Super Danganronpa 2

Subject: Super Danganronpa 2 Sat 6 Sep 2014 - 13:56

And yes, I had to name the thread as such because I'm disappointed NIS America dropped the "Super" bit.

Not sure what to make of this so far: first impressions were naturally positive, I love how they play with your knowledge of the first game and its various plot twists and the change in setting feels genuinely fresh.

But nearly all the new game-y elements take away from the experience, in my eyes. Hangman's Gambit becomes a slow chore, the new Bullet Time Battle is just a laggy mess that isn't fun no matter how you see it. You could argue that you could ignore things like the pet minigame, but since your pet has a hope and despair meter you really can't. You'd feel guilty for it. And the new comic book scenes just feel like change for the sake of change, lacking the clarity and focus of the first game's.

The surrounding narrative behind it all is, of course, still as engaging as ever, though the first trial felt awfully convoluted and I stopped caring by the end because of how the many little details made it less and less believable as it went on. Which was never something I felt when playing the first game.

But yes, it's still good but I haven't really been as gripped as I hoped I would be. Having saved after chapter 1 yesterday evening, I didn't feel like playing it first thing in the morning.

Subject: Re: Super Danganronpa 2 Sat 6 Sep 2014 - 15:07

I've just hit Chapter 4. I'm honestly amazed that they managed to make Hangman's Gambit and Bullet Time Battle/PTA even worse. At least Logic Dive is...alright, i guess.

Also this game feels like it makes the trippy trip that was Trigger Happy Havoc look normal.

Subject: Re: Super Danganronpa 2 Sun 7 Sep 2014 - 22:28

Yeah, it's insane. And the game knows it, which is slightly frustrating. I'm halfway through chapter 4 and while I've been enjoying it I can't help but still feel disappointed. The way some fans go on about this as if it's better than the first game when it so blatantly isn't (unless having half the game be inherently worse constitutes as "better") makes me think they are only saying this because of some mind blowing moment later on.

Subject: Re: Super Danganronpa 2 Sun 7 Sep 2014 - 22:56

To copypasta from the other thread;

Silver light wrote:

Just finished Danganronpa 2 earlier. Have some random not very well organised thoughts

Trials are still the highlight part of the game. Somehow they managed to make Hangman's Gambit and Bullet Ti-sorry, "Panic Talk Action" even worse than they were in Trigger Happy Havoc. Logic Dive and Rebuttal Showdown at least aren't bad additions though. Generally the cases themselves are a lot less easy to predict than in THH, although (playing on normal) the game was still pretty easy to get through. The new additions to the already-good remixed soundtrack are pretty fine, too (those investigation themes <3).

As for the cast, they were mostly great

SPOILERS:

As for the plot, it felt like it made what happened in THH look normal. Easily more crazy

Not really spoilers but eh:

and darker too, despite the initally more cheery-seeming setting than THH's

Spoilers:

Haven't tried the other modes yet. Hoping Island Life isn't going to get as nightmarely tedious as School Life in THH got.

I think it's better than the first, personally. It's close. DR2 wins it for having the better cases imo.

Subject: Re: Super Danganronpa 2 Sun 7 Sep 2014 - 23:11

I'm not going to quote that because I don't want to see your spoilers but:

"DR2 wins it for having the better cases imo."

I have found every case up to this point convoluted and unbelievable (unbelievable as in I'm actually stunned that the game expects me to believe some of things that happened). The first game's cases had true focus that this game lacks. In going with the general theme of making everything bigger and more expansive the cases really suffered in my eyes.

At the end of all three trials that I have played up to this point I found myself not really caring about the solutions because they were so unbelievable and drawn out in ways that you can't figure out by deduction over the course of the investigation and trial anyway.

And the gimmicks that tied together the second and third cases, while novel, don't make for as strong motives either. Any revelations seem to come by coincidence (like at the end of case 2's) rather than anything else. I get that the joke now is Monokuma shouldn't be some sort of believable entity (the game proudly admits that it has stopped taking things so seriously) but it's frustrating how the rules can be changed so much just to fit how things play out.

You'd *never* have suspected the killer in case 3 given what Monokuma tells you at the start of the trial about everyone's condition (which you'd never doubt since everyone behaves normally again) and how that's now a thing of the past.

Subject: Re: Super Danganronpa 2 Thu 11 Sep 2014 - 1:36

I finished this this evening and I have to say overall, having played the final chapter, that the game is genius and the wrapping narrative is as well. I think ultimately saving all the big revelations until the end was a good move, even if what comes before it suffers compared with the first game.

That being said the usual complaints (inferior minigames, convoluted cases) still stand, though case 5 was surprisingly focused and self contained: I was gripped throughout that one.

But yes, I'm just glad this became something very special. Not sure if I'd play it again though.

Subject: Re: Super Danganronpa 2 Mon 15 Sep 2014 - 16:19

I told Fronky that I was going to find a Let's Play to catch up on the bits of this I'd missed, and I did just that. Spoilers for the whole thing inside...

Long:

TL;DR: Characters good, logic dubious, ending had some bad moments that were overruled by the EMOTIONS, Nanami and Hinata definitely should have got together at some point.

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