Welcome to my Little Corner of the Internet - Tumblr Edition!
Greetings, Reader!
My name is SaberCatProductions, but please, save yourself from writing out a nineteen-letter-long name and simply call me Saber!
I am a hobbyist content creator from England with a wide array of average to admirable skills and far too many interests for my own good.
That includes (but is not limited to) action role-playing games like Destiny or Skyrim; British content creators such as 8-BitRyan and Dawko; composing original music and covering existing music; drawing; horror games from both indie franchises and larger franchises; mystery games such as Danganronpa; writing; video game development; and more.
If you want to see some of my favourite completed projects, then consider listening to my orchestral mash-up of the main themes of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havok and Danganronpa: The Animation HERE, or my orchestral cover of Debate Scrum from Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony HERE.
Alternatively, you can click HERE to view my Carrd, where you can learn more about me and all of my projects!
If you want more information on any of those projects, or myself, or about anything at all, then feel free to send me something into my Ask Box at any time!
Well, as I don't remember any character named Yaoi, I'll have to go with Yuri, although my all time favourite character from Doki Doki Literature Club would likely be Monika. I'd struggle to rank the other three characters in order, though, as they are all interesting in their own right.
Assuming @shuichisaihara-detectiveblog is still a willing victi- I mean, test sub- no, uh- volunteer! Yeah! That's the word. Assuming Shuichi is still a willing volunteer, and @theghostofkaedeakamatsu remains a totally on-board, super excited, 110% invested participant who hasn't once expressed her dislike of the idea, how would the pair go about being possessed/possessing another, Kiyo?
"For a ghost to possess another, the victim's mental and/or spiritual 'doors' must be open for them.
Typically, folklore suggests that exploring the occult through activities like using Oujija boards can weaken an inidivual's spiritual defenses, allowing the entity to enter. In order for Kaede to enter Shuichi's body, he must have some kind of paranormal object with him.
Though, in sone cases, things like stress and exhaustion can also help in weakening these barriers... if Shuichi were to interact with many occult-related objects while tired, this could possibly allow Kaede to enter his body."
Kiyo! Who are these people who keep trying to get me to possess @shuichisaihara-detectiveblog!? Why do they want me to possess him so much!? How many times do I have to tell them that I think it's an awful idea and that I'm scared of hurting him for them to finally take, "no," for an answer!?
And Shuichi, for the love of all things holy, please retract your statement that you'd be willing to be possessed by me for science. Because that was just a joke, right? O-Or an answer you were forced to give? No way you'd actually agree... right? I-I mean, scientific discovery be damned, it could be dangerous for you! And me!
And Kiyo, you're just answering this person's question to be helpful, right? You don't actually want me to possess Shuichi too, right? R-Right!?
The first question is not necessarily related to Kiyo, but to Danganronpa itself. How were you first introduced to the franchise? Was your first experience through YouTube, in which you watched someone else play the games, or was your first experience via playing the game instead?
My second question regards what is most likely one of the biggest points of contention surrounding Kiyo, that being the relationship he had with his sister. When I watched my first playthrough of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, the only exposure I had to Kiyo was through the main story as opposed to his free time events or bonus mode events. Unsurprisingly, it meant that when I saw discussions online regarding whether or not he had been groomed by his sister, I was quite confused and initially believed that people were simply trying to, "justify," the inclusion of incest in the game because having a character do something like that willingly was something that his fans were unwilling to accept. However, after watching footage of his free time events, as well as videos analysing him as a character, I believe I am more closely aligned with the opposing viewpoint now, in which Kiyo was indeed groomed. Without going into why I think that, I want to hear what your own thoughts on this matter were/are.
My third question regards your own headcanons surrounding Kiyo being a serial killer. Canonically, we know that before entering the Killing Game (whether you wish believe it was a part of a fictional back-story or was his real history doesn't matter in this case), he had killed ninety seven people. What do you think his first kill would have been like? What was his reasoning? His method? How did he feel before, during, and after the moment? And expanding to his other murders, how do you think those occurred? In Chapter 3 of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, Kiyo goes through a lot of effort to prepare a trap to kill one of the students, and a part of me always wondered if that was entirely practical (that meaning everything he did was for the purpose of concealing his crime from the others), or if a part of it was performative (for example, he has an innate desire to make each death, "beautiful," or at least unique to the others).
My fourth and final question regards Kiyo's relationship with one of the other students from Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, that being Rantaro. Being the first character to die in his respective game, there is little to no chance for Rantaro to interact with Kiyo (on screen, at least), but there is one interaction between Rantaro and Kaede where he asks her who she believes in the most unique student in their class. If Kaede replies with Kiyo, Rantaro notes something along the lines that although Kiyo seems mysterious, he thinks that he is a good person deep down (this is not verbatim and it has been some time since I watched/played that free time event). In bonus modes, however, Rantaro and Kiyo have a number of events together. What do you think Kiyo thinks of Rantaro as of his death in the first chapter? If they had spent more time with one another and learnt details about each other's pasts, do you think this opinion would change? I often wonder how Rantaro, the brother to twelve sisters who he all loves and misses deeply, would react if he had witnessed Kiyo's declarations of incestuous love in the third chapter.
I look forward to seeing your responses! While I am here, may I quickly state my gratitude towards you in having entertained so many of my side blog's asks! (That being the Ghost of Kaede Akamatsu blog.) I can't tell if your anthropological knowledge stems from your own preexisting interest, or if you specifically research them to aid you in your roleplay as Kiyo, but your responses are so often incredibly thoughtful and detailed that I find them very impressive and sometimes even fascinating to read.
Thank you for your time! Have a good rest of your day/night!
- Saber
OOC: WOW WOW WOW!! Was this a pleasant surprise!!! Thank you for asking so many questions!
"How were you first introduced to the franchise?"
I was first introduced through both gameplay videos on Youtube and seeing content of Danganronpa online, especially on Tiktok. It seemed up my alley, and I was right! I'm very thankful to have stumbled across Danganronpa.
2. "What are your thoughts on Kiyo and his sister's relationship?"
Honestly... I'm leaning more toward Korekiyo having been groomed by his sister. I think Miyadera was in a position where she was so isolated that it completely skewed her sense of morals and it caused her to project her feelings onto her brother. While I do think Miyadera started it, Korekiyo is still a willing participant, he comes across to me as someone incredibly mentally unstable who didn't get the help he needed when he could. Something about his execution (+ other information we get when you look into his story, like you said) made Miyadera come across almost... I don't know, cruel to me.
Not to mention how Miyadera's tulpa speaks. I do think the speech is exaggerated, but Korekiyo had to have gotten his ideas *somewhere*.
3. "What do you think Korekiyo's first kill was like?"
I LOVE this question. I think Korekiyo does, in some way, like to make his victim's deaths "beautiful". He is naturally someone who views beauty in people, the good and the bad, and I feel like topics of death would be no different. I like to think he had his first kill when he was in deep grief for his sister, spiralling about how lonely he is (and how lonely SHE must be since she's away from him), only for him to lay his eyes on a kind, unsuspecting acquaintance or friend.
I think he wasn't entirely aware of what he was doing before it was over, and I think it was more violent/desperate than he intended. Afterwards though, he decided this was what was best for his sister and his methods became more meticulous. It's a mix of both practicality and beauty.
4. "What do you think Rantaro and Korekiyo's relationship was like?"
This is also very fascinating to me. I don't exactly remember Rantaro's words either, but I do wonder where he got that impression from. Korekiyo doesn't exactly look friendly at first—maybe it was just Rantaro giving him the benefit of the doubt. (Do forgive me if that seems OOC for him, I have not TOUCHED danganronpa in a while... I need to refresh my memory!)
I'd like to think Korekiyo would have found him to be one of the more intriguing people he's met, even amongst his unique roster of classmates. Rantaro always has this air of mystery around him, and I think Korekiyo would have gotten along with him great. Again, sorry I can't speak on this much—once I rewatch gameplay of Danganronpa, I'll definitely post my opinions and thoughts on this.
As for your thank-you—let me give my own thanks as well! I absolutely ADORE your asks, they're always a great pleasure to see and answer. I would have never come up with a creative idea like that... I almost wish I made the blog myself./silly
My anthropological knowledge is a mix of me reading for the sake of Korekiyo's asks, but my own interest as well. I'd go as far as to say the entire reason I like Korekiyo is because we are similar in the aspect that we adore studying and learning about humans. When he spoke of finding beauty in the ugliness of humans, I instantly felt connected to him, and hearing him talk about all sorts of topics made *me* want to learn about different cultures too! It's generally just so fun being asked different questions, because I get to search up things and learn for myself, too. (One of my favourite things I researched because of this blog was Shamans and Shamanic music, honestly.)
I really hope we get to interact more! Your love for danganronpa and roleplay is absolutely a pleasure to return, have a great day/night as well!
Oh, wow, thank you for your compliments in return! I'm glad to hear that it seems like I'm doing something right, as I was concerned that where this was my first time starting a dedicated roleplaying blog, my responses to other peoples' interactions would be awkward or boring. It doesn't help that instead of starting with a simple in-character blog, I decided, "Hey, why not make this have some kind of over-arcing story?" But again, thank you!
And just to jog both of our memories regarding the fourth question that I asked you, I went to the Wiki and checked precisely what Rantaro and Kaede talk about during their first free time event together.
And here are his interactions with Kiyo in bonus modes. This one is from the Ultimate Talent Development Plan.
He can also see Kiyo again in the Winter Event.
In Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp, there are some more interactions between the pair.
There is one Summer Festival Event between the pair.
Kiyo also interacts with Rantaro in one of his Potential of Talent options, in which it is asked, "What are some ideas you have for unlocking new potential in your talent?" and usually, the character goes to discuss with other characters.
As a side note, I found it interesting that Kiyo has never Japan. I suppose I automatically assumed that due to his talent, he would have already gone abroad.
There is one final interaction, feat Leon Kuwata, when you play through his S Card or U Card playthrough.
I think my query surrounding Rantaro and Kiyo's dynamic stems from the fact that one, they do have some similarities (mysterious, well travelled, they have a sister/sisters), and two, I see them paired up online relatively often, both platonically and romantically. Regarding the latter, I'm not interested in shipping, but when you're in a fandom, it's inevitable you'll be exposed to something, haha. So, I know that Kiyo X Rantaro certainly exists, but I can't comment on how popular the ship is compared to the other Kiyo ships that exist, of which I only really know of a ship with Shuichi and a ship with Angie.
Anyway, that is way out of the scope of what I was originally talking about. I noted that I often wondered how Rantaro would have reacted if he was there for Kiyo's revelation in the third chapter of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony. As level headed as he appears within his limited appearances, I think he would be angry at Kiyo's initial declarations. Whether this anger would be enough for him to simply stick with the majority of the class' canonical reactions (that being of shock or disgust) or if he would begin to question the truth behind the so-called loving relationship? I am uncertain. It's an interesting think to consider being a fan of Rantaro myself, I have no idea if it's interesting to other people or not though, but there you go. One rant for your daily/nightly reading XD
Yo, I’m just saying, you do a good job running the ghost of Kaede Akamatsu blog
I have been on Tumblr for a while now and I have often interacted with other Danganronpa character ask-blogs and role-playing accounts before, by sending them questions and the like. I only recently decided to try and host one of those blogs myself, but instead of starting with a simple, "Ask a character something!" account, I was silly and decided to give it an overarching story too, because why not make my first time more complicated, huh? XD
I am glad to hear that you think I'm doing a good job at it, though! Thank you for your compliment, as well as for the messages that you have sent to the blog, too. I really appreciate anyone who interacts with it, especially if they do so multiple times as that way, they almost become a character in the story too (except they're one I can't control, of course). You'd think the chaos that could cause would be daunting, but it's honestly very interesting to see how different people interact with the Ghost of Kaede Akamatsu and help shape the story in their own subtle ways.
Your character, Mason, for example, was one of two people who provided an account of Kaede's execution to her, giving more evidence to the corresponding explanation when there was a poll to decide whether she had died via execution or murder.
Oh, I see! I apologise. I must have somehow misread your introduction post and substituted the term, "Sona," for "OC."
Regardless, my initial point still stands: other people or characters becoming part of the story via their own interactions is always interesting as it can impact the main story overall.
"I'll be watching your progress with great interest," or however that Star Wars quote goes XD
And let's just ignore that I initially re-blogged this under the wrong account, shall we? XD
Yo, I’m just saying, you do a good job running the ghost of Kaede Akamatsu blog
I have been on Tumblr for a while now and I have often interacted with other Danganronpa character ask-blogs and role-playing accounts before, by sending them questions and the like. I only recently decided to try and host one of those blogs myself, but instead of starting with a simple, "Ask a character something!" account, I was silly and decided to give it an overarching story too, because why not make my first time more complicated, huh? XD
I am glad to hear that you think I'm doing a good job at it, though! Thank you for your compliment, as well as for the messages that you have sent to the blog, too. I really appreciate anyone who interacts with it, especially if they do so multiple times as that way, they almost become a character in the story too (except they're one I can't control, of course). You'd think the chaos that could cause would be daunting, but it's honestly very interesting to see how different people interact with the Ghost of Kaede Akamatsu and help shape the story in their own subtle ways.
Your character, Mason, for example, was one of two people who provided an account of Kaede's execution to her, giving more evidence to the corresponding explanation when there was a poll to decide whether she had died via execution or murder.
For the sake of theatrics, please imagine that I said that in a nigh-on perfect impression of Jigsaw from the SAW franchise.
Set-Up
Before you is a locked box, the description of which is irrelevant. This box can not be pried open, dismantled, or broken into in any other way. The only way to open this box is to enter the correct three digit password. To clarify, you must enter three numerical values, each ranging from zero to nine.
Arranged around this box are a number of clues that you must use to uncover the password. They are as follows:
Clue 1: The Piano Pictures
A slip of paper, of which two full sized, eighty-eight key pianos are displayed from a top down view. On the first piano, each and every C key has been annotated in numerical order. On the second piano, there is the letter Z somewhere close to the center of the piano with a series of crosses to the right, spanning until the final key of the piano on the right side.
There are no other relevant details on this slip of paper.
Clue 2: The Unknown Sequence
A slip of paper which contains a sequence of pairs, composed of one letter and one number each, which reads as follows:
On the back of this slip of paper, there is a simple, five pointed star.
There are no other relevant details on this slip of paper.
Clue 3: The Three Questions
A slip of paper that asks three questions, each with a numerical answer. They are as follows:
1. How many Es?
2. How many vowels?
3. How many times do they say it?
There are no other relevant details on this slip of paper.
Advice
There are no red-herrings.
You can ask for one hint. This can be a minor hint, a moderate hint, or major hint, at your own discretion.
You can ask anyone for assistance. In fact, it may be useful to ask for assistance from some of your peers in specific circumstances, as their Ultimate Talents may prove useful.
Once you have your answer (or you wish to end the game for any reason whatsoever), please @ myself in a comment or reblog.
Good luck and have fun!
- Saber
Hey @sabercatproductions! I think I've cracked it. Based on my piano expertise and a little bit of counting, I'm pretty sure the password is 4, 7, and then 2 or 3
For the first digit, I counted the 'C' keys and the position of the 'Z'. For the second digit, I looked at the sequence and the star. For the third digit, I answered the questions and I got 2 or 3, though to be honest, I'm really not sure!
// pls tell me I'm close or got one correct i feel so dumb 😭
Despite the impression, I can assure that this is not an actual SAW trap, and that your friend will not be subjected to any lethal force whether she opens the box or fails to do so.
The greatest reward she has to gain are bragging rights, and the worst punishment she has to avoid is most likely just teasing from Kokichi or Miu.
"Kiyo, wait! Don't just walk away! I know it’s not a 'SAW trap', which is honestly a relief, but I am still completely stumped by this code. You’re the Ultimate Anthropologist, you’ve studied all sorts of ancient scripts and ciphers! Even if it’s not 'exciting' enough for you, if you come back and help me solve this, I’ll personally make sure you get all the credit when we finally crack it. Please?"
"Okay, okay, I’m taking the hint! Even Kiyo thinks I should stop trying to brute force this and just ask. @sabercatproductions , I’m calling for a time out on my own brain, could I please get that moderate hint you offered? I really want to solve this!"
Certainly! Here is your clue. Specifically, it is a clue regarding the code, as that is what you are stuck on. Firstly, just to prove that it was possible to reach this stage without a clue, and that you therefore wouldn't have had to make illogical leaps and bounds to get there:
The notes on a keyboard go from A to G, and then they repeat over and over. To specify what key is being pressed, they are numbered. This is also shown on the picture that I gave you, in which every C key is numbered. C1, C2, C3, and so on.
The entries in the unknown sequence go no higher (alphabetically) than G. This indicates that they have to relate to piano keys in some way.
If you count the keys that were not labelled on the second picture of the keyboard, there are twenty five blank spaces before the Z. This gives you the space to write the English alphabet in these places, up to Z, to give you the full alphabet.
You can then decrypt the code presented in the unknown sequence by comparing the key (A1, B1, C1, and so on) to what letter of the alphabet it represents (A, B, C, and so on).
Here is an annotated image to help you:
To help you further with the code, I have separated out the unknown sequence into individual lines. You may wish to note that Line 2 and Line 3 are repeated in Line 6 and Line 7.
(1) G2 A3 D3 F3 A2
(2) A3 F1
(3) F3 A2 E1
(4) B1 E1 E2 F3
(5) E1 A1 E3 F3
(6) A3 F1
(7) F3 A2 E1
(8) A2 A3 D3 G2
Finally, do not forget that somehow, this relates to stars, due to the image of a star on the back of the slip of paper where the unknown sequence was written. Perhaps Kaito may be able to assist you with this part, or even Rantaro, as before GPS, some adventurers used the stars for orientation. In fact, even though you asked for a moderate clue as opposed to a major one, I am going to go ahead and give you this image.
In the past, I said that the mystery would have three parts with three sections each, but I've gone back to change that so it's just this one part with its three sections.
So, there won't be any more mysteries for you to solve after this. You're technically out of hints, but if you need one more, I'm happy to give it to you.
For the sake of theatrics, please imagine that I said that in a nigh-on perfect impression of Jigsaw from the SAW franchise.
Set-Up
Before you is a locked box, the description of which is irrelevant. This box can not be pried open, dismantled, or broken into in any other way. The only way to open this box is to enter the correct three digit password. To clarify, you must enter three numerical values, each ranging from zero to nine.
Arranged around this box are a number of clues that you must use to uncover the password. They are as follows:
Clue 1: The Piano Pictures
A slip of paper, of which two full sized, eighty-eight key pianos are displayed from a top down view. On the first piano, each and every C key has been annotated in numerical order. On the second piano, there is the letter Z somewhere close to the center of the piano with a series of crosses to the right, spanning until the final key of the piano on the right side.
There are no other relevant details on this slip of paper.
Clue 2: The Unknown Sequence
A slip of paper which contains a sequence of pairs, composed of one letter and one number each, which reads as follows:
On the back of this slip of paper, there is a simple, five pointed star.
There are no other relevant details on this slip of paper.
Clue 3: The Three Questions
A slip of paper that asks three questions, each with a numerical answer. They are as follows:
1. How many Es?
2. How many vowels?
3. How many times do they say it?
There are no other relevant details on this slip of paper.
Advice
There are no red-herrings.
You can ask for one hint. This can be a minor hint, a moderate hint, or major hint, at your own discretion.
You can ask anyone for assistance. In fact, it may be useful to ask for assistance from some of your peers in specific circumstances, as their Ultimate Talents may prove useful.
Once you have your answer (or you wish to end the game for any reason whatsoever), please @ myself in a comment or reblog.
Good luck and have fun!
- Saber
Hey @sabercatproductions! I think I've cracked it. Based on my piano expertise and a little bit of counting, I'm pretty sure the password is 4, 7, and then 2 or 3
For the first digit, I counted the 'C' keys and the position of the 'Z'. For the second digit, I looked at the sequence and the star. For the third digit, I answered the questions and I got 2 or 3, though to be honest, I'm really not sure!
// pls tell me I'm close or got one correct i feel so dumb 😭
Despite the impression, I can assure that this is not an actual SAW trap, and that your friend will not be subjected to any lethal force whether she opens the box or fails to do so.
The greatest reward she has to gain are bragging rights, and the worst punishment she has to avoid is most likely just teasing from Kokichi or Miu.
"Kiyo, wait! Don't just walk away! I know it’s not a 'SAW trap', which is honestly a relief, but I am still completely stumped by this code. You’re the Ultimate Anthropologist, you’ve studied all sorts of ancient scripts and ciphers! Even if it’s not 'exciting' enough for you, if you come back and help me solve this, I’ll personally make sure you get all the credit when we finally crack it. Please?"
"Okay, okay, I’m taking the hint! Even Kiyo thinks I should stop trying to brute force this and just ask. @sabercatproductions , I’m calling for a time out on my own brain, could I please get that moderate hint you offered? I really want to solve this!"
Certainly! Here is your clue. Specifically, it is a clue regarding the code, as that is what you are stuck on. Firstly, just to prove that it was possible to reach this stage without a clue, and that you therefore wouldn't have had to make illogical leaps and bounds to get there:
The notes on a keyboard go from A to G, and then they repeat over and over. To specify what key is being pressed, they are numbered. This is also shown on the picture that I gave you, in which every C key is numbered. C1, C2, C3, and so on.
The entries in the unknown sequence go no higher (alphabetically) than G. This indicates that they have to relate to piano keys in some way.
If you count the keys that were not labelled on the second picture of the keyboard, there are twenty five blank spaces before the Z. This gives you the space to write the English alphabet in these places, up to Z, to give you the full alphabet.
You can then decrypt the code presented in the unknown sequence by comparing the key (A1, B1, C1, and so on) to what letter of the alphabet it represents (A, B, C, and so on).
Here is an annotated image to help you:
To help you further with the code, I have separated out the unknown sequence into individual lines. You may wish to note that Line 2 and Line 3 are repeated in Line 6 and Line 7.
(1) G2 A3 D3 F3 A2
(2) A3 F1
(3) F3 A2 E1
(4) B1 E1 E2 F3
(5) E1 A1 E3 F3
(6) A3 F1
(7) F3 A2 E1
(8) A2 A3 D3 G2
Finally, do not forget that somehow, this relates to stars, due to the image of a star on the back of the slip of paper where the unknown sequence was written. Perhaps Kaito may be able to assist you with this part, or even Rantaro, as before GPS, some adventurers used the stars for orientation. In fact, even though you asked for a moderate clue as opposed to a major one, I am going to go ahead and give you this image.
For the sake of theatrics, please imagine that I said that in a nigh-on perfect impression of Jigsaw from the SAW franchise.
Set-Up
Before you is a locked box, the description of which is irrelevant. This box can not be pried open, dismantled, or broken into in any other way. The only way to open this box is to enter the correct three digit password. To clarify, you must enter three numerical values, each ranging from zero to nine.
Arranged around this box are a number of clues that you must use to uncover the password. They are as follows:
Clue 1: The Piano Pictures
A slip of paper, of which two full sized, eighty-eight key pianos are displayed from a top down view. On the first piano, each and every C key has been annotated in numerical order. On the second piano, there is the letter Z somewhere close to the center of the piano with a series of crosses to the right, spanning until the final key of the piano on the right side.
There are no other relevant details on this slip of paper.
Clue 2: The Unknown Sequence
A slip of paper which contains a sequence of pairs, composed of one letter and one number each, which reads as follows:
On the back of this slip of paper, there is a simple, five pointed star.
There are no other relevant details on this slip of paper.
Clue 3: The Three Questions
A slip of paper that asks three questions, each with a numerical answer. They are as follows:
1. How many Es?
2. How many vowels?
3. How many times do they say it?
There are no other relevant details on this slip of paper.
Advice
There are no red-herrings.
You can ask for one hint. This can be a minor hint, a moderate hint, or major hint, at your own discretion.
You can ask anyone for assistance. In fact, it may be useful to ask for assistance from some of your peers in specific circumstances, as their Ultimate Talents may prove useful.
Once you have your answer (or you wish to end the game for any reason whatsoever), please @ myself in a comment or reblog.
Good luck and have fun!
- Saber
Hey @sabercatproductions! I think I've cracked it. Based on my piano expertise and a little bit of counting, I'm pretty sure the password is 4, 7, and then 2 or 3
For the first digit, I counted the 'C' keys and the position of the 'Z'. For the second digit, I looked at the sequence and the star. For the third digit, I answered the questions and I got 2 or 3, though to be honest, I'm really not sure!
// pls tell me I'm close or got one correct i feel so dumb 😭
Despite the impression, I can assure that this is not an actual SAW trap, and that your friend will not be subjected to any lethal force whether she opens the box or fails to do so.
The greatest reward she has to gain are bragging rights, and the worst punishment she has to avoid is most likely just teasing from Kokichi or Miu.
Still, it should be interesting to see Kaede, and perhaps some of your other peers, use their respective skills to solve the mystery, no? Maybe at some point in time, there may even be a part in which your expertise may come in useful...
For the sake of theatrics, please imagine that I said that in a nigh-on perfect impression of Jigsaw from the SAW franchise.
Set-Up
Before you is a locked box, the description of which is irrelevant. This box can not be pried open, dismantled, or broken into in any other way. The only way to open this box is to enter the correct three digit password. To clarify, you must enter three numerical values, each ranging from zero to nine.
Arranged around this box are a number of clues that you must use to uncover the password. They are as follows:
Clue 1: The Piano Pictures
A slip of paper, of which two full sized, eighty-eight key pianos are displayed from a top down view. On the first piano, each and every C key has been annotated in numerical order. On the second piano, there is the letter Z somewhere close to the center of the piano with a series of crosses to the right, spanning until the final key of the piano on the right side.
There are no other relevant details on this slip of paper.
Clue 2: The Unknown Sequence
A slip of paper which contains a sequence of pairs, composed of one letter and one number each, which reads as follows:
On the back of this slip of paper, there is a simple, five pointed star.
There are no other relevant details on this slip of paper.
Clue 3: The Three Questions
A slip of paper that asks three questions, each with a numerical answer. They are as follows:
1. How many Es?
2. How many vowels?
3. How many times do they say it?
There are no other relevant details on this slip of paper.
Advice
There are no red-herrings.
You can ask for one hint. This can be a minor hint, a moderate hint, or major hint, at your own discretion.
You can ask anyone for assistance. In fact, it may be useful to ask for assistance from some of your peers in specific circumstances, as their Ultimate Talents may prove useful.
Once you have your answer (or you wish to end the game for any reason whatsoever), please @ myself in a comment or reblog.
Good luck and have fun!
- Saber
Hey @sabercatproductions! I think I've cracked it. Based on my piano expertise and a little bit of counting, I'm pretty sure the password is 4, 7, and then 2 or 3
For the first digit, I counted the 'C' keys and the position of the 'Z'. For the second digit, I looked at the sequence and the star. For the third digit, I answered the questions and I got 2 or 3, though to be honest, I'm really not sure!
// pls tell me I'm close or got one correct i feel so dumb 😭
Somehow, by using the completely incorrect method, you came very close to getting the actual answer, haha. Unfortunately, both 472 and 473 are incorrect combinations. Would you like to make use of your hint, and if so, would you want a small hint, a medium hint, or a big hint?
If not, you are welcome to try again, or ask others for assistance. I will, free of charge, give you some advice. The second clue is written in code, which means you need to decrypt it.
Okay, so I’m clearly not the expert on secret codes! Since you mentioned asking for assistance from peers, I think I might go reach out to someone who’s better at puzzles than me before I take that hint. Do you mind if I hold onto that offer for just a little longer?
For the sake of theatrics, please imagine that I said that in a nigh-on perfect impression of Jigsaw from the SAW franchise.
Set-Up
Before you is a locked box, the description of which is irrelevant. This box can not be pried open, dismantled, or broken into in any other way. The only way to open this box is to enter the correct three digit password. To clarify, you must enter three numerical values, each ranging from zero to nine.
Arranged around this box are a number of clues that you must use to uncover the password. They are as follows:
Clue 1: The Piano Pictures
A slip of paper, of which two full sized, eighty-eight key pianos are displayed from a top down view. On the first piano, each and every C key has been annotated in numerical order. On the second piano, there is the letter Z somewhere close to the center of the piano with a series of crosses to the right, spanning until the final key of the piano on the right side.
There are no other relevant details on this slip of paper.
Clue 2: The Unknown Sequence
A slip of paper which contains a sequence of pairs, composed of one letter and one number each, which reads as follows:
On the back of this slip of paper, there is a simple, five pointed star.
There are no other relevant details on this slip of paper.
Clue 3: The Three Questions
A slip of paper that asks three questions, each with a numerical answer. They are as follows:
1. How many Es?
2. How many vowels?
3. How many times do they say it?
There are no other relevant details on this slip of paper.
Advice
There are no red-herrings.
You can ask for one hint. This can be a minor hint, a moderate hint, or major hint, at your own discretion.
You can ask anyone for assistance. In fact, it may be useful to ask for assistance from some of your peers in specific circumstances, as their Ultimate Talents may prove useful.
Once you have your answer (or you wish to end the game for any reason whatsoever), please @ myself in a comment or reblog.
Good luck and have fun!
- Saber
Hey @sabercatproductions! I think I've cracked it. Based on my piano expertise and a little bit of counting, I'm pretty sure the password is 4, 7, and then 2 or 3
For the first digit, I counted the 'C' keys and the position of the 'Z'. For the second digit, I looked at the sequence and the star. For the third digit, I answered the questions and I got 2 or 3, though to be honest, I'm really not sure!
// pls tell me I'm close or got one correct i feel so dumb 😭
Despite the impression, I can assure that this is not an actual SAW trap, and that your friend will not be subjected to any lethal force whether she opens the box or fails to do so.
The greatest reward she has to gain are bragging rights, and the worst punishment she has to avoid is most likely just teasing from Kokichi or Miu.
For the sake of theatrics, please imagine that I said that in a nigh-on perfect impression of Jigsaw from the SAW franchise.
Set-Up
Before you is a locked box, the description of which is irrelevant. This box can not be pried open, dismantled, or broken into in any other way. The only way to open this box is to enter the correct three digit password. To clarify, you must enter three numerical values, each ranging from zero to nine.
Arranged around this box are a number of clues that you must use to uncover the password. They are as follows:
Clue 1: The Piano Pictures
A slip of paper, of which two full sized, eighty-eight key pianos are displayed from a top down view. On the first piano, each and every C key has been annotated in numerical order. On the second piano, there is the letter Z somewhere close to the center of the piano with a series of crosses to the right, spanning until the final key of the piano on the right side.
There are no other relevant details on this slip of paper.
Clue 2: The Unknown Sequence
A slip of paper which contains a sequence of pairs, composed of one letter and one number each, which reads as follows:
On the back of this slip of paper, there is a simple, five pointed star.
There are no other relevant details on this slip of paper.
Clue 3: The Three Questions
A slip of paper that asks three questions, each with a numerical answer. They are as follows:
1. How many Es?
2. How many vowels?
3. How many times do they say it?
There are no other relevant details on this slip of paper.
Advice
There are no red-herrings.
You can ask for one hint. This can be a minor hint, a moderate hint, or major hint, at your own discretion.
You can ask anyone for assistance. In fact, it may be useful to ask for assistance from some of your peers in specific circumstances, as their Ultimate Talents may prove useful.
Once you have your answer (or you wish to end the game for any reason whatsoever), please @ myself in a comment or reblog.
Good luck and have fun!
- Saber
Hey @sabercatproductions! I think I've cracked it. Based on my piano expertise and a little bit of counting, I'm pretty sure the password is 4, 7, and then 2 or 3
For the first digit, I counted the 'C' keys and the position of the 'Z'. For the second digit, I looked at the sequence and the star. For the third digit, I answered the questions and I got 2 or 3, though to be honest, I'm really not sure!
// pls tell me I'm close or got one correct i feel so dumb 😭
Somehow, by using the completely incorrect method, you came very close to getting the actual answer, haha. Unfortunately, both 472 and 473 are incorrect combinations. Would you like to make use of your hint, and if so, would you want a small hint, a medium hint, or a big hint?
If not, you are welcome to try again, or ask others for assistance. I will, free of charge, give you some advice. The second clue is written in code, which means you need to decrypt it.
Hello again! I hope you're doing well, despite all of the Tumblr Anons trying to play matchmaker with you, haha.
I have a question for you: how good are you at puzzle solving, and do you enjoy it? By that, I mean answering riddles, decrypting clues, finding patterns, and so on. Nothing like solving a murder in a killing game, of course, more like something akin to a table top escape room.
- Saber
[To the Mod: As much as I am asking Kaede, in-character, I think it would be best for me to also ask you, out-of-chatacter, because sending in a puzzle and expecting you to answer it when you don't enjoy them would be unfair.]
Hello, Saber! It’s so lovely to hear from you again. And you have no idea, I think half of my day is spent just trying to keep up with all the matchmakers on here, so this is a very welcome change of pace!
To answer your question, I actually really enjoy puzzles! While I’m not a detective like Shuichi, I do enjoy finding patterns and working through logic it feels a bit like practicing a difficult piece of music, where everything has to fit together perfectly to make sense!
// oh thanks for asking! I do like puzzles and all that but I'm really bad at them 😭
So, you, "really enjoy puzzles," do you? I'm glad to hear it. Let's see if that sentiment still stands by the time I am through with you! Don't take that as a threat, simply as some friendly competition to see if you can beat this mystery of my own making!
Putting that aside for a moment, I hope that this isn't too difficult. It is supposed to be a challenge, sure, but certainly far from impossible. It has three stages, you can have one clue from me, but you can talk to anyone (whether that be people in your class or the other visitors to your blog is up to you, although some of your friends may have a certain... advantage based off their individual Ultimate Talents, of course) as much as you want. If at any point you grow bored or you want to give up for any other reason, that is A-Okay! Beyond bragging rights, there wouldn't be a prize that you'd be forfieting, after all.
I'll send you the challenge in a separate ask in one moment. Your skills may prove particularly useful in the first part...
What are the differences between the original and localization?
Hmm, that’s a very simple question with a pretty lengthy answer! I did answer some similar questions in the past, but that was a long time ago, much closer to when the localization was first released. There are probably a lot of people whose main experience with the game has only been with the localization, and who don’t really know or remember those differences anymore.
For that reason, I’m going to go into kind of a “masterlist” of things that were changed in the localization in this post. This will be very long, but I really want to explain the whole story behind the localization and its differences from the original to people who might only be hearing about this for the first time. I’m going to cover full spoilers for the game obviously, so be careful when reading!
Also, please feel free to share this post around, as I think it contains a lot of information that might be interesting to people who’ve only experienced the localization!
Before I really get into it though, I want to stipulate that the differences I’m covering in this post are mostly going to be things that I believe could’ve been handled or translated better, not every single line that was changed verbatim in the game. This is because a localization’s purpose is incredibly different from a literal translation.
Where a literal translation seeks to keep as much of the original authorial intent as possible and has the leeway to explain various Japanese terms and cultural specifics to the readers in footnotes or a glossary, a localization is usually much more targeted towards a specific target audience, usually one more unfamiliar with Japanese culture or terminology. As a result, some things in a localization are occasionally changed to make them more understandable to a western audience.
So, for example, I’m not going to fault the localization for changing Monosuke’s extremely heavy Kansai accent in Japanese to a New York accent in the English dub. It’s much easier for western players to immediately grasp that, “hey, this guy has a very specific regional accent that the other characters don’t,” and it works really well as a rough equivalent. Similarly, localization changes like changing a line here or there about the sport of sumo to be about the Jets and the Patriots also helps get the point across to players quickly and easily without having to explain an unfamiliar sport to western players in-depth before they can get the joke.
That being said… there were some liberties taken with ndrv3’s translation which I don’t believe fulfill the point of a localization, and which changed certain deliveries or even perceptions about the characters in a way that I just don’t agree with.
Let me explain first how the localization team actually worked, to people who might be unfamiliar with the process. Ndrv3 had four separate translators working on the localization. When NISA first announced that the game was being localized, these four translators introduced themselves on reddit in an AMA, where they also mentioned that they were by and large dividing up the 16 main characters between themselves, with each translator specifically assigned to four characters.
Having more translators working on a game might sound like a good idea in theory, but it’s often not. The more translators assigned to a game, the harder it is to provide a consistent translation. Translation is messy work: often there are multiple ways to translate the same sentence, or even the same word between two different languages. If a translation has multiple translators, that means they need to be communicating constantly with one another and referencing each other’s work all the time in order to avoid mistranslations: it’s difficult work, but not impossible.
However… this didn’t happen with ndrv3’s translation team. It’s pretty clear they did not reference each other’s work or communicate very well, and the translation suffers for it. I’m not just guessing here, either; it’s a fact that various parts of the game have lines completely ruined by not looking at the context, or words translated two different ways almost back-to-back. I’ll provide specific examples of this later.
Many of the translators also picked which characters they wanted to translate on the basis of which were their favorites—which, again, isn’t a bad thing in and of itself, but which does raise the risk of letting character bias influence your work. No work is inherently without bias; all translators have to look at their own biases and still attempt to translate fairly regardless. But because translators were assigned four characters each, this meant that while they might be really enthusiastic about translating for one character in particular, they were less enthusiastic for others. These biases do reflect in the work, and I will provide further examples as I make my list.
This system of delegation also leaves more questions than it answers. It becomes impossible to tell who translated certain parts of the game, particularly in areas where the narrator is unclear. For example, did Saihara’s translator translate Ouma’s motive video, as Saihara is the one watching it in chapter 6? Or did Ouma’s translator do it, since it’s his motive video? Who translated the parts we see at the beginning of certain chapters, where characters from the outside world make occasional comments? It’s really unclear, and I’m not even sure if the translators divvied up these parts amongst themselves or if only one person was supposed to handle them.
To put it simply, there were quite a lot of complications and worrying factors about the way the translation was divided by the team, and the communication (or lack thereof) between said translators. It’s impossible to really discuss the main problems that ndrv3’s localization has without making it clear why those problems happened, and I hope I’ve explained it well here.
With that out of the way, I’m finally going to cover the biggest differences between the original game and the localization, and why many of these changes were such a problem.
1.) Gonta’s Entire Character
To this day, I still feel like this is probably the most egregious change of the entire localization. Gonta does not talk like a caveman in Japanese. He does not even have a particularly limited vocabularly. He talks like a fairly normal, very polite high school boy, and the only stipulation is that he’s not very familiar with electronics or technology due to his backstory of “growing up in the woods away from humans.”
Gonta does refer to himself in the third-person in Japanese, but I need to stress this: this is a perfectly normal thing to do in Japanese. Many people do it all the time, and it has no bearing on a person’s intelligence or ability to speak. In fact, both Tenko and Angie also refer to themselves in the third-person in the Japanese version of the game, yet mysteriously use first-person pronouns in the localization.
I wouldn’t be so opposed to this change if it weren’t for the fact that Gonta’s entire character arc revolves around being so much smarter than people (even himself!) give him credit for. He constantly downplays his own abilities and contributions to the group despite being fairly knowledgeable, not only about entomology but also about nature and astronomy. He has a fairly good understanding of spatial reasoning and is one of the first people to guess how Toujou’s trick with the rope and tire worked in chapter 2.
Chapter 4 of ndrv3 is so incredibly painful because it makes it clear that while Gonta was, absolutely, manipulated by Ouma into picking up the flashback light, he nonetheless made the decision to kill Miu of his own accord. He was even willing to try and kill everyone else by misleading them in the trial, because he thought it was more merciful than letting them see the outside world for themselves. These were choices that he made, confirmed when we see Gonta’s AI at the end of the trial speak for himself and acknowledge that yes, he really did think the outside world was worth killing people over.
Gonta is supposed to be somewhat naïve and trusting, not stupid. He believes himself to be an idiot, and other characters often talk down to him or don’t take him seriously, but at the end of the day he’s a human being just like the rest of them, and far, far smarter and more capable of making his own decisions than anyone thought him capable of.
Translating all of his speech to “caveman” or “Tarzan speech” really downplays his ability to make decisions for himself, and I think it’s a big part of why I’ve seen considerably more western fans insist that he didn’t know what he was doing than Japanese fans. I love Gonta quite a lot, but I can’t get over the localization essentially changing his character to make him seem more stupid, instead of translating what was actually there in order to more accurately reflect his character.
2.) Added Some Slurs, Removed Others
It’s time to address the elephant in the room for people who don’t know: Momota is considerably homophobic and transphobic in the original Japanese version of the game. In chapter 2, he uses the word “okama” to refer to Korekiyo in an extremely derogatory fashion. This word has a history of both homophobic and transphobic sentiment in Japan, as it’s often used against flamboyant gay men and trans women, who are sadly and unfortunately conflated as being “the same thing” most of the time. To put it simply, the word has the equivalent of the weight of the t-slur and the f-slur in English rolled into one.
This isn’t the only instance of Momota being homophobic, sadly. In the salmon mode version of the game, should you choose the “let’s undress” option in the gym while with Momota, he has yet another line where he says, “You don’t swing that way, do you!?” to Saihara, using his most terrified and disgusted-looking sprite. This suggests to me that, yes, the homophobia was a deliberate choice in the Japanese version of the game, as Momota consistently reacts this way to even the idea of another guy showing romantic interest in him.
The English version more or less kept the salmon mode comment, but removed the use of the slur in chapter 2 entirely. Which I have… mixed feelings about. On the one hand, I am an LGBT person myself. I don’t want to read slurs if I can help it. On the other hand, I really don’t think the slur was removed out of consideration to the LGBT community so much as Momota’s translator really wanted to downplay any lines that could make his character come across in a more negative light.
This is backed up by the fact that both Miu and Ouma’s translators added slurs to the game that weren’t present in the original Japanese. Where Miu only ever refers to Gonta as “baka” (idiot) or occasionally, “ahou” (a slightly ruder word that still more or less equates to “moron”), her translator decided to add multiple instances of her using the r-slur to refer to Gonta specifically, and on one occasion, even the word “Mongoloid,” a deeply offensive and outdated term. Ouma’s translator similarly took lines where he was already speaking harshly of Miu and added multiple instances of words like “bitch” or “whore.”
To me, this suggests that the translators were completely free to choose how harsh or how likable they wanted their characters to come across. Momota’s translator omitting just the slur could maybe pass for a nice gesture, so people don’t have to read it and be uncomfortable—except, that’s not the only thing that was omitted. Instances of Momota being blatantly misogynistic or rude were also toned down to the point of covering up most of his flaws entirely. His use of “memeshii” against Hoshi (a word which means “cowardly” in Japanese with specifically feminine connotations, like the word “sissy” in English) is simply changed to “weak,” and when he calls Saihara’s trauma “kudaranai” (literally “worthless” or “bullshit”), this is changed to “trivial” in the localization.
Momota’s translator even went so far as to omit a line entirely from the chapter 2 trial, which I touched on in an earlier post. In the original version of the game, Ouma asks Momota dumbfounded if he’s really stupid enough to trust Maki without any proof and if he plans on risking everyone else’s lives in the trial if he turns out to be wrong. And Momota replies saying yes, absolutely, he’s totally willing to bet everyone’s lives on nothing more than a hunch because he thinks he’s going to be right no matter what.
This is a character flaw. It’s a huge, running theme with Momota’s character, and it’s brought up again in chapter 4 deliberately when Momota really does almost kill everyone in the trial because he refuses to believe that Ouma isn’t the culprit. But the localization simply omits it, leaving Momota to seem considerably less hard-headed and reckless in the English version of the game. If anyone wants proof that this line exists, it is still very much there in the Japanese dialogue, but it has no translation whatsoever. This goes beyond “translation decisions I don’t agree with”; omitting an entire line for a character simply because you want other people to like them more is just bad translation, period.
3.) Angie’s Religion
In the original Japanese version of the game, neither Angie’s god nor her religion have any specific names. She refers to her god simply as “god” in the general sense, and clearly changes aspects of their persona and appearance based on who she’s trying to convince to join her cult. Everything about her is pretty clearly fictionalized, from her island to the religious practices her cult does.
Kodaka’s writing with regard to Angie is already a huge mess. It feeds into a lot of harmful stereotypes about “crazy, exotic brown women” and “bloodthirsty savages,” but at the very least it never correlated with a specific religion or location in the original version of the game.
This all changed when Angie’s translator, for whatever reason, decided to make Angie be Polynesian specifically and appropriate from the real religion of real indigenous peoples native to Polynesia. That’s right: Atua is a real god that has very real significance to tons of indigenous peoples.
In my opinion, this decision was incredibly disrespectful. It spreads incredible misinformation about a god that is still very much a part of tons of real-life people’s religion, and associates it with cults? Blood rituals? Human sacrifices? It’s a terrible localization decision that wasn’t necessary whatsoever and to be quite frank, it’s racist and insensitive.
As I said, the original game never exactly had the peak of “good writing decisions” when it came to Angie; there are still harmful stereotypes with her character, and she deserved to be written so much better. But associating her with a real group of indigenous people and equating a real god to some fictional deity that’s mostly treated as either a scary cult-ish boogeyman or the punchline to a joke is just… bad.
4.) Ouma’s Motive Video
Some of the decisions taken with Ouma’s translation are… interesting, to say the least. In many ways, he feels like a completely different character between the two versions of the game. This is due not only to the translation, but also the voice direction and casting.
A lot of his lines are tweaked or changed entirely to make his character seem much louder, less serious, and less sincere than the original version of the game. Obviously, Ouma lies, a lot. That’s sort of the whole point of is character. But what I mean is that even lines in the original version of the game, where it was clear he was being truthful via softer delivery, trailing off the end of his sentences, and seeming overall hesitant about whether to divulge certain information or not are literally changed in the localization to him pretty much yelling at the top of his lungs, complete with tons of exclamation points on lines that originally ended with a question mark or ellipses.
Tonally, he just feels very different as a character. The “sowwy” speak, lines like “oopsie poopsie, I’m such a ditz!”—all of these things are taken to such ridiculous extremes that it feels a little hard to take him seriously. Even in the post-trial for chapter 4 when Ouma starts playing the villain after Gonta’s death, a moment which should have been completely serious and intense, the mood is kind of completely killed when the line is changed from him calling everyone a bunch of idiots to him calling everyone…. “stupidheads.” These changes don’t really seem thematically appropriate to me, but overall, they’re not damning.
What is damning, however, is the fact that Ouma’s motive video is completely mistranslated and provides a very poor picture of what his motivations and ideals were like. I still remember being shocked when I played the localization for the first time and discovered that they completely omitted a line stating that Ouma and DICE have a very specific taboo against murder.
Literally, this is one of the very first lines in the entire video. The Japanese version of the game makes it explicitly clear that DICE were forbidden to kill people, and that abiding by this rule was extremely important to them. By contrast, the localization simply makes a nod about him doing “petty nonviolent crimes and pranks,” without ever once mentioning anything at all about rules or taboos.
This feels especially egregious in the localization considering Saihara later uses Ouma’s motive video as evidence in the chapter 6 trial and states there that Ouma and DICE “had a rule against killing people,” despite the game… never actually telling you that. It not only skews the perception of Ouma’s character at a crucial moment, it also just straight-up lies to localization players and expects them to make leaps in logic without actually providing the facts. So it winds up sort of feeling like Saihara is just pulling these assumptions out of his ass more than anything else.
I actually still have my original translation of Ouma’s motive video here, if anyone would like to compare. Again, translation is a tricky line of work, and obviously not all translators are going to agree with one another. But I consider omitting lines entirely to be one of the worst things you can do in a translation, particularly in a mystery game where people are expected to solve said mysteries based on the information and facts provided to them.
5.) Inconsistencies and Lack of Context
As I mentioned earlier, there are many instances of lines being completely mistranslated, or translated two different ways by multiple translators, or addressed to the wrong character. This is, as I stated, due to the way the translation work was divided by four separate people who appear to have not communicated with each other or cross-referenced each other’s work.
One of the clearest examples of this that I can think of off the top of my head is in chapter 3, where Ouma mentions “doing a little research” on the Caged Child ritual, and Maki in the very next line repeats him by saying… “study?”
On their own, removed from any context, these would both potentially be correct translations. However, it’s very clear that the translators just didn’t care to look at the context, or communicate with each other and share their work. The fact that characters aren’t even quoting each other properly in lines that are back-to-back is a pretty big oversight, and something that should have been accounted for knowing that four separate people were going to be translating various different characters.
This lack of context causes other, even more hilarious and blatantly wrong mistranslations. At the start of the chapter 3 trial, there is a line where Momota mentions that he couldn’t perform a thorough investigation on his own “because Monokuma disrupted him.” In the original, Ouma responds and tells Momota that he’s just using Monokuma as an excuse to cover for his own flaws. However, what we actually got in the localization was… this.
I don’t even have words for how badly this line was butchered (though I could make several hilarious jokes about Monokuma “over-compensating”). Presumably, this happened because Ouma’s translator saw Ouma’s line without any of the lines before it or the context of what Momota was saying, had no clue who Ouma was actually supposed to be talking to, and just ad-libbed it however they could, even though it literally makes no sense and doesn’t even fit into the conversation.
There are other similar instances of this, too. For example, did you know that the scene after Saihara faints in chapter 2, just before he wakes up in Gonta’s lab, is actually supposed to have Ouma talking to him? The narrator is unnamed, but there are several lines just before Saihara wakes up where Ouma tells him “come on, you can’t die on me yet!” and keeps prodding him and poking him to wake up. This is never explicitly told to you from the text… but it becomes pretty obvious when you look at the context and see that a huge CG of Ouma looking over Saihara as he starts to wake up is the very next part of the scene.
In the localization, however, Saihara’s translator pretty clearly had no idea what was happening or who was supposed to be talking to him, because they translated those lines as Saihara talking to himself, even though the manner of speech and phrasing is clearly supposed to be Ouma instead.
I could go on and on listing other examples: Tsumugi makes a joke in the original about Miu being able to dish out dirty jokes but not being very good at hearing them herself, but it’s changed in the localization to Tsumugi saying “I’m not so good with that kind of stuff,” and a line where Momota protests against Maki choking Ouma because she’ll kill him if she keeps going is instead changed to him saying “you’ll get killed if you don’t stop!” In my opinion, the fact that this is a consistent problem throughout the whole game shows that the translators weren’t really communicating or working together at any point, and that it wasn’t simply a one-time mistake here or there.
6.) Edited CGs and Plot Points
I have made an entirely separate post about this in the past, but at this point I don’t think anyone actually knows anymore: the localization actually edited in-game CGs and made some of them completely different from the Japanese version of the game. I’m not accusing them of “censorship” or anything like that, I mean quite literally that they altered and edited specific CGs to try and fix certain problems with them and only ended up making them worse in the process.
In chapter 5, Momota gets shot in the arm by Maki’s crossbow when trying to defend Ouma, and Ouma gets shot in the back shortly afterward when attempting to make a run for the Exisals. These injuries are relevant to how they died, but they’re not actually very visible in the CGs of Ouma and Momota shown later in the chapter 5 trial.
There are a whole bunch of inconsistencies with the CGs in chapter 5 in general: Momota gives Ouma his jacket to lie on under the press, but is magically still wearing it when he emerges from the Exisal himself at the end of the trial (I like to think he snuck back into the dorms Solid Snake style to get a new one from his room before joining the trial), the cap to the antidote is still on the bottle when Ouma pretends to drink it in front of Maki and Momota, etc. None of these things really deter from the plot though, and so I would say they’re fairly unimportant.
However, for some reason, NISA decided that “fixing” at least some of the CGs in the chapter 5 trial was necessary. They did this by adding bloodstains to Momota’s arm while he’s under the press, to better show his injury from the crossbow…. and in doing so, for some completely inexplicable reason, they changed the entire position of his arm. Here’s what I mean for comparison:
This is how Momota’s arm looked in the original CG from chapter 5, shown when the camcorder is provided as evidence that it’s “Ouma” under the press.
And this is how the localization edited it to look. I can understand and even sympathize with adding the bloodstains, but… changing the entire arm itself? Moving it to be sticking out from under the press? To put it nicely, this change doesn’t make any sense and actually makes it harder to understand Ouma and Momota’s plan.
The whole trick behind their plan was that nothing was supposed to stick out from under the press, other than Momota’s jacket. They waited until the instant when the press completely covered every part of Momota’s body, arms and all, and then performed the switch to mislead people. But the edited version of the CG in the localization just has Momota’s arm sticking completely out, hanging over the side, meaning it would’ve been impossible for the press to hide every part of it and the whole switch feels… well, stupid and impossibly easy to see through in the localized version.
Again, this shows a total disregard for presenting the facts as they actually appear and actually makes things more difficult for English players of the game, because they’re not being given accurate information. I really don’t understand why these changes were necessary, or why the bloodstains couldn’t have just been added without moving Momota’s entire arm.
7.) In Conclusion
This has gotten extremely long (nearly 10 pages), so I want to wrap things up. I want to specify that my intention with this masterlist isn’t to insult or badmouth the translators who worked on this game. I’m sure they worked very hard, and I have no idea what time or budget constraints they were facing as they did so.
Being a translator is not easy, and typically translators are not very well-paid or recognized for their work. I have the utmost respect for other translators, and I know perfectly well just how difficult and taxing it can be.
I am making this list because these are simply changes which were very different from the original version of the game, and which I believe could have been handled better. Personally, I disagree with many of the choices the localization made, but that does not mean that they didn’t do a fantastic job in other places. I absolutely love whichever translator was responsible for coming up with catchphrases and nicknames throughout the game: little localization decisions like “cospox,” “flashback light,” “Insect Meet n’ Greet,” and “cosplaycat criminal” were all strokes of genius that I highly admire.
I only want to stress that the Japanese version of the game is very different. Making changes to the way a character is presented or portrayed means influencing how people are going to react to said character. Skewing the information and facts presented in trials in the game means changing people’s experience of the game, and giving them less facts to go off of. Equating fictional gods to real-life ones can cause real harm and influence perception of real indigenous peoples. These are all facts that need to be accounted for before deciding whether a certain change is necessary or not, in my opinion.
If you’ve read this far, thank you! Again, feel free to share this post around if you’d like, since this is probably the most comprehensively I’ve ever covered this topic.
"Go! My Dangan Decker Ultimate! ☆ Battle of Hope and Despair!"
What a name for a product, huh? What is it with Team Danganronpa and coming up with the most outlandish titles for things?
Anyway, I found a packet of unopened trading cards in one of the drawers of my room today, while looking for a pen. Quite frankly, I don't quite know how it got there. I certainly never brought them. My best guess is that someone gave me a packet and even though I've never been into trading cards, I didn't want to appear ungrateful, so I took them home and stored them away for safe keeping.
Anyway, out of a mixture of boredom and curiosity, I decided to open the packet up. If I am being honest, based on the cards that I pulled, I can't figure out how to play this game, of if this is even a game at all. Maybe they act a little bit more like sports card, where the aim is to just collect and trade as opposed to something like Pokémon where you can fight with them? I don't know.
What I do know, however, based on my very limited knowledge of trading cards, is that shiny things are usually good things. So, I was surprised when I drew two of these holographic character cards from one packet, and even more surprised to see that they were signed. At first, I thought that the signatures were printed on, but when I ran my thumb over one, I could feel subtle indents, as if someone had really written it. Pretty cool, right?
I've always been a firm believer that people should collect because they love the thing they collect, not just for making profit because they can. It's why I'd rather these cards go to people who I know would appreciate them opposed to selling them online, only for some scalper to then try to sell it a quintuple the price for the sake of greed.
With that being said, I wanted to offer them to you. I vaguely remember Bonkichi saying that Chiaki was one of his favourites, and Kagehara's favourite is very clearly Kyoko. So, would you two be interested in taking these cards off me? No catch, no cost. They can go into any collection you already have, be displayed with other merchandise, or in an emergency, sold to help you afford something you really want or need.
I don't have those fancy plastic card cases, but I at least put them in a sandwich bag and kept them flat so that they wouldn't get dirty, scuffed, ripped, or otherwise. Here!
- Saber
[I can't believe I spent three quarters of an hour making two fake trading cards for the sake of a joke that went on in one of the last post's comments. This is forty five minutes of my life I am never getting back. XD]
📓 "Th- Th... That's--"
"The actual... bonified ultra rare, holographic, l- lenticular, shiny... signed copy of- Kirigiri's Dangan Decker Ultimate ☆ BHD card... and you just- found that? In... in a regular pack... in a drawer? I- aahh--"
"Ah- hahah! Ghhkk... and you're- you're actually giving it to me- that's REAL, that's her- her REAL signature on the- the- ... hehehehe... HAHAHAHAAA hahahaa- AHA-- aaahhh...!"
THUD!
🥤 "... Kagehara?"
"Kagehara? Kage? Hello? ... Oh my god- is he dead? Did you KILL him?!"
"No, no, he's just... he just passed out. Right... weak heart, or whatever he said it was... he's... he's fine. Just... just elevate his legs or whatever, he's fine. Completely fine."
"I'll just... put these. Somewhere. For when he wakes up again. I'll, uh... tell him he can have both. I don't really have a use for those. Thanks."
// OOC: saber you're actually so funny for this, i giggled when i saw them. THEY'RE SO WELL MADE, TOO??? lowk wanna put them on the fanart fridge even if they're not fanart of bon and kage technically LMAO these are so fantastic. 45 minutes well spent, i applaud your dedication to the bit
