FWIW, this game is significantly easier in 2 player mode compared to Contra - if they want a real challenge, they should do Battletoads for the NES!
That's a great idea. They'd have to use the Rare Replay version, which (I understand) fixes the 2-player glitch in Level 11. (Or just use warps, though that seems a little antithetical to the spirit of the feature.)
So glad they played Lemonade Stand. I used to play that all the time on my computer when I was a kid. I recall there was a thunderstorm event with **CUTTING-EDGE APPLE II SFX** for the lightning, but the RNG cheated us out of it here, alas.
ETA: In its pre-"all Trump, all the time" days, Smithsonian magazine managed to get out a brief look at the MECC, the denim aficionados (see article) behind many of the games played here. Apparently, the games were created partly as the result of a State of Minnesota tech initiative, partly as a gambit to get American kids computer-literate, and partly by Apple wanting to establish Apple II market dominance by getting schools to buy Apple IIs.
don't act as if a story with violence in it cannot possibly have a message against violence.
Not if it's been reveling it for 40 hours and tacks the message on in the last 30 minutes, no. Based on reactions, I don't think "shocked and angry" is the response most Danganronpa fans have to the executions.
I also have to push back against the idea that you can judge a person's psyche solely based on the art they enjoy.
The examples you list are talking about the subject matter a story tackles. I'm talking about how a story approaches that subject matter and the messages it uses the subject matter to make. Few would argue that Bioshock is an argument for Randism. It's very difficult to argue that the way Danganronpa frames, reacts to, uses, and deals with the consequences of its violence signifies genuine repulsion by it. That's a too-common problem in the visual novels that hit it big in the West, is what I'm arguing.
In that light - returning to one of the main topics here - I would say that Dream Daddydoes push the VN genre forward in comparison to what are considered its Western standardbearers, because for all its hot-cryptozoologist antics, it shows a better path to the maturity to which so many VNs aspire but few achieve: it understands that characters will give more to the story if they're treated as multifaceted human beings instead of prospective corpses; it understands that difficult material has to be dealt with honestly, at length and with heart, instead of being invoked for shock value and discarded; and it selects as its difficult material not murder teenagers but subjects that represent the true marks of maturity in life: stuff like working things out with your partner, being part of your community, and helping your kids through tough times. And, hey - it knows that you don't have to be grimdark to be mature. You can even be funny about it.
@indigozeal: You have literally no idea what Danganronpa, and especially V3, is about. V3 is a (negative) statement about the kind of people you're claiming the series is for, and how suffering should never be viewed as entertainment. Empathy is worthwhile, and people (even fictional ones) deserve respect.
The series has always been about this, though admittedly a lot of fans of it don't get that (like people who watch Breaking Bad and root for Walter White), but V3 is very, very clear about it, and that's why it's so divisive among the community.
You're wrong about DDLC too, but it's not worth bothering. The way it uses some themes is cheap and I don't like it nearly as much as a lot of people, but that's not what it's about.
I'm fully aware there's a segment tacked on to the end of Danganronpa 3 saying that being a sadistic fuck is wrong, really! - but if the previous 40 hours of your game is dedicated to watching idiots plotting murder and prolonged, elaborate showpiece segments of kids torturing each other to death in a manner meant to gratify folks who have all the wrong priorities, then that is what your game is about, despite any insincere last-minute disclaimers. (Do you think for a second any Danganronpa fan would tolerate an installment that doesn't have protracted segments of someone underage getting stoned to death or having their skin ripped off?) If the developers had been sincere about spreading hope, respect, and tolerance, like every idiotic Danganronpa title claims to do, they could've started by just not making those games. Or by making a title that actually dedicated its entire length to embracing those values and examining how you can practice them in your everyday life. Hey, like Dream Daddy!
I guess I'm just not a big fan of someone that I don't know insinuating that I'm a sociopath because I enjoy something that they don't.
I feel it is fair to draw inferences regarding a piece of media's intended audience based on the content it showcases and the messages it endorses. I think, at least, that you have been very uncritical of your entertainment.
@indigozeal: The way you described those games is no different from the people describing Dream Daddy as "sjw garbage".
Addressing the actual content of Doki Doki and Danganronpa, which many have championed as exemplars of the TRUE visual novel spirit, is completely fair. They pretend to be DARK, MATURE STORIES while presenting an immature take on their subject matter and serving primarily as vehicles for dumb gore and sadism. The fans fail to understand that those qualities keep them from playing with a larger crowd and keep the genre in the gutter of public perception. They also fail to understand that Dream Daddy taking the opposite approach is in part what has won it broader success.
(I completely stand by that "sociopaths who like pulling the wings off insects" comment.)
The people railing that there are "better visual novels out there this year" re: Dream Daddy are thinking of Danganronpa and Doki Doki Literature Club, with the former being about bloodthirsty idiots trying to one-up each other in sadistic murder in a manner written to gratify sociopaths who like pulling the wings off insects and the latter being about LOLIS CUTTING THEMSELVES LOOK LOOOOOOOOOK, with self-harm & suicide images used for cheap shock value. In a year this hateful, give me a game about love and understanding like Dream Daddy any day.
I'm quite impressed with how newcomers Ben & Abby handled themselves and with how much they contributed to the discussions. Brad continues to be very frustrating in these videos, though, with his opinion inexplicably counting for far more than anyone else's.
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