Entry tags:
"when the drama gets real, the real gets drama" - Morpheus, The Matrix, 1999
I finished Danganronpa V3! That was an experience.
A whole lot of words of liveblogging under the cut, as usual.
... Well, that's certainly a chapter intro.
Uh. 3D Animated Keebo, you doing okay there? It doesn't look like you're doing very okay. (See, Shuichi, I knew nothing good could come of your new crush!)
Jesus, don't SAY THINGS LIKE THAT, Keebo! For god's sake!
Ah yes, everyone's favorite game—Despair 3: Goodbye Danganronpa. ...Wait.
"Then someone else inside this academy besides Kokichi is a Remnant of Despair?" God, this never gets old. :') I mean, in retrospect it makes sense they'd draw that conclusion! But I just can't get over everyone figuring out Kokichi's whole pretend-to-be-the-mastermind plot, and thus concluding that... he just happened to be a Remnant of Despair, coincidentally, just an innocent one who was minding his own business and just happened to get caught up in the killing game like everyone else. Unlike the other Remnant of Despair hiding away in the academy who really is the mastermind!
I love the way he phrases this. Like hope is a key item they need to remember to find before they finish the game in order to get the true ending.
Wow, this really is a collectible quest. There's a total of 50 hope and 50 despair hidden in the academy, and you have to find at least half of each to get a good ending. You only get the final true ending epilogue that actually explains the plot if you get them all. Happy pixel-hunting, kids!
(On a side note, I am so mad Keebo's been written out of the party for this investigation. Give him back, you jerks! Like, I'm not even complaining about the death flags; I just want him to be around hanging with me and having lines!)
... Wait. They're kidding, right? This isn't actually timed in any meaningful way, is it? (Naturally I received quick confirmation that the time limit is real. This is such an incomprehensibly dumb design choice for the genre that my reaction has looped all the way around to a sort of bewildered awe.)
Whoa, Kokichi's lab?? ...This is a suitably chuuni lab for him. I'm glad.
Ah, and now Shuichi is finally beginning to catch on to the issue with the "Remnant of Despair" thing. Keep going, Shuichi, you'll get there.
Shuichi: (There are also wigs and glasses, for disguises I imagine. But they seem... comical.)
Shuichi: (It feels as if this entire room is just an elaborate prank.)
Yeah, that is strange. I mean, both of those things are obviously completely out of character for Kokichi, who has never been anything but entirely serious in his life! It's like the mastermind doesn't know him at all.
I hate that they take away your minimap for the whole investigation. I actually needed that, game! This is discrimination against people with no sense of direction or attention span.
I have to say I'm feeling, uh... torn on this whole Keebo-destroying-the-school thing. Because on the one hand, Keebo having his free will at last makes me indescribably happy and there's very little I wouldn't accept for that purpose; but on the other, this is still an objectively terrible choice under any circumstances and frankly painful to watch. Like, look, Keebo. I completely understand and support your desire to defy robot stereotypes, but I think there's a good reason most newly un-brainwashed robots stop striving to eradicate evil at any cost to innocent life, instead of suddenly starting!
On the bright side, hey—Keebo is definitely capable of fulfilling your fantasy of being carried to bed now, Shuichi. :v You know, assuming you both survive and he doesn't kill you. Since you're probably not into the being killed part. (Somebody asked how I could be sure of that. I mean, he seemed pretty clearly turned off by all of Kokichi's attempts to flirt along those lines!)
Shuichi doesn't think now's a good time to go swimming. BORING. Monokuma's distracted; it's the perfect time for an illegal nighttime dip!
He also says this every time I try to go off the plotted line:
Shuichi, no! You already have limited time to collect all 99 hope and despair; there's no way you can go for the truth and the lies in the same run!
...Kokichi doesn't clean his room much, does he.
—IS THAT RANTARO'S WAX EFFIGY IN THE CORNER
OH MY GOD
Holy shit. This. This is incredible. No one else's wax effigy, either. Why was no one else's good enough?
And the conspiracy whiteboard, omg. Kokichi's art is beautiful. I'm squinting very hard trying to read this (since the game won't let me examine it, what is this bullshit)...
The Monokubs are just labeled "Annoying", lol.
...Shuichi gets "Trustworthy?", huh? I guess we did already know Kokichi had it bad.
Keebo is "Weird"? What a jerk.
Pretty minimal for a conspiracy whiteboard, sadly; it makes sense Kokichi wouldn't write out most of his thoughts where the mastermind could see them, but I still want to see a full Kokichi conspiracy board with string and everything.
...Kokichi, what the heck is that on your bed. Is Kokichi a furry. —oh wait it's a dumb name joke. 王 馬. ha ha.
Oh my god.
Monokuma: "Anyway, Kokichi had ten loyal goons working for him."
"One of whom couldn't make it for this photoshoot, but look, don't worry about that." (I wonder if they meant "ten members including him" and accidentally worded it, or translated it, differently?)
"Except, again, for the tenth one. They couldn't make it to our kidnapping either." I'm going to headcanon that the tenth member is in all their group photos, they're just always standing behind someone.
In any event, this is honestly incredibly cute. I guess my "school club" theory wasn't quite right, but this hits basically all the points I liked about it while being even better so that's more than okay with me. I'm so glad Kokichi canonically uses the :o) clownface emoticons.
Naturally Kokichi's idea of how to leave a useful posthumous message for everyone is to send them on a riddle-filled scavenger hunt. Just like any other day playing games with your friends, huh? (Side note, I'm more charmed by his goofy scrawl handwriting than I should be.) I'm trying to figure out what to do with the two messages, but no luck with anything I've tried so far. If it's solvable before it comes up in the plot, I'll just have to figure it out later.
Keebo! ♥ Come break shit for us, Keebo! And also please hang out with us, damn it! ...Jeez, you could at least kiss him before he flies off again, Shuichi. Come on. I know I said that was a bad idea before, but frankly, by this point I think he's either equally safe or equally fucked regardless of what else you do
He gives me a gun, but no FRIENDSHIP POWER? I'm upset.
oh my god the crash through the stained glass windows. I'm laughing so hard. Keebo is ridiculous and I love him. (I had to replay this part later when I ran out of time, so here's a gif of Keebo in all his unnecessarily extra glory:)
I'm never going to get over how bizarre Suddenly 3D Keebo looks in this game. I'm glad he's living his best (???) life, though.
Ah, there it is! Where did Kokichi learn about that?
Shuichi: "It says something about a hint somewhere in the academy..."
...huh. Did Kokichi just find the mysterious writing with no context for it, and hijack it to make it into his own fake foreshadowing? That's so good.
(On a side note, I bet localizing that message took a bit of creativity. Since I assume in Japanese the 'horse' would just have been 馬, which is much simpler to fill in a whole sentence around? Or I guess うま at most, if it was in kana?)
Rantaro again at last! ...I've gotta say, it never stops being a bit distracting just how thoroughly Johnny Yong Bosch he is. Like, the acting's perfectly good! I appreciate Ultimate Guy Cecil, it's just... very noticeable. (A friend immediately linked me this in response. I have good friends.)
His title is Ultimate Survivor. Ahahahaha, that's beautiful. Of course it is. So he was just given access to the secret library right off the bat, huh?
Okay, game, watching the full Flashback Light cutscene has gotten just a little old by now.
Shuichi: (What are lies...what is the truth...?)
It's really quite simple, Shuichi. Lies are despair; the truth is hope. And also vice versa. And I think they're also called truth and ideals? Don't think too hard about it, you'll just get a headache.
HELL WILL FREEZE OVER LONG BEFORE I STOP EXAMINING EVERYTHING Screw you, I'm not going to play an adventure game WRONG just because you punish me for it!! (Amusingly, I was literally right before the next checkpoint when my timer ran out. Ah well.)
I'm so glad Keebo is killing off all the Monokubs again. The hero we need.
Aww, flashback to everyone's forgotten promise to be friends! I can't believe this means we've been failing to fulfill not just one but two of Kaede's wishes this whole time, and we had no idea! I can't believe the girl Shuichi had a crush on was actually Kaede's non-evil twin sister all along, too.
Hey, step off, Tsumugi, you had your moment. I need Keebo as my last investigation partner. I am going to revolt if I don't get to hang with Keebo more before the trial.
Monokid runs from you the second time you run into him. Excellent.
Oh, wow, Miu also made a thing to catch the bugs? ...You know, I'd never wondered until now whether "bug" has the double meaning of both "insect" and "hidden surveillance device" in Japanese too. I know it's used for the "computer bug" meaning, but beyond that I have no idea. Anyway, let's catch some bugs!
...No bugs? Boring. Come on, pay attention to us, viewers! I bet they think the big flashy robot battle is more exciting than we are. :| That's not even the right genre! It's not even the right art style!!
Holy shit, time passes in the menu? My timer was close to done when I opened it and got up to help in the kitchen, but it definitely wasn't there yet, and the game over triggered as soon as I closed it. Wow.
Keebo: "I would join you, but I need to hold off the Exisals here..."
NO, DON'T DO THIS TO ME. WHY DO YOU HATE KEEBO GETTING SCREENTIME, WRITERS. come with meeeee ;_;
It's pretty cool getting to actually see how the Flashback Lights are programmed! I'm predictably disappointed I can't browse through the descriptions of all the other options, though. Let me see those!
...
...
Of course Tsumugi's the fucking mastermind. Why would I ever have expected anything else. No, genuinely, why would I ever have expected anything else.
...And now, in the middle of a deadly serious investigation with everyone's lives on the line and the school being reduced to rubble around them, we have Shuichi going "b-but I can't go in the girls' bathroom!!" and Maki of all people getting comically suspicious about why he was in there, because of course we do. Sigh. (Shoehorned-in sitcom nonsense aside, I wonder if there's also a cultural difference at play here? My Japanese class had a really interesting conversation about gendered spaces a few weeks back—our teacher seemed honestly shocked it was normal in so many countries for a man to enter a women's jewelry store under any circumstances, even to accompany or shop for a woman.)
Oh for god's sake, why can I not have Keebo stay around for a SINGLE GODDAMN SECOND? I'll wait! He can come to the elevator with us, damn it!
—oh god damn it. The antenna is back. Take it OFF!
DDDDDD:
This is genuinely really upsetting. D: I give the writers serious points for making it horribly upsetting to see my friend give up on his completely idiotic plan to get us all killed for no actual benefit whatsoever just on principle. That... may actually be a completely new one? I am feeling sincere emotional distress that a fictional character has stopped behaving in an utterly, implausibly irrational and counterproductive manner for the convenience of the plot!
I. I actually kind of need a moment here. I'm a little blown away.
These Keebo CGs are reminding me that he's really cute and then I'm upset again.
Of course the tiny mobile cameras are actually tiny winged bears carrying cameras. They couldn't just be cameras. I can't believe I was ever so foolish as to even entertain such a concept. (Nanokuma is a good pun, incidentally.)
Himiko is so good ♥
oh god, the Monokubs are participating in the trial???
GIVE ME THAT
Oh, right, I'd better check what my lie bullets are before I start the trial. ...Hang on, I need to try to predict them before I look:
Two Mysterious Messages → One Unremarkable Message
Motherkuma → Fatherkuma
Bugvac → whatever that rainbow ray gun blueprint of Kokichi's was called
Survivor's Perk Monopad → Victim's Perk Monopad
Shot Put Ball with Pink Fiber → Shot Put Ball with Blue Fiber
allegations that it's pretty obviously going to be something like "Clean Shot Put Ball" are heresy that I will not hear of
Clues to the Mastermind → Clues to Guess Who?
Rantaro's Video Message → Rantaro's Snapchat Message
Killing Game → School Mode
History of Hope's Peak → Future of Despair Valley
Final Picture of Rantaro → Rantaro's Baby Pictures
Flashback Light Settings → Blackout Light Settings
...Okay, that's probably enough of that.
Killing Game - Killing Game Lie. ...Mine was better.
Gofer Project Participant List - Gofer Project Reject List. This one is hilarious, though. I want to see the reject list.
Final Picture of Rantaro - Picture of Rantaro's Corpse. Mine was definitely better.
...And "Victim's Perk Monopad" was one of the ones I was joking about, actually, but okay!
This was where I stopped playing for the night. And, uh...
(In my own half-hearted defense, I have a bizarrely consistent tendency in stories like this to overlook the fact that this specific mystery even exists. Like, I don't think I have ever once even remembered to try speculating on "which if any of the main cast is secretly the mastermind", even when it's a question explicitly raised in the text? I have no idea why I have such a weirdly specific blind spot. Maybe this will be the experience that finally cures me of it.)
This trial is brought to you by the fact that I only just realized you can move the camera during trial cutscenes.
I could give the right answers, or I could just choose every answer stupid enough to amuse me instead. (Shuichi doesn't even say this one out loud when you choose it, though! Why do you ruin all my fun, Shuichi.)
Shuichi: "But after I learned that [Rantaro] was the Ultimate Survivor, I deduced his objective."
"And by 'deduced', I mean I read the part of his message where he explicitly stated it."
Okay, the Nonstop Debate phase being unprecedentedly flooded with white noise because of the Monokubs' incessant chatter is genuinely funny.
Ahahaha oh my god. Okay, this is honestly really funny. This feels like the first time in the game the intended joke of the Monokubs' existence has really landed (as opposed to the joke being evident but the Monokubs being too legitimately irritating for it to matter), and as much as it doesn't improve their presence in the rest of the game, I'm very happy about it right now.
Hey, game. The thing where letter cubes in Psyche Taxi can now move vertically? Don't do that thing. Thanks.
I'm deeply offended that there's no alternate option to answer "Kaede was the mastermind all along!" in this debate with "no, it was Kaede's twin sister". If the relevant evidence bullet had been available this round I would absolutely have tried it, health penalty be damned.
Shuichi: "...I won't forgive them. I'll never forgive them for breaking the rules and killing Kaede."
I, uh... I'm not sure "breaking the rules" belongs in that sentence, Shuichi. And also I don't think making the reveal of the mastermind's cheating into a heart-rending pathos moment is going to make the audience like the show less...
(Real talk for a moment—as much as I make fun of the characters' misconceptions re: audience reactions, it's actually a reasonable and understandable conclusion to draw from what they know. Just one that I find endlessly funny. Kokichi/Shuichi/everyone who's considered this line of thought seems to conceptualize their situation as being unwilling contestants on a game show, where the competition itself and thus the appearance of fairness is the whole point. Whereas as far as I can tell from the foreshadowing so far, they're characters in a work of fiction—which makes the mastermind's cheating just another cruel plot point, not a betrayal of the audience. Kokichi's conclusion in general, that ruining the show's entertainment value would force the creators to end it, was a smart one; he just unknowingly misunderstood the genre entirely.)
Ah, a nice, concise list of Kaede's three whole character traits as far as the writers are concerned. :) Too good for this world, too pure, and too dead—to motivate Shuichi, of course.
Tsumugi: "This killing game was influenced a lot by the past one, right?"
I'm giggling at the white noise this round consisting entirely of the Monokubs having a completely separate panicked conversation in the background.
Aren't we all Junko Enoshima, in a way? ...No, wait, that's DR2 I'm thinking of.
Also, thanks to the pose, I can't help but read this line in the sense of look, behind you!! "Well, Tsumugi... do you have anything to say in your own defense?" "I... um... uh... LOOK OUT, JUNKO ENOSHIMA IS STANDING RIGHT THERE!!!"
Ahahahaha oh my god. Oh my god. AMAZING. Ahahaha wow ♥
(It's unfortunate that this legitimately beautiful scene loses a great deal of its punch to the fact that the writers have spent the entire game being as sincerely, shamelessly formula as possible. But thinking that satirizing something means "doing that thing completely straightforwardly and then commenting on the fact that it's bad" is pretty much a DR trademark, so hey.)
hahahahahahahahaha
I love that it's explicit canon that over the course of 49 unseen sequels, Junko has been the mastermind every. single. time.
Junko: "Really, I'm gonna laugh! Ahahahahahahahaha!"
That is a lovely laugh, I'll give her that!
"Honestly, it's surprising. Considering your track record, I would have thought you'd rather pretend to be your own sibling."
("I'm not related to Junko Enoshima but I wish I was because she's a major fucking hottie" —official statement from Tsumugi Shirogane)
—No, wait, wait. She should pretend to have been Kaede's twin sister all along!! She should have done that! She even had super prominent sexual tension with Kaede in the prologue and chapter 1; revealing herself to be her sister five chapters later would have been exactly her style!
At this point Discord chat got into the discussion of how old Tsumugi actually is. The answer is clearly that Tsumugi is old enough to have been a Danganronpa fan since 52 seasons ago and exclusively make references to 2000s-and-earlier media, and she spends her time lovingly crafting incestuous serial killer backstories to implant into overinvested teenage fans' brains. And also lovingly crafting incest subplots for her irritating and universally audience-reviled new mascot characters. And also lovingly crafting bonus non-canon incest fantasies featuring another brainwashed teenager as her onii-chan.
Tsumugi Shirogane is a very cool person. How do you do, fellow kids?
I'm getting more annoyed than I probably should at this "point out the discrepancies in our memories of Hope's Peak" thing, because of the two I've pointed out so far, both are things I considered back when Shuichi first found the book, only to dismiss because they sounded like unsatisfyingly nitpicky wording discrepancies that could easily be interpreted in a non-contradictory fashion. I should probably have expected this, admittedly.
...Good lord, either this translation or this writing is sloppy. (My guess is probably translation, since this seems like an easy detail to miss in editing and a kind of weird one to make if you know what it means while writing it, but I could imagine it being introduced in the initial writing process too.) Here's the third contradiction in everyone's memories:
No one ever said this in the cutscene where Shuichi first noticed the contradiction. I know because when I first got the history book, I scoured the backlog of the whole scene looking for this exact statement, since the book's sudden nonsequitur into "Hope's Peak only accepts students through scouting, never applications" was very obviously only there to be a point of contradiction. It's never said in that conversation; instead, Maki explicitly says that they were scouted for Hope's Peak, and Shuichi's reaction is to think I knew it, there's a clear contradiction there.
It's not that big a deal practically speaking, but I'm kind of amazed at errors this glaring slipping through. I'm, uh, going to take a shot in the dark and say the translators probably weren't given enough time to translate and proofread a game this huge, huh?
... Immediately after I say that, it turns out that the Nonstop Debate where you're supposed to point this out? Also doesn't actually contain the contradiction. The statement you're supposed to shoot: "And with that, recruitment of talented students resumed." Ah, yes, a clearly false statement. Hope's Peak couldn't possibly have started recruiting talented students, because as we all know, they only took students they recruited themselves! Makes sense. I wonder if this is a translation issue, where the term they translated as "recruitment" carried the specific implication of soliciting applications or something? Either way, the more I play this game, the more it looks like they had literally no chance to proofread the minigame text for consistency in its in-game context; it's not the first time a key statement in a Nonstop Debate has said the direct opposite of what the script claims it does. It makes sense that the trial scripts and minigame text would have to be translated separately—they're completely different game modes—but man, they must have been on a ridiculously tight schedule.
(I actually ran across an article about the localization process after beating the game—apparently it was by far the biggest script NISA had ever had to translate, to the point where they had to split it among four separate translator-editor pairs. Yeesh. With a team spread that thin, it feels like kind of a miracle the localization is even as consistent as it is?)
Junko: "Yes, he loved me more than anyone... Like an obsessed fan hiding in the bushes."
"An obsessed fan who tried to impersonate me. And not even just on social media! Ugh, those are the worst." It must be hard being Kokichi's beloved Junko Enoshima.
それも違うよ…
(Look, I get that Kokichi's motive video and the trial were probably translated some time apart and/or by separate people entirely, but—the relevant part of the video gets flashed back to word-for-word right before this line! The more of this I play, the more bad I feel for NISA's localization team.)
The best thing I'm realizing as I play through this trial is that it looks like the game's big meta twist has been an intentional part of the plot in-universe all along; Tsumugi and Monokuma are clearly totally prepared for and delighting in the reveal! Which, honestly, of course it was. Of course ultimate old-school Danganronpa fan Tsumugi Shirogane sat down to write her script and went, "Ooh, you know what's an amazing twist that would just blow our viewers' minds? METAFICTION! That's a timeless classic that never, ever gets old!"
Junko: "Yeah, who knows? My plans for mankind's last killing game kinda just fell apart."
The important part here is that as far as I'm concerned, my initial assumption that the writers were totally winging the entire backstory mystery has been confirmed, and I'm very happy about it.
AHAHAHAHAHA OF COURSE, WE'RE DOING THIS. STRAP IN, FOLKS
A friend was quick to point out that the entire English cast of V3 is composed, fittingly, of returning VAs from previous DR games. Very cute. This is also actually the first time I've heard most of the English VAs for the first two games, so that's pretty fun. (Holy shit, Togami's English voice is hilarious. It's absolutely perfect for him, oh my god.)
Haha, did they have a "send in your selfies to have them featured on the show!" event? Cute.
THAT'S NOT HOW ROMAN NUMERALS WORK.
Ahaha, all these logos are fantastic.
I will grudgingly admit that this is a really fucking funny joke.
Hi there, audience member with a thing for Shuichi's nose. I'm glad you know what you like?
The answer to the Mind Mine for the organization behind the killing game wasn't the Spike Chunsoft logo. This game is a failure.
Ah, naturally they bring back the intro video to remind you of it. Weird that Tsumugi refers to it as the opening credits, though. Really? It looks so obviously like a trailer. With the context that the meta twist is the intended plot of this season, I could buy most of it being the actual opening credits, but the end is still... very distinctly trailer material, and not very suited to credits at all.
Mm, the way they're talking about the characters' "real" identities sounds like confirmation that they're going for the uninteresting take on the identity issue ("we're real people who have been brainwashed into thinking we're fictional characters", rather than "we're fictional characters who have been brought to life in real people's bodies"). Which is largely what I expected, so I'm not surprised, but that's too bad. (Reading back over this, I'm pleasantly surprised to have been wrong about this point.)
...Let me get this straight.
You're telling me that Danganronpa—the franchise that makes shock twists and genre subversions for their own sake a series trademark—has never once, in the course of 53 seasons, used one of the oldest stock twists in the book.
Sorry, but my suspension of disbelief is permanently broken. 2/10, try again later.
Mikan: "For example...even Kaito's illness was given to him as part of his character."
I'M CHOOSING TO IGNORE THIS LINE FOR THE SAKE OF MY HEADCANON. Kaito was a Make-a-Wish kid who wanted to be in a killing game, and you will never take that away from me.
I also appreciate the revelation that Maki's unfortunate taste in guys was hard-coded into her basic character. I'm so sorry, Maki.
Considering how your character's plotline ended up treated, I can't say that's the wrong call. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (The delivery on this line is incredible, incidentally.)
He said, and died, and then also failed.
Bad end! Okay, sure, game.
I don't like this.
Tsumugi: "You're the audience surrogate."
Hm. So, this is a super cute idea and I really like it—the protagonist, from the perspective of the viewers, has actually been someone else this whole time! You just don't realize it because you're seeing everything from Shuichi's perspective. It's delightful, and I love it as the payoff to "why does this random supporting character just happens to have an ahoge?" At the same time... it feels a bit weakened by the nature of Keebo's character? Obviously I love Keebo, but he's very far on the "90% of my personality is my wacky anime character quirk" end of the characterization spectrum, which makes it hard to imagine him actually being the viewpoint character for a whole game. (Doubly so in a series that's been emphasized as invariably formula in-universe.) And while I'd love the idea of "the standard protagonist character actually looks really weird from an outside perpsective" (see, e.g., how every POV character in Ace Attorney feels like they're the only normal one!), that doesn't really map onto Keebo's brand of quirkiness. He does have a very normal and straightforwardly heroic personality underneath the wackiness, but it's about the least prominent part of his character.
Anyway. Really interesting subject, in any case!
At this point I suddenly remembered a comment I'd made in a completely unrelated conversation nearly a year ago:
Fucking hell.
Kazuichi: "For this season of Danganronpa, the main gimmick is audience participation!"
You know, that does fit well with the metafiction gimmick, I'll at least give you that. If nothing else, Tsumugi did choose an over-the-top stock twist that matched the other aspects of the season!
Aoi: "But that's not your only role... You're also the audience's camera."
I can't believe the audience got to watch Shuichi and Keebo.... holding hands.
nooooooo
let him go
Holy shit, this Mass Panic Debate. @_@ That's a huge difficulty spike, jeez! (Eventually beat it after like seven loops, at least two of which I fast-forwarded through because I messed up right near the start. I think if it was toned down just a bit, it might hit the right note of "challenging but rewarding", but as is it strays into outright frustrating for me.)
The audience member in the background with a last-minute mastermind Shuichi theory is my favorite. Them, and the one whose only comment is He's not wearing a hat anymore.
Ah, there we go! This trial so far has felt like it was falling into the standard metafiction trap of "throw out a bunch of provocative-sounding but shallow commentary that breaks down into thematic incoherence if examined from both the in- and out-of-universe perspectives", but this here is a legitimate and interesting angle. I'm excited to see where they go with this—
...okay, or maybe we're just going straight back to "thematically incoherent". I guess the point being made here is that...finding meaning and inspiration in fiction where people fight through terrible hardships...means condoning cruelty against fictional characters? Or wait, maybe it's more abstract than that... like, maybe fans are forcing Kodaka to remain pigeonholed as the writer of DR against his wishes by...uh, continuing to get something genuinely personally meaningful out of the series? ...This might just be too advanced for me.
I'm glad this audience member knows what they like. (Even if it's a bit weird to say it while his eyes are closed.)
...Shuichi, that is literally the most cliché possible ending you could give them. It's. If I were the audience, I would legitimately be surprised if this didn't happen! You're in an impossibly hopeless situation, forced by the mastermind to make a cruel choice between two equally miserable endings, everyone's spirits have been all but completely crushed... I genuinely can't imagine what else you could do but take a brave, defiant stand against the mastermind and deny the narrative she's imposed on you. Like, I understand how this sort of tactic could pull the rug from under a real-life mastermind's feet, but it's the opposite of radical for a work of fiction.
The POV jumping in this segment is a really nice touch.
*shoots consent point "That would be a meaningless death." even though it's not the intended answer, because come on, Shuichi, your entire plan is to make the ending an unsatisfying anticlimax, at least let me TRY to make it work!*
Keebo: "You don't believe in the power of fiction?"
Ah, back to a more solid theme again! I... don't really expect this to last long enough to establish itself, given the track record so far, but I can always hope.
This whole "refuse to play the minigames" segment is delightful. After all this time, the day is saved by going "FUCK YOU, I'M NEVER PLAYING HANGMAN'S GAMBIT AGAIN!" I'm so glad.
Look, I know I say "This is my new favorite screenshot" a lot, but this time it really is.
Well. I mean—I'm glad you got that off your chest, Kodaka! Thank you for sharing your vent fic about the stifling expectations placed on creators. Your... rather remarkably incest-laden vent fic.
This is the best compliment Shuichi has ever received in his life.
aaauuugh, that's the first time I've lost an Argument Armament. I would be destroying this if I had a controller, damn it! >:(
(nailed it with like half my health remaining on the second try despite only remembering where the D key was 50% of the times I had to press it, so there)
I'm amused that even the fictional audience, with their unconditional and undying love for endless repetition of the DR formula, think the protagonist switch was obnoxious as hell.
And that's the trial clear! The last one, wow. ... I'm disappointed the game doesn't score you on the minigames you skipped.
Wow that's a lot of postgame trophies. Four presents, plus a theme? Jeez.
—oh, whoa, sudden post-title screen scene! Cute. Very, very cute, game.
Well, I'm glad they all seem to be in good spirits!
(Jeez, though, is that seriously how they're ending Keebo's arc? Did I miss something, or did the writers just... forget he ever existed as a character in any capacity beyond "stand-in for the audience" by the time they got to the vote? That seems kind of fucked up, especially while everyone else is making empowering speeches about how they're real and their choices matter even if they were made to be fictional characters.)
That final epilogue scene was lovely and heartfelt. From the tone of the closing narration, I get the impression that was the thematic note the writers wanted to hit with the ending all along; I'm glad they at least were able to land it for that last scene.
And... that's the game! This has been a ton of fun to play; I'm really glad I did.And even more fun to chat people's ears off about nonstop.
Before I end this, though... I've got a whole postgame dating sim unlocked now. And I'm pretty sure I owe it to![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
rionaleonhart to finally get Kaito's love hotel scene, so!
The Salmon Team title screen is incredible. A still screenshot wouldn't even remotely do it justice. Oh my god. (The ridiculously cheery new game interface, overlaid on top of the exact same graphics, is also great.)
I have to say, I think the genre change to "reality dating show" is a step in the right direction for this series! Which is a sentence you don't hear every day.
A great time, according to Kaito:
Shuichi: Please talk about your damn feelings for once.
Kaito: Awww. My feelings are that I'm happy you care!
Shuichi: ...Okay, but like, seriously—
Kaito: Don't worry, it's nothing! :D
I just suggested watching a documentary about aliens with Kaito. He was very unhappy. ...Because it reminded him of the day he first learned it wasn't real and how crushed he was.
Oh hey, I rolled Himiko in the love hotel!
"Shuichi...is your mana attuned properly for the ceremony?" ...Himiko, please tell me your fantasy doesn't take place in the Nasuverse.
Oh my god.
Himiko is amazing.
...Well, I could choose the option Kaito will actually like. Or, I could choose the option Shuichi is obviously actually thinking but won't say unless I make him. (I chose the latter, only for Kaito to make it weird. Seriously, Kaito? Looking at porn together is completely normal heterosexual friend activity, but the moment clothes come off you chicken out?)
Rantaro love hotel scene! This... appears to be the inverse of Tsumugi's scene? (She must have been so disappointed he was the first victim.)
What a wonderful dream, Shuichi thinks as he wakes up. Of course Shuichi's favorite fantasy is the one where someone is proud of him and ruffles his hair affectionately.
And now Angie's scene, apparently! Shuichi's voice acting, oh my god. I can't stop laughing. How much fun was the VA having there?
I couldn't resist trying the Death Flag gift on Rantaro. Turns out he has a unique response to it and everything! :D Naturally I had to go around and test it on everyone else afterwards. Several people give you a generic "disliked present" response; some other responses I got looked like they might be specific to the Death Flag, but I'm not positive. (Kokichi, of course, gives a generic favorite present response instead.)
I had enough time left over after maxing Kaito to do some new free times. I CAN'T BELIEVE RANTARO LOST ALL TWELVE SISTERS. Losing one would be a tragedy, but twelve just seems like carelessness.
Finally got Kaito's love hotel scene! Literally second-to-last of them all. And... wow, that was incredibly sweet. Like, I was expecting it to be something along those lines, but. I didn't expect just how much more straight-up romantic in tone it would be compared to nearly all the other ones I've seen? Definitely worth the wait!
...And then there's his Dating Mode ending. Man. You can tell he's the canon love interest when he's the one who gets the colored text. (Of course the detail Shuichi focuses on in his happily ever after with Kaito is reassuring himself he'll never, ever have to directly communicate with him about either of their feelings. Oh dear.)
And with that, I think I'm done for real! This has been a ton of fun. Thanks to everyone who's listened to me babble excitedly about this game for the past several months! :D (And hey, if anyone has any fanwork recs or other things I should check out now that I'm safe from spoilers, let me know!)
Time to mess around in the postgame for a million years!And I still need to finish that wolfpupy post...
A whole lot of words of liveblogging under the cut, as usual.
... Well, that's certainly a chapter intro.
Uh. 3D Animated Keebo, you doing okay there? It doesn't look like you're doing very okay. (See, Shuichi, I knew nothing good could come of your new crush!)
Jesus, don't SAY THINGS LIKE THAT, Keebo! For god's sake!
Ah yes, everyone's favorite game—Despair 3: Goodbye Danganronpa. ...Wait.
"Then someone else inside this academy besides Kokichi is a Remnant of Despair?" God, this never gets old. :') I mean, in retrospect it makes sense they'd draw that conclusion! But I just can't get over everyone figuring out Kokichi's whole pretend-to-be-the-mastermind plot, and thus concluding that... he just happened to be a Remnant of Despair, coincidentally, just an innocent one who was minding his own business and just happened to get caught up in the killing game like everyone else. Unlike the other Remnant of Despair hiding away in the academy who really is the mastermind!
I love the way he phrases this. Like hope is a key item they need to remember to find before they finish the game in order to get the true ending.
Wow, this really is a collectible quest. There's a total of 50 hope and 50 despair hidden in the academy, and you have to find at least half of each to get a good ending. You only get the final true ending epilogue that actually explains the plot if you get them all. Happy pixel-hunting, kids!
anonymouse:
Maki: Shuichi what are you doing.
Shuichi: *Checking between some couch cushions* Looking for hope.
Maki: ...Hope?
Shuichi: I coulda sworn I just left it on that table, but now I can't find it anywhere!
Himiko: I found it!
Shuichi: How????
Himiko: Maaaagic.
Keltena:
I don't know what's more beautiful
That dialogue on its own
Or the fact that it's basically a totally unchanged recreation of Shuichi's dialogue while searching for the secret of the outside world
(On a side note, I am so mad Keebo's been written out of the party for this investigation. Give him back, you jerks! Like, I'm not even complaining about the death flags; I just want him to be around hanging with me and having lines!)
... Wait. They're kidding, right? This isn't actually timed in any meaningful way, is it? (Naturally I received quick confirmation that the time limit is real. This is such an incomprehensibly dumb design choice for the genre that my reaction has looped all the way around to a sort of bewildered awe.)
Whoa, Kokichi's lab?? ...This is a suitably chuuni lab for him. I'm glad.
Ah, and now Shuichi is finally beginning to catch on to the issue with the "Remnant of Despair" thing. Keep going, Shuichi, you'll get there.
Shuichi: (There are also wigs and glasses, for disguises I imagine. But they seem... comical.)
Shuichi: (It feels as if this entire room is just an elaborate prank.)
Yeah, that is strange. I mean, both of those things are obviously completely out of character for Kokichi, who has never been anything but entirely serious in his life! It's like the mastermind doesn't know him at all.
I hate that they take away your minimap for the whole investigation. I actually needed that, game! This is discrimination against people with no sense of direction or attention span.
I have to say I'm feeling, uh... torn on this whole Keebo-destroying-the-school thing. Because on the one hand, Keebo having his free will at last makes me indescribably happy and there's very little I wouldn't accept for that purpose; but on the other, this is still an objectively terrible choice under any circumstances and frankly painful to watch. Like, look, Keebo. I completely understand and support your desire to defy robot stereotypes, but I think there's a good reason most newly un-brainwashed robots stop striving to eradicate evil at any cost to innocent life, instead of suddenly starting!
On the bright side, hey—Keebo is definitely capable of fulfilling your fantasy of being carried to bed now, Shuichi. :v You know, assuming you both survive and he doesn't kill you. Since you're probably not into the being killed part. (Somebody asked how I could be sure of that. I mean, he seemed pretty clearly turned off by all of Kokichi's attempts to flirt along those lines!)
Shuichi doesn't think now's a good time to go swimming. BORING. Monokuma's distracted; it's the perfect time for an illegal nighttime dip!
He also says this every time I try to go off the plotted line:
Shuichi, no! You already have limited time to collect all 99 hope and despair; there's no way you can go for the truth and the lies in the same run!
anonymouse:
Maki: Himiko just found the Hope, what are you doing now.
Shuichi: I was carrying my truth and my lies around but I tripped and fell over and now they're all spilled on the ground!
Maki: What does that even mean.
Shuichi: Can you help me separate them?
Kokichi's Ghost: Nah, just leave 'em mixed up, it makes it more fun!
...Kokichi doesn't clean his room much, does he.
—IS THAT RANTARO'S WAX EFFIGY IN THE CORNER
OH MY GOD
Holy shit. This. This is incredible. No one else's wax effigy, either. Why was no one else's good enough?
And the conspiracy whiteboard, omg. Kokichi's art is beautiful. I'm squinting very hard trying to read this (since the game won't let me examine it, what is this bullshit)...
The Monokubs are just labeled "Annoying", lol.
...Shuichi gets "Trustworthy?", huh? I guess we did already know Kokichi had it bad.
Keebo is "Weird"? What a jerk.
Pretty minimal for a conspiracy whiteboard, sadly; it makes sense Kokichi wouldn't write out most of his thoughts where the mastermind could see them, but I still want to see a full Kokichi conspiracy board with string and everything.
...Kokichi, what the heck is that on your bed. Is Kokichi a furry. —oh wait it's a dumb name joke. 王 馬. ha ha.
Oh my god.
Monokuma: "Anyway, Kokichi had ten loyal goons working for him."
"One of whom couldn't make it for this photoshoot, but look, don't worry about that." (I wonder if they meant "ten members including him" and accidentally worded it, or translated it, differently?)
"Except, again, for the tenth one. They couldn't make it to our kidnapping either." I'm going to headcanon that the tenth member is in all their group photos, they're just always standing behind someone.
In any event, this is honestly incredibly cute. I guess my "school club" theory wasn't quite right, but this hits basically all the points I liked about it while being even better so that's more than okay with me. I'm so glad Kokichi canonically uses the :o) clownface emoticons.
Naturally Kokichi's idea of how to leave a useful posthumous message for everyone is to send them on a riddle-filled scavenger hunt. Just like any other day playing games with your friends, huh? (Side note, I'm more charmed by his goofy scrawl handwriting than I should be.) I'm trying to figure out what to do with the two messages, but no luck with anything I've tried so far. If it's solvable before it comes up in the plot, I'll just have to figure it out later.
Keebo! ♥ Come break shit for us, Keebo! And also please hang out with us, damn it! ...Jeez, you could at least kiss him before he flies off again, Shuichi. Come on. I know I said that was a bad idea before, but frankly, by this point I think he's either equally safe or equally fucked regardless of what else you do
He gives me a gun, but no FRIENDSHIP POWER? I'm upset.
oh my god the crash through the stained glass windows. I'm laughing so hard. Keebo is ridiculous and I love him. (I had to replay this part later when I ran out of time, so here's a gif of Keebo in all his unnecessarily extra glory:)
I'm never going to get over how bizarre Suddenly 3D Keebo looks in this game. I'm glad he's living his best (???) life, though.
Ah, there it is! Where did Kokichi learn about that?
Shuichi: "It says something about a hint somewhere in the academy..."
...huh. Did Kokichi just find the mysterious writing with no context for it, and hijack it to make it into his own fake foreshadowing? That's so good.
(On a side note, I bet localizing that message took a bit of creativity. Since I assume in Japanese the 'horse' would just have been 馬, which is much simpler to fill in a whole sentence around? Or I guess うま at most, if it was in kana?)
Rantaro again at last! ...I've gotta say, it never stops being a bit distracting just how thoroughly Johnny Yong Bosch he is. Like, the acting's perfectly good! I appreciate Ultimate Guy Cecil, it's just... very noticeable. (A friend immediately linked me this in response. I have good friends.)
His title is Ultimate Survivor. Ahahahaha, that's beautiful. Of course it is. So he was just given access to the secret library right off the bat, huh?
Okay, game, watching the full Flashback Light cutscene has gotten just a little old by now.
Shuichi: (What are lies...what is the truth...?)
It's really quite simple, Shuichi. Lies are despair; the truth is hope. And also vice versa. And I think they're also called truth and ideals? Don't think too hard about it, you'll just get a headache.
HELL WILL FREEZE OVER LONG BEFORE I STOP EXAMINING EVERYTHING Screw you, I'm not going to play an adventure game WRONG just because you punish me for it!! (Amusingly, I was literally right before the next checkpoint when my timer ran out. Ah well.)
I'm so glad Keebo is killing off all the Monokubs again. The hero we need.
Aww, flashback to everyone's forgotten promise to be friends! I can't believe this means we've been failing to fulfill not just one but two of Kaede's wishes this whole time, and we had no idea! I can't believe the girl Shuichi had a crush on was actually Kaede's non-evil twin sister all along, too.
Hey, step off, Tsumugi, you had your moment. I need Keebo as my last investigation partner. I am going to revolt if I don't get to hang with Keebo more before the trial.
Monokid runs from you the second time you run into him. Excellent.
Oh, wow, Miu also made a thing to catch the bugs? ...You know, I'd never wondered until now whether "bug" has the double meaning of both "insect" and "hidden surveillance device" in Japanese too. I know it's used for the "computer bug" meaning, but beyond that I have no idea. Anyway, let's catch some bugs!
...No bugs? Boring. Come on, pay attention to us, viewers! I bet they think the big flashy robot battle is more exciting than we are. :| That's not even the right genre! It's not even the right art style!!
Holy shit, time passes in the menu? My timer was close to done when I opened it and got up to help in the kitchen, but it definitely wasn't there yet, and the game over triggered as soon as I closed it. Wow.
Keebo: "I would join you, but I need to hold off the Exisals here..."
NO, DON'T DO THIS TO ME. WHY DO YOU HATE KEEBO GETTING SCREENTIME, WRITERS. come with meeeee ;_;
It's pretty cool getting to actually see how the Flashback Lights are programmed! I'm predictably disappointed I can't browse through the descriptions of all the other options, though. Let me see those!
...
...
Of course Tsumugi's the fucking mastermind. Why would I ever have expected anything else. No, genuinely, why would I ever have expected anything else.
...And now, in the middle of a deadly serious investigation with everyone's lives on the line and the school being reduced to rubble around them, we have Shuichi going "b-but I can't go in the girls' bathroom!!" and Maki of all people getting comically suspicious about why he was in there, because of course we do. Sigh. (Shoehorned-in sitcom nonsense aside, I wonder if there's also a cultural difference at play here? My Japanese class had a really interesting conversation about gendered spaces a few weeks back—our teacher seemed honestly shocked it was normal in so many countries for a man to enter a women's jewelry store under any circumstances, even to accompany or shop for a woman.)
Oh for god's sake, why can I not have Keebo stay around for a SINGLE GODDAMN SECOND? I'll wait! He can come to the elevator with us, damn it!
—oh god damn it. The antenna is back. Take it OFF!
DDDDDD:
This is genuinely really upsetting. D: I give the writers serious points for making it horribly upsetting to see my friend give up on his completely idiotic plan to get us all killed for no actual benefit whatsoever just on principle. That... may actually be a completely new one? I am feeling sincere emotional distress that a fictional character has stopped behaving in an utterly, implausibly irrational and counterproductive manner for the convenience of the plot!
I. I actually kind of need a moment here. I'm a little blown away.
These Keebo CGs are reminding me that he's really cute and then I'm upset again.
Of course the tiny mobile cameras are actually tiny winged bears carrying cameras. They couldn't just be cameras. I can't believe I was ever so foolish as to even entertain such a concept. (Nanokuma is a good pun, incidentally.)
Himiko is so good ♥
oh god, the Monokubs are participating in the trial???
GIVE ME THAT
Oh, right, I'd better check what my lie bullets are before I start the trial. ...Hang on, I need to try to predict them before I look:
Two Mysterious Messages → One Unremarkable Message
Motherkuma → Fatherkuma
Bugvac → whatever that rainbow ray gun blueprint of Kokichi's was called
Survivor's Perk Monopad → Victim's Perk Monopad
Shot Put Ball with Pink Fiber → Shot Put Ball with Blue Fiber
Clues to the Mastermind → Clues to Guess Who?
Rantaro's Video Message → Rantaro's Snapchat Message
Killing Game → School Mode
History of Hope's Peak → Future of Despair Valley
Final Picture of Rantaro → Rantaro's Baby Pictures
Flashback Light Settings → Blackout Light Settings
...Okay, that's probably enough of that.
Killing Game - Killing Game Lie. ...Mine was better.
Gofer Project Participant List - Gofer Project Reject List. This one is hilarious, though. I want to see the reject list.
Final Picture of Rantaro - Picture of Rantaro's Corpse. Mine was definitely better.
...And "Victim's Perk Monopad" was one of the ones I was joking about, actually, but okay!
This was where I stopped playing for the night. And, uh...
Keltena:
hi, I'm not actually here right now because I need to go get breakfast and then do other stuff, but I needed to come online quickly just to say
tsumugi has an incest kink. of course she's the fucking mastermind.
Keltena:
God, I'm still shaking my head at myself. She's the Ultimate Cosplayer. We are literally fictional characters. This really should have been obvious.
(In my own half-hearted defense, I have a bizarrely consistent tendency in stories like this to overlook the fact that this specific mystery even exists. Like, I don't think I have ever once even remembered to try speculating on "which if any of the main cast is secretly the mastermind", even when it's a question explicitly raised in the text? I have no idea why I have such a weirdly specific blind spot. Maybe this will be the experience that finally cures me of it.)
This trial is brought to you by the fact that I only just realized you can move the camera during trial cutscenes.
I could give the right answers, or I could just choose every answer stupid enough to amuse me instead. (Shuichi doesn't even say this one out loud when you choose it, though! Why do you ruin all my fun, Shuichi.)
Shuichi: "But after I learned that [Rantaro] was the Ultimate Survivor, I deduced his objective."
"And by 'deduced', I mean I read the part of his message where he explicitly stated it."
Okay, the Nonstop Debate phase being unprecedentedly flooded with white noise because of the Monokubs' incessant chatter is genuinely funny.
Ahahaha oh my god. Okay, this is honestly really funny. This feels like the first time in the game the intended joke of the Monokubs' existence has really landed (as opposed to the joke being evident but the Monokubs being too legitimately irritating for it to matter), and as much as it doesn't improve their presence in the rest of the game, I'm very happy about it right now.
Hey, game. The thing where letter cubes in Psyche Taxi can now move vertically? Don't do that thing. Thanks.
I'm deeply offended that there's no alternate option to answer "Kaede was the mastermind all along!" in this debate with "no, it was Kaede's twin sister". If the relevant evidence bullet had been available this round I would absolutely have tried it, health penalty be damned.
its all fun and games until its not that anymore
— wolf pupy (@wolfpupy) August 4, 2015
Shuichi: "...I won't forgive them. I'll never forgive them for breaking the rules and killing Kaede."
I, uh... I'm not sure "breaking the rules" belongs in that sentence, Shuichi. And also I don't think making the reveal of the mastermind's cheating into a heart-rending pathos moment is going to make the audience like the show less...
(Real talk for a moment—as much as I make fun of the characters' misconceptions re: audience reactions, it's actually a reasonable and understandable conclusion to draw from what they know. Just one that I find endlessly funny. Kokichi/Shuichi/everyone who's considered this line of thought seems to conceptualize their situation as being unwilling contestants on a game show, where the competition itself and thus the appearance of fairness is the whole point. Whereas as far as I can tell from the foreshadowing so far, they're characters in a work of fiction—which makes the mastermind's cheating just another cruel plot point, not a betrayal of the audience. Kokichi's conclusion in general, that ruining the show's entertainment value would force the creators to end it, was a smart one; he just unknowingly misunderstood the genre entirely.)
Ah, a nice, concise list of Kaede's three whole character traits as far as the writers are concerned. :) Too good for this world, too pure, and too dead—to motivate Shuichi, of course.
Tsumugi: "This killing game was influenced a lot by the past one, right?"
I'm giggling at the white noise this round consisting entirely of the Monokubs having a completely separate panicked conversation in the background.
Aren't we all Junko Enoshima, in a way? ...No, wait, that's DR2 I'm thinking of.
Also, thanks to the pose, I can't help but read this line in the sense of look, behind you!! "Well, Tsumugi... do you have anything to say in your own defense?" "I... um... uh... LOOK OUT, JUNKO ENOSHIMA IS STANDING RIGHT THERE!!!"
Ahahahaha oh my god. Oh my god. AMAZING. Ahahaha wow ♥
(It's unfortunate that this legitimately beautiful scene loses a great deal of its punch to the fact that the writers have spent the entire game being as sincerely, shamelessly formula as possible. But thinking that satirizing something means "doing that thing completely straightforwardly and then commenting on the fact that it's bad" is pretty much a DR trademark, so hey.)
hahahahahahahahaha
I love that it's explicit canon that over the course of 49 unseen sequels, Junko has been the mastermind every. single. time.
Jade:
look closely at her eyes
Keltena:
... hahaha for fuck's sake
Jade:
tsumugi wtf kind of contacts are those anyway
Keltena:
very futuristic ones
Madeline:
special danganronpa v3 edition contacts
buy now for a limited time
only $9.99
Spike Chunsoft ®
Keltena:
please give me the AU where her eyes say Spike Chunsoft® instead
that would be even funnier
Junko: "Really, I'm gonna laugh! Ahahahahahahahaha!"
That is a lovely laugh, I'll give her that!
"Honestly, it's surprising. Considering your track record, I would have thought you'd rather pretend to be your own sibling."
("I'm not related to Junko Enoshima but I wish I was because she's a major fucking hottie" —official statement from Tsumugi Shirogane)
—No, wait, wait. She should pretend to have been Kaede's twin sister all along!! She should have done that! She even had super prominent sexual tension with Kaede in the prologue and chapter 1; revealing herself to be her sister five chapters later would have been exactly her style!
At this point Discord chat got into the discussion of how old Tsumugi actually is. The answer is clearly that Tsumugi is old enough to have been a Danganronpa fan since 52 seasons ago and exclusively make references to 2000s-and-earlier media, and she spends her time lovingly crafting incestuous serial killer backstories to implant into overinvested teenage fans' brains. And also lovingly crafting incest subplots for her irritating and universally audience-reviled new mascot characters. And also lovingly crafting bonus non-canon incest fantasies featuring another brainwashed teenager as her onii-chan.
Tsumugi Shirogane is a very cool person. How do you do, fellow kids?
I'm getting more annoyed than I probably should at this "point out the discrepancies in our memories of Hope's Peak" thing, because of the two I've pointed out so far, both are things I considered back when Shuichi first found the book, only to dismiss because they sounded like unsatisfyingly nitpicky wording discrepancies that could easily be interpreted in a non-contradictory fashion. I should probably have expected this, admittedly.
...Good lord, either this translation or this writing is sloppy. (My guess is probably translation, since this seems like an easy detail to miss in editing and a kind of weird one to make if you know what it means while writing it, but I could imagine it being introduced in the initial writing process too.) Here's the third contradiction in everyone's memories:
No one ever said this in the cutscene where Shuichi first noticed the contradiction. I know because when I first got the history book, I scoured the backlog of the whole scene looking for this exact statement, since the book's sudden nonsequitur into "Hope's Peak only accepts students through scouting, never applications" was very obviously only there to be a point of contradiction. It's never said in that conversation; instead, Maki explicitly says that they were scouted for Hope's Peak, and Shuichi's reaction is to think I knew it, there's a clear contradiction there.
It's not that big a deal practically speaking, but I'm kind of amazed at errors this glaring slipping through. I'm, uh, going to take a shot in the dark and say the translators probably weren't given enough time to translate and proofread a game this huge, huh?
... Immediately after I say that, it turns out that the Nonstop Debate where you're supposed to point this out? Also doesn't actually contain the contradiction. The statement you're supposed to shoot: "And with that, recruitment of talented students resumed." Ah, yes, a clearly false statement. Hope's Peak couldn't possibly have started recruiting talented students, because as we all know, they only took students they recruited themselves! Makes sense. I wonder if this is a translation issue, where the term they translated as "recruitment" carried the specific implication of soliciting applications or something? Either way, the more I play this game, the more it looks like they had literally no chance to proofread the minigame text for consistency in its in-game context; it's not the first time a key statement in a Nonstop Debate has said the direct opposite of what the script claims it does. It makes sense that the trial scripts and minigame text would have to be translated separately—they're completely different game modes—but man, they must have been on a ridiculously tight schedule.
(I actually ran across an article about the localization process after beating the game—apparently it was by far the biggest script NISA had ever had to translate, to the point where they had to split it among four separate translator-editor pairs. Yeesh. With a team spread that thin, it feels like kind of a miracle the localization is even as consistent as it is?)
Keltena:
excuse me
I haven't played any further since my last message because I got up for a drink and was relaying the trial so far to my brother
and
THAT'S NOT HOW ROMAN NUMERALS WORK
THAT'S NOT HOW ROMAN NUMERALS WORK
THAT'S NOT HOW ROMAN NUMERALS WORK
THAT'S NOT HOW ROMAN NUMERALS WORK
i'm going to keep playing now, i just
i mentioned the contacts thing to paul
and i
i didn't...realize......until he started cracking up and then pointed it out to me............
that's not how roman numerals work........................
Junko: "Yes, he loved me more than anyone... Like an obsessed fan hiding in the bushes."
"An obsessed fan who tried to impersonate me. And not even just on social media! Ugh, those are the worst." It must be hard being Kokichi's beloved Junko Enoshima.
それも違うよ…
(Look, I get that Kokichi's motive video and the trial were probably translated some time apart and/or by separate people entirely, but—the relevant part of the video gets flashed back to word-for-word right before this line! The more of this I play, the more bad I feel for NISA's localization team.)
The best thing I'm realizing as I play through this trial is that it looks like the game's big meta twist has been an intentional part of the plot in-universe all along; Tsumugi and Monokuma are clearly totally prepared for and delighting in the reveal! Which, honestly, of course it was. Of course ultimate old-school Danganronpa fan Tsumugi Shirogane sat down to write her script and went, "Ooh, you know what's an amazing twist that would just blow our viewers' minds? METAFICTION! That's a timeless classic that never, ever gets old!"
Junko: "Yeah, who knows? My plans for mankind's last killing game kinda just fell apart."
The important part here is that as far as I'm concerned, my initial assumption that the writers were totally winging the entire backstory mystery has been confirmed, and I'm very happy about it.
AHAHAHAHAHA OF COURSE, WE'RE DOING THIS. STRAP IN, FOLKS
A friend was quick to point out that the entire English cast of V3 is composed, fittingly, of returning VAs from previous DR games. Very cute. This is also actually the first time I've heard most of the English VAs for the first two games, so that's pretty fun. (Holy shit, Togami's English voice is hilarious. It's absolutely perfect for him, oh my god.)
Haha, did they have a "send in your selfies to have them featured on the show!" event? Cute.
THAT'S NOT HOW ROMAN NUMERALS WORK.
Ahaha, all these logos are fantastic.
I will grudgingly admit that this is a really fucking funny joke.
Hi there, audience member with a thing for Shuichi's nose. I'm glad you know what you like?
The answer to the Mind Mine for the organization behind the killing game wasn't the Spike Chunsoft logo. This game is a failure.
Ah, naturally they bring back the intro video to remind you of it. Weird that Tsumugi refers to it as the opening credits, though. Really? It looks so obviously like a trailer. With the context that the meta twist is the intended plot of this season, I could buy most of it being the actual opening credits, but the end is still... very distinctly trailer material, and not very suited to credits at all.
Mm, the way they're talking about the characters' "real" identities sounds like confirmation that they're going for the uninteresting take on the identity issue ("we're real people who have been brainwashed into thinking we're fictional characters", rather than "we're fictional characters who have been brought to life in real people's bodies"). Which is largely what I expected, so I'm not surprised, but that's too bad. (Reading back over this, I'm pleasantly surprised to have been wrong about this point.)
...Let me get this straight.
You're telling me that Danganronpa—the franchise that makes shock twists and genre subversions for their own sake a series trademark—has never once, in the course of 53 seasons, used one of the oldest stock twists in the book.
Sorry, but my suspension of disbelief is permanently broken. 2/10, try again later.
Mikan: "For example...even Kaito's illness was given to him as part of his character."
I'M CHOOSING TO IGNORE THIS LINE FOR THE SAKE OF MY HEADCANON. Kaito was a Make-a-Wish kid who wanted to be in a killing game, and you will never take that away from me.
I also appreciate the revelation that Maki's unfortunate taste in guys was hard-coded into her basic character. I'm so sorry, Maki.
Considering how your character's plotline ended up treated, I can't say that's the wrong call. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (The delivery on this line is incredible, incidentally.)
He said, and died, and then also failed.
Bad end! Okay, sure, game.
Keltena:
Jeez, Shuichi, I'm not a licensed therapist.
Keltena:
—OH god damn it
I
I do not talk about hope that much!!
Or ever, actually!
My advice is not that bad, dammit, Keebo!!
Kinu:
It's like Keltena always says, "Hope always prevails!"
I don't like this.
Tsumugi: "You're the audience surrogate."
Hm. So, this is a super cute idea and I really like it—the protagonist, from the perspective of the viewers, has actually been someone else this whole time! You just don't realize it because you're seeing everything from Shuichi's perspective. It's delightful, and I love it as the payoff to "why does this random supporting character just happens to have an ahoge?" At the same time... it feels a bit weakened by the nature of Keebo's character? Obviously I love Keebo, but he's very far on the "90% of my personality is my wacky anime character quirk" end of the characterization spectrum, which makes it hard to imagine him actually being the viewpoint character for a whole game. (Doubly so in a series that's been emphasized as invariably formula in-universe.) And while I'd love the idea of "the standard protagonist character actually looks really weird from an outside perpsective" (see, e.g., how every POV character in Ace Attorney feels like they're the only normal one!), that doesn't really map onto Keebo's brand of quirkiness. He does have a very normal and straightforwardly heroic personality underneath the wackiness, but it's about the least prominent part of his character.
Anyway. Really interesting subject, in any case!
At this point I suddenly remembered a comment I'd made in a completely unrelated conversation nearly a year ago:
Keltena 07/03/2018
... Are you suggesting that ahoges make you controllable by Twitch chat, Benedict
Fucking hell.
Kazuichi: "For this season of Danganronpa, the main gimmick is audience participation!"
You know, that does fit well with the metafiction gimmick, I'll at least give you that. If nothing else, Tsumugi did choose an over-the-top stock twist that matched the other aspects of the season!
Aoi: "But that's not your only role... You're also the audience's camera."
I can't believe the audience got to watch Shuichi and Keebo.... holding hands.
nooooooo
let him go
Holy shit, this Mass Panic Debate. @_@ That's a huge difficulty spike, jeez! (Eventually beat it after like seven loops, at least two of which I fast-forwarded through because I messed up right near the start. I think if it was toned down just a bit, it might hit the right note of "challenging but rewarding", but as is it strays into outright frustrating for me.)
The audience member in the background with a last-minute mastermind Shuichi theory is my favorite. Them, and the one whose only comment is He's not wearing a hat anymore.
Ah, there we go! This trial so far has felt like it was falling into the standard metafiction trap of "throw out a bunch of provocative-sounding but shallow commentary that breaks down into thematic incoherence if examined from both the in- and out-of-universe perspectives", but this here is a legitimate and interesting angle. I'm excited to see where they go with this—
...okay, or maybe we're just going straight back to "thematically incoherent". I guess the point being made here is that...finding meaning and inspiration in fiction where people fight through terrible hardships...means condoning cruelty against fictional characters? Or wait, maybe it's more abstract than that... like, maybe fans are forcing Kodaka to remain pigeonholed as the writer of DR against his wishes by...uh, continuing to get something genuinely personally meaningful out of the series? ...This might just be too advanced for me.
I'm glad this audience member knows what they like. (Even if it's a bit weird to say it while his eyes are closed.)
...Shuichi, that is literally the most cliché possible ending you could give them. It's. If I were the audience, I would legitimately be surprised if this didn't happen! You're in an impossibly hopeless situation, forced by the mastermind to make a cruel choice between two equally miserable endings, everyone's spirits have been all but completely crushed... I genuinely can't imagine what else you could do but take a brave, defiant stand against the mastermind and deny the narrative she's imposed on you. Like, I understand how this sort of tactic could pull the rug from under a real-life mastermind's feet, but it's the opposite of radical for a work of fiction.
The POV jumping in this segment is a really nice touch.
*shoots consent point "That would be a meaningless death." even though it's not the intended answer, because come on, Shuichi, your entire plan is to make the ending an unsatisfying anticlimax, at least let me TRY to make it work!*
Keebo: "You don't believe in the power of fiction?"
Ah, back to a more solid theme again! I... don't really expect this to last long enough to establish itself, given the track record so far, but I can always hope.
This whole "refuse to play the minigames" segment is delightful. After all this time, the day is saved by going "FUCK YOU, I'M NEVER PLAYING HANGMAN'S GAMBIT AGAIN!" I'm so glad.
Look, I know I say "This is my new favorite screenshot" a lot, but this time it really is.
Well. I mean—I'm glad you got that off your chest, Kodaka! Thank you for sharing your vent fic about the stifling expectations placed on creators. Your... rather remarkably incest-laden vent fic.
Jade:
(do you think Kodaka sometimes has dreams where he's the author dude from Misery and Tsumugi/Sayaka is Anne Wilkes)
Keltena:
(yes, but presumably in those dreams she's also his sister)
This is the best compliment Shuichi has ever received in his life.
aaauuugh, that's the first time I've lost an Argument Armament. I would be destroying this if I had a controller, damn it! >:(
(nailed it with like half my health remaining on the second try despite only remembering where the D key was 50% of the times I had to press it, so there)
I'm amused that even the fictional audience, with their unconditional and undying love for endless repetition of the DR formula, think the protagonist switch was obnoxious as hell.
And that's the trial clear! The last one, wow. ... I'm disappointed the game doesn't score you on the minigames you skipped.
Wow that's a lot of postgame trophies. Four presents, plus a theme? Jeez.
—oh, whoa, sudden post-title screen scene! Cute. Very, very cute, game.
Well, I'm glad they all seem to be in good spirits!
(Jeez, though, is that seriously how they're ending Keebo's arc? Did I miss something, or did the writers just... forget he ever existed as a character in any capacity beyond "stand-in for the audience" by the time they got to the vote? That seems kind of fucked up, especially while everyone else is making empowering speeches about how they're real and their choices matter even if they were made to be fictional characters.)
That final epilogue scene was lovely and heartfelt. From the tone of the closing narration, I get the impression that was the thematic note the writers wanted to hit with the ending all along; I'm glad they at least were able to land it for that last scene.
And... that's the game! This has been a ton of fun to play; I'm really glad I did.
Before I end this, though... I've got a whole postgame dating sim unlocked now. And I'm pretty sure I owe it to
rionaleonhart to finally get Kaito's love hotel scene, so!The Salmon Team title screen is incredible. A still screenshot wouldn't even remotely do it justice. Oh my god. (The ridiculously cheery new game interface, overlaid on top of the exact same graphics, is also great.)
I have to say, I think the genre change to "reality dating show" is a step in the right direction for this series! Which is a sentence you don't hear every day.
A great time, according to Kaito:
Shuichi: Please talk about your damn feelings for once.
Kaito: Awww. My feelings are that I'm happy you care!
Shuichi: ...Okay, but like, seriously—
Kaito: Don't worry, it's nothing! :D
I just suggested watching a documentary about aliens with Kaito. He was very unhappy. ...Because it reminded him of the day he first learned it wasn't real and how crushed he was.
Oh hey, I rolled Himiko in the love hotel!
"Shuichi...is your mana attuned properly for the ceremony?" ...Himiko, please tell me your fantasy doesn't take place in the Nasuverse.
Oh my god.
Himiko is amazing.
...Well, I could choose the option Kaito will actually like. Or, I could choose the option Shuichi is obviously actually thinking but won't say unless I make him. (I chose the latter, only for Kaito to make it weird. Seriously, Kaito? Looking at porn together is completely normal heterosexual friend activity, but the moment clothes come off you chicken out?)
Rantaro love hotel scene! This... appears to be the inverse of Tsumugi's scene? (She must have been so disappointed he was the first victim.)
What a wonderful dream, Shuichi thinks as he wakes up. Of course Shuichi's favorite fantasy is the one where someone is proud of him and ruffles his hair affectionately.
And now Angie's scene, apparently! Shuichi's voice acting, oh my god. I can't stop laughing. How much fun was the VA having there?
I couldn't resist trying the Death Flag gift on Rantaro. Turns out he has a unique response to it and everything! :D Naturally I had to go around and test it on everyone else afterwards. Several people give you a generic "disliked present" response; some other responses I got looked like they might be specific to the Death Flag, but I'm not positive. (Kokichi, of course, gives a generic favorite present response instead.)
I had enough time left over after maxing Kaito to do some new free times. I CAN'T BELIEVE RANTARO LOST ALL TWELVE SISTERS. Losing one would be a tragedy, but twelve just seems like carelessness.
Finally got Kaito's love hotel scene! Literally second-to-last of them all. And... wow, that was incredibly sweet. Like, I was expecting it to be something along those lines, but. I didn't expect just how much more straight-up romantic in tone it would be compared to nearly all the other ones I've seen? Definitely worth the wait!
...And then there's his Dating Mode ending. Man. You can tell he's the canon love interest when he's the one who gets the colored text. (Of course the detail Shuichi focuses on in his happily ever after with Kaito is reassuring himself he'll never, ever have to directly communicate with him about either of their feelings. Oh dear.)
And with that, I think I'm done for real! This has been a ton of fun. Thanks to everyone who's listened to me babble excitedly about this game for the past several months! :D (And hey, if anyone has any fanwork recs or other things I should check out now that I'm safe from spoilers, let me know!)
Time to mess around in the postgame for a million years!