Saturday, February 15, 2014

~Video Games~ Danganronpa (ダンガンロンパ) 1.2 Reload review (part 1)

This is a long title I know and I'm sorry!
I changed the color theme and the background of this blog around too!! I hope you guys like it and if it absolutely bothers you, tell me!!
Also, I'm stuck in front of my TV recently since the Winter Olympics are on. I have one more Japan post to finish but I can't keep my eyes off! Am I the only one who's addicted in this kind of stuff? I loooove Patrick Chan, the Canadian figure skater, and Hanyu Yuzuru, the Japanese figure skater. The way they skate is so phenomenal I couldn't believe my eyes! Enough with my Olympics rants for now, let's get on with the game!



As the title suggests, this will be a review of the first Danganronpa game. I got this game while I was in Japan because I bought a PSVita for myself on Christmas. I was looking for good games and a lot of people recommended this game saying it was one of the best games out there. There's an original game and a sequel to it. This post will be about the original game "Danganronpa Academy of Hope and High School student of Despair" (希望の学園と絶望の高校生)



This is a game with a storyline so if you're looking for games like Super Mario, that really don't have a lot of storyline, this is not it. This game is about private high school Hope's Peak Academy (希望ヶ峰学園) which is specialized in its' students who have special talents labelled as "Super High School Level" which makes them the elites of their realms. The protagonist Naegi Makoto is, according to himself, the most ordinary guy out there but he was picked on random by the school, making him "Super High School Level Good Luck". However, his school life didn't turn out quite the way he has expected...
The antagonist of the story is a teddy bear who self-introduced himself as Monokuma, the principal of Hope's Peak Academy. He revealed to the students (strangely only 15 of them) that they will be living together in this school until the end of times. If they wanted to get out, they had to kill another fellow student (become a "kuro") without being caught by the others on the "Classroom Trial". If the "kuro" succeeds to get through the "Classroom Trial" he will be able to "graduate" while the others will face punishment. On the other hand, if the others successfully caught the "kuro", only the accused will be punished.

With a twisted storyline like this I expected a detective game like "Gyakuten Saiban" (which I'm working to beat) on Nintendo. The first few chapters I played with my heart pounding all the time because the atmosphere set by the music and the colours of the game is very scary. I always felt something was going to happen but it turns out that nothing horrifying was going to happen without any warnings. The foreshadowing in this game is absolutely brilliant I find. The storyline is full of surprises, yet at the end, everything makes sense. The graphics in the game are upgraded compared to the older versions too. There are a lot of jokes being made in the game and it lightens up the atmosphere I think! They made parodies about some other works like Detective Conan or the way Monokuma would say some things will sound like Doraemon so much!! (The reason will be revealed in a second, don't worry!)



I really loved it! The characters were all very vivid in personality and it didn't take long for me to bond with some of them. My favourites are Kirigiri Kyouko and Fujisaki Chihiro. Kirigiri was so cool and calm throughout the entire game, not to mention I think she's super pretty (girl crush!)!! Fujisaki is completely different as in she has a softer and weaker personality but she showed her strength and intelligence as well. Overall, there wasn't one character who bothered me at all because I just loved them all!
Most importantly, Monokuma being the bad antagonist of the game is extremely lovable too. The voice actress who voiced him is Oyama Nobuyo, the familiar voice of Doraemon!! That just adds so much to his cuteness I find, despite the fact that he's responsible for what's happening. I even got a teddy bear of Monokuma at a Game centre in Japan and carried him in my arms all the way to Canada. I cleared this part when I was about to leave Japan and I was so sad that it was over!

I think this game is released in English too but I'm not sure. If you can get your hands on it definitely invest in this because it's such a great game for detective novel lovers or gamers!

I will be reviewing the second part also since I cleared it recently, as well as some other games that I got in Japan (I'm a geek I know tehepero~).

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