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I beat Touhou Kikeijuu ~ Wily Beast and Weakest Creature, 1 Credit Clear (i.e. "for real") on Lunatic (i.e. the hardest difficulty).
Gosh that was intense, I was low on resources for half of the game and at one crucial point halfway through the final boss was a couple pixels away from failure with no resources to survive if anything went wrong. It was after that that I started feeling like I could actually make it.
So that's one of the few games I've managed to 1CC on Lunatic. It's considered the easiest and I gotta agree, but still.
Wolf!Reimu is the best.
I don't think I've ever played any game in 1-Hit mode aside from Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, and I found even that extremely taxing.
There's a game I played around the same time (2012/3) that was sort of like Toki to Towa in terms of artstyle, but I can't put my finger on it...
Wasn't my typical character. I usually play as High Elf or Orc paladin, sometimes a monk, but this time I chose a HE barbarian, quite by accident as I got the idea only through accidentally hitting the wrong key. Anyways, I got a bit lucky several times, although it might have been the character's Luck trait that left it with 1 hp instead of dead.
Ran through small cave up to the High Mountain Village, then did puppy quest for xp and carpenter's for that sweet Healing. Lucked onto a few wishes, but they mostly went towards scrolls of chaos resistance. Also, turned out my barb did pretty well as a writer, used magical writing sets to produce like half of all that I used during the game.
Visited the ghost librarian just for the scrolls of chaos resistance as a quest reward, but still looted the library. Made a bit of a collection.
The worst part was that I ran into a greater vault full of emperor
bitchesliches. Bastards summoned all manner of stuff and drained my stats while healing themselves. After two failed attempts I decided to just move past them, clear the dungeon below, then come back with a slaying weapon. See, I did the Blup's mom quest, but had to wait till lvl 36 to get that sweet trident. With it in my hands, there was no mercy for them boney fuckers. For my stats too, had them drained anyway.Actually generated a few artifacts more than I expected, by virtue of not noticing some. Not good ones, though, so no pain.
Did the unicorn quest a bit before the final descent because the corruptions were amassing. Closed the Chaos Gate using wands of digging to get around the majority of monsters, killed the shit out of balors when they reappeared to pull back the levers, then blocked the levers with doors and summoned creatures and left. Since the unicorn was expended and I didn't feel like loitering around for who-knows-how-long in hopes of getting corruption removal, I finished the game then.
Well, here's the survey, and my responses.
2D platformers and JRPGs
I bought no games on Steam, because Valve screwed up the Steam Library UI in a recent major update, and I plan on buying no more than one small purchase every half-year on Steam (only because doing so gives me access to the Community Market). The new UI is usable but only with significantly more hassle than before. I've been planning on gradually switching my purchases to DRM-free sources for several years now; this move on Valve's part has simply accelerated this process.
I bought, from the following stores, the following games, all DRM-free. (all prices are USD)
* [itch.io] Spooky Ghosts Dot Com - Seems like a fun platformer, with a sense of cartoonish whimsy to it. Found it from browsing itch.io, I think, or maybe a friend mentioned it(?). 60% off, $1.99 ($4.99 base price).
* [itch.io] Social Justice Warriors - The satirical premise of this game and its relevance to real-life flamewars certainly got my attention, again probably when I was browsing itch.io. 80% off, $1.59 ($7.99 base price). Just to be sure (since this IS related to certain topics of recent controversy), I researched the dev to make sure that my money wasn't going to a jerk -- instead, the dev seems to be thoughtful and have an interesting and thought-provoking perspective.
* [Humble Store] Elliot Quest - It seemed like an interesting adventure platformer when I first wishlisted it on Steam years ago I think, and I later switched the wishlist entry to Humble Store because it's DRM-free there. I've seen it mentioned a few times by people who like metroidvania games (which I'm a fan of too). Finally bought it. -70%, $2.99 ($9.99 base price).
* [GOG] Grandia II Anniversary Edition - I've been waiting for this to go down to $4.99, but decided to buy now despite it being $9.99, mostly to make a statement about how DRM-free gaming is valuable to me, and because it just doesn't seem to be going any lower. I'm quite aware that Grandia II now has an "HD Edition" on Steam, which adds some features, but (1) I read up on those features and they seem unimportant to me and (2) I'd rather have a DRM-free version than one stuck on Steam even if the Steam version is a little better. -50% $9.99 ($19.99 base price). However, I am aware that this will be stuck in my JRPG backlog hell for probably a few years before I get to playing it.
None are games I'm really dying to have. I have wishlists at a few stores, and I generally buy stuff when it goes down beyond -50% (preferably to -75%) and is also $5 or less.
There are games I do want more than others, but I don't really keep a list. First, I already have a giant backlog (of games I've already purchased); second, it depends on price; third, it depends on my budget. But if you really want a list, contact me. Note that they will be mostly a bunch of unknown games -- it probably won't involve any famous AAA releases since I'm not very interested in those, so it won't work well for coding my responses into a survey.
Interesting article studying people's purchase habits.
Overall, I'm less social-network-driven than the purchasers detailed here, so I often ignore friend recommendations, but this was still an interesting read.
Other comments
> GG Deals
FYI I typically use isthereanydeal.com ; I wasn't aware of GG Deals. I guess now I can compare sites that compare sites haha. (yo dawg i herd u like to browse for the best prices so i put a site comparison in your site comparison so you can window shop while you window shop)
> If a game is regularly on sale for the same percentage he doesn’t bother buying it during the sale because he knows that that game will be on sale again later. This is "fear of missing out" in action.
My "conventional wisdom" from several years ago on Steam, back when Steam had flash sales during sales events, was that games that are sufficiently old (i.e. not new releases) would go on -50% sale for the whole sales event period and -75% during flash sales. Since then, flash sales have gone away (to be fair they were kinda annoying) and prices have also become more varied, but I think overall discount levels have become a little shallower, with publishers making use of price points like -40%, -55%, -60%, -66%, and -70%.
Also, re wishlists: this is somewhat specific to me, but as someone who prefers DRM-free games, I've basically de-wishlisted anything on Steam that I can buy DRM-free on another site. Following the recent UI update, I also de-listed anything I could buy as a Steam key on a site other than Steam, because I plan on not buying on Steam if I can avoid buying on Steam, until further developments may change this.
> historic lows
I've gotten a hunch that some games' publishers/developers seem to have a practice of timing their historic lows in off-season sales while not discounting as low during big sales events. I'm guess that that's a more conservative pricing strategy?
> "open cart"
> (about 75% of all customers will leave an item unpurchased)
I wonder if these studies account for the possibility of someone making a cart, walking away, losing the cart's contents, then making a new cart with the same contents and then making a purchase.
I know I've done this before sometimes.
> Many retailers fix this common phenomenon by sending a friendly reminder email a couple of days later.
I've specifically experienced some retailers send me coupons a day after I leave some stuff in my cart and walk away.
> Consider surveying your audience and asking them on a scale of 0-10 if they would recommend the game to a friend and why or why not. This is called a Net Promoter Score and is a very powerful measurement for any product.
I don't know if a 0-10 scale is some sort of industry standard for measuring this, but I've always found such a big scale too big to really answer with meaningful distinctions between the choices. I personally use a five-point scale (nominally described as -2/-1/0/+1/+2) for how much I like something (hate/dislike/meh/like/love) and I've seen psychology studies use a seven-point scale which IMO is about the limit of how far one can meaningfully differentiate stuff without the data getting too noisy. But this is just my opinions and personal experiences as a survey participant, not from studying survey results and responses.
> I always wondered how anyone tries anything new. My hunch is that there are lots of people like participant J with a friend with “good taste” they are the ones who convince them to try a game outside of their comfort zone.
This is a really interesting topic, and I've found that getting introduced to a new genre is a little like learning a new skill -- having a friend to show me the ropes makes it a lot smoother.
For example, I learned to play RTS games only because some friends played Age of Empires in front of me.
More recently, as a person who has played basically no WRPGs but nevertheless wants to break into the genre somehow, I've thought about trying to get into Dragon Age: Origins (which I received as a gift) and Neverwinter Nights 2 (which I know is well-acclaimed, and also uses D&D 3.5 which is a system I have used for non-video tabletop role-playing campaigns). DAO has yet to really capture me, though I am not sure I've given it a fair amount of time to simmer yet (though I did spend forever in character creation, which kinda annoyed me), and despite knowing D&D 3.5 on paper, I found myself playing only to the end of the tutorial of NWN2 and then stopping with the intent of researching how to get a certain character build and then dropping the game altogether due to having to wrestle a bit with its technical issues (a choppy animation bug that sometimes happens) and its controls that I'm largely not used to. And all that time, I was also thinking, "I really wish I had a friend here to play this with me."
Say, do you (or anybody else) know if the anime is good? Would you recommend that vs. a Let's Play? (I don't think I'll get the chance to play the games in the foreseeable future.)
Also I wanted to mention that if I hadn't just changed into this avatar I'd be using a Chihiro avatar instead. Chihiro reminds me a lot of my younger, weaker*, more insecure self.
*Not that I'm much stronger now, but you get the idea.
No.
I mean the VN is 6-8 hours long, but everybody who has seen the anime agrees that somehow is still unable to portray everything in the series. Plus, there are lots of interesting mechanics in the game. If you don't have the means to play it, an LP is probably the best option.
Plus, there's no anime adaptation of DR2 or DRV3, just a backstory and side-story anime for DRV3.
Chihiro's relationship with Mondo was probably one of the best parts of the game, that plus Kyouko's development and just a lot of other things.
On related news, it took a while but I've managed to begin playing Danganronpa.
Thoughts on what I had seen so far (spoilers obv):
Chapter One (or maybe two, can't remember):
* I can't get over that little jump the characters make when inquired.
* Nobody is as concerned about being around a biker gang dude in a murder mystery situation as I would've been.
* "I'd do anything to protect you" dangerous words to live by.
* When I first saw blood I thought it was some sort of ectoplasm.
* I can't be the only one who immediately read it as "LEON" and didn't notice it could be read as "11037".
* Probably should've mentioned Class Trials and punishments earlier. Graduating is (morals aside) not as easy as it seemed at first.
* I thought they could get away from risking a misjudgment by voting for Junko, but nobody ever brought it up. The way Monokuma worded things made it seem like this should work. Not that it ended up mattering.
* I guessed Sayaka would frame me (that, or she'd die as soon as possible as victim girl or as late as possible as love interest) but I stopped believing that after she turned out to be the victim. Like Makoto I was hesitant to believe it at first. Also the anime ignores most of her backstory and I don't think conveys a sense of urgency like the game, making her look like a psychopath that doesn't think too hard about killing people.
* I think everybody underestimates how much a killer would inconvenience themselves for the sake of not singling themselves out or framing others.
* For much of the trial I wondered what would happen In a case of self-defense, and still thought they could get away from killing a justified (or unjustified) killer using the Junko trick above.
* Alright, so Kyoko is the Ultimate Detective and probably knows more about Hope's Peak Academy than she lets on.
* Man I love that Closing Argument artstyle.
* The rythm minigame manages to be even more ridiculous in the anime, which may not be a bad thing.
* Can't say I blame Leon. Also I liked his character design so I was hoping he wouldn't die so early.
Chapter Two:
* I lol'd at the whole sauna thing.
* The letter with my embarassing secret would be a list of my kinks, and I guess it would be something sexual like that for most people.
* I noticed Mondo referring to Chihiro as "dude" but I thought it was a slang/localization quirk.
* I thought Byakuya was the culprit and was going to convince Toko of confessing (or later when she didn't confess, to put a deliberately weak defense).
* Schizophrenia is not dual personality disorder, though.
* The first half of the Class Trial was dumb, I hope nobody else has the idea of getting their jollies off on ruining puzzles again. Byakuya has a weird sense of what makes mystery cases interesting. Genocide Jill is funny tho.
* The internet made me forget that not all of this gender identity stuff is a trans thing so technically I was wrong, but I knew what would happen well before it happened.
* Also Kyoko could've just, you know, tell everyone what Chihiro's secret was and not make anyone touch a dead person's privates.
* Now that they knew that Chihiro was a boy I thought they should've revisited some things (e.g. could Genocide Jill do it after all? (no, but they can't know without thinking it over)).
* It seems Makoto is the only one who respects the curfew rule.
* I'm not one to relate to videogame characters often but as mentioned I found Chihiro extremely relatable. Just like him in school I was weak, bad at sports (I was decent at swimming tho), cried often and got picked on for all that, and had the recurring notion that it'd have been easier if I had been born a girl instead. Fortunately I overcame it, unfortunately I didn't become the Ultimate Programmer. Maybe I'll start exercising too.
* Also I didn't miss the fact that much of this stuff relates to the discussion at IJBMer Updates.
* I sad'd at Taka. I'm guessing Mondo was his first real friend in a lifetime full of rigid rules or something and this is going to come up.
* Mondo how could you?
* Oh, like that... yeah, that's how you could.
* T_T
* Nobody brought this up but deceiving someone to bind them to a promise sounds kinda bad.
* Butter what
Chapter Three:
* At this point I decided to play the game. I just wanted to find out about the immediate aftermath of the trial. Gosh I got so hyped like you wouldn't know, I want to know everything about everyone.
* The more things happen, the more palatable it sounds to remain in Hope's Peak Academy forever. Plus, trying to graduate has a 100% failure rate so far.
* I noticed every victim and culprit so far became an Ultimate out of regrettable circumstances and I expect the pattern to hold up (I already got spoiled about the fact that Junko is somehow involved, man it's hard to avoid spoilers while looking things up).
* I wonder why nobody's brought up what could happen if/when there's a Class Trial two students left. Celeste is into game theory so maybe she's thought about it.
* The let's player thought it's a Truman's Show kind of thing, which makes a lot of sense but I'm not ruling out that it's some psychological experiment to find out what makes people crack.
He's mainly a yankee type and a lot of the characters are basically insane to start with (I mean, Byakuya is a rich kid with ties to lots of weird things). They don't take him too seriously, or even like, can't take him too seriously, since this scenario is very anime.
Over three games I don't think this ever happens (there's a bit of revenge killing though), but I'm pretty sure the whole "the deaths are about creating despair and so are the trials" thing means it'd still count as a full-on murder.
Yeah I liked Leon a lot, he was cool, I also liked ######, and on the bright side the latter somehow actually makes it all the way to the end.
Never, ever, let go of that notion. It'll be a while (and it's certainly not in the first game) but... it comes up in a very, very big way.
Man this is making me want to play DR again. I still have my Vita and all three games, so it'd be extremely easy to do so.
But that would involve getting back into video games in a big way.
Bit of trivia; my favourite DR is probably 2. I just liked all the characters a lot, plus the setting was great.
The map system from 2 should go die in a fire though.
* The other characters seem to assume too easily that I'm a murder due to my lack of ability at deflecting insults or understanding rythm minigames.
* I really don't know how to go about Free Time Events. I mainly go about with interacting with whatever character I'm most curious about at the time, but I feel I may be missing things. I hope it's not too much of a hassle to revisit these things. Worst case scenario I guess there's YouTube.
* I guess it doesn't count as guessing now, but I noticed that Monokuma said "everyone" in a context that can't include any of the students.
* I'm guessing Aoi's inner demon thing involves body weight.
There were characters I liked, but the most important lesson I learned about DR is to do lots of different character's Free Time events because you never know who will be offed as soon as you get to the class trial. Halfway through you should probably switch to maxing out relationships. This is much easier in 1 than in every subsequent game though.
Naw, it's fun to reminisce.
Well, I made a conscious decision to step back, and then my path back in was blocked by uh... "funding issues" for a while. Anyways, I'll probably give it a bit more time before diving in.
* Hmmm, third person.
* Oh the photo! It could be different timelines, it could be doppelgangers, adding some supernatural elements it could be the afterlife, but I'm going to go with an alternate reality Hope's Peak Academy whose students's hopes are fed with this version's equivalent students's despair. That would explain's Monokuma's design, which if I'm right I bet has a mirrored version over there.
* Also I thought convincing the students that their lives outside are being lived by doppelgangers would be a very strong "motivator", or at least it would be for me.
* At school our equivalent of Celeste's tell thing was saying that your nose turns cold when you lie. The problem is that it worked so well lots of kids besides the liar would touch their noses.
* I never doubted someone could be motivated to kill over the videos or the secrets or just plain survival, but without some reveal I can't imagine who could be pushed over the edge because of money.
* If I could change languages easily I'd check if in the Japanese version Hifumi and so far only Hifumi thinks of Alter Ego as a girl as in the English version.
* I see deceased characters are becoming increasingly important. You know what they say in programming about keeping backups.
* A bit later and I'd have received Happy New Day greetings on New Year's.
* I wasn't expecting that level of meta on that scene between Hina and Hifumi.
* It'd have been nice if, when Hiro mentioned the glass ball cost him a million, he had mentioned the currency.
* I guess it was a given after Monokuma added the murder limit rule that at least one case would involve at least the appearance of double murder. When Taka's body found announcement didn't occur immediately I thought Taka was still alive and involved in the murder.
* Alright, so Hifumi lured and attacked Hiro and framed him (taking the keys to his room), lured and killed Taka then pretended to be injured/dead, ran to the third floor to hide the evidence (dunno why then) including taking away the note, and there he was killed by... Genocide Jill (pretending to be Toko) or something I'unno. I don't know how to make Robo-Justice fit except with some convoluted ideas involving Celeste making up her attack.
* At any rate, all the evidence that incriminates Hiro proves his innoncence, and as we all know Hifumi's last word "Yasuhiro" is the first word in the phrase "Yasuhiro didn't kill me he's totally innocent he didn't do it you guys."
* I see the game wants me to believe there's an afterlife. Maybe there is?
* I couldn't help but notice that none of the Hammer Justices are a Truth Bullet, if I needed more reasons to think the spotless hammer was a murder weapon.
* I have Handiwork (ability to load two Truth Bullets at once), but I thought it might've made the trial too easy. I'm keeping it disabled for the time being.
* Anyhow, this case definitely seems harder than the others. Let's begin...
* I got stuck in the first nonstop argument, the one that's solved with Hiro's handwriting, and tbh it's not like I find it convincing in hindsight.
* I wasn't expecting that Bullet Time Battle so early.
* During the recount I thought maybe Celeste and Hina were in this together and each killed one, but still any misjudgment would kill one of them, right? Plus they have alibis, I think.
* It didn't occur to me such an obvious source of blood to pretend with, I assumed Hifumi would use Taka's.
* I got superstuck at the first nonstop debate that requires you to remember/load the last comment and use it on a previous comment, which of course was not something I expected you could do, I only tried after exhausting all other 12 possibilities. I guess even in-universe those discussions are as circular as they seem?
* On every previous character-selection puzzle I didn't have to think twice, but when it was the time to pin things on Celeste I had no good idea who it was, I only chose her at first because of her relationship with Hifumi and demeanor during the trial.
* When Celeste said "those guys" in reference to Taka and Hifumi, I thought she was referring to all five students who had died earlier.
* I thought the last words twist was dumb, I'd have preferred if Hifumi had said nothing or left us to figure out who "Taeko" is. I guess at least Yasuhiro is a common surname?
* I loved watching Celeste's changes in demeanor.
* "Justice Hummer"
* Boy that was hard, the Let's Player made trials seem easier than they are (though I'm pretty sure I'm playing on a higher difficulty). That said I was much closer than I thought I was, if it had occurred me to think of an accomplice (as opposed to someone making use of Hifumi's murder) I think I may have figured out a couple more things, maybe not the culprit but at least a sensible turn of events. I still got an A tho. Also one of the Justice Hammers really was a murder weapon.
* So ultimately Hifumi wasn't so much malicious as naïve, I should've seen that coming, before this case I didn't expect that level of deviousness but I did end up believing it. Also it's not clear to me whether his priorities were in saving himself or in protecting Alter Ego, maybe not the latter due to the last words thing but who knows?
* Unless there's something I haven't seen yet (free time events?), what I said about becoming an Ultimate out of tragic circumstances doesn't apply to these two, Hifumi died proud of his otaku tendencies and Celeste was a brat. Though of course, nobody says the Queen of Liars wasn't lying about that too.
* The game really wants me to believe there's an afterlife. Either way I lol'd at the Marie Antoniette thing.
* I was expecting something about gambling.
That turned out huge, I guess that's the difference when writing something that's fresh on your mind. Also it occurs me that I'll actually enjoy seeing the Let's Player's reactions anyways after I'm done. Aww, sorry to hear that. I hope things improve on your end, if they haven't already.
I always assume it's yen because I doubt Yasuhiro has any sort of actual money.
Rocks in a swimsuit, that's all I'm going to say for now.
Yeah I'd guess so, it makes watching/experiencing it that much more fun I'd say.
I can't remember if 4 is the hardest trial in the game, but I do remember that 6 is considerably easier than what comes before it.
I feel like if there's any time for an anime style story to be 100% hypocritical about it's messaging it's when it involves showing love for/being an otaku.
Nope, no sorries, it was my own fault. Right now I've become a bit trigger-shy re:purchases but my finances are much better.
* Nobody thought about throwing away the poison. It'd have probably been restocked but I'd have tried anyways.
* Being that the mastermind is a man in his late 30s, that throws away my notion that Junko is the mastermind, at least in this game.
* The thing about telling a computer "good job" when you shut it off doesn't seem like a bad idea, I get irrationally angry when my computer is not working right or works too slowly so maybe I can do the reverse and remind myself to be more positive.
* Being that simulating people is a thing and that there could be an afterlife, perhaps there's simulations as a form of afterlife? That doesn't explain the photos tho.
* I was watching a bit of the LP and got to the part with the magazines. Maybe the outer world has... changed, maybe the students lived a normal school life at the Academy until whatever apocalyptic event The Tragedy was and later they'd have their minds wiped and used as fuel for the Academy turned despair factory. I still like my alternate Hope's Peak Academy hypothesis better tho.
* It didn't take long for me to forget why Kyoko is angry at me (or pretending to be).
* Without specifying what Sakura spied out of us, I don't think I'd have taken the news of her spying as badly as the other characters did.
* Poor Alter Ego is so dead, if the danger he's going through weren't enough Makoto assured him they'd escape and his reassurances have claimed two victims so far.
* So this is when our community begins to collapse under the weight of our own distrust.
* The murder feels like it came early this time. Maybe the game feels faster now that there are fewer characters?
* "I owe you one" Monokuma knows how to rile people up.
* This case doesn't feel nearly as complicated as previous ones, but I'm at a loss at how to go about it, I only know the obvious points that Sakura didn't write the magazine message and that a second bottle was used.
* I'm glad a fake dying message is coming up, I was bothered that everyone was easily convinced that Sayaka's dying message was real.
* Maybe Sakura locked herself in after an attack then died of poisoning. It's also possible the drink container was on the chair and fell as I opened the door.
* Maybe I should retake my idea about Toko/Jill taking the blame for Byakuya's killing.
* I get the feeling there were unrelated murder attempts. Maybe the blackened isn't certain they're blackened, or maybe a clean character thinks they're blackened.
* So I guess Sakura went to the chem lab and accidentally caused a mess, went to the rec room where she was attacked by one or two assailants who also tried to frame Toko, Sakura fenced them off and locked herself in the room and in anticlimactic fashion, ate poisoned candy and died.
* Maybe something will come up during the trial. Let's get started...
* I'm glad everyone is aware that no case can be this easy.
* I'll never get used to Bullet Time Battles.
* Despite the fact that I thought about multiple murder attempts, it never ocurred to me that Toko could tamper with the fake evidence against her. Then again it's not like we weren't going to find the dying message.
* This case got complicated all of the sudden.
* It can't be Hina, can it?
* Hina how could you, you were my favourite survivor so far.
* Uhh, things got weird, so if it's not Hina the only remaining non-Kyoko suspect is Byakuya, maybe?
* I just kinda assumed there would be no suicides, but I guess that's it. Also I had been waiting since forever for a time when the solution to one of the character selection puzzles is a dead character.
* So I guess you can vote for a dead student after all.
* So the nonsensical outline I thought of actually was surprisingly close to what happened. There's no way I would've thought about what actually happened even if I had thought of suicide, though, that got super complicated real fast. Also I felt the trial puzzles were much fairer this time, I only got half stuck in the nonstop debate about where Hiro was where the body was found. Also finally Byakuya got told.
* Awwww, that's all super sad. I guess our community really is messed up now. I know Monokuma has mentioned several times about severing ties with the outee world and live a communal live here, but I don't see how that doesn't contradict everything else about the Killing Game. Maybe we're all supposed to accept his motivators as if the outer world didn't exist? (Which it probably no longer doesnt?) Putting us in a potentiall escape-or-die is a dumb way of going about it though.
* So what happens now? Hina won't get punished, will her? I guess Sakura's corpse would get punished, like with super respectful funerary rites.
* I didn't see that coming.
I sad'd.
hmmmmmmmmmmmmm
* I think I'm at that point where I'd like to see a super corny happy ending.
* I had made some thinking about game length and number of characters remaining but the previous chapter threw things off, maybe this isn't the second-to-last chapter after all.
* Also I sorta assumed Kyoko would survive until the end, but on second thought I don't think I can discount the possibility of her dying near the end and me having to figure things out one last time without her saving my skin.
* I couldn't help but notice that there's no stairs to a 6th floor.
* Carnivorous plants? *gulp*
* I guess the 6th floor thing wasn't such a perceptive observation, as the characters noticed shortly afterwards.
* If that's The Tragedy, that's much less apocalyptic than I expected.
* Monokuma Theater told me to recommend Danganronpa on IJBM.
* There's something satisfying about looking at the disassembled Monokuma. Whatever it is Kyoko's doing, it's working.
* When hopefully-not-Kyoko's body exploded, I was actually worried about Jill/Toko and found it odd that the characters weren't. Also I didn't miss the fact that "she" wasn't actually wearing that lab coat.
* Things seem to be looking up for the students, hopefully things will keep that way.
* The students were way more restrained than I'd have been when entering the data center, I wouldn't have thought too hard about thrashing the place.
* So from the TV thing I suppose that means the Truman Show idea has a lot going for it?
* I wanted to believe things were going to start to get better, but deep inside I knew what was going to happen. Plus there's still lots of game to go through.
* I wonder if thrashing the place would've gotten me punished right there or if I would've been able to escape and not be tracked down. Maybe I shouldn't expect nothing less than there being a second, bigger data center.
* Actually, rereading the rules, only cameras are protected, everything else is fair game.
* If Monokuma says the Truman Show thing is true, I'm inclined to disbelieve it.
* Assuming it's true, does that mean the entire world knows the secrets revealed during Chapter 2?
* Now that I know Alter Ego's info was not reliable (and that you're hinting me about this), maybe Junko really is the Mastermind?
* This investigation is going to be weird...
* I didn't miss the fact that the masked assailant had no tattoo or scars during the night event. I bought the event at the Monocoins thing but didn't notice anything else.
* Since the victim has long, fake fingernails... is there a possibility that it's Junko? (Or at least that her corpse was used to fake a victim.)
* Alright, let's see. Regardless of anything, Toko, Hiro and Hina have alibis and knowing the sprinklers thing I have an alibi too, at least when it comes to moving the body, now "logically" I can't rule out killing the attacker in my sleep but I'll assume both me and a significant number of students make it out of the trial alive.
* Now, assuming Byakuya's account is reliable, it's a toss-up between Kyoko and Mukuro being the culprit and one of them or Junko being the attacker and/or victim. I don't know where to go from there.
* Now, assuming Byakuya's account is not reliable... well, the sprinklers thing still suggests he didn't move the body there. I wonder if I can trust him about the wet blood.
* I wonder if I should dismiss the lack of tattoo in the event as an oversight, AFAIK the game has been diligent with that kind of graphical detail so I doubt it.
* It occurs to me that you can't even fit Kyoko's hair in that mask.
* I get the feeling some of this evidence is Kyoko trying to help with the invedtigation.
* If nothing else, I guess the characters should be relieved nobody was fed to the plants.
* I wonder if I should think about the Junko Photoshop thing from very early in the game. Maybe the Junko that "died" really died and was a body double? Maybe whoever that was wasn't the Ultimate Fashion Connaisseure after all. Ehh I won't get anywhere by thinking about this now.
* Why is the 16th student's identity a big deal anyways? Like, the fact that there's a 16th student clearly is big but it doesn't seem to matter if it's the Ultimate Soldier or the Ultimate Pool Player or the Ultimate Juggler. Maybe Monokuma forged Mukuro's profile?
* It seems reasonable that even if Mukuro decides the rules, she can't or won't break them, so she shouldn't have been able to enter Kyoko's room (but then how did she enter Makoto's room?)
* Maybe when Kyoko entered Makoto's room she stole his keys and made copies of it?
* I don't know where to begin, I can't even figure out who the victim is, if any. Hhhmmm... well, I think whoever the culprit/victim is, I think the culprit tried to get rid of the body, grabbed the motion sensor bomb "just in case" and moved the body from wherever it was to the garden, fed the plant one of the chickens to see if it worked (poor chicken) but when Toko/Jill approached they instead opted to set up the trap. I was told that the plant was not relevant, though.
* This is going to be eventful. Let's get going...
* Alright, that last minute Truth Bullet explains how Kyoko or Mukuro could get to Kyoko's room.
* I think this narrows it down to Kyoko killing Mukuro pretending to be Junko (or Junko pretending to be Mukuro).
* That first part about the ghost was... interesting.
* "Everybody went everywhere in pairs" I think I know where this is going.
* It took a while for me to realize this but just because there's fake fingernails involved doesn't mean I should be assuming Junko is directly or indirectly involved.
* Kyoko y u blame me
* Poor chicken. I thought the culprit could've just stabbed Mukuro's body, but maybe the blood was all not-fresh or something?
* Kyoko is getting rusty at her "save Makoto" thing.
* This trial is having a case of the-point-I-want-to-bring-up-is-not-the-one-I-have-to-bring-up, first with the hit on the head where apparently I was the only one wjo read the Monokuma Files in detail but I had to do a flashback thing, then with the arrow thickness where I wanted to bring up the woodblock key, then again with Kyoko not having the keys to her room.
* Kyoko's cool and all but I didn't have to think too hard about pursuing her lie. Plus I know the blackened graduating is a game over. But as usual now I'm wondering if it was Kyoko's Account that was a lie instead.
* Well, it didn't take long for me to regret it.
* Alright, back in time. This time I chose to ignore the lie but a second later I realized I should've seen what happens if I choose "run away" instead.
* Eww, I got a B. My straight As streak has come to an end.
* Okay, I did get a score this time so I expected the game to continue anyways, but I still didn't see that coming.
* Alright, so I wasn't going to figure out who the culprit was no matter what, but ignoring that I was still way off. At some point during the trial I thought it was going to be Byakuya with Toko providing a fake alibi, if I kept predicting it at some point I might've gotten it right.
* So I hit it on the spot when I said she was the Ultimate Detective, but eventually I came to believe she was the Ultimate Secret Agent instead.
* Alright, so I guess things will start clearing up from now on. I'm anxious, though I think I'll miss the "normal" murder mysteries.
* Alright, I guess I can stop resisting the Truman's Show theory now. That still doesn't explain the photos so maybe what I said about normal school life is also true, after all memory wiping is now confirmed.
* I can't help but notice that I'm not anywhere close to having all the key items.
* I like the fact that just like how the students are getting the fair trial they deserve and the audience the fair "test of despair" they deserve, the players are getting the fair murder mystery they deserve.
* Apparently I'm the only one who thought that "set foot" was a synonym of "enter" and saw something into the specific wording of the 16 students thing.
* You can tell the dorms' 2nd floor was not meant to be seen by the audience.
* I couldn't help but notice the crack in the Headmaster's skull.
* I wonder what I'd be thinking if I didn't already know the Mastermind is Junko.
* Mukuro was cute.
* The characters aren't nearly as interested as I was about checking all the corpse slots at the bio lab and see whose's corpse is missing.
* I guess I can consider the normal-school-life theory as confirmed, though I still don't know why the Headmaster thought the communal life thing was a good idea or what exactly The Tragedy was.
* So... the trial... you know, I learned a lot about Hope's Peak Academy and the characters and whatnot, but I don't think I learned much that could help me pinpoint who killed Mukuro.
* Oh boy all that gloominess, I didn't particularly care what hints Monokuma gave the others, but I do now. Kyoko is pessimistic so you know it's bad. But that's okay I'll get them back with the Power of Friendship.
* So, the tarps came from the bio lab, which none of us had access to except Kyoko. Though I don't actually remember if the tarps weren't there before the crime took place. I guess that's the case since it's such an obvious clue otherwise it'd have been brought up the previous chapter.
* If I can prove that Mukoro's been dead for a good while per Kyoko's hint (or my interpretation of it anyways) that should be enough to prove everyone's innocence and we can work it out from there.
* Similarly and given that Mukuro's head wound was inflicted after death, I suppose this is not the first time her corpse is used to falsify a victim, I assume for a different Killing Game. I bet the same goes for the other wounds.
* Shouldn't it be enough to prove that Makoto is not guilty? That'd show to the audience that the fifth trial was a farce.
* If Junko really is the Mastermind, I dunno if I should be assuming that she should've been capable of controlling Monokuma when she "died".
* You know, I don't think Kyoko has told me what actually happened the night she fenced off "Mukuro", you'd think that's worth mentioning.
* This is probably the sewing kits' final chance to be relevant.
* Maybe I can ignore all this and blame Byakuya like I wanted to during the previous trial.
* Despite the lenghty investigation I only gathered 17 Truth Bullets. I expected much more.
* Well it doesn't seem like I'll figure anything else before the trial. Let's end this...
* I assumed the photos were doctored but that is an even more obvious possibility.
* I have to wonder why, of all the things that have happened so far, group amnesia is so unbelievable.
* I find it odd that Kyoko's body analysis wasn't questioned, but I guess that's good for me.
* Finally the hand thing came up.
* Huh, I should've continued with the body double train of thought.
* Well, that wasn't hard.
* Whoever voiced Junko must've had lots of fun.
* Whoever drew Junko must've had lots of fun.
* Yup, she's the one controlling Monokuma.
* Oh hey, the sisters's titles, I think that's one of the references in Touhou isn't it?
* Aww this is going to be a downer ending, isn't it?
* Alright, so the real Class Trial begins now.
* I think I know where this is going.
* Well, sort of, I expected corny speeches about hope, but I was looking forward to argumenting them, as we've been doing with everything during trials so far. The audience is watching after all.
* Ahhh, so it ends. Bittersweet.
* I wonder what the rest of the setting has in store for them. I assumed DR 2 and 3 take place later in the same universe but I don't actually know.
* Also that'd have been over much more quickly if they had bothered checking the other fridge slots like I said.
* In the end six people survived. I expected two at most, so that's good I suppose.
* Hina and Hiro were my two main relationship targets, so I think I should consider myself kucky that they both lasted until the end.
* Despite being a callous shameless edgelord, Byakuya never actually did manipulative schemes, or anything too bad for that matter.
* I don't think I ever interacted with Jill, I bet she has funny lines. I did interact with Toko tho.
* I was going to get closer to Kyoko at first but changed my mind. Maybe I shouldn't have. I felt the whole Headmaster thing was abrupt, so...
THE END
I'm curious about the rest of the Danganronpa universe, but I think I'll spend some seeing what else this game has to offer for the time being. Also I can now look things up with lesser chances of getting spoiled.
Alright, so I have 421 monocoins I can spend on things one finds on the internet for free.
Ooh, School Mode, looks interesting.
Anime hair always fits.
I feel like usually in DR it turns out you're stuck on a red herring or something insane that you probably couldn't logically imagine is happening, rather than the logical thing.
They do, but uh, V3 is (this is a really really big spoiler)
Something I noticed in cases like that is that who's saying something is often more of a hint than the details of what's being said, so when two characters are saying things you take issue with, you're better off trying things first with the character you're supposed to be discrediting at the time.
Also I can never figure out the correct order of flashback bullet things.
Aww, Closing Argument events can't be purchased. I like those.
Switch eShop:
- GRIS
Steam:
- A Short Hike
- Prime Mover
Epic:
- Kine
- Gorogoa
- a whole bunch of freebies
Also last month, I actually finished a little puzzle game I've been working on since this summer. Terrace! It's free on itch.io, browser or downloadable versions.
My haul from the past month of sales:
itch.io
* Spooky Ghosts Dot Com - a humorous platformer.
* Social Justice Warriors - an internet argument simulator. The game's name raises red flags, but the game seems to be designed with an apt mind for satire, and the dev seems to not be a jerk, far as I can tell.
* American University Life ~Welcome Week!~ - a visual novel, seemingly meant to be the first chapter of a larger whole. Made by a U.S. American dev, and starring American university students rather than Japanese high schoolers, for a hopefully refreshing change.
* Camera Obscura - a puzzle platformer. This has been on my wishlist for a while now.
Humble Store
* Elliot Quest - a 2D metroidvania platformer, I think.
GOG
* Grandia II - a JRPG.
* Wasteland 2 - I'm not sure what this is but it was a freebie from GOG.
* Wasteland 1 - the prequel to Wasteland 2. This one's an old game. Not sure of the genre. Also a freebie from GOG.
* Chasm - a 2D metroidvania platformer. Each playthrough's layout is procedurally generated, though if you didn't tell me I might not even notice that this is the case since it seems really well put together -- much better than the also procedurally-generated 2D metroidvania platformer roguelike Rogue Legacy.
* Bio Menace - an action platformer, I think. Also a freebie from GOG.
* Tower of Time - an action RPG, I think. Also a freebie from GOG.
GamersGate
* 100% Orange Juice - Toy Store pack - a character pack DLC. its campaign became playable by mistake and I actually played it before I bought it. So I was kinda morally obliged to buy it. Anyway this was a Steam key, because all the 100% OJ DLCs are handled on Steam.
Steam
* 1 Screen Platformer - a platformer, I think. This was a freebie from the game's dev, because he wanted me to do a short survey for him.
I did not buy anything on Steam. I also didn't pick up anything from Epic Game Store, even its freebies.
It's something I've wanted to do for a while, but I just started this past year, if only to give me something to do since graduating university. Terrace is my first proper project, a lot of learn-by-doing and generally figuring out Unity and C#. I'm hoping to find an actual game dev job in the coming year.