If you're wondering why I used the Sky Tower music for the BGM, it's because Mystery Dungeon and Danganronpa are both developed by Spike Chunsoft. Small world, eh? Video co-edited by: th-cam.com/users/coolcat001100
The main thing that could fix Danganronpa in a fourth game would be to break their traditions (such as having a female protagonist who survives, have the big student survive, a male mastermind, possibly two masterminds, have two killers in cases instead of two victims, and most importantly more representation of all kinds!)
I wouldn't fully count on that. When all you care about is subverting a trope but fail to give any substance to the subversion, it falls just as flat as the rest. Like, you can throw two killers in a chapter all you want, but if the killer's character are still the same low tier psycho crap you see in the core games, it's still obnoxiously predictable, especially if it doesn't add anything to the story.
@@CountShaman That's true. You need more than just subverting the trope. Just look at The Sequel Trilogy of Star Wars. Sometimes subverting things can be just as bad as playing it straight... Especially if nothing is broken at all.
@@keyboardguru4212 Yet there are multiple ethnic groups in Japan as much as other countries. The dominant group is Yamato but there are also Ryukyan, Okinawan, Ainu, Bonin, and more. Also if you watch certain channels online you’d know that there is a notable number of Mixed Japanese and Black people who are living in Japan!
To be honest, I wasn't expecting you were going to talk about the protagonists, but I'm really relieved you did. You actually made me remember why I mostly disliked the plot twist of Kaede being an ploy protagonist in chapter 1. Because we were right back at the average, normal and somehow 'dull' protagonist again. And this also falls into the familiar 'tropes' that danganronpa apparently has, which is 'no female lead' in every main line game. In my opinion, Shuichi didn't had that much personality in the same level that Kaede had, and it's not because he was another male protag; many male leads in fiction can be quite intriguing and complex. However, when you compare Shuichi and Kaede at the same spot, you can clearly see the difference in EVERYTHING (personality-wise). When I first started playing V3 for the first time I was really hyped to be able to play with an character that had an strong will, leadership skills, beautiful yet simple design (simple as all the other protags) and a cheerful personality filled with charisma, aside from the fact that I enjoy female protags in games, in general. And when the trial came and we switched to Shuichi, it was like that light I had at the start, simply died on the spot. Because for me, in the entire game, Shuichi didn't flash out other segments of his personality aside from his confidence to face others and his talent nor made me entirely sympathize realistically with him, he's just bland and average for me. PLEASE, this is not me talking bad about Shuichi because he's definetly one of the most well developed characters in the game (despite what I said earlier) and I loved that in chapter 6, when he discovered that Kaede couldn't have been the culprit, he became extremely determined to uncover that mystery and reveal the mastermind who killed her. But he unfortunatly, didn't went well for me as an protagonist and in my opinion there were plenty other characters in the cast that could have been the protagonist instead of him, Like Miu, Kokichi, Maki, hell even Tsumugui could flash out more personality if she was the lead. I also loved your concepts of protagonists and antagonists, having an mastermind as an protagonist who knows that they're the ones controlling everything, make such an interesting concept that could have be beautifully portrayed. Seeing their internal monologues entirely different to the personality they show to the rest of the cast and imagine the scene where everyone discovers that the protag who helped them all this time was the mastermind all along? I can even imagine that if we had another installment in the series, it could have two protagonists as well, one who's the mastermind and the other who isn't! Many interesting ideias could come up with it as well, as for example, before the prologue starts you get to choose which one you want to play as for the entire game or their screentime could be divided between the chapters! They both could be an boy and a girl, maybe the boy as the mastermind since we only had female masterminds until now. Hell, these two protagonists could even be really intimate with one another as the game progresses, showing their depth and thoughts more to give them more personality. It would be good that Kodaka did learn with some mistakes and fix them with another game if it had any in the future, but we unfortunatly can only hope.
Taka was by far my favorite in Danganronpa 1. In the most simplest ways to describe his character, he's the most stubborn hall monitor you will ever know in the most kindest and dorkiest way imaginable. Despite all odds from those who see him as the annoying teacher's pet, and his family's sad history, Taka remained at his feet to see another day where his family name could be one of honor again. That was until his best friend in the killing game murdered his other classmate and got executed. Instead of the loud, enthusiastic, model student everyone knew and loved, what came after the 2nd class trial was a hollowed out shell. In the game, after meeting alter ego and the artificial message from Mondo, Taka literally transforms into another version of Mondo with his own personality mixed in. It would've been *so fufilling* if we got to see Taka for real come to terms with Mondo and Chihiro's death in the later chapters, ending the false reality that Mondo was still alive in him, that he was truly dead and Taka needing to accept that. It would've been interesting to see how this "Kiyondo" would interact in class trials, denying that anyone else had died like those two. Instead he gets cut off in chapter 3, apart of the worst murder scheme of the game.
I definitely agree with your branching paths idea. Danganronpa’s premise could really benefit from a branching path system. That could help with stuff like developing more of the cast. As it’s pretty hard to develop 16 characters with one linear story, especially when it comes to the characters who die early. In fact the first game was practically gonna follow your idea of branching paths in its early stages of development. Down to each path being fairly short looking based on what’s available of the “Distrust” beta. But it got scrapped to save on time and money. Hope a system like that can get implemented in a potential future installment of the series. Maybe even implement it in the previous game in a anniversary remake or something like that.
Ideas for each chapter you criticized: 3: only kill one, or, if you want a double murder, have two killers, with only the one who kills first being punished. 4: either keep the big guy alive or don't have one. 5: Keep the main characters alive. If you spent all this time building up their characters, wouldn't it make sense to have them be a survivor? Edit: Any chance we'd someday be able to see that fanwork?
Thank you for this video! I'm planning on writing my own fanganronpa, and I got a massive boost of inspiration through listening to this. Have a good day, friend :)
I really like your branching path and different kinds of protagonists and antagonists ideas. I also want to aid that when your writing be careful when making fun of tropes and cliches cause before you know it, you yourself are falling into your own cliches. Juggling characters is hard, I learned that when writing a crisis crossover story involving characters from multiple franchises, I had to bench characters I like and had to be creative with other characters. But I must say being creative with characters is fun and rewarding and can make you appreciate said character more and even boost his/her popularity. I.E.: One character that is often used as a butt monkey in her own series, I made her one of the more grounded and serious characters, and I did by simply not making her the butt of jokes like she tends to be in the actual series where her grounded and serious approach either blows up in her face or is made fun off.
Regarding the part about Mikan, as much as I personally love her (I have my reasons, don't kill me), I do have to agree that her character was NOT handled well in terms of the excess fan service and making light of her abuse and trauma. And any potential development to overcome it was wasted. If they ever did make more content for the main canon storyline (which I'm not counting on, I can only dream), I would love if they gave her a character arc for growth and development. I feel like she needs it after how her character was handled. But that's just me.
Freaking thank you. I get really tired of seeing people excuse how her character was handled just because they like her too much. I fully understand why fans would have such a huge attachment to her, but they really shouldn't act like everyone has to see her as an S grade written character, when the actual writers don't even take her seriously enough.
Actually it’s not too impossible for them to make a reconstruction of the story. I don’t have the source but Kodaka mentioned he’d be interested in making 3d versions of the Danganronpa games with story changes a long time ago.
Sometimes I can't help but feel like I want to make my own Fanganronpa but I have other priorities (and I'm not crazy for the franchise anymore as I used to be few years ago). I do have an idea for a protagonist (who is a SHSL Vigilante whose real name is unknown but is known as ''Harigane'' (which means ''wire'') and he is a misanthrope but has a heart of gold once someone gets to know him better (but would still have no mercy for backstabbers). So yeah, basically a grey area MC), most of the cast (talents include game developer, alchemist, a sentai, hacker, and others), their designs, and sometimes I try to develop their stories, but only in my head. So, I certainly can't call it fully developed but if I decide to do something about it I may try taking some of your notes.
Branching paths sound like an interesting idea. It could be even better if the way the paths were chosen would have "sensitive" triggers, resulting in more unpredictable outcomes. The side effects would (of course)involve the fact that you'd have to work on even more routes. For instance, maybe an alternative path could result in minor changes that could favorise different outcomes. What I'm thinking is that if Rantaro gets resurrected, maybe he'd be convinced into killing Kokichi before he could enact his plans, thus changing the whole trajectory. I also have an unrelated idea of the mastermind dying early. Maybe the mastermind is dead and Monokuma tries to make it seem like the mastermind was never dead just to continue the killing game, adding a level of unpredictability.
I thought the whole point with Tsumugi's ramblings in the last case was that V3's Danganronpa had become a cash cow franchise, and I mean the worst kind. That's not to say that the plot points of V3 could have been done better or had been reworked, it could, but from the way Tsumugi acted in the final case I thought the implications was that Danganronpa essentially became one of those long running series where the whole franchise is slowly degrading over time, but keeps on airing because in the V3 timeline it was the only form of entertainment that could fulfill their stimulation, like how bad tv shows keep getting seasons because of the money they make, while their quality decreases over time. I'm... pretty sure that was the intention, anyway.
V3's ending is supposed to offend the in-universe audience, not the real ones. They still neglect referencing the monotony and tropey aspects of the series as part of the ending's cash cow scheme, which gives me the impression that Kodaka unironically thought the writing is solid even if you take out the ending. Reminder that he still treats the game like another entry in the series and not a magnum opus made to tell everyone that he doesn't care. So the bad plotpoints are still inexcusable.
Spoilers for danganman There is a fangan known as danganmon which does take the concept of the mastermind getting murders to happen to keep the game going. In chapter 3, the mastermind was supposed to keep an eye on all of the people who were infected by the despair disease, but left them alone to "go to the toilet", allowing one of them to escape and commit murder. In chapter 4, as the group were playing in an arcade, they saw the killer and accomplice leave to commit murder, yet they didn't say anything or try to stop them. Then in chapter 5, they host a karaoke night, which ends up allowing certain events to happen that lead to a murder. All of this also helps the characters figure out who the mastermind is at the end of the game.
Well. When i first saw your top 10 games you love & hate, i was still in my Danganronpa phase, and was trying to supress my anger about your opinions cuz i was trying to be mature. But now, i feel ya. I'm also in a love hate relationship with it (i dare say stronger than with the one i have with Pokémon), but mine was less discontempt with writing, and more about burnout. When i played Your Turn to Die, i pretty much quited DR, cuz i found to be more cohesive and mature. Sorry for the long comment, but i just wanted to be honest.
i wanna know what u think abt shuichi, cos when u say stuff abt protagonists, u usually say hajime is ok, komaru and kaede are rlly good but i usually think shuichi is the best in the protagonist group, so whats ur opinion on him?
I have a potential idea for a Danganronpa protagonists. His name is Qin, the Ultimate Killer (He doesn't have a last name, mainly because he technically doesn't know his real name). He earned this title because he was raised and trained to be a child solider and killer less than an hour after he was born. This is because a group of military soldiers turned extremists had kidnapped a number of newborns from various hospitals in order to train them to be the next generation of fighters for an upcoming war that might (never) happen. Both Qin and the other newborns were raised and trained in this harsh environment and fatal environments. Matter of fact, it's deemed so harsh that children have either lost limbs or lost their lives. Anyone who lost a limb during a training exercise or a mission, would have their missing limb replaced with a cybernetic replacement and is told to keep moving forward. Qin however is the only one who didn't lose a single limb during his time in this hellhole, but instead received a lot of scars on his body. Add on top of that, his ferocity of a dragon, and he's commonly seen wearing a dragon mark on his clothing, those who knew him gave him the nickname; The Scarred Dragon. This resulted in most of the child soldiers seeing Qin as someone to idolize, and a hope for them that one day they will get out of this hellhole. It also doesn't help that Qin seem to be born with a strange ability. By charging up his aura, Qin is able to perform something they called the KO Punch. Basically, if Qin charges his punch, and manages to connect his punch, no matter where he hits them, or how healthy they are, then the enemy would instantly KOed. He could even charge it even further and deliver a Fatal KO Punch. Despite this life of harsh training, murder and death, Qin almost never lets this get the best of him. Instead, he ironically values the lives of those around him. And the one person he values the most was his childhood friend/possible sweetheart, Anna. The two literally grew up together, trained together, fought together, and hinted that they did it together. Anna was also seen as the second strongest soldier in this army of trained killers (With Qin being the slightly better). That is until one incident that almost killed her. After a botched mission, roughly half of Anna's face and everything from the neck down were heavily burned and damaged. The masters however refused to see one of their top soldiers die. So, by using highly advanced cybernetic components, they cut off her head, and inserted in onto her new body. Anna was dead, but in turn, A.N.N.A., the Ultimate Cyborg was born. Qin was highly conflicted at this point. On the one hand, seeing Anna alive and being with her made his life more tolerable. But on the other hand, Qin was pissed to see his masters undervaluing the value of life. Seeing them turning someone into a literal war machine, and not even considering that they might be making someone suffer ever further, combine that that he accidently found out that he might be the illegitimate son of an exiled clansman, and that he might have an older half-brother somewhere less than a week before what happened to Anna and Qin had finally had it (The reason why and how is because, during a mission where he was supposed to assassinate a corrupted politician, he accidently stumbled upon a TV that was hosting a live tournament, of which his possible father was hosting the tournament, and his possible half-brother performed the KO Punch on one of his opponents, which was a technique that he thought only he knew). He decided to be what the other child soldiers expected him to be; The Symbol of Rebellion. Qin, along with A.N.N.A., decided to lead a rebellion, freeing the children from their lives, and even managing to kill their masters. Qin and A.N.N.A. had freed the child soldiers, and the two watched as their home burned to the ground. After that, the two had to decide what to do with their lives. It took a while, but eventually, Qin decided to find out if he is the missing illegitimate son of the KO Clan. A.N.N.A., because she had nowhere to go, decided that she wanted to join Qin. Long story short, they attended next year's tournament, and as luck would have it, Qin made it to the finals, and fought his older half-brother, as well as confirming his beliefs. He truly was the illegitimate son of the aforementioned exiled clansman and younger half-brother of the champion martial artist. More stuff happened, including meeting his half-brother's mother, of which she decided to adopt, and eventually Qin was enlisted in an academy, where he, along with 15 other students joined.... and you can probably guess what happened afterwards.
The backstory is interesting, but I do wonder if he has a special reason for joining the killing game? If he was trapped like any other DR story, then I figure his personality's really gotta sell his character.
@@CountShaman Part of the reason is to try to find a normal life that doesn't involve around killing. After all, a young man who's spent roughly 18-20 years of his life doing nothing but training to be a professional killer, and to eventually free himself from his old life, well, what would one do? So, when he finds himself in an academy where another Killing Game occurs, chances are he would want to do everything he can to prevent the killings from happening. Speaking of which this also leads to another dynamic to the overall story. At the beginning, Qin's Ultimate Talent would be unknown, not because he has amnesia like Kyoko or Rantaro, but because he doesn't want anyone to know that he's a killer. After all, Qin wants to try to have a normal life, and attend a school so that he could have a chance to do something different other than killing. Flash forward to Monokuma making his appearance and revealing that this another Killing Game, Monokuma then reveals that one of them is the Ultimate Killer. If someone committed a murder, and at the end of trial, if the victim is revealed to be the Ultimate Killer, then both the Blackened and the rest of the students can graduate. Qin, seeing this as a means to save the remaining 15 reveals himself as the Ultimate Killer, intentionally putting a huge target on his back. This would however piss off Monokuma. This is because Monokuma would then reveal that he wasn't supposed to reveal his title as the Ultimate Killer, as he wanted the killings, as the whole point of this was to add a sense of mystery. This results in that idea to be tossed aside, and to make matters worse, most of the students are hesitant to even come close to Qin. After all, can you truly trust the Ultimate Killer?
@@FlowersOfAmity Maki was orphaned, Qin was kidnapped when he was a baby, and his parents, at least his father is still alive. Not to mention, Qin does have several people to comfort him, like his girlfriend A.N.N.A., his half-brother (of which the two do have a rivalry) and adopted mother (Who's his half-brother's biological mother).
@@OmnicidalClown1992 So basically a subversion of Maki's character. I think it's a neat idea to have a protag who's experienced, but also proactive and risk driven without being a psychopath. So it's a good idea, but my advice is that you put their personality first because one of Maki's worst problems is that she leans on her backstory way too much to justify being a cold asshole to everyone.
I am currently writing the first installment of a trilogy of fangans (Which do have their themes) and I am currently writing the plot and characters and this could help a bit. Nice tips!
I'm not gonna lie, the mastermind protagonist idea confused me. Yeah it'll allow for more interesting dialogue and banter between the other chars and the protagonist... but the mystery is pretty much solved at the very beginning/ mid-way through when the player realizes that the protagonist knows different things and can get around unseen. So what's the point there?
I mean, I guess you could try and create a arc around the protag eventually choosing to abandon his role as the mastermind, but at the same time it is a predictable plot point that could fall flat if done incorrectly. Really, I'm fine if they don't continue the Danganronpa series, especially since the team appears to be focused on other projects.
The protag being the mastermind isn't the twist, it's the setup from the start. And the position of mstermind is more-so like a job they had to do, not what they want to do. Basically what I was getting at is the game literally tells you at the start "Hi, I'm the main character, and I'm the mastermind. But I don't know if I even want to be one." Characters of this archetype would be more apathetic towards other participants, though they might not actually want to see them die. Everything else about them boils down to how creative the writer can get with that concept.
@@CountShaman I mean in that light, I do understand. But wouldn't the mystery just be thrown away as to what may or may not happen? Savvy players may be able to correctly predict what will happen since there's only a few ways for that to go. Either the mm protag finds redemption or they don't y'know?
@@AntiR2525 You could say the same thing about regular masterminds in general. All of them are just megalomaniacs who gets their ass kicked after a couple hours worth of monologue. If you write the story around just the mastermind, then the predictable outcome is all you get, which is why the role other characters play will have to factor into how the mastermind protag develops. It's still an idea that hasn't been done prevalently, so claiming that it's predictable is jumping a bit too far ahead when there's yet to be a direct reference to go by. Plus I have seen fanworks that feature the mastermind at the start of the game, and still maintain an invested audience. So again, you can never tell for sure unless you try.
@@CountShaman you know what. Fair enough. Other than The Last Of Us 2 and Spec Ops: The Line, I've yet to see a game make you play as a villain. Hope the new year treats you well Shaman.
Unfortunately, the comic was discontinued and the author is no longer active, but you can still find the motion comic dub on YT. Search up Rock Bottom by redastomato.
@@CountShaman Oh wow,well I'll definitely check it out thank you. Also this was a really great video addressing danganronpa's flaws and how it can be improved and out of curiosity I'd like to ask,as far as the rival characters go(byakuya,nagito and kokichi)do you think they work well as rivals or are they badly written in your opinion?
@@anxhelovucinaj1576 Byakuya is fine, though I do find it weird that they lampshade some of the genuinely scummy things he did. Nagito's good, I grow to appreciate him over time when I realized that a villain from a story I'm writing shares similar ideals with him. But I still do wish he talks less sometimes. Kokichi is a mess. I get that he's supposed to be pathological, but the fact that he's so irrationally douchy makes him more pretentious than interesting. Doesn't help that he has the worst fanbase in the whole community that fabricates aspects of his personality to pretend that he's "pure".
@@CountShaman Yeah I definitely agree with you in regards to byakuya and kokichi. Nagito is probably my favorite character in danganronpa but I think I would have appreciated his role in the story more if he was the actual mastermind. There's some interesting potential in his conflict with hajime. You could have someone like hajime who grows to become a stronger person through the connections that he forms with others to carve his own future even if is talentless and nagito who is similar to hajime on the fact that aside from his luck he is completely unremarkable but unlike hajime he gave up and choose to succumb to his hatred and lash out at society and the world for pushing the whole:"If you aren't talented than you're nothing more than a step ladder,someone who'll never be happy unless you're born special". And while that is nagito's belief in the actual game,you can create a scenario where that's what he used to believe before entering hope's peak academy,but when he did he eventually noticed the corruption of this mindset as these"ultimates"were given the best necessities in life by the government just because they were"born special".He would eventually grow to despise this fact and that's how junko would manipulate him into joining ultimate despair despite his love for hope. An ideological conflict like that between hajime and nagito would make for a more satisfying climax to the game and make nagito a more interesting character than he already is in my opinion,what do you think?
@@anxhelovucinaj1576 It's a neat idea. I think I did have something similar to that written for a character, though I might need to double check on my own time.
First, good reference to Archer there, dude, and the video was well thought-out, but... Is it me, or is the Start of the video up to a certain point... kinda out-of-sync?
concerning myself as someone who considers danganronpa the best franchise they know of as of yet, what do i think? well obviously i think the series is fine as it is most of it is the creators being true to themselves for a start
That's fine if it's Kodaka since it's his series. It's when others try to replicate his personality in their own fanworks is when it starts to become irritating.
If you're wondering why I used the Sky Tower music for the BGM, it's because Mystery Dungeon and Danganronpa are both developed by Spike Chunsoft. Small world, eh?
Video co-edited by: th-cam.com/users/coolcat001100
The main thing that could fix Danganronpa in a fourth game would be to break their traditions (such as having a female protagonist who survives, have the big student survive, a male mastermind, possibly two masterminds, have two killers in cases instead of two victims, and most importantly more representation of all kinds!)
I wouldn't fully count on that. When all you care about is subverting a trope but fail to give any substance to the subversion, it falls just as flat as the rest.
Like, you can throw two killers in a chapter all you want, but if the killer's character are still the same low tier psycho crap you see in the core games, it's still obnoxiously predictable, especially if it doesn't add anything to the story.
@@CountShaman That's true. You need more than just subverting the trope. Just look at The Sequel Trilogy of Star Wars. Sometimes subverting things can be just as bad as playing it straight... Especially if nothing is broken at all.
That's predictable and lame
Hot take, the cast should be mostly Japanese as in the first 3 games because it’s a Japanese game in a Japanese setting.
@@keyboardguru4212 Yet there are multiple ethnic groups in Japan as much as other countries. The dominant group is Yamato but there are also Ryukyan, Okinawan, Ainu, Bonin, and more. Also if you watch certain channels online you’d know that there is a notable number of Mixed Japanese and Black people who are living in Japan!
To be honest, I wasn't expecting you were going to talk about the protagonists, but I'm really relieved you did. You actually made me remember why I mostly disliked the plot twist of Kaede being an ploy protagonist in chapter 1. Because we were right back at the average, normal and somehow 'dull' protagonist again. And this also falls into the familiar 'tropes' that danganronpa apparently has, which is 'no female lead' in every main line game.
In my opinion, Shuichi didn't had that much personality in the same level that Kaede had, and it's not because he was another male protag; many male leads in fiction can be quite intriguing and complex. However, when you compare Shuichi and Kaede at the same spot, you can clearly see the difference in EVERYTHING (personality-wise). When I first started playing V3 for the first time I was really hyped to be able to play with an character that had an strong will, leadership skills, beautiful yet simple design (simple as all the other protags) and a cheerful personality filled with charisma, aside from the fact that I enjoy female protags in games, in general. And when the trial came and we switched to Shuichi, it was like that light I had at the start, simply died on the spot. Because for me, in the entire game, Shuichi didn't flash out other segments of his personality aside from his confidence to face others and his talent nor made me entirely sympathize realistically with him, he's just bland and average for me.
PLEASE, this is not me talking bad about Shuichi because he's definetly one of the most well developed characters in the game (despite what I said earlier) and I loved that in chapter 6, when he discovered that Kaede couldn't have been the culprit, he became extremely determined to uncover that mystery and reveal the mastermind who killed her. But he unfortunatly, didn't went well for me as an protagonist and in my opinion there were plenty other characters in the cast that could have been the protagonist instead of him, Like Miu, Kokichi, Maki, hell even Tsumugui could flash out more personality if she was the lead.
I also loved your concepts of protagonists and antagonists, having an mastermind as an protagonist who knows that they're the ones controlling everything, make such an interesting concept that could have be beautifully portrayed. Seeing their internal monologues entirely different to the personality they show to the rest of the cast and imagine the scene where everyone discovers that the protag who helped them all this time was the mastermind all along?
I can even imagine that if we had another installment in the series, it could have two protagonists as well, one who's the mastermind and the other who isn't! Many interesting ideias could come up with it as well, as for example, before the prologue starts you get to choose which one you want to play as for the entire game or their screentime could be divided between the chapters! They both could be an boy and a girl, maybe the boy as the mastermind since we only had female masterminds until now. Hell, these two protagonists could even be really intimate with one another as the game progresses, showing their depth and thoughts more to give them more personality.
It would be good that Kodaka did learn with some mistakes and fix them with another game if it had any in the future, but we unfortunatly can only hope.
Taka was by far my favorite in Danganronpa 1. In the most simplest ways to describe his character, he's the most stubborn hall monitor you will ever know in the most kindest and dorkiest way imaginable. Despite all odds from those who see him as the annoying teacher's pet, and his family's sad history, Taka remained at his feet to see another day where his family name could be one of honor again.
That was until his best friend in the killing game murdered his other classmate and got executed. Instead of the loud, enthusiastic, model student everyone knew and loved, what came after the 2nd class trial was a hollowed out shell.
In the game, after meeting alter ego and the artificial message from Mondo, Taka literally transforms into another version of Mondo with his own personality mixed in.
It would've been *so fufilling* if we got to see Taka for real come to terms with Mondo and Chihiro's death in the later chapters, ending the false reality that Mondo was still alive in him, that he was truly dead and Taka needing to accept that. It would've been interesting to see how this "Kiyondo" would interact in class trials, denying that anyone else had died like those two.
Instead he gets cut off in chapter 3, apart of the worst murder scheme of the game.
any taka fan is a friend of mine 😌
I definitely agree with your branching paths idea. Danganronpa’s premise could really benefit from a branching path system. That could help with stuff like developing more of the cast. As it’s pretty hard to develop 16 characters with one linear story, especially when it comes to the characters who die early.
In fact the first game was practically gonna follow your idea of branching paths in its early stages of development. Down to each path being fairly short looking based on what’s available of the “Distrust” beta. But it got scrapped to save on time and money.
Hope a system like that can get implemented in a potential future installment of the series. Maybe even implement it in the previous game in a anniversary remake or something like that.
Reminds me of this one fangan I read on AO3: "Danganronpa: Things That Never Happened".
Ideas for each chapter you criticized:
3: only kill one, or, if you want a double murder, have two killers, with only the one who kills first being punished.
4: either keep the big guy alive or don't have one.
5: Keep the main characters alive. If you spent all this time building up their characters, wouldn't it make sense to have them be a survivor?
Edit: Any chance we'd someday be able to see that fanwork?
Thank you for this video!
I'm planning on writing my own fanganronpa, and I got a massive boost of inspiration through listening to this. Have a good day, friend :)
I really like your branching path and different kinds of protagonists and antagonists ideas.
I also want to aid that when your writing be careful when making fun of tropes and cliches cause before you know it, you yourself are falling into your own cliches.
Juggling characters is hard, I learned that when writing a crisis crossover story involving characters from multiple franchises, I had to bench characters I like and had to be creative with other characters.
But I must say being creative with characters is fun and rewarding and can make you appreciate said character more and even boost his/her popularity.
I.E.: One character that is often used as a butt monkey in her own series, I made her one of the more grounded and serious characters, and I did by simply not making her the butt of jokes like she tends to be in the actual series where her grounded and serious approach either blows up in her face or is made fun off.
That's a noble take indeed. I always value it when people can take what's initially joke/throwaway characters and actually make them meaningful.
Regarding the part about Mikan, as much as I personally love her (I have my reasons, don't kill me), I do have to agree that her character was NOT handled well in terms of the excess fan service and making light of her abuse and trauma. And any potential development to overcome it was wasted.
If they ever did make more content for the main canon storyline (which I'm not counting on, I can only dream), I would love if they gave her a character arc for growth and development. I feel like she needs it after how her character was handled. But that's just me.
Freaking thank you. I get really tired of seeing people excuse how her character was handled just because they like her too much. I fully understand why fans would have such a huge attachment to her, but they really shouldn't act like everyone has to see her as an S grade written character, when the actual writers don't even take her seriously enough.
At most she should have been a victim to bullying at most.
The amount of harassment she got canon wise was a bit outlandish for my taste.
@@sliceninja4546 It was definitely exaggerated to the extreme to say the least.
Actually it’s not too impossible for them to make a reconstruction of the story.
I don’t have the source but Kodaka mentioned he’d be interested in making 3d versions of the Danganronpa games with story changes a long time ago.
Sometimes I can't help but feel like I want to make my own Fanganronpa but I have other priorities (and I'm not crazy for the franchise anymore as I used to be few years ago). I do have an idea for a protagonist (who is a SHSL Vigilante whose real name is unknown but is known as ''Harigane'' (which means ''wire'') and he is a misanthrope but has a heart of gold once someone gets to know him better (but would still have no mercy for backstabbers). So yeah, basically a grey area MC), most of the cast (talents include game developer, alchemist, a sentai, hacker, and others), their designs, and sometimes I try to develop their stories, but only in my head. So, I certainly can't call it fully developed but if I decide to do something about it I may try taking some of your notes.
Branching paths sound like an interesting idea. It could be even better if the way the paths were chosen would have "sensitive" triggers, resulting in more unpredictable outcomes. The side effects would (of course)involve the fact that you'd have to work on even more routes.
For instance, maybe an alternative path could result in minor changes that could favorise different outcomes. What I'm thinking is that if Rantaro gets resurrected, maybe he'd be convinced into killing Kokichi before he could enact his plans, thus changing the whole trajectory.
I also have an unrelated idea of the mastermind dying early. Maybe the mastermind is dead and Monokuma tries to make it seem like the mastermind was never dead just to continue the killing game, adding a level of unpredictability.
I thought the whole point with Tsumugi's ramblings in the last case was that V3's Danganronpa had become a cash cow franchise, and I mean the worst kind.
That's not to say that the plot points of V3 could have been done better or had been reworked, it could, but from the way Tsumugi acted in the final case I thought the implications was that Danganronpa essentially became one of those long running series where the whole franchise is slowly degrading over time, but keeps on airing because in the V3 timeline it was the only form of entertainment that could fulfill their stimulation, like how bad tv shows keep getting seasons because of the money they make, while their quality decreases over time.
I'm... pretty sure that was the intention, anyway.
V3's ending is supposed to offend the in-universe audience, not the real ones. They still neglect referencing the monotony and tropey aspects of the series as part of the ending's cash cow scheme, which gives me the impression that Kodaka unironically thought the writing is solid even if you take out the ending.
Reminder that he still treats the game like another entry in the series and not a magnum opus made to tell everyone that he doesn't care. So the bad plotpoints are still inexcusable.
@@CountShaman Oh okay, that makes some sense.
Spoilers for danganman
There is a fangan known as danganmon which does take the concept of the mastermind getting murders to happen to keep the game going. In chapter 3, the mastermind was supposed to keep an eye on all of the people who were infected by the despair disease, but left them alone to "go to the toilet", allowing one of them to escape and commit murder. In chapter 4, as the group were playing in an arcade, they saw the killer and accomplice leave to commit murder, yet they didn't say anything or try to stop them. Then in chapter 5, they host a karaoke night, which ends up allowing certain events to happen that lead to a murder. All of this also helps the characters figure out who the mastermind is at the end of the game.
Given how many there are, I’d love to see what you think the best “fanganronpas” are.
Gonna mention a sin here. *looking at you future arc*
*Red Blood in Danganronpa*
Well. When i first saw your top 10 games you love & hate, i was still in my Danganronpa phase, and was trying to supress my anger about your opinions cuz i was trying to be mature. But now, i feel ya. I'm also in a love hate relationship with it (i dare say stronger than with the one i have with Pokémon), but mine was less discontempt with writing, and more about burnout. When i played Your Turn to Die, i pretty much quited DR, cuz i found to be more cohesive and mature. Sorry for the long comment, but i just wanted to be honest.
i wanna know what u think abt shuichi, cos when u say stuff abt protagonists, u usually say hajime is ok, komaru and kaede are rlly good
but i usually think shuichi is the best in the protagonist group, so whats ur opinion on him?
I have a potential idea for a Danganronpa protagonists. His name is Qin, the Ultimate Killer (He doesn't have a last name, mainly because he technically doesn't know his real name). He earned this title because he was raised and trained to be a child solider and killer less than an hour after he was born. This is because a group of military soldiers turned extremists had kidnapped a number of newborns from various hospitals in order to train them to be the next generation of fighters for an upcoming war that might (never) happen.
Both Qin and the other newborns were raised and trained in this harsh environment and fatal environments. Matter of fact, it's deemed so harsh that children have either lost limbs or lost their lives. Anyone who lost a limb during a training exercise or a mission, would have their missing limb replaced with a cybernetic replacement and is told to keep moving forward. Qin however is the only one who didn't lose a single limb during his time in this hellhole, but instead received a lot of scars on his body. Add on top of that, his ferocity of a dragon, and he's commonly seen wearing a dragon mark on his clothing, those who knew him gave him the nickname; The Scarred Dragon. This resulted in most of the child soldiers seeing Qin as someone to idolize, and a hope for them that one day they will get out of this hellhole. It also doesn't help that Qin seem to be born with a strange ability. By charging up his aura, Qin is able to perform something they called the KO Punch. Basically, if Qin charges his punch, and manages to connect his punch, no matter where he hits them, or how healthy they are, then the enemy would instantly KOed. He could even charge it even further and deliver a Fatal KO Punch.
Despite this life of harsh training, murder and death, Qin almost never lets this get the best of him. Instead, he ironically values the lives of those around him. And the one person he values the most was his childhood friend/possible sweetheart, Anna. The two literally grew up together, trained together, fought together, and hinted that they did it together. Anna was also seen as the second strongest soldier in this army of trained killers (With Qin being the slightly better). That is until one incident that almost killed her. After a botched mission, roughly half of Anna's face and everything from the neck down were heavily burned and damaged. The masters however refused to see one of their top soldiers die. So, by using highly advanced cybernetic components, they cut off her head, and inserted in onto her new body. Anna was dead, but in turn, A.N.N.A., the Ultimate Cyborg was born.
Qin was highly conflicted at this point. On the one hand, seeing Anna alive and being with her made his life more tolerable. But on the other hand, Qin was pissed to see his masters undervaluing the value of life. Seeing them turning someone into a literal war machine, and not even considering that they might be making someone suffer ever further, combine that that he accidently found out that he might be the illegitimate son of an exiled clansman, and that he might have an older half-brother somewhere less than a week before what happened to Anna and Qin had finally had it (The reason why and how is because, during a mission where he was supposed to assassinate a corrupted politician, he accidently stumbled upon a TV that was hosting a live tournament, of which his possible father was hosting the tournament, and his possible half-brother performed the KO Punch on one of his opponents, which was a technique that he thought only he knew). He decided to be what the other child soldiers expected him to be; The Symbol of Rebellion. Qin, along with A.N.N.A., decided to lead a rebellion, freeing the children from their lives, and even managing to kill their masters. Qin and A.N.N.A. had freed the child soldiers, and the two watched as their home burned to the ground.
After that, the two had to decide what to do with their lives. It took a while, but eventually, Qin decided to find out if he is the missing illegitimate son of the KO Clan. A.N.N.A., because she had nowhere to go, decided that she wanted to join Qin. Long story short, they attended next year's tournament, and as luck would have it, Qin made it to the finals, and fought his older half-brother, as well as confirming his beliefs. He truly was the illegitimate son of the aforementioned exiled clansman and younger half-brother of the champion martial artist. More stuff happened, including meeting his half-brother's mother, of which she decided to adopt, and eventually Qin was enlisted in an academy, where he, along with 15 other students joined.... and you can probably guess what happened afterwards.
The backstory is interesting, but I do wonder if he has a special reason for joining the killing game? If he was trapped like any other DR story, then I figure his personality's really gotta sell his character.
isnt this maki though
@@CountShaman Part of the reason is to try to find a normal life that doesn't involve around killing. After all, a young man who's spent roughly 18-20 years of his life doing nothing but training to be a professional killer, and to eventually free himself from his old life, well, what would one do? So, when he finds himself in an academy where another Killing Game occurs, chances are he would want to do everything he can to prevent the killings from happening.
Speaking of which this also leads to another dynamic to the overall story. At the beginning, Qin's Ultimate Talent would be unknown, not because he has amnesia like Kyoko or Rantaro, but because he doesn't want anyone to know that he's a killer. After all, Qin wants to try to have a normal life, and attend a school so that he could have a chance to do something different other than killing. Flash forward to Monokuma making his appearance and revealing that this another Killing Game, Monokuma then reveals that one of them is the Ultimate Killer. If someone committed a murder, and at the end of trial, if the victim is revealed to be the Ultimate Killer, then both the Blackened and the rest of the students can graduate. Qin, seeing this as a means to save the remaining 15 reveals himself as the Ultimate Killer, intentionally putting a huge target on his back. This would however piss off Monokuma. This is because Monokuma would then reveal that he wasn't supposed to reveal his title as the Ultimate Killer, as he wanted the killings, as the whole point of this was to add a sense of mystery. This results in that idea to be tossed aside, and to make matters worse, most of the students are hesitant to even come close to Qin. After all, can you truly trust the Ultimate Killer?
@@FlowersOfAmity Maki was orphaned, Qin was kidnapped when he was a baby, and his parents, at least his father is still alive. Not to mention, Qin does have several people to comfort him, like his girlfriend A.N.N.A., his half-brother (of which the two do have a rivalry) and adopted mother (Who's his half-brother's biological mother).
@@OmnicidalClown1992 So basically a subversion of Maki's character. I think it's a neat idea to have a protag who's experienced, but also proactive and risk driven without being a psychopath.
So it's a good idea, but my advice is that you put their personality first because one of Maki's worst problems is that she leans on her backstory way too much to justify being a cold asshole to everyone.
I am currently writing the first installment of a trilogy of fangans (Which do have their themes) and I am currently writing the plot and characters and this could help a bit.
Nice tips!
You can even make your own troops
I'm not gonna lie, the mastermind protagonist idea confused me. Yeah it'll allow for more interesting dialogue and banter between the other chars and the protagonist... but the mystery is pretty much solved at the very beginning/ mid-way through when the player realizes that the protagonist knows different things and can get around unseen. So what's the point there?
I mean, I guess you could try and create a arc around the protag eventually choosing to abandon his role as the mastermind, but at the same time it is a predictable plot point that could fall flat if done incorrectly.
Really, I'm fine if they don't continue the Danganronpa series, especially since the team appears to be focused on other projects.
The protag being the mastermind isn't the twist, it's the setup from the start. And the position of mstermind is more-so like a job they had to do, not what they want to do. Basically what I was getting at is the game literally tells you at the start "Hi, I'm the main character, and I'm the mastermind. But I don't know if I even want to be one."
Characters of this archetype would be more apathetic towards other participants, though they might not actually want to see them die. Everything else about them boils down to how creative the writer can get with that concept.
@@CountShaman I mean in that light, I do understand. But wouldn't the mystery just be thrown away as to what may or may not happen? Savvy players may be able to correctly predict what will happen since there's only a few ways for that to go.
Either the mm protag finds redemption or they don't y'know?
@@AntiR2525 You could say the same thing about regular masterminds in general. All of them are just megalomaniacs who gets their ass kicked after a couple hours worth of monologue. If you write the story around just the mastermind, then the predictable outcome is all you get, which is why the role other characters play will have to factor into how the mastermind protag develops.
It's still an idea that hasn't been done prevalently, so claiming that it's predictable is jumping a bit too far ahead when there's yet to be a direct reference to go by.
Plus I have seen fanworks that feature the mastermind at the start of the game, and still maintain an invested audience. So again, you can never tell for sure unless you try.
@@CountShaman you know what. Fair enough. Other than The Last Of Us 2 and Spec Ops: The Line, I've yet to see a game make you play as a villain.
Hope the new year treats you well Shaman.
Hm, interesting.
Where can I find that"junko manipulating the DR2 cast"thing that you mentioned in your 4th point,that was AWESOME,please tell me
Unfortunately, the comic was discontinued and the author is no longer active, but you can still find the motion comic dub on YT. Search up Rock Bottom by redastomato.
@@CountShaman Oh wow,well I'll definitely check it out thank you.
Also this was a really great video addressing danganronpa's flaws and how it can be improved and out of curiosity I'd like to ask,as far as the rival characters go(byakuya,nagito and kokichi)do you think they work well as rivals or are they badly written in your opinion?
@@anxhelovucinaj1576 Byakuya is fine, though I do find it weird that they lampshade some of the genuinely scummy things he did.
Nagito's good, I grow to appreciate him over time when I realized that a villain from a story I'm writing shares similar ideals with him. But I still do wish he talks less sometimes.
Kokichi is a mess. I get that he's supposed to be pathological, but the fact that he's so irrationally douchy makes him more pretentious than interesting. Doesn't help that he has the worst fanbase in the whole community that fabricates aspects of his personality to pretend that he's "pure".
@@CountShaman Yeah I definitely agree with you in regards to byakuya and kokichi.
Nagito is probably my favorite character in danganronpa but I think I would have appreciated his role in the story more if he was the actual mastermind.
There's some interesting potential in his conflict with hajime.
You could have someone like hajime who grows to become a stronger person through the connections that he forms with others to carve his own future even if is talentless and nagito who is similar to hajime on the fact that aside from his luck he is completely unremarkable but unlike hajime he gave up and choose to succumb to his hatred and lash out at society and the world for pushing the whole:"If you aren't talented than you're nothing more than a step ladder,someone who'll never be happy unless you're born special".
And while that is nagito's belief in the actual game,you can create a scenario where that's what he used to believe before entering hope's peak academy,but when he did he eventually noticed the corruption of this mindset as these"ultimates"were given the best necessities in life by the government just because they were"born special".He would eventually grow to despise this fact and that's how junko would manipulate him into joining ultimate despair despite his love for hope.
An ideological conflict like that between hajime and nagito would make for a more satisfying climax to the game and make nagito a more interesting character than he already is in my opinion,what do you think?
@@anxhelovucinaj1576 It's a neat idea. I think I did have something similar to that written for a character, though I might need to double check on my own time.
in my danganronpa the protagonist is the ultimate blank slate and isn't a blank slate protagonist instead has his own character and backstory
We're can I find that comic with junk and ibuki
First, good reference to Archer there, dude, and the video was well thought-out, but... Is it me, or is the Start of the video up to a certain point... kinda out-of-sync?
I didn't see any off-sync issue. Maybe it's a problem on your side? Unless you can point to a specific timestamp.
@@CountShaman... Huh. It's fine upon re-checking the beginning, meaning that it was... A TH-cam issue on my end. Well, nevermind then.
concerning myself as someone who considers danganronpa the best franchise they know of as of yet, what do i think?
well obviously i think the series is fine as it is
most of it is the creators being true to themselves for a start
That's fine if it's Kodaka since it's his series. It's when others try to replicate his personality in their own fanworks is when it starts to become irritating.
Do you know game called your turn to die?
I was in a group with someone who modded a character from that game into Rivals of Aether. So... I guess lol
@@CountShaman the game kinda does what u sugested, even the alternative paths, and IT'S FREE so i recomend it
I’m calling it now an coherent ending