#jessdoesv3

[kibahinatas]

me during ch. 4 investigation: wouldn’t it be fucked up if kokichi manipulated gonta into killing miu?

me at the end of ch. 4: :’(

[kibahinatas]

DRV3 Liveblog [BLIND]: Ch. 2 Daily Life

A THIN LINE DIVIDES HEAVEN AND HELL...

Okay, I’ve played chapter two up until the discovery of the body, just like last time.

Remember, if you want to skip the summary just look for Thoughts under Story.

STORY

The chapter opened on a shot of two rows of those Japanese style “death portraits.” (I’m sorry I don’t know the proper name.) But the only one with a photo in it contained a portrait of Kaede. Just, Kaede too, not Amami who is also dead...Anyway, there were some people talking off screen about how they wished “they” had lived. And stuff like that. Then the scene ends.

Next, there’s a scene of Gonta outside and he thinks he might have spotted a tiny bug in the grass. But when he goes to look at it, he finds a flat, square stone on the ground with the words “horse a” written there. He later discusses this briefly with the others in the dining hall, and then it’s never brought up again. Hm.

Finally, we wake up the day after Kaede’s trial as Shuichi. His room is almost identical to hers, except for the shelf of my Monokuma collection next to his bed. Kaito rings the doorbell and comes to fetch us for breakfast. Shuichi pauses before he leaves, but then says he doesn’t need that anymore.

When we arrive in the dining hall, everyone seems surprised by my appearance. Surprise, surprise (except not) Shuichi is no longer wearing his hat, and was hiding a cute ahoge under there! After a quick discussion about the mysterious “horse a,” Monokuma and the four Monokubs show up with gifts for us - some random trash.

Turns out the random trash actually helps us to uncover new areas that were hidden behind false walls (including the 3rd floor), overgrown ivy, and to unlock that weird castle wall place. We find several new research labs for Himiko, Kirumi, Gonta, Ryoma, and Maki (although she won’t let us inside.) There’s also an indoor pool, and inside the “castle walls” are a large casino and a hotel that seems to have no function yet - the Kumasutra..lol.

In one of the hallways we come across something that stands out above all the rest, though. A massive treasure chest containing a single item that appears to be a flashlight of sorts. We all gather to inspect it in the gym, and Monokuma appears to inform us that it is a special light which will restore some of our memories! After some debate, we decide to try it out. Suddenly, Shuichi, and everyone else, remembers the Ultimate Hunt! They remember being hunted because of their ultimate talents, and eventually deciding to use a device which would repress their memories of being ultimates, causing them to believe they were just normal high school students, much like when we began the game. We got to see a shot of Shuichi hooked up to this device, and it turns out it is the same one we had gotten a glimpse of Kaede in during the prologue.

Later, during the night, the Monokubs sneak into our room to drop something off, but since they can’t see in the dark, they worry they might get things mixed up. The next morning, we find a colorful Kubs Pad on our coffee table, similar to the Monopad. But this one contains a single video. Monokuma announces he’s bringing back “an old favorite:” personal motive videos of loved ones! However, the Monokubs did indeed mix things up as Shuichi receives Kaito’s video of his grandparents instead of his own.

Shuichi rushes around trying to find Kaito, and ends up meeting everyone in the dining hall. They soon decide it would be best to not exchange videos, so no one will have a motive to kill. Although, not everyone feels this way.

Kokichi strongly believes we should show each other our motives. He ends up roping the gullible Gonta into a scheme to achieve this, but it doesn’t quite go as planned. (Also at some point in between all this we do push-ups with Kaito one night, lol.) Kokichi gets Gonta all fired up to retrieve everyone who hates bugs, so they can come meet all the bugs in Gonta’s lab. Once we are all there (Shuichi, Tenko, Himiko, Angie, Kiyo, and Kibo, I believe), Kokichi leaves us with Gonta while he goes to fetch our Kubs Pads. Gonta releases an ungodly amount of bugs, while everyone is flipping their shit. Oblivious to how we’re all feeling Gonta seems pleased with how the Insect Meet and Greet is going.

When Kokichi finally returns with the Kubs Pads, before he can force us to start binge watching, we decide to let Gonta know he’s being used for Kokichi’s scheme. Kibo reveals that he has an audio tape recording function, which he rewinds to play Kokichi’s words for Gonta. Upset upon hearing this, Gonta makes Kokichi stay with him and the bugs while the rest of us leave, hearing Kokichi screaming in the distance, lol.

Meanwhile, Angie, and her new religious convert Himiko (much to the dismay of Tenko), have been planning a magic show. It’s planned to go on the morning after the whole Insect Meet and Greet fiasco. We gather in the gym, to see an elaborate setup for the show, although not everyone is present. Kokichi, Ryoma, Maki, and Kaito are nowhere to be seen. Nevertheless, the show must go on! Angie and Himiko explain how the trick will work. Himiko will jump into a tank of water, and escape in one minute. Once the time is up, a suspended tank of piranhas will be dumped into the tank below. Seems simple enough, especially since it will all take place behind a curtain, and Himiko is not restrained in anyway.

The trick begins, and as seconds tick by on the timer, Himiko does not emerge. We all begin to worry, while Angie assures us all is well. But Gonta can’t wait any longer and leaps up on to the tank. He peers down into the water, with a surprised look on his face, and then time is up. The curtain is pulled back just before the piranha tanks is released, and floating inside the lower tank is...Ryoma! Handcuffed and unconscious or even dead. But the mystery of whether or not he is dead doesn’t last long, as the piranhas are dropped in, consuming his entire body down to the bones.

THOUGHTS: ‘Noooo!’ Was my reaction to seeing Ryoma’s body in the tank. I actually liked him a lot, so seeing him die so early was a disappointment.

Anyway, setting aside the “death portraits” for now, what is up with that “horse a” thing? Is it relevant? I feel like it’s got to be later, but it got brushed off so quickly. And what does it mean? I feel like there’s a secret meaning. Perhaps related to those random letters on the castley gate? Hm.

When Shuichi alluded to leaving his hat behind, I remember saying to my boyfriend how I bet it’s his hat and that he’s got a secret protagonist ahoge he’s been hiding this whole time! To my amusement, but not my surprise, I was right lol. What’s a Dangan Ronpa protagonist without an ahoge after all? Even our “secret protagonist” Shuichi, and “false protagonist” Kibo (in reference to the early promos) have one!

The way they did the new areas was interesting. How they were all spread out across the campus and not just one big central area. I enjoyed that. I also liked that we are getting to see most everyone’s research labs, slowly. (Thinking back I never tried going inside Miu’s though, I’ll have to do that later.) Except for Maki, who won’t let us inside for some strange reason...I almost wonder if she’s hiding something. No, I don’t wonder, I pretty much know she has to be hiding something. Like I mentioned back in my prologue post, I have a suspicion she may be lying about her talent. If her research lab is for a completely different talent she doesn’t want us knowing about, it would make sense she wouldn’t let anyone inside!

It was interesting to see a repeat motive, but of course in typical DR fashion, Monokuma made sure to point out that he was doing so, lol. However having everyone (or most everyone, we don’t know who received which video yet) receive someone else’s video was an interesting twist!

There seemed to be a lot of focus on Kaito this chapter too. Having his motive video, him inviting Shuichi to work out that one night, etc. The one line about Shuichi not realizing at that point how “horrific it is to trust someone” was very interesting. It would seem that this is in reference to Kaito, but we can’t be certain yet. My boyfriend suspects that all the Kaito business may be a red herring, but I’m not ruling him out as suspicious just yet.

But my favorite part of the chapter had to be the Insect Meet and Greet. Oh man, what a great scene. It was really funny, but I think will still be important to this next case in some ways. Gonta is a gift.

As for the murder, I can’t say a lot at this point! For whatever reason my gut reaction was again to suspect Tenko. I guess she’s my Souda of this game, although I actually liked him and hated suspecting him every time - Tenko I’m not super fond of lol. Also Kirumi, since we spent a lot of time on how much the other students are relying on her I feel like she might break soon. Also it’s just a hunch. And then Angie, who was involved in the magic show and also bonded with Himiko. If I’ve learned anything from Dangan Ronpa, it’s don’t get too close to anyone, it will just assure that only one of you will make it out alive lol. Not to mention the chapter title is suspicious given her religious enthusiasm...

But no idea how the killer did it and/or got Ryoma’s body in the tank! With little to go on I’m super excited to start investigating next time. I did make a joke though, how it’s like the show Bones - because all we have is his skeleton. And we have an anthropologist with us (Kiyo/Bones), someone who solves mysteries/crimes (Shuichi/Booth), a bug and nature guy (Gonta/Hodgins), and an artist (Angie/Angela) haha.

GAMEPLAY

Aside from free time, there’s really only one other thing I want to talk about here. Everything else is pretty much the same as before.

A new element that’s been added this chapter is the casino! We can exchange our monocoind for special casino coins and play games to win more special coins, which we can then use to exchange for prizes. Sounds confusing but it’s actually quite simple. I was able to get a decent of amount of coins for a low amount, and used those to play the slot machine and salmon fishing, the only two available games as of now.

I won a few hundred coins on the slot machine, but only made a couple salmon fishing. The salmon fishing works in a similar way to the hangman’s gambit of this game, with the things you need to select being hidden in shadow and then illuminated briefly. I think if I remember where the fish are without waiting for the light, I can win more coins. So I’ll have to try that again later.

Then for Free Time, I got 5 events, and I think it would have been 6 if I didn’t do an optional scene, which I’ll get to at the end. I spent Free Time with Himiko, Kirumi x2, Kibo, and Kokichi. Something I found interesting though, was that all the characters I talked to as Kaede didn’t carry over. Meaning, I no longer had a hope fragment for them or the information I learned there. As Amami and Ryoma are no longer with us, this was kind of a bummer since I won’t get to look back on that now. At least I have the memory I guess, lol.

Now it’s been about a week between playing and writing this section of my post, so I can’t quite remember what all I talked about with them. I do remember that Kirumi still wasn’t really saying much about herself, even in two FTEs. She mostly talked about places she’d worked and whatnot. I spent time with her twice because I really wanted to get to know who she was as a person, and not just as a maid. Hopefully she’s not the culprit this time, so I can still get a chance to do so lol. I also vaguely remember talking to Kokichi about his organization, and how he has powerful connections or something like that. But that’s about it.

But, on to the bonus scene. So before breakfast, on the day before the magic show, I happened to go talk to Miu in the courtyard, and she invited me to join her in the casino later that day. Of course, I chose yes. So when free time rolled around, I automatically travelled to the casino, where I was joined by Miu, Ryoma, Kaito, and Kokichi. We then got a light, fun scene where we all played casino games, and watched as Kaito continually lost to Ryoma, lol. I enjoyed it a lot.

One last thing I wanted to note is that I haven’t seen any more hidden Monokumas around! Just how hidden are these things? The two I found last chapter were impossible to miss. So I wonder where they’re at. I feel like I haven’t overlooked anything so I don’t know!

CHARACTERS

Like I said before it’s been a while since I played, so I’m having trouble remembering what all I wanted to say about the characters. I have a note that I wanted to talk about Kokichi, Kaito, Ryoma, Kirumi, Maki, and Kibo, but I can't remember what I had to say about them. I know I wanted to mention Ryoma sadly looking out over the tennis court in his lab, and Maki being a mysterious shit for no reason. (What are you hiding!) And maybe comment some more on Kaito and his grandparents and just him in general. But oh well, I’m sorry guys! I’ll try to be better about this with chapter 3 instead of putting it off so long, lol.

PREDICTIONS

Okay, so a final prediction to close with.

Another one of my reaching predictions, but the scene at the very beginning of the chapter got me thinking. I wonder if this is going to be like the sequel to my fanstory that I had planned, in which the twist is that all the characters are actually “dead” and the people who have been participating in the killing game are clones of those people who have been implanted with their memories.

Now, I actually hope this is not the case as I really want to use this idea for said fanstory, lol, but it would be interesting nonetheless. I don’t have any other evidence supporting this right now though, so I’ll have to see how things progress before saying more!

[kibahinatas]

DRV3 Liveblog [BLIND]: Pregame

AHHHH!! After almost a year of avoiding all things Dangan Ronpa in fear of spoilers, I can’t believe I finally get to play V3! I have been waiting for this for so long I can barely contain myself, lol.

Now, I would have loved to record myself doing a Let’s Play of this game, but as I’ll be playing on my boyfriend’s PS4 at his house, that won’t be happening. So instead, I’m going to try and record all my thoughts as I play, here on tumblr!

My plan is to write a post of my reactions and theories after each session of playing; or after each of the main chapter segments depending on how long I play each time. And hopefully it will be a bit more organized than this post, lol.

But before I get into that, I thought I would look back on some theory posts I made back when the game was announced as well as go over what I already know!

PREDICTIONS

note: these were all based purely on character designs!

1. Ultimate Talents (click)

To add on to that post, I also like popular theories going around at the time that Purple Guy could have a space related talent, because of the interior of his jacket, and that Witch Hat could also be a cosplayer/costumer. Also if not for Mukuro already being the SHSL Soldier, I might have guessed that for Mask Boy.

2. Ships (click)

I mostly just pulled these out of my ass, so I’m guessing these will be pretty far off, haha.

3. Survivors (click)

Again, mostly just guessing here. TBH IDK if I still stand by this, but the mindset I had at the time was that the new game might try to break our expectations (somewhat) with what kind of characters live til the end. For example, ‘big strong characters always die’ (Bug Man), or Goggles, who gives me an Akane vibe for some reason, being a survivor. So I went against those ideas.

WHAT I ALREADY KNOW

Now, although I did my best to avoid EVERY kind of spoiler - I didn’t even want to know names or talents! - I did find out a couple minor things.

1. Talents

I accidentally saw something somewhere that mentioned Kaede being the SHSL Pianist, and Checkered Scarf being the SHSL President.

Thoughts: Interesting! I figured Kaede would be something music related because of the note motif, but I guess I didn’t expect something so specific, based on our previous protagonists. Already this game is breaking expectations!

As for Checkered Scarf, I definitely never would have guessed President! But the president of what, I wonder? A nation? A school club? There are a lot of possibilities. This is also very interesting given the prison setting. Could he have been a dictator like leader? This leads into my next spoiler.

(Also, could potential Servant and/or Guard be in his service? Hm..)

2. A shady character??

This is in reference to Checkered Scarf (CS). Now, this doesn’t have too much of a solid basis, and is more of something I just have a feeling about. I accidentally saw a picture of him that just gave me a weird vibe - there was something creepy and untrustworthy about him!

Thoughts: Now I don’t know if this even counts as a spoiler, as it’s all just speculation. Honestly I hope that I’m wrong about this, as my initial impression of him was a cute little dude. I don’t want to go through another Nagito experience. To clarify, I saw a crazed picture of Nagito on a Youtube thumbnail that completely ruined the ‘crazy reveal’ for me in Trial 1 of SDR2.

So if CS is supposed to have a hidden side to him that is supposed to come as a total shock to players, I don’t want to have that twist ruined for me! But we will see...

side note: another post I made, before Kaede was even revealed as the MC, had to do with me suspecting Purple Guy of being our token shady guy, but who knows...

3. Multiple Endings

This is part speculation and part actual spoiler. Thanks again to Youtube, I saw a recommended video about the “true ending” of DRV3. It didn’t say or show anything other than that, but it got me thinking about the gameplay.

Thoughts: So far, the first two DR games have always been pretty linear. As long as you figure out what to do in the trials, you will progress towards the end. The only exception being in Trial 5 of DR1, where you make a choice which can show you either the very short ‘bad end’ (which then sends you back to said choice) or the one where Naegi gets ‘executed’ which is the true route.

Seeing the phrase “true end” immediately makes me wonder if this game will be more like a traditional visual novel, where you can make several choices throughout the game which will decide which ending you will get. Thus, creating a branching storyline along the lines of, for example, 999.

If so, this will be a huge change in terms of how the overall experience is. Personally, I would prefer this not to be the case, as I’ve always found that jumping around through storylines trying to reach the true end is always a bit jarring for me.

Of course, this could just mean that they are returning to something like what happened in DR1 or AE - There are one or two choices we make which lead to a different ‘ending’ and that’s about as complicated as it gets. I hope that is the case, but I am eager to find out!

ANYWAY

That about sums it up for all of my thoughts before getting into the game. I can’t wait to start and experience a new DR story all over again! And this time I will actually be playing it for myself, for the first time!

If you would like to keep up with my reviews of the game, check #JessDoesV3 on my blog to find all my reviews!

First post coming soon!!!

[kibahinatas]

DRV3 Liveblog [BLIND]: Ch. 1 Deadly Life Pt. 2

MY WISH...

Wow, okay. So uh, let’s talk about the conclusion to the first trial and chapter 1!

After the Intermission, I got into proving Shuichi’s innocence, played some new mini games, almost threw the PS4 out the window, and uncovered a major twist!

In order to convince everyone that Shuichi was not the culprit, we had to deal with everyone being split on the decision. So, Monokuma introduced us to a new mini game, where all the characters are split into two sides. As this was brand new I was sooo confused as to what I was supposed to do at first, but once I figured it out, it wasn’t too hard. Basically, we had to determine which character should counter which character, and what the topic of their argument was. I’ll probably do better at this the next time around.

So, having proved Shuichi was not the killer it seemed we were left with no other clues! Or were we..? Kaede pointed out that the flash being on in the hidden door photos, is what would point us to the killer. The flash would have lured Amami over to the camera. And she knew only one person could have set it, the person she always knew was the culprit...

And this is where I almost had a brain aneurysm. Suddenly the game prompted me to choose Amami’s killer! Uh, excuse me?! My boyfriend and I were freaking out like, how are we supposed to know that, we don’t have ANY clues! So it was time to guess. He thought that one of the shadows in the picture of Amami reaching for the camera resembled Ryoma’s hat, and knowing he didn’t have an alibi, I tried him first. But no luck. One by one, I tried each and every character - even Amami himself! But not one of them was the culprit! After losing all influence and having to start over multiple times, I was feeling super frustrated. Wtf did the game want me to do?! Finally, after having chosen literally everyone else, I was like, ‘what, am I supposed to say, myself??’ And wouldn’t you know it, that was the correct answer!

‘WHAT THE FUCK.’ ‘How what why.’ ‘This makes no sense.’ These were some of the things going through my mind. My boyfriend was pissed. This was so stupid! How could the character we’ve been playing be the murderer! Well, the game was very tricky in how this worked. And after finishing it, even if it was a kind of shitty twist, I’m impressed. The murder was being set up right in front of us (the players) the whole time! Vague lines were shown, that indicated when Kaede acquired the murder weapon, and threw it into the vent - “I shoved everything I was holding into my backpack.” “I dropped everything I was holding.”  And you know, I’m not happy about it, but I’m not mad about it either.

So we switched to playing as Shuichi at this point in the trial, and proved that Kaede was in fact the killer, and that she did it in an attempt the kill the mastermind. Of course, Amami was not the mastermind, so she still had to pay for what she did with her life. Monokuma executed her by hanging her by the neck and dangling her feet onto a massive piano, until I guess she either suffocated or broke her neck. :( But then he shut the big piano, which was covered in spikes, and at the last second Monodam unexpectedly shoved Monokid inside, killing him.

I’m really bummed Kaede is dead, I liked her as a main character and she was the only girl MC in the main games! While Shuichi is definitely a more typical DR protagonist and I like him, after Kaede was hyped so much I’m sad to see her go. Before the end of the chapter we had a touching scene where Shuichi went to her lab and found the Clair de Lune song she had told him about earlier.

Oh and before I forget, I found it interesting how Kaito was so gung-ho about everything, for lack of a better term. He really didn’t want to believe Kaede was the killer, and after she was executed was still fired up, even slapping/punching (idr) Shuichi for how he was behaving. I feel like he’s going to start being a more important character as we go along, even if Monokuma said he’ll probably die soon, haha.

Not sure what to expect from here on out, but it will be interesting playing as a new character now! All in all I got an A in every section of the trial, so not too bad!

I wonder if we are going to lose a Monokub at the end of each chapter though? Hmm...Anyway, to wrap up Chapter One, so far my favorite characters are Kokichi and Himiko. I like a lot of the other characters too, but it’s still too early for me to have a solid opinion of a lot of them lol.

[kibahinatas]

DRV3 Liveblog [BLIND]: Ch. 1 Deadly Life Pt. 1

Alright, so I’m going to try and make this post a little briefer than usual, since my plan is to go and finish up the rest of the chapter later tonight. So I want to get my thoughts in now.

I picked up with the discovery of Amami’s body, and played up until the Intermission of the Trial. So I’m just going to use two categories.

INVESTIGATION

After we all came to see the body, Monokuma came out and asked the culprit to raise their hand so they could go ahead and graduate, according to the First Blood Perk. But, no one stepped forward or said a word. Coming to the conclusion that they must simply want to hold a class trial, he declares that we should all start investigating while we can.

My first thought was that maybe this is some twisted killer who wants to get us all killed, like Nagito attempted in SDR2 ch. 5. And some of the characters even voiced this thought later on, during the trial. However, maybe the culprit simply didn’t want to reveal that they did it in front of everyone else? This has still to be seen.

During the investigation we discovered a few noteworthy things. Well, all truth bullets are ‘noteworthy’ but I’ll only talk about a few. One, the dust in the card reader was still there, meaning no one had tried to go inside. Two, Gonta was actually in the A/V room, next to the game room, which had a door right across from the rear entrance to the library. Three, we learned that Tsumigi is unable to cosplay as real people due to her severe “cospox.” (Lol) And four, the photos didn’t provide us with any clues as to who the killer is.

Now, upon finishing the investigation, although I didn’t want to believe it, I had a theory on how Gonta could be the killer. The door that led from the A/V room to the hall, could only be opened enough to fit an arm through. So I thought that maybe he had thrown the shot put ball through that opening, through the rear library door (which was open for some reason) and hit Amami. This theory of course, relied on the fact that the bookcase door was not big enough to block the path when it was open.

TRIAL

Eventually, that theory was proven false, when Kirumi brought up the same idea in the trial, with a little more detail, and we proved that the bookcase, would in fact have blocked the path of the ball were Gonta to have thrown it from the A/V room. Knowing he did not leave the A/V room, this proved he was not the killer.

But before I talk more about what we learned in the trial so far, I want to talk a little about gameplay.

As I’ve mentioned, this is my first time playing a DR game for myself, so I was excited to see what it was like actually going through the trial. I only bought two skills beforehand, I believe, as I wasn’t sure what I would need the most help in just yet. I got one that decreased the delay when you fire a bullet, and one related to concentration I believe?

So far I’ve fared pretty well. Even though the fast pace of Non-Stop and Mass Panic Debates gives me the slightest bit of anxiety, I’ve been doing pretty good with picking the right truth bullet and weak point, without missing or anything like that. Although, once, when I had to pick a piece of evidence from my entire list I picked the wrong one, but in my defense it could have worked as well, haha. Those parts freak me out because you have less than a minute to choose the right bullet!

The only other mini game I did was the Rebuttal Showdown, I believe it’s called. It seems pretty similar to the one in SDR2. But even though I didn’t play that one, I feel like this one has more difficult controls, lol. I struggled with turning the sword in the right direction, as you kind of had to rotate it to do so. Then having to pick a truth bullet before accidentally just slashing everything and using the truth bullet slash, ugh. I regular slashed the weak point by mistake the first time, but when I redid it I got it right. Let’s just say I’d like a skill to help with this game next time around, lol.

Anyway, as the trial progressed, we seemed to be figuring out who wasn’t the killer, and how they didn’t do it, but not getting anywhere with what actually happened. But, right before the intermission, Miu brought up the interval in the cameras.

After each photo is snapped, there is a 30 second period in which the camera must auto-wind itself to prepare for the next time it has to take a photo. So the idea was raised that the culprit must have entered the library, killed Amami, and then left, all in one of those 30 second intervals. And who was the only person Miu told about this? Shuichi.

Wait what?! I’ll be honest, when “receiver on Shuichi” was added as a truth bullet, the idea that maybe Shuichi killed him when he left Kaede in the classroom crossed my mind. But then I was like, ‘nahhh no way,’ and forgot about it. But then this!

Kaede was questioning him, and he was being super dodgy and quiet about everything. Is Shuichi the killer? Our sweet cinnamon roll bestie? Well, that’s when it went to Intermission, and I saved and called it a night, so I don’t know yet!

I really hope not. I hope by some miracle, my gut is right and it’s Tenko instead, but at this point I feel like her attitude hasn’t matched up to that theory, while Shuichi’s just then is much more suspicious! Oh man, I look forward to playing the conclusion to this chapter tonight.

[kibahinatas]

DRV3 Liveblog [BLIND]: Ch. 1 Daily Life

I WILL END THIS GAME

Alright so I just finished up the first part of Chapter One - everything up to the discovery of the first murder. I’ll be breaking it down into the same four segments again, so let’s jump in!

[If you want to skip my summary of the story, just look for THOUGHTS in bold, to read what I think about it.]

STORY

Picking up where we left off after meeting Monokuma in the gym, we all discover our Monopads have been updated with our new rules for life in the Ultimate Academy. We then begin talking amongst ourselves and realize that Gonta has found a manhole out in the boiler room behind the school, and go to check it out.

There, Kibo attempts to lift the cover to the manhole with no luck, saying he was only made to have the strength of an above average elderly man. So Gonta steps in and lifts the cover with two fingers, no problem. We then descend down into the passageway and find ourselves in a large open area underground.

Some people think we’ve escaped from where Monokuma can see us, but the monitor in the room suggests otherwise. The only objects of note down here are the big tunnel and the wooden sign that says “EXIT” pointed towards it.

Naturally we try to check it out. But after a very poor attempt at a minigame, realize that it is full of traps and impossible to traverse. Then Monokuma comes to laugh at us, basically saying there’s no hope. But when he leaves, Kaede rallies everyone again and we give it one more go. I fared a bit better in the minigame this time, but ultimately failed.

Now everyone is feeling super dejected and wants to give up, much to Kaede’s dismay. They all leave to head to their new dorm rooms, except for Kaito and Shuichi, who haven’t let it get to them as much. We then leave and turn in for the night, in our fancy new dorm, feeling pretty down about everything.

The next morning, we all meet for breakfast in the dining hall, as Kiyo(?) had suggested the day before. Everyone seems to be feeling better, although Kokichi still can’t seem to decide if he blames me for bringing us all down or feels sorry for me, lol. But then Monokuma shows up with an announcement.

He is already giving us the first motive! It’s the “first blood perk”: we will not be holding a class trial for whoever makes the first kill. But Kaito is not having it. He charges Monokuma. The Monokubs, fearing their father’s life, call upon an Exisal. But when it arrives it accidentally steps on Monokuma, crushing him entirely. With most of us believing him dead, and the killing game over (Kirumi suggested he may have a spare) we go about our days.

But the next morning, Kirumi is proven right when Monokuma shows up again. This time with an additional motive to get things moving - if we do not kill by nighttime in two days, every single one of us will be mauled to death by multiple Monokumas.

Later, Shuichi comes to us and says he has to show us something. In the library, he has discovered that one of the bookcases is actually a secret door that uncovers another secret door, bearing Monokuma’s colors. The hidden door also requires a card reader to open it. He believes that one of us may be working with Monokuma, and may come here to activate the spare Monokumas right before the deadline. To prove that one of us is using this door, he places dust in the card reader.

When we later discover the dust pushed out of the reader, we get to work on a plan to catch the supposed mastermind. With Miu’s help, we set up motion activated cameras on the bookshelf door, and the two entrances to the library. Then, we head up to the classroom next to basement stairs and wait to see who will go downstairs, and wait for our alarm to go off, signalling that someone moved the bookcase.

Soon the monitors begin blaring an obnoxious song and video, telling us that the deadline is in an hour. We also spot 7 students heading down the stairs all at once: Kaito, Gonta, Amami, Tenko, Himiko, Angie, and Maki [(?) idr who the 7th was.] Shuichi goes down to see what they’re up to, leaving Kaede alone in the classroom. But soon he returns and tells her that everyone went into the gameroom, and not the library.

But then our alarm begins to go off! Someone has moved the bookcase! Quickly, we rush downstairs to the library. In the hall we run into Tenko and Kaito, who invite us to join their strategy meeting in the gameroom. However, we tell them we have to go catch the mastermind in the library.

The four of us run into the library, just in time to see the bookcase close shut, with no one in sight. But, behind one of the lower shelves, and just under one of our cameras, we discover the body of Amami. His head bloodied, and a shot put ball beside him.

THOUGHTS: There was a lot going on in this chapter, and also not at the same time. Let’s start with the new rules we received on the Monopad.

For the most part these seem pretty standard, except they seem to cover some specific things that the students may have wondered about otherwise. For example, that Monokuma cannot directly kill a student, and that the killing game will end once there are only 2 people left. Now, the second one is interesting. This was never really made clear in the previous games. Not that it mattered, since it always ended before that many people were able to die anyway. So why highlight it now? Will this game be longer, and will we really have to go down to just two of us? Hopefully not, and it’s just clarifying something that’s never really been clarified before.

Next we have the underground area with the tunnel. The students try over and over to get through the tunnel, that may or may not even be an exit, until they can’t take it anymore. I don’t really blame them for being upset with Kaede for continually “forcing” them to keep trying, but at the same time I also feel bad for her. She just wants what’s best for everyone and doesn’t want us to give up or lose hope. Her positivity is almost unwavering.

Now, the motive...I didn’t expect to get one as soon as we did but, like why not I guess. If I was Monokuma I’d want to speed things up too. But how in the world is this going to play out? No trial? Really? Is Monokuma just gonna pop out like, “Okay the culprit is __ and they can leave now, bye!” Will he still have us tell him who we think the culprit is, without the formal class trial? And if so, are the punishments still in place? Will we not get to solve Amami’s murder?!

/sigh. Anyway, I wonder what the deal is with that black and white door. Is it really related to the mastermind and/or where the Monokuma bots are coming from, like Shuichi thinks? Is one of us really the mastermind, or working with them? Or maybe there are multiple people behind this! Right now I have too many questions and not enough clues. All I know is that someone (or multiple someones) went through that door after we put the dust in place.

As for the murder, or what appears to be a murder anyway (I found the body, saved and called it a night, but I doubt he’s still alive) I don’t have much to go on yet. My boyfriend pointed out that earlier, when Kaede tried picking up the shot put balls in the warehouse she was struggling to do so, implying that the murderer must be someone strong enough to not only lift them with ease, but use as a weapon. Now, it’s too early to say the shot put ball is the murder weapon, but it’s all I’ve got right now.

GAMEPLAY

I covered a lot of this in the prologue post, but there are some other things to talk about now. Let’s start with that fucking minigame...lol.

So the first two times that the students traversed the underground tunnel, the game had me play a minigame where they had to progress and avoid obstacles. It gave me 16 lives, one for each student. It was nearly impossible to know what was a trap and what wasn’t, which in retrospect was probably the point - it wanted us to fail both times. Of course, at the time I thought I might have to complete it in order to progress the story and was frustrated, haha.

Including the minigame in the middle of the ‘novel’ part of the game, definitely threw me off guard, though. I’m not sure if I liked that or not. But I can’t help but wonder what would happen if someone actually made it through the whole level. Would they actually find an exit, and thus an alternate ending perhaps? Would it lead to another room? Or would the level just loop around until you lost all your lives, lol. I’d like to find this out after I eventually complete the game.

Then we have the Monocoins. I totally forgot about them until I got to my first free time, and realized I didn’t have any coins to spend on presents. Examining things wasn’t giving me any coins, and neither were the hidden Monokumas I had found. So, irritated after wasting my first free time event, I googled how to acquire them and realized I needed to be smacking things. Honestly, I had totally forgotten about that feature, lol. It took me a while to figure out I needed to smack the background objects and not things I can interact with, but eventually I got some coins and spent them on the Monomono machine.

FREE TIME

Like I said, I ended wasting my first free time event, as I didn’t have any presents so I really only got 3 this chapter. I spent them with Amami, Kokichi, and Ryoma.

I technically spent time with Amami twice, but without a present the first time, it ended right after the present prompt. Sadly my last save was at the end of the prologue, so I wasn’t about to go all the way back just for my free time.

Anyway, I gave him the Boba Tea, which he seemed to like, and then sat down to have tea with him. I had no idea what to give him, but I guess I got lucky, haha. I wish I could remember what all we talked about, so I’ll have to look at his report card again later. Glad I got to talk to him before he died though.

Then I hung out with Kokichi, who I gave the Workchair of Doom, or something like that, which he liked. Then he got to lying or not lying, who knows. He told a ridiculous story about how he had met Kaede before but then she died, which he said was a lie. Kaede afterwards said something along the lines of how he must really want attention to lie as much as he does.

Finally, I decided I’d see who my boyfriend wanted to talk to, since he’s watching me play and enjoying the game as well. He said his first two choices would have been Amami and Kokichi anyway, but that his next choice would be Ryoma. I gave him Candy Cigarettes which he seemed to really like, and talked about cats. He said he had a cat back home before he went to prison. As a cat lover I enjoyed the conversation, lol.

The last thing I want to say as far as gameplay goes is about the new Monokuma Theaters. It looks like we’ll get a new image of Monokuma almost every time. Which I like. And one thing I noticed is that in the picture of him holding up some playing cards, it looked like a picture of Celeste on one of the cards! Neat little easter egg I suppose.

CHARACTERS

Unlike last time, I’m not going to go through each character, but instead just highlight the ones I have something to say about that I haven’t already mentioned in this post.

AMAMI: Poor, poor, Amami, we barely knew ya. I just knew he was going to die, given our first victims in the previous games (Sayaka, and “Byakuya”) but I didn’t want to believe it. He knew about this “Ultimate Hunt,” which I think I remember hearing in the prologue? I can’t remember if it was him who mentioned it or the others before the Monokubs gave them their ultimate memories. Although scarily determined to put an end to the killing game, he seemed like a nice guy. RIP bae, I’m sure we’ll learn your talent one day.

KOKICHI: Liar, liar, plants for hire. As much as I love this kid idk if I could ever trust him! From his ridiculous tears that he can seem to turn on or off at will, to “that was a lie.” He’s definitely good at lying, but also seems to always tell you when he’s lying? I remember saying to my boyfriend at one point, if he’s a liar then is the first thing he said a lie, or the “that was a lie” part? Hm...But as a Danganronpa veteran, I know that characters are not always what they appear. Maybe he’s actually a good guy deep down? Although he seems to have a relationship reminiscent of Hiyoko and Mikan with Kibo...lol. Either way I get the feeling that he may actually survive this killing game now.

SHUICHI: Well, well, look who’s being all detectivey now! I have to say, I did doubt him at first, but now idk! He seems to be acting more like a detective. I mean, nowhere near Kirigiri level, but still. He’s also bonded with Kaede a lot it seems. People keep giving them shit for always being together, haha. Do I ship it? Maybe, lol. He opened up to her a lot in what was a touching moment when they were waiting for the alarm in the classroom. Hearing about that case he solved was interesting, and how it affected him so much, even to the point that he became uncomfortable by eye contact. I thought death flags were flying, but I’m glad he’s still with us.

KIYO: Not to break my repeating word trend, but here we go. I told myself I wouldn’t succumb to using his shortened localized name, but I couldn’t do it. He’s Kiyo to me now, lol. Anyway, the only new things I really wanted to comment on about him will be brief. First, in a passing conversation I had with while on my way to breakfast or something like that, he mentioned a “Sister.” Kaede thought to herself how nice it was he missed his sister back home, but I feel like he’s not talking about his actual sibling. So who is this Sister then? Also his obsession with observing human behavior is...intriguing. He seemed excited to see how we would all behave with this killing game, so...yeah. Kinda creepy.

TENKO: Speaking of creepy obsessions, let’s talk about Tenko. She clearly has a weird crush on Himiko, always by her side, drooling over her, and offering to help her go to the bathroom...Girl needs to chill. Himiko seems almost irritated by her though which is humorous. I seriously wonder where this chick’s absolute hatred of men stemmed from.

KAITO: It seems I was wrong about Kaito. He doesn’t seem like scardey cat, but more on the determined/optimistic side. Not that I can compare him to Kaede, but so far he doesn’t seem to fit that role as I thought he might.

PREDICTIONS

I haven’t gotten much more insight into the main plot going on here, but I have some thoughts on Amami’s murder.

Most likely the murderer will be one of the other 6 people we saw going down into the basement. So Kaito, Gonta, Tenko, Himiko, Angie, or Maki. Also, we know that the shot put ball is fairly heavy, so whoever used it must have some strength. Going off of those two things, if I had to venture a guess as to who the culprit is, I’d say maybe Tenko? I don’t see it being Gonta or Kaito, and we also saw her in the hallway before we discovered the body.

I have a feeling Gonta will come under suspicion because of his strength alone, though. (Flashbacks to the sewer grate anyone?) But like I said, I doubt it’s him. Anyway, I will start the investigation soon, so I guess we’ll see!

[kibahinatas]

DRV3 Liveblog [BLIND]: Prologue

THE STORY IS NOT OVER

Welp I just finished playing the prologue, and OH MAN. I have a LOT to say, so strap in guys, this is gonna be a long ride!

To start off, the settings I chose were Japanese Audio, Mean Logic, and Normal Action. And then the game began! I found it interesting how it started out with the montage of all the Dangan Ronpa games, including the anime! Will this really not be a part of the Hope’s Peak storyline at all? Hm...

Anyway, I think it will be best if I break things down into 4 main segments: STORY, GAMEPLAY, CHARACTERS, and PREDICTIONS. Let’s start with,

STORY

So our story begins with our sweet MC Kaede Akamatsu awakening in a locker, alongside fellow student Shuichi Saihara. They both have memories of being kidnapped but otherwise appear to be normal high schoolers in a strange classroom. They exit the classroom into the overgrown school and encounter these big robots (piloted by the Monokubs) and head to the gym where the other 14 normal high schoolers are.

The Monokubs seem to be a bit disorganized, and realize they didn’t give the students their memory of being ultimates. After returning their ultimate memories, and a quick magical girl transformation by Kaede into the SHSL Pianist, we suddenly start over in the locker again, but now as ultimates and without the kidnapping memory, it would seem.

We then travel around the school with Shuichi and properly meet the other students. Some rooms and areas appear to be locked, and we also discover that we will each have our own “ultimate lab” to help cultivate our talents. After meeting everyone we are gathered in the gym to meet Monokuma and learn our true purpose for being here: a killing game.

THOUGHTS: Hm, where to begin! There’s a lot going on already in just the prologue. But I think the thing that stands out to me the most right now has to be the nature of the student’s amnesia. When the game first started with no one knowing about their talents was that just a mistake by the Monokubs or is something more going on? And it seems like our characters were actually kidnapped for real this time around!

The fact that the students “started over” after receiving their ultimate memories is probably the most interesting to me, though. Why make them do that instead of just staying where they were in the gym? Why was it so important to go back in the locker, or wherever everyone else awoke?

Also WHAT is going on with that flash of Kaede with her head hooked up to that..whatever it is. Are we in another SDR2 situation where our bodies are one place and our mind is another? I mean, I doubt they would do something so similar, but we did go through a magical girl transformation, and have our memory returned to us via a light...so I’m not ruling it out just yet. But, it could just be the amnesia device or whatever. We have yet to see just how Junko stole the 78th class’ memories, so who knows. Needless to say, I have a LOT of questions!

As far as the setting goes, I’m digging it so far. The overgrown school has a rather cool feel to it, and I like that we have an outside area as well with places to visit, including the dormitory. It’s like a nice balance between the totally trapped setting of DR1 and the more open island setting of SDR2.

GAMEPLAY

Although I have never played any of the preceding DR games myself, I am pretty familiar with how the gameplay usually goes, having watched multiple LPs. So, overall it seems to play much like how the others did, with some minor updates. Oh, and that “chase” scene with the Exisals...that caught me so off guard for a Dangan Ronpa game, haha. Aaaanyway...

The controls are basically the same, one update being how it looks when you see what you can investigate in a room. Instead of circling the objects, it highlights them while darkening everything else. It actually makes it much easier to see what’s around, tbh. There’s also the option to smack things, but so far I haven’t found anything that it works on. Not sure what the purpose of this will be. And if the game did tell, me I was probably a little confused and/or forgot, haha.

The main map looks and works a little differently than the ones before, as to be expected, but we also now have a mini map in the bottom right corner on screen whenever we’re walking around in open areas which I like. The main map also features little almost 3d looking pixel sprites of the characters to show where there are, which I thought was cute.

The soundtrack seems pretty solid so far as well. I’m really enjoying the new ‘beautiful’ song, “Beautiful Lie.” It’s a nice addition to the series that is almost like a mix between “Beautiful Dead” and “Beautiful Ruin” in terms of style. We also get some remixes of classics like the main DR theme and Monokuma’s theme. All nicely done. Basically, Masafumi Takada kills it once again.

We also get to see and hear Kaede when she speaks! Which is really cool. I like being able to see multiple characters at once on this new and improved interface. We’ve also gotten a lot of cut scenes so far which I’ve been enjoying. It really adds a lot to the experience and helps you really immerse yourself and better visualize what’s going on.

CHARACTERS

And now to my favorite part to talk about! Characters! Let’s talk about each character individually, in the order in which they appear in my Dossier, beginning with our protagonist.

KAEDE AKAMATSU, SHSL PIANIST: Our first female MC (sorry Komaru) has not disappointed so far! I’m really enjoying playing as her. I love playing characters with a lot of personality which she definitely has. She seems very positive and friendly, and maybe a little silly at times too. It’s interesting to me how she’s just met all of her classmates and already views them as friends. She really seems like the type to hope for the best in all things! How will she react when the killing starts, however...

RANTARO AMAMI, SHSL ???: Oh boy, our token “I don’t remember what my talent is” character. (Let’s call him Amami, I like the sound of that better haha) Already, I can tell the game is setting him up to be an important character with him seeming to know a little of what is going on here at the Academy. I’m not sure what to make of him yet, but he looks and sounds like a super bae, haha. Although, something about him just gives me a real Nagito vibe. His behavior, sprite poses, and that wavy hair...hm. I don’t know. With all that, I can’t shake the feeling he may be one of the first to die...

MIU IRUMA, SHSL INVENTOR: An inventor! What a handful this girl is, haha. She has such a fun and over the top personality, I like it. Me and my boyfriend were cracking up at all her vulgar comments and sudden changes in mood. I don’t have much else to add about her right now, but I’m looking forward to getting to know her more. Let’s hope she sticks around for a while.

KOKICHI OMA, SHSL SUPREME LEADER: This kid!! I’m not sure which translation is more accurate, President or Supreme Leader, but I definitely prefer the latter. He’s such a cutie but also..kind of evil? I love it. He’s the leader of a massive “secret evil organization” that may or may not exist (depending on whether he’s telling the truth or not,) which is so vague! What kind of organization? Hm. Anyway, I’m curious to see how he will get along with the others. Already we’ve seen him tormenting Kibo and Himiko to an extent, while also seeming excited about the killing game. Is he really pure evil? I’m super curious to know more.

K1-B0, SHSL ROBOT: Aka Kibo (or ‘Keebo’ as it’s spelled in my game), aka Robohoge, the guy we all thought would be the protagonist once upon a time. And, one of the characters whose talents I somewhat predicted. I thought he would be a cyborg - part human, part robot - but it seems that he’s all robot! Just like Amami filling a token role, Kibo is our token AI. I haven’t seen enough of him yet to really form a solid opinion on him, but I’m curious as to whether or not his creator, a Professor Idabashi, has any relevance.

GONTA GOKUHARA, SHSL ENTOMOLOGIST: Entomologist...bug catcher, I mean that’s the same thing, right? Right? Haha..anyway what a big precious boy. Literally raised by wolves, Gonta is basically Tarzan..if Tarzan was really into bugs. Like, really, REALLY just loved bugs. He comes across as a bit simple, but I think it’s mostly due to his poor grasp of language. I honestly don’t see him having any big secrets or hidden sides to him, and he seems rather trusting. As long as you love bugs, of course. So it makes me concerned he may be an easy target later on, regardless of his size.

SHUICHI SAIHARA, SHSL DETECTIVE: Our main boy so far, he’s accompanied Kaede throughout her exploration of the school, after waking up in the adjacent locker. When he revealed his talent, I literally yelled “You can’t be the Ultimate Detective! Kyoko Kirigiri is the Ultimate Detective!” And tbh, I’m not completely convinced he is, but not for that reason. Not only does he not really seem like much of a detective at all (seriously, just compare his actions with those of Kyoko,) but the way he earned his title is suspect. Shuichi himself believes the case he solved was due to luck, and not his actual detective skills. This makes me think that perhaps he is not the SHSL Detective, but actually the SHSL Good Luck! Anyway, I like him so far. He seems a little shy, and seems to have some sort of complex with his hat. Overall a good kid. I’d be his friend.

TSUMIGI SHIROGANE, SHSL COSPLAYER: And suddenly Dangan Ronpa fans around the world screamed, as their OC’s talent was snatched up by a canon character, lol. Tsumigi, not to be confused with Mikan Tsumiki, is certainly an interesting girl. Kaede and Shuichi poking her cheeks with no response? Amazing, lol. She’s also a huge nerd, but not in the hilariously cringey way that Yamada was, so it should be fun to hear all the references and relateable things she’ll have to say. I hope we get to actually see some of her cosplays!

KOREKIYO SHINGUJI, SHSL ANTHROPOLOGIST: Or ‘Kiyo’ as he’s called in the localized version. Honestly, I can’t say I’m a big fan of this guy right now. He’s a little..off-putting. His talent also came as a surprise to me, with such a creepy appearance. Then again, I guess it matches his creepy personality, lol. But I don’t want to write him off just yet, I’m sure he has...some redeeming qualities...

TENKO CHABASHIRA, SHSL AIKIDO MASTER: Oh Tenko, winner of the Best Sprite award with that stunning face she made when Kaede called her cute, haha. Her dislike of men is reminiscent of Mahiru a bit, but much more extreme. She seems like a fun character and I like her so far. Also, super gay.

KIRUMI TOJO, SHSL MAID: What is this, like the 3rd time we’ve had an ultimate maid? Haha, seems like it anyway. Anyway, I don’t really have a lot to say about her right now. Out of all the characters, she’s probably made the smallest impression on me so far. It sounds like she does a bit more than traditional maid work though - which to me would be like cleaning duties. I feel like ‘Servant’ may fit her better, and maybe it’s just a translation thing, but oh well. Maid it is I suppose.

MAKI HARUKAWA, SHSL CHILD CAREGIVER: Discovering Maki’s talent was probably one of the more WTF moments I had in the prologue, haha. It really does not fit her at all. I almost wonder if she’s lying about what her talent is...hmm...Personality wise she seems a little cold, and maybe a bit mysterious. She was featured very prominently in the very early promos of the game, which makes her seem important, but it could have just been to mislead us I suppose. She also mentioned being raised in an orphanage, which I’m sure had a big impact on the kind of person she became.

RYOMA HOSHI, SHSL TENNIS PRO: Ryoma...I...well let’s just say I wasn’t too far off in my last post when I said he might use his tennis racket to threaten people, haha. But damn, THAT VOICE. He is just 3′4″ and 88 lbs of MAN. Well, minus that face, lol. Once you look past his appearance though, he seems intriguing. He’s basically our token “bad boy”/criminal, but his talent doesn’t match up at all. I wonder what kind of past he had, and what led him to take down that mafia or whatever it was.

KAITO MOMOTA, SHSL ASTRONAUT: Kaito, secretly the SHSL Vocaloid, haha. He gives off the vibe of being our token “scaredy cat.” Which I didn’t expect from him at all, given how cocky he always looked in the early promos. But maybe I’m wrong, I have only really witnessed his introduction scene thus far. Anyway, a good space boy. I hope he makes it there one day.

HIMIKO YUMENO, SHSL MAGICIAN: At last! I can rest assured that my Witch OC is safe...for now...although they do have weirdly similar personalities, lol. Anyway I really like Himiko so far. She’s so cute with her deadpan personality and basic-ass repertoire of magic tricks. I can just see her being the Magician’s Alliance alongside Gob in Arrested Development, haha. But she is an ultimate after all so maybe she has a little something more up her sleeve...

ANGIE YONAGA, SHSL ARTIST: A real cutie-patootie who’s also...super religious? I love her character design so much, and we are also the same height! Although she must be hella skinny to only weigh 90 lbs (I weigh about 110/115 and am pretty petite myself.) Anyway the religious thing is very unexpected but adds a lot of interest to her, other than just being the cutesy girl. And with the way she talks about Atua wanting blood sacrifices, and her being used as his instrument, this could certainly come into play later on...

MONOKUBS: Okay, since I don’t actually have their names in front of me (none of them are in the Dossier for whatever reason) I can’t remember what the red one is called, haha. But overall they seem like they will be quite entertaining to watch. My boyfriend seemed to really enjoy the parts where the game would just cut to Monodam saying absolutely nothing, lol. Monophannie reminds me of Monomi a lot, but I’m sure they are really quite different.

PREDICTIONS

Well I’ve already mentioned some of my ideas, so to try and wrap this up I’ll just talk about the ones I haven’t covered yet.

The biggest one right now has to do with what seemed like a throwaway line by Monokuma. I don’t remember exactly what it was, but it was something along the lines of ‘stories about the second generation are never successful, but with the Monokubs it’s possible.’ I butchered it, but you get the idea. So this spawned an idea in my head.

We know that is not part of the Hope’s Peak storyline, meaning it either takes place in an AU, or in the future sometime after the events of DR3. If it is in the future, could these students be descendants of previous characters? Thus, “the second generation.” Remember, the game told is in the beginning “the story is not over.” Is that what it could mean?

It seems like such a cliche idea, but coming from the franchise that used twists like Twin Switch and it was all a Lotus-Eater Machine, I wouldn’t put it past the developers to this AND do it well. I’m not sure if they would have ALL the characters be 2nd gen, but either way I have a few likely candidates for this theory. I already mentioned about the similarities I feel between Amami and Nagito, so let’s talk about the others.

Kokichi is probably the biggest one for me. Not only could I see him being related to Gundam and Sonia, I could straight up see him being their son! What else would the child of a ruling princess and the “supreme overlord of ice” be but the SHSL Supreme Leader? Leading an evil organization would make sense too given Gundam’s outlandish fantasies of evil and Sonia’s interest in serial killers and the occult. He also wears a scarf, and according to the dossier, “revels in blurring the lines that separate fact from fiction.” Sound like anyone we know? ;)

Gonta is a possible candidate as well. Given his upbringing, this is really just based on his appearance. But he could be related to Akane and Nekomaru. A big buff dude with wild brown hair? I don’t know...

Kaito I’m torn on. His eccentric purple theme and desire to travel to space remind me of Kazuichi. But then his clothing and to a degree his facial hair make me think of Hagakure. But uh, I may be reaching just a bit here.

Anyway, while that theory is definitely reaching a little as a whole, I also noticed there seems to be a theme of Lies going on here. The song “Beautiful Lie,” the game case referring to Lie Bullets, characters that may or may not being lying about who they are (not like pretending to be someone else, but more like withholding information or providing false information about themselves.) I don’t know who or what to trust!

But this post is getting way too long, so I think I will wrap up and end by saying that I am very excited to play more of the game and uncover all the mysteries I’m sure it has to offer.

I wonder what chapter one will hold in store...