The case in this chapter was laaaaame. Honestly, I thought the sixteenth student might have been behind this one at first. I knew straight out that Hagakure couldn't have been the culprit; things didn't line up. Then I realized that Celes was kinda shifty, though I didn't think that Yamada was involved until they suggested it during the class trial.

In the end though, for someone that can lie well, apparently Celes is REALLY bad at coming up with a good plan. There were so many holes in this case that made it obvious that Hagakure wasn't the culprit and Yamada didn't pull it off by himself. Plus, literally everybody else besides Kirigiri (who gets the a mysterious person pass from me) had an alibi, and nobody started to point fingers at her.

I also really disliked how people kept forgetting details of the case, forcing Makoto to point it out though yet another nonstop debate... bleh. The worst offender was Aoi forgetting that the back of the robo suit was rigid when she tried it on and commented that it was rigid in the first place. A lot of Celes' rebuttals when she was being targeted were also based on the assumption that somehow people forgot the obvious evidence that contradicted her statements.

This time only one nonstop debate got me confused and I failed it, but the rest were super easy because of that and because Gentle is still too easy (though the times you needed to capture testimony were a bit more interesting, which is a good thing, except it's really obvious when you have to do so because only one piece of unrelated evidence is loaded in the chamber). At least now I know what happens when you fail: people think Makoto did it because he's flubbing too much. And I assume this always happens. Compared to Ace Attorney, that's lame, but I guess that allows the developers to avoid everyone choosing the current suspect (which is more logical) even if they are the actual culprit. Also, unlike Ace Attorney, there is literally no penalty of failing because you can restart immediately (wheras with AA you have to be concerned of your last save point). If you seriously wanted the high score, you can easily just fail when you make a mistake and the score gets reset. And even if you fail outside of nonstop debate and have to go back farther, the skip button is always available.

Which leads me to another problem in all the chapters so far: most of the group keeps jumping to the conclusion that the first suspect is the culprit. Did everyone forget that if they're wrong that they'd die? Some group of super high schoolers these people are... you'd think that any above average person would stop themselves from jumping to conclusions under such a threat. And yeah, I can see why they act that way: if everyone was smart, then the game would be a total breeze because they would be smarter than the player. But the way they got around this problem feels so fake.

There is one thing so far that counters my arguments: they actually let the player come to the conclusion that Celes was suspicious. Other than some hints that she wasn't completely in the clear, the game didn't make it obvious that she was supposed to be suspected. Maybe it would have laid down a strong hint if I didn't choose the correct person to blame, but I didn't experience that.

The execution this time was kinda boring, though being smashed by the firetruck after being lit on fire was silly. But still mostly boring.

Not to mention Celes' motive... how self-centered and boring, though a bit silly too.

Oh, and I'm kinda disappointed that Ishimaru's BROOOOOO form didn't get much character development, though it was kinda hilarious while it lasted. I tried hanging out with him during free time, but he told me to buzz off. Dunno if that would have happened if I tried during more than one free time block though.

Moving on to more positive things, Alter Ego is pretty neat, although Yamada's creepiness was... ick. But something tells me that either something will happen to it when it decrypts those files or the files won't actually help them escape, but reveal more mystery.

Monobear seems to keep suggesting that something really bad happened outside, and the noises heard from the entrance hallway suggest so too. I'm getting concerned that an apocalypse happened... but why? Or maybe that's another scare tactic to give people motivation to get out. I would also question how DR2 would happen if that was the case, but considering that I don't know how the game ends yet, there's still many possibilities for that.

Genocider Shou is a good source of humor, but I suspect that neither she nor Fukawa will commit any murders because of the unique style and inability to look at blood, so I'm concerned that those characters won't get much more development and will just become future victims.

I am enjoying that Kirigiri is still a big mystery, especially after her questioning what Monobear did to her body, and at the same time I like how she is finally revealing something to Makoto. I may have also been wrong in assuming that she was the mole, because it seems that Sakura actually is. I'm a bit confused that she didn't break the rules when fighting Monobear though... that was really bizarre. And at least it seems that Sakura is doing it for some hostages' sake, rather than herself. The beginning of chapter 4 suggests that Makoto won't be bringing that up immediately though (same for what happened in the secret room... was that student 16?), and I'm concerned he won't do that for a while, if at all.

I don't think I mentioned the music yet. I really like it a lot, and it fits the mood well. I'm a bit disappointed that almost all of the tracks have been used already though, but at least there's a ton of them so they aren't repetitious. I don't get why the title screen music is so low quality (sounds like 64kbps mp3 quality) compared to everything else though.

I wonder if there's any pattern to who will like what present, other than obvious things like Yamada liking the squishy princess thing. Shou hated the scissors, for example.

The humor is still good so far.

I am getting a feeling that this game has a message of people are not who they seem to be. But VLR did that far better, at least so far.

In the end, it's still a pretty good game. But I am definitely seeing serious flaws now. I'll continue playing it though, because the mysteries are still interesting to me, but not immediately as I already stated. If DR2 really is a lot better than this game, then this game is still a really good starting point.

Well, I suppose the class trial itself went ok. I think a lot of minor details were lost, but at least it made sense, though it was very rushed.

They did miss an INCREDIBLY MAJOR DETAIL about Leon's murder though. He said that he had no choice but to murder because he was attacked, but the anime left it at that. In the game, Kirigiri pointed out that Leon could have just left the room because Maizono was "locked" in the bathroom wounded and without a weapon and was therefore no longer a threat. Additionally, she conjectured that Leon didn't have his toolkit with him (because who would when Monobear intended for them to be weapons) and had to go all the way back to his room to get it to dismantle the lock. That completely changes Leon's intentions.

I noticed they censored Leon's execution a bit by not directly showing the balls hitting him. Clearly they had to, because that's probably one of the several things that pushed the game's rating to CERO D, and that's probably beyond what's acceptable for whatever timeslot they have on TV. I wonder if NISA will have to do that in their port of Danganronpa.

One thing that really bugged me about the class trial was that at least half of the time, there was no music. In a game that has music playing ALL THE TIME except when it fades out momentarily for important statements (like turnabout ones), that just feels weird. Especially in a class trial, where it's supposed to be intense. I was starting to get bored in the middle of it because of that.

Now, I know that DR's evidence gun is a staple of the series, but I imagine that looks incredibly silly to those who haven't played the game before. Especially when it is beyond the fourth wall. At least they didn't turn things into a rhythm game with locking on to and shooting statements when Leon was denying and trying to not listen. Oh MTB... if that's what it was called.

I think it was actually a rare case of 'meta' done well overall. The fact that the more absurd parts of the game could be explained away by... well, it being a game (I loved Monokuma's "ゲームだから！") went over better than it might at first blush. They also did a lot of good work playing off the expectations players who played the first game would have. Naegi/Kirigiri/Togami showing up at the end did feel a little fanservicey, but what can you do.

I particularly liked the characters compared to DR1. Most of the DR1 characters I never got all that attached to, but in SDR2 pretty much all of them charmed me off the bat in some way and only got better from there. I do think there could have been a little more development along the line (Souda and Sonia for instance seem pretty static), but the personalities were fun enough that it wasn't a huge deal. My favorites were probably Tanaka, Koizumi, and Komaeda.

Komaeda really gets special mention, because wow what a cool antagonist. You know something's up with him what with all the parallels to Naegi they set up, but then they blow the lid off his crazy early on rather than try to save it. And then they keep layering it as the game goes on! I particularly liked that for all his going on about his worship of SHSL students and how he thinks he's worthless, he's really superbly arrogant and confident in his own way (see his behavior after getting the file in chapter 4). And his murder plot was a wonderful trick.

Speaking of murder plots, I mentioned it above, but I really liked the mysteries this time around, especially chapters 4 and 5. Chapter 3 did feel a bit weak to me (maybe because almost all the trial was focused on the trick of making it seem like the victims had just died rather than the actual murders), but overall they were a big step up from the first game, where the culprit was almost always obvious (with the exception of Mondo, but that's just because the only clues pointing to him besides his way of referring to Chihiro didn't show up until late in the trial). Chapter 4's creative use of the Trick House was particularly great.

Overall, a very good game. Sometimes the action parts of the game (especially Logical Dive and Flashing Anagram) were a bit tougher than I'd have liked, but I guess I can't really blame anyone but myself, considering I was playing on the hardest difficulty. Very much looking forward to DR3 (though I've got to wonder, will we be going up against Junko again? Or will we see AI Komaeda this time or something like that?)

Ten to one we'll see Junko again in the spin-off and the teased third game. One, she's a BRILLIANT antagonist. Like, she's what would happen if Joker became female. And wasn't Harley Quinn. Mostly in that the AI Junko had to be brought in, which means there's a Junko source.

At the very least, if there's a new antagonist, it'll be SHSL Maintenance or something, because keeping Junko around will require someone with... well, a body.

I agree with you on SDR2's characters charming me more than DR1, though my usual penchant for instantly pairing characters on impulse (because I still haven't lost that teenage reflex at the age of twenty-four. Seriously, maturity, get your act together!) didn't really stick to anything. Sure, there's loads of pairings out there, but I really don't see a lot in each of them. I just didn't feel as enthusiastic shipping, say, Nanami x Hinata as I was in shipping Asahina x Ogami, Kirigiri x Naegi, or Junko x really anyone because it's freakin' Junko. But I did end up liking individual characters more in some places. Ibuki Mioda remains my favorite character of the series, and though it's unlikely they'll actually bring any of the comatose characters back, I'd like to think that they do, but then remain on the island forever, waiting for society to regain itself.

At least anything is better than trying to read Dangan Ronpa Zero. Holy moley, that was difficult to slog through. All descriptions were like... "It was a thing. It was a lot of this thing. It was a giant thing." at all times, and it was just dreadful. Not to mention I was having Twilight PTSD flashbacks reading the girl's narration.

Can't wait to see DR IF translated, because that's something I haven't seen yet.

I think the cast in 2 was generally improved over 1; they seem to have more depth to them on the whole, and they're a little more proactive, and generally more helpful.

It's probably because I read Dangan Ronpa 2, rather than played it, but in my personal opinion, I'm not sure that the mystery of each case, or at least as far as the culprit's identity goes has really improved from Dangan Ronpa 1. Oren on Something Awful mentioned at one point that one of the main drawbacks of the screenshot Let's Play method is that it allows you to notice things that you normally wouldn't if you were actually playing the game.

I do feel that the emotion in the trials has increased since 1. Every single killer basically killed for another; whether out of love, or a desire to protect them. The cast as a whole feel a lot closer as well. They remember the dead students and mention them in passing throughout the whole game. They make an effort to bond as a group, even trying to include Komaeda and Kuzuryuu in their plans as a group.

Case 3, especially is sad. There was no point to the murders. Even Celes, selfish as her motive was, there at least wasn't that feeling that the murders that she committed were completely senseless. Mikan truly did kill only for despair. It does help to show how terrible Ultimate Despair were though.

Case 5 is also a sad case for me, in that there was never any way in which Komaeda's plan could work, since Nanami couldn't leave the program. So much emotional anguish for all parties (even Komaeda, we never get to see it, but given that he was confident that Hinata wasn't the traitor, he probably didn't feel too happy that he was basically planning to murder Hinata), two people dead...and it's all for the sake of a plan that would never work. Of course, the whole series is built on people dying from failed plans, but somehow the fact that there is no chance of success at all is somehow depressing.

In all honesty though, I found the "Nanami literally couldn't tell people she was the traitor" part slightly irritating. Maybe she couldn't have come straight out and said it, but she could certainly strongly hint; which indeed, is what she does finally do in the trial. It kind of felt like an excuse for why Nanami just kept quiet and let everyone think that they were about to be blown up (aside from the needless emotional and mental stress on everyone, someone like Souda could have easily snapped and killed someone in a panic to try get off the island) and to make us feel sympathy for her when she worries that Komaeda wouldn't have executed his murder plot if he'd known she was the traitor. (Incidentally, though there isn't any evidence towards this, my thoughts are that it wouldn't have made a difference, I think Komaeda would have just used that knowledge to plan a murder where he could have been more certain that Nanami would have been the one to kill him, rather than needing to blindly rely on his luck, the way he did in the end.)

Komaeda gets likened to a "hope" version of Junko a lot, but I think one of the most disturbing things about Komaeda is that, unlike Junko, who just wanted the whole word to despair for apparently no reason other than she liked despair, if you do Komaeda's free time events, you can actually begin to see why he is the way he is, despite the reprehensible things he's done. It's sad, because you're left with a feeling that if Komaeda had someone who had stuck with him, (and this is partially the reason he latches on to Hinata) he wouldn't have turned out the way he did, but it also leaves you with a feeling of dread, because you know that Komaeda by now is so deeply intrenched in his warped beliefs, the only thing he's been able to rely on his whole life, he really will do anything to create his version of hope.

That said, I don't like Komaeda's final free time event. The implication that he is lying somehow feels like it lessens the impact of his previous free time events.

I kind of hope we don't see Junko again; she even mentions herself that she's getting tired of these murder games. I could see Komaeda, Mikan (assuming they ever come out of their coma) or even the Future Foundation (with Dangan Ronpa 2 showing that hope isn't always a good thing, and their rather sinister plans for the Dangan Ronpa 2 cast, all for their "bright future") as potential masterminds.

with Ishimaru and Mondo arguing who's balls are bigger xD