Thoughts on Danganronpa Another Despair Academy (Spoiler Review)
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- čas přidán 24. 08. 2024
- Today I'm going to do over my general thoughts on Danganronpa Another Despair Academy. I'll make more specific videos like a trial ranking video and a character video as well so stay tuned for those.
Huge thanks to LINUJ for creating the game and Zephirum for translating the game!
Zephirum's channel: / zephirum
Footage Credits:
Tamiil's Adventures: / tamiil
I actually thought that DRA’s similarity to Trigger Happy Havoc was a strong point. Perhaps this was considering SDRA2, which has more of an island vibe to it, so I thought they were made as sort of spiritual successors to the original Trigger Happy Havoc duology? And naturally, due to DRA’s place in its own canon as the Killing School Rehearsal its similarity to the Killing School Life makes sense. I dunno, being unique doesn’t necessarily mean being better. It’s differences from the formula in spite of its adherence to it intrigued and amazed me.
There is something about both games that really makes them attractive, one of the aspects I liked the most was the story, specially the protagonist being the mastermind. Many important aspects appear often, but it is only at the last trial where you make the connection, elements like Kurokawa, Yuki's Identitiy, the place not being the academy are plot elements that appear at some point, but are not brought up out of thin air.
While the class trials were not that difficult, they were certainly interesting. And just like you mentioned the characters make this game really shine because of the diversity of ideas, even if some outshine others, this characters felt more realistic in terms of the situation they were in.
Another thing that I really liked is how all throughout the game you think that either Mekaru or Kinjo is the antagonist, but in reality they never were. Is just a detail that I really like.
While this may be a hot take, I prefer this two fan-games over the original saga. I think that they handled the rules of a killing game better and handled the drama, tension, and plot progression in a better way (cough V3 cough)
(soilders lol) I agree that the first danganronpa another was better than the first danganronpa, the story and plot was a lot more grounded and realistic and way more characters got their development compared to the first danganronpa game where 2/3rds of the cast has zero development and the last 3rd has way too much. meanwhile it feels like almost everyone in dra is given a chance to shine, and even though the characters are copies of existing ones in some way, i feel like they pull off the role way better than the original dr1 characters did, for example rei is clearly togami but she goes through lots of development and becomes a strong unbeatable leader by chapter 5 instead of togami where he just goes from being an asshole to a slightly less asshole by the end of the game, or akane who mirrors sayaka but instead of just being a shallow fake support character who dies, shes there to support yuki the entire game until she is revealed to be the mastermind, and even yuki who is clearly mirroring makoto has so much more character by chapter 6 when its revealed that he isnt even a real person and that he is actually the mastermind himself. and not only that but dra has unique character ideas that havent really been seen at all in any of the main danganronpa games, like kinjo who is the antag and is obsessed with justice, in a way similar to nagito but with a very different set of morals and personality. the cast also just has so many generically likable characters who arent as developed but get great moments like the love between satsuki and haru, or the sad dynamic of how inori, yamaguchi, and uehara were all killed in the same trial but in their past during the school life they were close to eachother. Overall I just cant help but like dra more than the first danganronpa game
One of my favourite fangans ever! And all made my Linuj by himself 😭, nice to see your take on it!
It never really bothered me when DRA took elements seen in Danganronpa, but that’s prolly cause it usually took the element in a different direction than in cannon. For example: the relationship between Ayame and Akane mirrors Mondo and Taka’s quite a bit, but instead of killing Akane off after Ayame died, Akane got to develop and reach the end of the game and we even see how Ayame influenced her. Idk if this made sense or not, just my two cents
I personally think SDRA2 did a much better job than the first game of being original and bringing in its own ideas, but you can judge that for yourself when you play it. I still love the series as a whole, even if it has flaws. I wouldn't say this series is better than the main games, but for a fan game, these games are pretty well done overall in my opinion, especially since the first game was completed way back in 2015.
Spoilers for Danganronpa Another 1/Danganronpa 2:
A problem I agree with you on is that a lot of characters in the first game are pretty forgettable or don't do much in the grand scheme of things. Even though he's my personal favorite in this game, Kinjo takes up too much screentime. Then again, the canon games tend to kind of do the same thing and give the rivals the most focus out of any other character aside from the support character. As great of a character as he is, Nagito gets so much attention that some of the SDR2 cast feels underdeveloped as a result, which is part of the reason why a lot of people complain about Kazuichi, Akane and Sonia being survivors(at least from what I've seen).
Kinjo does a lot, Rei gets to do some things towards the end of the game, and Mikako does things here and there, but everyone else just kind of exists for long stretches of time. Even Akane doesn't get to do much after Mikako stops her suicide attempt in chapter 3(Until the mastermind reveal, of course). There are some pretty good characters in these games, but you have to use them wisely, which is obviously easier said than done with a format like Danganronpa.
The second game improves on a lot of things in my opinion, even if there are still ideas taken from the canon here and there. Despite the lack of originality in certain characters/trials, I still think these games are some of the best fangans out there. These are all just my opinions though. Feel free to disagree.
gonna make history here
History
I honestly don't know if taking parts from dr1 was intentional or not, the plot twist in dra is that the students aren't in Hope's Peak so for the game to start out like that by mirroring a few chapters and then drop the act is pretty cool to me. On the other hand, this could just be me making excuses for Linuj's writing (it's not that I'd say Dra has bad writing (I personally think Ch4 onwards are really great, Chapter 2 also) but apparently he wrote Dra when he was really young so I'd understand the writing/cases not being the best. I love Sdra2 though, his writing definitely shines more there imo!
Personally found dra’s chapter to chapter story progression, end game climax, and characters better than dr2’s, but then again I’m in the small camp that didn’t really like dr2
I’m in the camp with you homie dw
Same
I heavy agree on the the inspiration thing and honestly it gets worse with sdra2 it gets worse in that regard because not only does it try to copy plot points from dr2 but they also copy some stuff from dr1 because of a key plot point
I’m not sure how far you got in so I apologize if I spoil but an example in chapter 4 there is another one of those guns from chapter 4 in dra where they explode. And where it’s beyond simple reference and becomes actual plot as in mastermind plan level of plot. It sort of fails to sell at least in my opinion. It just feels like sdra2 crutches on sdr2 and dra.
Actually interested what you have to say about sdra2. Currently working on a video essay myself in that regards. (Even tho it’s pretty negative)
I didn't read your full comment to avoid spoilers but I'll definitely look out for how much originality the sequel has
Loved the video
DRA is my fav all time Dangan game I love the characters and the plot toast
If I'm being honest, while this game doesn't compare with DR2 onwards what it DOES have going for it is that it had more likable characters or at least more interesting ones then DR1. Let's be honest here outside of the main trio with half a brain (Naegi, Kyoko and Togami), who actually cares all that much about the rest of the cast? Hifumi was forgettable, Taka and Mondo were only really memorable because of their bromance, Celestia is a disappointment, for the most part Aoi was just sorta there, Sakura was Chapter 4 fodder, Fujisaki died too soon before he could gain any meaningful development and Junko wasn't even really present until the second half of the final trial.
In this game though even if some characters are clearly more important than others at least most of them are more interesting to have around, and unlike the main line game for the most part the cast of DRA KNOW they're stupid and need the smart people to save them in the trials which is a plus in my opinion since unlike the main line games this cast doesn't pretend to be helpful when they're usually doing nothing or getting in the way.
I don't really agree as I find DR1's cast a lot more entertaining as a whole than the cast of DRA1 but I don't want to explain why because that would take a lot of time.
You do raise an interesting point with the DRA1 cast being more aware of their incompetence but I don't see an issue with the characters of DR1 not calling it out. The average character in that game is just not as intelligent as the average person in the real world. That's really all there is to it. It's the same with DR2 and DRV3. Most of the characters are pretty dumb but no one talks about it because that's normal in their universe.
You can even see this in other games like Ace Attorney. Outside of some of the main characters and a few side characters, everyone in the universe looks incompotent to the players. But that's just the norm in that universe. Perhaps it's because I started mystery-like games with Ace Attorney but I never found a majority of the characters being stupid or unhelpful to decrease the quality of a game to a great extent.
@@DerpyHiro What I meant about the characters is that normally in the Danganronpa games there is usually like 3 half way decently smart people who do the majority of the work while the rest of the cast either get in the way or just straight up say stupid things that don't really contribute to their survival, and yet the cast still end up trying to convince themselves that solving the trials is a team effort when the reality is they don't contribute much if at all.
Anyways I don't think there is a need to argue the point, I personally don't understand how the first DR cast is so beloved outside of a select few but if you personally like them then more power to you I guess, it's not like I'm gonna look down on you or any of that nonsense. Heck I love Mukuro (mainly because of the IF story) and she barely exists as her own person since she's always been shown dressed as Junko (lazy bastards).
This game is pretty good. I think the story of this game snipes the story of the first game, but I don't think it quite reaches 2 and v3's narrative. Characters were cool, didn't like all of them but by the time chapter 4 rolls around I was vibing with the cast. Liked how they kind of had a Byakuya character along with a Nagito character, really spiced the story up. I think on a technical level the game is absolute garbage, most of it I can ignore but the controls are straight ass. If I could use the mouse my enjoyment would skyrocket, bit I'm guessing it's an engine limitation. Soundtrack was good, most of the tracks were from DR1 and a few from 2. Shuichi's theme from v3 was used a few times later in the game so that was cool. I do agree some parts dragged. Chapter 4 wasn't too bad, but I think it was chapter 3 where like over a week goes by with not much happening. Overall think it's worth a play, a full blown remaster with the same engine as Another 2 would slap.
I really liked the characters in dra, hell, i stopped watching playthroughs beyond chapter 3 because i loved the chapter 3 culprit (ㅠㅠ)
meanwhile sdra2 wasnt too interesting to me…? like my fav characters survived for once but it wasnt too impactful to me.
i think sdra2 was more creative with void but i prefer dra’s… style?? it’s nostalgic to me
Would you make a video reviewing each class trial/chapter separately and grading them like you did for the AA series and it's cases out of curiosity?
for the mainline DR series? If so, I don't think I can right now. I'd have to wait a bit because I feel like I know too much about the DR cases. I have to get them out of my memory so I can have a more blind experience.
With AA, it had been years since I played the games or watched any let's plays of them so it was almost like going into them fresh. Sure I remembered some details but enough time had passed to the point where it felt like a semi blind experience. So I might do that for DR but it will take time for me to go back and replay them
@@DerpyHiro Alright then.
So speaking of fan games, will you be doing reviews on Contempt of Court (made by Cardiovore) and Conflict of Intrest (made by Ropfa)? Contempt of Court takes place after the events of Trials and Tribulations but before Phoenix's disbarment and Conflict of Intrest takes place in an alternative timeline where the events and characters of Dual Destinies and Spirit of Justice don't exist and takes place after Phoenix get's found innocent of the evidence forgery claims. I do recommend you play Contempt of Court OVER Conflict of Intrest, however I can't really why I view CoC as the better fan game over CoI without going into spoilers.
I don't have interest in AA fan games at the moment. I might do reviews of them in the future but I don't have any plans on playing them right now. For now I'm just sticking with reviewing mainline AA games
@@DerpyHiro so what you're planning is reviewing The Great Ace Attorney 2, then Trails & Tribulations, then Ace Attorney Investigations 1, then Apollo Justice, then Investigations 2, then Dual Destinies and finaly Spirit of Justice, right?
@@spouwnerring Yup you got it. AAI1 and AJ are interchangeable. I don't know which one I'll do first. The Great Ace Attorney 2 videos have been scripted. I just have to record and edit them now so I think they should be all released before the end of the year
DRA1 is garbage IMO because its so hard to play the class trials with the controls, chapter 1 is buggy and in chapter 2 it wouldnt even shoot my truth bullet most of the time. Then its the fact that you CAN'T SAVE nor can you CHECK YOUR TRUTH BULLETS so if you dont recall certain details you are screwed. Idk if SDRA2 will be better but the first one is absolute garbage
Nuh uh
Can you make a video about the dummies who think that the series is problomatic ? They're annoying
You know what, I have considered making a video about that but it would be more along the lines of why is there such a widespread hate for the series because there's way too much hate for it that its actually strange.
I don't really want to go over the people who feel its problematic because then I think my video would be too similar to a vid SHSL Blaze has done already talking about this.
@@DerpyHiro fair enough, there's nothing really problomatic at the series anyway, and it's telling considering how 99% of the hate comes from Twitter and tiktok