Whenever this game comes up, whether through casually thinking about it or watching Youtube clips, I end up going through a little thought experiment. What would it be like if Danganronpa 1 was the only game in the series? There's two easy answers to this: 1) we lose one of the best games ever made (and DR2) or 2) world peace. It's hard not to consider a world where the game stayed niche, and it's different, subversive elements weren't buried under the most obnoxious surface-level anime twitter-type discussions that plague the community and its reputation to this day. Recently, I started a replay of the first game with a friend, and even though plans sort of fell through, experiencing it from the top and looking into the game's history/context of its release on the side was almost eye-opening for how unique it must've been at the time. There's something about going back to this and seeing the series' themes and concepts explored in a much more down-to-earth manner than its sequels. (Which says a lot given how absurd this game is) Do I wish for a world where the franchise never blew up and it stayed in a super niche corner of the internet? Of course not, it deserves to reach a wider audience, and one of those sequels is one of my favorite games of all time. However, I can't help but lament how warped its public perception is, when it should be seen as so much more.