Why Danganronpa 2 Is (Almost) A Perfect Sequel

Pinned comment question: what is your favorite game sequel of all time?

Fun fact: If you replay Chapter 4 knowing that Gundham is the blackened, you'll notice that during the trial he was trying to nudge the others into the right direction by making the right questions and even laughing at completely wrong assumptions. Also, in his Closing Argument sprite, Gundham is smiling, but the Four Dark Devas look worried about him. Naturally, they're hamsters, so they couldn't possibly know what was going on. That implies that they were worried because they could feel that, under his villain persona, Gundham was actually scared.

Fun fact: the original English special edition of Danganronpa 2 came with an actual "I'm sorry, I was born stupid" sticker.

I know it’s supposed to be sad and sweet but having 11037 be the password is so funny to me. Like I just imagine Leon’s ghost going “cmon man! One mistake!”

One neat detail that's worth noting about chapter 5: By forcing you to choose one of 6 people to be the one who killed him, he puts you into a 1/6 chance just like the Russian roulette he played in chapter 4

Mikan being the ultimate nurse and not wearing the proper PPE when dealing with a communicable disease, interesting

I wanna just point out a little fun fact for those that might not be aware, but the use of the repeated "Hello World!" in the chapter 6 pre-trial is a reference to the most basic of beginning coder examples, which almost always create a simplistic program that spits out the phrase "Hello World!"

Fun Fact about Teru-Teru's portrait after he'd been executed! Many will notice and point out that instead of the regular cross, he was given a knife and fork crossed over eachother. However, what some may not know is that in restaurants and the such, if a customer finishes eating and crosses their cutlery over eachother in an X like fashion, this means that they found the meal unsatisfactory and disgusting, while simply setting the cutlery side by side means that you enjoyed the meal. I don't know if this was added in on purpose, or if they just wanted to use cutlery as a reference to Teru-Teru's talent, but I think it was pretty neat ^^

Actually by Schaffrillas’s definitions I think DR2 is a perfect sequel - It expanded the universe - it continued the story - it continued and expanded upon the themes of the previous entry - and it left an undeniable impression on the franchise

Sdr2 feels like, a more mature older sibling to dr1. It feels like thematically, dr1 was the setup for dr2's punchline, like 2 was the answer to 1's question. In dr1, the cast were all kids with mostly okay lives. In 2, theyre all explicitly from backgrounds that traumatized them in some way- pressure, poverty, abuse, neglect, etc. I think you put it very aptly when you said that dr1 was the graduates, while dr2 was the dropouts. I think thats why many people find the second cast more likable- theyre more relatable, in so far as such cartoonish characters can be. And I think that while hope and despair are considered the universal theme of the games, dr2 made a point of rejecting that dichotomy. The power that pushes Hajime isnt *hope*, necessarily- hes a little too cynical for that. His power is just straight up Determination. Makoto's philosophy is, "I believe things can be better than this," but Hajime's was "Fuck you, things are GOING to be better. I wont accept anything else" Dr1 pushed hope and optimism. Dr2 shook that off, and decided that no, sometimes you cant be optimistic. Sometimes shit is just awful. But thats when you double down and refuse to stop, when you push twice as hard, and you just keep Living, because thats the one thing you cant ever give up on. Sorry that was kind of a tangent. Anyway, loved the vid!!

I think the reason Chiaki seemed a little flat is because the program made her from the class’s memory: a sweet gamer girl that kept them together and comforted them in times of need. So that could be why she wasn’t as varied as others in the cast.

As holistically cruel and manipulative as Junko is... She STILL really serves that look, Ultimate Fashionista indeed.

The 3rd chapter could’ve been made so much better if her motive was more: “I’m going to put the sick out of their misery” and then her disease kicks in during the trial once she is actually called out, the accusation triggering the disease to bring her memory back. Also it wouldve benefited from a completely different execution, or at least tweek it to have it fit her more (maybe have her be forced to OD or be fried by a defibrillator or something medical like that) Idk just some ideas

Can’t wait for The V3 Retrospective, but take your time patiently and don’t exhaust yourself please.

Anyone else notice that pretty much all the talents in SDR2 are all talents that can be cultivated WITHOUT schooling. Think Gamer, Yakuza, Musician, Imposter. A lot of these are skills that don’t need the school environment to be maximized, or actually benefit from being cultivated OUTSIDE of school. It better fits that idea of them being the “Dropouts”.

fun fact: when you interact with the dead students mailboxes and they show the glitched text, Chiaki’s text shows the Konami Code, but I find it interesting when she said the A and B in the wrong order Idk if this is meant to say anything, but I personally interpreted it as Chiaki sacrificing herself to save the remaining students, but put in the code wrong so she didn’t end up saving everyone until everyone saved themselves in the final trial but that’s just my theory o>o

1:25:58 - I think the key in-universe difference that causes the DR2 cast to feel like a group of friends more so than the DR1 casts is the circumstances in which they first meet. The DR1 cast all wake up lost and confused locked inside of a school, and have barely been able to say hello to each other before they are told that they've all been kidnapped to kill each other. Meanwhile the DR2 casts wake up lost and confused on a tropical island resort, where they get to spend almost a full day getting to know each other after being told that their stay at the island is a trip made to make them all become friends with one another. And only as the day is going to conclude does Monokuma show up and do his hostile takeover and turn it into a murder game. This all sets up two very different expectations for each group. With one, they are all perfect strangers who are kidnapped for the explicit purpose to kill each other in a killing game. With the other they were all enjoying a school trip together with their new classmates they had just met when they were all collectively kidnapped and told to kill each other in a killing game. This means that the DR2 cast would be immediately inclined to have a "Us vs Monokuma" mentality as they were all taken as a group instead of as individuals, whilst the DR1 cast would have a "It's me vs Monokuma vs possibly everyone else." mentality.

something I've been thinking about with the end of the game: one of Junkos last temptations is pitting Hinata's individual interests against the interests of the group. However, after he awakens, he makes the choice to care for others, definitely not what we would call "selfish", yet he still claims "it's not for anyone except myself!". I think it's a good display of how individual and group interests don't necessarily have to be at odds with one another. Hinata IS being selfish, but that still doesn't mean he disregards his friends or what they want. He synthesized his individual interests with the groups interests rather than seeing them as completely separate.

Nagito that has the LIERS DISEASE: Hajime go away, i hate you, I don't want you to ever be near me at all, leave me a lone. Hajime who is taking his lies seriously and being a dumbass: okay geez.. I'll leave

I’m sorry but the “on the bone meat” joke made at 43:28 made me laugh a little more than I think I was supposed to 💀