This review contains spoilers
[Major spoilers ahead]
To get the obvious out of the way: this game absolutely does not beat the Danganronpa allegations. Sure the core concept of 'group of people trapped in a location start killing each other' isn't exactly unique to DR, but there's so many similarities in characters, events and even plot points that it's really hard to ignore.
Personally I think this game had the potential to be really good, but the writing is definitely Not; several times dialogue blatantly contradicts previously-established facts or treats out-of-the-blue statements as fact with no explanation, the cases themselves feel a little contrived, and in general things are sometimes overcomplicated or poorly explained (chapters 5 & 6 in particular suffer a lot with all the back-and-forth over who died when and how). At one point a piece of evidence is brought up that's not actually visible (both to the player and to the characters in-game), but the game acts like it is and refers to it again later in the case.
The scenario falls somewhat flat as well; even with the eventual reveal of Wato being Ideal, his characterisation as 'low-ranking unconfident novice who grows into his role as Ideal over the course of the game' clashes awkwardly with the way that from the very start the gameplay makes him the most important person in each investigation and the person who actually solves each case, so you have this apparent novice explaining a murder that has seemingly stumped half a dozen of the world's best detectives, who immediately continue treating him like an amateur in the next scene.
The gameplay also doesn't really give you the chance to put together the solution yourself; there's no 'trial' or discussion, so you just skip from the evidence collecting to the 'closing argument' in which Wato has everything already worked out and the player has to catch up.
A few other personal nitpicks: I found it hard to get attached to the characters (though I'm not really a fan of 'one trait = entire personality' anyway), and applying DR-style character writing to this kind of scenario doesn't really work anyway in my opinion. Also at several points the game seemed as if it was building towards having the player solve a puzzle or code and then...didn't, instead just cutting to an 'oh cool we solved it' moment - the only exception being the fight with Renegade, and 'choose the option the game told you three dialogue lines ago' felt almost like an insult at that point.
In all honesty I did like this game somewhat (and wanted to like it more) - this review probably sounds a lot harsher than it should - but as someone who really enjoyed Danganronpa I was frustrated by how much this game ended up falling short of it's potential, and the overarching mystery wasn't really satisfying in the end. But I've seen plenty of other people enjoy it and I can see how they would, if there ends up being a sequel I hope it improves on this.
(Oh and minus points for 'unavoidable fanservice scene with underage character' and for 'trying to restore the Pinkerton name' for some reason?)
To get the obvious out of the way: this game absolutely does not beat the Danganronpa allegations. Sure the core concept of 'group of people trapped in a location start killing each other' isn't exactly unique to DR, but there's so many similarities in characters, events and even plot points that it's really hard to ignore.
Personally I think this game had the potential to be really good, but the writing is definitely Not; several times dialogue blatantly contradicts previously-established facts or treats out-of-the-blue statements as fact with no explanation, the cases themselves feel a little contrived, and in general things are sometimes overcomplicated or poorly explained (chapters 5 & 6 in particular suffer a lot with all the back-and-forth over who died when and how). At one point a piece of evidence is brought up that's not actually visible (both to the player and to the characters in-game), but the game acts like it is and refers to it again later in the case.
The scenario falls somewhat flat as well; even with the eventual reveal of Wato being Ideal, his characterisation as 'low-ranking unconfident novice who grows into his role as Ideal over the course of the game' clashes awkwardly with the way that from the very start the gameplay makes him the most important person in each investigation and the person who actually solves each case, so you have this apparent novice explaining a murder that has seemingly stumped half a dozen of the world's best detectives, who immediately continue treating him like an amateur in the next scene.
The gameplay also doesn't really give you the chance to put together the solution yourself; there's no 'trial' or discussion, so you just skip from the evidence collecting to the 'closing argument' in which Wato has everything already worked out and the player has to catch up.
A few other personal nitpicks: I found it hard to get attached to the characters (though I'm not really a fan of 'one trait = entire personality' anyway), and applying DR-style character writing to this kind of scenario doesn't really work anyway in my opinion. Also at several points the game seemed as if it was building towards having the player solve a puzzle or code and then...didn't, instead just cutting to an 'oh cool we solved it' moment - the only exception being the fight with Renegade, and 'choose the option the game told you three dialogue lines ago' felt almost like an insult at that point.
In all honesty I did like this game somewhat (and wanted to like it more) - this review probably sounds a lot harsher than it should - but as someone who really enjoyed Danganronpa I was frustrated by how much this game ended up falling short of it's potential, and the overarching mystery wasn't really satisfying in the end. But I've seen plenty of other people enjoy it and I can see how they would, if there ends up being a sequel I hope it improves on this.
(Oh and minus points for 'unavoidable fanservice scene with underage character' and for 'trying to restore the Pinkerton name' for some reason?)