My thoughts on DRA1 after finishing the game (Spoiler Warning)
>!I must say, it was a very enjoyable game, despite the very rough translation, i liked this game a lot, but i still have some stuff that just doesnt make it for me!<
>!First is the investigation and trial duration, that seems to just shorten and shorten with each chapter since Chapter 3, almost like if LINUJ wanted to advance the plot already, like, those two aspects literally peaked as early as Chapter 2, with the exception of Chapter 6 which has a fairly long trial.!<
>!Then, with the characters, i must say the all seem great except for two, that dont really have that much time to shine and leave an impression on the player, these being Kiyoka and Mitsuhiro, the first victim and the first blackened, these two do get their screen time on the CH6 flashbacks, but thats way too long into the game and way past their deaths, Kiyoka really needed more screentime in Chapter 1 to leave a way better impression on Yuki and the Player, for Mitsuhiro, he just seems like a second Leon despite having some differences here and there, maybe modifying some stuff in his motive video would flesh out his character more. !<
>!Lastly, the plot itself, and ill go ahead and say it, the fact this games are meant to be connected with the canon ones was the biggest dissapointment i ever had with this game´s story, and i think it actually does more harm to it than good, while i was playing the game, i was impressed by how LINUJ grabbed the archetypes and structure of THH and remodeled them into something similar, but new and with a different approach, this is clearly seen with some characters being similar to others from THH but with changed elements, the biggest examples are Yuki, Rei and Tsurugi, and i kept looking forward to what kind of cool twist would he give to the original story elements of THH, also, i was spoiled beforehand of the masterminds and that only made me more expectative, i wanted to see how did The Tragedy play out in this game that seemed to take place in an ¨alternative universe¨, only for it to be revealed that our characters had NOTHING to do with the tragedy, it was all Junko Enoshima, the two mastermind´s are just her goons and our killing game was nothing more than an experiment on Monokuma´s Alter Ego (Which doesnt make sense since Junko actively controlls Monokuma on the first game), that literally KILLED all the hype i had for the story, and during the last portion of the game i could only think that everything about it would just be straight up BETTER if this games werent connected to the main ones, Utsuro could have perfectly caused the world to collapse on his own with his Heavenly Luck, and the fact these characters coexist with the canon ones reduces their value from creative reinventions to carbon copies. !<
>!Despite all of this, the final chapter reveal and its execution was amazing, the fact you need to choose what seems like the worst option (submiting your mind to Utsuro) to actually get the real endind (which i got first since i actually thought that would be the bad ending and wanted to see it first) is incredible, and also the part where YOU need to make the survivors fall for DESPAIR instead of Hope is also such an incredible moment, about the survivors themselves i have no complaints (tho i would have loved to see Kanata survive and even she would have fit into the despair part of the trial with all the stuff about her adoptive father), definitely this way to handle the ¨protagonist mastermind¨ twist left much of a BIGGER impression on me that the way it was handled in DR2, even if that one was amazing as well, i loved the emotional and also open ending and im looking forward for SDRA2, althought i will take a break from these games before starting it and also im not as hyped for the plot of that game, i spoiled myself of some things but as i said, the Junko reveal just killed a big part of the hype i had for both games, still, ill give DRA1 a solid 7/10, despite my dislikings on some aspects of the games plot and structure, and the limitations of the translation and the game motor itself, its definetily worth to play for any Danganronpa fan and i 100% recommend it. !<