The Overlord of Ice, who's facade melted away
The Lady of the Dark, beautiful with the wrathful heart
The Tearful Knight, blinded by the virtue of passion
(yapping abt these three + chapter 4 kinda under the cut)
Idfk what structure is so this is gonna be mostly loose observations about characters, with some mentions of chapter 4 specifically, because it fucking pisses me off a bit.
I wanna start with Sonia, because she's a character that I think grew on me the most. Kazuichi and Gundham I liked from getgo, but to her I needed to warm up. And frankly I do love the concept behind her character. A princess, that's actually somewhat strange both in interest and behaviours. She's about the balance of inside and outside, what she needs to be and what she wants. Her free time events particularly shine light on that aspect of her, especially the tendency to objectify herself (as someone who needs to serve their country before being a person at all). It's cute, it's fun and really rewarding to see her be more 'herself' over the course of the game. I definitely enjoy the 'weird girl' Sonia over her 'naive foreigner' introduction in chapter 1, even if I'm struggling to see if she was just masking at the time or if the writer's didn't have a set in stone idea for her. I also wanna point out that Sonia is rather nice to most character or at least tries to be diplomatic (often oferring uplifting speeches and compromises). It makes sense, she's a princess, obviously she'd know how to defuse situations or at least have a hint of an idea how to do it.
Kazuichi is, unfortunately, my favourite in this game. Alas. I am so sorry to everyone who got the impression I didn't like him from the testicular torrosion doodle. But that aside, I do think he's gen fun character when the game isn't trying to make him look as pathetic as possible (which it does a lot, bro doesnt need that many crying sprites lmfao). Like I'm struggling to put this into words, but I do think he's compelling, with how he tries to be carefree and goofy, but actually struggles with trust and by extenstion self-esteem. It's all tied with a bow of him being a professional fumbler and a coward. He's deeply flawed, but honest and trying. He's endearing if you can get past the "woah woman" part of his dialogue.
So chapter 4 does a very interesting thing, which is give an actually serious motive. It's such a whiplash, because up to that point every motive could be delayed somehow. This though, was basically self fueling case and if not resolved somehow everyone would die. I don't think there has even been a stake like that outside of trial failure. So that's a good thing, a compelling motive makes for a compelling murder. The actual murder itself is, I think, quite well structured. The mystery of the tower's structure is satisfying to figure out and the switch of perspective to Nagito is also really fun and frankly something I hope for more in the future (as of writing of this I am only finished with ch4 and I have not touched V3). So there's all this good setup to the trial, so it theoretically should be a good trial. It's not. I mean the actual uncovering of the mystery itself is fine. But most of the characters fucking act either out of character or get stupified. This trial by all means should belong to Akane and Kazuichi, with bonus Gundham sweep as the murderer of course. However the case is mostly just Nagito bossing everyone around (side note I have no idea what he saw in that book, but whatever it was, no fucking way it made him 180 the character. this post isn't about him, so ill be brief but the switchup was gen infuriating when playing, especially that he seems to suddenly be above everyone, not just hajime). And the worst part of the trial - whatever the fuck Sonia and Kazuichi are doing.
Again as I stated, from the setup of the trial and how Nekomaru is the victim, Akane and Kazuichi should be the most relevant (you could also argue Fuyuhiko, as someone who is in Neko's shoes). Akane, as someone VERY close to Nekomaru should be getting better guesses about the situation rather than fumbling that the pillar could be used as a weapon (EVEN THOUGH SHE CHECKED IT CANNOT BE PICKED UP AND USED THIS WAY) and constantly reminding us that she's just soooooo hungry. And Kazuichi, who by all means, should've served the same role as Mikan normally did, is doing jackshit (again) and makes absolutely stupid claims despite the fact he should've had the knowledge in the first place (I am also somewhat annoyed that his 'autopsy' brings something to the table that you could already guess....). On top of that he has this weird back and forth with Sonia where she outright claims she wishes he was the blackened. Which is incredibly ooc. I do wanna say - I absolutely can believe Sonia has lukewarm feelings towards Kazuchi or even dislikes him. Totally belivable and frankly fine thing to do. But the game doesn't elaborate on it enough. The game just has her put up with him and not give clear enough cues on her feelings, both to him and the player. So her suddenly wishing Kazuichi died and calling him a pest feels at best uncalled for but explained with starvation irritation and at worst horrible out of character. On top of that if the game wanted to commit to her disliking Kazuichi, it should stick with it rather than have Kazuichi lowkey start breaking down only for her to say "no you did good this time". I cannot even say this is diplomatic approach on her part or anything, because earlier she just called him a pest and wished he would've disappeared. It's incredibly unfun to watch, but also takes away the time from the case where they could be actually discussing what's happening. Generally the chapter also does this thing, where Sonia ditches Kazuichi (fair she prefers to explore with someone else), but the game does this multiple times? Why? Just show it once, we get the point. Frankly if Sonia disliked Kazuichi this much she should've put up the boundries way earlier (the diner scene would've been perfect for this actually. She was surrounded by people, girls who would've probably agreed with her decision if she said "no kazuichi you can't come with us"). And also there's just constant (outside of chapter 4) framing of Kazuichi as if he was this weird terrible perv for having a crush. As far as I'm aware, he only really whiteknights Sonia, which can be annoying, but other than that this is the biggest sin? I checked their free time event locations and they never align. They never mention eachother in the free time events either (or do so rarely i havent noticed). What I'm gettin at with all of this is that I'm fine with them not having a good relationship, but I wish it was more developed and less abrupt/ooc.
The case 4 does have a really good thing going for it and it's everything Gundham related lmao. If Sonia and Kazuichi feel ooc and dumbed down, Gundham is about as in character as he gets. He gets annoyed about the important details being wrong, he still uses his esoteric language, he contributes to the trial and his send off is unironically well written. I do not mean it jokingly, his speech before the execution was somewhat thought provoking to me. He's not honest about being this terrible evil monster and he dehumanizes himself hard.(I think of it as somewhat parallel to Sonia - she who needs to be this ideal princess to rule her country and he who needs to be the devil so others will not feel his guilt on his demise. It's bittersweet.) Like outside of it being moving, it's just an incredible character moment for him. I really wish the trial could've been better, because as far as I have played, this was my favourite case and sendoff and it just pisses me off that everything around it is so lackluster.
Anyways concluding this fuckass thing, uhhhh trial 4 ass, i like these 3 and i just wish they were better written, fingers crossed that chapter 5 maybe is better
A co do samej danganronpy no to powiem tak - Lubię tą serię, przynajmniej to co póki co ograłem. Czy ma wady? Oj ma. Oj ma i to sporo. Czy nadal bardzo dobrzę się bawię przy zgadywaniu morderstw i dalszej fabuły oraz przy gadaniu z postaciami? Też tak. Danganronpa to bardzo dziwna seria (affectionate).
//Eng transcryption if anyone cares//
Thank you kindly!
And about danganronpa - I like the series, at least what I've seen so far. Does it have flaws. It does. It does have many. Do I still have fun guessing the murders, further plot and just talking with the characters? Absolutely. Danganronpa is a really weird series (affectionate).
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