Monday 15 September 2014

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

I'm a little sad it's over...
heres hoping for Danganronpa 3? (it's more likely then Zero Escape 3)

I honestly don't know where to start.

Danganronpa is a Visual Novel with a lot of action elements. (at least more then any other VN i can think of)
While playing i constantly wondered if the game was a work of genius... or madness and i feel confident in saying both are true...
but i'm getting ahead of myself.

First: you probably can play this without having playing the first.... but you will miss out of so much and certain events will not make sense.... so play Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc first.

Second: if you plan on playing either game do not under any circumstances look up artwork or merch from it... you'll probably be spoiled.

I will try to make this as spoiler free as possible... which means i cannot talk about some of my favourite events... well not easily at least.

anyways, you wake up in a classroom with 15 other students, all claiming to be the new batch of ultimates for Hopes peak academy. However theres something odd... you can't remember your talent... and before you know it the walls fall down and you find yourself trapped on a deserted island.
According to a magical girl bunny rabbit all you have to do is spend a happy school field trip with your friends, collect things known as hope fragments and then you will all be able to graduate.

However.... no video game would ever be that simple... especially not one in this series...

Serious talk for a second... 4 out of (?) chapters got me crying... i think only one or two chapters of the old game got me sad... disturbed yes but not crying... this is much much different.
though i guess that being said... if you hate Visual novels or didn't like DR1 you may not like this game? i mean the two are quite different but they do have similarities.

Still i don't wanna say much without spoiling so.... i'll say this.
This game has some of the best character arcs i have seen in a while
not to mention one of the most [spoiler] characters i have ever seen in anything and they could easy be nightmare fuel.
The game continues to get darker... just when i thought it couldn't get any lower to the depths of despair it does... for me at least.

I just want to sing this game all the praises i can but i don't wanna ruin anything for anyone so all i can say is if you like VNs.... or better yet if you like Ace Attorney but wish it had a bit more action in the courtroom scenes... this is the perfect game for you.

one aspect i didn't like is that early on some characters would swear to the point where it comes across as if they are a child who just learned a new word.... but there is a point and by the end it works. (read as some characters swear less and others swear more.... nice balancing act)

The music is also a lot better Especially past the midway point of the game

 and even though i personally saw some of the twists coming there was a lot i didn't expect.

The good:
character design and art style, still unique and lovely.
Music is fun and rages from tropical to chiptuny... a nice mix.
great moments of utter despair as well as hope
4 dark Devas of destruction.... who also happen to be hamsters... cute wittle hamsters.

The sad:
the whole game is very sad and may be hard to stomach in large doses but i promise all the moments that break your heart get paid off in full.

The ugh:
Zero escape 3 may never happen at this rate... Danganronpa is just so much more popular so Spike chunsoft focus on that... *sighs* but that ciffhanger.

i'm pretty sure in my DR1 review i said i still liked zero escape more.... i think they are more on par now... both are so good.

[incoming rant, i'll let you know when it's done]

As for controversies over Translations... i'm sorry but some people must turn everything into a fight.
I'm pretty sure i've lost a friend thanks to this shit.
mostly concerning the first game but it still applies.

In the english Localisation for this series i heard two things.

1. Calling them ultimates sounds so stupid!

2. The translation of the characters names/the fact that some use nicknames is insulting to North Americans.

ok... one at a time.

1. Ultimates is dumb!
oh i'm sorry... "super high school level" isn't the dumbest thing you've ever heard?
i mentioned this in my review of one but ultimate is the PERFECT word since in english the word tends to be used for BEST but the actual meaning of the word is more akin to LAST.... the double meaning here
if i had to spend this game listening to "super high school level hope or despair" i may have chucked the game out the window cause it wouldn't make sense and it takes away all credibility.
Finally~! Having heard the japanese voice acting, to me it sounds like they are saying "ultimate" it's more tongue in cheek but it still sounds like ultimate.
not to mention all the japanese merch i have seen says ultimate...
In conclusion I 100% feel that ultimate was not only the best translation but also the correct translation... the sup[er high school level thing came from a fansubs... get over it.

2. Insulting names.
where do i even begin.
well first one the person who said this to me had only read transcripts of the game, never played it and more importantly never played this version of it.
so... lesson learned, don't jump on a bandwagon that you have never personally experienced and let me know about it cause if i have play/watched/read the thing in question i will rip you a new one. (with evidence of course)
Second of all, no they aren't.
thye just aren't
in the first game there is a case that depends on how characters address each other.
 fun fact: in english we don't really have multiple ways of addressing our peers.
shocker right? almost always when talking to people who we consider friends we use their first name... or if we are close a nickname... we just don't have the same varying level/gender specific of name types.
how the game addresses this.
some characters called everyone by nicknames.
some called everyone by last names
and some by first.
I found it worked perfectly well, the best they could have done with their situation.

but no somehow changing their names was insulting...
mmkay.... coming from the people who say Monobear instead of Monokuma... yes, Kuma means Bear... you can't bitch when they change things and then expect them to change other things.

in the end though, DR2 kinda just shows how wrong they are.
no names are changed... everyone is called by their full first name.
no matter how many syllables
no matter how silly sounding
so your argument is completely unfounded.
not everything is a controversy.... i just want play games and have fun and talk about them without having people jump down my throat.

Sorry i know that rant is more related to the first game stuff but it's been building on my chest for a while and i just needed to say it

[END RANT]

i'm sorry for any who read that... just... the way games are getting talked about lately has been really depressing.
either nothings good enough.... or everything is a controversy thats so bad we should rip companies a new one... or the future has no hope and we may be headed to a crash (which i don't  believe for a second.... i think things will change... and get worse before they get better.... but it will get better... that is my hope.)

but yeah... all i can say is i had fun, despite the tears and the the annoyance at some gameplay mechanics.... i still had fun.
which in the end is what it's all about... right?

No comments:

Post a Comment