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Lord_Magmar
Feb 24, 2015

"Welcome to pound town, Slifer slacker!"



I'd already elaborated on the some guy, who is also an artificially created super genius meant to be the "Ultimate Hope" but mostly just became the "Ultimate Talent" and a whole bunch of boredom. Thankfully, he was fixed.

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1234567890num
Oct 6, 2017

Lord_Magmar posted:

I'd already elaborated on the some guy, who is also an artificially created super genius meant to be the "Ultimate Hope" but mostly just became the "Ultimate Talent" and a whole bunch of boredom. Thankfully, he was fixed.

Oh, right. I didn't see it before.

I never played this game, so I'm looking forward to seeing what makes people go :ohdear:

SoundwaveAU
Apr 17, 2018

Lord_Magmar posted:

Actually, this is after that event.

iirc in Danganronpa 2's epilogue Kyoko says something like "The biggest, most awful, most tragic event in human history still isn't over yet." so as of the ending of DR2 it's apparently still ongoing.

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

TheMcD posted:


I honestly didn't expect people that aren't familiar with the first two games to check this out.

ha, well i skipped the first two. my knowledge of them was that it was some sort of high school murder game show with a black and white bear. my interest here is kinda because of the whole "oh dear" reaction of crow and Fedule. i figure it's time i climb aboard the train.

Psycho Knight
Jan 19, 2017

"Being a fangame and not bound to a rating, Pokemon Reborn is able to expand more on topics such as death and the extreme dangers Pokemon could pose. These topics...are treated with the respect such a subject deserves."

Let's throw a Medicham into a volcano and make it give the T2 thumbs up!

TheMcD posted:

I honestly didn't expect people that aren't familiar with the first two games to check this out.

These Japanese anime visual novel/RPG/whatever games are usually my jam. They almost always deliver on one of two things for me: happily ever after style romantic conclusions (which I'm a sucker for), or weirdness/being overly convoluted and leaning into it HARD. Unfortunately I missed the boat on some of these series for various reasons. I think Danganronpa was because I was burnt out on 999 and later Virtue's Last Reward. It's just a series I never hopped on board with when it first came out.

So I'm here largely because this series has looked interesting, but it's a bit too late for me to try and catch up with it all. Also, people SSLP'ing Japanese games of any kind is usually hilarious.

Carbon dioxide
Oct 9, 2012

Psycho Knight posted:

These Japanese anime visual novel/RPG/whatever games are usually my jam. They almost always deliver on one of two things for me: happily ever after style romantic conclusions (which I'm a sucker for), or weirdness/being overly convoluted and leaning into it HARD. Unfortunately I missed the boat on some of these series for various reasons. I think Danganronpa was because I was burnt out on 999 and later Virtue's Last Reward. It's just a series I never hopped on board with when it first came out.

So I'm here largely because this series has looked interesting, but it's a bit too late for me to try and catch up with it all. Also, people SSLP'ing Japanese games of any kind is usually hilarious.

I don't know this specific game well, but having heard what people said about it, if you want to get 'into' Danganronpa, this specific game is prob one of the worst starting points.

FPzero
Oct 20, 2008

Game Over
Return of Mido

Carbon dioxide posted:

I don't know this specific game well, but having heard what people said about it, if you want to get 'into' Danganronpa, this specific game is prob one of the worst starting points.

I'd agree with that assessment. It's really nothing like the other games that people talk the most about except for tone, and even then the tone isn't totally the same either. In my opinion, the best place to get into the series is still the very first game, even if I think DR2 and V3 are better games overall.

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

Carbon dioxide posted:

if you want to get 'into' Danganronpa, this specific game is prob one of the worst starting points.

FPzero posted:

I'd agree with that assessment.

:unsmigghh: i'm all about bad video game decisions!!

ultrafilter
Aug 23, 2007

It's okay if you have any questions.


Blind Sally posted:

my interest here is kinda because of the whole "oh dear" reaction of crow and Fedule.

Same. I would've totally ignored this if no one had groaned.

TheMcD
May 4, 2013

Monaca / Subject N 2024
---------
Despair will never let you down.
Malice will never disappoint you.

FPzero posted:

I'd agree with that assessment. It's really nothing like the other games that people talk the most about except for tone, and even then the tone isn't totally the same either. In my opinion, the best place to get into the series is still the very first game, even if I think DR2 and V3 are better games overall.

Yeah. I love this game to death, but it just straight assumes you're already on board. Getting on board with this game is a very bad decision.

...LPing this game is a very bad decision. So never mind, guess this is all on brand.

I'm also typing up a recap update for DR1 and DR2 that will hopefully get people up to speed somewhat.

Good to see people coming on board to see a train wreck. This surely bodes well.

FPzero
Oct 20, 2008

Game Over
Return of Mido

TheMcD posted:

I'm also typing up a recap update for DR1 and DR2 that will hopefully get people up to speed somewhat.

If you want to include any images of the first two games, such as the cast or locations or whatever, feel free to grab any of the screenshots from my LPs and use them.

TheMcD
May 4, 2013

Monaca / Subject N 2024
---------
Despair will never let you down.
Malice will never disappoint you.

FPzero posted:

If you want to include any images of the first two games, such as the cast or locations or whatever, feel free to grab any of the screenshots from my LPs and use them.

I'll definitely take you up on that offer, because man, I've forgotten so many things, so I'm already heavily using your LPs to get myself back up to speed. I had completely forgotten what the hell went on between Teruteru and Nagito when it came to the first murder. Nagito's plan, and then Teruteru's plan in response to Nagito's plan, and then Nagito's plan in response to Teruteru's plan in response to Nagito's plan... I'm still not sure I fully realize what went down there again, but I'm not looking to go into too deep anyway.

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!
Nagito wanted to commit murder for muh hope, Teruteru tried to kill him for everyone else (or so he could escape and see his mom) only to wind up killing the fake Togami, Nagito preys on that desire to escape and helps him because muh hope vs despair, only to wind up ditching him at the end because he couldn't lie/bluff to literally save his life.

Carbon dioxide
Oct 9, 2012

I certainly hope this LP is worth it.

TheMcD
May 4, 2013

Monaca / Subject N 2024
---------
Despair will never let you down.
Malice will never disappoint you.

Alright, since it's been asked multiple times now, let's have a bit of a more detailed recap of DR1 and DR2. Not all of this information will be pertinent for UDG, of course. This will include the general premise, the involved characters and their fates, and the big twists of the games. Let's start with DR1. DR2 should follow in a couple days.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc - Recap

Basic Premise:

A whole bunch of high school students are locked inside Hope's Peak Academy, a school for people gifted with extraordinary talents called "Ultimates". They are told by a black and white bear called Monokuma that in order to get out, you have to kill somebody else and get through an investigation and class trial without everybody else figuring out that you are the killer. If you succeed in this, everybody else is executed and you get to leave. If you fail, you are executed and the game continues. Murders ensue.

Characters:

- Makoto Naegi: Ultimate Lucky Student and our protagonist. Brother to Komaru. Got picked by a lottery to enroll at Hope's Peak Academy despite a lack of any talent. Optimistic to a fault and constantly believes in the power of hope over despair. Survives. Side note: At one point, he is given a motive video tape from Monokuma that shows that something happened to Komaru and his parents, and that he would need to win the killing game to find out.

- Kiyotaka Ishimaru: Ultimate Moral Compass. Total stickler for rules. Finds himself in a manly friendship-rivalry with Mondo that couldn't be more hot-blooded if it tried. Ends up being infused with Mondo's soul after speaking to Alter Ego emulating Mondo. I don't quite get this part myself. Gets killed by Hifumi, who got manipulated into doing it by Celes.

- Byakuya Togami: Ultimate Affluent Progeny. Prick. Sort of rival to Makoto. Starts out not giving a drat about this "friendship" bullshit and intends to win the game, but ends up getting ticked off at the Mastermind's behavior and shifts gears into wanting to break out of the game as well. Never really manages to not be a prick, though. Survives.

- Mondo Oowada: Ultimate Biker Gang Leader. Very aggressive, but with principles. Has the aforementioned friendship-rivalry with Kiyotaka. He has a secret - he ended up accidentally causing his brother's death out of an obsession to proving his strength. Ends up executed for killing Chihiro after Chihiro revealing his secret to Mondo confronts him with how weak he really is, causing him to snap and beat Chihiro to death.

- Leon Kuwata: Ultimate Baseball Star. Has an extraordinary talent for baseball, but really doesn't want to play the sport and instead play music. Doesn't really get a lot of time to develop character traits or anything because he dies early and isn't given a focus. Ends up executed for killing Sayaka, who tried to kill him first. After fighting Sayaka off, he sees an opportunity to kill her and escape, and takes it. Alas, it doesn't work out.

- Hifumi Yamada: Ultimate Fanfic Creator. Otaku as gently caress. Spends a lot of time creeping people out with his general behavior. Insists he's only attracted to 2D women. Ends up killing Kiyotaka after Celes manipulates him into doing it by claiming that Kiyotaka stole Alter Ego and sexually assaulted Celes. Then ends up being killed by Celes right after killing Kiyotaka.

- Yasuhiro Hagakure: Ultimate Clairvoyant. Claims his predictions are accurate 20% of the time. The punchline character that basically doesn't add anything to the story except being played for laughs. Survives on account of being a joke character that you constantly assume to either be the next victim or the next murderer.

- Chihiro Fujisaki: Ultimate Programmer. One would probably think that Chihiro is a girl from looking at him, but no. He crossdresses because he was bullied for being weak, ended up developing a massive insecurity about his weakness and wants to hide that by crossdressing and appearing feminine to the everybody else. Ends up killed by Mondo after he told Mondo about his crossdressing, causing Mondo to realize that even the incredibly frail looking Chihiro is stronger than him on account of being able to actually confide such a secret in somebody, causing Mondo to snap.

- Alter Ego: An AI created by Chihiro that tries to help the students survive after Chihiro dies. Ends up being discovered and destroyed by Monokuma, but not before being able to flee into the school network and continue its support, bailing out Makoto from being executed.

- Sayaka Maizono: Ultimate Pop Sensation. Used to be classmates with Makoto, and makes overtures at being his sidekick in getting out of the killing game. Overly friendly and cheerful, plays the "childhood friend" part to a T. Ends up killed by Leon after her plan to kill Leon and frame Makoto for it failed.

- Kyoko Kirigiri: Ultimate Detective. Cold and calculated. Kind of takes on the sidekick role for Makoto - though given her competency, one could kind of consider Makoto her sidekick. Also ends up in the position of being the love interest for Makoto. Has amnesia to cover up things like her detective talent and the fact that her father was the headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy. Survives.

- Aoi Asahina: Ultimate Swimming Pro. Plucky and bubbly, she has a love for donuts so strong it could be considered a primary character trait. Ends up taking the deaths of the other students much harder than the others, to the point that when Sakura commited suicide and Monokuma produced a fake suicide note claiming she did it because she had fallen into despair, Aoi tries to set herself up as the killer in order to take everybody else down with her. She got better, though. Survives.

- Toko Fukawa: Ultimate Writing Prodigy. Personification of a persecution complex, she always assumes the worst of everybody, with the exception of Byakuya, whom she is madly in love with (though Byakuya couldn't be sharing that love less). Has a split personality that switches whenever she either sees blood or sneezes and that she doesn't share memories with. Survives.

- Genocide Jack / Genocide Jill / Genocider Syo / whatever: Toko's split personality. She is far more upbeat and energetic than Toko. She's also a serial killer, which you might have assumed from her having "genocide" in her name. Takes great pride in her work and is completely unrepentant. The one thing she shares with Toko, personality wise? An obsession with Byakuya. Turns out to not kill anybody in the game.

- Sakura Ogami: Ultimate Martial Artist. An absolute beast of a woman as far as stature is concerned, she's actually very calm and friendly if you don't really piss her off. Monokuma is holding her dojo hostage and is forcing her to act as a spy of sorts with the idea being that if everybody else manages to band together and no murders happen, Sakura is to break the group apart by killing somebody. Ends up fulfilling the terms of the deal with Monokuma by killing somebody - namely, herself, to protect the others.

- Celestia Ludenberg: Ultimate Gambler. Might appear friendly at first, but is a total ice queen with a penchant for lying constantly. Rejected her old life as an unremarkable girl called Taeko Yasuhiro and put on a persona of an extravagant gambling master with desires of grandeur. Becomes very heavily abrasive when her facade breaks. Orchestrates Hifumi killing Kiyotaka, then kills Hifumi herself and ends up executed for it.

- Junko Enoshima: Ultimate Fashionista. Kind of a valley girl type. Much like Leon, she doesn't get a lot of screen time to develop her character. Ends up getting speared to death after attacking Monokuma and therefore breaking the school rules, which means death as a punishment.

The Twists:

- It is established that the killing game is being broadcast worldwide in order to throw the world into despair. However, it turns out that the world has already been thrown into despair through "The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event In Human History" (or something like that, people usually just call it The Event, I call it The Incident because maybe the fan translation I originally played called it that, whatever, just call it That Thing That Happened, people will know what you mean) and is basically hosed, including air pollution that has made a large amount of the world uninhabitable, with the school building having an air purifier to counteract that.

- The students being locked into Hope's Peak Academy was not in fact the work of the mastermind, but rather, they were locked in voluntarily because of the aforementioned world loving as part of a plan by the headmaster to ride things out and rebuild afterwards. However, they did not account for...

- ...two of the students to be locked up in the school - Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Fashionista, and Mukuro Ikusaba, the Ultimate Soldier, who are sisters - were actually the ones behind The Event. Not only that, but...

- ...the Junko Enoshima you see in the game isn't the real Junko, but rather Mukuro wearing a disguise.

- The real Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Despair, has extreme analytical capabilities that have left her basically able to predict practically everything. As a result, she has become bored with basically everything, to the point where she got bored with her own personality and developed several split personalities between which she switches at the drop of a hat. The only thing she still gets enjoyment from is despair, which makes people act in a much more unpredictable way. This has warped her perception to the point where she has gone basically insane and seems to get sexual gratification from feeling despair. While she would be able to craft a plan which has no chance of failing, she actually works a way for her plan to fail into it just so she can feel the despair when her plan does fail.

The End:

Ultimately, Junko's plan does fail as Makoto rallies everybody around the power of hope, and she ends up executed herself. After Junko is executed, the surviving students - Makoto, Byakuya, Toko, Aoi, Kyoko and Yasuhiro - leave the school and head into an unsure future, knowing that while they don't know what will come, they have the hope to proceed.

So, that's what I would consider a basic rundown of DR1. If I forgot something or made an error, please let me know. I of course still recognize that I am an eternal fuckup.

Fedule
Mar 27, 2010


No one left uncured.
I got you.
My favourite random funfact about this game is that while Danganronpas 1 and 2 are consistent in their use of the verbiage "The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History" to describe the big despair event, Ultra Despair Girls frequently refers to it as "The Worst, Most Despair-inducing Incident in the History of Mankind", which is what it was called in orenronen's translation LP of DR1.

ArcadePark
Feb 4, 2011

Damn it, It's all your fault!

Fedule posted:

My favourite random funfact about this game is that while Danganronpas 1 and 2 are consistent in their use of the verbiage "The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History" to describe the big despair event, Ultra Despair Girls frequently refers to it as "The Worst, Most Despair-inducing Incident in the History of Mankind", which is what it was called in orenronen's translation LP of DR1.

orenronen's translation is more direct, while the official translation is a bit more Woolseyish. The original text is 人類史上最大最悪の絶望的事件 , and you can see how long and convulted it is. It is meant to be a very tongue-in-cheek phrase, and I see that the official translate considered this factor, while orenronen opted for a more word-to-word translatio for his LP, to be more informative.

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!
Worth noting that Mondo beating Chihiro to death was an accidental murder. Or, at least, the most accidental of the bunch. That case also has Byakuya's biggest rear end in a top hat moment that he never really gets comeuppance for, in hindsight.

ultrafilter
Aug 23, 2007

It's okay if you have any questions.



So everyone's fine with all that, but this game inspires groans? What are we in for here?

Lord_Magmar
Feb 24, 2015

"Welcome to pound town, Slifer slacker!"


Hobgoblin2099 posted:

Worth noting that Mondo beating Chihiro to death was an accidental murder. Or, at least, the most accidental of the bunch. That case also has Byakuya's biggest rear end in a top hat moment that he never really gets comeuppance for, in hindsight.

Mondo’s killing is the only one that involves no pre-planning, he merely has anger issues that boil over at the worst time possible in the worst way possible. It’s worth remembering he’s already knocked Makoto out with a punch in a rage previously.

So Chihiro talking about getting strong enough to reveal their secret without fear causes him to snap over his longheld fear of people discovering his older brother died saving him from his own stupid mistake. Then, one blow to the head with a dumbbell and it’s all over, amp do doesn’t even remember hitting Chihiro afaik.

I think like, the one thing missing from The McD’s overview is the side stuff, like IF revealing that Mukuro could have been convinced by Makoto to side against Junko under certain circumstances, partially because he’s nice to her for the sake of being nice which is novel for the Ultimate Soldier, also Junko is an abusive bitch to her and she thinks that’s okay until Makoto interacts with her in certain ways

This sort of comes up in game when Mukuro disguised as Junko offers to set Makoto up on a date with her sister, which would be herself outside the disguise, if you go through her free time events.

Also the air pollution might not be real and people were trying to free the students from the school and failing, presumably killed by either Monokumas like in this game or Junko’s followers.

Fedule
Mar 27, 2010


No one left uncured.
I got you.

ultrafilter posted:

So everyone's fine with all that, but this game inspires groans? What are we in for here?

The thing you gotta understand about Danganronpa is that the setting is nuts and the aesthetic is anime af and the localisation is honestly kinda average but the appeal of the thing is the rounded, relatable cast of characters and the fact that it is one of the very very few golden-age style closed circle murder mystery series left on this Earth. This and Phoenix Wright are basically it; it's not that there aren't other murder mysteries out there, but that very few of them hew this close to the method of presenting an attention-grabbing crime and then unravelling it, one deduction at a time.

UDG is unable to leverage these strengths because rather than being a diminishing-cast murder mystery game it is an okay-ish 3D action shooter. Also, notably, UDG features a number of literal children in its cast, and while the numbered entries have never been particularly shy about having some hosed up backstories for its teenage cast, UDG has a couple of razor blades in its gum, so to speak. All in good time.

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!

ultrafilter posted:

So everyone's fine with all that, but this game inspires groans? What are we in for here?

Well, there's a spoiler policy! You'll see.

ArcadePark
Feb 4, 2011

Damn it, It's all your fault!

ultrafilter posted:

So everyone's fine with all that, but this game inspires groans? What are we in for here?

The billion dollar question every Danganronpa player asks, but nobody answers. Sums up the series as a whole.

MonsterEnvy
Feb 4, 2012

Shocked I tell you
I am just going to say it. This game has some very dark stuff that some people are going to be very uncomfortable with.

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!
I was going to mention it later, but a warning before certain updates might not be a bad idea.

Carbon dioxide
Oct 9, 2012

Fedule posted:

My favourite random funfact about this game is that while Danganronpas 1 and 2 are consistent in their use of the verbiage "The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History" to describe the big despair event, Ultra Despair Girls frequently refers to it as "The Worst, Most Despair-inducing Incident in the History of Mankind", which is what it was called in orenronen's translation LP of DR1.

For those who don't know, Orenronen's translation LP here on the forum, the one that drew in millions of tumblrites, is probably the one thing that gave DR1 enough attention in the west to get it localized at all. I remember that early on during that LP, consensus was that "this game is just too much based in Japanese humour, it'll never get localized". But the LP showed that westerners were massively interested.

quote:

- Aoi Asahina: Ultimate Swimming Pro. Plucky and bubbly, she has a love for donuts so strong it could be considered a primary character trait. Ends up taking the deaths of the other students much harder than the others, to the point that when Sakura commited suicide and Monokuma produced a fake suicide note claiming she did it because she had fallen into despair, Aoi tries to set herself up as the killer in order to take everybody else down with her. She got better, though. Survives.
In the localization she told everyone to call her 'Hina', part of her family name. Probably because it was really hard for the voice actors to pronounce Aoi. The English actress for Aoi pronounced her given name once and it sounded awful.

Haifisch
Nov 13, 2010

Objection! I object! That was... objectionable!



Taco Defender

Carbon dioxide posted:

In the localization she told everyone to call her 'Hina', part of her family name. Probably because it was really hard for the voice actors to pronounce Aoi. The English actress for Aoi pronounced her given name once and it sounded awful.
The localization does these weird shortened-name nicknames a lot. Ishimaru gets called 'Taka', for instance.

I'm not sure how much of that is voice actors having trouble with the names and how much is the localizers underestimating how used the audience(especially considering DR was originally only on the Vita, the VN system for huge goddamn nerds) is to Japanese names.

TheMcD
May 4, 2013

Monaca / Subject N 2024
---------
Despair will never let you down.
Malice will never disappoint you.

Haifisch posted:

The localization does these weird shortened-name nicknames a lot. Ishimaru gets called 'Taka', for instance.

I'm not sure how much of that is voice actors having trouble with the names and how much is the localizers underestimating how used the audience(especially considering DR was originally only on the Vita, the VN system for huge goddamn nerds) is to Japanese names.

Yeah, I never really got on with those nicknames. But hell, what the gently caress do I know. I still call Genocide Jack "Genocider Syo" because I got used to that name from the translation patch for the original PSP version of DR1.

EDIT:

Lord_Magmar posted:

I think like, the one thing missing from The McD’s overview is the side stuff, like IF revealing that Mukuro could have been convinced by Makoto to side against Junko under certain circumstances, partially because he’s nice to her for the sake of being nice which is novel for the Ultimate Soldier, also Junko is an abusive bitch to her and she thinks that’s okay until Makoto interacts with her in certain ways

This sort of comes up in game when Mukuro disguised as Junko offers to set Makoto up on a date with her sister, which would be herself outside the disguise, if you go through her free time events.

The PSP version I played didn't come with DRIF AFAIK, which is why I never experienced it. For that matter, I never really got into the side material for DR2 either. If anybody has a quick recap for those, I'd be glad to add that in to my recaps.

TheMcD fucked around with this message at 08:15 on Oct 1, 2018

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

Carbon dioxide posted:

In the localization she told everyone to call her 'Hina', part of her family name. Probably because it was really hard for the voice actors to pronounce Aoi. The English actress for Aoi pronounced her given name once and it sounded awful.

wait, i always thought that was one of the easier names to pronounce in English. how did the VA pronounce it??

SoundwaveAU
Apr 17, 2018

Blind Sally posted:

wait, i always thought that was one of the easier names to pronounce in English. how did the VA pronounce it??

She pronounced it 'Owie'

Lord_Magmar
Feb 24, 2015

"Welcome to pound town, Slifer slacker!"


TheMcD posted:

Yeah, I never really got on with those nicknames. But hell, what the gently caress do I know. I still call Genocide Jack "Genocider Syo" because I got used to that name from the translation patch for the original PSP version of DR1.

EDIT:


The PSP version I played didn't come with DRIF AFAIK, which is why I never experienced it. For that matter, I never really got into the side material for DR2 either. If anybody has a quick recap for those, I'd be glad to add that in to my recaps.

I don't recall there actually being much side material specifically for DR2, there's a lot of untranslated stuff but it tends to be related to other characters. DRIF is notable for how much of a character it makes Mukuro, and the whole shipping thing. For what it's worth both Kyoko and Byakuya have novels without official translations that expand on their personalities and lives, there's also Danganronpa Gaiden: Killer Killer, which has probably the most ridiculous bit of bullshit in the entire setting.

Lord_Magmar fucked around with this message at 09:23 on Oct 1, 2018

Sally
Jan 9, 2007


Don't post Small Dash!

SoundwaveAU posted:

She pronounced it 'Owie'

oh, haha, that's not as bad as i thought it'd be. the best (worst) mispronunciation i've heard of that name is "ayy-oyy".

MonsterEnvy
Feb 4, 2012

Shocked I tell you

SoundwaveAU posted:

She pronounced it 'Owie'

Honestly I have heard it pronounced by Japanese people and it sounds a lot like that.

DR 2 and V3 did not use any nicknames (Except for one character and that depended on the mood. He would be called by both.)

TheMcD
May 4, 2013

Monaca / Subject N 2024
---------
Despair will never let you down.
Malice will never disappoint you.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair - Recap

Basic Premise: A whole bunch of high school students find themselves on a tropical resort with a weird bunny mascot called Usami that wants them to become friends with each other. But then Monokuma shows up again, takes over, and the killing game starts anew. Murders ensue.

Characters:

- Hajime Hinata: Ultimate ??? and our protagonist. Has amnesia, causing him to forget his past and his talent. A bit more cynical than Makoto, as far as protagonists are concerned. Survives. More on Hajime later.

- Nagito Komaeda: Ultimate Lucky Student. One of the most complicated characters in the series. To start off, he has very strange luck - he ends up having great amounts of luck, but those great amounts of luck are then followed by great amounts of bad luck and the cycle repeats. So not only has he won multiple lotteries and gotten to enroll in Hope's Peak, but also his parents are dead and he has not one, but two terminal diseases. This means that he has basically started looking for death in some way, and storms into situations head-first, figuring his luck will get him through, and then inevitably, it turns out he was right. He is also obsessed with the Ultimates, seeing them as great hopes to aspire to, though he as a lowly non-Ultimate could never reach the levels that they have. He also has a... complicated relationship with hope. At face value, he's obsessed with hope and wants to see it conquer all despair. However, he has developed the belief that hope will always win, no matter what. As a result, he finds himself aiding despair because after all, if hope is guaranteed to win, he might as well strengthen the opponent so that hope's victory will shine all the greater, right? Orchestrates Teruteru killing "Byakuya" (by foiling Teruteru's plan to kill Nagito to stop him from killing somebody), then arranges an incredibly complicated murder that kills himself, which is made to look like a murder, and then made to look like a suicide, only to turn out to be a murder in the end, but not one that was carried out intentionally, but rather accidentally by the "traitor", Chiaki. All of this could have failed a million times over, but worked out because of his stupid luck. Of course, then the part of the plan where everybody *but* the "traitor" ends up killed failed, but hey, can't be perfect, right?

Oh, also, he tried to distrupt everything by blowing the entire island sky high with explosives. Nagito is loving insane, and he's loving insanely entertaining as a result. He is the ultimate wildcard character, and the climax of his insane plans, dubbed Nagito's Wild Ride, is probably the highlight event of the game, if not the series.

- "Byakuya Togami": Ultimate Affluent Progeny... apparently? He calls himself Byakuya Togami, and you can see the resemblance, sorta... except he weighs like at least double the Byakuya we know from the first game does! Also, he's way less of an rear end in a top hat, instead being a natural leader that vows that because he is superior to everybody else, he will save everybody from the killing game. Gets killed by Teruteru in a plot which was manipulated by Nagito. Also turns out to actually be the Ultimate Imposter, somebody who is able to just make you believe that he actually is the person he is impersonating despite the fact that he's a massive guy and the people he's impersonating normally aren't.

- Gundham Tanaka: Ultimate Breeder. As in, animal breeder. Dictionary definition of the term "Chuunibyou". Read: He talks like a supervillain about his intentions to conquer the world with his evil magic and his Four Dark Devas of Destruction - which are four hamsters. Like, just plain old hamsters, though he has them pretty well drilled and can pull off some surprising tricks with them. He doesn't actually have any superpowers or anything, it's just all in his head. When the entire group is locked up inside a building by Monokuma with the intent being for them to either commit a murder or starve to death, he ends up fighting Nekomaru (in robot form at this point) in a planned one-on-one battle and then kills him by tying him up in such a way that him struggling leads to him falling to his death rather than just starve to death. He is of course executed for that.

- Kazuichi Soda: Ultimate Mechanic. Takes on the Yasuhiro role for this game with a bit of the "failed romantic" archetype thrown in. Is head over heels in love with Sonia, who goes from merely ignoring him to actually becoming hostile towards him. He's kind of an OK guy, I guess, but man, he just has absolutely no perception of how he comes off to people. Much like Yasuhiro, he survives because he has to stay alive as a red herring for the player to assume the worst for.

- Teruteru Hanamura: Ultimate Cook. Open pervert. Like, god drat, tone it down a notch, man. Equal opportunity pervert, too. Kind of a one-note character, not aided by the fact he's killed off early. Mainly notable in my mind for breaking out in an incredible Cajun accent when flustered in the Class Trial. Ends up executed for killing "Byakuya".

- Nekomaru Nidai: Ultimate Team Manager. A man determined like none other to bring out the absolute best in those he trains. Incredibly hot-blooded. Particularly enjoys taking a good poo poo and brings making GBS threads up frequently enough for it to become a character trait. Takes to mentoring Akane in particular with the relationship reaching sexual tension so thick you could cut it with a knife but with no actual release of the tension (there's a big deal made out of Nekomaru doing "it" to Akane, which is resolved as him giving her a massage, which he has developed a particularly effective routine for, being a sports trainer and all). Ends up taking a hit from a bazooka in an attempt to protect Akane, who was due for being killed because she fought Monokuma, thus violating the rules. He then gets rebuilt by Monokuma into a robot, then ends up getting killed again by Gundham in a one-on-one battle in order to save the others from starving to death. Is then repaired by Soda in the form of a tiny robot... and I forgot what happens to that one. Whoops.

- Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu: Ultimate Yakuza. Successor to a powerful Yakuza family, he starts out much like Byakuya, a prick that has no interest in making friends. Has a personal bodyguard/hitwoman in Peko. Ends up getting a surprising amount of character development after Peko kills Mahiru and attempts to "frame" Fuyuhiko as the true culprit, which would have allowed him to escape, but which he couldn't take advantage of because he couldn't admit that Peko was just a tool to him and not somebody he actually cared deeply for. He ends up becoming an all-around more pleasant person, actually works with the others to get out of the killing game, and survives.

- Chiaki Nanami: Ultimate Gamer. Absent-minded, but always friendly and helpful, she acts as a mixture of Hajime's sidekick, love interest and motivational speaker of sorts. Also, really tired a lot of the time. As somebody who also likes to play video games, is also constantly way too tired and really absent-minded, I find myself identifying with her quite a bit. Ends up executed after accidentally killing Nagito and being outed as the "traitor", more on that later.

- Akane Owari: Ultimate Gymnast. Second in a line of "brown, sporty girl with large breasts, a love of food and an energetic personality" that Kodaka seems to have a weakness for. Akane, however, is constantly spoiling for a fight and isn't exactly the sharpest tool in the shed. She also doesn't take the deaths of others, including Nekomaru, whom she developed a deeper friendship with, as hard as Aoi did. Much like Aoi, Akane survives.

- Sonia Nevermind: Ultimate Princess. A royal princess from the European country of "Novoselic". Generally kind and helpful, she finds herself becoming attracted to Gundham because of his strange "evil" persona, much to Kazuichi's chagrin. Despite carrying herself in a noble way, there's indicators that she hides a far darker side than one would expect from her, both in a not perverted way (she has a surprising obsession with serial killers, including Genocide Jack) and a perverted way (at one point, it is brought up that the entire island is under surveillance with cameras, at which point Sonia calls out in terror that she did "disgraceful things" in front of those cameras). Survives.

- Hiyoko Saionji: Ultimate Traditional Dancer. Best described as a brat due to her tiny frame and very abusive personality, which makes her an all-around unlikeable person. Seems to be in line to get some character development when her getting murdered by Mikan slams the door shut on that, and as such remains relatively one-note.

- Mahiru Koizumi: Ultimate Photographer. Has her head screwed on fairly straight and cares about the others, even if it seems like it takes the form of mostly nagging a lot of the time. Ends up killed by Peko for her involvement in the death of Fuyuhiko's sister, something that is brought up by Monokuma in the form of the in-universe mystery video game "Twilight Syndrome".

- Mikan Tsumiki: Ultimate Nurse. A girl who has been bullied so hard in her past that she feels like the only way people care about her is if she humiliates herself in some sort of way, she basically turns into a doormat that just lets one abuse her. Also a total magnet for fanservice shots, getting into the most improbable situations that somehow lead to her in some sort of unsightly position. Ends up afflicted with a "despair virus" and kills both Hiyoko and Ibuki, later getting executed by being sent into space on a giant needle. Because sure.

- Ibuki Mioda: Ultimate Musician. Fun-loving and super energetic, Ibuki is probably the most positive character in the game and maybe the entire series, and she always goes super hard on whatever she does. Was a member of the school light music club, but has now taken a bit of a tonal shift in style on her own, moving into some quite terrifying death metal instead. We even get to hear her perform at one point during the game! Ends up killed by Mikan.

- Peko Pekoyama: Ultimate Swordswoman. Very stoic, she has been raised since birth to serve Fuyuhiko as a bodyguard. Much like Fuyuhiko cares deeply about her, she cares deeply about Fuyuhiko, but they both never managed to actually get the other to figure that out, so that the whole situation ends up resolved entirely too late when Peko is executed for killing Mahiru for Fuyuhiko's sake.

The Twists:

- It is established that there is a "traitor" amongst the group, one that doesn't belong to them. That "traitor" is eventually revealed to be Chiaki, but that is actually not a negative thing in regards to her, because...

- ...everybody else in the group is actually part of the Remnants of Despair, fanatical followers of Junko who were instrumental in making The Incident happen. They were being pursued by a group called Future Foundation, which now counts the survivors from the first game amongst their number. Now, how did these Remnants get turned back to their old student personalities? Well...

- ...the entire thing was just a simulation set up by Future Foundation. The Remnants were captured by Future Foundation and stuck into the simulation by way of having their bodies plugged into a computer, called the Neo World Program. Well, to be exact, Makoto sticks them into the simulation in an attempt to cure their chronic despair. That was what the whole thing with Usami, wanting everybody to be friends, and turning them back into their old, far friendlier personalities was about. Future Foundation as a whole just wanted to kill the Remnants because, well, yeah. Furthermore, Chiaki was also an AI inserted into the simulation as an observer, hence her "traitor" status as the one that wasn't part of the Remnants of Despair. But that's not all, because...

- ...Junko (yes, she's back!) actually had planned for this entire thing, because she ended up injecting herself into the simulation as an AI/virus, which is how Monokuma got involved. Her plan was to download herself into the consciousnesses of the remaining students and having them wake up, essentially reviving her several times over. Her ultimate plan here is to turn the entire world into copies of her, because... uh... DESPAIR!

- Oh, remember how I was going to bring something else up regarding Hajime? Well, we never did get to his true talent, right? Turns out that he was actually not an Ultimate at all, just a Reserve Course student (short version: Hope's Peak needed more money and started allowing non-Ultimates to enroll there by paying a lot of money - those are the Reserve Course). Except, well...

- ...in a way, Hajime is actually the most talented of all. Obsessed with becoming an Ultimate himself, he volunteers for a Hope's Peak program designed to create the Ultimate Hope, leading to him undergoing a surgery which basically erases his old personality and just overwrites it with purestrain talent, which basically lead to a cold, emotionless drone called Izuru Kamukura that was very talented, but also very prone to being manipulated by Junko, which then happened. Izuru then ended up on the side of despair - though not working directly with it, more in a "just wants to see the world burn because he can't give a poo poo about anything anymore" way. It was also Izuru who ended up inserting the Junko virus into the simulation.

The End:

This gets a bit complicated. Basically, the simulation starts breaking down, the group ends up breaking into a secured area that turns out to be a facsimile of Hope's Peak. In there, they end up confronting Monokuma and start playing Plot Twist Pile Up, going through a lot of twists in rapid fire succession. Then a giant AI Junko shows up - because of course - and does her despair thing, and then Makoto, Byakuya and Kyoko show up and do their hope thing, Hajime has a battle inside his head with his Izuru personality and wins... apparently? Junko sets up some complicated dilemma and Hajime takes an alternate way out, beating Junko with the power of hope, or the power of future, or something like that. Anyway, Junko is beat, the survivors wake up with their memories of the simulation intact and therefore retaining their non-despaired personalities, and they look towards an uncertain future.

I have to admit, after Nagito's Wild Ride, everything becomes one big massive haze of HOPE and DESPAIR and JUNKOS in my head. Even reading parts of it in FPZero's LP doesn't lift the haze, so I'm definitely sure I made some mistakes here. Please correct what I hosed up or bring up parts I missed.

TheMcD fucked around with this message at 23:37 on Feb 10, 2019

Fedule
Mar 27, 2010


No one left uncured.
I got you.
The thing you have got to understand about Nagito's Wild Ride is that while it's great and amazing and kind of awe-inspiring in retrospect and you have just got to hand it to Nagito loving Komaeda, what really makes it incredible is that it plays out in a completely straight one-deduction-at-a-time murder mystery in which every single new detail hits with the force of a lesser plot's Single Climactic Twist, which culminates in what by all rights outside of context ought to be the dumbest question ever asked of the reader murder mystery; "how many sides does an octagon have" "how about you guess who the culprit is", and that one idiotic loving prompt achieves the same gut-wrenching impact and effortless majesty of MGS3 demanding you pull the trigger on The Boss. It is, no joke, the most impressed I have ever been with a linear plot in a video game.

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!
Nagito's Wild Ride was started to kill SHSL Despair.

At the end of the game, the survivors are no longer SHSL Despair.

You can't stop the HopeMan.

Bloody Emissary
Mar 31, 2014

Powawa~n
I originally parsed Nagito's plan as "make sure the Future Foundation traitor (i.e. the one person who might actually be on the side of Hope) escapes" rather than just "kill off all the Despairs." That reading adds a hilarious layer of tragic irony to the whole thing: he set up this incredibly convoluted plan culminating in his death, but even if he had gotten Chiaki to graduate it would have been for nothing, because she's an AI and can't leave the simulation anyway. It's pointless in a way that Junko would go wild for, the sort of thing she'd wish she had orchestrated herself.

I'd have to go back and replay the game to see if it fits the evidence, though. It's been ages, and might've been a fit of poor reading comprehension the first time around.

whitehelm
Apr 20, 2008

TheMcD posted:

Anyway, Junko is beat, the survivors wake up with their memories of the simulation intact and therefore retaining their non-despaired personalities, and they look towards an uncertain future.

As far as we know from the second game, they were supposed to wake up with all their memories of the simulation gone and be back to their old selves. We then see during the epilogue that they've all decided to remain on the island to help their currently braindead friends and that Hajime is calling himself Hajime instead of Izuru, which means somethings changed but we don't know how much.

Blueberry Pancakes
Aug 18, 2012

Jack in!! MegaMan, Execute!
Oh, also, is the Alter Ego in DR2 the same one from the first game?

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dancingbears
May 10, 2011

You're an idiot,
so start acting
like one.

TheMcD posted:

- Hajime Hinata: Ultimate ??? and our protagonist. Has amnesia, causing him to forget his past and his talent. A kind-hearted soul that always wants to believe in the others, which turns out to be very heavily tested throughout the game. Survives. More on Hajime later.

"Kind-hearted"? "Always wants to believe in others"? I always read Hajime as, yes, willing to put up with the others' craziness, but in a pretty put-upon way. He's way more cynical, sarcastic, and willing to believe that this killing game is going to have deadly consequences than Naegi.

TheMcD posted:

- Nekomaru Nidai: (snip) Is then repaired by Soda in the form of a tiny robot... and I forgot what happens to that one. Whoops.

Minimaru is not actually Mechamaru/Nekomaru. It's just a little robot Kazuichi made to make the others feel better, and it can play voice clips that sound like Nekomaru. Akane keeps it (over Kazuichi protests) and it makes it to the end of the game, where it is deleted because it's just some code.

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