I'd probably like this game as much as any of the Danganronpa games if they had just cut out Chapter 3. Not because it's a bad case or anything; if anything, I think that it compliments the story by highlighting that even the resistance group that's ostensibly trying to improve the conditions of Kanai Ward isn't immune to the desperate want to escape it entirely and abandon their purpose. However, it's just that, more of a complimentary piece, as opposed to a key part of the story. The prologue and Chapter 1 are your standard set-up and tutorial case. Chapter 2 is your first proper case that has a solid emotional pay-off. Chapters 4 and 5 are your usual Kodaka Firing On All Cylinders closers. And then Chapter 3 is just kinda there and a bizarre lull in the difficulty curve. Like as soon as find out one specific clue during the investigation, the whole thing becomes an absolute cake walk. I'd argue that every case from that point on suffers from that same problem, but they at least have Kodaka being back on his bullshit throughout the course of them. Despite definitely having a lot of Danganronpa in it's DNA, I appreciate that Kodaka seems to be going more the path of the show he did scenario writing on before this, Akudama Drive. By finally slipping out of the realm of killing games, he's allowed himself to actually do world-building and explore his bread-and-butter themes in greater depth. It's one of those "there's a lot of potential here and I hope he gets to do another" kind of projects.

Reviewed on Jul 23, 2023


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