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[ULTROS!]

Platforms:
PS4 and PSVita

Release date:
JP - Jan 12, 2017
WW - 2017

About:
The overall theme is mentioned to be "psycho cool", unlike the "psycho pop" and "psycho tropical" themes of the first two games. The visual style will have a "cool adult-like image" and the Class Trials will have "high-speed reasoning action". While the storyline and the sixteen new characters are different, the gameplay is similar to the earlier games, including exploration, talking with other characters and the Class Trials. It will have notable additions and improvements, though, like the possibility to use your own lies to defeat opponents during the trials.

Setting:
The game features a new killing game called the New Killing School Life. It also features sixteen new characters and a new setting called Gifted Inmates Academy or the Prison School for the Gifted. The Academy (and hotel) is in a garden surrounded by a cage. It's implied that the story is set in the future.

Credits:
http://danganronpa.wikia.com/wiki/Danganronpa_V3:_Killing_Harmony

 

[Dangansona]

I'll be sure to read it and be jealous for the next several months just like the Persona 5 import thread.

 

[perorist]

Have my copy arriving tomorrow, will be digging in this weekend.

 

[Permanently A]

Waiting for this game is gonna suck big time.

What are the reviews on the JP side like? Better or worse than DR2?

 

[GSR]

Subbed. I marathoned chapter 1 on release day but didn't have a chance to play yesterday.


...Chapter 1 was some fresh bullshit, lmao. All aboard Mr. Kodaka's Wild Ride.

 

[Dangansona]

Waiting for this game is gonna suck big time.

What are the reviews on the JP side like? Better or worse than DR2?

Also curious.

 

[The Wheel of Fortune]

I couldn't contain my excitement and looked for impressions on other message forums.

Fortunately, I didn't spoil myself and they seem to be overwhelmingly positive thus far (aside from the classic complaining of "great, my favorite character dies"). There seem to be several plot twists that trump that one from the dumb ending of DR2. I also read a lot of praise for the characters and the setting in general.

By the way, NISA tweeted yesterday that we're getting the Western release date soon:
https://twitter.com/NISAmerica/status/819610861526347777

 

[Gurnlei]

I've somehow gone this long without a single spoiler. Hope everyone keeps things marked here so I can read some general impressions at least. Don't really trust any other place.

By the way, NISA tweeted yesterday that we're getting the Western release date soon:
https://twitter.com/NISAmerica/status/819610861526347777

Yeesss.

 

[The Wheel of Fortune]

I've somehow gone this long without a single spoiler. Hope everyone keeps things marked here so I can read some general impressions at least. Don't really trust any other place.

Yeah, I've been really lucky myself, too, but I read that there were some assholes spoiling things on GameFAQs and /r/danganronpa's thread titles. Nowhere's safe, really.

This shit can't come out soon enough, I hope it's March/April or something like that.

 

[GSR]

I love the Monokuma Theater pics this go around

 

[bigjig]

How's the voice acting in this one. Reading a few Amazon JP reviews made it sound like the recording (volume levels?) were all off

 

[GSR]

How's the voice acting in this one. Reading a few Amazon JP reviews made it sound like the recording (volume levels?) were all off

The Vita version has bad sound quality for the VA, presumably to fit it all on one cartridge. They're releasing free DLC to make the sound full-quality sometime next week IIRC.

Chapter 2 victim:

Spoiler

RIP Hoshi, you were too cool to last. I was hoping you'd at least make it to chapter 3 or 4 though, lol. Helluva way to go, too.

 

[UberTag]

I love the Monokuma Theater pics this go around

Diehard movie enthusiasts will appreciate the love and attention that went into these parodies. They're very charming.

 

[Guru-Guru]

Bought this game on launch from a retailer near my apartment. 1 hour into the game I started having intense stomach pain, and I eventually ended up going to the hospital and getting my appendix removed the next day. Still suffering, but can't wait to get better and go back home and play this!

 

[Gurnlei]

Bought this game on launch from a retailer near my apartment. 1 hour into the game I started having intense stomach pain, and I eventually ended up going to the hospital and getting my appendix removed the next day. Still suffering, but can't wait to get better and go back home and play this!

Despair! (Get well soon.)

 

[GSR]

Chapter 2 clear.

Spoiler

I had Toujo marked to live and already spent two free times with her, lol. I also thought Angie would be the killer for sure. Oh well. Toujo's backstory was completely ridiculous, but that's Danganronpa for you. Also I figured Harukawa wasn't actually childcare, but assassin is quite something.

that said some of the fanservice in this game is making my eyes roll straight out of my head. you don't need to take every possible opportunity to show a female character in her underwear, kodaka

I gotta get better at lying, I haven't managed to find a single hidden route yet.

 

[ULTROS!]

So how are the people finding this game compared to DR1 and DR2?

 

[UberTag]

So how are the people finding this game compared to DR1 and DR2?

The reception here seems quite favorable. The early reception outside of GAF on places like Reddit and via Amazon.co.jp reviews seem quite polarizing... mainly due to how people react to what gets thrown at them in Chapters

Spoiler

1

and

Spoiler

6

. There doesn't seem to be much in the way of middle ground. People either love it or hate it... but hey, it's early so reactionary responses make sense.

As for me, I went in with low expectations about what would be delivered and was ultimately won over.

 

[ULTROS!]

As long as it can do as good as DR1 and DR2, I'm fine with that.

Also as long as there isn't any "friendship is the real power" bullshit like in Trails of Cold Steel, it's good for me.

 

[Guru-Guru]

Despair! (Get well soon.)

Thanks, dude.

Had the surgery and am finally back in my house. Played the prologue--pretty standard stuff. Nobody really stood out to me as who will be the first victim, whereas in Danganronpa 1 and 2 I knew right away. Reading the comments about how the reaction to chapter 1 is mixed has me intrigued to play it tomorrow!

 

[Gacha-pin]

kinda newbie here played the first game years ago and skip everything else. Now back in v3.

I finished chapter 2 so far. Each segment is uncomfortably long to me. Each chapter took 8 hours or so with 2-3 hour long daily life part and 2-3 hour long investigation part and then 2-3 hour long trial part. It is hard to get back to the game if you quit in the middle of a segment. I don't think the first game is this long.

Some spoiler question regarding the player character in chapter 1,

Spoiler

in my playthrough, Akamatsu is the killer but I guess you can save her, right?

 

[NEO0MJ]

By the way, NISA tweeted yesterday that we're getting the Western release date soon:
https://twitter.com/NISAmerica/status/819610861526347777

Came here to ask about this. Hope it's not too far off.

 

[DNAbro]

Here is a playlist of songs from the game that I've been building https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLK7gaw45vGla-R_Xv8IfN_TQD_-JmAYto

Been risking spoilers looking for songs. Recommend just letting it play in a separate tab cause while I haven't run into anything explicit, I did see the "ALL EXECUTIONS AND ENDING" in the sidebar.

The Scrum Debate music is super good.

I just want NISA to announce the damn release date so I know how long I have to avoid spoilers.

 

[tookhster]

Man, I really wanna import this just so I don't have to keep avoiding spoilers like the plague. I had the second game ruined for me due to Youtube thumbnails and Gamefaqs.

I'm at an intermediate level speaking Japanese but don't know much kanji, and all the other games I imported are more gameplay-oriented so I didn't really have to read much.

I can't see NISA releasing this close to March since that's when we're getting 1+2 on PS4, so I assume they're gonna want to squeeze out the sales for that before V3.

Grrrrr, I can't decide.

 

[ULTROS!]

Ok I think I got spoiled in one of the deaths of V3 [MEGA SPOILERS]

Spoiler

Amami's death. I just know he dies in the game but not sure at what point and how. So... Did I miss anything?

 

[GSR]

yo what the fuck was chapter 3 tho

Spoiler

"the killer is the obvious killer except also he murders people because of incest and maybe has a split personality or maybe a ghost"

"also let's have it be clear he's the killer of both of them, but then he denies one of the murders, so the trial goes on another forty-five minutes, but j/k he is the killer after all"

it feels like they were going to go for shinguuji being innocent of the second murder after all and changed their minds at the last minute

Decent setup but not impressed with the trial at all

 

[InternHertz]

I'm currently at the beginning of chapter 2 only, after visiting the new places open to me.
I'm not as far as I would've hoped to be, 'cause I keep getting sleepy as hell when I can play and can't keep up for too long.

I liked the first chapter, it was a nice change of pace ^^
I'm really curious about where it's all trying to go and can't wait to play more.

 

[Permanently A]

Overall vibe I'm getting is "positive but polarizing"

Can't wait for this game. localization date soon is great news

 

[drac96]

Does anyone have performance impressions? I want to get it on the Vita, but now that it's not a PSP port I'm afraid it'll run like trash. The past few Vita games I've gotten have had crazy performance issues.

I realize that it's a visual novel, but I can't help but worry. I don't really know if it was designed for the vita from the ground up.

I'd just look it up, but somehow I'm going to get spoiled if I do that haha.

 

[Sciel]

Does anyone have performance impressions? I want to get it on the Vita, but now that it's not a PSP port I'm afraid it'll run like trash. The past few Vita games I've gotten have had crazy performance issues.

I realize that it's a visual novel, but I can't help but worry. I don't really know if it was designed for the vita from the ground up.

I'd just look it up, but somehow I'm going to get spoiled if I do that haha.

Taken from reddit

Danganronpa V3 is a game that has a lot of audio and a lot of textures. Those are the two assets which take up the most space, so for the Vita version a lot of these things were compressed. As a result, the voiced dialogue can come across as very muffled, and I personally had to turn up the volume louder than I normally do in order to fully understand some characters.
Sometimes (Mostly during trials) when there is a quick jump between two backgrounds or two scenes, the resolution on the textures will become very bad for about a second before finally fixing itself. The game itself does not look bad on the Vita, it looks great. But this is an issue that happens sometimes.
There is supposed to be a patch coming out sometime that will fix the audio quality, but it has yet to come.
It's not unbearable by any means, but they were things that I noticed that I didn't really like.

 

[drac96]

Taken from reddit

Thank you very much! If those things are supposed to be patched it should be totally fine on Vita. Also I listen way too loud anyways haha.

 

[GSR]

DRV3 soundtrack coming February 24th. 5 CDs split across two releases ("White" - 2 CDs, mostly non-trial/early game music; "Black" - 3 CDs, mostly trial/late-game/post-game bonus music).

Track listing is over here, though it looks like it includes the execution names so don't look if you can read Japanese. (That last CD looks to be primarily bonus game music though so I wouldn't read into that one too much.)

I've been loving the music in this one so I'm definitely in.

 

[Guru-Guru]

A little late, but today I powered through the investigation/trial of chapter 1.

Spoiler

Coming into this game I figured they would do something crazy for the 1st chapter...Really sad to see that the protagonist, Kaede, ended up being the killer. She was funny, cute, and just really likeable compared to Danganronpa 1/2 protagonists. I didn't really get suspicious of her until midway in the trial, actually before the detective went really silent. There was an occasion where he had a weird reaction to something Kaede said that made me think he was suspecting me (and in turn, made me think Kaede was behind it). Excited for chapter 2, though disappointed that the protagonist is going to be the detective--he's just kind of boring IMO. Obviously it makes sense to have kind of a bland main character, especially when everyone else is so eccentric. Oh well!

 

[GSR]

Chapter 4 was a marked improvement over 3, even if (again) the trial was a bit of a letdown.

That said I got to the murder in chapter 5 (probably shouldn't have played so much today lmao) and (MAJOR SPOILERS)

Spoiler

while I'm 99% sure that's Ouma under the presser and he wasn't the real mastermind, I still nearly tossed my controller out a window when I saw Junko pop up and "remnants of despair" started getting thrown around. Please, DRV3, couldn't you have actually stuck to the "new" part of the name? Also l m a o if the meteor thing is 100% true and the actual resolution to the DR1-3 arc is "rocks fell everyone died"

.

 

[DNAbro]

DRV3 soundtrack coming February 24th. 5 CDs split across two releases ("White" - 2 CDs, mostly non-trial/early game music; "Black" - 3 CDs, mostly trial/late-game/post-game bonus music).

Track listing is over here, though it looks like it includes the execution names so don't look if you can read Japanese. (That last CD looks to be primarily bonus game music though so I wouldn't read into that one too much.)

I've been loving the music in this one so I'm definitely in.

Yaaaay. I hope they put it up on Spotify like the rest of the DR OSTs. Youtube rips are okay at the moment but I want it all in one place.

 

[Guru-Guru]

Chapter 2 clear.

Spoiler

I had Toujo marked to live and already spent two free times with her, lol. I also thought Angie would be the killer for sure. Oh well. Toujo's backstory was completely ridiculous, but that's Danganronpa for you. Also I figured Harukawa wasn't actually childcare, but assassin is quite something.

that said some of the fanservice in this game is making my eyes roll straight out of my head. you don't need to take every possible opportunity to show a female character in her underwear, kodaka

I gotta get better at lying, I haven't managed to find a single hidden route yet.

I finally just finished chapter 2 as well.

Spoiler

Really sad that Hoshi got murdered. He was one of the most interesting/cool characters in the cast, IMO. I was also suspecting Angie for a bit too. One thing that kind of tipped me off towards Toujo is that she talked A LOT during the trial/often was challenging the statements/guesses of other characters. Hoshi's "motive" video being blank was kinda rough.

 

[Totakeke]

Just noticed that the PS4 version is listed as more expensive than the Vita version. Are there any differences aside from the inherent graphics difference?

 

[GSR]

I finally just finished chapter 2 as well.

Spoiler

Really sad that Hoshi got murdered. He was one of the most interesting/cool characters in the cast, IMO. I was also suspecting Angie for a bit too. One thing that kind of tipped me off towards Toujo is that she talked A LOT during the trial/often was challenging the statements/guesses of other characters. Hoshi's "motive" video being blank was kinda rough.

(Chapter 2 victim)

Spoiler

Yeah but there was no way he was making it through alive, lol. And he didn't seem the killer type. Just surprised it happened so soon, I had him pegged to go down around chapter 4.

Just noticed that the PS4 version is listed as more expensive than the Vita version. Are there any differences aside from the inherent graphics difference?

The voice quality is worse until you download a patch, but other than that and the graphics they're the same AFAIK.

Also chapter 5 is... certainly trying to go toe-to-toe with DR2's chapter 5 wild ride.

 

[GSR]

I'm at the final trial

what the fuck is going on

 

[Guru-Guru]

kinda newbie here played the first game years ago and skip everything else. Now back in v3.

I finished chapter 2 so far. Each segment is uncomfortably long to me. Each chapter took 8 hours or so with 2-3 hour long daily life part and 2-3 hour long investigation part and then 2-3 hour long trial part. It is hard to get back to the game if you quit in the middle of a segment. I don't think the first game is this long.

Some spoiler question regarding the player character in chapter 1,

Spoiler

in my playthrough, Akamatsu is the killer but I guess you can save her, right?

Yeah, this game definitely feels a lot longer than the previous games. I'm guessing Danganronpa took me 25ish hours to beat, Dangaronpa 2 was 30+, and I have put in maybe 25+ hours on Danganronpa 3 and have just started chapter 4.

yo what the fuck was chapter 3 tho

Spoiler

"the killer is the obvious killer except also he murders people because of incest and maybe has a split personality or maybe a ghost"

"also let's have it be clear he's the killer of both of them, but then he denies one of the murders, so the trial goes on another forty-five minutes, but j/k he is the killer after all"

it feels like they were going to go for shinguuji being innocent of the second murder after all and changed their minds at the last minute

Decent setup but not impressed with the trial at all

Yeah, chapter 3 was a little disappointing...

Spoiler

I thought the ghost ritual was really cool though. For whatever reason (probably because I was tired) it didn't hit me until the lights went off during the ritual that "oh shit, she's also going to die, isn't she!?"

As for the trial, I agree that it felt a little too long. At first I was expecting that maybe he didn't commit the 1st murder (thus would survive the trial), which would make for a pretty interesting setup for chapter 4. Once it became apparent that he did both and you had to slog through 45 more minutes of a trial I really lost my concentration...

 

[GSR]

finished

what the fuck was that

 

[ULTROS!]

finished

what the fuck was that

What do you do think of the game?

 

[GSR]

What do you do think of the game?

I think it's probably the best in the series from a gameplay/presentation POV. The mysteries felt a little weak sometimes which is a shame. The overall plot is a tire fire but at least the conclusion is hype to play through.

 

[themagicalkitsune]

^ Sounds good. Can't wait to play it when it gets released in the US.

In the meantime I want to freshen up on my DR universe knowledge, but I'm afraid I'll get V3 spoilers everywhere.

 

[perorist]

Didn't get much time to play last weekend but just powered through chapter 1 today. Definitely drags on a bit compared to previous games, especially since we've seen the same song and dance twice already and the game

Spoiler

drops pretty explicit hints that this is another simulation or something along those lines so I'm just curious about getting to the core plot twist already

. Chapter 1 twist was nice but I had some foreshadowing going in due to seeing

Spoiler

iruma replace bakamatsu with dasaihara in one of her present response dialogues when I looked up a present affinity chart

, which probably lessened the impact a bit. Won't make that mistake again.

 

[The Illiterati]

I think it's probably the best in the series from a gameplay/presentation POV. The mysteries felt a little weak sometimes which is a shame. The overall plot is a tire fire but at least the conclusion is hype to play through.

I would like to know if the game if as unconnected from the other two as advertised. I don't want major spoilers, just maybe confirmation this game is not just another Junko Did It twist.

 

[Bladenic]

I think it's probably the best in the series from a gameplay/presentation POV. The mysteries felt a little weak sometimes which is a shame. The overall plot is a tire fire but at least the conclusion is hype to play through.

Well that's disappointing to hear.

 

[ULTROS!]

I think it's probably the best in the series from a gameplay/presentation POV. The mysteries felt a little weak sometimes which is a shame. The overall plot is a tire fire but at least the conclusion is hype to play through.

Interesting. In terms of excitement and mystery, how does it fare to DR1, DR2, and UDG?

 

[GSR]

I would like to know if the game if as unconnected from the other two as advertised. I don't want major spoilers, just maybe confirmation this game is not just another Junko Did It twist.

In the interest of avoiding any public mastermind identity talk I'm taking this to PM.

Interesting. In terms of excitement and mystery, how does it fare to DR1, DR2, and UDG?

I think DRV3 has some of the best moments in the series, and it has some very good driving questions. The answers to those questions aren't necessarily so great.

 

[DNAbro]

In the interest of avoiding any public mastermind identity talk I'm taking this to PM.



I think DRV3 has some of the best moments in the series, and it has some very good driving questions. The answers to those questions aren't necessarily so great.

Interesting. One last question, what was your favorite chapter and how does it compare to DR2's chapter 5? That one specifically cause that was the most mind blowing ride.