So this released a few days ago and no one is talking about it!

Thought I'd attempt to incite some discussion by posting up my initial thoughts, or answering any questions if anyone is still on the fence about diving in. For reference, I've just finished trial 2.

NO SPOILERZ PLZ! (or at least spoiler warning them).

• Game has made me appreciate Danganronpa 1 way more than I did at the time. I didn't realize how much I wanted to play another game like this until I started on 2.
• Class trials are longer/more complex, and they've refined some of the crappier mini-games from the first game (mini-games are still not great, but they're better...)
• Social link stuff seems better.
• Even more madcap than before.
• Cast is just as oddball. WHAT ARE YOU INVESTIGATING NOW ADACHI?
• That goddamn capsule machine is still here... But you can cheat the system kinda now.
• Neopet seems pointless?
• Don't allow me to fast travel, but then add incentives for not fast traveling game...
• Fan service is up? Maybe I'm just being a prude, didn't quite see what it added.
• Pop culture/4th wall breaking is up? If you're not a fan of this stuff I imagine it would begin to grate, it's probably just about tolerable though.
• I still have no idea what's going on concerning 2 of the cast members.
• WHEN IS THE NEXT ZERO ESCAPE GAME OUT GUYS?

In summary, I liked the first one, I'm liking this one too.

I'm fairly near the end of the first trial. I'm enjoying the story but the class trial has really made me not want to play anymore. I didn't enjoy the minigames in the first game, and I feel like they're even worse in this one. The (improved) Hangman's gambit isn't improved at all, it's just longer and even more annoying. This is kind of the same problem I had with VLR, where the gamey parts were often just an annoyance preventing me from getting on with the story.

The minigames will probably click with me eventually and won't be as annoying, I hope anyway.

Not quite initial as I'm now at chapter 5, but I really like the game. The worst part about it so far are the countless typos and grammatical mistakes, which are not a good look.

There's more fanservice than there was in the first game, which I'm not too into, but the game tries to justify it in some interesting ways, so they're not too much of a bother. It gets toned down dramatically after a certain point. I prefer DR1's music, intrigue and setting more, but DR2's classroom trials and murders are far more interesting and involved (and the intrigue is getting way more interesting now). I love the new rebuttal system as it lends an awesome dynamic to the trials, although I'm not a fan of the "sword battles" those moments entail. The rhythm game is still crappy and the Hangman's Gambit isn't great.

Finding it pretty great, loving just about all of the new characters. Find the stuff with Mikan particularly hilarious.

How is everyone finding Japan's favorite character?

Considering they just took a fan translation and swapped some terms, I thought it'd be worse.

NEVER

I'm really excited to play this game after playing the first recently but I bought the collectors edition and it's so nice I can't bring myself to open it.

I might have to buy another copy to play. >_<

@fluxwavez said:

Now that you mention it, I am noticing this more now. Some of the words don't quite display properly on the truth bullets too.

It's nowhere near the point where I can't understand it, but it does irk me every time I spot one. (Still, at least it's in English!).

I thought it was great, just finished it the other day. I caught a few typos but I just ignored them. Loved that the talents were actually incorporated into each case. The cast in this one seemed a lot weirder than the cast in the first game, so as a result, I was shocked as to who survived. Totally guessed wrong.

The cases in this one were way harder. The first trial seemed to be as long as the last trial from the first game.

I'm liking it more overall than the first one but I do share some similar complaints.

The hangman's gambit just takes too long. Waiting around for the correct letter to come up isn't fun. I also haven't gotten a good hold on how to do the rhythm game. Maybe I'm just too used to it from the first game and I keep trying to play it that way.

The cast is still as fun and as crazy as ever though. That's still a plus. The cases also seem more interesting overall too. At least as far as I've gotten. I'm currently on chapter 4.

Just finished chapter 4 and loved it. Maybe my favorite in the series along with chapter 4 from the first game, which makes sense since they have such a strong thematic link, definitely the strongest of any case with another so far in DR2. I love how it's set up to relate to its corresponding trial in one specific way -- suicide -- but is instead revealed to be linked by sacrifice to ensure the survival of the others, though in this case the killer's actions are self-admittedly murkier than Sakura's in the first game. The game itself seems to make things murkier by evoking both Philip K. Dick's Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? (bringing up the question of whether the resurrected Nekomaru is still human, or simply a robot that acts like Nekomaru) and Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics (in which case Nekomaru would be violating the first law by trying to kill the killer -- if the killer's story is to be believed, anyway). So the question of whether the resurrected Nekomaru can be considered just a robot playing a part or truly Nekomaru himself isn't definitively answered, which lends a nice shade of gray to the killer's actions. Aside from that fun stuff, I thought the case was constructed in a neat way that kept me on my toes the whole time, and the reveal of the killer is really clever, even if the game leads the player by the nose slightly too much.

As for general things, I agree with the folks who don't really like the new/tweaked minigames. Improved Hangman's Gambit is boring and annoying, the sword duel is OK (though I do like the idea of one-on-one rebuttals in theory), Logic Dive is kind of silly, and I still have barely any idea why sometimes I do well in the rhythm game and other times I do poorly. I still like the straightforward juggling of knowing when to apply evidence or memorize statements the most. The wrinkle of agreeing with people's statements is nice, too.

One of the best waifus:

Current favorite game of the year. The only thing left that has a chance of besting it will be Persona Q.

Chapter 5 is fantastic.

I liked the first game's cast better, but the story is better done in 2, and the trials/murders are much more tricky.

I just finished the 3rd trial and i'm really enjoying it so far.

I wish I could fast travel to more specific places, I don't know what the neopet is for either, and I have also noticed more 4th-wall breaking in this game than in the first.

But that Music is so fucking good it blows all my complaints away. I didn't think I would like Monomi at first but her theme music really grew on me.

Has Patrick talked about this game at all? I haven't been watching Bombin in the AM lately.

Edit: Oh yeah, The new Hangman's Gambit is FAR worse than the first game, and the... Panic Talk Actions? (The rhythm-based tapping game!) I've found myself having problems with, just getting the timing wrong.

@vikingdeath1:

When the pets reach adulthood they give you a new skill, a present, and a few hundred monocoins.

Should I play the original before I jump into Danganronpa 2 or can I go straight to the second one. Is the original even worth playing when I could be playing this one?

While the second one improves a lot of mechanics, the first one is still worth playing. I'd recommend playing them both - they're very good games for what they are.

DR2 will spoil everything about DR1. You'll only appreciate DR2 more if you've played DR1 before. They're both great games, so I don't see the worth in skipping the first one, especially when I think DR1 does certain things better than DR2.

@random45: @fluxwavez: Well since I'm also going through Virtues Last Reward (not really loving it so far, but also not that far into it, so we'll see) I guess the rest of this years playtime will consist of virtual novels for me :)