Okay. So. That twist. was Wild

I really liked it? I can see how it would be disappointing to some because I feel like with games, there's a lot of inherent frustration that comes with events being shown to Not Matter, or be for nothing

But I think that, even in the end loaded up with fake memories and personalities as they were, their experiences and motivations were still /real/. Honestly from what we can see from their audition tapes, in a lot of cases the fake memories made them better people (Except for people like Korekiyo, who admittedly got screwed on assumed personas)

It's not that I feel that it didn't matter bc it was weird reality TV, I feel it didn't matter bc everyone else died in the end too

so it didn't really matter who died and when

bc all along the way literally everyone was a necessary sacrifice

Also man, if you're gonna end a franchise, this is one of the most definitive "no more entries" endings you can ever ask for; a dystopian future where the DR franchise has gone on for so long that the big bad is the franchise itself and has to be destroyed

Oh; I was reading on TV Tropes

and apparently it's revealed that the three of them survived??

oh?

when were they gonna tell us

I don't know where that was; I need to do some digging because I sure don't remember that happening

all I remember is VAGUE

But the implication was that Keebo took control right before his death and gave his live to blow up the barrier so that the survivors could get out

So it does make it less of a hard bummer ending

oh yeah I guess they wouldn't suffocate to death if that was just a lie about the world outside

mhmm; it was just a TV set, so they should be safe out there

But yeah, with Shuichi and co. surviving, it does redeem the message of "Fiction can change the world" a lot, because they get to take the personal growth that they underwent with them

UM

hm?

"Kokichi/Himiko was popular pre-release because those two were the youngest looking characters in the game. Post-release, it has largely since been dropped in favor of Shuichi/Kokichi and Himiko/Tenko, the former of which is canon on Kokichi's part, and the latter is canon on Tenko's part. For an added punch, Himiko was revealed to actually-"

SINCE WHEN IS KOKICHI ACTUALLY ROMANTICALLY HOT FOR SHUICHI

???

TV Tropes

I saw that on the tropes page but it's still "where the heck did that come from"

I mean it's true he wanted Shuichi to back him up but I thought that was more from a crazypants standpoint or maybe just some kind of desperation for someone anyone to support him

upon realizing that everyone hates him

Although I can't believe he was the ringleader of CLOWNS

Kokichi was SHSL Juggalo

But man, I talked about it above, but that's one of the things that stung

Like Kaito getting a terminal illness for The Drama was one thing

but whoever Korekiyo was was turned into a grotesque serial killer, and Kokichi was turned into a manipulative ringleader

But I guess they also signed up for the game but /shrug.

Speaking of which I honestly have to wonder how accurate Tsumugi's retelling of their arrival at the school was?

Like; the pre-prologue showed them straight up being kidnapped, not being overjoyed that they made the cut

Another thought: All of the parts of the game that seem super extra make crippling amounts of sense after the reveal that this is Danganronpa 53

Monobear having a gaggle of mascot cubs? too many sequels, running out of ideas. The killing game being on a colony ship after the end of the world? Too many sequels, running out of ideas

(I don't know why my instinct is to call him Monobear, he's Monokuma even in the dub)

ALSO with the twist Shuichi's files in his lab make total sense

There are 52 files depicting murders; the first ones being drawings the last being photographs

They're series recaps of the entire Danganronpa franchise

(Oh another sequel fatigue red herring: the mastermind being Kaede's hidden twin SCREAMS too many sequels, running out of ideas)

Also frickin. I get why they had to wrap up the Hope's Peak arc with the anime now

Because DRv3 doesn't even happen in universe

But honestly I think part of the reason why I dug the ending so much was because I really like works of fiction where characters suddenly become aware of the audience

And they pulled off punching the player for wanting to watch their favorite characters suffer in a way that didn't feel forced or preachy, and that was neat

that's probably why there were so many copycat cases in general honestly

I...don't...want to watch my favorite characters suffer though

I want the characters I don't care about to die for their manpain ((((8

honestly I don't know why I play DR games they hurt me a lot

I mean, I definitely want the characters not to suffer and have a happy ending despite it all, but the game also punches players for that as well

man I just thought that cosplaying anyone from the DRv3 cast has weird connotations now lmao

ain't gonna stop me though

(Also, by beating the game we unlocked a mode where you play a board game where the casts of all three games interact)

(So we got Persona Q by way of mario party)

Also. I can't believe I can say my favorite Shin Megami Tensei game is Shin Danganronpa 7

But yeah, the game gets here sort of with the "Fiction changes reality" message of the game, but more emphasis could have been put on the fact that even though their memories were fake, their experiences were real and they changed for the better because of them

Kaito may have been put there to be the tragic team glue character but it doesn't make how he changed Maki and Shuichi's lives any less real either

...WHOOPS. Apparently we didn't see the whole ending

because after the credits the game boots you to the main menu

where you actually have to "Press Any Button" as if you're going back into the options and the real post-credits scene will just play

okay so they did actually do a good wrap-up on the game's themes, cool

but ??? Maybe it's just 'cause I don't have the muscle memory to be suspicious fake endings on console games like I do on PC but why would I doubt that returning us to the main menu after the credits would be anything but the real deal

yeah wtf mate

YEAH like I find it hard to believe everyone just figured it out??? I couldn't even find anyone talking about how to see the scene online and the internet isn't known for not asking obvious questions

I never would have known how to do it if I didn't just watch some guy's youtube video of the ending where he accesses it as so

And like yeah, Undertale did something similar, but that scene with Flowey was just him calling you out on restarting the game, which presumably you were doing already if you were going back into the main menu after beating the game

no friend I was going to bed it was 2am

yeah I was too tired to go digging for the hidden ending lmao

but yeah after sitting on his character and looking at it retroactively

I like Kokichi a lot more than I thought I did

While him being a big shit disturber made people understandably hate him, he did keep his eye on the ball, was always trying to smoke out the mastermind when pretty much everyone gave up on the possibility that they were among them after case 1, was understandably frustrated that everyone kept playing the Killing Game out directly with Monokuma's wishes

And only really orchestrated a murder /after/ he realized that someone had made an elaborate death trap specifically for him

and like, aside from being generally caustic most of his lies up to his Total Despair Horizon after case 4 generally served some kind of purpose