So, what's left to think about? You have classic time-tested tricks that need to be pulled off perfectly to create the illusion, the magic. While thinking about what I had said earlier, what do you think happens when a group of amateurs tries to create legitimate time-proven magic, and the trick is pulled off perfectly? That means those amateur magicians cheated somehow. Let's use street magic for example. Those videos where you see a magician pull off a trick that completely fools the people on the streets. The thing is that more often than not, the magicians film dozens of videos with different, or sometimes even the same, audiences until they get the trick right. Then they post the successful 'street magic' clips on a video sharing site such as YouTube, and that's how the cheating is done.
The premise of the story is that a stuffed bunny named Usami who claims to be a teacher has apparently kidnapped a group of sixteen students and taken them to a tropical island with eternal summer. Usami tells the group of students that violence is prohibited and everyone should live there peacefully and enjoy the vacation. Then all of a sudden Monokuma, the villain from the first Danganronpa game, makes his appearance, beats Usami up, transforms her into 'the little sister of Monokuma' named Monomi and tells the 16 students that the killing school trip has started. Just like in the first game, Monokuma manipulates students to kill each other in order for them to have a chance of escaping. The rules are that the killer, the blackened, has to go through a trial. If the culprit gets caught, Monokuma kills them, however if the culprit does not get caught and they point the finger at a wrong person, then Monokuma kills everyone else but the culprit, and the culprit gets to escape the island and supposedly go back home. You play as Hajime Hinata and adventure from island to island solving the cases of your murdered school mates and cracking the trials in order to get closer to the truth behind why the killing school trip has to happen, why are the students on a random island and who is the person controlling the scenes as Monokuma.
Danganronpa 2's greatest strength is that despite the fact that it copy/pastes a lot of ideas from the first game, like the amnesia plotpoint, and then just does something else with them to cheaply "surprise" the player, the game definitely has some nice presentation that are not so easy to see through.
Murder mystery genre has a trope for a way of writing tension into every story. The trope is to write about people living peaceful lives, with happy-go-lucky soundtracks and a lot of bright colors in the background, and then after you get to know a bit of the cast characters, things go south very quickly as brutal murders happen and corpses go flying around the place. That is what Danganronpa 2 does with the beautiful Dangan/Jabberwock Island setting. The first Danganronpa game started with the characters already in the killing area with tension in the air, so there was not enough variety in the feel of the settings unlike in this game. However, Danganronpa 2 still ends up being too long and draggy for its own good, but atleast with more positives than before.
The story:
Hope's Peak Academy. An academy where you can get tp only by being scouted, and the only people able to attend the academy are those who are absolute best in the world, the "ultimate" at something that can bring hope to the world. Hajime Hinata, a person who's forgotten his "ultimate" trait, thinks that attending Hope's Peak Academy is like being a celebrity or a superhero. It's the place he admires, yet, now on this very day he has gotten the chance to attend the place. All of a sudden the world goes a bit blank for Hinata as he heads inside the school, towards a place where he "must" go, as if he was drawn towards a door in the academy. Then he suddenly appears in a classroom that has 16 desks and with 15 other students in there, and none of them remember ever getting into the classroom with a locked room.
The fifteen other students are all ultimates in their fields ofcourse.
Nagito Komaeda, the "ultimate lucky student," is a boy with a rather neat anime design and he likes to talk cringeworthy teamwork and hope speeches. Nagito won the lottery to be chosen as a student in Hope's Peak Academy, similar to the MC of the first game.
Hiyoko Saionji, the "ultimate traditional dancer," very popular actor who looks and acts like a kid.
Akane Owari, the "ultimate gymnast." She has a rough personality and the body of an olympic tier athlete.
Mikan Tsumiki, the "ultimate nurse," she cries alot.
Ibuki Mioda, "ultimate musician," she has a rockstar personality.
Kazuichi Soda, the "ultimate mechanic," has a rough outlook but an average and nice personality.
Gundham Tanaka, "ultimate breeder," claims to be the person who will one day rule the world. He has hamsters under his scarf, an obsession with darkness and a bandaged arm.
Nekomaru Nidai, the "ultimate team manager" who has led people in multiple sports into nationals. He's a person with a strong build and a loud shout. He's a real morality booster.
Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu, he's the "ultimate Yakuza." A heir to the Kuruyu clan; the largest criminal organization in the nation with over 30 000 members.
Mahiru Koizumi, "ultimate photographer."
Peko Pekoyama, the "ultimate swordsman." She's the type that pays a lot of attention to her surroundings.
Chiaki Nanami, the "ultimate gamer." She doesn't pay attention to her surroundings when she's playing games.
Teruteru Hanamura, the "ultimate cook," a weird looking guy with a lecherous attitude.
Sonia Neverminda, "ultimate princess." She's a foreign exchange student from a small European kingdom called Novoselic.
Byakuya Togami, the "ultimate affluent prodigy," an overweight guy next in line to become the leader of a massive financial conglomerate of his family; he's a guy with the exact same personality, history and name as the Byakuya from the first Danganronpa game.
On the Dangan Island you can move in a 2D way to the left or right to quickly get from place to place, and then click on a place to move there in order to investigate them and talk with the cast which is done in the more traditional Visual Novel manner. On the island there's a ranch; the Usami Corral, a hotel; Hotel Mirai, the Rocketpunch Market; a gigantic supermarket with no staff personnel, a beach ofcourse, an airport with airplanes that have had their engines completely removed; so they're just for show.
Then there's a bridge which leads to another island, the Central Island that contains the Jabberwock Park, a place with a mighty statue of a tiger, a large snake and a knight on a horse. The truth of this place, according to Byakuya, would be that the "Dangan Island" which they are on is actually the Jabberwock Island, a place with a central island surrounded by five different islands. In other words, the road to four more islands is still locked for some reason.
Usami even prepares the students a motive! Motive for everyone to get along, that is.
As everyone was ready to get into the fun which Usami promises, swimming at the beach that is, the sky turns dark and a rather familiar voice sounds through a screen near the beach telling the students to go to the Center Island. And then, Monokuma appears himself, the black/white machine teddybear from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc who loves Despair too much, Monokuma once again claims to be the true headmaster of Hope's Peak Academy. After a fight, Monokuma transforms Usami into Monomi whom he calls the "little sister" of Monokuma, and then he declares that the Killing School Trip will commence; want to leave the island? kill a friend. The rules are simple: the killer will be what is called Blackened, and the innocent ones are the Spotless. After a corpse has been found, there will be a period of time where you can investigate for the clues on whodunnit, then the school trial begins where you can figure out the truth behind the case, and then there will be the "Punishment Time" in which, if the player has figured out who the Blackened is, the True Culprit gets executed, however if they point a finger at an innocent, everyone else dies and the true culprit gets to leave the island.
The statues on the Center Island break apart and what Monokuma calls "Monobeasts" appears from the inside of them. They are basically transformers, massive robots. Monokuma uses the gatling rifle on one of them to take care of Monomi/Usami and the prologue ends.
In the personal e-Handbook that every student has, there are School Regulations added into there with multiple rules that the students have to follow:
-- Rules created by Usami
Rule 1: Extreme violence is prohibited on this island. Please live peaceful and relaxing lives with your fellow students.
Rule 2: Be considerate of each other and work together to obtain Hope Fragments.
Rule 3: Littering is not allowed. Let us coexist with this island's bountiful nature in "mutual prosperity".
Rule 4: The lead teacher cannot directly interfere with the students. An exception to this rule is made if any student violates a rule.
-- The rules get updated by Monokuma after the Prologue. The rules become the same as in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.
Rule 5: Once a murder takes place, a class trial will begin shortly thereafter. Participation is mandatory for all surviving students.
Rule 6: If the Blackened is exposed during the class trial, they alone will be executed.
Rule 7: If the blackened is not exposed, the remaining students will be executed.
Rule 8: As a reward, the surviving Blackened will be forgiven of their crime and allowed to leave the island.
Rule 9: The Body Discovery Announcement will play as soon as three of more people discover a body for the first time.
Rule 10: Destroying any property on this island without permission is expressly prohibited. This includes the surveillance cameras and monitors.
Rule 11: You are free to investigate this island at your own discretion. Your actions in this regard are not limited.
Rule 12: Additional school trip rules may be added at the headmaster's discretion.
Notes from me:
- Monocoins can be used to buy items and there are character levels in this game.
- Transformer monobeats, superficial differences? lol...
- The trials have been upgraded more interesting with the 1v1 Rebuttal Showdowns and common agreements.
The hotel grounds on the island contain a cottage for each of the students, places where they can spend their time during Nighttime, which starts at 10 p.m. every day along with a nighttime announcement from Monokuma.
In comparison to DR1, Danganronpa 2 is a game which pushes the player to spend more Free Time to getting know the other students.
Chapter 1. It gets revealed by Monokuma that Monomi stole the memories of each of the students, so they're not freshmen at Hope's Peak Academy at all. According to Monokuma that's a cliche'd twist so it won't drag onto the ending of the story. Monokuma can, however, return these stolen memories, if the students are willing to do a little work for them... That work being to kill each other. Also, there's a traitor amongst their midsts.
Byakuya had decided to make a party which will happen late at night after Monokuma's announcement, and everyone needs to attend. Magito, the ultimate lucky student, decides to make it so that whoever draws a stick with a red mark will have to go and clean up the place where Byakuya's party will be held, Magito himself is left with the red-marked stick.
During the party as the characters go in, they are bodychecked by Byakuya for all weapons, then inside the lights go out and Byakuya goes missing. At the end he's found murdered under a tablecloth with night goggles and a knife next to him.
I think the biggest problem with the case is the set-up to the crime; the misdirection makes sense in the story, but the true answer is pretty impossible to believe to have been planned to such lengths, and it does handle a deal of coincidences to get to the point of the murder; the game excuses it in the classic way as "the killer must have known beforehand" so that they could plan for the murder but the clues and logic behind how it plays out is really circumstantial and iffy - there is no way for the killer to have been able to do a certain act in time and there is no reason for them to plan it like this due to there being absolutely no logical reason to assume that the planned victim would do a certain act. It's basically a Forced Twist that is not really necessary to this case, but is necessary for the overarching story about Hope (in a similar way that the writers attempted to make Byakuya relevant in, and after, the second case of DR1 although his side plot never progressed after it). Also, the planning of the murder itself borders on impossible - I don't see how they could plan it and call it "logically sound," and time it perfectly even with knowledge.
So: The case is good but the ending is somewhat lackluster. It's supposed to be a twist which throws the player out of the loop, but it's not foreshadowed well enough to impress in comparison to the foreshadowing of what happened before it; it's kind of a jumbled mess that does not work as well as the first answer the player comes to. But everything before that ending segment was handled well and the writers deserve props for trying, and being able to make a somewhat interesting apartment case.
Chapter 2 starts with one of Monokuma's Monobeasts disappearing. They're the gatekeepers to the other islands from the Central Island, so that means a bridge to one new uninhabited island is open, showing us just how much more massive this game is in comparison to the Hope's Peak Academy setting in the first game. The Second island contains Ancient Ruins which looks like the Hope's Peak Academy, a diner, a drugstore, a library and ofcourse a beach with a luxurious beach house.
Monokuma has prepared an Arcade Game named Twilight Syndrome Murder Case: Investigation Edition, which will serve as a motive for the next set of killings. Students can avoid playing it, but if someone were to play it in secret, they'd have the upper hand and gain a pre-emptive strike, as the others wouldn't know the motive. The arcade game tells the story about "Girl A" (the player), B, C, D and E in a class room talking about the evening news. A body was found in a school, and the girls were the ones who found it first but never reported about it to the police. One of the girls had taken photos of the body and another girl rips them apart. Then a girl is seen being haunted by someone, and she was then killed by a baseball bat, then, Game Over.
The second case has to do with imitating a past event which the Arcade Game adapts. The ones who play the game can do the murder.
Kazuichi heard about the girls going to the beach second island together so he decides to get Hinata with him. As Hinata leaves the diner full of swimsuit-wearing girls, a Body Discovery Announcement happens. in the beach house. A baseball bat on the ground next to the corpse of Mahiru. There are more similarities with the Arcade Game; Kazuichi found the body which made the BDA ring, which means that two other people had found her body before that.
There are two types of serial killers mentioned in this game, the schoolgirl Genocide Jack, familiar from the first Danganronpa game, and the masked unknown person Sparkling Justice who wears an anime girl mask.
A group named World Enders who ended the world also gets a mention. Monokuma claims three things; that the World Enders are behind the students' getting transported on the island, that the W.E.'s have put a traitor into their midst as the 16th student and that the W.E.'s are the Final Boss of the island.
The case once more ends rather quickly after figuring out that one person aside from Kazuichi has definitely been in the cottage. As you can tell from TBD announcement that there must have been three more people at the body before Kazuichi; the murderer and 2 more witnesses, the second trial starts without knowing who these could have been. It's different compared to DR1 in the sense that you get insufficient information in the investigation periods to be able to answer all the mysteries, however, it makes the trials more worthwhile.
The trial of the 2nd case deals with the game in order to figure out how it fits with the case and the two other people (out of the three who need to see the body for TBD announcement) who were at the beach house after the murder. The problem with this case is that there is a lot of stalling and the pacing is off; there's still a nice amount of information that forms the mystery, but the killer this time is really easy to guess during the investigation period if you pay attention and know enough of the tropes of the genre. The writers use misdirections to lead the player astray but the identity of the true killer is obvious despite that. My critique for this sound any familiar? This case is about equal in all ways to the fourth case in DR1. So definitely a step-down from the first case of this game. One thing that really bugs me in this case is the method that the killer used to escape the crime scene; it's not fleshed out enough, seriously. The case loses points because of how slow the post-trial part progresses. After figuring out the culprit, it drags on for a long time.
The third island contains a Hospital, a Music Venue, a Motel, a Movie Theater and an Electric Ave.
The third case begins with Monokuma making everyone watch a boring film, Hajime decides to pay 1.5 million to not watch it though, and then an Invitation Ticket to the Electric Ave - there's a music band stage is inside - being is sent to everyone. The invitation claims that they will hold a party for Fuyuhiko due to a certain thing happening to him at the end of chapter 2.
During the party Ibuki, the student rock star, holds a concert with loud music. Then Monomi appears and tells that Akane, the ultimate gymnast, is battling Monokuma on the first island. When Monokuma tries to shoot Akane with a bazooka, Nekomaru jumps in to take the blow but still doesn't die, and just like Fuyuhiko from chapter 2, he gets hospitalized. The next day, three of the students act weirdly and Monokuma claims that they have caught something called the Despair Disease which is contagious and this disease is their next motive for killing.
The "infected" get quarantined in the hospital on the 3rd island which is the setting for the third case. There are two cameras and two screens between the "infected" at the Hospital and the "outside group" at the Music Ave through which information is shared. Two deaths and an investigation dealing heavily with the time of death. The investigation is a bit artificial this time, you get to investigate what happened but not what truly happened as the focus on those get revealed in the court, well, in this case it's tiring to point at a person logically but you can rule people out to come to an answer.
I feel like the writers thought that the third case would be more 'grand' than what it ended up being. The base idea about the despair disease is badly explained - it is crucial in this case to explain it and it was NOT, for the sole purpose of the disease just being bad 'foreshadowing' for the final chapter. Due to the type of case and type of information sharing, the trial part of the chapter felt reeeally draggy and boring. The storyboarding is as bad in this one as in the cases in DR1 with only sliiiightly better pacing due to there being a lot more small details to go through, but it's still a proper case nevertheless despite all of these flaws.
*I will explain the major problem in more detail at the end of the post.
The third case was a bad case. There is no way for the killer to be able to hang the victim which wasn't explained, there are multiple clues that are never explored enough - bloody shoes but no shoeprint, unisex clothes, despair disease.. - despite the fact that, if you think about it, they hint at other "truths" MUCH stronger than the circumstantial evidence they talked about with the game's killer. What I'm saying is that these possible theories were never countered and there is no way to come "just" to the killer they give the player, in fact the "real killer's" identity seems rushed and lackluster, almost as if they forgot what the story for the third case was about. I seriously believe they took some kind of summer break between the investigation and trial segments and they lost their notes for the case and put up the superficially most obvious person as the culprit despite there being actual evidence that point at other characters (again - the evidence does not have to point at the other characters as they are theories, but they are never explored for you to believe that your theories might have been wrong. You just get the supposed real killer reveal). I thought the case had potential to be O.K. but after giving it a thought I don't think it exactly makes sense. The writers did not go through all the possibilities this time; The answer changes depending on how much you think about the evidence, of course, as it should be, but the writers did not think them through themselves! Everything about the despair syndrome could be theorized in order to come to completely different conclusions and the writers did not even notice that loophole. The disease is only a plot device for the last chapter. Disappointing.
The fourth chapter has to do with learning small bits and pieces about the truth behind the World Ender organisation and learning the fact that Byakuya had been part of a killing game before; in the first Danganronpa game.
The case of the fourth chapter has to do with a Trick Building and Trick Rooms; trapped within closed rooms with no windows to see outside, it also has to do with traveling across two buildings with a certain trick on how you can do it, and manipulating the clock's time. Due to how the Funhouse's built-in tricks and the set-up of the case work, it's not hard to guess that the case is pretty impossible to completely deduce. Monokuma traps the remaining students in the Funhouse which contains a Strawberry and a Grape house. Monokuma tells them that they can leave only after the next killing has happened, and the motive for killing? starvation. No food while trapped in the Funhouse.
As there are no Monokuma announcements and windows, Hinata wakes up in the grape house and looks at the clock telling 6:55 AM. The group is to gather at grape tower at 7. As he opens the door, which instantly opened, the 'body' of metal of Nekomaru is found in pieces in the tower. Someone somehow was capable of destroying his steel body which was capable of tanking nukes and Fuyuhiko saw Nekomaru go downstairs the strawberry house at 5 am.
The tricks of this case contain a little bit of complexity to think about. A ringing clock at 5:30 AM, the 'ultimate weapon' gained from the dangerous dead-end room, the strawberry building's door locked from inside the grape tower and the strawberry building's door mechanism which leads to the tower was destroyed so it can't be opened. And the elevator which goes between the strawberry and the grape buildings was broken, the elevator left at the grape side meaning that whoever used it must have left at the grape side.
Although there are not that many strong clues, you can come to the right conclusion about the identity of the killer with process of elimination even if you miss the most important hint.
Puzzle houses, trick rooms etc. are popular in mystery series, I'm sure you can imagine something like a building which has some kind of a mechanic on the bottom and is able to move as a popular type of trick, there are also buildings with a well-explained layout for the reader to get a clear view on who can possibly be the suspect. The layout is well done here, but the fourth case's trick is sadly just elementary.
After pointing out the killer's identity the pacing of the trial segment of the fourth chapter slows down to a goddamn crawl. . .
Chapter 5 starts up with Monomi defeating the final Monobeast and opening up the road to the final island. The last island is a sci-fi type massive city and the island consists of a Vendor Street, a
Nagito arrives and tells the remaining students that he has not figured out the identity of the Traitor (as there is a 'traitor' of Monomi among them) but will try to figure it out soon. He also tells them that Monokuma does not need to give a motive this time and that the next killing will most likely be the last one.
The students come up with a plan to capture Nagito in order to stop him from potentially killing someone.
The fifth chapter deals with bombs and adventure. Nagito had set up a timer to a number of bombs that will go off after two days. He claims that it's all for the sake of finding out the identity of the traitor who is among the remaining group of students. If the traitor won't come and speak up, the explosion will be so massive that it will destroy the whole Jabberwock Island.
After dealing with Nagito's "bomb" threat, he claims to be in a warehouse nearby the Factory, and when the squad goes to the warehouse where the door is blocked by something. After entering the door, the warehouse sets on fire.
After the sprinklers put the fire out, behind a curtain a body brutally tortured to death was visible.
The fifth case feels different from all the other cases in the game and frankly feels like a breath of fresh air. As a murder case it's not that much different but the way of presentation and lack of clues really help brush away the tiring and monotonous cases that there have been so far. The gears of the actual story, about the Central Island's Countdown and the truth behind what's going on have finally started moving. The case has the most important victim in the game.
Sadly the potential for what could have been done with the victim while he was alive had much more promise to than what the fifth case and trial offered. The truth behind the killer is quickly figured out and there's not that much going on in this case, it feels sort of bare-bones, however it does have a 'true answer' second act to it which is expected of the victim. I think the problem with the second act is the fact that the real culprit really should be the only culprit, if that makes sense. The game's and Monokuma's logic to present the trick as something ingenious is not really logic at all, but it does work out to make the game more interesting as it leads up to a reveal of the Traitor send to infiltrate the students by the Future Foundation.
All things considered it's very weird how the identity of the culprit is just about luck, and it's weird how the characters acted like the Traitor is some kind of liar despite the traitor's actions.
After waking up the next day post-trial, the game sort of... "breaks." Characters who have died appear to be talking, every single one of them. The students have found another message left by Nagito which contains incompehensible talk and the code to the Ruins on the second island.
As the Timer on the Countdown of Monokuma reaches zero, the world seems to collapse.
Chapter 0 is written as in-between for chapter 5'sand 6's transition. It contains Nagito, a person who claims to hate the Ultimate Despair, talking with another student who claims to have been manipulated by her. The student claims that they are loved by talent as well (Nagito is the Ultimate Lucky Student), and they claim that the world, and everyone in it, bores him/her. . . Chapter 0 is supposed to foreshadow twists in the final chapter but sadly it ends up feeling really forced.
Chapter 6, the final chapter
The remaining few students appear inside the Hope's Peak Academy. Monokuma claims that it is time for their graduation exam, and they have two choices: Leave the Jabberwock Island or Stay. And before they can make their choice they have to go investigate what's happening in the outer world as they wait for someone to arrive.
In the Hope's Peak Academy, it seems as if the hallways change, the screen seems like as if the game has been hacked and doors have mysterious borders on them almost as if they have been blocked by magic. The investigation of the final chapter contains about investigating for information on the Killing School Life from Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, and everything related to it. The final trial is the "grandest" out of any trial in the series so far and it has to deal with figuring out whether or not the remaining students want to 'graduate.' There are multiple shocking revelations mostly about Nagito, the Traitor, the world itself, the Future Foundation, the Killing School Life from DR1 and so on. It's all somewhat entertaining but there are some problems with cliches, reused ideas (Monokuma talks through the 4th wall about them as a joke sometimes) etc. and the dragged out and sometimes cringeworthy dialogue between the twists somewhat hinders the pacing of the final trial.
The last group of students to survive I feel is the most boring out of the bunch. The final big twist did not really shock me at all and lacked alot of build up, the identity of the villain was disappointing to say the least and the ending was about as lackluster as DR1's. These games really need longer epilogues due to how long the chapters are. They just end and the hopeful future is just open to guess.
Seriously I want you to think about the truth behind the world and the main character for a bit. It's just too much. It's not even that special, it's just too much. I stopped playing the game for 3 weeks after I reached the trial portion of the final chapter. It just could not keep my interest with the ridicilousness, and it was not even that well weaved into the story in the first place. No big complaints but there should have been more content if they decided to make things so over the top. And by the way, the final villain.. There should have been foreshadowing for some things about that person but there was not, in fact it was a pretty dumb move to make that person the villain of this game as there should have been a mention of certain actions they made in the First Dangangonpa game, but there was not.
There is a rather cheap element of shock factor in the final trial of the game which they try to play off as if it was being planned but the stuff that "foreshadows" to it pretty clearly got added afterwards into the game such as the flashback right before the final chapter. The third case also "foreshadows" the final chapter but it was written in so iffy ways (the motive of the culprit) that you can tell that they did not even have any idea about the last chapter at that point.
Let's go over my thoughts of each case in quick succession:
Case 1: Case is well written for an apartment case. Neat investigation and a decent cast of characters. True ending was disappointing due to lack of foreshadowing and it was clearly written just to throw the player off, simply too unnatural type of writing.
Case 2: Mediocre. It's as okay as the 4th case in DR1 but the potential from the first case makes it worse.
Case 3: Bad case. Could have been mediocre but the writers somehow forgot the plot that they were writing. You can tell that they were bored with the case.
Case 4: Average case. You can come to the right conclusion with the process of elimination if you're too tired to think of the clues. The trial segment slows down to a goddamn crawl.
Case 5: Interesting case due to being different than the rest in a sense. It's not that special in fact it's a bit bare-bones, but it brings much needed variety to this tiring series. Sadly the potential for what could have been done with the victim while he was alive had much more promise to than what the fifth case and trial offered. Well, atleast the trial has another side to it by revealing the Traitor.
Case 6: "Leave the island or stay." Meh. It's far too grand for its own good, and the identity of Monokuma was trash as well. It's not a case that interests me, it just reveals the "overarching story" behind what's going on with the Hope's Peak Academy survivors from the first game, and so on.. Too bad this game series does not have a "good" or well written overarching storyline, if you can even call it that.
Notes:
- There's an interesting wildcard in this game in the form of Nagito. He plays the same role as Byakuya in DR1 would have played had the game progressed its plot any. The russian roulette part of DR2 with Nagito is probably the best moment in the game when you consider what it lead up to.
- The Trial game mode's "Hangman's Gambit's" were made harder in this game by not adding any letters into them; the first game's HG's were insultingly simple, however, they take far, far too much time this time around. They should have been thrown in the trash can honestly as they serve no good purpose.
- There is a reveal about Byakuya in the fifth chapter but it seems almost as though it's an idea they just had to brush quickly aside because they couldn't manage to integrate it into the story.
- The fact that you get insufficient information to finish the cases in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is kind of lackluster, however it also has positive sides to it due to the Trial segments of the story being far more worthwhile. In DR1 they frankly felt like a waste of time.
- Game had a pretty repetitive structure to it again for how long the chapters are. = A new chapter->New island->investigate->talk with others->case->investigation->trial->post-trial&re-do->repeat.
 |
| "drag-man's gambit" |
+Most of the cast of characters are better humanized in DR2 undoubtedly but they're still not impressive by any stretch of the imagination.
-The soundtrack for the game is again mediocre, perhaps even worse than in the first game, and it gets very repetitive listening to the same monotonous tunes chapter after chapter. Sure, there are a lot of tunes to listen to but it's still the same autotune junk as it was in the first game.
So, this is the last part of the post that I mentioned. The major problem with the better structured cases of Danganronpa, most prominent in Case 1,3,4,5 in DR1 and Case 2 and 3 in DR2, is the absolute lack of direction with how the characters figure out the truth in comparison to the player. The clues can instantly lead the player to the truth and know of the twists beforehand, even before the investigation starts (DR1 is very offensive in this aspect) and almost always before the trial starts. The game however plays it in a way that the writers think the characters follow the logical patterns of the player which feels very artificial; the "questions" brought up in the trial segments leave out specific parts of the story until the end 'twist,' and since you as a player, even if you don't like to think much about the cases, can figure out what is happening due to what the clues are supposed to present. The characters keep yapping on about what this particular clue and this and this and this particular clue could mean, when the player has it all figured out to the far future already; why..? Bad writing, that's why. The writers believe that this mechanical "proper clueing" that leads to answers is a way to create real fair-play mysteries - they believe that this type of writing style presents the genre, which is not true and they do not understand this. Continuing on with what I was talking about a bit earlier: Understanding what the clues are from a trope-standpoint makes a vast majority of the stories in these cases very easy to guess in how they will play out. And that's a problem because there's 16 students on the island and you are still able to immediately point at the right people just from understanding that " 'this is an obvious clue' smells all over what's happens in this segment of the chapter." Talking about artificial plotting, in a chapter there is always the build-up segment, the investigation segment and the trial segment (in DR2 the trials are better handled in the middle, but the beginning and the end of the trials feel awfully dragged out).
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