Recent reviews by Blair

Alright, this was recommended to me by a friend who recommended the design and style as something I'd be interested in, and let me tell you all, I have had so much fun playing this game.

You play as Neon White, a dead man from Hell who has been brought to Heaven to exterminate a demon infestation as part of a yearly competition. Whoever kills the most demons by the end of it gets to live in Heaven for one year. He meets other Neons who knew him in life but the amnesiac White does not recognize them.

The focus of the gameplay is running through sections of Heaven slaying demons and racing towards the exit in the quickest time possible. To do so, you pick up gun cards that shoot like any other gun, but based on the type, you can discard the gun to activate an ability to increase your movement, double jump, stomp, etc. Completing the level advances you to the next one in the mission, but to truly unlock more missions, you must reach rank gold or higher in levels so your Neon Rank advances. What makes restarting levels great is that similar to Hotline Miami you can hit a key that resets the level for you so if you slip up on an attempt, you can quickly retry. Making mistakes on runs is common but it doesn't feel like a punishment, the movement and mechanics are fluid enough for you to get back to where you were on your run quickly. My only complaint is when you reset it shows the level stats, then you hit a button to start the level, I wish there was a toggle to close that menu at times.

Another plus is that the higher you score on a mission, you will receive bonuses to the level to help you lower your runtime, such as a ghost run that you can follow and see how it goes through, or a shortcut icon to avoid the long routes. It also lets you find gifts in each level that you can give to other Neons and Heaven residents to unlock dialogue and grow bonds with them. This mostly serves to help White uncover his lost memories.

The cast is a colorful time and they are clearly having fun with this game. Steve Blum adds another fun one to his resume as White's voice, Courtney Lin as the bubly psycho Hot Topic girl Violet (who at one point sings part My Chemical Romance's Welcome to the Black Parade during karaoke day, no voice work here though sadly), OK KO creator Ian Jones Quarterly as the head-empty-but-lovable-dudebro Yellow, Alicyn Packard as the sulty Red, Zeno Robinson (Cyborg in Young Justice) as cat bartender Raz, SungWon Cho (ProZD) as the temperamental manager Mikey, and a host of others.

If movement shooters are your thing, do not hesitate in picking this up. I played almost the first five hours in one sitting, and now I am on chapter 5 as of typing this review. I genuinely love playing this game, and I am eager to finish it.

Woo boy, does this series know how to tell a complex and engaging story. If you played Trigger Happy Havoc and you're debating whether or not to jump into this game, I highly recommend it. Goodbye Despair follows relatively the same premise of the first game with a new setting and cast, as well as new features to interact with and new minigames for class trials, while still holding the spirit of what made the first game so creative and engaging.

The new cast is quite a colorful and diverse group of personalities that are well designed separately from the previous students in DR1, my favorites being Chiaki and Nekomaru. As the game goes on, revelations put characters in a new light, differently from how DR1 progressed with reveals, in a good way, it's not a retread of DR1's character arcs.

The minigames are back in the class trials again, including a new snowboarding simulator called 'Logic Dive' and a 'hold your argument's ground' type similar to the rhythm minigame. These are some clever ways to mix up the debates and mystery solving in the trials. I think I've gotten more used to the Rhythm showdowns now so it's not really a hassle for me anymore, even if I don't have a good sense of rhythm.

You also get to witness some *ahem* 'certain' cutscenes based on what items you have in your inventory, but fortunately you can buy the ones needed to view them at anytime, just make sure to get them before certain points because they can be missed. In terms of items and gift giving, a random machine can give you a variety of gifts or you can buy select ones at the store, so you can keep a few chips and water on hand for friendships.

A few cons this game has is, one, an arguably unnecessary Tamagatchi-esc feature that gives you certain bonuses and other rewards for raising virtual pets. Honestly sometimes I forgot this was a thing and you have to open the menu to check on it. You can even do so during dialogue but to me this can break the immersion of the story. And of course, the infamous Hangman's Gambit is back. I have nothing nice to say about that minigame, so moving on.

Ultimately if you're interested in this series and you liked the first game, I argue this is a more refined sequel of an already great game. Compelling mysteries, fun characters, interesting twists, an honest must play for any Danganronpa fan.

I give this game:
Solid A
9.5 out of 10
Full Price

Sometimes it's frustrating, but solving the puzzles is a reward in its own right. As well as getting your demon girl harem.

This game is like doing drugs.

You can't stop after one time.

Arguably one of the best games I have ever played. It's frustrating, gory, maddening, and a satisfying game that's sure to please fans of this genre.

If you played this before when you were a kid, get it. I grew up on this game and I highly recommend it for Nostalgic purposes.