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FPzero
Oct 20, 2008

Game Over
Return of Mido

Zoe posted:

Thanks. Hmm, I miiiight still start it but what if something amazing happens in chapter 3 and I can't put it down??

I'd still heavily recommend against even starting it. As soon as you press New Game, the opening video that plays has spoilers for events we've yet to see in DR2.



Also because I was in a Photoshop mood yesterday I made this after seeing the Fire Tank:

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Kinu Nishimura
Apr 24, 2008

SICK LOOT!
Sonia is amazing.

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!
Sonia is objectively the best girl. Sorry Ibuki.

RareAcumen
Dec 28, 2012




alcharagia posted:

Sonia is amazing.

Hobgoblin2099 posted:

Sonia is objectively the best girl. Sorry Ibuki.

I hope she didn't kill Nagito and isn't the traitor too. She's been nothing but great this entire game.

Zoe
Jan 19, 2007
Hair Elf

RareAcumen posted:

I hope she didn't kill Nagito and isn't the traitor too. She's been nothing but great this entire game.

I still don't think the 'traitor' is necessarily the bad guy here.

That engraved message that had the password to the school said something like 'for my subjects' which sounds like something royalty would say. Although I still think the strongest case can be made for Chiaki being the plant.

I hope Souda was the killer because I'm OK with him dying and can't say that about anyone else.

RareAcumen
Dec 28, 2012




Zoe posted:

I still don't think the 'traitor' is necessarily the bad guy here.

That engraved message that had the password to the school said something like 'for my subjects' which sounds like something royalty would say. Although I still think the strongest case can be made for Chiaki being the plant.

I hope Souda was the killer because I'm OK with him dying and can't say that about anyone else.

Even if the traitor isn't a bad person, there's still a pretty good chance Souda might panic and try to kill them.

Blademaster_Aio
Jan 22, 2017

Chiaki is best girl.

FPzero
Oct 20, 2008

Game Over
Return of Mido



Eventually...the shock finally registered with me.

A numb feeling spread from the center of my brain almost instantly.





Nagito...is dead...

Even when I saw this before me, I wasn't able to comprehend that reality yet.




: Heh...?
: Wha-wha-wha-whawhawhawha...?
: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHH!?



: Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!
: Wh-What's going on here...!?
: I-Is he really dead? He's not pretendin' to be dead, is he? I-I mean...it's Nagito, y'know!?

That's right, it's Nagito... He always messed with us, he always tried to confuse us...that's why...I can't believe it.



Nagito...ended up in such a cruel state...

Nagito...is dead...

Deep down, I believed...that when the killings finally ended, I'd never see this guy again... I never expected I'd be looking at Nagito's body like this...

Nagito...probably thought the same thing. I couldn't help seeing it in his dead, frightened face. But...on this island, unbelievably abnormal occurrences happen all the time...

Even Nagito couldn't escape that truth... But even something as small as that...


Music cuts out.



*Ding dong dong ding*



: A body has been discovered! Now then, after a certain amount of time has passed, the class trial will begin!





: The body discovery announcement...? Th-Then it's for real...
: Then Nagito is really dead!?
: I-It's not just that he's dead... If the body discovery announcement was made... Does that mean...Nagito was killed?
: K-Killed...!?
: Plus, it's one of us! I mean, that's what it means, right!?



One of us...killed Nagito...? One of us killed him so brutally...?



: Then...it's going to start again?
: ...Huh?
: The class trial is going to start soon, right? Then...





: Yep, we gotta do it! We gotta find out who Nagito's killer is!
: No matter who you guys sacrifice, you're determined to survive and leave this island, right?
: Then the time for action...is now! Soooo allow me to give you the familiar Monokuma Fi--



: Hold it right there!
: What!? Don't get in my way like that! I was about to whip out the Monokuma File in such a cool way...
: Shut up! I can't stand this anymore!



: How much longer are you going to keep putting them through this!? No more! I won't let you! I'll make sure I pulverize your evil intentions!
: ...
: S-Say something...!
: Oh, now I remember who you are...you're Monomi.
: Y-You just now noticed!?



: Anyway Monomi...if you're gonna talk about my intentions, why don't you talk about yours first?
: ...Huh?
: What're *your* intentions anyway? Why are you keeping everyone cooped up on this island? I'm sure everyone here wants to know too, y'know?
: ...
: Whaaaaat!? No fair! You're shutting up, too!





: E-Enough already! W-We already have enough to deal with concerning Nagito... Please...do not say anything else that will confuse us...!
: ...
: ...Anyway, let's begin.
: Huh...? B-But...



: I mean...in the end, we still have to do it, right? As long as a killing happens, we can't do anything about it, right? We have no choice but to do it, right? Besides...it's our fault that we couldn't even prevent it...
: I-I know... That's the only way we can survive, right...?
: Puhuhu, looks like you kids are way more well-behaved than Monomi!
: Don't gently caress with me...! We're tired of this too, you know...! That's why I'll definitely make sure to finish this for good this time...!



: Ah, does that mean...you guys are getting bored of this school trip?
: Don't worry! The end is near!
: ...Huh? The end?

Music fades out.

: Don't make a face like a pic that's about to become bacon! You've already noticed it, right?





: The meaning behind that Monokuma Timer... Um...I guess there's only two days left, huh?
: Wh-When that timer reaches zero...two days from now... What will happen to us?



: Hm? The killing school trip will be over.
: I-If this'll finally be over...
: D-Does that mean we can go home!?
: Don't count your bears before they've hatched...
: Sooooo, once again...





: All right! The Monokuma File!
: You guys need to find out who Nagito's killer is and survive the class trial... If this ends here...there won't be an afterward at all.
: Okay! Do your best! *leaves*
: H-Hold on...!
: I won't let you escape this time! Wait right there! *leaves*



: ...What do you guys think? If the school trip if nearly at an end, it's safe to think that we can all go home, right...?
: Kazuichi...I understand how you feel, but we need to focus on Nagito's case first.
: Even if we can go home...it'll be the end for us if we screw up here...!
: Then let's hurry up and solve Nagito's case so we can all go back home!
: It is nice to think everyone can go home, but...that is impossible, right? I mean...someone in this room killed Nagito.



There's a killer among us...

The weight of those words began to sink into me. That was true of the previous cases, but...was it really true this time? No matter how much I tried, I couldn't believe it...

Because the victim was Nagito...?

Because his death was so abnormally cruel...?

No, it wasn't just that. There was something more to it than that... And whatever it was...it was stuck inside me.


EponymousMrYar
Jan 4, 2015

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.
Way to forget about that bomb-like apparatus on the central island guys.

FoolyCharged
Oct 11, 2012

Cheating at a raffle? I sentence you to 1 year in jail! No! Two years! Three! Four! Five years! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
Somebody call for an ant?

I'm going to pretend everyone not telling Kaz that he was an idiot and that monokuma explicitly avoided saying they would go home was them trying to be kind to him and not the entire cast being idiots.

Zoe
Jan 19, 2007
Hair Elf
With everyone spending so much time split up this is going to be a tough one to pin down. Harder still because everyone has a motive, and yet I flat out just can't picture any of the remaining kids going ahead with this.

Blademaster_Aio
Jan 22, 2017

Well, Nagito did say he was willing to die for the cause, so here he is. Dead. Offed by someone.

Zoe
Jan 19, 2007
Hair Elf

Blademaster_Aio posted:

Well, Nagito did say he was willing to die for the cause, so here he is. Dead. Offed by someone.

Strangely, he doesn't look too happy about it.

FoolyCharged
Oct 11, 2012

Cheating at a raffle? I sentence you to 1 year in jail! No! Two years! Three! Four! Five years! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
Somebody call for an ant?

Zoe posted:

With everyone spending so much time split up this is going to be a tough one to pin down. Harder still because everyone has a motive, and yet I flat out just can't picture any of the remaining kids going ahead with this.

Kaz is dangerously emotional, unstable, and has shown a clear lack of concern for the opinions of others in his obsession with sonja.

Therfore it was the quiet nerd girl.

Who What Now
Sep 10, 2006

by Azathoth

Zoe posted:

Strangely, he doesn't look too happy about it.

Getting impaled isn't pleasant.

Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender
Nothing about Kazuichi has given me the impression that he's a good enough actor to pull off what seems to be a genuine shock at seeing Nagito's body. But then again, that doesn't mean a lot since the same could have been said of most of the people who turned out to actually be killers.

Blademaster_Aio
Jan 22, 2017

Zoe posted:

Strangely, he doesn't look too happy about it.


Who What Now posted:

Getting impaled isn't pleasant.

Even Nagito isn't enough of a masochist to enjoy being impaled to death. Well, physically at least.

Zoe
Jan 19, 2007
Hair Elf

Stabbey_the_Clown posted:

Nothing about Kazuichi has given me the impression that he's a good enough actor to pull off what seems to be a genuine shock at seeing Nagito's body. But then again, that doesn't mean a lot since the same could have been said of most of the people who turned out to actually be killers.

Souda just seems like such a weasely loving coward all around, no matter how much he talks I can't see him actually going through with a killing this hands on and with the torture and all.

ApplesandOranges
Jun 22, 2012

Thankee kindly.

Zoe posted:

Souda just seems like such a weasely loving coward all around, no matter how much he talks I can't see him actually going through with a killing this hands on and with the torture and all.

I mean, Teruteru wasn't cut from that different a cloth, he just actually had a motivation.

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!
Seems like everyone unanimously hates Kaz.

Robindaybird
Aug 21, 2007

Neat. Sweet. Petite.

The question is who is capable of torturing Nagito. The knife in the hand, and what looks to be cut marks along his legs along with his taped mouth suggests a sadist or someone cold blooded.

I think that might eliminate a couple people.

Blademaster_Aio
Jan 22, 2017

Hobgoblin2099 posted:

Seems like everyone unanimously hates Kaz.

I don't hate him.

I actually like the mechanic version of him.

He's annoying when he's annoying Sonia.

But I don't hate him.

I disliked the little kimono brat, the perverted chef and Mikan a lot more.

Robindaybird posted:

The question is who is capable of torturing Nagito. The knife in the hand, and what looks to be cut marks along his legs along with his taped mouth suggests a sadist or someone cold blooded.

I think that might eliminate a couple people.

Doesn't that eliminate everyone?

Virtue
Jan 7, 2009

I hope this isn't going to be a fakeout where the killer was actually one of the other students who was killed off in an earlier chapter.

FPzero
Oct 20, 2008

Game Over
Return of Mido

By this point in my first playthrough, I had done all of Kazuichi's FTEs and my opinion of him was much higher. Since they can all be accessed from the start of the game and his Sonia obsession only truly rears its head around the middle of the game all his events (from what I remember) were mostly about him and Hajime just chilling out or talking about mechanic stuff. But without seeing that side of him during this LP he definitely comes off worse.

He's not the best character or anything and his Sonia-infatuation is way more annoying than I remembered, but I was happy he was still alive at this point in the game.

EponymousMrYar
Jan 4, 2015

The enemy of my enemy is my enemy.
Unfortunately the whole Mikan thing throws shade on everyone. Who's the best at hiding their previous, probably pretty murder-y selves!?

FoolyCharged
Oct 11, 2012

Cheating at a raffle? I sentence you to 1 year in jail! No! Two years! Three! Four! Five years! Ah! Ah! Ah! Ah!
Somebody call for an ant?

Robindaybird posted:

The question is who is capable of torturing Nagito. The knife in the hand, and what looks to be cut marks along his legs along with his taped mouth suggests a sadist or someone cold blooded.

I think that might eliminate a couple people.

I dunno about cold blooded, it strikes me more as an extremely passionate person who snapped. Nagito's expression doesn't say he was resisting someone trying to extract information at any means, it's fear. I get the feeling this is pent up anger at him let loose and hurting him just to hurt him.

fractalairduct
Sep 26, 2015

I, Giorno Giovanna, have a dream!

EponymousMrYar posted:

Unfortunately the whole Mikan thing throws shade on everyone. Who's the best at hiding their previous, probably pretty murder-y selves!?

Well, not Nagito.

Scaramouche
Mar 26, 2001

SPACE FACE! SPACE FACE!

Blademaster_Aio posted:

Doesn't that eliminate everyone?

Sometimes... a Princess has to make hard decisions.

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!

Virtue posted:

I hope this isn't going to be a fakeout where the killer was actually one of the other students who was killed off in an earlier chapter.

I'm sure it won't turn out that Nagito was actually Mikan's twin sister.

FPzero posted:

He's not the best character or anything and his Sonia-infatuation is way more annoying than I remembered, but I was happy he was still alive at this point in the game.

Same.

Bifauxnen
Aug 12, 2010

Curses! Foiled again!


FPzero posted:


He's not the best character or anything and his Sonia-infatuation is way more annoying than I remembered, but I was happy he was still alive at this point in the game.

I'm maybe more annoyed by Hinata minimising Souda's behavior sometimes, like it's not really a big deal and Sonia should just feel sorry for him or something. Can't remember a good example was off the top of my head to quote, though.

Like it's bad enough for Souda to be kind of a creep, but maybe with Sonia telling him off he'll finally catch a clue. But Hinata should know better and not enable him! :mad:

C. Everett Koop
Aug 18, 2008
I assume the blood-soaked Monobear with the big hole in the middle is so whoever did the stabbing could avoid getting pink on themselves, right?

curiousCat
Sep 23, 2012

Does this look like the face of mercy, kupo?

FPzero posted:

ways...until now, I never wanted to admit how painfully ordinary I really am. That's why...hope...
I might have admired talent▪individuality...▪but I have finally...forever●tried my best...finally came tru3+d



just had a thought and went back to the first post of the LP. It's literally right there that Hinata's reserve course, aha.

Blademaster_Aio
Jan 22, 2017

curiousCat posted:

just had a thought and went back to the first post of the LP. It's literally right there that Hinata's reserve course, aha.

This is why replays of these games are great.


FPzero posted:

By this point in my first playthrough, I had done all of Kazuichi's FTEs and my opinion of him was much higher. Since they can all be accessed from the start of the game and his Sonia obsession only truly rears its head around the middle of the game all his events (from what I remember) were mostly about him and Hajime just chilling out or talking about mechanic stuff. But without seeing that side of him during this LP he definitely comes off worse.

He's not the best character or anything and his Sonia-infatuation is way more annoying than I remembered, but I was happy he was still alive at this point in the game.

Same, same. I actually did all his events pretty early on and I like his mechanic self side. He's so happy when doing mechanic stuff.

He's pretty high on my list, and from this currently alive group I like him more than Akane. Way more than her.

resurgam40
Jul 22, 2007

Battler, the literal stupidest man on earth. Why are you even here, Battler, why did you come back to this place so you could fuck literally everything up?
Oh, phew; the way the thread was going, I thought I was the only one in the universe who still likes Kaz. The internet comes through for my bad opinions again! :v:

Seriously, though, when I first played through the game (or rather, when I read the first attempt at this LP, lo these many years ago) I had Souda pegged as, if not a final survivor, a long lasting player because of the function he serves in the group an the game as a whole. One of the main themes of the series is how the search and prioritization of talent overall by Hope's Peak has led to a lot of overt and implied terrible things happening, and one of the indicators of this is the makeup of the classes we have seen- which to whit has not been a normal high school class as the term is normally understood. Forget being at the same intellectual level as a high school sophomore, some of these kids (and young adults) aren't even sane- are in fact so far from accepted physical or mental health that it's funny until it becomes terrifying... until it occurs to one that assembling all this raw talent under one roof with little to no guiding principle except "do what thou wilt" probably led to the Calamity. To highlight this unhealthy deviation from the norm, we need a baseline, a "control group", and that is the function Souda serves in this game, and this becomes clear in his free time events. He's not some weirdo, delinquent, or ubermensch; he has no plan to revolutionize his talent or take over the world- he's normal, almost aggressively so, and worries about normal things: school, friends, what he's going to do after high school. And having seen these scenes, it helps me link early game Kaz to late game Kaz and contextualize him as somebody going to pieces and seizing onto pretty much anything that lends him strength and normalcy, even if the measures he takes do come off as creepy and paranoid ( which, you know, they are). Does he come off well? No he does not, but try to imagine the normal teenager you went to high-school with in the same position, because that is who he is meant to invoke: the 16 year old, not particularly intelligent, not really kind or cruel but somewhat selfish and myopic, who just happens to be a mechanical genius. People have compared him to Hiro in the last game, but if anything, he's more akin to Hina than anyone else, who also was characterized as a normal person way in over her head. (And at least Kaz' Ultimate talent has come up in the story, whereas Hina's swimming ability was regulated to ancillary detail)

Now, that having been said... the normal high school boy is in fact a pervy dick and Kaz is no different as other people have pointed out: that this portrayal is accurate does not really make it pleasant. And of course the other caveat is that I am coming at this character from the perspective of someone who hasn't ever been the target of a persistent, unwanted crush- a staple of comedy for decades that only very recently has begun to get the shellacking it deserves. This portrayal has problems, problems that have already been addressed... and which the game could have mitigated by giving the player more agency in responses. For example, as Bifauxnen points out, it might help if Hajime was given the opportunity to take Kaz to task for his behavior, towards Sonia or towards himself (it still rankles me that we haven't got an apology yet for the whole traitor thing)... Heck even just the ability to mess with Kaz a little might have made things better. Like the ability to :smug: it up to him about totally being invited to Sonia's castle... or even the old "check Sonia's teeth from down the hallway so it looks like you're kissing from afar" gag... What? I went to high school too, I know how to be catty.

vvv Uh... citation needed? Seriously, Kaz is annoying and a creep, but what leads you to think he's THAT level of freakazoid?

resurgam40 fucked around with this message at 14:28 on Dec 20, 2017

Who What Now
Sep 10, 2006

by Azathoth

resurgam40 posted:

Oh, phew; the way the thread was going, I thought I was the only one in the universe who still likes Kaz. The internet comes through for my bad opinions again! :v:

[...] He's not some weirdo,

I'm sorry but this is just objectively wrong. He's a weirdo who almost certainly has a shrine to Sonia in his room made out of dropped hairs and uneaten food she touched.

AweStriker
Oct 6, 2014

resurgam40 posted:

To highlight this unhealthy deviation from the norm, we need a baseline, a "control group", and that is the function Souda serves in this game, and this becomes clear in his free time events. He's not some weirdo, delinquent, or ubermensch; he has no plan to revolutionize his talent or take over the world- he's normal, almost aggressively so, and worries about normal things: school, friends, what he's going to do after high school.

A good argument, but on the other hand Mahiru is much like him in these ways (her unnatural ability to tolerate Hiyoko aside) and I would definitely have preferred her to live over Kaz.

Blademaster_Aio
Jan 22, 2017

AweStriker posted:

A good argument, but on the other hand Mahiru is much like him in these ways (her unnatural ability to tolerate Hiyoko aside) and I would definitely have preferred her to live over Kaz.

You can blame Fuyuhiko and Peko for that.

Then again, some seriously messed up crap happened during high school which was what that game was based on.

Mahiru was killed by her talent being relevant to the backstory plot of the chapter she died in.

By which I mean she was killed because she was the girl who took the pictures.

I also like Kaz more than her.

Who What Now posted:

I'm sorry but this is just objectively wrong. He's a weirdo who almost certainly has a shrine to Sonia in his room made out of dropped hairs and uneaten food she touched.

I don't think so. I don't remember if we get to see his room, but I would've remembered something like that existed.

Who What Now
Sep 10, 2006

by Azathoth
Obviously it's hidden, like all good shrines are.

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!

AweStriker posted:

A good argument, but on the other hand Mahiru is much like him in these ways (her unnatural ability to tolerate Hiyoko aside) and I would definitely have preferred her to live over Kaz.

I used to dislike Mahiru a lot because of her attitude, but time has given me a good chance to look at her and see that I was judging her unfairly. It is a shame she died early on since she does seem like one of the people who would have tried to rein in all of the craziness that happened.

That said, the craziness that happens involved Nagito, so...

Also, as an aside, I kind of wonder what it'd be like if Mahiru and Chihiro met.

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Stabbey_the_Clown
Sep 21, 2002

Are... are you quite sure you really want to say that?
Taco Defender

AweStriker posted:

A good argument, but on the other hand Mahiru is much like him in these ways (her unnatural ability to tolerate Hiyoko aside) and I would definitely have preferred her to live over Kaz.

Yes, definitely.

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