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2 hours ago, akaritan said:

Reading Danganronpa and it's wonderful. It can be pretty morbid, and the tone and sense of humor make it play right in to my tastes in comedy. The characters and general presentation are really stylized and quirky and generally a lot of fun. I also like trying to guess how each of the murders were carried out~:miyako:

This'll definitely meet my monthly body-count quota too; I'm so happy because I needed something darker. I do agree on the rhythm gameplay though, it's really tiring. However, I like the courtroom debates a lot, it's like Phoenix Wright but with more dead kids and timed challenges.

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Also, Genocide Jill best girl. Frankly, I was sold from the moment she started going on in the court about how she murders with passion, and likening her techniques to a fancy Italian restaurant. 

I guess my most major complaint is with the UI, of all things. No instant text speed makes me sad. I read incredibly quickly, so that was really hard to adapt to and even now I can't say I'm happy about it at all.

I found the ending unsatisfying. I get that it's part of a trilogy, but that ending contributed to my lack of enjoyment of the game.

The main factor, however, was definitely the comedy that you got a kick out of. It didn't work for me, and I found it to be cheesy and stupid. Some of the morbid humor works, and I'm a fan of morbid humor myself, but most of it just came off as lame. The characters are shallow, and not very interesting. My 'best gurl' was the swimsuit girl whom I don't even bother to remember her name; I only like her because I'm into tomboys, and let's face it, she's hot.

So, combined with a frustrating gameplay, shallow characters, a mediocre story, sub-par comedy, and an unsatisfactory cliffhanger ending, it's not difficult to see why I put off buying the second game for such a long time. In fact, even now, I'd still rather buy something like Virtue's Last Reward over Danganronpa 2 - and I haven't even played 999 yet.

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Tee-hee-hee. ^^

I almost hated her. ;d And I liked how Hianta didn't care about her. That was nice. Fuck abusive, obnoxious, loud, violent, 'ear-pulling' bitches, who are taking protag for granted and think they can get away with everything, because they are 'childhood friends'. Hate this kind :v 

Remnants of my moege days I guess, cuz I like her alot :P

Your description of her is so fierce though!

I'm still fairly early on the route so maybe she does something bad later but so far I think she's more caring and 'justifiably abusive' - Hinata would definitely never have come out of his shell if she didn't pester him so much. Even worse would be if she flat out gave up because of his stubborness and left him - he's been like this for 2 years right? So that's why I think Hinata's been taking her companionship for granted rather than the other way around.
 

love with this VN first, when I heard wind on school courtyard, without any music. Just the wind sound. This added so much 'reality' to what I was reading. And actually - not that many VNs have ambient sounds. Usually it's only few (footsteps on staircase, school bell, sometimes door creacking) things, played very sparsely. When I as reading I/O, I heard the background chatter probably the first time since my first VN - Katawa Shoujo. At least it was first after Katawa VN in which I noticed background chatter.

Okay good, I'm not crazy then for praising I/O's use of SFX :ryuusui:


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What's with people finding Danganronpa's gameplay frustrating, lmao. Git Gud plx

But ya, DR's charm comes mainly from the experience it gives readers with its very stylized presentation and hyphey murder mystery based Class Trials- forget about having a deep, fleshed out narrative and characters that go above and beyond.

It's also why DR3 anime flops gloriously, it completely throws out the style and the Class Trials and goes for a more mainstream narrative, so just keep that in mind those of you who are reading 1 & 2 now. Definitely watch it for the closure, but don't expect it to be as thrilling as the VNs

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40 minutes ago, Eclipsed said:

What's with people finding Danganronpa's gameplay frustrating, lmao. Git Gud plx

Oh, okay. Since the topic is going in that direction: Rhythm games suck. Filthy plebians with their P4D. :vinty:

 

40 minutes ago, Eclipsed said:

But ya, DR's charm comes mainly from the experience it gives readers with its very stylized presentation and hyphey murder mystery based Class Trials- forget about having a deep, fleshed out narrative and characters that go above and beyond.

It's also why DR3 anime flops gloriously, it completely throws out the style and the Class Trials and goes for a more mainstream narrative, so just keep that in mind those of you who are reading 1 & 2 now. Definitely watch it for the closure, but don't expect it to be as thrilling as the VNs

Style over substance is such a subjective form of enjoyment IMO, because unlike stories with substance, the attributing factor for the audience's enjoyment comes from the kind of taste you have, not your level of intellect. With didactic stories, you could at least comprehend the message behind them and appreciate what they had to say, but with style, everyone has their own individual choice of style.

Funny enough, I'm a fan of hyperbole and over-exaggerated style. I'm a fan of Gintama and WataMote, after all. But I felt like the kind of hyperbole DR was trying to reach for is the equivalent of a kindergartener shouting the Power Rangers theme song - lame and juvenile. There's no humor behind that for me.

That being said, mainstream narrative does turn me off more than cheesy humor. The very meaning of "mainstream" itself denotes cliche and generic, which the DR humor already is, so cliche added on top of cliche is just bad news. I can't stand cliches. I'd probably still watch the anime regardless because of Franchise OCD. The anime's one of the reasons why I bothered to buy the second game - take that as you will.

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43 minutes ago, Lucius said:

But I felt like the kind of hyperbole DR was trying to reach for is the equivalent of a kindergartener shouting the Power Rangers theme song - lame and juvenile. There's no humor behind that for me.

That's exactly what makes DR fun, ya grown up grumpy grump :vinty:

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2 hours ago, Lucius said:

I found the ending unsatisfying. I get that it's part of a trilogy, but that ending contributed to my lack of enjoyment of the game.

The main factor, however, was definitely the comedy that you got a kick out of. It didn't work for me, and I found it to be cheesy and stupid. Some of the morbid humor works, and I'm a fan of morbid humor myself, but most of it just came off as lame. The characters are shallow, and not very interesting. My 'best gurl' was the swimsuit girl whom I don't even bother to remember her name; I only like her because I'm into tomboys, and let's face it, she's hot.

So, combined with a frustrating gameplay, shallow characters, a mediocre story, sub-par comedy, and an unsatisfactory cliffhanger ending, it's not difficult to see why I put off buying the second game for such a long time. In fact, even now, I'd still rather buy something like Virtue's Last Reward over Danganronpa 2 - and I haven't even played 999 yet.

If the ending is unsatisfying that's a real shame. But I can see why you didn't like it- though I'm having fun with it, there certainly isn't very much substance. It's pretty much what @Eclipsed said- the stylization carries it. In fact, I've found parts of it to be pretty dumb, but I went in to it expecting something that isn't serious, so whenever it does something stupid it adds to the experience if anything for me, haha. It's the same thing for the characters. If you don't find them to be amusing and entertaining from the outset, I doubt you'll get much out of them. It's one of those titles that I would tell people to drop if they hate the first parts; it shows most of its hand from the beginning and if you don't like what you get it's not as though there's a lot of hidden depth under the surface (unless I'm wrong, not done yet, but I doubt that will be the case).

But with that said, I really do like the humor. And I sort of think the whole tone in general appeals to me. I start laughing hysterically during every execution just because of how absurd they are (not to mention that I came here because my "dead kid quota" for the month wasn't filled, haha). Mind, I'm the type of person who has a folder of grotesque anime images on their computer, so I guess take this as you will.

 

1 hour ago, Eclipsed said:

finding Danganronpa's gameplay frustrating, lmao. Git Gud plx

But ya, DR's charm comes mainly from the experience it gives readers with its very stylized presentation and hyphey murder mystery based Class Trials- forget about having a deep, fleshed out narrative and characters that go above and beyond.

For what it's worth, the rhythm game isn't frustrating so much as boring; it doesn't add much at all if anything, I honestly think that sort of thing doesn't suit Danganronpa to begin with. It's not like the rhythm game itself is that much fun on its own, either; you just have to keep a steady tempo and adjust every now and then, switching around the keys you press every now and then. On top of that, the free time segments feel tacked on and utterly bland in comparison to the murder mystery segments, but apart from that I love it. Like I said before, the real fun in it is the murder mystery. I love trying to piece together who did it from the start, and those trials have an atmosphere and aesthetic that I haven't really seen before (the mechanics, the pop-art appearance combined with the dark red tint over everything, and the way it "moves" in general). The murders themselves have been pretty intriguing too.

 

edit: Yeah, the "juvenile" sense it has to it is definitely a big part of the charm. But if you don't like it, you don't like it. Shame, but I definitely see where you're coming from:sachi:.

Edited by akaritan
eclipsed beat me to the punch
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23 minutes ago, Eclipsed said:

That's exactly what makes DR fun, ya grown up grumpy grump :vinty:

Yeah, I can't argue with that. A few years ago, I might have enjoyed the simplicity behind such humor, just acting goofy and nonsensical for the sake of it. I could compare it to something like watching pre-2015 Spongebob, where the two idiots just act like idiots for the lulz, and I would laugh my ass off all day long. Buuut I guess two years can really change you, man, turning you into a bitter, hollow version of your former self as you watch Oprah and  cry yourself to sleep about a wrecked marriage and ungrateful grandchildren. Honestly, being 26 is just such a wretched life. Someone kill me please.

But jokes aside (I feel like I need to add a "sarcasm" tag everytime I post just to remind people the kind of poster I am), I am genuinely surprised at how fast I got tired of such silly humor. I think it has to do with my attention span, because it isn't just such brand of humor I'm tired of, but just everything else in general, from the type of anime I watch to the type of movies I like, etc. It feels like if you give me something never before seen by humanity, I'd get bored of similar 'inspirations' in about two years. It's why I've ran out of anime I would like to watch so fast, over the course of 3-4 years of anime-viewing.

 

20 minutes ago, akaritan said:

But with that said, I really do like the humor. And I sort of think the whole tone in general appeals to me. I start laughing hysterically during every execution just because of how absurd they are

If you can't tell by now from my satirical posts, my favorite form of humor is pretty much absurdity. Like I said, I love hyperbole and shows that go over-the-top. But with DR, I feel like they didn't go far enough, and end up looking more goofy than absurd. Then again, keep in mind that absurd humor is something that's funny because it's something so weird that you would find it funny. But the thing about something being weird is that the weird becomes normal once you've experienced it, so whatever DR was trying to achieve, I've already seen it before and it didn't impress me. Someone new to absurd humor might get a bigger kick out of it because it's still new and fresh to him, but personally, I feel that DR's humor was pretty tame instead of surreal or something I would label as "absurd".

It really doesn't help that DR tried to mix that humor with grimdark seriousness in its murders and tragedies. Like, pick a flavor - don't mix chocolate with bacon. You either go full serious or full goofy. The mixed tone here made the concoction stale and flavorless, because it's not serious enough and yet its funny is overwhelmed by the serious.

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I would just like to add a minor correction to my previous post - turning something serious into comedy can work. I wasn't trying to say that you have to go to extremity everytime. The problem is, when you don't have enough dosage of a single ingredient in a mixed concoction, the flavor isn't strong enough to make that ingredient appealing. More importantly, some stories work when seriousness is mixed with humor, some don't - DR, to me personally, falls under the latter.

To list an example: Filthy Frank. He's a YouTuber who always likes to turn serious topics like suicide and cancer into humor. That works for me because it's so ridiculous, beyond normality and societal standards, that it's funny. DR, on the other hand, spent a good amount of its time on serious drama instead of trying to ridicule said drama in a mocking fashion. Try and remember how it tried to tackle the identity crisis issue in the story. It wasn't done in a satirical kind of way. It felt more like something mainstream, something that came out of an anime. So when you say that the anime for the third game is mainstream, I don't see much difference here.

And there's also that whole "despair" business it constantly tries to sell us. The way the MC addressed the "despair" is so cliche in a "never give up" shounen hero kind of way that rather than being a satire or parody, it feels more like it's playing those cliched tropes straight. The ending of the first game is another good example of this by using what's possibly the worst anime cliche of all time:

Spoiler

the power of friendship will keep us alive with hope

.......I honestly wish I'm joking. #WhenTheCringeIsTooStrong

I think the problem with DR comes down to the style being stylistic and nothing more. Without a witty way of mocking anime cliches, when you play those tropes straight in the form of cartoonish caricatures, the result gets old very fast, because the aesthetics of that style is only appealing to your eyes, not your brain. It only looks funny, but it isn't inherently funny. There's no smart remark behind DR's caricatures. Once your eyes get used to the surface humor, that's it. I'm done laughing.

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7 hours ago, Lucius said:

I found the ending unsatisfying. I get that it's part of a trilogy, but that ending contributed to my lack of enjoyment of the game.

Seriously? : O I loved the ending. And hated the ending to DG2. I'm really itnerested what you will say about it. 

Also - strange that you all talk about humor. I'm pretty sure I almost never laughed during DG 1&2, but I liked the tone very much.

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7 hours ago, Eclipsed said:

I'm still fairly early on the route so maybe she does something bad later but so far I think she's more caring and 'justifiably abusive' - Hinata would definitely never have come out of his shell if she didn't pester him so much. Even worse would be if she flat out gave up because of his stubborness and left him - he's been like this for 2 years right? So that's why I think Hinata's been taking her companionship for granted rather than the other way around.

I just don't like people that are bossy and pestering. Why she wouldn't left Hinata alone? Who cares about being 'in the shell' I liked him for that type of personality. :v 

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14 minutes ago, Vorathiel said:

Seriously? : O I loved the ending. And hated the ending to DG2. I'm really itnerested what you will say about it. 

I haven't got to the ending of DG2 yet, naturally, but the whole friendship theme of the ending just felt... oh, I don't know - incredibly stupid. It's not even funny-stupid. There was no satirical intention behind it as far as I can tell.

To be clear, I don't really hate the ending; I just merely found it dull, that there's nothing to like (or really hate) about it. It wasn't insulting to my intelligence or anything because it didn't try to act like some deep, meaningful story, so there's no reason for there to be a deep, meaningful ending either. But that said, nothing to like or hate is still 0 points, if that makes sense.

To be fair, when I saw the ending, I didn't know there was a sequel yet, so that might have contributed to my lack of satisfaction, because I didn't get a sense of closure. Still, I don't know if that's a good excuse for the game to end like that. Like somebody else said, this is a game where you shouldn't expect the characters to be fleshed out; but specifically because of that, it felt like I just wasted a chunk of my time with characters I didn't give a shit about, and that emptiness was just a terrible feeling that gave me literal cancer. The ending that ended with even less development to the characters was just the turd-cherry on top of a shit pile dumped in my mouth, the final insult to my game experience.

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5 hours ago, Vorathiel said:

I just don't like people that are bossy and pestering. Why she wouldn't left Hinata alone? Who cares about being 'in the shell' I liked him for that type of personality. :v 

Boo. if Hinata stayed like that anylonger i would've quit this VN :P fking hate qqing protagonists, but thankfully even he finally realized his noobness so he gets +1 from me:

CqUvRit.jpg

2sF5Ev6.jpg

Atta boi

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You needa read Chaos;head if u haven't btw if u like them shell protags, Takumi's the epitome of one :P

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4 hours ago, Eclipsed said:

Boo. if Hinata stayed like that anylonger i would've quit this VN :P fking hate qqing protagonists, but thankfully even he finally realized his noobness so he gets +1 from me:

Atta boi

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You needa read Chaos;head if u haven't btw if u like them shell protags, Takumi's the epitome of one :P

Yup, that was a great scene. Reminded me heavily about a story I read some time ago, written by a person, who lived with depression, and one day he just stopped and started to laughing at anything and everything. Sounds sily when I just sum up it like that, but it was really touching. But what do you think about my personal favourite - tension filled, awesome sequences about... crossword puzzle solving? :P

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Nah, ReadingSteiner said that I shouldn't do that and just wait for Noah version, which just miiight someday be released in english on PC.

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1 hour ago, Vorathiel said:

But what do you think about my personal favourite - tension filled, awesome sequences about... crossword puzzle solving? :P

-> The scrub solved like 10 other words that I couldn't think up on the spot, then utterly failed at Cosplay, like wtf????? xD

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Nah, ReadingSteiner said that I shouldn't do that and just wait for Noah version, which just miiight someday be released in english on PC.

-> Boo. I never understood people who advice to 'just wait for a someday may be released in english' version -shrug-

 

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1 hour ago, Vorathiel said:

Nah, ReadingSteiner said that I shouldn't do that and just wait for Noah version, which just miiight someday be released in english on PC.

When did he suggest this? I remember in the first half of last year he was suggesting that people do that, but that was before a certain potential deal with 5pb fell through at the last moment...

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23 hours ago, akaritan said:

Sure, it'll be fun. And that's good, I reeeaaally needed a good dose of death. How was Umineko?

There is quite a lot to say about Umineko but I don't want to spoil anyone who hasn't played it personally. The writing is superb and the comcept was so deep that it's still making me wrack my brain even after finishing it days ago. I would love to have a discussion with a few others to learn more theories behind it. I do admit I felt a tad unsatisfied as the ending drew near and still even now I feel that way but regardless Umineko is a journey through words that I won't easily forget anytime soon. I ultimately gave it a 8/10. 

 

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On 23/09/2016 at 6:40 AM, Eclipsed said:

The phenomenon Vory's experiencing is the VN Rollercoaster effect, where he finally reached the upward 'ERMERGAWD, THIS SHIT IS THE BEST THING EVARRR' trend which typically follows the downward 'Old Grumpy Grump cannot Enjoy Nice Things Anymore' trend

After having gone through a disappointing E17 not being as godly as he was anticipating which resulted in his questioning the purpose of life and a myriad of other doubts, his expectations plummeted rock bottom

But, with lower expectations also comes a higher chance to enjoy. Hence the Kanon. and the loving of Awful Crooked Art. 

 

 

..I need to read something soon.

 

You can also say that Vora is just your typical elitist guy who has to shit on everything that isn't a trend? :holo: 

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23 hours ago, Kurisu-Chan said:

You can also say that Vora is just your typical elitist guy who has to shit on everything that isn't a trend? :holo: 

Or maybe he just had too much expectation at Ever17 earlier here (Justified though). Just saying.

Just remember that I'd played Hinatabokko in the past (Around 2010), and other than certain route I think there's nothing special from that game. No serious drama there if you ask my impression now. Therefore, I think Hinatabokko would be nice if you need to take a break after playing something like Saya no Uta. As for the translation, just looking from the localized title it was quite bad. I mean why they need to made it sounding like some desperate playboy want to settle down with one girl for the title while the real translation would be basking in the sun. That's all for my impression now, and at least it wasn't as bad as Tsuki if you ask me.

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Finished Route A in IO

I've been reading so fragmentedly that I completely lost track of the overlying plot, or maybe not much was even revealed yet about Babylon and whatnot since there's still several more routes to cover but w.e, Hinata's taking Sakuya with him, hope that doesn't bite me in the ass later, and they're gonna go find that elusive Mutsuki and earn their happy ending full of rainbows and unicorns


Starting Route B,

What?

Heterochromia female protag?? That's auto-win, les do dis !

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