Our favourite schizophrenic loser game hit the big time. Budget is high and everything looks and sounds awesome. Trials one, four, and five are genuine highlights of the series. The reveals in this one had me geeking and jumping out of the seat and shit but that's also because I'm a clown. Love some of the characters, and the roster that lives past like case three is actually pretty stacked. Unfortunately the ending is half good and half obnoxious. The big twist comes of as a writer that hates their product, and is opting to just shoot it in the head rather than talk about it. The social commentary is pretty neat though and added "real fiction" to my vocabulary. I like Kokichi but he does not compare to my boy Nagito (or Shuichi). Other characters like Kaito, Maki, Rantaro, Kaede, Himiko, Kii-bo, and Gonta are all pretty great and I think the writers really pulled together a bunch of really good character arcs and dynamics that are exciting and satisfying to watch.

If Danganronpa 1 was an off-the-wall detective black comedy silly game then this one is the fuckin syrup they used to dilute and make the first one. Atmosphere is definitely worse as it loses the trapped-ness of the first one and the mystery just doesn't feel as strong. HOWEVER, everything else is pretty much cranked to eleventy seven. Characters are fucking psychopaths but I love them and the trials and twists can sometimes seem like asspulls but damn it if I'm a sucker for just how insane it gets. Nagito Komaeda is also kind of the star and carries the game. Aside from being funny murder twink he is out of place in how interesting his character and motivation is compared to anyone else in the series. Banger character, made me appreciate everything else more. The bad trials in this one are worse than 1 but the goat trials are even better, so it evens out.

Truthfully this game at its baseline is a 3/5. It is pretty boring to explore planets, the universe feels kinda just dead? Planets use a pretty small pool of planet types and structures, etc. Progression is fine, but the game shines as a modded experience. With mods like frackin universe and some others the game is much more like a 4.5/5 with so many places and things to see, and super cool weapons, vehicles, etc. Game is nice with friends but I found it fun to fly my ship around the universe solo and just stumble upon cool things. Never took much attention to the story, and usually just play it for however many days/weeks until I've had my fill, but the plot never was the main thing that made this game stand out.