This post was written by Dark_Sage. He is Dark_Sage.
No, it was not worth ignoring Crymore for two weeks to play this sleeping aid.
(This post should be relatively spoilerless, except for the parts indicated by spoiler tags. Most of the screens I used were blacked out so you can’t guess who’s alive in each chapter. Expect unmarked Danganronpa 1 spoilers, cuz this is the sequel and the original’s anime and game have been out for a while. Get with the times.)
Characters
Danganronpa 2’s characters are fantastic.
Let’s try this again: One of Danganronpa 2’s characters is fantastic. Hell, they were so good I was almost fooled into thinking this game was gonna be worth playing.
Chapter 1+ spoilers (this really only spoilers the character’s personality after the first trial):
Gameplay
Danganronpa 2 is a visual novel that thinks it needs gameplay. This complicates things because it doesn’t.
Basic gameplay for the non-VN part revolves around taking a list of clues, and then as characters engage in conversation with one another, utilizing one of those clues to agree or disagree with one of the characters.
While it can be fun to progress through the story this way, that fun lasts only so long as you can understand whatever fucked up logic the puzzle goes by. And I can guarantee that won’t always be the case. So when you can’t connect with the writers’ broken minds, you’ll be stuck playing trial and error with the game, which quickly wears thin and results in drop-kicked Vitas.
There’s a bunch more modes, but they’re all equally awful. And I’m not gonna sit here and read the manual at you just to satisfy some butthurt Danganronpa fangirl who’ll take the omission of any minor feature’s explanation to indicate I didn’t “get” the game, when like the majority of the fanbase she just read the wikia and called it good.
I beat it. I “got it”. And it was awful. I’m sorry, fujoshi. You’re wrong about this series; it sucks. Let’s move on.
Pacing
Much like Danganronpa 1, the set-up is great — you hit the ground running. Death, betrayal, people going whacko — all that shit bleeds quality. Except, after a few hours in you start to wonder why the fuck you’re playing this game when there are umpteen other more interesting things you could be doing. Like being in a coma.
Chapter 4 is the trough of this mediocrity cycle. The characters all get stuck in a funhouse, meaning the case revolves around the building’s architecture for the twists. Woohoo.
Now, show of hands, who actually likes architecture puzzles?
By the time I got to chapter 4’s trial, I had enough; I grabbed a walkthrough to tell me what exactly to do for the trial, threw my brain on auto-pilot, and then powered through the dialogue by jamming the X button like I was trying to get my Vita off. Can’t say it was nearly as enjoyable for me as it was for the Vita.
lol NISA
As to be expected from any NISA-localized title, poor writing, bad grammar, and spelling errors are jarringly prevalent. Like I mentioned earlier, I found myself running through the dialogue as quickly as possible to get through the mind-numbing dialogue, but I did slow down to grab a few screens as examples.
I mean, I can accept a certain level of unprofessionalism. But when half the problems can be solved by one run of spellcheck? Well, you’re basically insinuating your audience is gonna be too stupid to notice the errors. And don’t get me started on the untranslated Japanese text or the dialogue that sometimes cuts off at the bottom of the screen… The only way this coulda appeared more low-budget is if they outsourced the translation to Bing instead of Google Translate.
Plot
Ending spoilers ahead.
Overall score:
I see that VN reviews really takes your time.
I also spent a lot of time in front of the mirror.
What score did you give that one?
What, the mirror? I dunno, mirror/10.
Rokujouma review, onegai T.T
All reviews are canceled (or should be) at this point. Fall anime season starts in two days. Dark_Sage still hasn’t gotten around to the preview yet either.
NO
I STILL BELIVE IN D_S
._.’
:x
I don’t believe you anymore
you don’t have a pussy you liar
This, please. ;_____;
I really hate the MGU mode, becase of the fucking item appearance rate. But I really like their spelling becase of reasons. Also I totally agree with you about the ending…
Glad I didn’t watch the first anime, and I sure as hell won’t be watching the second if the game itself is this bad already, this all sounds so bad that it’s… bad? Don’t know where I was going with that. But someone has to suffer and this is suitable to be D_S’ punishment for not making a review for 2 weeks.
Will Ansatsu Kyoushitsu be just as bad?
Actually, just watch the anime. THAN PLAY IT.
You will appreciate it more going from bad to decent rather than starting from decent.
“Cantaloupes suck.” confirmed.
I love the Danganronpa series and honestly, 2 had my favorite story… but there were times in some of the trials where I would be stuck for 20 minutes plus because I never thought about using a swimming suit filled with gravel as a weapon (Though I did play on their hardest difficulty, but I didn’t have this problem in the first one).
I actually enjoyed the architecture trial but that fucking “Dead Room” survival puzzle was dumb as hell and ended up needing a guide for that.
Never understood why people liked Nagito… I am only assuming people like him due to the amount of fan art and doujins related to this character rather than others.
I absolutely hate the translation though… I do wish they stuck to “Super High School Level” instead of “Ultimate”.
You hear “Hajime” you see “Hinata”
Translation pls.
My inner Danganronpa fanboy is still hyped for the third one.
and the shitty translation that comes with it.
If you talked to Monomi in the FDR she literally gave you all the answers (well actually she’s confused and Nagito is the one that figured it out), or you could have clicked on the door to the octagon and pay 100 monocoins to skip it. Also I really liked the architect puzzle the first time I played it, and I still do, but the second time I noticed they kinda hammer shit in way too much like it’s too confusing. They must have talked about the doors with the other houses logo in the tower like 5 times between the investigation and the trial.
I actually needed the walkthrough to do the NEWS puzzle cause for the life of me I couldn’t figure it out. Monomi helped me with the weird dot puzzle though I thought I could do it after trying a bunch…
A lot of the plot twists were sorta hammered in, I noticed that with the architecture one as well as the Nagito trial as well.
I still enjoyed the game none-the-less.
Oh, my complaints is the newly added Logic Drive and the Hangman Gambit
Those were absurd minigames
Shit taste confirmed once more.
cantaloupes > watermelons > honeydew melons
I think everyone can agree that honeydews are the worst, but cantaloupes above watermelons? Whatever childhood you had I wouldn’t wish on my worst enemy.
Honeydew? More like, “Honey, do I enjoy eating it? Yes, I do.”
I thought you were dead ;_;
Fall preview when?
Sorta writing it, sorta procrastinating…
ETA: Saa~
Really important question, D_S: did you play this with the english dub or didcha go with weaaboo route?
I alternated between chapters. I suppose I liked the Japanese voices better, but the switching was more entertaining to me.