it's been almost a year to this day that i finished this game. i really did like it a lot, but after playing the other two games, i'm not quite sure if this game holds up as well. the claustophobic setting is great, yet personally i liked the open island system of the second game more. the characters are fun, but i find myself overall liking characters from the other games more. makoto is my least favourite protagonist in the series and kyoko is a character i don't have any strong feelings for. byakuya is a great antagonist and the villain of the game is awesome as well, but gets re-used in the later games, making them less effective there but their performance in this game is iconic.

the trials in this game are nice, but while i like the ideas behind them, i don't care that much about most of the characters involved in them. the executions are good, but nothing that comes to my mind right away when thinking about DR executions, except the first one, simply because it's iconic.

i do like the ending of this game a lot. it leaves things to your imagination, but if you really want closure, you can go watch the anime. the survivors of this game are all characters i am not too attached to, except for two of them.

perhaps i would rate this game higher or lower once i replay it. but for now, this is how i feel about it