Substantial improvement over Trigger Happy Havoc in nearly every way. The cast is so endearing and lovable, and much more consistently written. Even people who I disliked or didn't care for at the beginning ending up completely changing my perspective of them. When the murders eventually start happening, it genuinely hurts to see a character you've gotten to know so well either die or be found out as the culprit - there's some real emotional gut-punches to be found that just aren't there in the prequel. The gimmicks within investigation periods are also brilliant; the separate game to find out the culprit, the funhouse, the main idea of Case 5, it all feels really experimental and it definitely paid off, every case (excluding 3) is superbly written and so damn engaging. The trials are much more involving as well; attacking with the correct piece of evidence and figuring out the culprit is actually more challenging since you don't have someone like Kyoko giving away all the hints, the addition of agreeing with someone in Nonstop Debate is also a clever addition. The Run-2/3-esque Logic Dive is fun as hell to navigate. The truth blades... kind of fucking suck and feel redundant, I would much rather just play another Nonstop Debate, and well Hangman's Gambit will just always be complete shit - but somehow they made it worse here. Really the only other aspect that THH does better in, is the setting and atmopshere. For what it's worth, Goodbye Despair is a near perfect sequel.
The cast is a downgrade from the first game. Music is also a letdown. Nagito is really cool, everything pertaining to him rocks.
Everything else feels like bloat. so many side games and minigames feel annoying to play. The post game hang-out mode is back from the first game. No thanks. Finished the Umami monobeast minigame to completion and didn't see any reward. Why is this here?
Ending stretch is verrrry silly, verrrry exhausting. I didn't hate it, but wasn't impressed either. I liked makoto better as a protagonist overall, but hajime's final moments were pretty cool.
Everything else feels like bloat. so many side games and minigames feel annoying to play. The post game hang-out mode is back from the first game. No thanks. Finished the Umami monobeast minigame to completion and didn't see any reward. Why is this here?
Ending stretch is verrrry silly, verrrry exhausting. I didn't hate it, but wasn't impressed either. I liked makoto better as a protagonist overall, but hajime's final moments were pretty cool.
This review contains spoilers
probably my fav game in the franchise.. cast is all lovable as well, i really enjoyed the whole island. made me cry really hard. ch3 was a whole mess i can say, hiyoko was just getting her development when she died. i think mikan would've been able to get away with the murder i cant lie. peko & fuyuhiko mean a lot to me. teruteru was odd but one thing i hate is how the plus-sized characters always end up being and acting odd (teruteru, hifumi, etc.) love the cast sm though
I truly think every character in this game sucks. Huge downgrade from the original game where the characters at least had tangible relationships with each other. In this game the characters merely stand in the same room and shout one-liners at each other, rendering an emotional impact from character deaths and plot revelations totally empty. Only reason I'd score it this high is because the mysteries are still more or less fun to figure out.