u/Yiery_345

Im playing SDRA2 rn and just finished Chapter 3, it was quite a ride and i cant deny i enjoyed it a lot, but there is still some stuff that just doesnt make it for me about this chapter

The first one is that its TOO LONG and very complex, now, one would think that these two aspects would actually make a chapter good, but we are talking about CHAPTER 3, these characteristics fit better on Chapters 4 and 5 of any Danganronpa game, making Chapter 3 so long and complicated seems like a way to ruin the game´s pacing, Chapters 1 and 2 of this same game were pretty standard Danganronpa cases with cool twists, i´d compare them to 2-2 and V3-2, i´d even say they were more on the shorter side, and then out of nowhere, a chapter i took from my lunch to the night to complete.

The investigation is pretty standard and short, like most on the Another games, and the trial at first its very fun to play and to break down the mystery, until it keeps dragging and dragging on, by the Scrum Debate i was like ¨WHEN IS THIS THING ENDING????¨ and when i got to the closing argument i was genuinely burned out of it and didnt bother at all, just searched a playtrough to not think too much about it since the case dragged on for so long i forgotten like half of the things on the Closing Argument, also, making Chapter 3 like this makes me doubt that Chapters 4 and 5 will keep up to that same level, it feels like LINUJ thinked about this cool asf mystery and decided to go all out right on the mid game.

About the culprit and the post trial sections, yeah they are pretty good, maybe some will differ but i would have liked if Kanade died in despair as well, maybe Hibiki just standing her ground last second and saying something like ¨I HATE YOU¨, making Kanade lose it completely before and during the execution, idk, i just think that, despite losing the case and dying, she still gets away with it all and doesnt face any meaningful punishment. I actually completed the twins FTE´s in this chapter and seeing how twisted their dynamic actually was left me very shocked, i knew beforehand that these two were the blackeneds in some chapter but discovering all the process was pretty interesting despite all i said before about this chapter.

In my opinion, this chapter suffers from being way too ambitious and trying to cover a lot despite being just the third chapter, dumbing down Kanade a little bit and making the case less complicated would make it still very solid and memorable, instead of it being peak during your first hour and then getting more tedious as you keep advancing, a quick fix i could think of its just scrapping the monorail part and making Kanade just... enter one of the Satsuki plushies during the festival alongside the body parts, she can still pin the blame on her or Hibiki, and on Iroha as well, while making the case less mind-breaking.

In general, pretty good idea and still an amazing chapter, it just didnt need to be thaaaaaaat long, Kanade felt to me like a pretty nice and interesting twist on Korekiyo, they just made her way too smart when she is just gonna be a Chapter 3 killer, i think i´ll take a little break before starting chapter 4 because after finally finishing chapter 3 im feeling a little dizzy, even while writing this.

Btw, what is wrong with Yuki and not doing ANYTHING in trials, this is NOT my Yuki Maeda....

>!I must say, it was a very enjoyable game, despite the very rough translation, i liked this game a lot, but i still have some stuff that just doesnt make it for me!<

>!First is the investigation and trial duration, that seems to just shorten and shorten with each chapter since Chapter 3, almost like if LINUJ wanted to advance the plot already, like, those two aspects literally peaked as early as Chapter 2, with the exception of Chapter 6 which has a fairly long trial.!<

>!Then, with the characters, i must say the all seem great except for two, that dont really have that much time to shine and leave an impression on the player, these being Kiyoka and Mitsuhiro, the first victim and the first blackened, these two do get their screen time on the CH6 flashbacks, but thats way too long into the game and way past their deaths, Kiyoka really needed more screentime in Chapter 1 to leave a way better impression on Yuki and the Player, for Mitsuhiro, he just seems like a second Leon despite having some differences here and there, maybe modifying some stuff in his motive video would flesh out his character more. !<

>!Lastly, the plot itself, and ill go ahead and say it, the fact this games are meant to be connected with the canon ones was the biggest dissapointment i ever had with this game´s story, and i think it actually does more harm to it than good, while i was playing the game, i was impressed by how LINUJ grabbed the archetypes and structure of THH and remodeled them into something similar, but new and with a different approach, this is clearly seen with some characters being similar to others from THH but with changed elements, the biggest examples are Yuki, Rei and Tsurugi, and i kept looking forward to what kind of cool twist would he give to the original story elements of THH, also, i was spoiled beforehand of the masterminds and that only made me more expectative, i wanted to see how did The Tragedy play out in this game that seemed to take place in an ¨alternative universe¨, only for it to be revealed that our characters had NOTHING to do with the tragedy, it was all Junko Enoshima, the two mastermind´s are just her goons and our killing game was nothing more than an experiment on Monokuma´s Alter Ego (Which doesnt make sense since Junko actively controlls Monokuma on the first game), that literally KILLED all the hype i had for the story, and during the last portion of the game i could only think that everything about it would just be straight up BETTER if this games werent connected to the main ones, Utsuro could have perfectly caused the world to collapse on his own with his Heavenly Luck, and the fact these characters coexist with the canon ones reduces their value from creative reinventions to carbon copies. !<

>!Despite all of this, the final chapter reveal and its execution was amazing, the fact you need to choose what seems like the worst option (submiting your mind to Utsuro) to actually get the real endind (which i got first since i actually thought that would be the bad ending and wanted to see it first) is incredible, and also the part where YOU need to make the survivors fall for DESPAIR instead of Hope is also such an incredible moment, about the survivors themselves i have no complaints (tho i would have loved to see Kanata survive and even she would have fit into the despair part of the trial with all the stuff about her adoptive father), definitely this way to handle the ¨protagonist mastermind¨ twist left much of a BIGGER impression on me that the way it was handled in DR2, even if that one was amazing as well, i loved the emotional and also open ending and im looking forward for SDRA2, althought i will take a break from these games before starting it and also im not as hyped for the plot of that game, i spoiled myself of some things but as i said, the Junko reveal just killed a big part of the hype i had for both games, still, ill give DRA1 a solid 7/10, despite my dislikings on some aspects of the games plot and structure, and the limitations of the translation and the game motor itself, its definetily worth to play for any Danganronpa fan and i 100% recommend it. !<