First I'll get this out of the way, while this game is technically a remake I would argue it feels more like a glorified remaster, I don't really consider price when scoring but I wouldn't disagree if someone said it was too expensive.

Positives:
Story: The story in this game stands pretty strong imo, I wouldn't say it's one of the best in the series but it doesn't really do much wrong, so all around pretty enjoyable, if I had one complaint it would be that they're too quick to kill some characters before we even get to fight them.

Minigames: As is pretty much always the case the minigames in this one are pretty strong, obviously no arcade this time due to the time period it's set in but that's fine by me, One of the best lineups as far as Karaoke goes too due to implementing some of the other characters too, easily top 4 lineups. Buyo dance is cool and unique and there's also is the courtesan games though I've yet to touch those so can't speak on them.

Fighting Style - Wild Gunner: This is probably the best fighting style in this game as far as uniqueness goes since as far as I'm aware you can't wield a gun and sword together in any other game, ironically I didn't end up using this one super often though.

Fighting Style - Swordsman: Wielding a sword is obviously nothing new in these games, but they do at least add enough cool stuff to it to make it play a lot more unique than just the usual weapon since it is a full fighting style in this game.

Mixed:
Substories: This might be a bit shocking that I'm putting this down here but let me explain, yes there is plenty of good substories in this game, but they definetely aren't to the same level as some of the previous games, but still I'd say they were still overall good this game, but there is one big caviat... Friendship events, these are complete trash in my opinion, they really don't have much story to them and mostly just involve doing the same thing ad nauseum. There's over 40 of these piles of crap, granted not all of them are but about half are, which ends up taking up around ⅓ of the substories.

Trooper System & Battle Dungeons: These can be fun at times but Ultimately I don't like how they bleed a bit into the main story with some of the bosses movements, I tried not to use any of these besides healing myself for story bosses but when stuff like the shogun shooting a Kamehameha from his fingers comes along it gets a bit too silly for main story. Battle Dungeons are fine once, there is 40 of them and it does take a while to do all of them but I don't mind too much, however if you need a specific material from one of these it can be a massive pain in the ass trying to grind for it, for example for one of the skill books I needed a
5 carved bear statues, and it took around 15-20 repeats of a mission just to get them.

Fighting Style - Gunman: There's some cool stuff here as far as heat actions and ammo goes whixh I believe to be unique to this game (unless it's in Dead Souls, haven't played that yet.) But tbh most of the time you'll just be mashing square in his this style, it's effective but ultimately the style feels pretty boring.

Negatives:
Friendships: Yes I'm putting this here again, that's just how boring I find these things to be, I won't say they're all complete shit but there's maybe five tops that are interesting, only including this seperate since only around half of them are substories.

Fighting Style - Brawler: Holy crap is this style ass, insanely low damage since your attack is determined by your weapon mainly and this style doesn't have one besides the scarce few you can pick up in fights, overall it just feels like a neutered version of the Brawler style in 0, there are a couple weapons you can get other than the swords and guns for the other fighting styles but they don't really count as part of this, and I only really found myself using them to see the heat actions anyway as they are very limited in their combos are really are much weaker than the best swords or guns.

Can't help but feel a little dissatisfied, the prologue & chapter 1 set a tone that hooks you in but doesn't really stick around.

Regardless I enjoyed majority of the game, with 2 exceptions. 1. The ending felt rushed and a certain character felt very unutilised and underdeveloped considering their role. Prior to the "cleansing" I felt the narrative was at a much stronger point. 2. Choices in this game really don't matter, sure there is a couple bad endings but overall the branching timeline doesn't really benefit the story in any major way. It could be argued the prologue sets you up for that fact but ultimately I don't see any reason to have them.

Now I always tend to ramble on the negatives so a few positives to close this out.

The soundtrack (and sound design) while I believe quite small is pretty good, no complaints there. Likewise with the character sprites, and environments, the art in this game is quite gorgeous. Lastly the characters in this game are a lot of fun, minus the one I was referring to earlier, who I won't name to avoid big spoilers. The biggest standouts for me are Erio, Yakko, Richter and Tsutsumi

While still simple the story and characters are a step above the first game however when it comes to the gameplay it's a bit more mixed. Characters grow based on actions not exp which can leave it to rng a good bit of the time, however other than for a couple achievements I didn't really need to worry about grinding so I won't harp on it too much, weapon and magic levels also feel kind of pointless and take a lot of grinding so there's no drive to use much outside the basic elements and healing due to the commitment to making them good in end game, so while there's some steps in the right direction there was just as many in the wrong one, but overall I liked this more than the first game.

Oh boy where to start? Narratively I have no real issues with this game which I didn't expect, that isn't to say I was expecting the game to be bad but there was never a moment (story-wise) I felt the game faltered, there's a few things I could nitpick I suppose but nothing I believe worthy to be brought up.

I'm not going to go into any spoilers, but this game excels best in its absolute hype, the eikon battles in this game are absolutely insane, the hype levels they bring are almost unmatched, there aren't many fights in games I can recall that manage to give the adrenaline rush of hype like some of the bosses in this game can.

Characters in this game are also pretty good, I won't say they're the best in the franchise but still quite good, personal favorites of mine being Dion, Cid and Clive. Antagonists aren't quite as good tbh, Barnabas is fine but he doesn't hit at a level beyond just being a decent villain, he's no Sephiroth that's for certain. And the other main antagonist who I won't name for spoiler reasons is kind of the usual fair for jrpg's, if you know you know but there's nothing overly unique about them.

This brings me to my next point, which is what I would say is the weakest part of the game, it's RPG elements. For a series so heavily rooted in jrpg history it is a bit odd how bare bones they feel in this game, party members in this game aren't much of anything, you can't interact with them in anyway, whether that be controlling then it even customising moved or equipment, none of that is present here. The magic system in this game is non-existent only visual, there's no element affinity, no variation in spells and it's kind of just tacked on in a lot of ways, and lastly the crafting system, as basic as it gets, there's no real variation in what you're making, it's always just something with higher stats, no special effects on them, no reason to make anything other than just the highest strength thing there. It's also pretty easy, I have yet to try the New Game+ hard difficulty but from the normal playthrough there wasn't a boss, story or optional that managed to kill me more than 3 times tops, and sure I probably could have taken on a few of the S-rank hunts at a lower level of I really wanted to, but that would only make the enemies damage sponges, which would just be more tedious than hard really.

Now that's enough of the negatives, as you can see by my score I absolutely loved this game, great story, great cast and which I've criminally yet to mention the soundtrack goes crazy hard. But to end it off I'm going to talk about the side quests, in the beginning I was ready to write these off as shit, because the early quests they give you I will stand by are exactly that which is a shame because structuring it like this is likely to turn a decent amount of people off from interacting with the side content in this game when there is some genuinely great stuff especially towards the end of the game. It doesn't reach the platinum standard of side content in games like Yakuza 0, Lost Judgement and Xenoblade Chronicles 3 but despite some early stinkers I so think the side content in this game ended up being surprisingly good.


I still haven't finished a lot of the games in this franchise so it is hard for me to compare, having only fully finished the first 3 games as far as numbered entries go but I'll still give my thoughts here anyway. This game is very different from any other Final Fantasy title, even more so than XV or VII Remake, so I can see where there could and from what I've seen definitely is, a disconnect from part of the fanbase and that's fair. Me however? I like this more than the first 3 games in the series, by a long shot, and while I never finished or even played much of them I like this more than either XIII or XV as well, as for the one most people will probably compare this with, VII Remake I don't like it quite as much but it is a lot closer than expected, and I actually think this game does a lot less things wrong than that game does.

So far this game is definitely the top contender for my GOTY, more so than Ishin or despite me having yet to finish it, TotK as well, that's not to say it will go unchallenged however, I expect Spider-Man 2 to at least give it a good run for its money.

Played it co-op

The first souls game I've finished, I have dipped my toes very briefly into II and Bloodborne but not enough to say I've really played them. There's some clunkyness and signs of a lazy port for sure but overall it's definitely a fun time to be had, and I'm glad to have seen it through to the end.

I'm sure some will say it removes a lot of the challenge to play with someone else but I don't really care, I was more interested in playing with a friend than tryharding and caring about the difficulty.

I'll try my best not to spoil here but there might be a few minor things, I just have a lot of thoughts to get off my chest about this game.

I will be making the comparisons to Danganronpa (obviously).

First let's start with the characters, now at the time of writing I have not completed all of the Gumshoe Gabs (Free time events) but I feel like I shouldn't have to in order to form an opinion, yes it likely will give further in sight on the characters much like it did in Danganronpa but the story should be able to hold its own without these especially since they are missable. Anyway as far as the other Master Detective's go I'd say I like all of them to a degree. Vivia and Halara are definitely the standouts for me but Fubuki is still fun and Desuhiko while he can be very cringe at times he still has his moments and ends up being a nice bro to Yuma. I'll get more into them when I talk about the individual chapters but let's quickly go over the others. Yakou our mentor type character is pretty good, but I feel like he was a bit underutilized, not being a master detective I get that coalescence wouldn't work on him since he's not a master detective but I would've liked it he still could've been involved in some of the investigations even if bringing him into the mystery labyrinth was a no go. Makoto I can't really get into since his whole character is a minefield of spoilers but I think he is also a pretty good character, lots of nice set up with his character that they definitely delivered on. Now for the Peacekeepers, I do not find any of them to be all that interesting if I'm being honest, outside of Yomi I feel none of them have much of a presence since they have such minor roles in each chapter, yes they do reappear in the form of mystery phantoms in the labyrinth but I still felt they remained very one-note and were more so just obstacles in there than unique characters. Even Yomi I didn't particularly find all that compelling, I can understand his frustrations due to some elements of the twist at the end but I'm not sure what his ultimate goal even really was as most of what he aimed for I feel would have only worked against him. Shinigami I surprisingly ended up liking, I thought she would annoy the hell out of me at the start of the game and while there was a few moments she did get on my nerves I think her inclusion was definitely for the better in the end. As for Yuma himself? I do think he's a good protagonist, and watching him grow throughout the game I was definitely happy with where he ended up character wise, I'm curious how much will carry over into a sequel thanks to some things in the end but overall a pretty good protagonist despite some tropes I usually aren't fond of.

Soundtrack was just alright tbh, not bad but compared to some of the Danganronpa games it was on the weaker side, and it still very much resembles them without finding an identity of its own, I'm sure if I go back through there was some bangers in there but it definitely isn't on the same level as any of the Danganronpa soundtracks imo.


Now for the elephant in the room, the Mystery Labyrinths, most people who are playing this game I'm sure will be Danganronpa fans, maybe there'll be a few people who just pick this up on a whim but the majority I'm sure will be DR fans, and as such I'm sure many players will feel that the Mystery Labyrinths are kind of neutered compared to the class trials, yes it is a fact that they aren't one-to-one the exact same thing but the similarities will not be lost on anyone and while I feel like some of the minigames were improved upon my main complaint on this front is with what is usually the crux of the trials, the non-stop debate which here is replaced with the reasoning deathmatch which really doesn't hit the same, I feel it flows much more awkwardly due to how short they can be (with the exception of the final section of the game, that one was pretty strong) and the fact that they are mostly 1-on-1 back and forths between you and the phantoms as opposed to the group discussions that are present in a Danganronpa game. As such Mystery Labyrinths do not feel as strongly put together as a Class Trial but they aren't bad either. I assume a sequel will likely see them return but if they do I hope they'll improve on them in some ways though I'm not entirely sure what could be done to do so.

Next up I just want to quickly mention the side quests before I jump into the meat of things, these are almost entirely boring. I don't hate them but I didn't feel much from the majority of them, with maybe a quarter at most being enjoyable, namely the ones that did bring in characters from the previous chapters so you could see how they were doing post-case.

Now the chapters, I am going to be vague on some things to avoid spoilers but I'll try to give some quick thoughts.

Chapter 0: This in my opinion is the 2nd weakest chapter in the game, not because it's necessarily bad but probably because of just how bare bones it can feel due to it being the tutorial case. It starts off with something surprising that will probably catch a lot of players off guard which I can respect and while it does cut off some potential I wouldn't really trade what was lost for any of what we got.

Chapter 1: I'd say this is the weakest chapter, but it's also kind of a weird one, part of my disinterest definitely lies in the weird decision to not give any of the characters in this chapter names, the child Yuma takes the case from? He's just simply called 'Boy', the people at the church? 'Priest', 'Servant', 'Nun' and 'Worshipper'. I cannot fathom why this decision was made and it did give me a unnecessary worry that maybe the whole game would be this way, which was definitely not a strong look after a decent enough chapter 0. The mystery itself was interesting though it was hard to get attached to any of the characters here partially due to their lack of names, Seth (the peacekeeper or main antagonist for this chapter) I feel was just kind of there, he was just an obstacle to cut us off for plots sake and while he has a few quirks to his character that make him unique he lacks any real depth, Halara on the other hand is pretty great, it's cool having a non-binary character, and it doesn't feel like they're here just to tick off a checkbox either. Though obviously that alone wouldn't make them a compelling character, while it's easy to say Halara comes off as rude with how hands off they can be with things and the way they're always pushing Yuma to figure things they already knew themself there reasoning for doing I feel does hold weight, Yuma as a trainee who wants to become a real detective should be able to do things himself since there won't always be someone around to hold his hand (pun intended).

Chapter 2: I'd give this chapter a solid third place even though it has my least favourite companion in the game being Desuhiko, the main reason being I feel this case packs an emotional punch that chapters 0, 1 and 3 lack, once again no spoilers but this is the first chapter where Yuma's resolve is tested and he has to reevaluate whether what he's doing is truly right, the peacekeeper for this chapter is Martina, Yomi's "right hand", it felt early for what the previous chapter built her up to be but I suppose their wasn't much space to fit her in with a different chapter, she is a bit more compelling than Seth but still nothing special. As for Desuhiko he's in a bit of a weird spot, he fills a character archetype I have never been fond of, being the wannabee ladies man, I'm not sure how old he's supposed to be either but I will give the benefit of the doubt that he is around high school age since his design makes it a little unclear. His necessity to hit on every woman he sees is definitely grating at times but he does thankfully have some redeeming qualities, both in coming in useful for the investigation as well being quite the homie for Yuma a lot of the time. This chapter also introduces Kurumi, I suppose she could be considered the main assistant character of this game, she has a nice little build up through the game though she's far from the same level as any of the deuteroganists in the Danganronpa games.

Chapter 3: I'd give this one I firm 4th place, above chapter 0 but not as strong as Chapter 2 and that mainly lies in the weak motive I feel the culprit here had compared to any of the others, it's no secret that Danganronpa has a problem with third cases, most people would probably name them as the weakest cases in all the mainline games, and while it isn't wholly true here, it still has a lot of the same issues here, this chapter has the peacekeeper I would probably consider to be the "most fun" out of their ranks, Guillaume still isn't a particularly deep character but I do at least find her fun compared to the other antagonists. Fubuki falls into kind of the same boat. (Pun intended again) She is fun, and personality wise she isn't as grating as Desuhiko can be at times but she kind of holds Yuma back when it comes to the investigation and while this was definitely intentional for her character arc I'm not sure she really sees a conclusion where she overcomes this fact.

Chapter 4: Woo boy, this is where the game stops playing around, once you knock the remaining side-quests (or ignore them I guess if you don't care to do them) the story really ramps up without taking the time to brake and I'd say it's only for the better. It's hard for me to say whether I prefer this over the final case of the game or not but this definitely takes the spot of the most emotional case in the game. Vivia also makes a good foil to Yuma and hits what I feel the main theme of this game is, Truth vs. Happiness, this is something that also takes the conundrum from the end of chapter 2 to a whole other level, by adding a personal element for Yuma that wasn't present there, I'd say this also helps to make Vivia the most interesting companion character in this game, Halara comes close but I feel him having a much stronger chapter that he gets to shine in gives him that edge. The one thing I will put against this game here that might stick out for some people is that the main cast don't interact all too much which can hurt the believeability of their bond a bit, as most of their interactions are solely with Yuma, I know it would harm the flow of the story of you stopped to have these but it could have been remedied by having some free time events between the other characters rather than just Yuma, something akin to what you'd see in a Fire Emblem game. Sure I did argue that this shouldn't be a necessity and I'd still say it isn't, but choosing to skip them is also a choice, so you can't really blame the game if you were to skip out on something like them.

Now for the grand finale, Chapter 5: This has some pretty great twists, I had by theories surrounding what the game was trying to pull but I was definitely thrown for a loop when it was revealed that what I thought was the case was in fact the exact opposite of what the reality was, I won't elaborate any further as I believe it's best experienced blind and it even has a pretty great meta twist that I thought was just brilliant, much better than the twist I know was quite divisive from v3, and I'd say overall I think Danganronpa 2 is the only DR game I thought actually had a better ending than Rain Code's.

I will be looking forward to whatever comes next from Kodaka going forward, the ending does give me hopes for a sequel in the future, I'm not sure if they would bring back any of the Master Detective's from this game or not, but either way I'm game for whatever is planned next if this does in fact become a series. It definitely isn't as good as 2 or V3 but I would put this on the same tier as Danganronpa 1 (and better than UDG but yeah...)

And thus a legend was born...

Beyond even the first two games in the franchise DQ3 is a game that RPGs as a whole owe a lot to and I certainly have respect for it, on top of that it holds up a lot better than the previous two installments and overall I did enjoy it.

Story wise however this game is still just as simple, but I do like that it ties back to the original duology and brings a nice conclusion to the Erdrick saga.

I didn't bother with the postgame because it just seems like an absolute grind, one I haven't got time to be wasting on. I will revisit it when the HD remake release but until then I bid goodbye to this trilogy.