Finished Swan Song, another frequent recommended VN. The plot is about a town in the middle of nowhere stuck with an apocalyptic earthquake and getting cutoff from the outside world (assuming that outside world still exists). A small group of people join together to try to survive the calamity.
As you can expect from how much it is recommended, it's very good. It strikes a good balance of drama and levity and has a strong theme about the nature of humans and groups. The characters we follow through the game change in believable ways. I think the least interesting character is the main character which comes off as very bland and is very detached from what is going on around him. A surprisingly good character is an autistic woman that is part of the group, who isn't the cliche Hollywood autist, but is full retard (though she is still looking way too good, though it is never stated if she was born this way or did it happen from some accident or sickness).
Another interesting thing about the game is how the game has two endings, but the "normal" one is very well made and brings the conclusions of the game's themes, while the "good" one seems to be thrown together so to have a less bittersweet conclusion. I wish the game had more bad endings or alternate scenarios.
I think why V3 does its meta well (at least in my opinion) is that, unlike something like Yiik, it is the third installment in the series, so players who stuck around can be argued to like things like the executions and inserting Junko as the real mastermind. Kinda like having a meta commentary in Saw that anyone watching part 3 probably likes the gore. This makes the final fuck you land well, and them nuking the franchise so no more sequels is a much more interesting ending than whatever samey conclusion they can do for the sixth time by now. It helps that the games always broke the fourth wall anyways.
There was a detective game that was in the spirit of Danganronpa by the same artist and company, but it was pretty mediocre.
