Fuck, This Hurts, I Won't Lie.
Just finished the fourth chapter of Danganronpa V3.
Shuichi blushing after Tsumugi makes him a drink is sort of endearing. I've almost finished Maki's Free Time events; maybe I'll talk to Tsumugi afterwards. (I already have a bad feeling about Tsumugi's odds of surviving this chapter.)
If you're wondering 'is she shipping everything in this game?': quite possibly. This is a bad habit I have that's particularly pronounced in Danganronpa games, for some reason.
Huh, maybe Maki was originally supposed to become available for Free Time events later than Chapter Three. It turns out that my '??? are Maki's Free Time events out of order?' confusion was because her events call back to a plot-required conversation in Chapter Four.
These scenes of friendship between Shuichi, Kaito and Maki are all very sweet and I'm very concerned about what sort of heartbreak might be lying in wait for me.
Oh, excellent, I have the correct item for a bonus scene with Kaito and Maki! Which is just as well, because I'd genuinely have been tempted to reload an earlier save to get it otherwise.
Tsumugi: (to Shuichi) ‘If you were in a dating sim, you wouldn’t be the most popular, but you’d have fans.’ Tsumugi's Free Time events are pretty cute. I suspect I'm just before a murder; I hope she doesn't die before I can get her last scene.
oh my God, these Neo World avatars are so cute
I'm also charmed by Kaito getting really enthusiastic about the snow.
(when Kokichi approaches you just before you log out of the virtual world:) Well, Kokichi's definitely hitting on me. Also WHERE IS KAITO
Miu had some incredible lines ('You're literally confusing the shit out of me, 'cause this makes no sense and I gotta take a dump' was a particular favourite), but I'm just so glad the victim wasn't Kaito.
Rei was arguing for Kaito's guilt at the same time Kokichi was, in the same ways, and became slightly uncomfortable when I pointed this out. There are some similarities between Rei and Kokichi, although Rei is a lot less callous.
Kaito: (to Kokichi) You’re lying to his face!
Shuichi: Kaito!
Kokichi: Kaito, you keep interrupting me when I talk. Do you like me or something?
Kaito: Who would like you, dumbass? I was interested in Shuichi’s conversation!
'They're fighting over you,' Rei says.
(Notes made just before the trial:)
Other than Rantaro, Miu is the only character so far who hasn't died in the chapter in which their lab opened up.
It seems she was planning to murder Kokichi, and that the virtual world map wraps.
Kaito and Kokichi are the obvious suspects, which means it probably wasn't either of them. (Or so I hope. It's not impossible that the game might go 'well, you expect it not to be the obvious suspect, SO THIS TIME IT IS.' Please don't be Kaito.)
Both of my housemates suspect Keebo. I'm not sure why Keebo would want Miu dead. Keebo actually has a reason to be invested in keeping Miu around.
Come to think of it, though, was Keebo's avatar defined as a non-human object that, like Miu, could pass through the wall? That might explain why his voice was heard on the mansion side. Shuichi has been thinking 'there were two walls along the Y axis; which one did Miu put there?', but perhaps it's actually just one wall that wraps.
It's possible that Miu was killed on the mansion side and then dragged through the wall to the chapel side, but Keebo's probably the only one capable of doing that, and why would he? He was part of the 'search the chapel' team, so he'd be making himself look more suspicious if he moved the body to that side.
The inner voice that he obeys might be relevant here. Or he might want the body on the chapel side because otherwise people would realise, if they found Miu on the mansion side, that it's possible to move from the chapel to the mansion without using the bridge.
It also allows him to create an alibi for himself: leave Miu's body by the chapel and search the chapel with the other two, having arranged a loud sound that people will assume is the moment of death.
When did he have the opportunity to kill her, though? There was no mention of anyone leaving the chapel during the search.
An avatar, when injured, doesn't display any external wounds. So it would be entirely possible for Miu to fake her own death for some purpose; someone just lying down would be indistinguishable from the avatar of someone who's actually been killed.
So perhaps Miu created the loud sound, played dead, then crept off to kill Kokichi. Keebo follows her and kills her for some reason, then drags her avatar back to leave her where she originally played dead; if people assume that she was already dead when she was actually just faking it, he has an alibi.
Wait, how did the body discovery announcement come after Shuichi logged out if five people logged out just before him?
I hope it wasn't Tsumugi. If Tsumugi dies, her pants are lost to me forever.
(Notes made during the trial:)
I CAN'T BELIEVE SOMEONE WAS STRANGLED WITH TOILET PAPER
In the second game, the characters who were killed in the simulation were left comatose. In that case, it's possible that, no matter who killed Miu in the simulation, the culprit for the purposes of the trial is the person who removed her visor, thus causing the death of her body. I... think that was Keebo, actually, so he's still the prime suspect.
I knew it was wrong, but I couldn't resist choosing the 'Miu wanted to meet up with Kokichi and use the hammer to CONFESS HER LOVE TO HIM' option. Sometimes you just have to take the hit to influence.
Wait. Wait. What are Love Hotel scenes? I just saw a mention of them online. I haven't checked the Love Hotel since it opened up in Chapter Two, and Shuichi just thought '???? what is this building?' - I'd investigate it again right now if I weren't in the middle of a trial!
I NEED TO TAKE KAITO TO THE LOVE HOTEL IF IT'S AN OPTION, THIS IS URGENT
If it's an option and he dies before Chapter Four is out, I'm going to throw the disc at the wall.
I ended up using the chapter select function to go to a Free Time slot and check. I... assume it has something to do with the Key of Love you can buy at the casino? I promptly caught enough salmon to buy it, but I don't know how to use it! Looking at the hotel with it in your inventory does nothing, spending a sixth Free Time with someone with it in your inventory does nothing, giving it to someone as a Free Time present does nothing (although Kaito seemed very pleased to receive it). I'm mystified. (Apparently you need to sleep with it in your inventory. I haven’t tried this yet.)
Well, I haven't found out anything about 'Love Hotel scenes', but I've found an accurate depiction of the inside of my head.
I can't believe that, having already had ziplining corpses (or close enough), we now have tobogganing corpses.
...thinking about it, Gonta is the only possible culprit I can see at this point. But surely he wouldn't do it?
Kokichi's Flowey-from-Undertale expressions make me very uncomfortable.
...did Kokichi pull some sort of avatar-switching trick?
I'm going to feel really bad if Gonta ends up getting executed for something Kokichi did.
I'm very concerned that this trial might break me and my boyfriend up.
THIS TRIAL IS SO UPSETTING
At the Climax Inference. This is the worst case. I'm so unhappy.
Finished Chapter Four. Holy shit, that was awful. The entire second half of the trial was just two solid hours of absolute misery.
I do wonder whether Kokichi cares at least a touch more than he's letting on. He claims not to care about Gonta, but he wasn't cruel enough to say that directly to Gonta before the execution.
More importantly, though, Gonta has been executed for a crime he doesn't remember committing and Kaito is possibly dying and doesn't want to be around his boyfriend and this game is the worst.
On the plus side, I suppose there aren't any Monokubs left. Every cloud.
I'm a little surprised the question of whether Keebo could have passed through the wall never even arose.
By the end of the trial, Shuichi was so unhappy that he wasn't even saying 'that's it!' or 'got it!' when he got an answer right. I know how he feels. Even for a game about teenagers murdering each other, that chapter was a hell of a downer. I'm just going to sit around and be sad for a while.
I've been preparing for Kaito dying since Chapter Two! I hadn't prepared for them breaking up!
This case was a bit too heavy for me, I think. By the end of the trial, my feelings were 'this is a good game, but I'm not enjoying it right now.' I hope at least a little light ends up shining through, and it's not just solid misery up to the end. Dangan Ronpa games have never exactly been cheerful, but there's love to be found there, there's hope, there's perseverance in the face of terrible things. Right now, things feel bleak, and I hope that bleakness eases a little.
I think the odds of Kaito surviving Chapter Five are staggeringly low, so I really, really hope that he and Shuichi are at least going to make up before he dies. If Kaito dies not wanting to speak to Shuichi, I'm going to be absolutely miserable.
why do I play these games
Shuichi blushing after Tsumugi makes him a drink is sort of endearing. I've almost finished Maki's Free Time events; maybe I'll talk to Tsumugi afterwards. (I already have a bad feeling about Tsumugi's odds of surviving this chapter.)
If you're wondering 'is she shipping everything in this game?': quite possibly. This is a bad habit I have that's particularly pronounced in Danganronpa games, for some reason.
Huh, maybe Maki was originally supposed to become available for Free Time events later than Chapter Three. It turns out that my '??? are Maki's Free Time events out of order?' confusion was because her events call back to a plot-required conversation in Chapter Four.
These scenes of friendship between Shuichi, Kaito and Maki are all very sweet and I'm very concerned about what sort of heartbreak might be lying in wait for me.
Oh, excellent, I have the correct item for a bonus scene with Kaito and Maki! Which is just as well, because I'd genuinely have been tempted to reload an earlier save to get it otherwise.
Tsumugi: (to Shuichi) ‘If you were in a dating sim, you wouldn’t be the most popular, but you’d have fans.’ Tsumugi's Free Time events are pretty cute. I suspect I'm just before a murder; I hope she doesn't die before I can get her last scene.
oh my God, these Neo World avatars are so cute
I'm also charmed by Kaito getting really enthusiastic about the snow.
(when Kokichi approaches you just before you log out of the virtual world:) Well, Kokichi's definitely hitting on me. Also WHERE IS KAITO
Miu had some incredible lines ('You're literally confusing the shit out of me, 'cause this makes no sense and I gotta take a dump' was a particular favourite), but I'm just so glad the victim wasn't Kaito.
Rei was arguing for Kaito's guilt at the same time Kokichi was, in the same ways, and became slightly uncomfortable when I pointed this out. There are some similarities between Rei and Kokichi, although Rei is a lot less callous.
Kaito: (to Kokichi) You’re lying to his face!
Shuichi: Kaito!
Kokichi: Kaito, you keep interrupting me when I talk. Do you like me or something?
Kaito: Who would like you, dumbass? I was interested in Shuichi’s conversation!
'They're fighting over you,' Rei says.
(Notes made just before the trial:)
Other than Rantaro, Miu is the only character so far who hasn't died in the chapter in which their lab opened up.
It seems she was planning to murder Kokichi, and that the virtual world map wraps.
Kaito and Kokichi are the obvious suspects, which means it probably wasn't either of them. (Or so I hope. It's not impossible that the game might go 'well, you expect it not to be the obvious suspect, SO THIS TIME IT IS.' Please don't be Kaito.)
Both of my housemates suspect Keebo. I'm not sure why Keebo would want Miu dead. Keebo actually has a reason to be invested in keeping Miu around.
Come to think of it, though, was Keebo's avatar defined as a non-human object that, like Miu, could pass through the wall? That might explain why his voice was heard on the mansion side. Shuichi has been thinking 'there were two walls along the Y axis; which one did Miu put there?', but perhaps it's actually just one wall that wraps.
It's possible that Miu was killed on the mansion side and then dragged through the wall to the chapel side, but Keebo's probably the only one capable of doing that, and why would he? He was part of the 'search the chapel' team, so he'd be making himself look more suspicious if he moved the body to that side.
The inner voice that he obeys might be relevant here. Or he might want the body on the chapel side because otherwise people would realise, if they found Miu on the mansion side, that it's possible to move from the chapel to the mansion without using the bridge.
It also allows him to create an alibi for himself: leave Miu's body by the chapel and search the chapel with the other two, having arranged a loud sound that people will assume is the moment of death.
When did he have the opportunity to kill her, though? There was no mention of anyone leaving the chapel during the search.
An avatar, when injured, doesn't display any external wounds. So it would be entirely possible for Miu to fake her own death for some purpose; someone just lying down would be indistinguishable from the avatar of someone who's actually been killed.
So perhaps Miu created the loud sound, played dead, then crept off to kill Kokichi. Keebo follows her and kills her for some reason, then drags her avatar back to leave her where she originally played dead; if people assume that she was already dead when she was actually just faking it, he has an alibi.
Wait, how did the body discovery announcement come after Shuichi logged out if five people logged out just before him?
I hope it wasn't Tsumugi. If Tsumugi dies, her pants are lost to me forever.
(Notes made during the trial:)
I CAN'T BELIEVE SOMEONE WAS STRANGLED WITH TOILET PAPER
In the second game, the characters who were killed in the simulation were left comatose. In that case, it's possible that, no matter who killed Miu in the simulation, the culprit for the purposes of the trial is the person who removed her visor, thus causing the death of her body. I... think that was Keebo, actually, so he's still the prime suspect.
I knew it was wrong, but I couldn't resist choosing the 'Miu wanted to meet up with Kokichi and use the hammer to CONFESS HER LOVE TO HIM' option. Sometimes you just have to take the hit to influence.
Wait. Wait. What are Love Hotel scenes? I just saw a mention of them online. I haven't checked the Love Hotel since it opened up in Chapter Two, and Shuichi just thought '???? what is this building?' - I'd investigate it again right now if I weren't in the middle of a trial!
I NEED TO TAKE KAITO TO THE LOVE HOTEL IF IT'S AN OPTION, THIS IS URGENT
If it's an option and he dies before Chapter Four is out, I'm going to throw the disc at the wall.
I ended up using the chapter select function to go to a Free Time slot and check. I... assume it has something to do with the Key of Love you can buy at the casino? I promptly caught enough salmon to buy it, but I don't know how to use it! Looking at the hotel with it in your inventory does nothing, spending a sixth Free Time with someone with it in your inventory does nothing, giving it to someone as a Free Time present does nothing (although Kaito seemed very pleased to receive it). I'm mystified. (Apparently you need to sleep with it in your inventory. I haven’t tried this yet.)
Well, I haven't found out anything about 'Love Hotel scenes', but I've found an accurate depiction of the inside of my head.
I can't believe that, having already had ziplining corpses (or close enough), we now have tobogganing corpses.
...thinking about it, Gonta is the only possible culprit I can see at this point. But surely he wouldn't do it?
Kokichi's Flowey-from-Undertale expressions make me very uncomfortable.
...did Kokichi pull some sort of avatar-switching trick?
I'm going to feel really bad if Gonta ends up getting executed for something Kokichi did.
I'm very concerned that this trial might break me and my boyfriend up.
THIS TRIAL IS SO UPSETTING
At the Climax Inference. This is the worst case. I'm so unhappy.
Finished Chapter Four. Holy shit, that was awful. The entire second half of the trial was just two solid hours of absolute misery.
I do wonder whether Kokichi cares at least a touch more than he's letting on. He claims not to care about Gonta, but he wasn't cruel enough to say that directly to Gonta before the execution.
More importantly, though, Gonta has been executed for a crime he doesn't remember committing and Kaito is possibly dying and doesn't want to be around his boyfriend and this game is the worst.
On the plus side, I suppose there aren't any Monokubs left. Every cloud.
I'm a little surprised the question of whether Keebo could have passed through the wall never even arose.
By the end of the trial, Shuichi was so unhappy that he wasn't even saying 'that's it!' or 'got it!' when he got an answer right. I know how he feels. Even for a game about teenagers murdering each other, that chapter was a hell of a downer. I'm just going to sit around and be sad for a while.
I've been preparing for Kaito dying since Chapter Two! I hadn't prepared for them breaking up!
This case was a bit too heavy for me, I think. By the end of the trial, my feelings were 'this is a good game, but I'm not enjoying it right now.' I hope at least a little light ends up shining through, and it's not just solid misery up to the end. Dangan Ronpa games have never exactly been cheerful, but there's love to be found there, there's hope, there's perseverance in the face of terrible things. Right now, things feel bleak, and I hope that bleakness eases a little.
I think the odds of Kaito surviving Chapter Five are staggeringly low, so I really, really hope that he and Shuichi are at least going to make up before he dies. If Kaito dies not wanting to speak to Shuichi, I'm going to be absolutely miserable.
why do I play these games