Entry tags:
things have only gotten worse since i started making everything worse
Danganronpa V3 status: Chapter 5 clear!
Extremely tl;dr reactions under the cut.
Kaito, no, death flags are a terrible way to open the chapter. Don't say things like that! I mean, you're already secretly dying of the most fatal disease known to man, so it's not like your odds were particularly good in the first place, but still.
—ahahaha oh my god. Immediately after that conversation about death flags, we find Kaito's lab. I'm so sorry, Kaito, but I have some bad news for you.
I've gotta say, the forced conflict between Kaito and Shuichi here is not doing it for me. Like, on the purely interpersonal level I buy it—Kaito is a hotheaded teenager and a sucker for Kokichi's prodding and blows up at Shuichi during the trial, and then neither of them has any idea how to talk to each other after it blows over? Yeah, checks out. The attempts to cast it as a serious dramatic conflict that ties in to the story's big overarching themes... not so much.
...Okay, so how are we going to use the simulator thing in Kaito's lab for a murder? Like, I can't do my standard "I can't imagine how that could ever be used in a ridiculous murder plan" joke here because I actually have no idea how yet. But you can't just conspicuously introduce a vehicle simulator and never use it in a murder somehow!
lol, Monokuma seems mad that Kaede killed off his cool mysterious amnesia character before he could even do anything. You should know by now that that's how these things go, Monokuma! Nothing's more mysterious than being too dead to answer questions!
Well okay, the motion sensor guarding the mysterious area is definitely going to get used in a murder somehow.
Keebo: "My inner voice is telling me... 'Hope moves forward.'"
Oh god, his inner voice talks about hope. Is Keebo's inner voice Komaeda? It's Komaeda, isn't it.
...Oh my god, we have access to the Exisals now. This murder is going to be absolutely ludicrous whenever we get around to it, and I can't wait. (We should definitely use the washing machine in the murder too, if you ask me. I'm counting on you, game. Make this a good one.)
Oh boy, we don't just have a hydraulic press but also a very pointed conversation about its ability or lack thereof to kill someone? Definitely nothing to be worried about here! (Re: the safety function, hm. The immediately obvious thought is that it presumably can't detect Keebo, which bodes poorly for him. But on the other hand, that would mean passing up the chance to have the murder center partly on some clever trick for fooling/getting around the sensor, so...?)
...Of course immediately after I say that, Keebo decides he should personally test it out. Keebo, no. Did your inner voice say this was a good idea, Keebo? (Your inner voice is definitely Komaeda.)
—Oh fuck, I just realized. All this nonsense with Kokichi means he's going to start ditching Free Time, doesn't it? Ugh, it almost certainly does. What an asshole. I don't care if he wants to run off and do evil on his own time, but he owes me two more overdramatic children's card games, damn it! He's not allowed to die until he's paid up! I left off on finishing him until now specifically because I figured he was too important to die early, and then this! He's not even dead yet and I still get cut off??
God, I can't believe this brat. Swoops in, kills one of my love interests while getting the other to dump me while aggressively flirting the entire time, then immediately ditches? For fuck's sake, Kokichi. If he shows up again, I swear to god I'm going to kill him myself.
Well, on the bright side, I guess now that Kokichi is d̻͚̻̮̜̻ͅe̴̼a̮̮̙͠d͏͇̱̜̺̟͖̦ ̟to ̴̪̹̣̣̱̩m̨̭̗̜̪̩e̳ ̛͍̙͉͕̥̝f̞̠̺͞o҉̲̰͉̠͉r͉̳e̳̰̥̪͓̻͓v̨͓̗͙͔͇̳̙e̬͈̠̦̠͍̰r͏͓ I have time to max the character I was sad I couldn't get around to! All's well that ends well!
Shuichi: (...Hm. I feel as though he's talking down to me a little...)
I'm 200% okay with this. Keebo's smug condescending tendencies are are a really endearing (and tragically overlooked) personality trait, honestly. I wish we saw him do it more!
D:
D: D: D:
(She won't even try to take care of them! Damn it, Tsumugi, why!)
Keebo: "Perhaps [Monokuma]'s expecting Kokichi to act on his own without even needing a motive."
Look, if Kokichi doesn't get his ass back here soon, he's going to be the next victim.
(Because I'm going to kill him. That is the intended implication of my above comment.)
As always, I appreciate this game's determination to extend my one-off joke about Shuichi's failed plans to get laid for the entire rest of the game without my even lifting a finger.
I like the optional nighttime conversation you can get with Keebo here. <: I like Keebo's personality a lot when he gets to just... be a person instead of the butt of the same couple robot jokes over and over again. I'm glad I'm doing his free times; they've been really cute and good for that sort of thing so far.
... You know what, Shuichi? You can just stay broken up with him. Forever. Good riddance.
I've finally hit the point where the Love Hotel starts giving me repeats, but after one reload I got Keebo. Holy shit that scene was adorable. I'm so glad I rolled it.
Yeah, that's how I feel whenever you get screentime, Keebs.
(I'd make a comment about how wow, does Shuichi somehow already have a new love interest here? But I feel like that would bode very poorly for Keebo, considering Shuichi's track record. Stay away from fridges, Keebo!)
Right, where was the plot before I got distracted by cute robot boys... Kaito is planning something undoubtedly stupid in secret; Maki is still inexplicably into Kaito even when he's telling her girls shouldn't use weapons in the same breath as asking for her help with them; Kokichi is also planning something undoubtedly stupid in secret (but like, a separate stupid thing, not the same stupid thing); and Keebo is my new best friend, which is what's really important.
Oh, Kaito's actually going to share his harebrained plan with us! That's a good sign. ...Naturally his plan turns out to be punching. Oh, Kaito.
Keebo, I am going to have to stage an intervention. If your inner voice told you to jump off a cliff with all your friends, would you do it?? ...I will admit that Himiko beating Monokuma up is an incredibly good thought, so I can't exactly blame them all, but this is still a bad idea.
Maki is worried about Kaito, unsurprisingly. I dunno, I can't see any reason to be worried that the reckless idiot who's convinced he's a shounen hero and also knows he's going to die soon is insisting on doing all the preparations for his reckless plan alone because he's planning something extra reckless! I'm sure he'll be fine.
oh my GOD
i love him. he's so good.
—Shuichi, what the fuck, no! Why are you so unsupportive! :( Don't listen to him, Keebo! Don't give up on your dreams!!
My intention in choosing this is "you'd look really cute in the outfit", but odds seem good it comes off as robophobic instead. I can't imagine the other options wouldn't come off worse, though, so hey.
(I hope there's fanart of maid!Keebo. ...I hope at least one of the doubtless many talentswap AUs out there has maid!Keebo.)
(A friend has assured me there is in fact fanart. I'll have to go looking for it once I can do so without fear of spoilers.)
...I love that "Obviously Let's Roleplay It" is apparently Keebo's answer to everything. It's adorable. And apparently Shuichi's priorities in picking that earlier dialogue option were the same as mine, because as soon as Keebo suggests roleplaying he tries to get Keebo to undress him. Jeez, Shuichi, I didn't mean you should take it that fast! Teenagers, I swear.
You are 5′7″ and weigh 128 lbs, Shuichi. Why hasn't someone done something about this television program yet? It's promoting horribly unhealthy body image in teenagers.
...Wait, is Shuichi just skipping sleep tonight? Come on, Shuichi. Do I have to use all these love keys in the postgame?
OH, THERE YOU FUCKING ARE
YOU'VE GOT SOME EXPLAINING TO DO, YOUNG MAN
SOME THINGS TO ANSWER FOR
Kokichi: "If you don't wanna be blown to pieces, then you need to listen to what I'm about to tell you."
if you don't want me to personally destroy you, you little fucker, then you need to pay up on those two games you still owe me already
This is obviously leading into the end of the daily life segment, too. Why is that that now of all times, I suddenly only get four Free Time slots a chapter instead of the full five? Apparently it's not enough to cut me off on his own free time events, he has to cut me off on Keebo's, too?? And even from getting a second dumb love hotel scene? STOP SABOTAGING ALL MY RELATIONSHIPS AND THEN DITCHING ME, ASSHOLE. FUCK OFF WITH THIS HALF-ASSED YANDERE BULLSHIT.
I am of course going to go back to being completely, unavoidably charmed the moment I flip back to the game window and hear him talk more. I mean, who could possibly stay mad at this smile:
He's so happy! :D (Also, the voice acting on this line in particular is a gift.)
...Kokichi, this is not the time to indulge your choking kink. Kokichi, come on. (I mean, I realize "choking kink" is inaccurate—it's specifically a "provoking people into choking him" kink, not a generalized thing—but you get my point.) ...Naturally everyone in the discord channel I've been liveblogging in immediately jumped on me and told me to just let him enjoy himself, god. Look, I would normally agree, but if he wants to enjoy himself maybe he could play some children's card games with me already!
("...I know. I'm just going to beat him to a bloody pulp," says Maki, after being reminded not to literally murder Kokichi. You realize he's just going to enjoy that, too, Maki.)
Whoa, after all this time, we're finally going to Fulfill Kaede's Wish™ for real?! Amazing. I can't believe we've managed to end the killing game in just five chapters.
Bold of the game to expect me to not still kill myself stupidly and repeatedly at the evil platformer now that it's been made mind-numbingly easy. Underestimate me at your own peril, Spike Chunsoft. (I didn't miss anything about how to use the hammers, if you're wondering; I'm just so bad with slippery platformers on PC that I managed to lose nearly all my lives flailing helplessly around the one or two parts in the who level that still require vaguely coordinated movement to get through. Managed it on my second try, though.)
...I think this is the first time I've seen the title of the particular track that's playing here. It's... it's literally just called "REAL/FICTION"? Seriously?
(The post-apocalyptic background reminded me and someone else of something I couldn't immediately put my finger on—a friend pointed out that it looks straight out of SMT, which is probably it. The ensuing conversation made me realize that Kokichi would absolutely have Black Frost, which is a mental image I will cherish for the rest of time.)
I'm cracking up harder than I should be at Kokichi popping up already wearing his most over-the-top creepyface while your vision slowly unblurs. There's just... There's something uniquely absurd about taking one of these over-the-top horror faces that are usually used practically like jump scares for dramatic lines, and having him just... standing completely still holding one of them while he waits for you to wake up. (...Maybe his face really did get stuck like that?)
Kokichi: "It's finally time to reveal everything."
Yeah, and I've got a bridge to sell you.
Okay, dude, that visual effect doesn't even make sense. Like, the "flash a triple-image overlay of his creepiest face for a second on dramatic lines", that's a visual effect that conveys the intended extra impact clearly and understandably. But this is just... I don't even know? Random round purple vortext just kind of... glued to the screen centered above his head? And, uh, just staying there indefinitely, I guess...?
...Man, he really did blow his whole budget on those CGs, didn't he.
(...He did the face again, and the same weird effect popped up immediately. Is he just not physically capable of making that particular face without summoning the purple vortex? Is this, like, some kind of involuntary extra movement he can't help because it's a difficult face to pull off? Like how some people can wiggle their ears but can't do it without moving their whole scalp at the same time? Except instead of ears it's his eyes and mouth and the shading on his face and hand, and instead of his scalp it's a very clingy cloud of half-heartedly sinister grape smog?)
This is a still from a music video:
Like, there's no other way to describe it. I'm looking at a music video here. I'm actually feeling a little legitimately frustrated they didn't animate the dancing, because there's clearly dancing happening and I want to actually see it.
"I'd hate it if I got punched :(
It would be terrible
I wouldn't enjoy it at all ;_;"
Congratulations, Shuichi, you used both [truth|lies] and [hope|despair] in the same sentence! I think that unlocks an achievement. I think all of those words are approximately synonyms, admittedly, but I'm glad you've gained so much confidence in your own inner monologue abilities.
A friend commented that she's really sad you can't activate a love hotel scene during Shuichi's depression coma. I had the same thought while I was playing it, honestly. Just imagine! (Look, tell me it wouldn't be hilarious, okay.)
Kokichi doing the Junko pose is amazing. He looks ridiculous. He's having such a good time!
PLEASE GET THAT LOOKED AT. I adore Komaeda, but he is not a licensed... anything! Especially not a licensed advice giver!
Oh my god, Himiko's laugh. Is that the first time we've heard that voice clip? Either way, god she's delightful. I love her.
Keebo: "I will not let Kokichi's despair win in the end..."
Nooooo. It's evil, damn it, not despair! Why would you abandon your brand like this, Kokichi ;__; (I mean, he realize he's doing the whole despair shtick for Reasons™, but. evil. evil was possibly the single best line of the game so far, and it's very important to me.)
...Okay, guys, I understand Shuichi is head over heels in love, but could the rest of you maybe go for five minutes without reiterating at length how Kaito is the best most amazing person ever and where would we all be without him? Really. Just five minutes, we can start small. I'll be satisfied with that if I have to.
(They did not go anywhere near five minutes. It was a straight line from end of cutscene, to a few lines of "I should go do something", to the first person standing outside my door gushing about Kaito. This must be what it's like trying to watch me liveblog for five minutes without gushing about Kokichi, except straight from the writers.)
Himiko is mad that she's been forced into the sci-fi genre against her will. She should bond with Keebo over it!
...oh my god, I can't believe Kokichi managed to just straight-up kidnap Monokuma. I mean, I can believe it, it explains where Monokuma's gone and why Kokichi's gotten away with having such comparatively free reign for a while, but oh my god.
Oh, hey, it's Kaito! (The best of all of us, without whom we would never have made it this far, it's thanks for him that we're all here now and have hope in our hearts, etc.) I'm glad Shuichi gets to see him again! Except, you know, that it's basically guaranteed to end terribly and possibly even more painfully for having had this conversation? I'll hope not on the latter part, for Shuichi's sake.
Kaito: "Don't you worry! I'll do something about all this!"
That is the opposite of reassuring coming from you, Kaito. What if we all just calmed down and didn't do anything about anything? What if we just did that for a little while, just for kicks?
...I'm sure that's what the press is supposed to look like. It's probably... a new paint job? There's a paint machine in there. That's probably it. I'm sure everything's fine.
danganronpa.png
Investigation theme remix time! LET'S GO.
Shuichi immediately says the paint machine probably isn't related to the case. Why is nothing interesting ever allowed to be related to the case! (He thinks the washing machine isn't relevant either! I solve all these cases for you, Shuichi, and you can't even give me an inch here? Traitor.)
(Comment from a friend, preserved for posterity because it's beautiful:
AU where Shuichi is a disciple of Gundam Tanaka
He has a crime solving parrot sidekick, Grand Ultimate Hellbane Polina Memoria)
Hm, okay. Someone really wanted to hide what was in the press. ...So, okay. "This device will come to a halt when the sensor detects a living organism." Off the top of my head, there's two simplest ways around that.
a) "detects": block the infrared somehow, like by covering the victim in something it can't see through. (Put them in an Exisal, maybe?)
b) "living": kill someone and crush the corpse afterwards to destroy the evidence.
Huh, there's a hole in the sleeve. Interesting. —Oh, jeez, there's even a blood trail Shuichi specifically describes as something being dragged? Okay, definitely sounds like a corpse, then.
...okay, what ridiculous thing is the bottle going to turn out to actually say under the conveniently-positioned bloodstains? "Antidote for Poison"? "Not Poison"? "Fake Poison, DO NOT Confuse for Real Poison"?
All right, so it sounds like Maki visited and brought weapons to Kaito. I assume the point of the poison was to tip the arrows with? No idea what exactly ended up actually going down, though.
—Himiko brought the black bag? Huh. Not sure what to make of that.
Control panel was attacked by an Exisal, it looks like. Ah, and right, the electrobombs were a thing; presumably we'll have to account for when/where/if each one was used. —Oh, duh, I guess you could also just disable the safety sensor outright with an electrobomb. Which involves 100% less ridiculous "clever" tricks to get around it and is therefore 1000% less fun, but fair enough, I guess that's what they're there for.
("I should also inspect the three Exisals patrolling the courtyard," Shuichi says, having returned from finishing inspecting them like ten minutes ago. Well, Shuichi-as-controlled-by-me is the most astoundingly spacey guy you've ever seen, so I guess that tracks.)
A slow-acting poison, huh? That's a useful enough murder-mystery element that it probably is the one we're looking for...? It seems weird to have a blacked-out label and not have it turn out to be something other than you expect, though, so maybe not...? —Ah, never mind, I'm just misreading; that's an unrelated bottle still in our lab that's also missing some poison, not one we're comparing against the empty one we found.
Oh, the ones on the desks are antidotes, are they? Promising. ...Hrm, I'm comparing the bottle designs and honestly, neither of the types in Shuichi's lab looks identical to the one at the crime scene to me, but it's closer to the antidote bottles so I'm guessing it is in fact supposed to be one of those. The blacked-out area on the label definitely fits way better if you assume it says "Strike-9 Poison Antidote" than if you assume it's just a poison label; it's not quite the same layout as the other antidote labels, but the longer name probably takes up an extra line.
Ahahahaha I just looked properly at the poison names and they're amazing. Harmlock. I want an entire browsable shelf of Shuichi's poison bottles, game! (...Are we not going to add the antidotes to our truth bullets? Does this mean I'm going to have to visualize them through a field of blocks instead.)
Shuichi: "I should go re-examine every part of the crime scene an extra time, even more thoroughly, in the desperate hopes of finding something vital I missed the first time over!"
Also Shuichi: "There's definitely nothing suspicious about the washing machine. I don't need to waste time looking at it."
This is why we can't have nice things.
Ahahahahahaha, that's a fantastic delayed punchline. A+. (To this silly exchange from before the body discovery, for anyone who doesn't remember that particular bit. Kokichi may or may not be alive and/or hiding inside an Exisal right now, but either way I'm very proud of him for living up to Himiko's expectations here.)
What are the holes in their clothes from? The arrows are the obvious assumption, I mean, so presumably they're from those, but. Why exactly? What happened?
...We made it almost through the whole second half of the investigation without more derailing into Kaito shilling. Almost. Alas.
Okay, you might be laying it on a bit thick there, writers.
Shuichi: (...Kaito wouldn't die so easily. I...don't know why I believe that so strongly...)
Well, let's think about this logically. His most distinctive article of clothing was sticking very conveniently out of the press to identify his otherwise unidentifiable body, and everyone has been reminding us every other line that he's definitely and obviously dead and there's no doubt about it just in case we hadn't noticed it yet, so the obvious conclusion is that he died. I think the only reasonable assumption we can make at this point is that our dramatic final murder trial has a very easy and obvious solution that everyone in the room figured out before they even started investigating. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Oh, that's clever! See, they're both in purple because purple truth holds the potential double meaning of both truth and lies depending on whether the one saying it is the culprit or not, and we don't know which of them is the culprit, so—
...Wait. Wrong game.
Never mind.
I was really excited when I saw this speech was going to get interrupted by someone, and then it turned out to be Keebo making a defiant, inspirational retort about how graduating is meaningless and we have our HOPE to fight for. I... really thought someone was finally going to go "oh my god, we've heard this exact speech four times, just shut up already."
Himiko: "What's there to even talk about? The blackened is the mastermind, Kokichi."
I'm pretty sure the blackened is neither of those people, Himiko. (...Unless![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart's mastermind Kaito theory turns out to have been right all along? I mean. I could probably roll with that, honestly.)
OH MY GOD
OH MY GOD
:DDDDD
THIS IS GOING TO BE INCREDIBLE
Wow, that's a beautifully unedited video of the murder. I'm so amazed at how smooth and unedited it is. Truly beautiful.
Oh, wait, all it can do is play, record and pause. Damn. What a shame. I guess there's no way anyone could possibly have recorded anything but a single continuous video with it, in that case :( It's very sad :( :(
I'm laughing at the "...Junko?" bit. Well played. Cheerfully confessing to the crime right off the bat is a very Kokichi thing to do, though, so points granted for that part.
I'm looking over my lie bullets so I don't have to shoot blind, and the bullet for Safety Function turns into Danger Function. Beautiful. (I'm also a fan of Murder Video → Survival Video. ... And Large Black Case → Small White Case.)
Exisal Kokichi: "Hope...? Despair...?"
Okay, so I get that the repeated confused responses from KaiKichi whenever someone references the Hope's Peak Academy backstory are foreshadowing, but... I think I can only take this one as foreshadowing that Kaito canonically does not know what the words "hope" and "despair" mean. At all. He has never heard either of these words before in his life and he is very confused.
God, the Exisal just jumping straight over the courtroom kills me every time. I've gotta say, also, I am genuinely really impressed by Kokichi's VA playing Kaito-playing-Kokichi here. That's a tricky thing to pull off, and he nails it. (I'm similarly impressed by the writing on it—so far they've done a very effective job making the Kokichi impression feel just a little noticeably loose and slapdash without either making it obvious or going the "we just wrote Kokichi into these scenes like always and figured we'd call it an impression later" route. It would be incredibly subtle if the victim identity swap wasn't a kind of unavoidably guessable twist by design.)
This line is a flawless Kokichi impression, though. 100% accurate Kokichi dialogue. I'm seriously impressed by Kaito here.
Preserving this for posterity too because it's also incredible:
...What does successfully fooling Monokuma actually accomplish, though? Like, this is an incredibly clever plan as far as fooling Monokuma goes, I get how that works, but what's the purpose of doing it in the first place? What exactly does this get anyone? Did I miss the secret clause in the rulebook that says if the mastermind makes a provable mistake, they have to stop killing you and let you all go free?
I'm giggling at "Monokuma joins the party". Lovely. ...Seriously, though, is no one going to even consider, say... Asking what the repercussions of Monokuma getting the facts of the case wrong would actually be? Shouldn't this be the most important question on everyone's mind right now??
(Augh, I hate the controls on the multiple-choice selection parts of the trial. I don't know what it's like on console, but with the mouse controls, it's exactly reversed from the normal controls for both dialogue choices and the truth bullets menu, probably just for the sake of making you select an answer with the same button used to fire truth bullets/blades. I've accidentally chosen the wrong truth bullet by trying to scroll down on its description twice so far, just in this one trial.)
hot romance tips to get ur partner in the mood, by kokichi oma:
- get shot with a poisoned arrow, spurring him to nobly take a bullet for you 💘
- find the antidote and drink it for him- itll be just like a romantic CPR scene, except twice as uncomfortable b/c youre both conscious the whole time~
- take a sexy video of yourself sprawled out in nothing but an oversized article of his clothing. (make sure the angle leaves PLENTY to his imagination...) leave it with him for when ur not around ;)
Ah, there we go. That's the piece we were missing. Kaito agreed to kill Kokichi in an utterly bonkers manner and then impersonate him specifically to prevent Maki from being put on trial and executed for killing him. That makes sense.
...where
where did Kaito get the extra coat.
(A friend points out he presumably just snuck back to his room and changed into clean clothes while everyone was asleep. Point taken, but that's so boring, Kaito. If you're going to do this, do it RIGHT, in the tattered and bloodied clothes you committed the murder in!)
Oh my god. How is Kokichi so good. He's absolutely ridiculous and I love him.
...hahaha oh my god, I didn't consider that after the reveal they would still believe Kokichi is Ultimate Despair, but just coincidentally, like a random innocent Remnant of Despair with no relation to any current killing games who just happened to be one of their classmates. A+, guys. Come on, he's the Supreme Leader of a school club. Get with the program.
I know that there's obviously a standard procedure for where to allot the voice acting budget in these games and they can't fully voice everything, but it always jars me a little that the post-trial scenes are never among the voiced parts, considering they're so dramatic and usually involve big reveals and unprecedented displays of personality for at least one character. Like, dang, I'd especially kill to hear Derek Stephen Prince actually voicing some of these flashback lines.
Kaito: "And if Monokuma's ruling was invalid, the killing game would end."
Okay, so, back to the question I've been asking the whole time then.
a) Would it? Do you know this?
b) If yes, how do you know it?
c) Either way, why did no one at any point think to ask this?
Oh, good, we're finally answering that question!
... oh my god, Kokichi. Oh my god that's so stupid. I... okay, I'd be lying if I said "I can't believe this", because I can easily believe it and it's absolutely incredible.
Kokichi logic: "This game is clearly made for an audience—that's why the people running it put so much emphasis on following and enforcing the established rules and structure of the game and care about making it interesting. Which means that instead of trying to target the masterminds directly, we should try to influence the people they work for: the audience. If the viewers feel betrayed by the show and turn against it, there will be no benefit to trapping us here and killing us anymore.
"In other words, the only logical thing for me to do is to personally engineer the most exciting plot twist imaginable, because that will totally ruin this killing game's value as entertainment!"
hahahahahaha god, I just. I can't get over this. apparently I have more in common with Kaito than I realized because I am dying over here. good god my favorite character is an idiot. I love all of this so much.
Whoa, Keebo's ahoge got knocked off? I can't believe Keebo isn't the protagonist anymore.
Hi, Junko!
...Guys, you realize that if you don't want to rehash your previous games as tediously closely as possible every time you make a new one, you could just... not do that, you know? I'm getting concerned here. I feel like unlimited access to metafiction might actually be kind of bad for you at this point in your life. It feels like you're using it as a crutch to rationalize your formula addiction instead of getting help for it.
I have to be honest with you, Keebo, that's probably an improvement.
...
... I'm not quite as sure that's an improvement, though.
Well. That was a really fun case! Blatant knockoff of 2-5, obviously, but with enough new and delightful traits to be a great time in its own right, so I'm satisfied. Still groaning at Shuichi solving the entire "this was a plan to trick Monokuma" thing without ever wondering what the point of the plan might be, but I'm having fun and that's what matters.
A friend linked me this very important and canon dialogue excerpt right after I finished the case. I have good friends. (This less canon but completely true in spirit comic is also excellent.I want that AU now.)
I ended up with more Free Times to finish up after this chapter than usual, since I wanted to both finish the dead characters like usual and finish Keebo's now that I've been cut off permanently for the main game, so the rest of this entry is me goofing off in that vein.
Keebo: "I've been told on more than one occasion that...my backstory is somewhat lacking."
...Keebo. Honey. No.
Shuichi, no
I went ahead and rolled love hotel scenes for each night I played up to as well, since I might as well now that I've passed all the slots in the main game. I'm assuming it's impossible to roll Kaito or Kokichi during Chapter 5, but frankly it should be possible because it would be hilarious. Just imagine! I got Tsumugi after a couple reloads. I SEE WHY EVERYONE HAS BEEN LAUGHING NOW.
Even more importantly:
Finally!
Shuichi: (Was that what Kokichi was doing just now? So that he wouldn't win? But what would be the point of that?)
You are very dense, Shuichi.
Rolled Miu's love hotel scene next. Um. Miu, this is deeply worrying. Please see a therapist somehow. (And also probably get some friends who aren't assholes, if we're being honest; I feel like spending all your time with a cast of Danganronpa characters is practically a form of self-harm in itself in cases like this.)
Great job, Kokichi. This is definitely how you socialize. You're very good at people!
I'm honestly kind of surprised that Shuichi is so completely stumped by Kokichi even after five events, even though I probably shouldn't be. Gee, this guy made some ridiculous over-the-top joke about how he'll have to kill you unless you can beat him in a contest, and it coincidentally resulted in him having an excuse to hang out and play games with you all the time? You're right, he's impossible to figure out. (It does figure that the guy with a blatant crush on him would be the one guy in the class Shuichi is distinctly not interested in.)
(surskitty points out that presumably it's just weighted in favor of scenes you've already seen, which would be the most monumentally stupid design choice imaginable and therefore is almost certainly true. Especially given the odds of failing a 3/8 chance 12 times in a row are apparently less than 0.5%.)
Guess who I rolled after that, though? :D :D :D
Aha oh my god. Incredible. Of course that's what Kokichi's fantasy would be.
Shuichi: "I-I'm not going to torture you! What exactly do you think a detective does?"
I mean, considering context, I think we can safely say the answer is "him, ideally".
Hahahaha oh my god. Amazing.
The fact that Shuichi's attempts to roleplay the porn version of a hard-boiled detective aren't voice acted is a crime. I want to hear this absurdity in all its glory!
A friend helpfully linked this Hark! A Vagrant comic, and that pretty much sums the whole thing up perfectly. Also, I guess I need to revise my earlier statement. Shuichi only has eyes for half the other boys in their class, except when Kokichi is shoving him menacingly onto a bed, apparently, at which point he's suddenly super into him? I'm not sure that's enough to sustain a relationship on, but hey, I guess it's something.
Kaito: Pop quiz! What's the most important thing an astronaut needs?
Shuichi, attempting to unglue his eyes from Kaito's pecs:
Shuichi: (...I've been underestimating him. Kaito is incredible!)
This is a hilarious line to see this late in the game. "Wow, Kaito's actually incredible! I never would have considered that before!" (Honestly, it would be kind of hilarious at nearly any point in the game besides, like, early Chapter 2? Shuichi gets starry-eyed about Kaito very quickly.) Unintentional hilarity aside, though, Kaito's events are delightful so far.
(Part of me is sorry I keep dumping full chatlogs here, but can you really blame me for needing to share this with everyone?)
Shuichi. Shuichi, please, you are and have been long past the point where you can make comments like this with a straight face.
Kaito's free time events were every bit as delightful as they seemed. Pure concentrated essence of what made me enjoy Kaito for a lot of the early game, before the writers really leaned into making him unintentionally insufferable. I'm glad there was more content like that; it's really fun and cute.
(Kind of a shame about Kaito in general, honestly—it's one thing to not be able to stand a character, but especially frustrating when there are good parts that get fumbled or overshadowed. I'd probably have liked Kaito a lot if all his unacknowledged dickishness was either removed or made an intentional part of his character. As is, he seemed to basically swing between the intended reading of "loveable dork who is genuinely a great supportive friend overall even if he's a hotheaded idiot teenager", and "condescending, sexist jerk who will happily decide he knows best how to fix a near-stranger's life whether they want him to or not, and is uniformly proven right and lionized by the narrative for it to the point that every single character except Monokuma expresses awe at how great he is", with no indication the writers actually saw any difference. Oh, well. I'll just be over here, appreciating the parts I like and quietly mentally revising the parts I don't, like usual.)
My last two nights of Free Time catchup got me Kirumi and Ryoma's love hotel scenes, since I was back in Chapter 2 for the sake of reloading less often. Ryoma's is a legitimately good and emotional character piece, wow. I wasn't expecting that here of all places, but it's really nice.
And with that, it's finally time for Chapter 6! I'm excited to finish this up and see what no-doubt ridiculous places they're going to try to go with the ending. (...And then probably mess around a ton in the postgame dating sim mode anyway, but you know.)
Extremely tl;dr reactions under the cut.
Kaito, no, death flags are a terrible way to open the chapter. Don't say things like that! I mean, you're already secretly dying of the most fatal disease known to man, so it's not like your odds were particularly good in the first place, but still.
Keltena:
...
Actually
I revise my statement
I want Kaito to keep saying things like that and Himiko to start commenting on it
PsychedOut:
what if he's given a flashback light that reveals he is secretly SHSL Cop and if he makes it through one more case he'll be able to retire
Coo:
he takes a monochrome photo of maki and manifests a wallet to put it
Jade:
the case: bringing down notorious criminal mastermind Kokichi Oma
—ahahaha oh my god. Immediately after that conversation about death flags, we find Kaito's lab. I'm so sorry, Kaito, but I have some bad news for you.
I've gotta say, the forced conflict between Kaito and Shuichi here is not doing it for me. Like, on the purely interpersonal level I buy it—Kaito is a hotheaded teenager and a sucker for Kokichi's prodding and blows up at Shuichi during the trial, and then neither of them has any idea how to talk to each other after it blows over? Yeah, checks out. The attempts to cast it as a serious dramatic conflict that ties in to the story's big overarching themes... not so much.
...Okay, so how are we going to use the simulator thing in Kaito's lab for a murder? Like, I can't do my standard "I can't imagine how that could ever be used in a ridiculous murder plan" joke here because I actually have no idea how yet. But you can't just conspicuously introduce a vehicle simulator and never use it in a murder somehow!
lol, Monokuma seems mad that Kaede killed off his cool mysterious amnesia character before he could even do anything. You should know by now that that's how these things go, Monokuma! Nothing's more mysterious than being too dead to answer questions!
Well okay, the motion sensor guarding the mysterious area is definitely going to get used in a murder somehow.
Keebo: "My inner voice is telling me... 'Hope moves forward.'"
Oh god, his inner voice talks about hope. Is Keebo's inner voice Komaeda? It's Komaeda, isn't it.
...Oh my god, we have access to the Exisals now. This murder is going to be absolutely ludicrous whenever we get around to it, and I can't wait. (We should definitely use the washing machine in the murder too, if you ask me. I'm counting on you, game. Make this a good one.)
Oh boy, we don't just have a hydraulic press but also a very pointed conversation about its ability or lack thereof to kill someone? Definitely nothing to be worried about here! (Re: the safety function, hm. The immediately obvious thought is that it presumably can't detect Keebo, which bodes poorly for him. But on the other hand, that would mean passing up the chance to have the murder center partly on some clever trick for fooling/getting around the sensor, so...?)
...Of course immediately after I say that, Keebo decides he should personally test it out. Keebo, no. Did your inner voice say this was a good idea, Keebo? (Your inner voice is definitely Komaeda.)
—Oh fuck, I just realized. All this nonsense with Kokichi means he's going to start ditching Free Time, doesn't it? Ugh, it almost certainly does. What an asshole. I don't care if he wants to run off and do evil on his own time, but he owes me two more overdramatic children's card games, damn it! He's not allowed to die until he's paid up! I left off on finishing him until now specifically because I figured he was too important to die early, and then this! He's not even dead yet and I still get cut off??
God, I can't believe this brat. Swoops in, kills one of my love interests while getting the other to dump me while aggressively flirting the entire time, then immediately ditches? For fuck's sake, Kokichi. If he shows up again, I swear to god I'm going to kill him myself.
Well, on the bright side, I guess now that Kokichi is d̻͚̻̮̜̻ͅe̴̼a̮̮̙͠d͏͇̱̜̺̟͖̦ ̟to ̴̪̹̣̣̱̩m̨̭̗̜̪̩e̳ ̛͍̙͉͕̥̝f̞̠̺͞o҉̲̰͉̠͉r͉̳e̳̰̥̪͓̻͓v̨͓̗͙͔͇̳̙e̬͈̠̦̠͍̰r͏͓ I have time to max the character I was sad I couldn't get around to! All's well that ends well!
Shuichi: (...Hm. I feel as though he's talking down to me a little...)
I'm 200% okay with this. Keebo's smug condescending tendencies are are a really endearing (and tragically overlooked) personality trait, honestly. I wish we saw him do it more!
D:
D: D: D:
(She won't even try to take care of them! Damn it, Tsumugi, why!)
Keebo: "Perhaps [Monokuma]'s expecting Kokichi to act on his own without even needing a motive."
Look, if Kokichi doesn't get his ass back here soon, he's going to be the next victim.
(Because I'm going to kill him. That is the intended implication of my above comment.)
As always, I appreciate this game's determination to extend my one-off joke about Shuichi's failed plans to get laid for the entire rest of the game without my even lifting a finger.
I like the optional nighttime conversation you can get with Keebo here. <: I like Keebo's personality a lot when he gets to just... be a person instead of the butt of the same couple robot jokes over and over again. I'm glad I'm doing his free times; they've been really cute and good for that sort of thing so far.
... You know what, Shuichi? You can just stay broken up with him. Forever. Good riddance.
I've finally hit the point where the Love Hotel starts giving me repeats, but after one reload I got Keebo. Holy shit that scene was adorable. I'm so glad I rolled it.
Yeah, that's how I feel whenever you get screentime, Keebs.
(I'd make a comment about how wow, does Shuichi somehow already have a new love interest here? But I feel like that would bode very poorly for Keebo, considering Shuichi's track record. Stay away from fridges, Keebo!)
Right, where was the plot before I got distracted by cute robot boys... Kaito is planning something undoubtedly stupid in secret; Maki is still inexplicably into Kaito even when he's telling her girls shouldn't use weapons in the same breath as asking for her help with them; Kokichi is also planning something undoubtedly stupid in secret (but like, a separate stupid thing, not the same stupid thing); and Keebo is my new best friend, which is what's really important.
Oh, Kaito's actually going to share his harebrained plan with us! That's a good sign. ...Naturally his plan turns out to be punching. Oh, Kaito.
Keebo, I am going to have to stage an intervention. If your inner voice told you to jump off a cliff with all your friends, would you do it?? ...I will admit that Himiko beating Monokuma up is an incredibly good thought, so I can't exactly blame them all, but this is still a bad idea.
Maki is worried about Kaito, unsurprisingly. I dunno, I can't see any reason to be worried that the reckless idiot who's convinced he's a shounen hero and also knows he's going to die soon is insisting on doing all the preparations for his reckless plan alone because he's planning something extra reckless! I'm sure he'll be fine.
oh my GOD
i love him. he's so good.
—Shuichi, what the fuck, no! Why are you so unsupportive! :( Don't listen to him, Keebo! Don't give up on your dreams!!
My intention in choosing this is "you'd look really cute in the outfit", but odds seem good it comes off as robophobic instead. I can't imagine the other options wouldn't come off worse, though, so hey.
(I hope there's fanart of maid!Keebo. ...I hope at least one of the doubtless many talentswap AUs out there has maid!Keebo.)
(A friend has assured me there is in fact fanart. I'll have to go looking for it once I can do so without fear of spoilers.)
...I love that "Obviously Let's Roleplay It" is apparently Keebo's answer to everything. It's adorable. And apparently Shuichi's priorities in picking that earlier dialogue option were the same as mine, because as soon as Keebo suggests roleplaying he tries to get Keebo to undress him. Jeez, Shuichi, I didn't mean you should take it that fast! Teenagers, I swear.
You are 5′7″ and weigh 128 lbs, Shuichi. Why hasn't someone done something about this television program yet? It's promoting horribly unhealthy body image in teenagers.
...Wait, is Shuichi just skipping sleep tonight? Come on, Shuichi. Do I have to use all these love keys in the postgame?
OH, THERE YOU FUCKING ARE
YOU'VE GOT SOME EXPLAINING TO DO, YOUNG MAN
SOME THINGS TO ANSWER FOR
Kokichi: "If you don't wanna be blown to pieces, then you need to listen to what I'm about to tell you."
if you don't want me to personally destroy you, you little fucker, then you need to pay up on those two games you still owe me already
This is obviously leading into the end of the daily life segment, too. Why is that that now of all times, I suddenly only get four Free Time slots a chapter instead of the full five? Apparently it's not enough to cut me off on his own free time events, he has to cut me off on Keebo's, too?? And even from getting a second dumb love hotel scene? STOP SABOTAGING ALL MY RELATIONSHIPS AND THEN DITCHING ME, ASSHOLE. FUCK OFF WITH THIS HALF-ASSED YANDERE BULLSHIT.
I am of course going to go back to being completely, unavoidably charmed the moment I flip back to the game window and hear him talk more. I mean, who could possibly stay mad at this smile:
He's so happy! :D (Also, the voice acting on this line in particular is a gift.)
...Kokichi, this is not the time to indulge your choking kink. Kokichi, come on. (I mean, I realize "choking kink" is inaccurate—it's specifically a "provoking people into choking him" kink, not a generalized thing—but you get my point.) ...Naturally everyone in the discord channel I've been liveblogging in immediately jumped on me and told me to just let him enjoy himself, god. Look, I would normally agree, but if he wants to enjoy himself maybe he could play some children's card games with me already!
("...I know. I'm just going to beat him to a bloody pulp," says Maki, after being reminded not to literally murder Kokichi. You realize he's just going to enjoy that, too, Maki.)
Whoa, after all this time, we're finally going to Fulfill Kaede's Wish™ for real?! Amazing. I can't believe we've managed to end the killing game in just five chapters.
Bold of the game to expect me to not still kill myself stupidly and repeatedly at the evil platformer now that it's been made mind-numbingly easy. Underestimate me at your own peril, Spike Chunsoft. (I didn't miss anything about how to use the hammers, if you're wondering; I'm just so bad with slippery platformers on PC that I managed to lose nearly all my lives flailing helplessly around the one or two parts in the who level that still require vaguely coordinated movement to get through. Managed it on my second try, though.)
...I think this is the first time I've seen the title of the particular track that's playing here. It's... it's literally just called "REAL/FICTION"? Seriously?
(The post-apocalyptic background reminded me and someone else of something I couldn't immediately put my finger on—a friend pointed out that it looks straight out of SMT, which is probably it. The ensuing conversation made me realize that Kokichi would absolutely have Black Frost, which is a mental image I will cherish for the rest of time.)
I'm cracking up harder than I should be at Kokichi popping up already wearing his most over-the-top creepyface while your vision slowly unblurs. There's just... There's something uniquely absurd about taking one of these over-the-top horror faces that are usually used practically like jump scares for dramatic lines, and having him just... standing completely still holding one of them while he waits for you to wake up. (...Maybe his face really did get stuck like that?)
Kokichi: "It's finally time to reveal everything."
Yeah, and I've got a bridge to sell you.
Okay, dude, that visual effect doesn't even make sense. Like, the "flash a triple-image overlay of his creepiest face for a second on dramatic lines", that's a visual effect that conveys the intended extra impact clearly and understandably. But this is just... I don't even know? Random round purple vortext just kind of... glued to the screen centered above his head? And, uh, just staying there indefinitely, I guess...?
...Man, he really did blow his whole budget on those CGs, didn't he.
(...He did the face again, and the same weird effect popped up immediately. Is he just not physically capable of making that particular face without summoning the purple vortex? Is this, like, some kind of involuntary extra movement he can't help because it's a difficult face to pull off? Like how some people can wiggle their ears but can't do it without moving their whole scalp at the same time? Except instead of ears it's his eyes and mouth and the shading on his face and hand, and instead of his scalp it's a very clingy cloud of half-heartedly sinister grape smog?)
This is a still from a music video:
Like, there's no other way to describe it. I'm looking at a music video here. I'm actually feeling a little legitimately frustrated they didn't animate the dancing, because there's clearly dancing happening and I want to actually see it.
"I'd hate it if I got punched :(
It would be terrible
I wouldn't enjoy it at all ;_;"
Congratulations, Shuichi, you used both [truth|lies] and [hope|despair] in the same sentence! I think that unlocks an achievement. I think all of those words are approximately synonyms, admittedly, but I'm glad you've gained so much confidence in your own inner monologue abilities.
A friend commented that she's really sad you can't activate a love hotel scene during Shuichi's depression coma. I had the same thought while I was playing it, honestly. Just imagine! (Look, tell me it wouldn't be hilarious, okay.)
Kokichi doing the Junko pose is amazing. He looks ridiculous. He's having such a good time!
PLEASE GET THAT LOOKED AT. I adore Komaeda, but he is not a licensed... anything! Especially not a licensed advice giver!
Oh my god, Himiko's laugh. Is that the first time we've heard that voice clip? Either way, god she's delightful. I love her.
Keebo: "I will not let Kokichi's despair win in the end..."
Nooooo. It's evil, damn it, not despair! Why would you abandon your brand like this, Kokichi ;__; (I mean, he realize he's doing the whole despair shtick for Reasons™, but. evil. evil was possibly the single best line of the game so far, and it's very important to me.)
...Okay, guys, I understand Shuichi is head over heels in love, but could the rest of you maybe go for five minutes without reiterating at length how Kaito is the best most amazing person ever and where would we all be without him? Really. Just five minutes, we can start small. I'll be satisfied with that if I have to.
(They did not go anywhere near five minutes. It was a straight line from end of cutscene, to a few lines of "I should go do something", to the first person standing outside my door gushing about Kaito. This must be what it's like trying to watch me liveblog for five minutes without gushing about Kokichi, except straight from the writers.)
Himiko is mad that she's been forced into the sci-fi genre against her will. She should bond with Keebo over it!
...oh my god, I can't believe Kokichi managed to just straight-up kidnap Monokuma. I mean, I can believe it, it explains where Monokuma's gone and why Kokichi's gotten away with having such comparatively free reign for a while, but oh my god.
Oh, hey, it's Kaito! (The best of all of us, without whom we would never have made it this far, it's thanks for him that we're all here now and have hope in our hearts, etc.) I'm glad Shuichi gets to see him again! Except, you know, that it's basically guaranteed to end terribly and possibly even more painfully for having had this conversation? I'll hope not on the latter part, for Shuichi's sake.
Kaito: "Don't you worry! I'll do something about all this!"
That is the opposite of reassuring coming from you, Kaito. What if we all just calmed down and didn't do anything about anything? What if we just did that for a little while, just for kicks?
...I'm sure that's what the press is supposed to look like. It's probably... a new paint job? There's a paint machine in there. That's probably it. I'm sure everything's fine.
danganronpa.png
Keltena:
Man, it must be devastating for Monokuma to not be able to list the victim's bust size on the front page of their autopsy.
Kinu:
Seriously! Think of all that dead titty you can't talk about!
Keltena:
Potential dead titty, anyway.
Kaito has titty, but I doubt Kokichi has any to speak of.
Zyxyz:
well, if they weren't flat before, they are now :V
Investigation theme remix time! LET'S GO.
Shuichi immediately says the paint machine probably isn't related to the case. Why is nothing interesting ever allowed to be related to the case! (He thinks the washing machine isn't relevant either! I solve all these cases for you, Shuichi, and you can't even give me an inch here? Traitor.)
(Comment from a friend, preserved for posterity because it's beautiful:
AU where Shuichi is a disciple of Gundam Tanaka
He has a crime solving parrot sidekick, Grand Ultimate Hellbane Polina Memoria)
Hm, okay. Someone really wanted to hide what was in the press. ...So, okay. "This device will come to a halt when the sensor detects a living organism." Off the top of my head, there's two simplest ways around that.
a) "detects": block the infrared somehow, like by covering the victim in something it can't see through. (Put them in an Exisal, maybe?)
b) "living": kill someone and crush the corpse afterwards to destroy the evidence.
Huh, there's a hole in the sleeve. Interesting. —Oh, jeez, there's even a blood trail Shuichi specifically describes as something being dragged? Okay, definitely sounds like a corpse, then.
...okay, what ridiculous thing is the bottle going to turn out to actually say under the conveniently-positioned bloodstains? "Antidote for Poison"? "Not Poison"? "Fake Poison, DO NOT Confuse for Real Poison"?
All right, so it sounds like Maki visited and brought weapons to Kaito. I assume the point of the poison was to tip the arrows with? No idea what exactly ended up actually going down, though.
—Himiko brought the black bag? Huh. Not sure what to make of that.
Control panel was attacked by an Exisal, it looks like. Ah, and right, the electrobombs were a thing; presumably we'll have to account for when/where/if each one was used. —Oh, duh, I guess you could also just disable the safety sensor outright with an electrobomb. Which involves 100% less ridiculous "clever" tricks to get around it and is therefore 1000% less fun, but fair enough, I guess that's what they're there for.
("I should also inspect the three Exisals patrolling the courtyard," Shuichi says, having returned from finishing inspecting them like ten minutes ago. Well, Shuichi-as-controlled-by-me is the most astoundingly spacey guy you've ever seen, so I guess that tracks.)
A slow-acting poison, huh? That's a useful enough murder-mystery element that it probably is the one we're looking for...? It seems weird to have a blacked-out label and not have it turn out to be something other than you expect, though, so maybe not...? —Ah, never mind, I'm just misreading; that's an unrelated bottle still in our lab that's also missing some poison, not one we're comparing against the empty one we found.
Oh, the ones on the desks are antidotes, are they? Promising. ...Hrm, I'm comparing the bottle designs and honestly, neither of the types in Shuichi's lab looks identical to the one at the crime scene to me, but it's closer to the antidote bottles so I'm guessing it is in fact supposed to be one of those. The blacked-out area on the label definitely fits way better if you assume it says "Strike-9 Poison Antidote" than if you assume it's just a poison label; it's not quite the same layout as the other antidote labels, but the longer name probably takes up an extra line.
Ahahahaha I just looked properly at the poison names and they're amazing. Harmlock. I want an entire browsable shelf of Shuichi's poison bottles, game! (...Are we not going to add the antidotes to our truth bullets? Does this mean I'm going to have to visualize them through a field of blocks instead.)
Shuichi: "I should go re-examine every part of the crime scene an extra time, even more thoroughly, in the desperate hopes of finding something vital I missed the first time over!"
Also Shuichi: "There's definitely nothing suspicious about the washing machine. I don't need to waste time looking at it."
This is why we can't have nice things.
Ahahahahahaha, that's a fantastic delayed punchline. A+. (To this silly exchange from before the body discovery, for anyone who doesn't remember that particular bit. Kokichi may or may not be alive and/or hiding inside an Exisal right now, but either way I'm very proud of him for living up to Himiko's expectations here.)
What are the holes in their clothes from? The arrows are the obvious assumption, I mean, so presumably they're from those, but. Why exactly? What happened?
...We made it almost through the whole second half of the investigation without more derailing into Kaito shilling. Almost. Alas.
Okay, you might be laying it on a bit thick there, writers.
Shuichi: (...Kaito wouldn't die so easily. I...don't know why I believe that so strongly...)
Well, let's think about this logically. His most distinctive article of clothing was sticking very conveniently out of the press to identify his otherwise unidentifiable body, and everyone has been reminding us every other line that he's definitely and obviously dead and there's no doubt about it just in case we hadn't noticed it yet, so the obvious conclusion is that he died. I think the only reasonable assumption we can make at this point is that our dramatic final murder trial has a very easy and obvious solution that everyone in the room figured out before they even started investigating. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
Oh, that's clever! See, they're both in purple because purple truth holds the potential double meaning of both truth and lies depending on whether the one saying it is the culprit or not, and we don't know which of them is the culprit, so—
...Wait. Wrong game.
Never mind.
I was really excited when I saw this speech was going to get interrupted by someone, and then it turned out to be Keebo making a defiant, inspirational retort about how graduating is meaningless and we have our HOPE to fight for. I... really thought someone was finally going to go "oh my god, we've heard this exact speech four times, just shut up already."
Himiko: "What's there to even talk about? The blackened is the mastermind, Kokichi."
I'm pretty sure the blackened is neither of those people, Himiko. (...Unless
rionaleonhart's mastermind Kaito theory turns out to have been right all along? I mean. I could probably roll with that, honestly.)OH MY GOD
OH MY GOD
:DDDDD
THIS IS GOING TO BE INCREDIBLE
Wow, that's a beautifully unedited video of the murder. I'm so amazed at how smooth and unedited it is. Truly beautiful.
Oh, wait, all it can do is play, record and pause. Damn. What a shame. I guess there's no way anyone could possibly have recorded anything but a single continuous video with it, in that case :( It's very sad :( :(
I'm laughing at the "...Junko?" bit. Well played. Cheerfully confessing to the crime right off the bat is a very Kokichi thing to do, though, so points granted for that part.
I'm looking over my lie bullets so I don't have to shoot blind, and the bullet for Safety Function turns into Danger Function. Beautiful. (I'm also a fan of Murder Video → Survival Video. ... And Large Black Case → Small White Case.)
Exisal Kokichi: "Hope...? Despair...?"
Okay, so I get that the repeated confused responses from KaiKichi whenever someone references the Hope's Peak Academy backstory are foreshadowing, but... I think I can only take this one as foreshadowing that Kaito canonically does not know what the words "hope" and "despair" mean. At all. He has never heard either of these words before in his life and he is very confused.
God, the Exisal just jumping straight over the courtroom kills me every time. I've gotta say, also, I am genuinely really impressed by Kokichi's VA playing Kaito-playing-Kokichi here. That's a tricky thing to pull off, and he nails it. (I'm similarly impressed by the writing on it—so far they've done a very effective job making the Kokichi impression feel just a little noticeably loose and slapdash without either making it obvious or going the "we just wrote Kokichi into these scenes like always and figured we'd call it an impression later" route. It would be incredibly subtle if the victim identity swap wasn't a kind of unavoidably guessable twist by design.)
This line is a flawless Kokichi impression, though. 100% accurate Kokichi dialogue. I'm seriously impressed by Kaito here.
Preserving this for posterity too because it's also incredible:
Keltena:
I know how much you want Kaito to rub off on you in general, Shuichi, but let's hope for everyone's sake his personality doesn't
Kinu:
Shuichi: Bro's heart... is flowing into me... uuuwaaaargh! *eyes start glowing, grows a spirit goatee* Yeah! Maki Rock! We've gotta go training! The difficult is achievable!
Shuichi: You see, Maki Rock, you're much like the earth- cold and stony and hardened by life on the exterior, but on the inside, full of glittering gems!
Maki: Inside the earth is a core of lethally hot magma. Stop hitting on me or I'll kill you.
Shuichi: Ha ha ha! I'm Kaichi Momohara, Alumnus of Space!
Tsumugi: And I was there, too!
...What does successfully fooling Monokuma actually accomplish, though? Like, this is an incredibly clever plan as far as fooling Monokuma goes, I get how that works, but what's the purpose of doing it in the first place? What exactly does this get anyone? Did I miss the secret clause in the rulebook that says if the mastermind makes a provable mistake, they have to stop killing you and let you all go free?
I'm giggling at "Monokuma joins the party". Lovely. ...Seriously, though, is no one going to even consider, say... Asking what the repercussions of Monokuma getting the facts of the case wrong would actually be? Shouldn't this be the most important question on everyone's mind right now??
(Augh, I hate the controls on the multiple-choice selection parts of the trial. I don't know what it's like on console, but with the mouse controls, it's exactly reversed from the normal controls for both dialogue choices and the truth bullets menu, probably just for the sake of making you select an answer with the same button used to fire truth bullets/blades. I've accidentally chosen the wrong truth bullet by trying to scroll down on its description twice so far, just in this one trial.)
hot romance tips to get ur partner in the mood, by kokichi oma:
- get shot with a poisoned arrow, spurring him to nobly take a bullet for you 💘
- find the antidote and drink it for him- itll be just like a romantic CPR scene, except twice as uncomfortable b/c youre both conscious the whole time~
- take a sexy video of yourself sprawled out in nothing but an oversized article of his clothing. (make sure the angle leaves PLENTY to his imagination...) leave it with him for when ur not around ;)
Ah, there we go. That's the piece we were missing. Kaito agreed to kill Kokichi in an utterly bonkers manner and then impersonate him specifically to prevent Maki from being put on trial and executed for killing him. That makes sense.
...where
where did Kaito get the extra coat.
(A friend points out he presumably just snuck back to his room and changed into clean clothes while everyone was asleep. Point taken, but that's so boring, Kaito. If you're going to do this, do it RIGHT, in the tattered and bloodied clothes you committed the murder in!)
Oh my god. How is Kokichi so good. He's absolutely ridiculous and I love him.
...hahaha oh my god, I didn't consider that after the reveal they would still believe Kokichi is Ultimate Despair, but just coincidentally, like a random innocent Remnant of Despair with no relation to any current killing games who just happened to be one of their classmates. A+, guys. Come on, he's the Supreme Leader of a school club. Get with the program.
I know that there's obviously a standard procedure for where to allot the voice acting budget in these games and they can't fully voice everything, but it always jars me a little that the post-trial scenes are never among the voiced parts, considering they're so dramatic and usually involve big reveals and unprecedented displays of personality for at least one character. Like, dang, I'd especially kill to hear Derek Stephen Prince actually voicing some of these flashback lines.
Kaito: "And if Monokuma's ruling was invalid, the killing game would end."
Okay, so, back to the question I've been asking the whole time then.
a) Would it? Do you know this?
b) If yes, how do you know it?
c) Either way, why did no one at any point think to ask this?
Oh, good, we're finally answering that question!
... oh my god, Kokichi. Oh my god that's so stupid. I... okay, I'd be lying if I said "I can't believe this", because I can easily believe it and it's absolutely incredible.
Kokichi logic: "This game is clearly made for an audience—that's why the people running it put so much emphasis on following and enforcing the established rules and structure of the game and care about making it interesting. Which means that instead of trying to target the masterminds directly, we should try to influence the people they work for: the audience. If the viewers feel betrayed by the show and turn against it, there will be no benefit to trapping us here and killing us anymore.
"In other words, the only logical thing for me to do is to personally engineer the most exciting plot twist imaginable, because that will totally ruin this killing game's value as entertainment!"
hahahahahaha god, I just. I can't get over this. apparently I have more in common with Kaito than I realized because I am dying over here. good god my favorite character is an idiot. I love all of this so much.
Keltena:
NO
NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO
Jade:
Life is a precious thing.
Keltena:
NO.
IT'S THE OPPOSITE OF A PRECIOUS THING
ALL LIFE MUST BE DESTROYED
I WILL CLEARLY NEVER HAVE PEACE UNTIL IT IS
Whoa, Keebo's ahoge got knocked off? I can't believe Keebo isn't the protagonist anymore.
Hi, Junko!
...Guys, you realize that if you don't want to rehash your previous games as tediously closely as possible every time you make a new one, you could just... not do that, you know? I'm getting concerned here. I feel like unlimited access to metafiction might actually be kind of bad for you at this point in your life. It feels like you're using it as a crutch to rationalize your formula addiction instead of getting help for it.
I have to be honest with you, Keebo, that's probably an improvement.
...
... I'm not quite as sure that's an improvement, though.
Well. That was a really fun case! Blatant knockoff of 2-5, obviously, but with enough new and delightful traits to be a great time in its own right, so I'm satisfied. Still groaning at Shuichi solving the entire "this was a plan to trick Monokuma" thing without ever wondering what the point of the plan might be, but I'm having fun and that's what matters.
A friend linked me this very important and canon dialogue excerpt right after I finished the case. I have good friends. (This less canon but completely true in spirit comic is also excellent.
I ended up with more Free Times to finish up after this chapter than usual, since I wanted to both finish the dead characters like usual and finish Keebo's now that I've been cut off permanently for the main game, so the rest of this entry is me goofing off in that vein.
Keebo: "I've been told on more than one occasion that...my backstory is somewhat lacking."
...Keebo. Honey. No.
Shuichi, no
I went ahead and rolled love hotel scenes for each night I played up to as well, since I might as well now that I've passed all the slots in the main game. I'm assuming it's impossible to roll Kaito or Kokichi during Chapter 5, but frankly it should be possible because it would be hilarious. Just imagine! I got Tsumugi after a couple reloads. I SEE WHY EVERYONE HAS BEEN LAUGHING NOW.
Even more importantly:
Finally!
Shuichi: (Was that what Kokichi was doing just now? So that he wouldn't win? But what would be the point of that?)
You are very dense, Shuichi.
Rolled Miu's love hotel scene next. Um. Miu, this is deeply worrying. Please see a therapist somehow. (And also probably get some friends who aren't assholes, if we're being honest; I feel like spending all your time with a cast of Danganronpa characters is practically a form of self-harm in itself in cases like this.)
Great job, Kokichi. This is definitely how you socialize. You're very good at people!
I'm honestly kind of surprised that Shuichi is so completely stumped by Kokichi even after five events, even though I probably shouldn't be. Gee, this guy made some ridiculous over-the-top joke about how he'll have to kill you unless you can beat him in a contest, and it coincidentally resulted in him having an excuse to hang out and play games with you all the time? You're right, he's impossible to figure out. (It does figure that the guy with a blatant crush on him would be the one guy in the class Shuichi is distinctly not interested in.)
Keltena:
I HAVE RELOADED LIKE SEVEN TIMES IN A ROW, COME ON
I should have a 3/8 chance of a new event!
whyyyyyy
Hi again, Maki!
Do you know who you're not?
You're not Kokichi, Himiko, or Kaito!
(...This has put the mental image in my mind of someone else using a Love Key)
(And getting Shuichi)
(Whose fantasy turns out to be that they're either Kokichi, Himiko, or Kaito)
(Not, like, a specific one of them)
(Just "Oh, hi Kokichi or Himiko or Kaito!")
("I've been so excited to see you!")
(They're.)
(They're not sure how to play the role properly, to be honest.)
(They're also very confused by the mental image this constructs of Shuichi's type.)
(What. What do these three people have in common...???)
(Is he just really into the red-to-purple hair spectrum??)
geo_illust:
now I'm imagining momota breaking out ye old ouma script again
Keltena:
—AHAHAHA oh my GOD
That's the best mental image I've ever had, omg
...god I'm still giggling at the thought of Kaito pulling out the script again for the love hotel
he never thought he'd need this again
and yet!
(this is unfortunately all but impossible to justify in actual canon because Shuichi is way too head over heels for Kaito to need him to be Kokichi)
Kinu:
Kaito: Welp, here goes. *ahem* Heya, Shuichi! Wanna power up our J.O. crystals! ...J.O. crystals...?
Shuichi: J.O. crystals?
Kaito: Haha! I'm just messing with you. *flips pages* Let's, uh... ooh, let's fuck instead! W-Wait, WHAT?!
(
surskitty points out that presumably it's just weighted in favor of scenes you've already seen, which would be the most monumentally stupid design choice imaginable and therefore is almost certainly true. Especially given the odds of failing a 3/8 chance 12 times in a row are apparently less than 0.5%.)Guess who I rolled after that, though? :D :D :D
Aha oh my god. Incredible. Of course that's what Kokichi's fantasy would be.
Shuichi: "I-I'm not going to torture you! What exactly do you think a detective does?"
I mean, considering context, I think we can safely say the answer is "him, ideally".
Hahahaha oh my god. Amazing.
The fact that Shuichi's attempts to roleplay the porn version of a hard-boiled detective aren't voice acted is a crime. I want to hear this absurdity in all its glory!
A friend helpfully linked this Hark! A Vagrant comic, and that pretty much sums the whole thing up perfectly. Also, I guess I need to revise my earlier statement. Shuichi only has eyes for half the other boys in their class, except when Kokichi is shoving him menacingly onto a bed, apparently, at which point he's suddenly super into him? I'm not sure that's enough to sustain a relationship on, but hey, I guess it's something.
Kaito: Pop quiz! What's the most important thing an astronaut needs?
Shuichi, attempting to unglue his eyes from Kaito's pecs:
Shuichi: (...I've been underestimating him. Kaito is incredible!)
This is a hilarious line to see this late in the game. "Wow, Kaito's actually incredible! I never would have considered that before!" (Honestly, it would be kind of hilarious at nearly any point in the game besides, like, early Chapter 2? Shuichi gets starry-eyed about Kaito very quickly.) Unintentional hilarity aside, though, Kaito's events are delightful so far.
Keltena:
...
Look, I realize this is a very out-of-character thing for me to say, but.
Go away, Kokichi.
I'm trying to roll someone new.
Jade:
"I wonder what Ryoma's fantas-"
*sound of ripping latex mask*
"It's a lie! Juuuuust kidding, Shuichi~"
Keltena:
pffffft
Okay, but
Consider.
Shuichi shows up and sees Kokichi, again.
And then a few lines in he goes "Haha, just kidding!", and rips the latex mask off to reveal Kaito clutching the Kokichi script.
...
And then most of the way into the scene
he rips off the mask again to reveal... Kokichi.
Jade:
I like to think there's an AU where Shuichi is the leader of a scooby style teen mystery gang and about 33% of monsters they encounter turn out to be Kokichi, who already caught the original monster/criminal but kept doing their shtick so he could get captured and unmasked by Shuichi
Shuichi, Miu, Kirumi, Kaito, and Ryoma the talking cat
Kiyo and Angie keep cropping up as red herrings but never actually seem to commit any crimes.
Gonta is the manager of a high class pet goods store that the gang shops at. Kaede is their regular waitress at the malt shop as well as the entertainment.
Himiko is the leader of a similar detective agency featuring Tenko, Tsumugi and Rantaro that is largely on good terms with Shuichi's team except when people start claiming that NO magical creatures really exist.
Keebo is very embarrassed about the Funland Robot incident but befriended the squad after they managed to restrain him and get him fixed up once they captured the hacker. Maki is a dour employee who's REALLY good at the midway games and got involved in the same incident.
(Part of me is sorry I keep dumping full chatlogs here, but can you really blame me for needing to share this with everyone?)
Shuichi. Shuichi, please, you are and have been long past the point where you can make comments like this with a straight face.
Kaito's free time events were every bit as delightful as they seemed. Pure concentrated essence of what made me enjoy Kaito for a lot of the early game, before the writers really leaned into making him unintentionally insufferable. I'm glad there was more content like that; it's really fun and cute.
(Kind of a shame about Kaito in general, honestly—it's one thing to not be able to stand a character, but especially frustrating when there are good parts that get fumbled or overshadowed. I'd probably have liked Kaito a lot if all his unacknowledged dickishness was either removed or made an intentional part of his character. As is, he seemed to basically swing between the intended reading of "loveable dork who is genuinely a great supportive friend overall even if he's a hotheaded idiot teenager", and "condescending, sexist jerk who will happily decide he knows best how to fix a near-stranger's life whether they want him to or not, and is uniformly proven right and lionized by the narrative for it to the point that every single character except Monokuma expresses awe at how great he is", with no indication the writers actually saw any difference. Oh, well. I'll just be over here, appreciating the parts I like and quietly mentally revising the parts I don't, like usual.)
My last two nights of Free Time catchup got me Kirumi and Ryoma's love hotel scenes, since I was back in Chapter 2 for the sake of reloading less often. Ryoma's is a legitimately good and emotional character piece, wow. I wasn't expecting that here of all places, but it's really nice.
And with that, it's finally time for Chapter 6! I'm excited to finish this up and see what no-doubt ridiculous places they're going to try to go with the ending. (...And then probably mess around a ton in the postgame dating sim mode anyway, but you know.)
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(You've accidentally used the 'You're too heavy' picture twice! I think the one after 'I'm sure he'll be fine' was probably supposed to be something else.)
I also managed to fail at the platforming segment even after receiving the PRESS TO WIN button. I'm glad I'm not alone.
That music video observation is magical, and now I'm also sad we don't get to watch the dancing.
"I'd hate it if I got punched :(
It would be terrible
I wouldn't enjoy it at all ;_;"
Also magical: this.
I'll never be over the fact that Kokichi wrote a whole reactive script of obnoxious remarks and terrible jokes while slowly dying of poison.
I'm outraged that you didn't persist until Shuichi got to take his boyfriend to the love hotel. COME ON.
I'm glad you got Kokichi's scene, though! It's probably my favourite. I can't believe Kokichi pushed Shuichi onto a bed, and Shuichi was simultaneously terrified and turned on, and Kokichi went 'lol just kidding' and ran away, and Shuichi's reaction was 'oh my God COME BACK YOU COCKTEASE.' (Also great: Tsumugi playing out her incest fantasies while Shuichi is internally going WHY IS THIS HAPPENING.)
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Whoops, I guess that's what I get for posting and rushing to class without checking for errors. Keebo's beautiful singing should be restored to its proper place now!
It's so great. :D I can only assume it's the way he always wanted to go out. I think my favorite part might be the mental image of Kaito having to run around and set everything up while Kokichi just sits there working intently away at perfecting his script. ("dude, seriously" "hey, I've been shot, remember? it'd take a real monster to force a dying man to do physical labor!" "..." "*coughs pitifully*") ...Also the mental image of Kaito inside the Exisal squinting over pages and pages of Kokichi's normally third-grader-looking scrawl, written in a hurry while badly injured in one arm and possibly suffering severe muscle spasms.
Hey, now, blame the RNG; I'm the victim here! I don't know, maybe the game is just too attached to the "Shuichi's failed attempts to bang Kaito" running gag to let it ever happen during the main campaign.
And yes, Kokichi's scene is amazing. It's the most beautifully in-character thing; I'm still grinning whenever I think of it. Congrats on discovering a new kink, Shuichi! (I'd congratulate him on discovering a new squick too—Tsumugi's scene was hilarious—but between Kiyo and the Monokubs it's definitely not new. Poor Shuichi, subjected over and over to the
the devs'the completely fictional in-universe writers' incest fixation.)