@@Yan_Alkovic He did but I remember a scene of Kotoko jumping on him to stop him from doing something and Haiji yelling at her also being "too old for him." I could be remembering wrong though, but either way, it's Haiji Towa so fuck him anyway.
I dont like Haiji. However its bot because he "likes em young". Its because he's such an underwhelming villain and we barely see him. He's ether mostly angry or boring.
As for my thoughts on more stuff, I‘ll wait for a video where you talk about the game more in dept, if it ever comes. UDG is one of my favorite DR games, and the fact that it is so raw and making you uncomfortable on purpose by subverting tropes is definitely a plus. What more to say for now…? Fuck haiji and let UDG settle for a while, the game is the most intense of em after all.
I just wish that we got more out of Yuta and Taichi (Chihiro's dad). Also I'm one of the people who thinks that Taichi may have lived because his body went missing after you beat Jataro. It's my pipedream, but goddammit I wanted him to survive.
Here's how I would fix it: .Have Kotoko torture Komaru physically, we'd still want to save her but it's not hypocritical and creepy .Remove the Kotoko's disgusting treatment by the writers .Show Monaca being a the poor trajic child she actually was, like they really tryna tell me to hate a child who grew up with Haiji and his dad of all people .Make Monaca's wheel chair be for survival, Haiji thought he paralysed her, what if she said something like "i had to fake it before it became reality" to Haiji's horrid face .Have the ULTIMATE DESPAIR Nagito do more, show us the monster he was .Have the ULTIMATE DESPAIR AND GD MASTEE MIND Hajime being there be more significant, show us the monster he was .Have Haiji be the real villain of the story .Either remove the pedophilia or have the girls be disgusted and try to stay away from him after that .Give us more of the THH relatives .Show us more of the ultimate despairs, imagine if Towa had given Kaz tools or given Sonia some power in Towa city in exchange for profit .Give us more of the lesser Byakuya Togami instead of just Toko fantasy .Give Haiji a real punishment for his hypocrisy and inhumane behaviour .Have Monaca call Haiji a true Ultimate despair or something like that, you really tellin me Nagito and Hajime, who just messed around with the kids and the Junko AI, were worst? .FIX THE GAMEPLAY .GIVE HAIJI CONSEQUENCES FOR HIS DISGUSTING ACTIONS
ia gree with all of these, i really wanted to see the Ultimate Despair and my boi Izuru and FOR HAJI TO GET FUCKING KILLED BY THE MONOKUMAS WHEN THEY BROKE IN THE HIDEOUT THING FOR FUCKS SAKE HE'S AS BAD AS THE ADULTS THAT ABUSED THE CHILDREN, i also hate how they don't joke around with Masaru's,Jataro's,Nagisa's and Monaca's abusive pasts but they joke around with Kotoko's and even show her underwear twice. I understand Mikan's excuse for having her underwear shown, she's a adult but Kotoko is 11-12 as confirmed by the Danganronpa and Villains wiki despite saying she's 18 as a joke of the p*rnography videos (if y'know, y'know.) AND I FUCKING NEED MORE SERVANT! i love the man, he's my second fav Ultimate Despair besides Junko and Monaca! honestly, the only good thing about this game is the fact it's diferent in terms of style from the main three: Trigger Happy Havoc, Goodbye Despair and Killing Harmony are visual novel games while Ultra Despair Girls is a beautiful 3D game. overall i wish they've done all you said, ESPECIALLY GIVE HAJI CONSEQUENCES FOR HIS PEDOPHILIA
Ho boy. I'm so sorry that you went into this without proper warnings. I'm usually sensitive to peoples' spoiler preferences but I try not to let anyone go into UDG without knowing that it delves into all forms of child abuse. I did watch my brother play rather than play myself, so that definitely affected my experience. I enjoy it as a piece of art, I think for the most part it has the effect it set out to have. But I completely get why people don't like it, and there are major set pieces that are. Problems.
I also had a memory of some implication that the point of Haiji being a pedo was that he had abused Monaca, and then at least it would have HAD a point, but no that wasn't actually in the game. Which is....better, that both girls weren't sexually abused??? IDK man, fuck Haiji
For me, I've had this weird turnabout of gradually coming to appreciate the game for it's messages, and while I do like it, I can't say in good faith it's a good game, but I also can't ignore the positives and say it's all bad. It is truly a polarising game filled with so much good and bad (fav part is just the back and forth between Komaru & Toko, love that dynamic)
Ultra despair girls is my favorite game in the series because i relate to the characters and their struggles , so i liked hearing your thoughts! I definitely think it's a game you need to let sit with you before you make a final conclusion on it as whole, but thanks for making this
It's been a hot minute since I played UDG, but what I can remember was pretty interesting, though it had many, many problems that I wish I did not have to deal with while playing. The sheer number and variety of content warnings for what you experience "straight up" in the plot says enough to call this "a not fun time". The story is rather interesting (which is what kept me going) and I loved watching the back-and-forth between Toko and Komaru. However, too much of the game (especially how they used and treated Kotoko) was spent with a grimace on my face to seriously say "yeah I had fun".
I heard people say that haiji's "i like them as joung as possible" line is a translation error and he isn't actually a pedo. I also heard people say that that line is even worse in Japanese where he adds that he would like Kotoko if it wasn't for her annoying personality No idea what is true
one of my biggest gripes with udg is toko's relationship with byakuya. in the first game her "love" for him was always portrayed as superficial and played as a (in poor taste) joke. here, however, her "love" for him is her entire motivation for 80% of the game. her attraction is still played for laughs during the game, but it's also supposed to be genuine enough that she sacrifices a lot for him. and we never see why she cares about byakuya so much. in the first game it was generally understood that toko just got crushes on the nearest hot guy for a while and byakuya was just the latest in a long string of hot men who didn't like toko back so jill would end up trying to kill. the entire game, byakuya is either scared of her or taking advantage of toko's crush to use her as a servant. jill even says that the only reason she's "choosing hope" is that she thinks byakuya is hot which. is really shallow compared to everyone else's reasons. (im also salty as hell that jill made that choice and not toko. jill knew exactly what the outside world was like and her only goal was to stalk an attractive boy. she didn't need to learn to hope for an uncertain future. toko did. and she didn't get that opportunity. which is why some of her "hope speeches" to komaru in udg fell flat for me as well. you can't just say "oh after her friends dragged her out into an apocalypse without her knowledge or consent she had all that character development offscreen" you have to show it.) but yeah in udg we still see byakuya being mean to her and toko's attraction to him not going much deeper than "she thinks hes hot." she still doesn't seem to like him for who he is as a person, just for his looks and money. and byakuya didn't seem to give her a reason to like him. so when you build up toko's entire motivation to do things in udg based on a motivation like that, it falls flat. especially since later they say komaru is as important to toko as byakuya is to show how far their friendship has come. it doesn't work because we see almost nothing genuine from toko and byakuya's relationship while we've seen toko and komaru's relationship develop the whole game. comparing them doesn't make the audience understand that komaru is really important to toko now. it tells us that toko somehow genuinely loves byakuya. the rest of the game also tries to tell us this, but it doesn't show us. they take a comical relationship and play it completely straight, and there's only so much you can suspend your disbelief for
UDG just… god, it has so many aspects that could elevate it. I love the Komaru/Toko dynamic of course. I love the Warriors of Hope, as realistic children characters. I actually enjoy how they handle many of the dark themes, it’s super uncomfortable but in a harsh “this is reality” kind of way that seemed appropriate. I love the overarching story, connections to past and future games, and the end moral. The anime sections? So good! But then. BUT. THEN. There’s the janky gameplay. There’s the REALLY bad representation (the fact that Kotoko’s rep is half AMAZING and half GOD MOFO AWFUL is so upsetting). There’s the choice to add ONE LINE to a *certain someone’s* dialogue that took him from a guy with complex reasonings to a disgusting, disgusting person. And then had the main character JOKE ABOUT IT. It’s like… there’s so much more quantifiably positive for me. But those negatives? They tank the game so GD hard. I have come to like the game, months after playing and after a lot of contemplation. But I don’t see myself ever replaying it, ever. It’s so flawed, it’s just… not worth it, in the end.
I mean, for Haiji, does that one line remove his complexity? He's still a complex character, even if the writing unnecessarily detracts a bit from him.
@@jackychen7769 It makes it feel gross to try and discuss him is what it does, imo. You can’t have a worthwhile conversation regarding his character without needing to address the elephant, and once you do it feels just… wrong to try and talk about anything else. Idk, to me it just ruins any chance of having discussions about him, because (rightfully so) a ton of people write him off because of that line.
@@alleyoliver3315 I mean, just get it out of the way first when discussing him. "We can all agree that Haiji's pedo line is bad writing, right? So ignoring that, lets move on to what's good/bad about him as a character." Simple, imo. Idk, maybe I'm just desensitized to these things in discussions. I can't agree that it's fine to write off a character even if they're poorly written (or in Haiji's case, decently written but with moments of clearly poor writing) cuz there's much to learn from mistakes (tho this mistake is admittedly cut and dry).
@@jackychen7769I still consider him a complex and interesting character, for the most part. I’m not saying that complexity disappears because of this decision. But the ease with which to discuss it does. For me, at least. It also was more the fact that it was a line even praised by Komaru that just made me… you know, question if I should even keep playing. It made me uncomfortable, and having to bring it up if I want to discuss him makes me less likely to do so, you know?
All very good thoughts. As a victim of CSA, Kotoko ruined this game for me. I have seen enough for me to never want to touch this game ever again. I'm tired of our experiences being sexualized in media but Japanese anime / games based off anime are particularly bad about this. Even if some aspects of her character our accurate, others are wholly repulsive and offensive. And in future videos if you ever get around to talking about this game again I'll appreciate if you're a voice for us when it comes to that. A lot of us don't speak up about our opinions on these sorts of things because our experiences are so stigmatized. It's so frustrating when people with know knowledge or respect try to argue that how she was presented was well-written. We have such little representation and then when we do it's usually sexualized like this. Lots of people will only have Kotoko to point to when they think of victims of CSA they know in media and that is just hard for me to swallow because it's some of the worst I've seen
First of all, my deepest sympathies with you. I hope you're in a better place now and somewhere safe. If/when I do get around to talking about this game again, I definitely will be addressing how much this game failed in that respect. I didn't touch on it as much here because, to be honest, I could probably spend an entire video ranting about how angry Kotoko's portrayal made me and that's a conversation I want to have when I've got information to back up my points.
@@thetiniestleaf Yes, thank you for asking. I'm in a much better place now but it's a lifelong battle as I'm sure you can imagine . I really appreciate you taking the time to think about how Kotoko was written and wanting a better understanding our experience when doing videos on her. Best of luck with any of your future videos. I love your style and can't wait to see what you come out with next :))
@@thetiniestleaf I think if it didn't have the good elements it does have, especially in regard to her PTSD triggers, it wouldn't be so enraging because we could write it off and just say it was bad. Because Kotoko's story is such a mixed bag it becomes even worse than if it were just straight-up stereotypes. The desire to have nothing to do with her as a character clashes with the desire to point out the good.
Kotoko's content is handled so well at first, but then they have the SA mini game you can't skip, the boss fight with Genocider, her constant flashing of her panties, etc. Then what happened with Monaca & Nagisa made me so viscerally uncomfortable...
While I admittedly agree the SA minigame was unpleasant, I always liked the idea of showing how the victim of a crime can end up the perpetrator as a result (not to say all of Kotoko's scenes were justified, but I did like what they were trying to go for with her; bold attempt, varying quality in execution).
@@jackychen7769 I still find it pretty fucking gross, I get that's a thing that happens, but having a literal child SA a teenager in an Obendience mini game is crossing a few too many lines for me.
Yooo you finished 999, I know that you are incredibly busy and work hard thus I understand if you don’t have time. However, I would love to hear your thoughts!! Great video once again, I am down for more unscripted thoughts if they make your workload smaller. Still felt formal and complete.
Most people that have played UDG hate Haiji and he's their most hated character. Unless they have a grudge against any main game character. But usually he and a certain someone from the Future Arc are the two most hated (not sure if you've seen it, so I won't say their name)
Honestly, I think UDG is the biggest mixed bag, Komaru & Toko got such good development, the Warriors are interesting as hell with Monaca being such a good despicable villain, but then there's also so much awful with how they portray certain things (especially most of Chapter 3, how they treat Kotoko, Haiji's existence, etc etc) Seriously I adore the story but it's so fucking bad in some parts that I could never recommend it to anyone.
So this is very interesting, I think we have nearly opposite opinions, especially on characters! Unpopular opinion I guess, I liked Fukawa before Another Episode, so I liked her all the more at the end of the game. Komaru, however, I thought was a major negative of the game. Maybe it’s because I have a no-nonsense attitude closer to Fukawa, but the way getting her motivated is like pulling teeth even late in the story makes it hard for me to root for her. I am also asexual, but the kind maybe that feels rather neutral an unbothered by sex references… since I’m a Fukawa stan, for the most part I found them funny in how extreme and embarrassing they are. I, too, prefer puzzles but I’m an avid splatoon player, so shooters don’t bother me so much. I think the motivation not to constantly select genocider Syo is kind of a player preference/pride thing, as in most people who enjoy shooters/gameplay may only use it in emergencies lest they feel like they’re “cheaping out” etc. overall, maybe I’m too nonchalant about it but I feel like Kodaka will sexualize virtually any character sometimes for shock value, sometimes simply because he can and you’re supposed to “”accept it”” because dangan ronpa is a “”dark series”” regardless of if it’s narratively hypocritical, OOC, counterintuitive, or really any other myriad of reasons it shouldn’t be there. At this point I’m just so numb to it… it’s kind of a shame. But I feel like Kodaka is very show not tell, which leads to some themes being muddled and poorly executed to the point where his themes that are told and not shown (free times mostly) largely go unnoticed or ignored by the fandom.
SORRY SUFFICE TO SAY, I enjoyed hearing your thoughts on it and I’m sorry you had to trudge through it like that… this game imo is bar none the toughest to get through so thank you for sharing your opinions our lovely leaf! :)
Also Nagisa is my favorite warrior of hope and Monaca is my least favorite. She’s a bit of a bratty menace HAHA… but I think even then, it might be my least favorite in the series. I love a good standard killing game sjdjdj
UDG is one of those games I don’t necessarily regret playing (and even that opinion I go back and forth with when people remind me of some of “those” scenes in UDG), but I don’t think I can even recommend to hardcore fans of Danganronpa lol. I honestly had to get my friend to play through parts of chapter 3 for me just cause I was too uncomfortable, and even she was struggling too (shout out to my bestie 🤣). I’m of the opposite opinion on Toko/Komaru (I generally like “mean characters” and dislike characters like Makoto and Komaru), but I didn’t mind Komaru by the end. Still was fun to hear a different perspective on the two. Hope you took a long nap after finishing, I know I needed one after finishing UDG (even if I enjoyed it somewhat lol) 😭
Hey, now that you've finished all the Danganronpa games, whenever you feel worn out on the series I suggest a game called Your Turn To Die. It's pretty similar to Danganronpa but I think it's a lot better written and has a lot of things that I wished were in the original Danganronpa games. I still have a soft spot for them but now I see them in a whole different light.
I really liked Toko/Jack in the first game, but Ultra Despair Girls solidified them in my 5th favorite character slot of Trigger Happy Havoc. (Right behind Mondo, Celestia, Sakura, and Kiyotaka.)
I have never actually played UDG, but I remember when watching a walkthrough I found the boss fights pretty uninteresting to look at. Like there was so much wasted potential it’s insane. It would’ve been so cool to see the woh’s talents/personalities reflected in their respective fights. Kotoko’s being on a stage, Jataro’s robot being a weird artsy amalgamation, Masaru playing a murderous version of a sport instead of straight up fighting,(I couldn’t come up with something creative for Nagisa its 2 am) etc etc. I think it would give more opportunities for the characters to shine and potentially spice up the gameplay. I also thought that UDG didnt mention the demon hunting game story/gameplay wise enough. Like we see the woh talking about it a lot but I wish we saw more of them actually chasing Komaru and Toko/GJ. It would have been nice to see more of the masterminds of a killing game treat it like an interactive game, something they can participate in too not just the ultimates. There’s so much more I would have changed but then I would have to write a thesis statement. Nice video and I cannot wait to hear your more in depth thoughts!
15:59 DR1,DR2, UDG all have a manga series, I've only read UDG but they added more details about the warriors of hope than the games did which I think should been in the game instead of the manga
The warriors of hope are great and they also have valid reasons to do what they're doing but I think they should have added something diff for jataro like just bcuz ur mom called u ugly doesnt mean ur gonna destroy every adult and his voice lines are creepy af
oh dont worry no one like Haji (At least the people who hav a good mindset) I myself didnt buy the game (this was the only danganronpa game I missed) I was only able to experience this game was through a letsplay Oh also! Have you watched the danganronpa anime yet?
At least I'm not alone when I almost quit the game when they ripped the clothes and then did the SA scene. It was triggering to try to stop a character from being s/a'd... I quit for like, 4 days, and the only reason I went back is cause my partner told me that that's the worst part at least... I just. Urg. The reason it felt so scummy to me is that they were playing it all off as fabservice to the players, which is screwed up because they were sexualizing the trauma!
Dude I literally stopped playing for a year and spoiled the rest watching a play through. I never finished the game. Crazy a scene like that can cause a year break. I might finish it idk.
i like how toko and komaru help save the City and byakuya from the kids or warriors of hope but monica faked being as a disabled person and haji caught her in a trap.
I think you raise some really valid points and criticism, however I would like to firstly add that in my opinion the boss fights were easily the worst part of the game as a whole as you could just finish them using Genocide Jack in a matter of seconds. Also the way the defeated Warriors of Hope just disappeared should have been expounded on a lot more. Secondly I think Haiji had a lot of potential as a character themed around guilt, I can kinda sympathize with his hesitant and reluctant behavior. And since I'm pretty chill with sexual stuff as you mentioned, I can laugh off most of those scenes (him being a pedo and bluntly talking about it is weird, but I can't shake the feeling that this hints at some Japanese society thingy). Lastly I fully agree with Komaro being too whiny and the game failing to make her development stand out from your typical anime (that's what it felt like to me) sucks. Nicely done without a script btw.^^
*spoilers, all tho if you are here you know about the game, but still" im really sad that yuta died, i would have liked to see more of him, if theres a minimum posibilitie for an ultra despair girls 2, (wich even if you didnt like the game, it would be sick to have a sequel that improves), i would like to see somethings= 1) the renmants of despair being bosses: that would be amazing, i saw a fan artist making some drawings of the renmants of despair bein in ultra despair girls 2, and the designs are way better than the official ones, at least for me 2) seeing the others characters relatives: see them as actual characters would be cool, and also it would be great to have other characters like, chihiros mom, sayakas little sister, kanon (with out the wierd stuff) and yasuhiro 3)yuta: i would like to see him alive, even tho its impossible, but its really unfair that he is the only one dead (matbe they can just remove and arm, and lets just remember that danganronpa its not the most logical saga) 4)seeing the warriors of hope having a redemption arc: i know that they are reedemed, and the were showed in danganronpa 3, but hell that was nothing, thats one of the reasons why i didnt like danganronpa 3 5) more bullets type 6)seeing more of toko being sweet with kumaru and making her relationship stronger 7)haiji towa as a villain, and then he dies
i wish i like shirokuma still, but after the reveal i just felt betrayed that immediately despised them lol like i was rooting for this story of what if there's a monokuma that was actually good. i held too tight in that idea, so i guess despair was inevitable
Don’t worry about Haiji, everyone hate him . More seriously , there’s some rare people who like Haiji, but more for his writing than…. his taste…. About girls younger as possible…
I hate how Toko's character development Komaru's existence and Toko/Komaru's dynamic in general is stuck in this game :/, if it weren't for those factors plus me liking the 5 second Nagito moments and the WOH (esp Monaca) as villains I wouldn't even pay this game any mind -_- plus poor Kotoko the way her past was handled is horrible
Don’t worry everyone hates Haji in the fandom like I haven’t even played Udg and I DESPISE HIM 😃 Also yeah in my opinion I think a 3rd person shooter was unwise for Udg and might’ve been better as a mostly visual novel but also being an rpg
I'm now imagining Despair Ibuki just rip n' tearing down the street in a self-driving monster machine that Kazuichi built for her while you see thousands of little Monokumas running behind it like fans XD
the whole udg is an iffy one, one one hand, there is some instances where i think the game was good in some ways, i like how they made 2 female protags, but then again, how they made tokos whole reasoning behind staying is just her idiolgy of a man is boring and repetitive, especially with how they carried on the trope of her DID and how just uncomfortable that was, especially with the taser part. i do like how they did add some relatability to toko and her character which did make her more likeable in the long run. if i were to improve the game i would definitely get rid of the robot fighting scenes and add that you have to fight the remnants of despair instead!! (like having a cool sword fight with peko and fuyuhiko, and the final boss being having to fight izuru). i would also remove the whole just gross aspect of sa from the game and instead hint it in kotokos backstory, it ends up putting people off the game when you have to watch those scenes, especially the one with nagisa and monaca, it made me quit it for a while. i would also make haji more of an obviously dislikable character, having the girls be physically drawn away from him and in the end letting him go through some sort penance for his actions, instead of just acting like hes this ok character who didn’t basically start the whole game. i did like monaca as a mastermind in general, and i understand the part of her faking disability (not that it was good or anything) but just that showing the extremes she would go to just so she could project despair, and the game didn’t idolise that either which i enjoyed, having the characters be physically repulsed and concerned by her actions was good, just, in general the game that could’ve been a good spin off ended up being a terrible train wreck basically.
commenting for engagement sake, if you see this trigger happy havoc is my fav in the series despite it's issues and i hope you have fun seeing makoto naegi and his pals :-) also i'm sorry you had to play with not much warning, and the only thing i have to add onto your discussion is it sucks that the dangan ronpa writer's team isn't confident enough/nice enough to treat serious issues... seriously. DR as a whole is mean-spirited. it punchs down in what i think the writers think is equal opportunity. UDG in particular is pretty tactless, though. which sucks, because it has things to say at times, especially around child abuse and stuff. i hope the writers were trying to be edgy and subversive with all the gross unskippable voyeuristic stuff in UDG, even though i'd say that didn't stick the landing. DR routinely has the masterminds/antagonists want you to laugh at characters who get hurt and stuff, but it's more like the writer's team is laughing at their audience when stuff like this gets given screentime. :-/ also also one more thing since i haven't commented on your other videos. they're pretty cool. thanks for sharing your thoughts and stuff 👍👍
HOOOOOOOOO boy. Ok. Ok. Ok I can do this. I WILL do this. UDG, here we go. I first played this when it came out, I remember seeing Japanese trailers for it and not really understanding what I was looking at. I saw the power-ranger ass kids and it didn’t even loo like a DR game. By that point, I’d only finished DR2 and wasn’t attuned to thinking of the series in a meta way yet. I was so ignorant, I even hated Akane back then cuz I thought she was dumb and annoying and wasted time in the plot. I really hated UDG when it launched. The story was dumb, messages clunky, characters annoying, gameplay shallow and clunky, etc. I came back to it in a few years, and here’s where I’m at now. There are only a few elements of the game that I can say plainly that I love: the music, and menu art, and Komaru and Toko’s banter in the side content, not the main story. I also like Kotoko, she’s sympathetic and charming and funny. Her comedy has a unique tone to it, with the way she speaks like she’s announcing everything she says as some sort of interesting fact. The rest of the game is either stuff I dislike, or stuff where it’s impossible to separate the good from the bad. I think the whole main story sucks, just flat sucks. Plot sucks, main characterization sucks, pacing sucks, etc. I need to back up and say, the thing with the game’s lax nature to making fun of serious subjects in an almost hypocritical way, I think is a reflection that the games are just meant to be goofy parodies of fiction. Nothing in DR is meant to be taken as actual life advice or something to apply to reality. The game has tons of self-mockery, pointing out its own hypocrisy if it were to be taken seriously, like, Toko criticizes a book that turns DID into a plot point, etc. Toko is constantly criticizing manga tropes that all apply to DR. I think that DR is never trying to be taken literary or seen as an allegory of real life in any way, but I also get the strong sense that DR’s chief mentality is that ALL storytelling can be good storytelling. I think it doesn’t put things off limits or try to be tactful with handling subject matter is because of its fundamental belief that there are no bad ideas, only bad execution. DR makes fun of a lot of stuff, but it’s not criticizing that stuff, it’s just making fun of it. I think DR fully embraces every single trashy anime trope imaginable because it can be taken as the ironic fiction that it is and made into something entertaining/funny. I don’t necessarily agree with the handling of certain subject matter, but I do think that the game makes it overwhelmingly clear that it’s not meant to be take seriously. I find shows like 13 Reasons Why MUCH more insufferable with the clunky handling of its messages because it seems like it’s actually trying to be taken as something realistic and serious and like it has real world advice to give, and THEN it gives you horrible clunky advice. This mentality also affects the storytelling. I think every message in UDG’s story is handled like crap, I think all the messages are clunky, but I also don’t think the game is REALLY trying to express an earnest message. Still, though, the game is insanely annoying when it spends so much time trying to tell you one thing while clearly being stupid about it. I’m of the opinion that Toko is NOT better in this game than DR1. I like Toko in DR1 just fine, I think there’s some nasty revisionist history that gets involved with spinoffs, sequels, remakes, etc, where people take something new as a reason to start thinking of something old as flawed or inferior. Instead of looking at what Toko already had in DR1 in terms of character and writing, people use the spinoff as an excuse to think that it’s going to “fix” her because she sucked before. This probably wasn’t the intention of the writers, but it’s a large public mentality that I really despise. Anyways, I feel that in the first 3 chapters, Toko is really clunky and annoying. I think her portrayals of “growth” are forced and hamfisted, and even then, I don’t consider it good writing to just take a character and then obviously shove in your face that they’re “better” now and we’re supposed to view that as an improved character. It feels shallow. Toko’s best parts in this game are when she’s talking about manga and literature with Komaru and her views on tropes and the industry. In the main story, Toko just says super overdramatic shit that BARELY applies to the situation, with sappy overdramatic music playing, and just says stupid stuff that makes no sense, but we’re supposed to see her as making good points. First signs of trouble is the bridge scene. They reach the end of the bridge and Yuta mildly says “man, this sucks, the bridge collapsed” and then Toko goes on a whole prophetic rant about how you need to overcome despair and that it’s cowardly to give up. Like, bro, I just said “aw shucks”, why are you giving some weird melodramatic speech about some obscure but vaguely stupid-sounding reddit-philosopher-level life advise? Not to mention that Toko mainly does these rants in response to people mildly complaining about their situation, as if Toko herself isn’t complaining constantly. She’s just a massive annoying hypocrite. She constantly criticizes Komaru even though Komaru is doing all the work, Toko herself does almost nothing the whole game. Anything that Toko “does” isn’t actually Toko, it’s Jill, who has talents and superpowers Toko herself has no access to, so it’s really hypocritical to criticize others for any inaction when Toko herself is the laziest character in the game and she’s also basically invincible because she has a superhuman alternate personality that just keeps her safe. The overdramatic scenes are insanely annoying. They’re super hamfisted, they never feel earned, and they always feel like they have nothing to do with what’s happening on the screen. Like, again, for example, the bridge scene, they walk for MAYBE 20 seconds to get to the edge of the bridge, and then they have a 6-minute-long conversation about how they have to go “ALL THE WAY BACK” to the city and it’s so scary and blah blah. Like, it’s literally a stone’s throw away, you walked for 20 seconds. You didn’t travel. Why are you suddenly being super overdramatic at the drop of a hat about nothing at all, and acting like some massive thing has happened that you need to give minutes and minutes of speeches for? Every message is muddled, and feels like it was written with the message first, and then they half-heartedly wrote the plot second, which is why the plot does not justify the messages at all, and also why the characters basically just turn to face the camera and ham-fistedly narrate exactly what each message is. Take Toko’s weird conflict with the adults. She acts like they suck because they aren’t “fighting back” whatever that means. The game tries to make it an ideological conflict when both positions sounds stupid and uninformed and generalized and no one is actually talking about their specific situation. Like, if the city was attacked in the first place, I imagine that people would’ve fought back, the military, police, etc. If that didn’t work originally, if the Monokuma army was so strong, they wiped out a full society, what hope do the final remaining scraps of adults have of winning? Like, clearly they need STRATEGY and MEANS, not a change in philosophy. It’s as if Toko is suggesting that all these people died without fighting back in the first place, which is nonsensical and hysterical.
Imagine if a society was completely overrun in the real world, and almost everyone is killed, and someone asks “well, did you try fighting back?” What a stupid ideological conflict. It brings down Toko’s likability because the message is so stupid, and the game tries to insist that she was right. Recall that this town has only been overrun in the last 4 days. Toko talks about them like they’re spending their entire lives underground. Bro, it’s been 4 days. It also makes no sense that the adults MUST save themselves. We know there are other armies in the world that could come help save them. Monaca’s stupid plan hinges on making Future Foundation an enemy with the adults in Towa City by having them be blamed for the deaths of kids. However, apparently they’ll be blamed for killing kids, but these supposed armed forces are doing NOTHING to stop this city from being massacred by Monokuma’s? HUH? WHAT? NANI? Not to mention that we’re told that Future Foundation can’t take action because Togami is a hostage. So you’re telling me the strongest military force in the WORLD can be rendered powerless and useless by taking 1 of its members hostage? Togami, no less. They’ll let an entire city burn for Togami? A hostile army be raised, for Togami? The whole plot is so stupid. Komaru is both insanely annoying, but also extremely funny. Her bio the kids wrote about her on the hit list literally describes her as “She’s super normal except that she’s below average in a lot of things.” OOF. Mood. Like, a lot of the first 3 chapters is both Komaru AND Toko being annoying and unreasonable and having big stupid scenes that don’t fit the pacing of the game. See, I feel like the main flaw in the writing, other than the actual technical stupid parts, is that I think Kodaka is used to writing for visual novels that take place over a long, non-urgent period of time. I don’t think his writing suits a story about people in an actual tense situation, because he clearly doesn’t know where to put some of these scenes and make them feel earned. Another 10-minute detour down an alleyway that doesn’t work out, and we’ll have another fit of crying and whining and waxing philosophic about something stupid. Monaca is a fun villain, but her plan is the worst in the series. Putting aside the fact that the entire plot is “actually it was my plan all along” contrivance trap card, where we’re just told to accept the fact that Monaca somehow supposedly calculated for literally every single thing that happened, EXCEPT for Toko and Komaru becoming friends, which is, like, the most hamfisted trite thing in the series. Putting that aside, her plan is vague nonsense. Like, she wants Komaru to become a hero so that the adults will rise up and kill the kids, but specifically with the helmets exploding. So, her plan requires Future Foundation to know enough about what’s happening to get that the adults fought back against kids, but no enough to understand why the kids are dead, and also not recognize the fact that the adults were fighting for their lives and the kids were seemingly massacring everything, and this is supposed to create a war? And the only way to do this was if Komaru had a character arc and inspired the other adults with a cool speech? Why can’t Monaca just kill the kids herself if her plan hinges on misinformation and assumption? Why does she need Komaru to break the controller? Because she’ll become a Junko? Literally what does that even mean? Like, her fundamental thought process won’t change, not to mention the fact that I don’t even buy that Komaru is the sort of character that would’ve even broken the controller and knowingly killed the kids in the first place. It seems like the game uses “despair” as a Men In Black neutralizer or something that can just wipe you of all character and logic and just make you do anything vaguely evil that is also vital for the plot to happen. It’s purely contrived illogical reasoning, just coming up with totally stupid excuses to justify the plot being a plot at all, sense any of these characters doing anything rational wouldn’t have resulted in a story at all. So the plot is stupid and entirely based on dumb contrivances, the characters and their messages are all stupid, their arcs are contrived and forced and hamfisted, and everything makes me angry. But then again, Komaru also talks about how she’s a master internet guru for giving dating advice to people on reddit, and that’s hilariously and I love that. So, mixed feelings. The characters all talk about the hamfisted messages SO much that it’s basically impossible to separate any of the characters’ good elements from the overwhelmingly bad main story.
Hypocrisy is the EXACT word I used when describing this game to my friends and just... ugh. Yeah. I don't think Toko was handled well either but it's been a hot second since I've gone back to THH and I didn't even really like her there either, so I guess I'm more forgiving with that aspect. Like I said, not a fan of mean characters but I get why some people would prefer her THH version over herself. But yeah, the pacing is HORRIBLE. The messages? They barely make sense and it feels like it contradicts itself. I feel like it's valid to say that DR never takes itself too seriously, and I think that largely works well in its favor in other games. But I got the distinct impression while I was playing this game is that it was trying to be SOMEWHAT serious (because of all that melodrama and this game as a whole just feels much darker). Everything just feels so muddled that it's hard to tell what exactly you're supposed to be taking seriously and what you aren't. Like, I'm supposed to take Toko seriously when she says the adults are cowards and that fighting back is what you have to do, but I'm also supposed to perceive it as a "trashy anime joke" when the game strips Kotoko down to her underwear after learning she was a survivor of sexual abuse?? To be clear, in case it isn't, I'm not disagreeing with you that DR is known for making fun of everything. I'm just legitimately baffled at so many decisions this game makes and why they thought this would go over well with the general fanbase, much less people who might actually be triggered by this game without having any prior warning. It honestly just drags the game down even further and makes me even less willing to engage with its humor and jokes.
@@thetiniestleaf Yeah, I don't get how we're supposed to consume most of it either. All the other DR games can be taken literally and metaphorically, whereas it seems like UDG is a minefield where you have to interpret each scene in some unclear precise way or else it won't land at all. I think the DID stuff is fine because fictional split personality is so different from real life DID that it clearly comes across as a fantasy thing. I think the game's attempts to be really dark conflict with the normal jovial attitude DR has. Even in other DR games, serious moments or backstories are delivered in a melancholy, somber way, not an edgy dark way. Komaru's SA scene for instance, it tries to be silly and slapstick about it, but right after it established that Kotoko is using it as dark torture, that it's a trying and painful experience for Komaru which can't be ignored because her fear and worry makes her cling on to Toko and forgive her. Like, even as someone who isn't really bothered by that sort of thing, I still don't see the value in that scene either. I had no aversion to it but I still couldn't see how it was supposed to be funny or witty. The plot only progresses under and assumption that these things are actually dark. It just makes me unsure of how I'm supposed to take any of the serious parts. Even if it is all one big joke, the serious scenes aren't funny even taking them ironically. They're just normal tonally/narratively offputting scenes. Like, at some parts, I can see glimpses of the idea at play. I think when you beat the Kotoko boss and she says "I'm actually 18, but this is too much" that's funny, I get the joke, I get the parody angle there, but so much else about it doesn't land at all. Regardless of the logic behind it, annoying scenes are still annoying, and uncomfortable scenes are still uncomfortable. Of course, discomfort is sometimes part of the intended experience of a story, like, I think your reaction to Monaca kissing blue hair kid was the intended reaction, and it's more for people like me who enjoy discomfort in media. And then you have questionable writing choices from a moral angle, which is a whole conversation on it's own. Ok, like, perfect example of weirdness, the last chapter. Monaca is not wheelchair bound for literally no reason, it matters nothing to the plot, she could've just actually been a cripple, probably would've been more interesting. Then, they keep revealing things and screaming about belief and whatever and you get a million prompts from the game to break the controller, and it feels like it's trying to be a joke. Like, the fact that you keep talking for a few more minutes and then the string music plays up and you're asked EVEN MORE boldly if you want to break the controller, it feels like a deliberate parody scene, where it keeps re-prompting the same thing as if it's a dramatic turnabout, but... It isn't funny. In concept I get it, but in practice, it's WAY too longwinded and awkward for the punchline to land, and it just feels like the game is wasting your time. I also think that something that's easy to not realize, but is a big tonal problem with the game: Monokuma isn't in it. Only robots, not the actual character.
I don't think talking about dark subject in story is a bad thing but you need to handle it with respect and it needs to have an impact on the story and the characters not be just there for the shock. So the backstories of the kids made me uncomftable, but I think that was made on purpose and it was shown as something horrible which in this point of view is ok cause it shown the psychological effect on the victims. So the same goes for Monaka triggering Kotoko and kissing Nagisa (in my opinion), it shown how cruel and manipulative is Monaka, who uses their feelings and traumatisms to manipulate them. So yeah this made me so fucking uncomftable but I was ok with that because I think this was handle well, showing how the traumatisms of these childs are destroying them in really violent scenes (this shoked me mainly in Masaru pre-boss fight scene) was brutal but realistic I think. I don't know if the game contains trigger warning, I hope it does... So if it was just that, I would be ok with the game. But, Kotoko sexualy assulting Komaru and the rape-machine mini-game was awful. That was just so gross, unrespectful and the narrator even impled that we might be masturbating while watching that.. WTF ??? No, that's rape that's fucking disgusting ! This is what I think makes the game unforgivable, and this motherfuckin pedophile of Haji (with everyone who's ok with that, like "lol he likes little girls, whatever where this BigBang Monokuma ??" The narration even made Komaru said that his bluntness about it was almost attractive. LOL NO IT'S NOT.) Bo I think I can still enjoy the game for the friendship between Komaru and Toko and her character developpement, and Monaka who's really interesting (it would be really cool to make a video about her I think, cause people hate her even tho she's just a child and she's probably not a 100% responsible for her behavior)
Agreed, I think a lot of this game is a case where they actually do deal with the subject matter. A lot of the thesis is about how these kids have been abused and how it affected them, and why that drove them to Junko and the despair cult. But there are 100% places where it goes beyond engaging with the subject and into weird....fan...service? exploitation.
Hey man, your videos are really interesting to listen to! You should think about starting a podcast where you "ramble" like this. I really enjoy your videos, scripted and unscripted. Each one has a charm to it, yanno 😎👉👉 Anyways, stay fresh cheese bag, this was really cool
I really enjoyed udg and it’s my second favorite danganronpa game but I can agree with you that the game has a lot of flaws that shouldn’t have been added or should have been fixed through out the game
4:50 Tbh this is the reason that is stopped playing dead rising i got frustrated as a compicionist and lost big chunks of progress due to the limited save system and lack of time
I think somewhere out there; we got some cool hoax art work of like "what if the remnants were in the game" if you want to see them I would suggest looking for them; it was really cool
Can you do a video on the DR3 anime? I'm familiar that it's probably the most divisive piece of Danganronpa media, and I would hear you opinions regarding this controversial anime.
I agree with everything in this video, I really really don’t like UDG, which is a damn shame because it could have been much better, the gameplay feels stiff and there isn’t enough enemy or attack variety, the visuals look…. Alright, the story isn’t as good as people hype it up to be, the warriors of hope’s trauma is written so poorly at times, especially chapter three which is infamous for a bunch of reasons, yeah I wasn’t joking about this game not taking dark subject matter seriously, and oh my god this games tone is all over the place it’s like tonal whiplash the game, yeah there’s a lot to hate in UDG and I’m really sorry if this game affected you in an awful way. This is one of the cases where the bad outweighs the good for a lot of fans including me.
The gameplay is jank as all get-out, so that wasn't ever going to win _anyone_ over, but oh man... I didn't think that the sexual stuff would make you this uncomfortable... Yeah, I could see how that would deter someone from this game. What I liked is that it was utterly vilified and shown to be a force of evil, which I appreciated. Aside from the part where Kotoko got partly undressed, that was a definite WTF moment and I honestly don't know how to interpret that in a positive light. And in general I think that this game is the only one to provide a commentary on current societal problems. The other games focus on grappling with loss and motivations for murder, whereas this one shows that living in our society can be hell, too, one without escape. Physical, mental, sexual abuse, being forced into getting good grades - all such pertinent issues that kinda fly under the radar when you're dealing with psychotic bears and people desperate enough to kill. What's even better is that even though these societal issues are presented through the monsters that they create (the Warriors of Hope), these monsters are also shown to be redeemable, as they all survive and as we learn later they give up on their ambitions (even Monaka to an extent). That sends a message about how hope is not lost in spite of the awfulness of our society. I mean, the fact that said society was already obliterated by the time the Warriors of Hope healed probably helped with that, and we don't have that IRL yet, but still. Also I'm glad that you've enjoyed the main characters here! Personally I only really enjoyed Fukawa, both Komaru and Monaka were insufferable for me :P Komaru because she was almost a carbon copy of Makoto and Monaka because she is so similar to Enoshima... Huh.... IT'S ALMOST LIKE THERE ARE PARALLELS HERE!!! But yeah, give it some time, hopefully you'll get enough distance from the disturbing parts to be able to analyze the good stuff here!
