Board 8 > Danganronpa Spoiler Topic for All Games (SPOILERS)

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That reminds me of another Byakuya issue. He has the worst voice acting in the series!

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Maybe but definitely not the worst voice! WTF even is anime Usami?

UshiromiyaEva posted...

That reminds me of another Byakuya issue. He has the worst voice acting in the series!

Statements like this always throw me way off and I have to remember that most of this board played the games with English audio.

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I've experienced both, not all the way through but I always go back to replay or watch at least one case in Japanese. DR1 overall had a pretty mediocre dub and I wouldn't give anyone guff for sticking with the Japanese there. Bryce Papenbrook had also just recently started out,Dso having him as Negi was a bit rough. And of course Byakuya is just....oooooof. I don't mind Kyouko, but she gets some hate as well in the dub. Celeste and Junko are definitely the standout roles, Celeste in particular is probably the best in the game for case 3 alone.

DR2 and V3 on the other hand had excellent dubs, the only real exception being Monomi.

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I played DR1 in English...it was bad. So I switched over to the Japanese audio for DR2 and it was great! Decided to give the English one a go for V3 and it was great! Though the ending case where Tsumugi was switching between everyone threw me a bit since they were voices I wasn't used to!

Xiahou Shake posted...

Statements like this always throw me way off and I have to remember that most of this board played the games with English audio.

I mean, dubs are more widely used than subs in basically every Japan-localized media these days so I'm not sure why it's a surprise to you!

DR1's dub is sketchy though

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MysteriousStan posted...

I played DR1 in English...it was bad. So I switched over to the Japanese audio for DR2 and it was great!

I feel like this specific situation happens a lot, and it's a shame because it should be completely flipped, lol.

Thankfully it's not like the DR2 sub isn't also great.

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Played DR1 on PSP Emulator so if it was in Japanese somehow
Played DR2 on PC Steam release so it was in English

Watched DR3 in Japanese
Played DRV3 in English DEGENRATE MALE

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I played all the games in English and it boggles my mind with how bad the DR1 dub is when both 2 and V3 are so stellar across the board.

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It's a pity Leon dies so quickly because he has some of the best voice acting in DR1 by far

STUPID STUPID STUPIDSTUPIDSTUPID

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Since all of the V3 VAs were pulled from previous games, many of the DR1 VAs are the V3 cast. Voice direction's really really important.

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I believe the voice director for V3 was Wendee Lee, who also voiced Miu in that game, so she was basically telling herself the exact emphasis to use on the phrase 'cum dumpster'

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Oh hey, I had to look this up since I was going to comment on it - I didn't know that Makoto and Nagito shared the same VA in the dub as well! That was an extremely cool bit of weirdness in the JP track to compare the performances so it's very cool that they kept that while dubbing it.

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Hbthebattle posted...

Since all of the V3 VAs were pulled from previous games, many of the DR1 VAs are the V3 cast. Voice direction's really really important.

This I knew. I use DR as a staple example of this. People just assume a good VA is always going to be a banger, but it couldn't be further from the truth. Another good example is that new Eva dub in Netflix: almost all the VAs are very talented, but the direction was absolutely atrocious.

KamikazePotato posted...

I believe the voice director for V3 was Wendee Lee, who also voiced Miu in that game, so she was basically telling herself the exact emphasis to use on the phrase 'cum dumpster'

Wendee Lee is a joy. I just really wish this line was voiced.




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I honestly don't have a problem with Byakuya's actions. In the beginning, he's recognizing this is a game and he's being cutthroat about figuring everyone out and who he has to worry about. His whole purpose in case 2 is to scout the competition. He admits he would have come clean before the vote if nobody had figured it out, because obviously he has no intention of dying when they vote wrong. At the time, he rubbed me the wrong way because it's a total dick move to everyone else in the group, but he's viewing it from a kill-or-be-killed angle, and assuming he wins, none of those people will be around to care about afterwards. He eventually comes around instead of being a banal asshole the entire game.

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azuarc posted...

He admits he would have come clean before the vote if nobody had figured it out, because obviously he has no intention of dying when they vote wrong.

There were a number of times where the suspicion was on him, and they absolutely would have assumed he lying to weasel out of it.

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Angie is fine. Middle of the list character imo.

Yeah she is evil but some evil chars are just good in a "love to hate" way. Same reason I like Byakuya.

I thought it was pretty realistic how a group of people in a prolongued stressing situation turn into religion, but not all of them do. And how the leader of said religion can quickly manipulate everyone.

That said saying Atua over and over was annoying, but that's DR for you. Apparently it's aimed at people with very simplistic sense of humor, cuz a lot of the comic relief this series attempts is lowest common denominator anime stuff.

UshiromiyaEva posted...

There were a number of times where the suspicion was on him, and they absolutely would have assumed he lying to weasel out of it.

He also knew the complete solution to the case and could explain the entire thing forwards and backwards to them, once challenged. It's possible they might not have believed him, but his arrogance dictated that he thought any idiot should be able to see reason when it's spelled out for them.

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Oh hey, was just cleaning up and found this which I hadn't gone through yet! Thank God it's still sealed up.



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Turns out this book contains fanfiction itself, including some from my previously mentioned fav!

Maaaaaan I am in such a mood here. Maybe I will go straight into a full series replay after finishing up Higurashi.

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UshiromiyaEva posted...

That reminds me of another Byakuya issue. He has the worst voice acting in the series!

It's weird how much better of a job he did in 2 and V3.

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Lol well I don't know how fair it is to compare to Monodam who sounds less robotic, but as was mentioned before it is completely down to the voice direction. Tony Oliver did 1 and 2, and obviously 2 crushes 1 on that front so I can only assume he was getting into the swing of things for DR (of course he had tons of experience voice directing other stuff, but mostly anime I believe). Still not PERFECT though, I remember even JYB himself had a couple of wierd reads as Hajime.

Then you get Wendee Lee in V3 and that is just far and away the best dubbed game in the series, which stands out especially considering all the carried over voice actors.

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I would swap Sonia with Kirigi but Anagram got the top 3 best girls (in the first two games, at least) right

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Ive finished all AA, DR and Zero Escape games, any more recommendations of similar games? Like mystery sort-of VNs with some gameplay?

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The part where you need some gameplay is where I get stuck.

Umineko is my favorite game of all time and it is the DEFINITION of a mystery, but it doesn't have any real gameplay.


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Ghost Trick
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Aviary Attorney

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Murder by Numbers came out this year for the Switch. It's a decent AA/picross mash-up. Of course if you're like me the puzzles will eventually get too hard for you and you'll have to basically cheat your way through them. It's not on the level of AA or DR but it's worth a playthrough. Also the music is by the AA composer and is really good.

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Ghost Trick is good enough to belong in the same canon as AA/ZE/DR

Uhhh... maybe Hotel Dusk/Last Window? They're a little more lowkey though

Many people liked AI: The Somnium Files but I did not

Oh, thanks lol. I did like Somnium Files and very much would recommend it.

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Hotel Dusk and The Last Window were both great. Wish Cing didnt go under so we could get more.

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I am basically the resident Hotel Dusk/Last Window superfan.

They are both fantastic stories. The mystery-solving isn't the best, but the story's beautifully told and the art style is gorgeous. The writing is stellar, and the protagonist is one of my favorite characters in all of videogames.

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Has Anagram made a new topic yet?

This topic singlehandedly made me finish 3 DRV3 cases so I can catch up with discussion.

Thoughts:

--DRV3 has the best cast for sure. Only Tenko is really kinda unbearable. Kiyo being an incest serial killer really drops him too, but he's a great character outside of that. The main trio of Shiuichi, Maki, and Kaito is really, really strong too.
--I just couldn't get into Kokichi too much. He's too much of a troll. I felt Nagito did Kokichi's job better on just about every level.
--3-5 was brilliant and probably the best case in the series.
--I thought DRV3 was completely divorced from DR1 and 2! I was pretty disappointed when I got to Junko and Despair antics again. The plot twist was fine, but I guess I was kinda burnt out. It seems like a pretty logical next step after DR2's ending.
--I'd probably put DRV3 over DR2 but it's close. I think DR2 sticks the landing way better than DR3.
--I'm not doing a character ranking, because so many of the characters land from meh to passable. Instead, I'll just rank the top tier: Nagito > Maki > Kaito > Chiaki > Shuichi > Kaede > Gundham > Sonia > Fuyuhiko > Miu > Angie > Hajime > Ibuki > Yukizome

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I feel like how incredible 3-5 is gets lost in the 3-6 discussion sometimes.

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Nagito absolutely didn't do Kokichi's job better.

Kokichi is a background character for the first three chapters, but his personality is well-defined enough that when he breaks out in chapters 4 and 5, it makes sense. The entirety of DR2 revolves around Nagito, with the sole exception of chapter 2, and it's frustrating because he's the only real Gary Stu in the franchise. I feel like Nagito serving as a super prominent lightning rod of hate for all the cast to be wary of is what prevents them from bonding as a collective and becoming a cohesive unit.

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That's what makes Nagito so good. He's always there, and always entertaining. I love how well-meaning he is, too. Plus I just like his personality a lot, while I despise Kokichi's.
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I hate getting into the Nagito vs Kokichi argument, even though I consider Kokichi to be the supreme. They're both so high tier, and I don't have anything bad to say about Nagito. I just like Kokichi more.

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SSBM_Guy posted...

--I thought DRV3 was completely divorced from DR1 and 2! I was pretty disappointed when I got to Junko and Despair antics again. The plot twist was fine, but I guess I was kinda burnt out. It seems like a pretty logical next step after DR2's ending.

Would love to see this series come back with the same team/creators but absolutely no Monokuma/despair/teddybear nonsense. But for a huge portion of the fanbase I guess the series is all about the lore. I get that Monokuma's the mascot but maybe get a new one.

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They announced they were staffing up for a new DR last December, but I doubt Kodaka is on the team.

Get ready for Danganronpa Survive.

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I personally find Nagito more interesting than Kokichi because Kokichi comes across more as an eternal troll while Nagito is legitimately mentally unwell. His worldview makes enough sense to be vaguely understandable while also being batshit insane. Also respect how he sticks to his guns and IMMEDIATELY turns on everyone when he discovers they were Remnants of Despair and tries to murder the fuck out of them right after.

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Of the 3 villains I probably dislike Kokichi the least. I dislike all of them though

I just hate Nagito from a storytelling perspective. DR2 has a solid cast of personalities, but it's like the writers are SO in love with their creation in Nagito (giving him not only the lead role in a game where he's NOT the main character, but also a starring role in the Despair anime AND his own post-despair/pre-future epilogue anime). There is no point in DR1 where Byakuya feels like he has taken over the game (same goes for Kirigiri), aside from a reasonable one-chapter event. Same goes for Kokichi in DR3. But DR2 is just the Nagito story for FIVE. CHAPTERS.

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I kinda disagree there. Makoto is such a huge nothing for most of the game and Kyouko figures out stuff so far ahead of him she might as well have just been the protagonist because she spends most of the game just leading Makoto to the answers

Nagito definitely takes over DR2 but he's also by far the best character in DR2 so he deserves to

Also Kirigiri absolutely took over DR1

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Hajime having a brain and being able to figure things out on his own was one of the first things that got me on his hype train to start with. Makoto absolutely stumbles through DR1 by the grace of Kyouko and (to a lesser extent) Byakuya.

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There's a difference between Kokichi taking over for a couple chapters, or Kyoko being particularly plot relevant for a couple chapters, and Nagito being the focal point of the entire story for 5 out of 6 chapters (at which point the survivors are wildly irrelevant and underdeveloped as a whole...and that includes Hajime as the protagonist).

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SSBM_Guy posted...

The plot twist was fine, but I guess I was kinda burnt out

OH YES THANK YOU
At that point I just wanted the game to end
Just mashed "Enter" or whatever key it was to skip text on PC
Game was far too long

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I think 3-5 is great but I think they botched the ending. I think it sucks that Kaito just kind of gives up on the plan for no apparent reason after coming that far - I think 3-5 would have been a lot more satisfying if Kokichi and Kaito's plan WORKED, in one of two ways:

a) Everyone votes for Kokichi at the end, Monokuma confirms that it's correct and goes to execute the person in the mech, but Kaito pops out in a dramatic reveal at that moment, to the rest of the group's surprise, greatly upsetting the TV audience who realizes the game is rigged, and this makes K1-B0 go crazy instead which ushers 3-6 in a different way, with everything mostly going the same from that point.

b) The plan nearly reveals the game as a fraud, but Tsumugi is forced to take action to resolve the situation from the inside since Monokuma is unable to; Kokichi and Kaito are thwarted but ultimately score a victory in forcing Tsumugi to slip up in a way that is ultimately her grand downfall in 3-6.

I think either of these would be GREAT ways to tie 3-5 into the plot, but instead, 3-5... doesn't actually really accomplish anything, even though Kokichi and Kaito have a GENIUS plan that deserves to actually score some sort of small but decisive victory in ending Danganronpa. But it doesn't. I think that's such a huge missed opportunity.

Man I really want to replay the games to remember exactly what you people are talking about

But I sort of..don't?
The real appeal is knowing who dies and who was the killer and how..and those are not things that I will ever forget (probably?)
Though somehow I found Ace Attorney easier to replay..

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