Finally done; tl;dr games good, arts good, story's good, music is playlist worthy, dumb characters being dumb doesn't make for any more interesting a plot point, BTB is like some of the worst gameplay I've played in a game before. I'll warn for spoilers later in the review btw.
Don't wanna spend too long typing up a long review, I was like almost done with my first one but my progress didn't save.
Art and music:
Honestly really good, it looks like a psp game but it has the willingness to make it work, characters are like cardboard cut-outs and backgrounds are kinda like diorama type things, it makes good use of the hardware and doesn't actually look all that bad even today. (Some of the cutscenes with the 3d-ish look a bit crunchy, but besides those we chilling.)
And the music is good too, honestly, imo playlist worthy, that's what I'd consider highest marks. Sure a game can have a super orchestral or maybe super emotionally gripping sound track that enhances the experience, those songs are good too, really good. But being able to listen to a song in daily life? Let it be the background of whatever you're doing? I love listening to game music, and at least DR1 music as joined alongside other game osts.
Story:
I had to try to separate my knowledge from a prior playthrough to the one I did now, I vaguely knew what was going to happen, but it had been years so it was still worth a playthrough. I will admit, the story had me interested even though I knew the plot points going forward. A desperate struggle to attempt to survive, coexist or escape from a situation like this, each individual character interaction, a lot of dialogue didn't feel forced but still gave characters opportunities to interact. Individual free time hang outs were kind of one note, like just trying to convey one concept for a story and that's it. But they aren't the main meat and potatoes of the game, so I can give that a pass. Game's story is good, not exceptionally great, but solid, enjoyable imo at the the very least.
Class trials: (Spoilers from here btw)
I consider this section of the game to be almost entirely seperate bar maybe the story, this is where gameplay really comes into play because the "gameplay" that is in during free time and even investigations is just visual novel style gameplay, I.E not really gameplay more of a vessel to facilitate the player to experience the story. Class trials are serviceable, they get the job done. Broken down it's a series of minigames which serves as the second big part of the "detective" portion of the game.
Most times questions aren't too asinine during the multiple choice section, but it's more so a logic problem.
Non-stop debates are fun (minus absorbing statements.)
Hangmans gambit is certainly a minigame, it's not overly hard since you can just pause and attempt to figure out the word then shoot the letters and bam, answer found.
Climax reasoning was the easiest for me but that's cause I remember it the most vividly, all up it's a fun mini game, I make-a da manga.
And now onto the big stinker, the yucky yucky, BTB's, or MTBs, basically the rhythm game minigame. These things suck, omega bad. I don't know whether spike chunsoft like botched the code behind this minigame, or if it was this bad on the psp, but why do my hits sometimes just not register? Plus they're honestly too much visually, the statements fluctuating in size as the approach sort of pulsing in and out is just distracting. Plus the constantly changing bpm coupled with negative mode makes it really really hard to tell when to press, so it's pretty much the designated use fenzy portion. All of that would be fine, if you didn't take so much god damn damage. Missing timing on one beat or losing it during negative mode means that I just watch my hp trip and fall down a flight of stairs. Which wouldn't be an issue if they decided to make it so every BTB was at the end maybe, increase the difficulty and make it a last challenge where you're rewarded with a more forgiving minigame if you did well. But having to do like 3 BTBs during the 4,5 and 6th iirc trials was a nightmare.
Plus certain moments made me so unbelievably upset at the game. Like Takas fucking wrist watch, where I had to use some roundabout absorbing a statement instead of using that piece of evidence, only to later have to either answer a multiple choice question or present evidence which was Taka's wristwatch. (This happened a couple times, including times when I had to absorb statements, my memory is a bit foggy on this part though.)
Plus this could be me being too reliant on just remembering how things go, but like 5/6 times when the discussion shifted to accusing someone I didn't know why it changed to accusing someone, so I'd put in the culprit who I knew ahead of time and it'd be correct. Maybe I just zoned out cause I was getting bored though.
In conclusion:
Good game, good first game as well, I'm gonna try to play through dr2 but for some reason starting dr2 makes me just feel bored. I'll try to muscle through till I actually start getting interested. I'm hopeful that spike has also made the rest of the minigames better in later games - especially BTBs - though I've heard legend about hangmans gambit. Also I gotta finish school mode and 100% the game, so I might change my mind, but school mode is basically just all vn stuff really.
Don't wanna spend too long typing up a long review, I was like almost done with my first one but my progress didn't save.
Art and music:
Honestly really good, it looks like a psp game but it has the willingness to make it work, characters are like cardboard cut-outs and backgrounds are kinda like diorama type things, it makes good use of the hardware and doesn't actually look all that bad even today. (Some of the cutscenes with the 3d-ish look a bit crunchy, but besides those we chilling.)
And the music is good too, honestly, imo playlist worthy, that's what I'd consider highest marks. Sure a game can have a super orchestral or maybe super emotionally gripping sound track that enhances the experience, those songs are good too, really good. But being able to listen to a song in daily life? Let it be the background of whatever you're doing? I love listening to game music, and at least DR1 music as joined alongside other game osts.
Story:
I had to try to separate my knowledge from a prior playthrough to the one I did now, I vaguely knew what was going to happen, but it had been years so it was still worth a playthrough. I will admit, the story had me interested even though I knew the plot points going forward. A desperate struggle to attempt to survive, coexist or escape from a situation like this, each individual character interaction, a lot of dialogue didn't feel forced but still gave characters opportunities to interact. Individual free time hang outs were kind of one note, like just trying to convey one concept for a story and that's it. But they aren't the main meat and potatoes of the game, so I can give that a pass. Game's story is good, not exceptionally great, but solid, enjoyable imo at the the very least.
Class trials: (Spoilers from here btw)
I consider this section of the game to be almost entirely seperate bar maybe the story, this is where gameplay really comes into play because the "gameplay" that is in during free time and even investigations is just visual novel style gameplay, I.E not really gameplay more of a vessel to facilitate the player to experience the story. Class trials are serviceable, they get the job done. Broken down it's a series of minigames which serves as the second big part of the "detective" portion of the game.
Most times questions aren't too asinine during the multiple choice section, but it's more so a logic problem.
Non-stop debates are fun (minus absorbing statements.)
Hangmans gambit is certainly a minigame, it's not overly hard since you can just pause and attempt to figure out the word then shoot the letters and bam, answer found.
Climax reasoning was the easiest for me but that's cause I remember it the most vividly, all up it's a fun mini game, I make-a da manga.
And now onto the big stinker, the yucky yucky, BTB's, or MTBs, basically the rhythm game minigame. These things suck, omega bad. I don't know whether spike chunsoft like botched the code behind this minigame, or if it was this bad on the psp, but why do my hits sometimes just not register? Plus they're honestly too much visually, the statements fluctuating in size as the approach sort of pulsing in and out is just distracting. Plus the constantly changing bpm coupled with negative mode makes it really really hard to tell when to press, so it's pretty much the designated use fenzy portion. All of that would be fine, if you didn't take so much god damn damage. Missing timing on one beat or losing it during negative mode means that I just watch my hp trip and fall down a flight of stairs. Which wouldn't be an issue if they decided to make it so every BTB was at the end maybe, increase the difficulty and make it a last challenge where you're rewarded with a more forgiving minigame if you did well. But having to do like 3 BTBs during the 4,5 and 6th iirc trials was a nightmare.
Plus certain moments made me so unbelievably upset at the game. Like Takas fucking wrist watch, where I had to use some roundabout absorbing a statement instead of using that piece of evidence, only to later have to either answer a multiple choice question or present evidence which was Taka's wristwatch. (This happened a couple times, including times when I had to absorb statements, my memory is a bit foggy on this part though.)
Plus this could be me being too reliant on just remembering how things go, but like 5/6 times when the discussion shifted to accusing someone I didn't know why it changed to accusing someone, so I'd put in the culprit who I knew ahead of time and it'd be correct. Maybe I just zoned out cause I was getting bored though.
In conclusion:
Good game, good first game as well, I'm gonna try to play through dr2 but for some reason starting dr2 makes me just feel bored. I'll try to muscle through till I actually start getting interested. I'm hopeful that spike has also made the rest of the minigames better in later games - especially BTBs - though I've heard legend about hangmans gambit. Also I gotta finish school mode and 100% the game, so I might change my mind, but school mode is basically just all vn stuff really.