the first chapter, but I feel like it’s trying too hard to recapture the glory of the previous games’ fourth chapters and mostly failing. The virtual world and trying to figure out how it works is a blatant copy of the funhouse from DR2, except that we barely spend time in the virtual world compared to the funhouse and whereas figuring out the structure of the funhouse actually took a lot of thinking, the secret of the virtual world is painfully easy to deduce and leads to another instance of the player being several steps ahead of the characters. Kokichi as a Nagito-esque antagonist just doesn’t work and it’s frustrating to watch him play all the other characters like fiddles when it’s so transparently obvious what he is doing. Lastly, while the deaths of Sakura, Alter-Ego Chihiro, Nekomaru and Gundham were sad, there was still a note of triumph and hope in them as well. There’s none of that in the deaths of Miu, Gonta and his Alter-Ego. These deaths are just sad, depressing wastes, even moreso in retrospect after Chapter 6.

Chapter 5:

1. Smile at Hope in the Name of Despair (DR2)

Nagito was right: DR2′s Chapter 4 was merely “the opening act” for THE best chapter in both the game and the entire series. Seeing Nagito finally go full-on batshit insane and carve out a path of destruction that leads to his own death is enthralling, as is figuring out the hows and the whys of his death, peeling back the layers of his madness and malice until you arrive at the horrifying truth, all culminating in one of the most heart-wrenching moments in the series when Chiaki finally reveals the truth about herself and offers herself up as a sacrifice to stop Nagito’s heinous scheme from coming to fruition. I get teary-eyed just thinking about it! The bizarre triangular dynamic between Hajime, Chiaki and Nagito really made this game’s story as good as it is despite uneven writing early on, and this chapter is the culmination of it.

2. Voyage Without Passion or Purpose (DRV3)

When it comes to the game’s overarching story, I don’t really care much for the events that transpire in this chapter. But when taken as a stand-alone, it’s excellent. Someone has been killed and someone is responsible for it, but for the first time in the series you aren’t just unsure about the culprit, but the victim as well! To make matters worse, the culprit shows up to the class trial inside a mech suit that has a voice changer, and he keeps changing his voice between Kaito and Kokichi’s to further muddle which one of them is actually dead. And to top it all off, not even Monokuma knows the solution to this mystery and you actually have to work together with him in order to solve it! Gotta hand it to Kodaka: this move was inspired. If only I actually gave a damn about Kaito, Kokichi and Maki, this case would hit much harder.

3. 100 Mile Dash; Pain of a Junk Food Junkie (DR1)

This time, the opposite holds true: I like these events as part of the over-arching story, especially everything that happens from the execution (the scariest one in the whole game, IMO) and onward. But when taken on its own, this chapter is a mess. Not only is the mystery and trial literally contrived by Monokuma in order to set a trap for one character, but it tips its hand too early by showing the discovery of the victim’s dead body well before it’s time for that scene to happen, and the constant flashing back to Kyoko telling Makoto about the existence of Mukuro Ikusaba is somewhere between comical and infuriating. I think the worst part is that there’s no permanent consequences for anyone: nobody actually dies in this chapter! Not the supposed victim Mukuro, not Monokuma, not Kyoko and not Makoto. It even turns out that Alter-Ego Chihiro managed to kind of survive its execution in the previous chapter! WTF? We’ve spent a whole game getting used to the finality of death, but now death is cheap!

Chapter 6:

1. Ultimate Despair + Goodbye Despair High School (DR1)

I think that DR2′s final chapter is arguably better, more epic and more conclusive than DR1′s, but I still can’t help but prefer DR1′s, similar to how I prefer Phoenix Wright’s “Turnabout Goodbyes” to Trial & Tribulations’ “Bridge to the Turnabout”. Everything about the overarching story and its mystery comes together perfectly here, Junko Enoshima never had the same villainous impact that she does here, and the conclusion where Makoto saves the day by becoming the Ultimate Hope, Junko puts herself through every execution in the game, and the surviving students open the door to an uncertain yet still hopeful future is just iconic.

2. This is the End, Goodbye Academy of Despair + The Day Before the Future (DR2)

Like I said, this one might be superior on a technical level, as it pulls out even bigger plot twists, features even deeper emotions and a greater sense of closure and catharsis, has a grander sense of scope, and Junko being given an even more final defeat since she’s a villain that if you want to defeat you can’t just kill physically but spiritually as well. Chiaki’s role here especially gets me choked up, and Hajime’s narration in the epilogue is the perfect note to end the story on....both the story of DR2 and the conjoined story of DR0, DR1 and DR2.  

3. Goodbye Danganronpa + Everyone’s Killing Game, Closing Ceremony (DRV3)

This is an ending that’s better watched than it is played. Watching it, it’s comedy gold in how absurd it is. But actually playing through it is a chore, and having to do such a chore for the sake of an ending that is intentionally designed to piss you off is no fun at all. While I’d say the game’s third chapter is technically worst, this one is definitely my least favorite, especially when you take that god-awful, pointless epilogue into account. Kodaka, if you want to end Danganronpa, then go all the way and end it on your terms; don’t pussy out with that crap!

And now, my final ranking of all the chapters is as follows:

1. Smile at Hope in the Name of Despair (DR2) 2. Do Ultimate Robots Dream of Clockwork (DR2) 3. All*Star* Apologies (DR1) 4. Boy's Life of Despair (DR1) 5. Welcome to Dangan Island + Destination Despair (DR2) 6. Welcome to Despair + To Survive (DR1) 7. Ultimate Despair + Goodbye Despair (DR1) 8. This is the End, Goodbye Academy of Despair + The Day Before the Future (DR2) 9. Sea and Punishment, Sin and Coconuts (DR2) 10. Voyage Without Passion or Purpose (DRV3) 11. A Next Generation Legend! Stand Tall, Galactic Hero! (DR1) 12. Live and Let the Languid World Live (DRV3) 13. Ultimate Revival + My Class Trial, Our Class Trial (DRV3) 14. Trapped by the Ocean Scent (DR2) 15. 100 Mile Dash; Pain of a Junk Food Junkie (DR1) 16. A Thin Line Divides Heaven and Hell (DRV3) 17. The Transfer Student From Beyond the Grave (DRV3) 18. Goodbye Danganronpa + Everyone's Killing Game, Closing Ceremony (DRV3)

1-9 are the “strong chapters”, while 10-18 are the “weak chapters”.

[computerram]

aight so i finished drv3 and i have some Thots about it below and Yes Unfortunately Its Long Im So Sorry If The Readmore Doesnt Work

tldr overall a fun and entertaining game, very streamlined in terms of mechanics compared to the last two, and was rly close to being my favourite but shot itself in the foot in the last hour which sucks a bit + theres a chara tierlist at the bottom

so in an effort to try and be positive im not gonna harp on too much about anything i didnt like im just gonna get my grievences out with a couple of things bc at the end of the day i genuinely rly did like playing it lol

so yeah elephant in the room but yeah i. did not like the ending, which is a shame bc i was rly excited for it! but then it just goes way too far with team danganronpa and the fourth wall stuff and it just really killed my enthusiasm. i get what they were going for but there were much better ways to get across the themes of fiction/reality, audience entitlement + not letting urself be used as someone elses personal feel-good device while still keeping it in the actual dr-universe, but more importantly than all that all it it just kinda throws out the mystery solving/plot points and the last like hour or so is just Being Talked At about the Unbelivable Big Twist which in mystery games just completely kills it dead and it felt like a cop out

HOWEVER the intial set up of them being normal non-ults who volunteer/get kidnapped/whatever with the fake memories on reality tv? really good, felt like it was organically leading you there rly well since the start and i always felt pretty excited whenever i could find something that pointed towards it. good idea just bad execution

chapter 1 is personal preferance but its sadly the weakest chapter for me just bc like above i rly dont like unreliable narrators when im playing a mystery game, if we’d played as shuichi the entire time itd be more understandable but since we’re kaede all it rly did was make me feel kinda disconnected from her which is a shame. also i just wanted her to have more fte with ppl :’(

that being said i loved revisting it in the first half of ch6 and it cleared up a lot of things i thought were weird it wasnt commented on like rantaros bloody hand + where his monopad went

the murders from ch2 onward are pretty solid throughout. there are a couple of blips with the motives being a little weak but it still does a lot of stuff i always thought would be cool to see (not having a body left in ch2, a murder in the middle of an investigation in ch3) which is exactly what i wanted from this game

little disappointed that the special rules in this one never rly cashed in on themselves (the first blood perk, a tie w/ two blackened killing them both even if theyre not guilty, a murder basically being able to walk away scott free if they kill during an investigation) but c’est la bee

chapters 4-5 were genuinely amazing, chapter 5 bascially became my favourite in the franchise and they both really captured the whodunnit spirit i love, the characters felt a lot more involved in those trials, the emotional beats were intense, the back and forth between the different theories, it all had me HYPE bro

The split debates are also a rly fun mechanic the music slaps every time and they help break up the monotony + make you feel like ur not just the only one trying to solve stuff

The lying/back route mechanic is Really good. I love the fact shuichi is such a Shit liar in the first few chapters and by the end of chapter 5 ur lying straight to monokumas face. get his ass

speaking of shuichi didnt think it was possible but Shuichi stole first place protag from hinata. i think the fact you get to see his sprite in the corner means its a lot easier to infer his reactions with people a lot better and the relationship between him and maki/kaito felt rly genuine. also the backroute mechanic rly helps ground him as someone with a good head on his shoulders and not just Protag Powers.

i wish i could talk about more characters but this is already so long so ill send it off wow Kaito rly said ‘fuck you’ to monokuma and died in space the way he wanted huh god what a KING

anyway heres the tier list A^ gets a kiss from me personally 

[lotusdiscussthis]

I know you posted a while ago about how Shuichi never gives Kokichi a chance and just writes him off, but I do understand him (Shuichi), maybe because I also have anxiety, but I know people who act like Kokichi does in real life, and while they seem cool in fiction, they’re toxic, tiring, and frustrating to be around in real life, especially for someone with major anxiety. Just food for thought.

Haha, I only just made that post the other day. It’s not like I wasn’t expecting this sort of response. Though I’m afraid the specific food you are feeding to me isn’t something I haven’t already considered numerous times before. Given how the narrative has played out, of course people who’ve played V3 would think the same way about both characters initially.

Saihara = Every man/Sensitive Cinnamonroll.

Ouma = Complex individual/Troublemaking D-bag.

Both of them just seem to fall on either one of the two categories by the majority of the fandom.

But y’see, what you’ve just said about one character being too toxic to be around and one being the anxiety baby is exactly what’s seriously wrong with how the story is woven. I have an issue with Saihara because he’s portrayed as a sensitive kind soul that has anxiety and depression. And it’s due to those aspects of his character, the characters and the narrative itself are just using that as an excuse to make you overlook his major faults. And the worst fault of his is… he just sucks as a detective, no matter how you look at it. All that talk about him being scared of revealing the truth and all the crying he does, is nothing but pathos when you look back on it. Pathos that make you go “Oh well, what happened to Kaede wasn’t his fault.”,…except that it totally was his fault in the end. At least 50% of it was. And it still baffles me to this day how blasé Saihara’s reaction was when finding out that Kaede was not Rantaro’s killer. For a guy that was sunken deep into his own insecurities and depression in Chapter 2, and how personally worried he was about whether or not he could’ve done something to save Kaede, he didn’t take that discovery as hard as one would think.

Anyone in his shoes would be all like, “OH GOD, HOW COULD I BE SO STUPID! I SCREWED UP! I SCREWED UP BAD-”… but no. Instead he’s like “HERE I COME TO SAVE THE DAY” and put ALL of the blame onto Monokuma and the game itself. Like,… how? This isn’t something that you just … get over instantly. And before you claim it as part of Kaito’s training or whatever, this sort of discovery would be DEVASTATING for a detective and as someone who supposedly cared for Kaede as much as he did. And yet Saihara didn’t even take a second to self-reflect on this or even go “I screwed up… but I’ll make it right”. NOPE. All on Monokuma.

That seems a bit too heavily inconsistent, seeing as we were already aware of his own personal values, his attachment to Kaede and his worst fears when playing as him.

Look, I have issues too, but using that as a means to overlook your own hypocrisy, selective-ness and your inability to take charge by yourself is just wrong. And yet, that’s all Saihara’s been doing.

But before I get too deep into the subject of empathy between player and characters, I think the most important thing to take into account when analyzing DRV3 is that you have to separate your own personal feelings from the game and actually *see* how the personalities and behavior patterns of Ouma and Saihara pertain to the story as a whole.

Let’s start by using the near end of Chapter 1 for example.

When Kaede was voted as the killer, Saihara went against his detective work in finding the mastermind and told everyone that “there was no mastermind”. Which is dumb. Whether the mastermind was actually related to the hidden room or not was yet to be determined, because they never actually went inside the door and find out what the purpose for it was. The door exists for a reason, but the mystery behind it was put on the back burner because of Saihara’s painful trauma over Kaede. Because of HIS pain, he decided from then onwards not to check the hidden door again. 9 dead students later, Kiibo went full war-mode and blew up the entrance and DA-DA-DAAAA! THE HIDDEN ROOM APPARENTLY HAD A PURPOSE AFTER ALL. Go figure, right?

Do you see the issue in only focusing on the protagonist’s emotions and nothing else? Because the game was clearly going for the “weak-boy-becomes-strong” character arc and had constantly reminded us of how insecure he feels, we were compelled to only listen to his inner turmoil and ignore the fact that he’s not doing anything useful in his freetime until someone gets killed. And when we’re not too busy on focusing on Saihara’s pain, we’d be focusing on Himiko’s. And if not Himiko, we put the focus onto Maki. Those who didn’t get enough attention just didn’t have a snowball’s chance in hell to survive V3.

The fact of the matter is, V3 was heavily centered on the emotions of the three survivors than anything else. And because of that, we were forced to look at certain characters (such as Ouma and Angie) that even *dared* to actually put effort into stopping the killing game as the problematic troublemakers while the supposed good guys just get away with doing nothing to help the situation themselves until the finale.

You know who didn’t give up on the idea that there was a mastermind after Chapter 1?

That’s right. Not Saihara. Ouma. As I’ve said before, Ouma knew full well that the mastermind was monitoring them and also knew that there was a traitor within the group. It’s not that he’s a paranoid boy who couldn’t trust anyone, it’s because he’s incredibly cautious and has adapted to dangerous circumstances like the killing game before and knew how to avoid trouble. (Say it with me now, HE. IS. NOT. A. CLOWN. OR. PRANKSTER)

You say that Ouma was too toxic to be around Saihara, but Saihara didn’t have any issue hanging around Maki at all. The chick who promised not to kill anymore, but was still insulting Saihara a lot. She then broke her promise by going behind everyone’s back to kill Ouma, only to have that plan backfire badly, berated Saihara while secretly planned to sacrifice him and the rest of the class to get her payback against Ouma. Even after all of that, Saihara forgave her, ignored all the backstabbing she did and still saw her as a friend. That’s just… wow.

So why is Ouma a jerk, you wonder? Because when Ouma was saying that he wants to ENJOY the game, it’s because behaving like a twisted sicko would get you far in this twisted, sick game. Getting too buddy buddy and acting like you want to stop the game for even a moment would prove to be hazardous to your safety.

If the incident with Kaede has proven anything, being openly defiant against the game and acting self-righteous in front Monokuma would only paint you as a nuisance, thus making you a target. That’s why in Chapter 5, he told Kaito he had to *lie* to himself that he enjoys the game, so the person behind Monokuma wouldn’t kill him. And it’s not enough to just play it up in front of the Nanokumas, he had to be consistently twisted and evil so nobody would catch wind of it. And he had to be selective in finding allies, such as Gonta and Miu, because those two were the most valuable people within the group that wouldn’t carelessly disregard everything he says.

I think I’ve explained enough. I dragged this longer than necessary. I’ve explained how Saihara and Ouma’s behaviors have impacted the story. I hope this answer will suffice. Having to get too sucked into the emotions of the survivors can be fatal when not paying attention to the other elements of the story.