I'm not totally sure where I stand with this game. Overall, I liked it. I think my main feeling is that the game is too long, but also doesn't give enough opportunity for seeing enough daily life events. The first game was pretty slow to give out hints about what is happening, but it still gave them out more often, and also the game was a few hours shorter. This one, in comparison, feels like it takes FUCKING FOREVER to go anywhere. Every fucking time something is about to happen CHUDokuma shows up to say 'nothing ever happens' and then someone else besides Hajime gets a big reveal, or he just takes a clue away. It is so grating how often this happens. Again, I wouldn't care so much if I could at least get through a larger portion of the daily life events, but as it stands, I feel the game strings you along on actual plot details for FAR too long while not giving the slice of life elements adequate room to breath. The first game also felt like this to a degree, but this game they doubled down on it. I know new game plus or chapter select or whatever is supposed to give you unlimited free time, but why not just give you more time to see that content during the main game instead of essentially forcing it to be bonus content? The characters are a huge part of the appeal for this series, so I just wish they'd have more time to let me see it in the main because I kind of lose interest afterward since everyone is dead. It especially would have fit the tropical vacation setting to have more interaction time.
Speaking of characters, again I would call it a mixed bag. Its probably due to the fact I didn't get very far with several of them (I think I actually had 0 interactions with TANAKA GUNDHAMU). I did manage to unlock the secret scene with Nekomaru and Akane, which is how I learned that secret scenes existed. Anyway, my predictions from my last post were totally BTFOD. I still think the prediction about someone killing Gundham's hamsters and framing Hiyoko because she kills ants would have been a cool case, although I did get the framing Hiyoko part right. Teru I was pleasantly surprised to see kicked out first. I get tired of these kinds of characters very quickly, and I was shocked to see they killed him right out of the gate instead of making him hang on for the entire game and force you to imagine a version of the story where he isn't ruining every scene with stupid sex jokes/harassment. Fake Byakuya I have no opinion on, other than I can't believe they went with 'basically twins' again. What about are you supposed to say about a guy with no name or characteristics? I didn't think Mahiru would go out so early, and not with that kind of backstory, and I definitely didn't think she would get killed by someone barely related to the arcade game. Its a shame she went out so early, because she was refreshingly normal among all of these people and I didn't get to the end of her events. Peko I guess was kind of alright, but when they drop the secret on you it makes it hard for me to care because the version of Peko that gets executed has basically nothing to do with the one that we had known up to that point. Speaking of which, my least favorite chapter by a margin, chapter 3. The reason I really didn't like this chapter was due to the final 15 min or so with Mikan. I'm just going to skip over her and Hiyoko for now. Ibuki was the best character, and the solo concert was absolutely hilarious. She had a cute accent and deserved to make it to the end. Total Enoshitter death for leaving Ibuki probably a vegetable. It was weird how she had so many more cgs than everyone else, but you kind of have to in order to sell such a hyper and expressive character. That fucking pinnochio/tengu nose cg is the greatest thing ever, I laughed every time I saw it.
Nekomaru was pretty great, GUNDHAMU I didn't have much opinion on because I never got around to his daily life events. The chuunibyou act got old, that archetype only really works if they have moments where it drops. I'm guessing that is what the daily life events have, but again, I didn't see them. It was pretty funny that he was flustered every time he got complimented by Sonia. Nagito was fucking insufferable throughout the entire game, a few times I literally just saved and quit when he started going on and on. I told myself I wouldn't be baited by Chiaki because she was clearly designed in a lab to appeal to gamers (A cute, kind of autistic girl voiced by Hana Kanazawa, insert that gif of heisenburg with the flasks and the dropper), but what can I say, she was also great. I'm still not clear on what exactly she was. An AI I guess, but what relation to Chihiro/Alter ego? Is Chiaki what he wanted to look like before he decided to avoid trooning out? Anyway, I guess its cool Akane made it to the end? She didn't do that much throughout the whole game except get nekomaru killed twice (if he wasn't a robot he might not have been killed in the fun house). I wonder if someone on the dev team has a type, cause that's now twice in a row that the tan and ultra athletic but somehow still super curvy girl survives. I'm not complaining though. Fuyuhiko made it to the end despite my prediction, and he was pretty cool. He was the only one that really had any kind of arc or anything, which pretty much makes him default towards the top of the tier list. Kazuichi was alright I guess. I liked Sonia, the contrast between refined princess and occult nerd + weeb was pretty fun.
The setting was a sidegrade. I liked that the school in the first game was all 1 building that you could actually explore and all connected together. I don't like the island navigation as much, which is basically just a menu. It is obvious why navigation had to be changed though, because exploring the island in full first person like you do in the first game would not have worked. The actual setting though is pretty great, although I didn't really care much for islands 4 or 5. The cases I think were more interesting due to the variety of locations, whereas the school was somewhat limited in what could go on. Case 1 was pretty cool, and I really liked 2. 3 I liked all the way up to the very end where I suddenly hated it. 4 was interesting. The case itself was pretty elaborate and exciting, but I didn't really like the forced nature of it. Its just lame to throw people in a box until they starve or kill. I liked that up until that case, every kill had been because someone decided to do it, instead of "AAAAA THEY'RE KILLING EACH OTHER BECAUSE I'VE LEFT THEM LITERALLY NO OTHER OPTION AAAAAA". Its just lame. It was kind of funny how they are all on death's door after only 3 days without food. I guess they had water, because food was the complaint. Also, why didn't Nekomaru check if anyone was still sleeping when we got up for tai chi? Its almost like he didn't check on anyone cause the whole kill was riding on the Ultimate Team Manager not checking if anyone was late to training. Curious. Case 5... I don't really know. Its so ridiculous that all you can do is just roll your eyes. In fact it was yoooooooou that was the blackened, killa child! I think having a case where the killer did it without even knowing is worthwhile to have in the story for some variety, its just a little insane how it turned out in the final game.
The chapter 3 case, mainly the end, is where the cracks start to show for me, which ties into the ending. When you just replace the Mikan we knew the whole game with, a totally new and unrelated character that gets executed instead, the only response is: who cares? This character got done so dirty. I liked Mikan, and I had hoped that there would be some way to help her build self confidence and resilience. Its weird how people never tell Hiyoko to just shut the fuck up and stop bullying her. It got old quick and every time it happened I wanted the game to give me a chance to stop it, but I guess she was destined to be the butt monkey for the whole game. The fanservice slipping scenes... literally what the fuck? I almost died from cringe, though I guess its kind of cool that case 1 sees Teru discovered because of it? Then after she gets bullied the whole game, she finally gets a chance to shine by taking care of the sick, before being replaced by a completely different character that doesn't even care about dying. Also a fan service shot in the execution for good measure. What the fuck was the point of this character? I have no clue what they were thinking, and I wish she had survived to the end because she needed that ending. Could have cut Kyoko to make sure Mikan wouldn't have upset the numbers. I liked Mikan, and her treatment had me steaming, especially her ending.
I think that just leaves Hiyoko, which oh boy. The creepy shrine scene was great, and showed that the character had some potential. Too bad we barely saw any of it. Its impossible to talk about her without talking about the final trial and the actual plot of the game. My prediction that the island was a simulation was right, but I'd lost confidence until it finally goes off the rails. I'm a sucker for games where its mostly normal, until the end where it just goes crazy with interface manipulation and stuff. I think its lame that none of the other characters ever mention seeing the clones or leftover data or whatever the fuck the dead people showing up in the final chapter are. I don't know what I'm supposed to make of that. I'm annoyed it takes so long to actually get to the reveals, because most of them are pretty obvious. I had a feeling the game was in a simulation from the first 5 minutes, I pretty much figured out during the final level that actually the students were the bad guys and that makoto went against orders to save them. I guess its alright they have Junko-ai as the 'final boss', because its really the only thing that would make sense. If they tried to introduce a new character, it would have just been a disciple of Junko anyway, so why not bring back the real thing. So Makoto's master plan fails because they get usb hacked like a bunch of boomers. The whole plot fell apart for me at this point. The main cast is supposedly some of the worst criminals ever, but we don't see any of that because we now have technology that can just reformat a person's entire personality and identity. Cool. Its bullshit and I hate it. We have no knowledge of what anyone did before the game, so who cares? "THEY DID CRIMES AAAAA". The game wants us to want to see them redeemed or something, but we have no idea what anyone did before the game that was so bad, why they did it, or what the summer vacation simulation really means to them as a result. All we get is being told they did 'the worst crimes'. I also thought the 'you die in the game you die in real life' stuff was bullshit. When they finally confirmed it was a sim after the 5th trial, I thought that meant we could actually save people, but then a random hallway conversation with Sonia mentions nocebo, and I just rolled my eyes. Got to invent stakes I guess. Also, how does nocebo interact with the despair disease? I feel like trying to make sense of the despair disease and how it would interact with the physical bodies in the pods is a fool's errand. I'm also not totally sold on the end of the game relying so heavily on the main cast from the first one returning, just feels like it undercuts the new guys. Which the game points out by even calling the returning characters the main cast, but just because you lampshade it doesn't automatically make it a great thing (i was pretending to be retarded). The way I had understood the simulation was that it was basically soma, and that the people who woke up at the end had never been on the summer trip. I guess not though, since apparently the survivors managed to keep their memories. Its cool that that happened, even if I don't really get how. Also Ibuki still has a nonzero chance of reviving, which is the most important thing.
I forgot to mention Usami, which might be on brand. At first I liked the character, and the japanese voice is hilarious. I got really tired of her for the same reason as monokuma, which is they both just keeping showing up to stop the plot from going anywhere. Its every fucking time, I want to know things, Hinata wants to know things, but did you forget to ask Usami/Monokuma? At least she finally gets to do something at the end by defeating Junko-ai, and it was a nice detail that it looked simliar to the monokuma beast mode. I also forgot they did that traitor plot line again, which I still didn't care about this time either for the same reason. They never tell us what effects the traitor giving information has on the survivors, which was the same reason it was a pointless plot in the first game. Also the trial gamplay was complete aids, so I just dropped it to the easiest mode. That sword minigame in the second trial was where I tapped out. I wish they focused on expanding the pink dialogue trees from the first game, rather than cutting that in favor of adding new minigames. I hated reworked hangman and panic time, and everything related to swords. I tolerated logic dive. A minor detail I forgot to mention about the first game that I really liked was that everyone who gets executed has the pixel art of them being dragged of by monokuma, except for junko who walks with him normally. Its an incredibly minor thing, but I really liked it. One more thing was the pet system. I don't really know what this was for, I raised one. Max hope, no despair. I was actually a little sad to see the thing fly out the door at the end because I had checked up on it so many times over the roughly 25 hour playthrough. I cared more about my stupid little pixel usami pet then I did about half the cast.
Some more random stuff, what happened to the rule about property damage? Why was Ibuki allowed to break the lock to Hinata's cottage with no consequences? Why was it not fixed, allowing Mikan to wander in and sleep over? I guess Nagtio exploding a fucking bomb in the hotel lobby doesn't count as property damage or littering?
Despite the complaining, I did the like the game for the most part. I think that the games are not long enough to support having such a massive cast, even if most of them get killed off. I like the slife of life visual novel stuff with a cast of interesting characters, the individual trials are fun even if I only tolerate the gameplay, and the overarching plot just loses me due to relying too much on memory loss and adjacent conveniences. I got very tired of how often the game takes a character you know and swaps them for someone totally different. Its hard for me to figure out which one I liked more. 1 felt like there was always something progressing, which I really appreciated. I like more of the characers in 2, but the main plot is just such a drag and I didn't like how it handled a lot of the characters. I'm very interested in the remake, which apparently has the same characers but a different set of kills and who knows what else. I doubt many of the things I complained about will be changed, but that's still not a big enough deal to make me skip it.
? Why is chiaki just chihiro that actually became a woman? I can't tell what is just the character designer just having a style, and what is intentionally misleading. There is no fucking way that Nagito isn't Naegi. Then again, if Byaku is the same, then maybe they are different.