I Wanted To Fix This, But Couldn't Stop From Tearing It Down.
Danganronpa V3 is OUT AT LAST and already living up to expectations, by which I mean it's weird as hell and it's making me very unhappy. I've just finished chapter one. Spoilers for everything that's happened so far under the cut!
Sixteen characters in this game. Two deaths in chapter one: one victim, one executed culprit. What are the odds that my two favourite characters would die in the first chapter? One-in-eight chance that one of them would be the victim. One-in-fifteen chance that the other would have killed them. The probability that both of my favourite characters would be dead by the end of chapter one was 1 in 120.
GUESS WHAT HAPPENED.
These games are the worst.
I was texting a friend who's further ahead of me while I was playing, and I'm going to reproduce most of my messages in this entry, so you're going to get my real-time speculation and reactions as I was playing. Annotations are bracketed and in italics.
The terrible bullshit platforming minigame was terrible bullshit, obviously, but it was also sort of brilliant. 'What, so I have sixteen lives? This'll be fine,' I said, reading the instructions. How little I knew. (This was a bit where the game went 'hey, see if you can escape the building you're locked in through this minigame!' and threw you into a practically impossible (possibly actually impossible?) platforming segment. I'm fairly certain I lost all sixteen lives in under a minute. I'm really curious to know whether it's actually possible to complete that minigame, and what happens if you do.)
I feel there's a 90% chance that either Shuichi or Kaede herself won't make it to the first trial. If we do lose one of them, I hope it's Shuichi. I don't have anything against him, but I don't have any particular interest in him either, whereas I already like Kaede a fair bit. I love her spirit and determination.
I was convinced that Shuichi was going to murder Kaede when he went 'oh, come with me to the creepy basement library alone.' I was so reluctant to go (and so startled when it turned out not to actually be a pretext for murder). I was particularly on edge because there hadn't been any Free Time sessions yet, and I was going 'if you're going to pull an early protagonist switch, it'd be easiest to do it before the first Free Time.' I've just reached the first Free Time session, which makes me slightly less fearful for Kaede's safety, but I'm still nervous. I don't like the 'there's no trial for the first murder' offer, because it seems like the perfect excuse for someone to off the protagonist and get past the 'well, the player will have seen the murder happen, so there's no suspense in the trial' aspect! (Alternatively, it could be a good way to have the protagonist commit murder, but either option will remove Kaede for the rest of the game, so I'm unhappy with both.)
FUCK FUCK FUCK KAEDE IS SPECIFICALLY REFERENCING SHUICHI IN THIS FREE TIME EVENT AS IF HE'S GUARANTEED TO BE ALIVE AT THE TIME THE FREE TIME EVENT TAKES PLACE, SHE'S SUPER DEAD
I chose to talk to Rantaro because he seems really shifty and I don't trust him at all, but that scene with him was actually pretty cute. I hope I'm wrong and Kaede sticks around so I can make her spend more time with him.
(At this point my friend asked whether I had loaded a save file from the demo, in which case you get a cute bonus scene where Tsumugi offers to paint Kaede’s nails.)
I did! Tsumugi is painting my nails right now.
(AND THEN RANTARO CRASHES THE NAIL-PAINTING AND ALSO PAINTS KAEDE’S NAILS)
Oh, my God, that was ALSO ADORABLE and I've already gone from 'huh, that was some surprisingly cute interaction in Rantaro's Free Time' to 'oh no oh no I'm full-blown shipping this'.
'One person's strength may not be enough, but there are 16 of us here!' thinks Kaede at the end of her second Free Time with Rantaro. OH, YEAH, THAT SOUNDS LIKE A LINE THAT COULD PLAUSIBLY COME FROM THE PROTAGONIST AT ANY POINT IN THE GAME. Goddammit. I really like Kaede.
The alternative is that Rantaro dies in the first chapter. BUT THAT'S NOT GOOD EITHER. EITHER WAY, MY BRAND NEW SHIP IS SCREWED AND DANGANRONPA IS TERRIBLE.
(My friend asks for my opinion on characters so far.)
There are so many characters! But I'll give you my list of characters I drew up when I was deciding who to spend Free Time with:
Yes: Rantaro (what's his deal?), Tsumugi (like her so far), K1-B0 (want to know about his robot past)
Maybe, leaning towards yes: Kirumi (is that her name? the maid, she seems pretty cool), Kokichi (horrendous little shit, but potentially fun), Maki (want to see if I can get her to be less closed off), Miu (entertaining), Kaito (he seems okay? Can't work out whether he's a nice guy or a Nice Guy, though), Ryoma (he's probably got some interesting stories)
Maybe, leaning towards no: Gonta (he's sweet, but I don't know if he particularly interests me as a character), Shuichi (spending enough time with him as it is)
No: Angie, Himiko, Tenko, Kiyo (none of them interest me - we already had a better Komaeda than you, Kiyo, and he was called Komaeda)
In other news, my paranoia continues to mount. I just tried to spend Free Time with Rantaro again and couldn't, despite giving him a gift he liked, ALMOST AS IF ONLY TWO FREE TIME EVENTS BETWEEN KAEDE AND RANTARO WERE WRITTEN. I hate this game.
(Referring to the fact that, if you give someone the wrong present, you have to either reload your save or miss out on the opportunity to get a scene with them:) It's so frustrating! What a stupid system. I'm particularly annoyed because I've been going after a guy WHOSE TALENT IS UNKNOWN, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GUESS WHAT HE WOULD LIKE
I did correctly deduce from all his jewellery that he'd be into the cufflinks.
(My friend points out that each character helpfully has their likes and dislikes listed on their student ID, and Rantaro’s ‘likes’ are... extraterritorial rights. ‘WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN’)
I don't know, but I haven't got any of them from the machine yet.
FUCK
THERE GOES MY FUCKING SHIP
('I'm so sorry, Riona,' my friend says. He's probably not really sorry.)
That does explain a lot about the dialogue in his Free Time events. Sorry for spending so much time with this guy and getting you attached to him, Kaede.
(Yep. I was so busy worrying about Kaede, and then Rantaro's corpse turned up in the library. My messages to RD at this point:)
Riona: I'm already massively shipping two characters in this game and there are STRONG INDICATIONS THAT AT LEAST ONE OF THEM IS GOING TO DIE IN THE FIRST CHAPTER, FUCK
RD: Riona this was INEVITABLE.
Riona: YEP, HALF MY SHIP IS DEAD.
Riona: But... not actually the half I was expecting. Huh.
RD: THESE GAMES ARE ENDLESSLY UNFAIR
Riona: I can't believe the FIRST CHARACTER TO DIE was half of my brand new ship. There were sixteen characters! It could have been any of them! But no.
RD: Riona they're all going to die
Riona: BUT IF THEY'D LIVED LONGER THEY COULD HAVE HAD MORE CUTE INTERACTION
Riona: MORE SCOPE FOR FANFICTION
Riona: HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WRITE FANFICTION WHEN THEY KNEW EACH OTHER FOR, WHAT, FOUR DAYS
RD: DREAMS
(Back to the other conversation:)
Noooooo, I was clinging on to the fact that there hadn't been a body discovery announcement yet, but THERE IT IS.
Haven't actually started the investigation yet, but my working theory, because this game hates me and wants me to suffer, is that Kaede unintentionally caused this to happen somehow due to her book-rearranging. I lose both halves of my ship in the first chapter and everything is terrible.
KAEDE, STOP HAVING MEANINGFUL MOMENTS WITH SHUICHI WHEN YOUR TRUE LOVE IS CLEARLY THE CORPSE ON THE FLOOR OVER THERE.
(From the next play session:)
Okay! Before I resume playing, a summary of where my head is currently, at the beginning of the first trial:
- It was probably Kaede. There's a smaller chance it was Shuichi.
- Whatever the case, it was an accidental death; the culprit doesn't know they're the culprit, which is why no one came forward to claim the First Blood Perk (this was an offer that the first murderer would get to leave, no trial, no strings attached).
- The shot put is a complicating factor. Who moved it from the warehouse to the library? If it was already e.g. in the vent, and Monobear decides the culprit is the person who put it there rather than the person who unwittingly arranged books in a way that would channel it towards Rantaro's head, Kaede is in the clear.
The 'someone else gets executed for moving the shot put and Kaede has to live with the knowledge that she caused Rantaro's death' option is clearly the best from a ficwriter's perspective. Fingers crossed.
(I'm going to switch over to my conversation with RD for my reaction to the culprit revelation:)
Riona: It's looking extremely probable that one half of my ship accidentally killed the other.
Riona: NOPE
Riona: ONE HALF OF MY SHIP DELIBERATELY KILLED THE OTHER
RD: I'm not laughing at this but
RD: I'm laughing at this.
Riona: NOW SHE'S GOING TO BE EXECUTED AND BOTH OF MY TWO FAVOURITE CHARACTERS WILL HAVE DIED IN THE FIRST CHAPTER
Riona: I'M SO UNHAPPY
RD: This is pretty sucky
RD: But also
RD: THESE GAMES ALWAYS DO THIS
Riona: False; my favourite characters usually start dying in chapter two.
So that's the end of chapter one! My feelings are mixed. On the one hand, it was certainly interesting! On the other, I'm a little worried about whether the rest of the game is going to hold my interest, given that I developed a ship and went 'great, here's my emotional investment anchor for this game!' and then ONE HALF OF THE SHIP IMMEDIATELY KILLED THE OTHER AND DIED. I feel adrift!
Caring about the main character really helps with emotional investment in the Danganronpa series as well. That wasn't a problem when Kaede was the protagonist, but are you seriously going to make me play as boring Shuichi now? Given that the other two main games have also had male protagonists, wouldn't it have been a better twist to make Shuichi the apparent protagonist at the beginning, kill him off and have Kaede take over?
(Sorry, Shuichi. I do like your little hand-over-mouth oh-no-I've-just-realised-a-terrible-thing pose, at least. Maybe I'll warm up to you? I hope I'll warm up to you.
WAIT, ARE YOU WEARING THAT HAT TO HIDE A PROTAGONIST'S AHOGE
(For anyone unaware: every Danganronpa protagonist to date has had a little sticky-up bit of hair. It would be sort of incredible if the character designers went 'well, Shuichi has to have one too, but people are going to suspect that he's going to take over as the protagonist if he has protagonist hair; better give him a hat!'))
And now I want to write Kaede/Rantaro fanfiction, but I can't because Rantaro wasn't around for long enough for me to familiarise myself with his voice! Nooooooooooo.
Come to think of it, we still don't know Rantaro's talent by the end of chapter one, even though he's dead. Maybe we'll find out more about him later on, somehow? But more Rantaro/Kaede interaction is almost certainly too much to hope for.
I don't like ending an entry under a cut, but I'm not sure what I could say outside a cut that wouldn't be a spoiler. Er. I'm not a fan of the Monokubs, but their theme music is pretty great.
Sixteen characters in this game. Two deaths in chapter one: one victim, one executed culprit. What are the odds that my two favourite characters would die in the first chapter? One-in-eight chance that one of them would be the victim. One-in-fifteen chance that the other would have killed them. The probability that both of my favourite characters would be dead by the end of chapter one was 1 in 120.
GUESS WHAT HAPPENED.
These games are the worst.
I was texting a friend who's further ahead of me while I was playing, and I'm going to reproduce most of my messages in this entry, so you're going to get my real-time speculation and reactions as I was playing. Annotations are bracketed and in italics.
The terrible bullshit platforming minigame was terrible bullshit, obviously, but it was also sort of brilliant. 'What, so I have sixteen lives? This'll be fine,' I said, reading the instructions. How little I knew. (This was a bit where the game went 'hey, see if you can escape the building you're locked in through this minigame!' and threw you into a practically impossible (possibly actually impossible?) platforming segment. I'm fairly certain I lost all sixteen lives in under a minute. I'm really curious to know whether it's actually possible to complete that minigame, and what happens if you do.)
I feel there's a 90% chance that either Shuichi or Kaede herself won't make it to the first trial. If we do lose one of them, I hope it's Shuichi. I don't have anything against him, but I don't have any particular interest in him either, whereas I already like Kaede a fair bit. I love her spirit and determination.
I was convinced that Shuichi was going to murder Kaede when he went 'oh, come with me to the creepy basement library alone.' I was so reluctant to go (and so startled when it turned out not to actually be a pretext for murder). I was particularly on edge because there hadn't been any Free Time sessions yet, and I was going 'if you're going to pull an early protagonist switch, it'd be easiest to do it before the first Free Time.' I've just reached the first Free Time session, which makes me slightly less fearful for Kaede's safety, but I'm still nervous. I don't like the 'there's no trial for the first murder' offer, because it seems like the perfect excuse for someone to off the protagonist and get past the 'well, the player will have seen the murder happen, so there's no suspense in the trial' aspect! (Alternatively, it could be a good way to have the protagonist commit murder, but either option will remove Kaede for the rest of the game, so I'm unhappy with both.)
FUCK FUCK FUCK KAEDE IS SPECIFICALLY REFERENCING SHUICHI IN THIS FREE TIME EVENT AS IF HE'S GUARANTEED TO BE ALIVE AT THE TIME THE FREE TIME EVENT TAKES PLACE, SHE'S SUPER DEAD
I chose to talk to Rantaro because he seems really shifty and I don't trust him at all, but that scene with him was actually pretty cute. I hope I'm wrong and Kaede sticks around so I can make her spend more time with him.
(At this point my friend asked whether I had loaded a save file from the demo, in which case you get a cute bonus scene where Tsumugi offers to paint Kaede’s nails.)
I did! Tsumugi is painting my nails right now.
(AND THEN RANTARO CRASHES THE NAIL-PAINTING AND ALSO PAINTS KAEDE’S NAILS)
Oh, my God, that was ALSO ADORABLE and I've already gone from 'huh, that was some surprisingly cute interaction in Rantaro's Free Time' to 'oh no oh no I'm full-blown shipping this'.
'One person's strength may not be enough, but there are 16 of us here!' thinks Kaede at the end of her second Free Time with Rantaro. OH, YEAH, THAT SOUNDS LIKE A LINE THAT COULD PLAUSIBLY COME FROM THE PROTAGONIST AT ANY POINT IN THE GAME. Goddammit. I really like Kaede.
The alternative is that Rantaro dies in the first chapter. BUT THAT'S NOT GOOD EITHER. EITHER WAY, MY BRAND NEW SHIP IS SCREWED AND DANGANRONPA IS TERRIBLE.
(My friend asks for my opinion on characters so far.)
There are so many characters! But I'll give you my list of characters I drew up when I was deciding who to spend Free Time with:
Yes: Rantaro (what's his deal?), Tsumugi (like her so far), K1-B0 (want to know about his robot past)
Maybe, leaning towards yes: Kirumi (is that her name? the maid, she seems pretty cool), Kokichi (horrendous little shit, but potentially fun), Maki (want to see if I can get her to be less closed off), Miu (entertaining), Kaito (he seems okay? Can't work out whether he's a nice guy or a Nice Guy, though), Ryoma (he's probably got some interesting stories)
Maybe, leaning towards no: Gonta (he's sweet, but I don't know if he particularly interests me as a character), Shuichi (spending enough time with him as it is)
No: Angie, Himiko, Tenko, Kiyo (none of them interest me - we already had a better Komaeda than you, Kiyo, and he was called Komaeda)
In other news, my paranoia continues to mount. I just tried to spend Free Time with Rantaro again and couldn't, despite giving him a gift he liked, ALMOST AS IF ONLY TWO FREE TIME EVENTS BETWEEN KAEDE AND RANTARO WERE WRITTEN. I hate this game.
(Referring to the fact that, if you give someone the wrong present, you have to either reload your save or miss out on the opportunity to get a scene with them:) It's so frustrating! What a stupid system. I'm particularly annoyed because I've been going after a guy WHOSE TALENT IS UNKNOWN, HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO GUESS WHAT HE WOULD LIKE
I did correctly deduce from all his jewellery that he'd be into the cufflinks.
(My friend points out that each character helpfully has their likes and dislikes listed on their student ID, and Rantaro’s ‘likes’ are... extraterritorial rights. ‘WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN’)
I don't know, but I haven't got any of them from the machine yet.
FUCK
THERE GOES MY FUCKING SHIP
('I'm so sorry, Riona,' my friend says. He's probably not really sorry.)
That does explain a lot about the dialogue in his Free Time events. Sorry for spending so much time with this guy and getting you attached to him, Kaede.
(Yep. I was so busy worrying about Kaede, and then Rantaro's corpse turned up in the library. My messages to RD at this point:)
Riona: I'm already massively shipping two characters in this game and there are STRONG INDICATIONS THAT AT LEAST ONE OF THEM IS GOING TO DIE IN THE FIRST CHAPTER, FUCK
RD: Riona this was INEVITABLE.
Riona: YEP, HALF MY SHIP IS DEAD.
Riona: But... not actually the half I was expecting. Huh.
RD: THESE GAMES ARE ENDLESSLY UNFAIR
Riona: I can't believe the FIRST CHARACTER TO DIE was half of my brand new ship. There were sixteen characters! It could have been any of them! But no.
RD: Riona they're all going to die
Riona: BUT IF THEY'D LIVED LONGER THEY COULD HAVE HAD MORE CUTE INTERACTION
Riona: MORE SCOPE FOR FANFICTION
Riona: HOW AM I SUPPOSED TO WRITE FANFICTION WHEN THEY KNEW EACH OTHER FOR, WHAT, FOUR DAYS
RD: DREAMS
(Back to the other conversation:)
Noooooo, I was clinging on to the fact that there hadn't been a body discovery announcement yet, but THERE IT IS.
Haven't actually started the investigation yet, but my working theory, because this game hates me and wants me to suffer, is that Kaede unintentionally caused this to happen somehow due to her book-rearranging. I lose both halves of my ship in the first chapter and everything is terrible.
KAEDE, STOP HAVING MEANINGFUL MOMENTS WITH SHUICHI WHEN YOUR TRUE LOVE IS CLEARLY THE CORPSE ON THE FLOOR OVER THERE.
(From the next play session:)
Okay! Before I resume playing, a summary of where my head is currently, at the beginning of the first trial:
- It was probably Kaede. There's a smaller chance it was Shuichi.
- Whatever the case, it was an accidental death; the culprit doesn't know they're the culprit, which is why no one came forward to claim the First Blood Perk (this was an offer that the first murderer would get to leave, no trial, no strings attached).
- The shot put is a complicating factor. Who moved it from the warehouse to the library? If it was already e.g. in the vent, and Monobear decides the culprit is the person who put it there rather than the person who unwittingly arranged books in a way that would channel it towards Rantaro's head, Kaede is in the clear.
The 'someone else gets executed for moving the shot put and Kaede has to live with the knowledge that she caused Rantaro's death' option is clearly the best from a ficwriter's perspective. Fingers crossed.
(I'm going to switch over to my conversation with RD for my reaction to the culprit revelation:)
Riona: It's looking extremely probable that one half of my ship accidentally killed the other.
Riona: NOPE
Riona: ONE HALF OF MY SHIP DELIBERATELY KILLED THE OTHER
RD: I'm not laughing at this but
RD: I'm laughing at this.
Riona: NOW SHE'S GOING TO BE EXECUTED AND BOTH OF MY TWO FAVOURITE CHARACTERS WILL HAVE DIED IN THE FIRST CHAPTER
Riona: I'M SO UNHAPPY
RD: This is pretty sucky
RD: But also
RD: THESE GAMES ALWAYS DO THIS
Riona: False; my favourite characters usually start dying in chapter two.
So that's the end of chapter one! My feelings are mixed. On the one hand, it was certainly interesting! On the other, I'm a little worried about whether the rest of the game is going to hold my interest, given that I developed a ship and went 'great, here's my emotional investment anchor for this game!' and then ONE HALF OF THE SHIP IMMEDIATELY KILLED THE OTHER AND DIED. I feel adrift!
Caring about the main character really helps with emotional investment in the Danganronpa series as well. That wasn't a problem when Kaede was the protagonist, but are you seriously going to make me play as boring Shuichi now? Given that the other two main games have also had male protagonists, wouldn't it have been a better twist to make Shuichi the apparent protagonist at the beginning, kill him off and have Kaede take over?
(Sorry, Shuichi. I do like your little hand-over-mouth oh-no-I've-just-realised-a-terrible-thing pose, at least. Maybe I'll warm up to you? I hope I'll warm up to you.
WAIT, ARE YOU WEARING THAT HAT TO HIDE A PROTAGONIST'S AHOGE
(For anyone unaware: every Danganronpa protagonist to date has had a little sticky-up bit of hair. It would be sort of incredible if the character designers went 'well, Shuichi has to have one too, but people are going to suspect that he's going to take over as the protagonist if he has protagonist hair; better give him a hat!'))
And now I want to write Kaede/Rantaro fanfiction, but I can't because Rantaro wasn't around for long enough for me to familiarise myself with his voice! Nooooooooooo.
Come to think of it, we still don't know Rantaro's talent by the end of chapter one, even though he's dead. Maybe we'll find out more about him later on, somehow? But more Rantaro/Kaede interaction is almost certainly too much to hope for.
I don't like ending an entry under a cut, but I'm not sure what I could say outside a cut that wouldn't be a spoiler. Er. I'm not a fan of the Monokubs, but their theme music is pretty great.