My big problem with UDG is that it seems to just kinda touch on really dark subject material just for shock value instead of doing anything meaningful with it. Or using it for fanservice like in chapter 3 as you sorta mentioned. I don’t agree with all of the points in this video but I definitely agree with the idea that most of the really memorable stuff is the stuff that’s uncomfortable.
Upfront, just stating: UDG was and, to an extent, still is my favorite Danganronpa game. That is not to say I didn't abhore everything they did in Chapter 3. When I was first watching through it, I was a bit younger and a lot dumber, and I didn't really understand the full implications of it. I thought it was very weird for what they were trying to do, but it didn't feel so *wrong* like it does now. Chapter 3 is a big turn off for many people who I think otherwise would have liked or at least been neutral on the game. I promise, you're not alone in your opinion. UDG is truly one of if not the most polarizing game in the series. Which is such a shame, because it has so much potential and then squandered it. They had us in the first half, not gonna lie.
I can 100% see why anyone would not like this game tbh, and I even told my friend not to play it because of how uncomfortable it is. It’s my favorite game in the series though. Komaru’s growth hit me very hard when I was playing it. She starts out kind of unsure of herself but optimistic. Then Yuta dies, and she becomes absolutely terrified. Slowly with Toko’s help, she’s able to gain confidence in herself and rally the survivors. When she’s finally overcome her struggle she finds out that giving the adults hope made everything infinitely worse. Then once she meets Monica, she breaks down and gives up thanks to the hopelessness of it all. I don’t think I’ve ever played another game where the main character overcomes struggles just to get to the end and fail. That last hour was so good, it overshadows the questionable parts of this game for me. Plus the story told through the world building is amazing.
Yea the game has a lot of good points. Komaru's arc is awesome and is the reason why she's one of my favourite characters in the series despite some of her hard to listen to moments. The story has great moments especially when it gets to the end and the world building is top notch
I watched a youtuber's playthrough (I think it was BijuuMike) and I hated the Byakuya fantasy scenes. Sure, Toko is a simp but she is much more than just a simp. They should have made her less..like that in Ultra despair girls. I was also very annoyed when Komaru's clothes started ripping apart during the fight. I know that she got attacked with scissors but damn, some games don't have the clothes rip like that even if a character is hit with a sword. Spoiler alert⚠️ I think they killed Yuta and Chihiro's dad off way too early. We only got to learn their names and some tiny bit of backstory/personality and boom. It was quite disappointing. I will say that I absolutely loved Yasuhiro's mom, she was good 💕
I agree with some points for sure. The minigame in Chapter 3 and the Toko fight as well as killing a couple character way too quickly being major flaws in how some things are handled. But, the rest makes sense I think. All the stuff you pick up really helps build on the characters. Especially the memos and stuff left by the Warriors of Hope. The last ones you get (I collected everything cause Platinum Trophy) were rough. It builds more on their character and explains A LOT of why they were so easily manipulated by Junko even more than what the game portrayed. Half show how their parents feel and the other half show how the kids really feel. Can get pretty somber and tragic and messed up. And the scene with Nagisa and Monica was supposed to convey being uncomfortable. Monica is a literal monster and that scene goes to show how warped and out of control she really is. She is just using the Warriors of Hope and that is where Nagisa finally realizes that and figures out that everything he was doing was a lie. It literally broke him down and all the things he did pretty much came back to him. I really like Nagisa and Kotoko for the most part. Personally, while I think the game has a lot of issues (the game play being one of them at times), I do think that the story is MOSTLY solid and the world building is top tier. The world building is so good that it blows all the other games out of the water when compared. And to be fair, in a effed up world like this, being uncomfortable is probably to be expected. I think the main issue with the game is that the DR vibe is a little more light hearted despite the effed up crap going on, so the tone was an issue in a game that is expanding into something way more screwed up than a single killing game stuck in a school/island. I think they needed to take it a bit more seriously at certain parts like you mentioned while keeping the light hearted banter between Toko and Komaru in between, cause, man, you need the levity in this one.
Honestly, as the time went on and i experience better games and better stories ( classic movies, films , etc ) my opinion of this series in general has gradually decreased as well. Especially UDG.
Even as a fan of fanservice normaly. I think it just not fits into dangaronpa's universe. Also its a akward kind of fan service. Panty shots... are normally handle in a way that girls are slightly annoyed but overall okay. In Dangaronpa the girls are usually feeling very unconfortable in this situations or feel seriously abused. It kind of feels like raping them. Even this would not bother me. If it happens in a erotic game. But not in a crime game that wants to be tsken serious. I think each game has scenes like this that just make you feel bad for the girls. But UDG has too many of this overall making the game feel like a hentai game at some times.
One thing that was funny though is when they had Kotoko say she was 18 in the English version so they wouldn’t get in trouble even though it doesn’t actually make sense in universe.
A lot of the stuff in Ultra despair girls is unnecessary dark in a way that feels very tasteless and surface-level. Which sucks, because I genuinely think it has an interesting story and characters, but it can be really hard to see past all the uncomfortable stuff when they’re constantly waving it in your face. This game would be a lot stronger if it could sort out its tone - either by cutting or changing the really dark stuff outright, or by treating it more seriously to add to the game’s (attempted?) grittier and more ‘despair-filled’ atmosphere, which is hopefully more tactful than just using it for shock and then trying to use that shock for comedy.
In my personally opinion, UDG never felt bad because of its disturbing or weird scenes, in actuality I like that the writers were willing to make this game dark and disturbing. It never bothered me because it's not real and if the writers want to make a game that's dark like this I'm fine with it. But what I really think is funny, is how that this feeling that you're describing perfectly describes how I feel with Danganronpa V3. I originally liked V3 a lot, but over time I grew to dislike the later parts of the game starting with chapter 3 deadly life. For me the game just becomes worse and worse with each chapter and the more I watch it, the more I notice little things that didn't bother me before, but now they do. It's weird because I actually really liked V3 before, but the more time passes the more things make me dislike the later half of the game.
Personally for V3, I think Chapter 4 is the best of the game. Chapter 5 is okay, but the flaws are apparent because of that stupid ass Flashback Light being used and Chapter 6..... lol. That is just dreck. As for Chapter 3... is any Chapter 3 that good? I will give that one a pass because they just can't do Chapter 3s well. V3 probably did it the best, though... But the bar was kinda low.
@@orga7777In my opinion chapter 4 is just kinda bad as a part of the story, there is no meaningful things happening in daily life, since the entire crime happens in the virtual world, makes it kinda feel like filler. The only thing that's kinda hinted at is the poison used, but that's a red herring, so ultimately it's a side thing. Next is motive, the chapter has an enitrely ambigious motive until the end of the chapter, yes we see how Kokichi reacts to it and how he works with Monokuma, but that just plays into the other points as to why I think chapter 4 is bad. Without a motive everyone acts just kinda the same until Miu dies, it gives no one any reason to act differently, which makes Miu, the only one actually doing things, a way too obvious victim. Speaking of, the case in itself is fine, mystery is alright, logic is fine, I personally don't take issue with it because the idea is similar to DR2. But what I do take issue with is how everyone decides to just go into the virtual world after Miu begs them to, and the only reason most even decide to do it is Monokuma says they can find something. And I'm like: why do these people trust Monokuma and why is no one questioning that Monokuma is just fine with letting everyone go into this program when Miu promissed that it's completely save... I'm not sure if you get what I'm saying but it's just such a stupid reason to get everyone into the virtual world, because by that point they should be smarter than that. Which nicely brings me to my next issue, which is Kokichi. The entire reason this case exist is to play up Kokichi for chapter 5 and it shows, Kokichi is indirectly the reason they all go into the virtual world, Kokichi manipulates Gonta to kill Miu, which btw. Gonta should know better than trust Kokichi after chapter 2, it's like... character development of me not being gullible, nah Gonta needs to trust untrustworthy rat boy... then Kokichi exposes Gonta himself because he felt offended by Shuichi lying and everyone believing him and the chapter ends with Kokichi being played as this master manipulator which is all just setup for chapter 5 to make this clown seem like a good antagonist without giving him a good reason later on to do this... seriously this chapter just exists to play Kokichi up and all that ultimately amounts to nothing when they try to redeem him in chapter 5. I'm sorry if I'm rambling too much. I don't hate chapter 4, I just feel like the things it tried to accomplish could have been better executed, because the way it feels to me right now is just a mostly empty chapter with a unique idea for a case that just exists to support another chapter that believes this one didn't happen. I could do the same thing for Chapter 5, but I'm not sure that's something people care about and this comment is way too long anyway. Also don't get me wrong, if you like chapter 4 that's absolutely fine, this is just me explaining my point in greater detail.
@@ProfessorNilo No, you are fine. I understand your logic. The thing for me is that the trial and investigation is so good that any flaws outside that is a nitpick to me. As for Gonta trusting Kokichi... Gonta is VERY naïve. That is why Kokichi can so easily wrap him around his fingers. And really, all Kokichi did was show Gonta the Flashback Light. Everything after that Gonta decided to do on his own accord.
@@orga7777 I guess fair. I do enjoy the trial and investigation, but for a chapter to just have that is just not enough for me personally. But hey, more power to you if you liked the chapter.
Exact same thing for me. I beat it, quite liked it, put it within my Top 100 games at like the 70ish mark... and over time it's just fallen further and further, it's so much easier to remember the meh parts than the good parts. Appreciate what it tried to do though
@@TaleOfTheToaster you can say this about everything in the existence you don't like When people don't like something, the first thing they'll think about are the negatives
@@mysmallnoman That isn't always true. Just like in life, the negative feels ALWAYS last longer than positive feelings on any issue. That is why good interactions at say work or school fly by without you even realizing it, but the more spaced out BAD moments can stick with you for days in some cases.
I watched berleezy playthrough on this game and he just hated it😂😂😂 I thought the game was ok nothing special but not as bad as Berlin was making it out to seem, but hey I only watched a play through and didn’t physically play it myself
Yea I can't get through this game, I'm on chapter 4 I started this game more than 8 months ago, I love the main dangarompa games but this game made me drop the series, I like the story so far the problem is the gameplay, I really don't like it
If you don't like it you could just move onto the Danganronpa 3 anime or play Danganronpa V3. It's not mandatory to play UDG to get through everything else
My big problem with UDG is that it seems to just kinda touch on really dark subject material just for shock value instead of doing anything meaningful with it. Or using it for fanservice like in chapter 3 as you sorta mentioned. I don’t agree with all of the points in this video but I definitely agree with the idea that most of the really memorable stuff is the stuff that’s uncomfortable.
Yeah it touches on dark topics, but doesn’t do them in a good and mature way.
The three things I like about UDG:
1; Seeing the bridge between THH and SDR2
2; The animated cutscenes
3; Ball Monokuma
Ball monokuma is the best thing ever!
Upfront, just stating: UDG was and, to an extent, still is my favorite Danganronpa game.
That is not to say I didn't abhore everything they did in Chapter 3. When I was first watching through it, I was a bit younger and a lot dumber, and I didn't really understand the full implications of it. I thought it was very weird for what they were trying to do, but it didn't feel so *wrong* like it does now. Chapter 3 is a big turn off for many people who I think otherwise would have liked or at least been neutral on the game. I promise, you're not alone in your opinion. UDG is truly one of if not the most polarizing game in the series. Which is such a shame, because it has so much potential and then squandered it. They had us in the first half, not gonna lie.
I can 100% see why anyone would not like this game tbh, and I even told my friend not to play it because of how uncomfortable it is. It’s my favorite game in the series though. Komaru’s growth hit me very hard when I was playing it. She starts out kind of unsure of herself but optimistic. Then Yuta dies, and she becomes absolutely terrified. Slowly with Toko’s help, she’s able to gain confidence in herself and rally the survivors. When she’s finally overcome her struggle she finds out that giving the adults hope made everything infinitely worse. Then once she meets Monica, she breaks down and gives up thanks to the hopelessness of it all. I don’t think I’ve ever played another game where the main character overcomes struggles just to get to the end and fail. That last hour was so good, it overshadows the questionable parts of this game for me. Plus the story told through the world building is amazing.
Yea the game has a lot of good points. Komaru's arc is awesome and is the reason why she's one of my favourite characters in the series despite some of her hard to listen to moments. The story has great moments especially when it gets to the end and the world building is top notch
I watched a youtuber's playthrough (I think it was BijuuMike) and I hated the Byakuya fantasy scenes. Sure, Toko is a simp but she is much more than just a simp. They should have made her less..like that in Ultra despair girls. I was also very annoyed when Komaru's clothes started ripping apart during the fight. I know that she got attacked with scissors but damn, some games don't have the clothes rip like that even if a character is hit with a sword. Spoiler alert⚠️ I think they killed Yuta and Chihiro's dad off way too early. We only got to learn their names and some tiny bit of backstory/personality and boom. It was quite disappointing.
I will say that I absolutely loved Yasuhiro's mom, she was good 💕
For a spoiler you didn't really space it out
I agree with some points for sure. The minigame in Chapter 3 and the Toko fight as well as killing a couple character way too quickly being major flaws in how some things are handled. But, the rest makes sense I think. All the stuff you pick up really helps build on the characters. Especially the memos and stuff left by the Warriors of Hope. The last ones you get (I collected everything cause Platinum Trophy) were rough. It builds more on their character and explains A LOT of why they were so easily manipulated by Junko even more than what the game portrayed. Half show how their parents feel and the other half show how the kids really feel. Can get pretty somber and tragic and messed up. And the scene with Nagisa and Monica was supposed to convey being uncomfortable. Monica is a literal monster and that scene goes to show how warped and out of control she really is. She is just using the Warriors of Hope and that is where Nagisa finally realizes that and figures out that everything he was doing was a lie. It literally broke him down and all the things he did pretty much came back to him. I really like Nagisa and Kotoko for the most part.
Personally, while I think the game has a lot of issues (the game play being one of them at times), I do think that the story is MOSTLY solid and the world building is top tier. The world building is so good that it blows all the other games out of the water when compared. And to be fair, in a effed up world like this, being uncomfortable is probably to be expected. I think the main issue with the game is that the DR vibe is a little more light hearted despite the effed up crap going on, so the tone was an issue in a game that is expanding into something way more screwed up than a single killing game stuck in a school/island. I think they needed to take it a bit more seriously at certain parts like you mentioned while keeping the light hearted banter between Toko and Komaru in between, cause, man, you need the levity in this one.
I wonder what a speedrun of this game would look like🤔
Udg is the only DR game that I don’t enjoy replaying, which is why I haven’t replayed it when all the other games I’ve replayed at LEAST 3 times-
Oh also it took me over a year to finish it cause I just didn’t want to play it
I agree with you.
Prove it
Honestly, as the time went on and i experience better games and better stories ( classic movies, films , etc ) my opinion of this series in general has gradually decreased as well. Especially UDG.
Even as a fan of fanservice normaly. I think it just not fits into dangaronpa's universe.
Also its a akward kind of fan service.
Panty shots... are normally handle in a way that girls are slightly annoyed but overall okay. In Dangaronpa the girls are usually feeling very unconfortable in this situations or feel seriously abused. It kind of feels like raping them.
Even this would not bother me. If it happens in a erotic game. But not in a crime game that wants to be tsken serious.
I think each game has scenes like this that just make you feel bad for the girls. But UDG has too many of this overall making the game feel like a hentai game at some times.
One thing that was funny though is when they had Kotoko say she was 18 in the English version so they wouldn’t get in trouble even though it doesn’t actually make sense in universe.
English localization is always mostly garbage lol
Honestly I think it could work as her lying about her age just because she had to
@@keithflippers4429 No. Definitely not.
@@dannysmi7162 Actually this conversation is making uncomfortable so let's say that you are right
@@keithflippers4429 Okay
A lot of the stuff in Ultra despair girls is unnecessary dark in a way that feels very tasteless and surface-level. Which sucks, because I genuinely think it has an interesting story and characters, but it can be really hard to see past all the uncomfortable stuff when they’re constantly waving it in your face. This game would be a lot stronger if it could sort out its tone - either by cutting or changing the really dark stuff outright, or by treating it more seriously to add to the game’s (attempted?) grittier and more ‘despair-filled’ atmosphere, which is hopefully more tactful than just using it for shock and then trying to use that shock for comedy.
This.
In my personally opinion, UDG never felt bad because of its disturbing or weird scenes, in actuality I like that the writers were willing to make this game dark and disturbing. It never bothered me because it's not real and if the writers want to make a game that's dark like this I'm fine with it.
But what I really think is funny, is how that this feeling that you're describing perfectly describes how I feel with Danganronpa V3. I originally liked V3 a lot, but over time I grew to dislike the later parts of the game starting with chapter 3 deadly life. For me the game just becomes worse and worse with each chapter and the more I watch it, the more I notice little things that didn't bother me before, but now they do. It's weird because I actually really liked V3 before, but the more time passes the more things make me dislike the later half of the game.
Personally for V3, I think Chapter 4 is the best of the game. Chapter 5 is okay, but the flaws are apparent because of that stupid ass Flashback Light being used and Chapter 6..... lol. That is just dreck. As for Chapter 3... is any Chapter 3 that good? I will give that one a pass because they just can't do Chapter 3s well. V3 probably did it the best, though... But the bar was kinda low.
@@orga7777In my opinion chapter 4 is just kinda bad as a part of the story, there is no meaningful things happening in daily life, since the entire crime happens in the virtual world, makes it kinda feel like filler. The only thing that's kinda hinted at is the poison used, but that's a red herring, so ultimately it's a side thing. Next is motive, the chapter has an enitrely ambigious motive until the end of the chapter, yes we see how Kokichi reacts to it and how he works with Monokuma, but that just plays into the other points as to why I think chapter 4 is bad. Without a motive everyone acts just kinda the same until Miu dies, it gives no one any reason to act differently, which makes Miu, the only one actually doing things, a way too obvious victim. Speaking of, the case in itself is fine, mystery is alright, logic is fine, I personally don't take issue with it because the idea is similar to DR2. But what I do take issue with is how everyone decides to just go into the virtual world after Miu begs them to, and the only reason most even decide to do it is Monokuma says they can find something. And I'm like: why do these people trust Monokuma and why is no one questioning that Monokuma is just fine with letting everyone go into this program when Miu promissed that it's completely save... I'm not sure if you get what I'm saying but it's just such a stupid reason to get everyone into the virtual world, because by that point they should be smarter than that. Which nicely brings me to my next issue, which is Kokichi. The entire reason this case exist is to play up Kokichi for chapter 5 and it shows, Kokichi is indirectly the reason they all go into the virtual world, Kokichi manipulates Gonta to kill Miu, which btw. Gonta should know better than trust Kokichi after chapter 2, it's like... character development of me not being gullible, nah Gonta needs to trust untrustworthy rat boy... then Kokichi exposes Gonta himself because he felt offended by Shuichi lying and everyone believing him and the chapter ends with Kokichi being played as this master manipulator which is all just setup for chapter 5 to make this clown seem like a good antagonist without giving him a good reason later on to do this... seriously this chapter just exists to play Kokichi up and all that ultimately amounts to nothing when they try to redeem him in chapter 5.
I'm sorry if I'm rambling too much. I don't hate chapter 4, I just feel like the things it tried to accomplish could have been better executed, because the way it feels to me right now is just a mostly empty chapter with a unique idea for a case that just exists to support another chapter that believes this one didn't happen.
I could do the same thing for Chapter 5, but I'm not sure that's something people care about and this comment is way too long anyway. Also don't get me wrong, if you like chapter 4 that's absolutely fine, this is just me explaining my point in greater detail.
@@ProfessorNilo No, you are fine. I understand your logic. The thing for me is that the trial and investigation is so good that any flaws outside that is a nitpick to me.
As for Gonta trusting Kokichi... Gonta is VERY naïve. That is why Kokichi can so easily wrap him around his fingers. And really, all Kokichi did was show Gonta the Flashback Light. Everything after that Gonta decided to do on his own accord.
@@orga7777 I guess fair. I do enjoy the trial and investigation, but for a chapter to just have that is just not enough for me personally.
But hey, more power to you if you liked the chapter.
@@ProfessorNilo I mean he did have a good reason to do it. Miu would’ve killed him otherwise.
Exact same thing for me. I beat it, quite liked it, put it within my Top 100 games at like the 70ish mark... and over time it's just fallen further and further, it's so much easier to remember the meh parts than the good parts. Appreciate what it tried to do though
I can't even remember what Chapter 3 was though ngl so the reminder would've helped
That's because you didn't like the game, not because the game is meh
@@mysmallnoman I did like it tho. It's just like Hiro says, the negatives spring to mind first even if there's a lot of positives
@@TaleOfTheToaster you can say this about everything in the existence you don't like
When people don't like something, the first thing they'll think about are the negatives
@@mysmallnoman That isn't always true. Just like in life, the negative feels ALWAYS last longer than positive feelings on any issue. That is why good interactions at say work or school fly by without you even realizing it, but the more spaced out BAD moments can stick with you for days in some cases.
Hoo boy, this gonna be interesting
I watched berleezy playthrough on this game and he just hated it😂😂😂 I thought the game was ok nothing special but not as bad as Berlin was making it out to seem, but hey I only watched a play through and didn’t physically play it myself
Yea I can't get through this game, I'm on chapter 4 I started this game more than 8 months ago, I love the main dangarompa games but this game made me drop the series, I like the story so far the problem is the gameplay, I really don't like it
If you don't like it you could just move onto the Danganronpa 3 anime or play Danganronpa V3. It's not mandatory to play UDG to get through everything else