Danganronpa 1 and 2 Review

So I've been lazy, and not just normal lazy, I'm talking full on fuck lazy.  Full on not doing shit when I'm at home besides playing with my animals and sitting my butt in front of the TV trying to recover from the holiday season. But I didn't do it all for naught, you see while I was lazy I was also looking up and doing some research to find out what all is coming out in the next few months, and well it would appear that one of my favorite game series on the Vita is finally getting a PS4 port.  That series being Danganronpa of course.  "But its an old series, why are you reviewing it?"  Well for starters, fuck you, we covered that in the original post, I'll review whatever the hell I feel like, and second the port comes out this month  oops, spoke too soon there, it turns out it actually comes out in March of this year, and I know a lot of people who got PS4s recently and they might be enticed to play it.

Seeing as this is a visual novel I'm not going to be posting any major spoilers, and the majority of the story components in this review happen in the first 30 minutes of the game and can be obviously gathered from both the box art and the paragraph about the game in the Playstation store so I'm not going to use my standard spoiler warning tags, BUT, if you want to go into this game 100% blind and not even knowing the basic premise of the game stop reading here with this brief "review": it's good  It's fucking good.  It's like having sex with an angel and a demon at the same time good.  Seriously this game will make you love, laugh, and cry.  Seriously if you like visual novels or good mysteries take some time and play this game, it's only going to be $40 for 2 games so its SUPER worth it.

Now that that's over with, on with the review!!

Since this is technically 2 games in one, and they both play very similarly with minor differences I'll cover the first, then the changes in the second one as far as game play, music, extras, and anything else that comes into mind.  I'll also go over their settings in a one-then-the-other fashion so as not to confuse people...too much.  Now, with that said, on with the show.

Danganronpa starts off with a description of the setting of the game: Hope's Peak Academy, a premier school where the best of the best are educated and groomed to lead Japan into the future.  These students are the very best at what they do, so much to the point of being called Ultimates.  You play as Makoto Naegi, the Ultimate Lucky Student, who won a national raffle of all high school students in Japan to be lucky enough to enroll in Hope's Peak Academy.  However, after arriving at your new school you black out to awaken alone in a classroom, but soon head to the entrance to discover the other students you are in school with (I'm not going to go through all of their names because that's just a lot of unnecessary typing on my part, but if you want to know I'd refer you to go here but be warned it does contain spoilers).  Upon meeting your fellow students you discover you are trapped in the school and summoned to the Gymnasium where you meet the nefarious Monokuma who reveals that the only way out is to murder one of your fellow students and get away with it.  But that's just the start of the fun as you unravel the events and reasons you and your fellow students are trapped in the school, and to what end this horrific"Killing School Life" serves.

Danganronpa 2 starts off very similarly to Danganronpa, but this time you play as Hajime Hinata, the Ultimate ????.  Instead of being trapped in a school though, you and your classmates are on a majestic island resort called Jaberwock Island for a field trip supervised by the kind hearted Usami.  You and your classmates must gather the hope fragments, which you obtain by discovering the personalities and pasts for your fellow students, to bring them into a bright and wonderful future together, that is until Monokuma comes to spoil all the fun!  Monokuma reveals that he has taken control of Jaberwock Island and set his Monobeasts (colossal robotic monstrosities) to  guard parts of the island he doesn't want you to go to, and forces Usami, now known as Monomi, to obey his bidding by breaking her magic stick that gave her control of the islands faculties.  During the course of this "Killing Island Life" you'll discover what happened to the island, why your there in the first place, and why Monokuma is interfering all over again.

One of the things that really stands out about these games for me is the music, and how well done and polished it is.  Not only are the sound tracks fun, but they are perfect at setting the right tone in the right places, like when you make a big discovery about the setting, or you find a body, or are in the middle of a class trial.  The music is absolutely amazing.  The other noticeable thing with the music is that between the first and second game the music is almost the same, however they "remix" it to fit the tropical theme of the game, and they also tell you what song is currently playing.

Something else that sets this series apart is the gameplay, while traditional VN's just have you interact via dialogue and choices therein, Danganronpa actually has you explore your environment to interact with characters and discover clues and items hidden throughout the world.  Then once a murder happens you are given time to investigate, you initiate a more traditional VN style of gameplay in the form of a class trial, or when you try to discover who the killer was.  There are minigames and times when you will need to use your gathered clues to break counter arguments, present information, or find key words that help with making a solid case.  Overall its a very unique experience that makes the game feel more alive because of it.  Other great things are the the exploration is done in first person, and while traveling around Jaberwock Island in the second game you see your character in 3rd person, and while a fast travel option is available, I often found myself walking anyways because of much I enjoyed it.

The character design and art style is a bit different at first, but it will quickly grow on you throughout the series and the sprite for the characters can be quite funny as well.  I personally found them at first to be off putting, but quickly fell in love with all the little details placed in them to further enhance their characters.  Also every character has a full body concept that shows them with items that relate to their Ultimate ability in some fashion.

There is a lot of other parts of this series too, which while they're not necessary, they do help to flesh out and explore the universe a lot more.  The first game has been redone in both manga and anime form, and while this misses a lot of subplot and character development, they do serve as a decent means to enjoy the series without committing to a 30 hour gameplay, even though I highly encourage it.  Additionally a 3rd game, Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls,  does exist to help explain events that are occurring outside of the school as well (saying more would lead to pretty big spoilers, but trust me, it's interesting).  Then as recently as last summer two concurrent animations, Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School Future Arc  and Despair Arc, aired to explain the events that happen after the second game and before the first game respectively, though both of these contain MAJOR spoilers so I would avoid both of them till you have finished both games.  And finally this year saw the release of the 3rd entry in the main series, Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony.  Overall if you find the first two games enjoyable please by all means check out the rest of the series as it does tie together everything nicely.

As I stated earlier I love these games, they're amazing and really set you in a mood of wanting more and coming back to enjoy another play through.  Are they perfect? No, but they're about as damn close as you can get, and it is for this reason I give Danganronpa 1 and 2 Reload 9.5 giggling bears, out of 10.

The Division Review

The Division, like many things in life, is an acquired taste, and not something that is meant for the masses.  With a sometimes difficult to understand and convoluted storyline, and glitchy gameplay it is no wonder that the game hasn't exactly received the welcoming reviews that Ubisoft was hoping for in March when the game launched, and believe me, I was there on the front lines.  I picked the game up on day one and was still somewhat unemployed when it launched.  To be honest, while I did enjoy the game, I found it frustrating the say the least.  Leveling was fun, even if it wasn't the most expedited of experiences, though I do have to give the game credit as it offered plenty of side quests to do between major story related missions, many of which revealed the events of the outbreak of "Green Poison" or "Dollar Flu", which is the disease that causes widespread chaos in New York City.

Since The Division is a game that is primarily focused on online play, and since I recently have replayed through the main storyline and have been taking a second look at end game content I will be doing a then vs now review of the game.  This should help people decide if getting into the game roughly 8 months after release is worth it at all.

Now, I'm no stranger to online based shooters, hell I play Destiny on a somewhat consistent basis, and even stuck with it through some of its darker days where people decided to bitch and moan about some of the more "unfair" concepts that they just didn't understand, like loot tables, or RNG, or poor matchmaking (though to be fair a lot of this still happens, and I still write the majority of them off as entitled fuck-wits whose parents never told them no as a child).  So The Division is a game that is right up my alley, and oh boy, what a way to throw a game at me.

******************************SPOILER WARNING *********************************

The Division takes place in a shattered derelict shell of Manhattan after an outbreak of a man-made variation of Smallpox released on Black Friday refereed to in game as "The Dollar Flu" or "Green Poison", society has effectively run down and gangs, glued together militant groups, and a for-hire militia have taken charge of the city.  You play as a member of the Strategic Homeland Division (S.H.D.) sent in during the "second wave", or after the first group of agents failed to get the situation under control.  What is the S.H.D.?  Short version is they're government sleeper agents living among the populace who, once activated, more or less have operational control and independence to do whatthefuckever they like.  Needless to say this power is abused by some.

The game starts you off on the opposite side of the Hudson River from Manhattan where you are tasked with gaining control of the local rioters to allow the Joint Task Force (J.T.F.) to sweep in and hold the neighborhood and the attached helicopter pad.  After cleaning up the Neighborhood and local police station you meet up with fellow Division Agent Faye Lau and the rest of the second wave and take a ride over to Manhattan, but your Osprey Gunship transport is hit with a Javelin missle during takeoff killing everyone except Faye and yourself.  Faye is pretty fucked up, but you get out with minor injuries and meetup at and reclaim the James A. Farley Post Office.  Once secured you set about the city completing objectives and recruiting allies to discover not only the events of Black Friday and the cause and source of the virus, but also the events that transpired to cause the second wave of agents needing to be sent into New York. 

Using your connections you enlist the aid of Dr. Jessica Kandel who stayed behind to work on a cure to the virus.  Dr. Kandel enlists your aid to track down the orchestrator of the virus, a biologist by the name of Gordon Amherst, and obtain his research notes to discover why he did what he did.  Captain Roy Benitez is the second to join your cause, after rescuing him from a group of rioters attempting to mount an escape via the collapsed Lincoln Tunnel he sets you to work to shut down the various militia groups around the city, most notably "The Cleaners" led by Joe Ferro, a group of public works employees who stayed behind to burn out the virus using napalm, "The Rikers" led by Larae Barrett, escaped inmates from Rikers Island who have taken to lawless streets of Manhattan to fuel their revenge against a system that left them to die when the virus broke out, and "The Last Man Battalion" led by Charles Bliss, a paramilitary group hired by Wall Street executives to protect their financial assets that went rogue after being abandoned by their employers they now set out to create a new world order in the midst of the chaos.  The final member of the band is a former member of the LMB known as Paul Rhodes.  Rhodes, an engineer and general conspiracy theorist, is in charge of restoring critical infrastructure (power, water, gas, communications, etc...) to the good citizens of New York, and while he is working with the JTF, he doesn't exactly like the idea of it.

Over the course of the game you discover that Amherst wasn't alone, an internationally acclaimed virologist Vitraly Tchernenko was in contact with Amherst helping to answer questions about how to "theoretically" breed the prefect virus and what the ideal situation would look like.  Before this, during an investigation into a first wave Division agent transponder Rhodes discovered you discover that a select few members of the First Wave went rogue, lead by Aaron Keener (aka "Vanguard") who discovered Amherst work and decided he was right to let society fall and that humanity needs a culling of the population in order to maintain order and save the planet.  Working with the LMB they get to Tchernenko first to discover where Amherst manufactured the first.  Minutes after discovery Keener and other rogue first wave agents leave the United Nations building and use the now disgraced LMB as a decoy to get to Amherst gene printer and take it to an undisclosed place in "The Dark Zone" and continue to prefect Amherst work and release the virus around the globe.

*********************************END SPOILERS**********************************

Most of the setting of the game outside of the story is obtained via collectibles that are scattered throughout the map that will give you insight into what happened to the first wave agents and other citizens of Manhattan.  These collectibles are locked behind clearing all the missions out of different neighborhoods, unless you search for them the hard way.  Completing these side missions will reward XP and currency and either base resources to upgrade your base of operations to unlock new skills, perks, and passives, or gear and equipment blueprints used in crafting.  Each wing of your base has a different resource: Medical, Tech, and Security, and corresponds to a different skill tree, leveling all of them is important, but which one you select first is crucial early game as it could lead to a higher chance of survival in more difficult missions.

The game does offer a decent matchmaking system that is hop in and hop out that you can start from the world map, a mission location, or even from a terminal at your base of operations.  The game is good about allowing freedom of movement between party members in case one person doesn't have a mission unlocked or needs to fast travel to assist another one for a mission or encounter.  

As far as end game content there are 2 pieces given at launch called "The Dark Zone" or and endgame PvPvE area in which agents can form groups to hunt down NPCs or other players for high quality loot that must then be extracted so it can be purged of viral disease as The Dark Zone is the place that was hit hardest with the virus.  Players are also notified when other players go "Rogue", or when they agrees another player" so there is some risk in starting combat with other players and you aren't able to just sit there an kill people unnoticed.  Finally when you extract your spoils from The Dark Zone you signal a helicopter to come and get them out for you, well at launch once you attached your gear you could leave and were still guaranteed you could get loot so a lot of solo players would rush in, attach their loot, and rush out seeing as they couldn't handle the mobs that would inevitably come in to investigate the agents flare.  This has been changed and you are now able to "cut off" other players loot from the extraction helicopter, so you must stay and protect it from the NPCs and the other nearby players who are notified of the extraction happening.  The second piece is called "Incursions" which are basically high end missions that have some special mechanics, but most extremely tough enemies in high numbers.

Now, to the new stuff that has been released since the game came out, we get it in 2 major content updates, the first is called "Underground", and the second is called ":Survival".

Underground is a Diablo-esque random dungeon generation match-made multiplayer mode for The Division, and one of my favorite updates so far.  You are tasked with exploring the underbelly of New York to weed out the remnants of the different factions that threaten the city.  The dungeons are fun and rewarding and allow you to add modifiers to make them longer, add difficulty modifiers such as only being able to use one skill at a time, or slowly losing health through the duration of the mission.  Overall I thoroughly enjoy the challenge and cooperative elements they bring to the table.

Survival is a match-made multiplayer scenario in which the agent learns of a vaccine to the virus being located in The Dark Zone with an impending snow storm on the way you gear up to retrieve the vials and bring them back, but you must race against the clock as you become infected with the disease when your helicopter crashes and you are stuck in Manhattan and must fight and gather your way to the vials.  Other players are present in the map, a total of 24 participate in a match, and you must compete against them for loot as each loot box only opens up for a single player making resources limited.  You must craft and gather better gear, weapons, and even skills in order to survive against the mobs that wander the area.  After reaching The Dark Zone and gathering the vials you are set to extract and must fight off special Division agent killers known as Hunters who use Division tech against you.  This mode can be played in both PvE and PvP modes, with PvP offering higher rewards (which is the right way to do it imho, not gimp a PvE player, but rewarding a PvP player).  While I really do enjoy this mode it has early scaling issues, and can be quite difficult if you don't know the map very well, though these issues will correct themselves once you get a better grasp on the map and manage to pull through roughly the first 15-20 minutes to start getting better weapons.  Oh I forgot to mention cosmetic items actually have an effect in this mode providing much needed warmth for your player.

With the updates to the base game I would be remiss if I said the game hasn't improved and gotten at least a bit more fun, and while I enjoyed the game from the start I enjoy it a fair bit more now that getting better gear isn't nearly as time consuming as it once was, nor is it nearly as daunting with all the new modes to offer brand new goodies around every corner.  While the game isn't perfect, I do recognize the changes and appreciate them for what they are.  Overall I give The Division 8.5 Sealed Chaches, out of 10.

I played Tom Clancy's The Division on Playstation 4 which I bought the Gold Edition of the game that has the season pass included.