Agreed completely on the first trial, I thought I had it all figured out with Shuichi, and was fairly shocked at the switching main characters twist. It was simultaneously really cool, but also a little disappointing given that I thought Kaede was a well written and funny protagonist. Honestly I remembered thinking the "YOU are the one who committed a murder and you just didn't see it as the player" bit was something they were going to do with Danganronpa 2, but it still floored me here.
The second trial was a fairly by the numbers Danganronpa class trial, but I enjoyed the convoluted, but not insanely incomprehensible aspect to the way this murder played out.
The third trial was my least favorite by far as well. I actually was surprised that they killed someone else after the investigation had started, and they did get me GOOD with that fake out death scene of Kokichi, I remember shouting NO WAY ARE THEY KILLING HIM THIS EARLY! But yeah I was completely lost on how Tenko's murder could have possibly played out, and thought there was no way that it could be korekiyo because of how obvious of a suspect he was. Then when he was found out as Tenko's murderer, I once again assumed that he couldn't have been the one who got Angie, because again, it would be so obvious. I also really liked the idea of Korekiyo still being with the group and being a known murderer who had not received any kind of Comeuppance, and seeing how the group dynamics would change, so a disappointment that he was the culprit.
Fourth trial was also one of my favorites, I just loved the concept of it. The virtual world was very cool and a fun concept for the murder. This was also the most sad I have ever felt at the end of any trial, even worse than the end of the fifth in Danganronpa 2.
The fifth trial was pretty fun as well, though I remember being stumped in a number of different parts of this trial. The whole Exisal "who's the victim, who's the culprit" setup was quite fun as well.
The ending/6th trial was probably the best of the entire series. I remember thinking the past games had some good ending twists but never really felt like it stuck the landing, this one did such an excellent job with closing things out. It takes some real confidence and commitment to go with an ending like that, but I really think they pulled it off. When they first revealed the whole thing was fake and completely broke the fourth wall, I was laughing hysterically. loved seeing the old characters return with there voices except for poor Hajime/Johnny B. The shift away from the traditional hope/despair stuff was definitely necessary, as well as separating this story from the Hope's Peak one. I do think the pacing in this trial was bad at times, especially at the very end, they could have found ways to shorten things up. But overall, easily the best ending to any of the Danganronpas.
If I were to order the series, (I just played one and two on the 1.2 reload version, so they're all pretty fresh) I would go:
1. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
2. Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
3. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Log in to comment