August 2019 Playthrough - Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

[Mr_Stubbes]

@douglie That makes since. Now that I think about it the first one I had died because I didn’t know it was a thing at first.

[GrayGhost81]

I'm late to the party but I started the game this weekend. Not too much to report on so far as I am only in chapter one. The travel/map system is just like my favorite Atlus developed game, Friday the 13th for the NES. Like Crabby I loathe the chef guy, but haven't learned enough about anyone else to form an opinion.

and uh, Sonia Nevermind from Novaselic Island. Nice. Can't wait to see how that develops.

[singlebanana]

I finished Chapters 2 & 3 last night and boy am I pissed!  Oh course two of the characters I had strong relationships with ended up being the killers...………grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!  More about this later of course.

[Mr_Stubbes]

I finished Chapters 2 & 3 last night and boy am I pissed!  Oh course two of the characters I had strong relationships with ended up being the killers...………grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr!  More about this later of course.

I’m in a similar boat as you it seems all of my choices are either killers or the victims. I’m finishing up the chapter 4 trial, and the death of the victim left me hurting a little bit haha.

[Crabmaster2000]

I'm part way into Chapter 3 currently. During the chapter 2 trial I bombed so hard when they were looking for the murder weapon from the video game. I was so lost trying to link the murder to the bathing suit that I just picked one truth bullet and tried it on every option until I finally found a match. Lost 3 lives just on that section alone, that's the worst I've ever done on one of those by a lot. The new drive logic game they added was alright though, had fun with that. It was easy to spot the red herrings they set up, but I didn't see Peko as the murderer and thought her working as a Yakuza hitman was pretty cool. I had already maxed out her hope fragments too so it wasn't a big bummer to lose her as a free time option. Her story from the free time sections was about how much she cared for her "friend" and how she wanted help to pursue that relationship who I assumed was someone off the island, but in retrospect was obviously Fuyuhiko. Only a little into chapter 3 Fuyuhiko is becoming one of the most interesting characters.

I also maxed out Chiaki and am halfway into Gunham currently. Curious what gift you get from the guys for maxing their social links since you get the girls underwear it seems from the ladies (still pervy Rich!) Also got 100% of the gift items you can receive from the lottery already so it's easy to use my free time on anyone I want rather than just who I have the gifts for.

What level are you guys at from walking around/investigating. I've never used the fast travel and always make a point of taking the long way around areas so I'm at level 42 currently and found 12 of the hidden Monokuma's so far. Just finished the part where Ibuki plays a song at the "Titty Typhoon"( &_& .....), I like her music a lot more than I assumed I would!

[Mr_Stubbes]

I also maxed out Chiaki and am halfway into Gunham currently. Curious what gift you get from the guys for maxing their social links since you get the girls underwear it seems from the ladies (still pervy Rich!) Also got 100% of the gift items you can receive from the lottery already so it's easy to use my free time on anyone I want rather than just who I have the gifts for.

What level are you guys at from walking around/investigating. I've never used the fast travel and always make a point of taking the long way around areas so I'm at level 42 currently and found 12 of the hidden Monokuma's so far. Just finished the part where Ibuki plays a song at the "Titty Typhoon"( &_& .....), I like her music a lot more than I assumed I would!

I've maxed out a few characters myself. My list includes Chiaki, Mikan, Nekomaru, and I've almost finished Akane's hope fragments. Don't worry Crabby, just like with the ladies, the fellas hand over their underwear as well haha. As for my current level, last time I checked I was at 50/51 and I am currently wrapping up chapter 4. I would say I'm 50/50 with fast traveling and walking to my destination, it honestly depends on my mood. That being said, I have taken a few laps around an island to get the level up when it is close. I also have 20/30 Monokuma Dolls. It looks like there is 5 per chapter. 3 are usually obtainable during free time and the other 2 are usually obtainable during the investigation sequences. I'm not sure if you can go back and find ones you missed, so I'm actively looking for the every time I go into a new area.

[Crabmaster2000]

Just had the game freeze when I opened a door. Lost about 2 hours of playtime!!! Not very impressed....

[Crabmaster2000]

Really hunkered down over the last few days and was able to finish the entire game. I'll throw spoiler tags up for each checkpoint and then toss some final thoughts at the end.

Chapters 4 & 5:

Spoiler (hover to show)

Chapter 4 was probably my favorite chapter in the whole game. I liked having the entire murder in a very closed environment. The stakes of starving to death unless someone was willing to kill felt much more real than a lot of the sillier motivations I've seen in the games as well. The escape room and playing as Nagito was a welcome change of pace. Figuring out the mysteries or the building was pretty interesting, and Mecha-maru was fantastic. I love how excited he was to just be alive and also when he found out he had new functionality. It sucked for me as I was working on his Hope Fragments and was close to finishing him off when he got killed. Thankfully I had just finished Gundham's prior to his outcome. Speaking of Gundham I, his motive for the murder didn't quite make sense to me. They really made it sound like he killed Mecha-Maru knowing he would get caught therefor he was sacrificing himself (and killing the least jarring character since he was already "died" once) for the good of the remaining students. If that was really the case though why would be go through such elaborate efforts to conceal some of the evidence? Seemed like he also would have just been happy to escape as the "blackened" to me.

Chapter 5 had maybe the most interesting murder to solve out of both games and definitely the most brutal. Nagito, from the chapter 1 trial, was not a character I had any appreciation for and I often just dreaded him talking (especially during trials). Wasn't surprised or sad to see him go. I liked that they tied his Ultimate Lucky Student talent so strongly into this game though. That's something they didn't do at all with Makoto from the first game and right up until the end I really though there was going to be a connection between the two of them since they had the same talent, but that just wasn't the case. I had strong suspicions that Chiaki was the traitor from in chapter 4 when she prevented me from going into the escape room to hunt for the Ultimate Weapon, so that reveal wasn't a surprise, but it was still cool to uncover how Nagito sussed her out to the rest of us.

Chapter 0 & 6

Spoiler (hover to show)

I was really expecting a much shorter kind of wrap up, but boy did they go off the rails in full force for this last chapter trial and all. I'm super curious to know if this final chapter made any sense to someone who didn't play the 1st game as you had to know about 4-5 of the main characters from there to really piece it all together. Douglie you might be the only one going into this without experience with the 1st game so I'd love to hear what you thought about the finale specifically. I just felt the game had really overstayed it's welcome at this point and there was so much dialogue that seemed unnecessary or repetitive.

Final thoughts:
I much preferred the first game to this one and I think a huge part of that is just the length and pacing of the game. 1st game always knew when to cut things off before they overstayed their welcome and in 2 so many parts just dragged on and on. The trials were especially grueling and not as enjoyable. Hopefully some of you will back me up (and I'm not just an idiot), but I found a lot of the links you had to put together in the trials were a big leap of logic or too cryptic which resulted in a ton of wrong answers for me which meant just repeating the same arguments over and over. Did not care for most of the mini-games during the trial and even though during the first trial I didn't mind Hangman's Gambit and Logic Drive they lost their novelty extremely quickly. The addition of the Truth Sword and the Consent bullets were not exciting at all. I really loved the new and improved Closing Arguments section though compared to the first game, those were always fun to put together. Just a personal preference, but I don't like tropical/island settings in pretty much anything so the school from the first game was a lot more interesting for me to explore. The cast in both games are pretty much on par for me. In the first game Yasuhiro drove me nuts and it bothered me that he was one of the students that made it all the way through, Kazuichi and Nagito was in the same vein for me in 2. I really enjoyed watching Fuyuhiko evolve throughout the game though and he started off as one of my least favorites and grew into one of the best characters I thought. Ended at level 72 with 999 Monokuma coins and all the gifts you could earn from the coin games. Might mess around with the other modes you unlock by beating the game to see if there is anything fun there too over the next week.

[singlebanana]

It's funny, Danganronpa 2 is considered the best of the series, but I have to agree with all of your comments about the pacing of the game and the trials.  I thought that some of this might get better with the second game, but like you said, the new games are neither impressive, nor do they add much to the game. The leaps in logic can be very bewildering as well and I find myself struggling in many of the Truth Bullet segments.  I don't mind the change in atmosphere with the island, but for some odd reason, prefer the school as well, though it seems more constricting. 

I guess we can talk freely regarding Chapters 2 & 3 now, but I'll still put my thoughts in spoiler brackets for those who maybe have not caught up yet (I know, this games is long):

Spoiler (hover to show)

Holy shit!  I cannot believe that two of the relationships that I was building on became the killers in these two chapters. I had maxed out my relationship with Mikan and was halfway done with Peko...  I seem to do this a lot, get sucked in by characters who don't seem like they would be dangerous and avoid the ones that appear dangerous.  Oh well, at least I got a set of undies out of it! **winks at Crabby**  So far, I have also maxed out a relationship with Chiaki, and considering Fuyuhiko and Sonia as my next targets (if any of them are future killers, please don't tell me).

I can confirm that each chapter has 5 hidden Monokumas.  I have finished the first chapters and have all 15. Hoping that there is some bonus for completeing this collection.  You know, even though this game can drag out a bit, I'm still really enjoying my playthrough of it and would definitely consider playing more of them down the road.  Going to get started on Chapter 4 & 5 soon....as soon as I finish editing this podcast. August has been a real balancing act for me so far.

[GrayGhost81]

Hey gang. I'm at the trial recess in chapter 2 and I'll have to leave my Vita at home to charge today. I'm starting to feel the self-imposed pressure to finish this game in time to record the podcast, but honestly I'm not sure if it will happen. As much as I love the feeling of the greatest handheld console ever created in my grubby little hands, and as much as the I enjoy the colorful pop of this game leaping off the OLED screen into my eyeballs, there is SO MUCH text that I have found myself laying on the circle button and skipping through it more than a few times. I played the first game back in Feb and I'm really feeling for the guys here who are playing 1 & 2 back to back for this playthrough.

I've been using a walkthrough from the start. I learned from the first game that I am a complete imbecile when it comes to trying to figure out how to solve the cases and work through the trials.

I love the music and I think the English vo is well done. I'm not particularly attached to of the characters which is just as well for obvious reasons.

So far I'm not really into the new trial mini-games. The new hangman's gambit is an excruciating bore.

I was really curious about Twilight Syndrome Murder Mystery because the characters being named Girl A, Girl B, etc reminded me of the real life case of Sasebo slashing, where an 11 year old girl murdered a classmate with a box cutter. Because of her age, her name was not released to the public and she was known only as Girl A.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasebo_slashing

I couldn't find any evidence that TSMM was inspired by this case, but rather that it is an homage to Twilight Syndrome, a series of Japan only survival-horror adventure games, the first two of which were directed by Suda51! Very cool stuff.

[Crabmaster2000]

Hey gang. I'm at the trial recess in chapter 2 and I'll have to leave my Vita at home to charge today. I'm starting to feel the self-imposed pressure to finish this game in time to record the podcast, but honestly I'm not sure if it will happen. As much as I love the feeling of the greatest handheld console ever created in my grubby little hands, and as much as the I enjoy the colorful pop of this game leaping off the OLED screen into my eyeballs, there is SO MUCH text that I have found myself laying on the circle button and skipping through it more than a few times. I played the first game back in Feb and I'm really feeling for the guys here who are playing 1 & 2 back to back for this playthrough.

I've been using a walkthrough from the start. I learned from the first game that I am a complete imbecile when it comes to trying to figure out how to solve the cases and work through the trials.

I love the music and I think the English vo is well done. I'm not particularly attached to of the characters which is just as well for obvious reasons.

So far I'm not really into the new trial mini-games. The new hangman's gambit is an excruciating bore.

I was really curious about Twilight Syndrome Murder Mystery because the characters being named Girl A, Girl B, etc reminded me of the real life case of Sasebo slashing, where an 11 year old girl murdered a classmate with a box cutter. Because of her age, her name was not released to the public and she was known only as Girl A.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sasebo_slashing

I couldn't find any evidence that TSMM was inspired by this case, but rather that it is an homage to Twilight Syndrome, a series of Japan only survival-horror adventure games, the first two of which were directed by Suda51! Very cool stuff.

I'm sure there are more references I missed too, but Chiaki made a kick-ass Zombie Nation reference early in the game too that I loved!

[douglie007]

I'm also a bit behind.  I'm in the middle of the second trial.  The trials are so far apart, I forget the controls in the heat of the trial... I was trying to get some of the trophies like, not trying to use slow motion, but screwed it up trying to change the truth bullet.

Sent from my SM-G960U using Tapatalk

[Crabmaster2000]

Played through the Usagi mode that is a mini game in which you defeat waves of baddies leading to eventually fighting the Monobeasts from the main game. It was pretty lame, but if you're looking for another way to farm coins maybe check it out.

The other mode you unlock for beating the game is pretty cool though. You get island mode which is basically an alt-reality of the game where Usagi beats up Monokuma as soon as he arrives and everyone has a happy school trip with no killings. You get to keep your hope fragments from the main game so you can use this to max everyone out if you like. The main part of it though is a resource/time management game where you have to gather resources from around the island to build crafts for Usagi to bond with your schoolmates. You also have to spend a bit of time cleaning up or there are penalties for being to messy. You have to rest your characters from time to time or they will be to tired to work anymore and also wont be available to earn hope fragments from until they are rested again. Pretty neat!

[singlebanana]

Damn, sounds awesome Crabby!  Thanks for reporting on these.

[Mr_Stubbes]

I was able to finish the game last weekend as well, I figured I'd just power though it for a few hours since I was at the chapter 5 class trial. I don't really feel like discussing the class trials except for chapter 6. I feel like whats already been said falls in the realm of how I felt about those chapters. I also feel that basically everything that happens between chapter 1 and chapter 5 doesn't really matter in the grand scheme of things. Honestly, I believe that anyone could get a general idea of the story and conclusion of the game by only playing the prologue, watching chapter 0, and completing chapter 6. Meaning that everything that occurs in Chapter 1 - 5 is really just filler that will tease some plot points that don't get revealed until the end of the game and to build relationships between the characters and the player. I think my feelings about Danganronpa 2 stem from the fact that I felt burnt out playing it. I think this is due to playing the first game right before the 2nd one, I didn't have much time in between to really play anything else. That being said I am glad that I finished the first game, as it really helped explain a lot of things that occurred at the end of the game.

Anyways, here is my thoughts chapter 6....

Spoiler (hover to show)

With chapter 6 taking place in the Hope's Peak Academy of the first game, it brings up a lot of topics and information from that game. One of these topics is the event that is referred to as "The Tragedy of Hope's Peak Academy", which is when the Ultimate Despairs (who turn out to be Junko from the 1st game and the characters of this game less Chiaki as she is the spy from Future Corp) killed 13 students. It is during the Chapter 6 trail that you learn that the world the characters are in is a simulation that was utilized by some members of Future Corp to revert the surviving members of the Ultimate Despairs back to "normal people" who have hope. The Chapter 6 trial also provides more details on The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History (a.k.a The Tragedy), where it is revealed that the Junko and Ultimate Despairs, spread despair like a disease infecting many people as well as killing many too. One of the examples of the killings is when Junko infected the reserve department students resulting in a mass suicide of over 2000 students. Essentially a cult like following was created where those who were infected by despair did things like murdering their friends and family and self mutilation/harm to gain/spread more despair. Even more disturbing is the fact that when Junko died, those infected did things like transplant part of her body onto themselves and some even tried to reproduce with her corpse to spread despair. This over the top description of what was happening in the outside world paints a very detailed picture of how bad the world had become. Learning all of this information to me was great because it finally gave me some closure to the first game on what all of the tragic events were and who was involved. I also like how it revealed what happened to most of the surviving members of the 1st game. I thought the reveal that the world that the students were in is a simulation was quite interesting. Even though they had to resort to the cliche of if you die in the game you die in real life to prevent dead characters from coming back. I was also a fan of the tipping point in the 6th trail where the current surviving members have only three choices they can make that will shape the outcome of the game. If they graduate  they can leave the simulation changed with hope, but also releasing more despair in the world by freeing Alter Ego Junko. If they repeat, the essentially have to stay in the fabricated world. Or they can use a fail safe by selecting to graduate and repeat simultaneously resulting in the deletion of Junko as well as their memories of their times in the simulation and reverting back to Ultimate Despairs. Ultimately they choose to use the fail safe, but its revealed in the ending that this choice isn't so bad, as the survivors chose to go to the actual Jabbawak Island to live for the rest of their lives along with those who died in the game in hopes that the will awake from their comatose states (even though it is very unlikely). I like the open ended ending because it makes the player interpret the outcome in their own way. For me I like to think that the Surviving members are able to revert back to the side of hope and that eventually their friends will wake up and revert back to hope as well.

I found Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair to be an okay game overall, however I would have probably liked it more had I not played it back to back with the 1st game. I like the improvements they made to some of the class trial mini games as well as the addictions of the sword segments and truth dive/snowboarding segments. I thought the game looked visually appealing with the 2D sprites in a 3D world depicting the visual novel world that the game represents. I liked the background music as well, even though at times it was a bit repetitive hearing the same looping track over and over like in the investigation segments. Luckily the music can be turned way down in the settings to prevent it from being to annoying. The controls were solid for most of the elements of the game. My only gripe with them is the tank like controls for the first person exploring/walking segments. They just felt a little awkward at first but I was used to them as it is the same as the 1st game. I know there is a 3rd game as well as a kind of spin off title that involves Makoto's younger sister. I might try to play these eventually, but not after I spend some time playing some non visual novel games.