NDRV3 meta: Thoughts on the ending
Dec. 16th, 2018 09:42 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mikogalateaWhen I beat NDRV3 back in February, with the ending being as controversial as it is, I naturally got an anon ask on Tumblr wondering what I thought about it. I actually meant to crosspost my response here closer to the time, or at least write up a post similar to it, but I never got around to it. (Until now, obviously!)
I'll say this much before I get into the crossposted answer to that ask: While I did say back when I posted here about beating the game that I had "kind of mixed" feelings on the ending, they soon started leaning closer to the positive side of things, as you'll see.
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I came into the game totally spoiled on most things, so I couldn't be shocked by the ending. That probably helped the way I saw the last trial, actually, because I was able to take notice of details rather than reeling from the twists themselves.
I'll be honest: when I first heard about The Twist way back around the time the game first came out in Japan, it angered me to the point where I literally cried. Melodramatic, I know, but the misinformation I read at the time made it seem like it wasn't worth getting to know NDRV3's cast at all because of their in-game selves being "fictional" and their previous selves allegedly being total opposites. Once I saw meta clearing up misconceptions like that, though, I felt much better about the twist, especially because one of the major points of the endgame was that the characters' experiences in the killing game were meaningful to them.
(As a quick aside, though, I never understood why fans were so upset about the revelation that the Hope's Peak saga was fictional in NDRV3's world. Not only does it not change the fact that the Hope's Peak storyline is still "real" within its own context, but for crying out loud, we already know it's fictional because we played the games and watched the anime!)
I feel like one big litmus test for how people react to this ending is whether they empathise with the characters or take the in-game audience as literally representing themselves. I'm definitely in the first category, as I legitimately felt sorry for Shuuichi when he was breaking down from having all his experiences invalidated. (His crying sprites always get to me anyway, plus the UI breaking down as well broke my heart here almost as much as it did during the protag switch back in Chapter 1.)
Speaking of the in-game audience, the random comments from them were kind of fun to read. I also had to laugh at the point where minigames kept being thrown at me and I had to fail them on purpose. ^^;
Another cool aspect of the trial was the brief POV switches to Himiko and Maki. I felt like it really emphasised that their choice to use their lives to end Dangan Ronpa for good was their choice and not just something that Tsumugi (allegedly) scripted them to feel.
Finally, another part of the ending that made me tear up was when Keebo, just before blowing himself up, smiled when he saw the rubble move and knew that Shuuichi, Maki and Himiko were still alive. I thought it was sweet of him to save his friends, and although the survivors chalk it up to the will of the outside world, I can't help wondering if his decision to save them was representative of his own feelings -- which in turn makes me wonder if his personality hadn't actually been wiped as thoroughly as Tsumugi claimed, but since this is a long enough response to begin with, I think I'll save my speculation on this and other things for another post.
I've mostly been pretty positive with my thoughts here, so let's go onto some negative stuff... I think my biggest issue with the ending isn't with the ending itself so much as it's about my biggest issue with the game as a whole that kind of weakens its final message. That issue, which I've mentioned to some extent before, is that the narrative is blatantly biased for and against certain characters; I feel that the main examples of this are that it's very biased in favour of Maki and Kaito and rather biased against Miu and Kokichi. Anyway, I feel like this narrative bias somewhat undermines the message about appreciating fiction, because I get the impression that Kodaka doesn't have that same appreciation for some of his own characters. Playing the bonus material and collecting people's FTEs is helping [and did help] to soften my cranky feelings on this point, but it's still something that bugs me.
My other (considerably milder) issue with the last chapter is that I think some of the time spent on Tsumugi constantly switching cosplays for the sake of cameos could've been better spent on fleshing out other points.
I... think that's about it for my thoughts on the ending itself. Like I said, I have some speculation about some things, particularly about what Tsumugi surely lied about in the last trial, but I'll save them for another time because this is long enough as it is.
[And yet I'm still tacking on this extra bit that was originally a separate post from when I was playing through the final trial! Hey, it's relevant!]
It sure was super fucked-up that not only did Tsumugi drive the other survivors to despair by claiming credit for every single thing about them as per the FICTION twist, but the game even tried to trick us, the players with prologue "flashbacks" that were never actually part of the prologue.
-
I should only have a few more NDRV3 posts at most to bring over, and then that'll be it for my crossposting from Tumblr!
I'll say this much before I get into the crossposted answer to that ask: While I did say back when I posted here about beating the game that I had "kind of mixed" feelings on the ending, they soon started leaning closer to the positive side of things, as you'll see.
-
I came into the game totally spoiled on most things, so I couldn't be shocked by the ending. That probably helped the way I saw the last trial, actually, because I was able to take notice of details rather than reeling from the twists themselves.
I'll be honest: when I first heard about The Twist way back around the time the game first came out in Japan, it angered me to the point where I literally cried. Melodramatic, I know, but the misinformation I read at the time made it seem like it wasn't worth getting to know NDRV3's cast at all because of their in-game selves being "fictional" and their previous selves allegedly being total opposites. Once I saw meta clearing up misconceptions like that, though, I felt much better about the twist, especially because one of the major points of the endgame was that the characters' experiences in the killing game were meaningful to them.
(As a quick aside, though, I never understood why fans were so upset about the revelation that the Hope's Peak saga was fictional in NDRV3's world. Not only does it not change the fact that the Hope's Peak storyline is still "real" within its own context, but for crying out loud, we already know it's fictional because we played the games and watched the anime!)
I feel like one big litmus test for how people react to this ending is whether they empathise with the characters or take the in-game audience as literally representing themselves. I'm definitely in the first category, as I legitimately felt sorry for Shuuichi when he was breaking down from having all his experiences invalidated. (His crying sprites always get to me anyway, plus the UI breaking down as well broke my heart here almost as much as it did during the protag switch back in Chapter 1.)
Speaking of the in-game audience, the random comments from them were kind of fun to read. I also had to laugh at the point where minigames kept being thrown at me and I had to fail them on purpose. ^^;
Another cool aspect of the trial was the brief POV switches to Himiko and Maki. I felt like it really emphasised that their choice to use their lives to end Dangan Ronpa for good was their choice and not just something that Tsumugi (allegedly) scripted them to feel.
Finally, another part of the ending that made me tear up was when Keebo, just before blowing himself up, smiled when he saw the rubble move and knew that Shuuichi, Maki and Himiko were still alive. I thought it was sweet of him to save his friends, and although the survivors chalk it up to the will of the outside world, I can't help wondering if his decision to save them was representative of his own feelings -- which in turn makes me wonder if his personality hadn't actually been wiped as thoroughly as Tsumugi claimed, but since this is a long enough response to begin with, I think I'll save my speculation on this and other things for another post.
I've mostly been pretty positive with my thoughts here, so let's go onto some negative stuff... I think my biggest issue with the ending isn't with the ending itself so much as it's about my biggest issue with the game as a whole that kind of weakens its final message. That issue, which I've mentioned to some extent before, is that the narrative is blatantly biased for and against certain characters; I feel that the main examples of this are that it's very biased in favour of Maki and Kaito and rather biased against Miu and Kokichi. Anyway, I feel like this narrative bias somewhat undermines the message about appreciating fiction, because I get the impression that Kodaka doesn't have that same appreciation for some of his own characters. Playing the bonus material and collecting people's FTEs is helping [and did help] to soften my cranky feelings on this point, but it's still something that bugs me.
My other (considerably milder) issue with the last chapter is that I think some of the time spent on Tsumugi constantly switching cosplays for the sake of cameos could've been better spent on fleshing out other points.
I... think that's about it for my thoughts on the ending itself. Like I said, I have some speculation about some things, particularly about what Tsumugi surely lied about in the last trial, but I'll save them for another time because this is long enough as it is.
[And yet I'm still tacking on this extra bit that was originally a separate post from when I was playing through the final trial! Hey, it's relevant!]
It sure was super fucked-up that not only did Tsumugi drive the other survivors to despair by claiming credit for every single thing about them as per the FICTION twist, but the game even tried to trick us, the players with prologue "flashbacks" that were never actually part of the prologue.
-
I should only have a few more NDRV3 posts at most to bring over, and then that'll be it for my crossposting from Tumblr!
no subject
Date: 2018-12-17 08:09 am (UTC)Yes, I loved that! The question of what makes something 'real' or meaningful is a theme I've always enjoyed in fiction; it's something that's heavily explored in Kingdom Hearts as well.
Speaking of the in-game audience, the random comments from them were kind of fun to read.
'I wanna break Shuichi's fingers <3' was my favourite. That person definitely writes fanfiction.
no subject
Date: 2018-12-17 11:43 pm (UTC)And yeah, that creepy Shuuichi fan was probably the best random audience member. I bet their fanfics are pretty sadistic towards the poor boy.