Dangan Ronpa V3 Spoiler Thoughts

Welcome to the Spoiler Zone! Now that we're free of the worry of "ruining" the game for everyone, here's what DRV3 does and why it's genius. The endgame reveal, simply put, is that this is a fiction. The entire events of the game have been fictional, and Dangan Ronpa is a fictional thing within this universe; a fictional thing that has taken a life of its own and become so popular as to be a massive worldwide reality TV show in which people volunteer to enter and be "rewritten" into fictional characters and personas made up for the show. The goddamned V is a Roman numeral! IT'S DANGAN RONPA SEASON 53! Our horrified protagonists then proceed to literally reject the concept of Dangan Ronpa, do nothing in order to make things less entertaining and destroy interest in the show, and then escape into the "real" world.


Where do I even begin here? The slow creeping horror of Tsumugi Shirogane as our Mastermind, for one, I suppose. As Ultimate Cosplayer, it's been established early on that she can't cosplay as "real" people. To that end, when she whooshes into series antagonist Junko Enoshima, you assume it's been Junko all along. The truth of it all being fiction, a lie, is far worse... as is Tsumugi rapidly changing into several characters from the previous games. All the people who inspired and uplifted you, who died tragically, who killed in desperation, reflected back at you in a dark mirror. Fiction taunting you. DRV3 already had a strong thematic tie to lies, and what is fiction if not truth about lies? Dangan Ronpa has often been a story about the ideological clash between hope and despair, but in its final moments it becomes a clash between fiction and reality... and fiction wins, in the end. This has been quite polarizing, but I have to address two of the complaints against this and dispel them. The first is that the whole "reality TV" thing is a value judgement upon the people, like me, who have been fans of this anime murder series; an accusing finger at people who plop down 50 bucks to watch a story unfold where innocent teens are brutally murdered. I could almost see this reading as valid, but it doesn't end up pulling the trigger on it and accusing us in full. The second, and far more frivolous and silly objection, is that by revealing that the other games are fiction it somehow decanonizes them and makes them "not true". Horseshit. Baloney. Malarkey. In the first place, DRV3 is happening in its own little fictional universe. The events of the other games still "happened" in their own little world, and this game being in another reality entirely does not undo the sacrifices and suffering of the other characters from the other games in their reality. More to the point... it wasn't "real" to begin with! It's a fiction, but a fiction that still resonated with you and made you feel something! DRV3 could never undo that, and it has not.


In the end, this is a clever little tale about fiction and reality, and flipping inspiration on its head. We here in reality have been inspired by fiction. Maybe you're here because you like Dangan Ronpa, and you were inspired by its characters and grew to love them. Even if you don't care about Dangan Ronpa and just wanted to know what I thought, I'm sure there's some piece of fiction that has inspired you. We here in reality have been inspired by fiction. The remaining living protagonists of DRV3, in their final chapter, are fictional characters who end up becoming inspired... by reality! Shuichi and pals are thoughts which have become able to think for themselves. This is far beyond hope and despair, and that's why the characters' final battle is a literal refutation of the concept of Dangan Ronpa. There's nowhere to go from here. Hope and despair. Truth and lies. Fiction and reality. The head writer of the Dangan Ronpa games wanted to close out his time with the series here, and it shows. If this were the end of Dangan Ronpa as a series, I would be fine with it. There may be more, and I may play them, and I may even enjoy them... but as of this moment, I'd be just fine with that chapter ending. I'll leave off that segment with a quote from my pal Polly, when we were chatting after I'd finished the game. This sums it all up well, I think:


"What is fiction if not a lie?  And when that fiction touches us in some way, is it not then a REAL part of us?"


One final coda, while I'm here in the spoiler zone: The surprise death of your protagonist in the first trial is a shocking moment that I didn't see coming, but in hindsight it ends up foiling itself. A unique female protagonist is killed and you take control of a detective boy for the rest of the game. Aside from making it impossible to natively screenshot the game on the Vita due to NIS America not wanting the twist spoiled... I feel that in the end, the game lost more than it gained here. Shuichi is a fine protagonist and all, but he's just another boy detective. I really liked Kaede, and bait and switching out a unique female protagonist for another boy detective is sort of a sour mood. I almost feel that if they swapped the genders, I wouldn't have been so upset; I'd be more surprised, even! I gave the game the benefit of the doubt, but Kaede's death didn't come back to resonate in any real fashion. Unfortunate, but not enough to tamper with everything that was just said. Dangan Ronpa V3 is fucking genius, and a strong Game Of The Year for 2017.