Introduction
So, what's all this then?
This is Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls - henceforth referred to simply as Ultra Despair Girls or UDG for short - a spinoff of the Danganronpa series released for the PlayStation Vita in Japan in September of 2014 and in the other regions in September of 2015. It was then ported to the PlayStation 4 and Windows PCs, with those ports being released in June 2017. I'll be playing on that Windows port for ease of recording, by the way. Anyway, contrary to the previous two games' visual novel and puzzle mixture gameplay, this game takes a bit of a departure from that, mixing the visual novel segments with third-person adventuring, incorporating both shooter and hack-and-slash elements.
...they made a Danganronpa third-person-shooter?
...kinda, yeah. I promise it's not as bad as it sounds!
I heard some really bad things about this game.
Yeah, the reception for this game has been, uh, let's call it controversial. It's not all that well liked. Which might make this LP a bit awkward, because I really like this game. I feel like I have to say this beforehand so there's no wrong expectations about what this LP is going to be, because I'm fairly sure that there's a decent part of the potential audience here that would have preferred a teardown over what I'm going to present, which is more going to be showing off what I love about this game with a generally positive tone. So, just so you know.
Is there something I should know before going into this game?
Well, the game just expects you to have played the first two games - Trigger Happy Havoc and Goodbye Despair. As such, you should know what happens in those games. If you don't, FPZero has you covered with LPs of the first game and the second game. Note that the thread for the second game starts dropping spoilers for UDG after the conclusion of the game, so be aware of that.
Speaking of spoilers...
No spoilers. Fucking period. Not with tags, not with anything. No spoilers. Stuff relating to DR1 and DR2 is obviously fair game, since UDG assumes that you've played both, but UDG and everything afterwards (which is mainly DR3, the anime, and DRV3, the third mainline game) is completely off limits. I will be anal about this.
One caveat to that rule: If I, by virtue of being an eternal fuckup, spoil something by mistake, do not point it out in the thread. Maybe send me a PM or something, but don't point it out directly in the thread, since all that does is just draw more attention to it. I will be paying extra attention to not fucking up in that manner, but I've learned to never assume that I'll be able to not fuck up.
Alright, so what's the LP going to be like?
Screenshot style. We'll have mainly screenshot stuff with some videos interspersed to show off particular segments, be they dialogue sections, animated movies or gameplay. Videos will be designated with this type of image:
Also, because there's going to be a lot of videos, I'm going to institute a sort of "seal of approval" thing. Videos that I particularly think you should watch will be designated with this type of image:
Note that during the first few updates, there will probably be a larger amount of videos with the seal of approval - it'll go down when we get into major gameplay. Also also, I have an icon to signify that a character is talking in a voiceover. It looks like this:
Otherwise, it shouldn't be anything out of the ordinary. And with that said, let's get this show on the road!
Table of Contents
Prologue - The Warriors Of HopeUpdate I
Update II
Extra - DR1 Recap
Extra - DR2 Recap
Update III
Update IV
Update V
Chapter 1 - Crying for Love in Hell
Update VI
Update VII
Update VIII
Update IX
Update X
Update XI
Update XII
Update XIII
Update XIV
Chapter 2 - Legend of the Revolution
Update XV
Update XVI
Update XVII
Update XVIII
Update XIX
Update XX
Update XXI
Update XXII
Update XXIII
Update XXIV
Update XXV
Update XXVI
Chapter 3 - Cute Girl's Battlefield
Update XXVII
Update XXVIII
Update XXIX
Update XXX
Update XXXI
Update XXXII
Update XXXIII
Update XXXIV
Chapter 4 - The Way We Live
Update XXXV
Update XXXVI
Update XXXVII
Update XXXVIII
Update XXXIX
Update XL
Update XLI
Update XLII
Chapter 5 - Absolute Despair Girl
Update XLIII
Update XLIV
Update XLV
Update XLVI
Update XLVII
Update XLVIII
Update XLIX - Part I
Update XLIX - Part II
Update L
Epilogue - The Changing World We Made
Update LI
Extra - Ultra Despair Hagakure
Update LII
Extra - Voice Actor Talk by SoundwaveAU
Voice Actor Talk 1 - Komaru / Byakuya / Nagito
Voice Actor Talk 2 - Toko / Genocide Jack
Voice Actor Talk 3 - Masaru / Jataro / Yuta
Voice Actor Talk 4 - Haiji / Hiroko / Shirokuma / Kurokuma
Voice Actor Talk 5 - Kotoko / Nagisa / Monaca
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So, what's all this then?
This is Danganronpa 3: The End Of Hope's Peak Academy, an anime that begun airing in July 2016.
Wait, what?
Yeah, for some reason Kodaka decided that the culmination of the Hope's Peak saga, primarily contained in video games, should be made into an anime. I mean, it's Kodaka, there's no gain in trying to make sense of his decisions.
No, I mean, why are you doing this?
Because I want this to be covered in some way. Before somebody goes on to do DRV3, we should at least have somewhere somebody can go and see what happened in this anime, just for completion's sake.
But the actual answer is because I'm stupid, and have bad ideas.
Point taken. What's it about?
Well, Kodaka decided to get a bit creative with this. The story being told is split into two, with there being a Future Side and a Despair Side, with episodes trading off the two sides. The Future Side will focus on Makoto Naegi at Future Foundation after the events of DR2. Future Foundation isn't exactly too happy about Makoto going rogue in the situation with the Remnants of Despair, and as such, they're having an internal trial for treason. From there, the situation will escalate. On the other hand, the Despair Side goes all the way back to the beginning, before The Incident has even happened. We're going to join the 77th Class, the characters from DR2, at Hope's Peak and see the events that would eventually lead them to becoming the Remnants of Despair.
And how are you going to do this?
Well, it's mainly going to be a play-by-play sort of thing, mixed in with screenshots. I'm not going to transcribe all dialogue and that kind of thing, just give a general overview of what happens and what is being said, though I will be quoting particular lines that are important or... notable. The latter will become particularly relevant, since I'm going to be doing this using the dubbed version. The dub is... special in parts. For this reason, I will also be giving you a "dub showcase" video at some point. There's some lines that are just better heard.
Now, let's get going.
Episode 1 - Future Side, Episode 1: Third time's the charm
Episode 2 - Despair Side, Episode 1: Hello Again, Hope's Peak High School
Episode 3 - Future Side, Episode 2: Hang the Witch
Episode 4 - Despair Side, Episode 2: My Impurest Heart for You
Episode 5 - Future Side, Episode 3: Cruel violence and hollow words
Episode 6 - Despair Side, Episode 3: A Farewell to All Futures
Episode 7 - Future Side, Episode 4: Who is a liar
Episode 8 - Despair Side, Episode 4: The Melancholy, Surprise, and Disappearance of Nagito Komaeda
Episode 9 - Future Side, Episode 5: Dreams of distant days
Episode 10 - Despair Side, Episode 5: The Beginning Of The End
Episode 11 - Future Side, Episode 6: No man is an island
Episode 12 - Despair Side, Episode 6: A Despairfully Fateful Encounter
Episode 13 - Future Side, Episode 7: Ultra Despair Girls
Episode 14 - Despair Side, Episode 7: The Biggest, Most Atrocious Incident in Hope's Peak High School's History
Episode 15 - Future Side, Episode 8: Who Killed Cock Robin
Episode 16 - Despair Side, Episode 8: The Worst Reunion by Chance
Episode 17 - Future Side, Episode 9: You are my reason to Die
Episode 18 - Despair Side, Episode 9: Chisa Yukizome Doesn't Smile
Episode 19 - Future Side, Episode 10: Death, Destruction, Despair
Episode 20 - Despair Side, Episode 10: Smile at Despair in the Name of Hope
Episode 21 - Future Side, Episode 11: All good things
Episode 22 - Despair Side, Episode 11: Goodbye, Hope's Peak High School
Episode 23 - Future Side, Episode 12: It is always darkest
Episode 24 - Hope Side: The School of Hope and the Students of Despair