Topic: Danganronpa

@JoyBoy It’s harder to tell who the killer is beforehand in the other cases. The reason it’s so easy to tell in the first case is that in Japanese the character’s names are normally written in kanji (I think), so Japanese players are less likely to immediately decipher the clue. It is implied that Leon was attracted to Sayaka, so he would be easy to lure. The video never explicitly showed what happened to her friends, so she needed to find out for herself.

@Munchlax makes sense about the kanji, it wasn't a criticism mind you. I don't know how fresh your recollection of the game is, but I remember something else being weird. Aoi(swim lady) was in the dining room iirc at the time of the murder, which was night time. This was casually mentioned multiple times without anyone highlighting the fact that they agreed upon staying inside their dorms. Even the bear explicitly said it's prohibited from entering, even though it's not mentioned in the rule book. But maybe I just read it wrong or it will come up later in the game.

@Joyboy “Nighttime” in the rule book means 10pm-7pm. If the characters were in there at 9pm, it’s night without being considered “nighttime” by the school rules.

@Munchlax yeah I know, I'm referring to the murder which occurred at 1:30 am.

@JoyBoy Aoi wasn’t there at the time of the murder, she just saw Sayaka collect the knife a few hours before the murder took place.

@Munchlax conversation between you and Aoi:
Hina... Are you investigating the dining hall?

: Oh, no. I'm just taking a break. Actually, I've been taking a break since we started. This is all a first for me, ya know? I don't have the first clue what I should be doing.

: I know what you mean...

: And I dunno why, but being in the dining hall helps keep me calm. So I know I shouldn't, but I've just been kinda...hanging around here. To tell the truth...I was doing the same thing last night, when Sayaka was killed.

@JoyBoy In that case, it seems to just be a minor phrasing mistake. The sentence can be read as “I was there at the time when Sayaka died”, but also as “I was there last night, and Sayak also died last night”. She was in the dining hall beforehand, but was likely not at the exact time of the murder unless she spent the entire night there, although not impossible. Ultimately, it doesn’t matter which though, it has no relevancy to any events going forwards, either Aoi was just being weird or it’s just a grammatical quirk.

@Munchlax good to know!

So I have a question about the overarching series. I've finished the first two games and have started on V3. In the intro video at the start of V3, though, it goes quickly through the past stuff but includes more than just the first two games. I guess there is an Ultra Despair Girls or something like that that seems to only be on Vita. I also see that there is an anime called Danganronpa 3 that has one arc after the second game and another arc before the first game. I have started watching this on Crunchyroll. Should I watch the anime before playing V3 as the game intro seems to suggest I should already know about it, or is it fine to keep playing the game, too? Are there any other things I can easily get access to that I should look into doing if I want to get the entire story? Thanks.

@Xyphon22 Danganronpa 3 will spoil major aspects of Ultra Despair Girls, so if you want to experience both, play that game first.

Also, while it might be a bit of a pain, try to watch the episodes in alternating order, starting with the first episode of the Future arc. So Future 1, Despair 1, Future 2, Despair 2, etc. The reason for this is that the series was aired in this manner, and there is foreshadowing that assumes you're watching in this order.

As to other things you can access... there's a light novel called Danganronpa Zero that adds a ton of lore about Junko Enoshima and Hope's Peak Academy. There's fan translations floating around online if you want to read it. Danganronpa 3 also spoils major elements of Zero, so if you want to experience them all...

Danganronpa Zero --> Ultra Despair Girls --> Danganronpa 3 is probably the best order.

Followed by V3, of course. V3 is the thematic cap on the entire series.

To be clear, however, because I know not everyone wants to get that far into the cross-media aspect of the series: V3 is also fine if you've only played the first two games. Almost all direct references in the main story are to the first two games. The other stuff is just there if you're interested in the Expanded Universe, so to speak. DR3/UDG characters do show up in the JRPG/board game side content and Danganronpa S, though.

@Ralizah Thanks for the info. I saw that Ultra Despair Girls is on Steam so I added it to my wishlist in case it goes on one of those giant Steam sales, but I'll go ahead and keep watching and playing in the meantime. I am watching the anime in that alternating order because that is how they are, but it says there are two seasons and Crunchyroll only has the first, so hopefully I can find the second season online somewhere. I should get through the anime way before I get through the game though because for whatever reason it keeps freezing all the time (I'm playing on Game Pass on PC, but neither of the first two games did this and I can't imagine this one is much more taxing on my computer than those). So I just keep saving every couple of minutes just in case.

And there was some bonus thing after beating Danganronpa 2 that was like an alternate story for the original game that may have been Danganronpa Zero, but I can't remember for certain if that was the name. I did read through that, but I don't plan on tracking down any books or anything. The anime and games are enough for me. Thanks.

@Xyphon22 I just checked Crunchyroll, and all of the episodes are on there. There was only ever one 'season,' composed of two shorter series. You should be good. Good to see they're arranged in the correct order, because, as I recall, the DVD/Blu-Ray sets split the two series, making the alternating watching order unviable for people who experienced the series that way.

Danganronpa Zero is a light novel, not one of the short novelettes included with the first two games. It never enjoyed an official release outside of Japan, unfortunately.

Finished up the first class trial in V3. I can honestly say I was not expecting that. It's been really cool how the first things in games are usually like tutorials and simple, but in all three games the first trial has been pretty subversive to what you would expect (even if the culprit in the first game was painfully obvious, at least the story behind the killing was interesting). And this one was crazy in how when they went through everything, all of the clues were right there in the open the whole time, I just didn't see them because I wasn't expecting it (except for one, but I just thought it was really odd and not necessarily incriminating). A good start, then. Looking forward to more. And for me at least, from the start I like these characters a lot more than the ones in the second game who all just seemed too similar to the ones from the first game.

I sent an e-mail to Spike Chunsoft today asking (politely ofc xD) that they port Ultra Despair Girls for the switch. I really want this game to come to the system, even digitally ;-;

@Yannis I bet @Ralizah will support your cause there.

I’m a fake fan as I love the main series, I’ve watched the anime. I have a Vita, yet I’ve not got around to Ultra Despair Girls.

@JoeDiddley Spike also did a survey also back in 2021 i think asking the fans if they would like the game to come to switch, but i don't know if it actually had any further development beyond that point. Ah i wish i knew about this franchise when i still owned a Vita, but hey better late than never..Puhuhu~! (insert monokuma's demented laugh here)

@Yannis I would think there’s still hope for it. So many more niche ports coming to Switch now, so they must be financially viable. And it’s a bit of a gap that it’s missing.

@Yannis @JoeDiddley I'd love for the game to come to Switch, assuming they'd be willing to port it without censorship, which I'm less confident of in our much more sensitive modern climate.

@JoeDiddley let's hope that is the case. I thought that the reason was that this game has "sexual themes" from what i've heard and that's why it wasn't added. But there are so many other games with mature content on switch so this is puzzling if that was the reason.
@Ralizah I'm glad more people share the same sentiment and yeah i wouldn't want any censorship either bleh! Random thought: I've seen so many people with Danganronpa avatars on the site like Peko, Gundham and you Junko Enoshima, im so happy! ^^

@Yannis It's nice to see the fandom spread. And to see that the PS Vita's weird legacy has survived through the Switch and its fanbase.

@Xyphon22 I didn't really like the cast of V3 at first, but they grew on me, and I really appreciated the dynamics among the core group of survivors by the end. And even the most abrasive characters have layers to them, which helped me appreciate them more as the game went on.

And yeah, the first trial is shocking. I actually put the game down for a week after finishing that first chapter.

DR2 will always have my favorite cast, but V3's themes and trial writing are just fantastic. Especially near the end. Trial 5 of V3 is my favorite in the entire series.