Super boring: drop or not?

[Catafessi]

I'm in the midst of CH1 right now and, oh man, I've been skipping all the dialogues all along. This sequel has been, til now, far far worse in terms of UI, map, characters, gags and I don't really know whether I should keep going or not. The dialogues have become much more lengthy than in DR1 but with no actual use; they all feel like fillers. I THINK I'M EXPERIENCING DESPAIR. Is this going to get better or is my will to drop it hitting right?

update tl;dr

Didn't change my stance regarding my initial points, but I finished and quite enjoyed the game. Skipped dialogues to dodge the fillers. Ran into a few programming oddities. Map navigation becomes more comfortable later. Real kick-off past the first half of the game.

[Sweet Tooth]

Your opinion, but most fans consider it to be a much better game, on a technical level and game mechanics level it certainly is. The cast of characters is a good variety, and like the first DR they become far more interesting the more you work on building up your friendship with them and as the general story progresses.

When I first started playing the initial change in the map and UI threw me off but it's a simple thing to get used to and ends up being fun, some of the larger areas open up into a DR1 style first person walk around thing, the little side distractions are nice too, I enjoyed trying to get all the virtual pets, they come with some nice rewards too, as well as finding the hidden monokuma's (This wasn't as difficult though).

The story itself is a slow burner at first, it assumes you played the first game, so it holds off a little longer on the surprises, but the class trials get intense and tend to reveal a lot more information, somewhat like the later class trials in DR1.

[Catafessi]

Alright bud, I'll try to further my playtime and see what happens!

[Sweet Tooth]

The story itself is a slow burner at first, it assumes you played the first game, so it holds off a little longer on the surprises and tries to play it off as a "Not as bad" situation, but the class trials get intense and tend to reveal a lot more information, somewhat like the later class trials in DR1.

[MrDB]

Originally posted by Catafessi:

The dialogues have become much more lengthy than in DR1 but with no actual use use; they all feel like fillers.

Feel the same. Too many fillers.
Finished story yesterday and definitely like it less than DR1.
First 3 chapters looks especially weak for me, but game catched my interest again since chapter 4.

[Max92]

Well, maybe it just isn't for you. Danganronpa isn't for everyone.
However, Chapter 1 of DR2 is maybe my favourite chapter in the entire series, so maybe you should stick around for a little bit longer...

[Airkixer]

I gave up with this game into CH2 or 3, can't remember as it was a while ago. Playing V3 now, which is what reminded me of how utterly droll 2 was. Worried to see that people thought 2 was the best one, lol.

[Aj <3]

i enjoyed v2 the most!!! but i do agree, it is a slow burn until around chapter 2, at least for me.

[Blue_Glasses]

Originally posted by Airkixer:

Worried to see that people thought 2 was the best one, lol.

Is it wrong to have the opinion that dr 2 is the best?

[Airkixer]

No. But if everyone thought it was the best one, and Im now playing 3, what am I to expect when I thought 2 sucked?

[ravioli]

Originally posted by Airkixer:

No. But if everyone thought it was the best one, and Im now playing 3, what am I to expect when I thought 2 sucked?

people have opinions, some people prefer v3 others prefer different ones i wouldnt worry about it, i prefered dr2 by far but if youre enjoying v3 atm just carry on. both good imo

[Catafessi]

I’ve just finished the whole game + anime series, so I’m here to reply to everyone (and perhaps to give answers to anyone who happens to have my same doubts in the beginning).

Originally posted by Kawazoe Taiki-kun:

Your opinion, but most fans consider it to be a much better game, on a technical level and game mechanics level it certainly is. The cast of characters is a good variety, and like the first DR they become far more interesting the more you work on building up your friendship with them and as the general story progresses.

My points were:
> dialogues: there are way more fillers than in DR1
> UI: menu is less intuitive, more difficult to navigate; took me the longest (among DR1, DR2, DRV3) to get used to
> the graphics are painful at times: the unwieldy music player and the rotated names are, graphic-wise, among the real bad choices (waste of pixels, bad visual hierarchy, meh typography)
> map: till the end I’ve found the sidescrolling part confusing, couldn't tell whether to go clockwise or anti
> characters: still stereotyped, not definitively “new” (both personality- and role- wise) but more noisy, some looked like mashups from the previous ones (some on the internet had a theory about them being born from the literal fusion of DR1 chars)
> gags: DR1 and DRV3 also include gags but DR2’s were... copious, to say the least

On the technical side:
> I never experienced glitches in DR1; instead, it happened 3 times in DR2 (one of which is popular, i.e. the warning ribbons)
> The mono-machine was better than the vending machine, and they retrieved it in V3; something about debate-minigames got worse while something else got better
> The escape room is bad programming, no escape (sorry for the bad pun). I also recorded my playthrough: Monomi would spoil steps and solutions because she thought I had already obtained items which I still hadn’t even searched for She said I could open the plushie with the scissors I got, but I still hadn’t opened the drawer and I didn’t even possess the key yet
> Animations: characters would spin when I clicked on them… for… no particular reason. It reminded me of the ol’ times when people would randomly add animations on their .ppt works to make them look more interesting because of a “the more the better” thinking

I (anyone) may have opinions on facts and choose to value them differently, but there’s an objective ground to start with. I wasn’t here to share my opinion but rather to ask other players for a suggestion: were some things, which are important for my experience as a player, going to change through the chapters? That's it.

And in fact, I played most of DR2 by skipping dialogues but missing nothing important to the main plot or the cases; that’s the very thing about fillers, and that was the way I personally came to terms with them.

Originally posted by Kawazoe Taiki-kun:

When I first started playing the initial change in the map and UI threw me off but it's a simple thing to get used to and ends up being fun, some of the larger areas open up into a DR1 style first person walk around thing,

I confirm that larger areas are close to a DR1-fashion.
I never really got used to the sidescrolling workings of the map and I still think they were bad choices, no wonder they reverted them in V3. Getting used to something doesn’t make it better.
But I see your point: I could get through it and finish the game. Your comment about the larger areas, in fact, gave me a push and encouraged me to go a little further instead of immediately giving up.
So, thanks!

Originally posted by MrDB:

Feel the same. Too many fillers.
Finished story yesterday and definitely like it less than DR1.
First 3 chapters looks especially weak for me, but game catched my interest again since chapter 4.

Agreed. In the end, I still hold the feeling that the motives were weaker; as a consequence, the main plot suffered from a psychological grip loss on me. In general, DR2 relied too much on excess IMO: extreme stereotypical traits, extreme mood switches, extreme twists, (available areas)/(actual use) ratio too high, etc. I enjoyed it in the end, but DR1 was a better experience for me on the whole. I found it more consistent.

Originally posted by aquamaxi:

Well, maybe it just isn't for you. Danganronpa isn't for everyone.

You must assume that DR2 is representative of the whole franchise to entertain the thought that DR could be a nope for me, given that I never implied disliking other products while I implied having knowledge about DR1. If that’s not what you thought, then a misunderstanding occurred: I, indeed, enjoyed them, despite finding flaws!
My complaints in the OP revolved around the 1st CH of DR2, specifically, and things that IME remained specific to DR2.

Originally posted by Airkixer:

I gave up with this game into CH2 or 3, can't remember as it was a while ago. Playing V3 now, which is what reminded me of how utterly droll 2 was. Worried to see that people thought 2 was the best one, lol.

I also still wanted to give up at that point, because the game was being too loud and at the same time too flat, but I must admit that past CH4 (which still means… past half the game) it livens up (considering that Investigation and Debate are what drew me to DR; which might not be your same reason, idk). But I skipped dialogues all along because fillers kept intruding until CH6.

Originally posted by Airkixer:

No. But if everyone thought it was the best one, and Im now playing 3, what am I to expect when I thought 2 sucked?

Nothing unless you can root your expectations into arguments you can value. Everyone prioritizes different things in spite of facts being the same, thus differing opinions/experiences arise.

general tl;dr

Didn't change my stance regarding my initial points, but I finished and quite enjoyed the game. Skipped dialogues to dodge the fillers. Ran into a few programming oddities. Map navigation becomes more comfortable later. Real kick-off past the first half of the game.