Games worth discovering

《Danganronpa》 left a deep impression on me.

2K View2024-05-13

Let me set the stage for Dongan Rampa's 5th class trial. It's for the murder of Mukuro Ikusaba. During the investigation, everyone is present except for Kyoko, who's mysteriously gone missing. Heck, at first, everyone assumed the victim was Kyoko because no one really knew about Mukro aside from Makoto and Kyoko. And the body had a mask on it, which exploded the moment it got ripped off.

So there was no checking the face to see who it was. But anyway, all the evidence found that the crime scene points to the killer being Kioko. And not only that, but the mode of lines up perfectly too, because she's under the impression that Mukaro is the one pulling the strings to this killing game. So she would have plenty of reason to go after her. And not only that, but she's the only one other than Makoto who doesn't have an alibi.

And since you play as Makoto, it does not look too good for Kyoko. Sure, she does tell you where she was, but that doesn't necessarily give her an alibi. And the thing is, it doesn't seem like it's in Kyoko's character to do something like this. She's the one who got to the bottom of most of these other mysteries.

Plus, she seemed very determined to get to the bottom of this killing game and stop it, not participate in it. But at the same time, if Saya does any indication, you can't trust anyone in this game. And the trust that you have for Kyoko is put to the ultimate test at the end of the trial where she flat out lies in order to save herself and you have to decide whether or not to call her out on it.

Now, the correct answer here is to let Kyoko get away with it. Makoto stands up and says how this trial seems really off compared to the other ones. But before anyone can deliberate on that, Monikuma cuts the trial short.

Makoto gets voted guilty and is then about to be executed, but alter ego saves him as the last minute and he just falls into the trash room where Kyoko saves him and reveals that there was really no guilty party during this whole trial and it was just rigged by the mastermind in order to kill off Kiyoko because she was getting far too close to figuring out the truth. So what happens if you decide to play into the masterminds trap?

Well, Makoto presses Kyoko on the lie. She admits that it was in fact a lie and says that she lost. She didn't commit the murder, but she lost. And now the mystery of the school will never be under covered. And before anyone can question her on that, Monikuma cuts the trial short and executes Kyoko. And unlike with Makoto alter ego doesn't come in to save her. So she just dies and you're given an image showing the aftermath.

There were no more murders. And one of Yasehio's predictions actually came true, which is actually kind of funny considering how out there it seemed. It's also pretty clever that unlike all the other executions in the game, Makoto slash Kyoku's execution isn't obviously tailored to the character being executed, because Monakuma didn't know who he would have to use it on.

And then you're sent back to that decision in the trial, just like with the whole Catwoman ending earlier on the list. But what sets this ending apart is the fact that. But you don't know which choice is the correct one. Sure.

In hindsight, it's easy to see that Kyoko was being set up. The culprit in these cases is never that simple. But at the same time, who else would it be? You wouldn't expect it to be set up because up until this point, Monikumas always followed his own rules. There's no indication that he'd start breaking them now. When I first played through the game, I picked the wrong choice purely by accident. And as soon as Kyoko mentioned falling into a trap, I figured, oh no, I messed up big time, didn't I?

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