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I bought this game, fully prepared to be disappointed yet it defied all my expectations. Simply put, there's no other game quite like it: You get locked in a school with all your classmates and a psycho bear. To get out, you must kill one of your friends, go participate in a class trial and try your best to convince everyone that you are not the murderer.

There are plenty of reviews that covers the story, the setting and the plot twists so I'm just gonna skip all that and get straight to the point: Is V1 the best Danganronpa ever, or can 2 and V3 edge it out?

The setting:
1: Trapped in a big room
2: Trapped on an island
V3: Trapped in a school

The music:
1: OG master race yay!
2: remixed OG, most tracks are much improved
V3: More emo than Shuichi's emo hat

The characters:
1: Very unique characters
2: Still an entertaining cast but some characters are just V1 renames. Akane you bimbo.
V3: Murder mystery babe, everyone has a backstory. And Kokichi.

The scenario:
1: REALISTIC
2: It's a bit complicated but I can follow your logic
V3: No murder is a legit murder without full-on preparations and props. Hard to follow.

I know there are plenty others who might disagree, but V1 is easily my favorite of the trilogy, and here's why.

First, V1's setting is hands down the most claustrophobic. In V2 you have a whole island, in V3 you have a full blown school environment with lots of rooms and facilities. While in V1 you only have one school building. Just this one building. All the windows are shut, all the lights are on 24/7 and all the outside information has been cut. You are isolated in this school building, don't know whether its day or night, don't have any information about the society outside and are constantly reminded that the only way out is murder. You wake up every day to ever-more-suspicious people, walk into rooms that smells like death and walls that look like they've been there since the renaissance. Every action you take ends up reminding you that yes, there is indeed no escape. And murder, a concept that once seems so out of reach, an action so outlandish that you won't even think about twice, is now on your mind. After 2 weeks living with the same people, listening to the same things over and over again and striking up conversation after meaningless conversation, murder is starting to sound more and more like an actual option. Like everyone else who's been slowly distancing themselves, you slowly come to terms with fact that talent here is only good for murder. If you want to make it out alive, someone has to die.

And it is in this environment that the killing game began. There is no fancy motive like in V2 and V3 because the environment itself is a motive. In the beginning, everyone just wants to see their mom and dad, and now everyone just wants to escape from this hellhole because every minute spent in this building is one more minute to insanity. This subtle change in attitude slowly but steadily seeps out as you progress through the game.

And then there's death. A character lying on the floor with pools of blood, unconscious. You keep denying the truth and yet deep down you know he's no longer with you. Gone like moth into flame. V1 handles this extremely well. There's shocking discovery of the body, there's people going mental over the death scene, and there's people who never recovered from that certain person's death. The impact of these character's death can really be felt in V1: Dining hall filled with silence the next morning, as people chow down their food reminising the friend they sent to deathbed last night. Teary eyes as the remaining students bid the deceased a last farewell. Characters break down completely as they recount the tales of the deceased. These impact are reduced in V2 and much more subdued in V3. In V2 your friends at least grieve a little bit before moving on, in V3 everyone gets over it once breakfast is over. It's sudden, rushed, and never feels quite as realistic as V1. Remember when Akane breaks into a smile literally the day after Nekomaru gets killed? Yeah real solid friendship you have there bimbo.


Scenario is also one part that I find V1 superior. The murder feels more like actual murders than made up stories: each murder involves crime scene tampering and clever placement of murder cues to confuse people. V2 marks a shift from talent-based murders to environment-based murders, and V3 takes the concept to the extreme. A creeking floor board just conveniently makes a seesaw that happens to also hold a knife; a perfectly normal room just happens to have a secret passageway under the floorboard that allows you to stab people from underneath. If that's not enough, how about a rotating effigy that locks the room during its rotation, or a bunch of students, who are themselves in a game, enter another game and get killed in that game with an unbreakable rope? I get it, it's danganronpa so anything is possible, but imho V3 and some part of V2 really overdid it. It's anime so it isn't gonna be too realistic, but c'mon at least make the killings believeable. No one is going to kill someone and then stuff them into a piranha tank just for everyone to see that certain person being eaten alive. Don't you think that's wayy too suspicious?

Alright, enough of my rambling, here's my hastily written conclusion a.k.a. TLDR: I prefer V1 because the setting is more claustrophobic, each student's death more impactful and the scenarios more believeable. But thankfully as a trilogy these flaws don't detract much from the overall story telling. I'd still give the trilogy a solid 8.5 out of 10. Really well done, team Danganronpa. You guys made my first VN experience a fantastic one, thank you.

Update: After playing this game for 4 years I still think movement mechanics is the worst part of this game. it always feels like sliding. The way the characters move makes it feels like you're on a slippery surface even though you aren't. 1.6 is so much better in this regard. Characters stop when you want them to stop. Movement is fluid and natural. When you take a gunfight you are not going to miss a shot due to your player model not standing still.

Solo-Q'ing in this game is a nightmare. The game pairs you up with either mute people or spanish folks who don't know a lick of English. Lots of swearing, tons of ♥♥♥ eating and spunk dumping. Consider yourself lucky if your teammates actually communicate. Even then, most people don't know what saving means. There are so many times when we're winning as Ts and suddenly no one can get a kill when they switch to CT. Every lost round is followed by yelling, force buying and rage quitting. These people seem to never understand why its better to save one round just so everyone in the team can buy rifle, armor and utilities in the next round. Me having $10K and the rest of my team having $2K combined is pretty much a common theme these days. Even with that little money they will still waste it on Zeus, shotguns and SMGs. The only solution is to Q with friends, which is why I don't play CSGO much except when my friends are online. For solo'Qing, wingman is a much better mode cuz at worse you only have one teammate dragging you down. In MM, the number is 4 guaranteed.

It both delights and saddens me that 1.6 is still the better game after all these years. Most people in 5v5 PUGs communicate well, apologize for their mistakes and can crack a good joke. The game itself has a much higher skill-ceiling, is more rewarding for veterans and can run smoothly on any computer. The graphics, after the 2013 update, looks very decent even for people who's never played it before.


My original review:

1.6's better, nuff said.

Is CSGO bad? Nah, far from that. On a standalone view point its a pretty solid game, kicks ass if I must be honest. But with its great great grandpa cs1.6 side by side, it just pales in comparison. A legit analogy would be comparing Rory J. Gates to his dad Bill Gates, no matter what he does or how much he accomplishes in the future, he would forever be recognized as the son of Bill Gates instead of an independent figure, forever lives under the shadow of his overaccomplishing dad and traps in his fame and glory. CS is no different: 1.6 has evolved into such perfection over the years that no improvements can be made without taming some other aspects. Valve saw this coming and instead of another so-called 'refinement' like cs:s, they brought out CS:GO.

And quite predicably, it has lived under the shadow of 1.6 ever since its beta release. When ppl complain about CSGO they'd always bring up 1.6, praising it for its impeccable balance and unparalled gameplay. Here are a few reasons why you shouldn't fall into the same pit:

First, gameplay. In CSGO you control the character while in 1.6 you are the character himself. There's no denying 1.6 is among the best in terms of overall gaming experience, for the first thing you'll ever notice is its unmistakable 1.6-ish control: Buttery smooth, with deadly precision that allows you to choose btwn one-tapping an enemy and spray em dead. Movement is another highlight, when you move its almost as if you take a strong grip on the character. He goes wherever you want, is light like a feather and can perform all sorts of stunts that puts your muscle reflex to the ultimate test. What about csgo then? stunts? Ha you must be joking. If that no-brainer jumping can be called bhop then actual bhop in 1.6 must be harder than bungee. Movements? You call that dorky bipedal creature trudging around movement? There is little to no feedback, characters walk as if on thin ice. He couldn't stop when you want him to, and was shhooooooo'd in the head instantly when you want him dead in his track but couldn't due to that horrendous physic engine developed way back in 2004. What's worse, Valve added something called raw input in 2013 and for many folks out there it actually worsened mouse lag. Valve claimed that his function pulls raw data from mouse directly and bypasses any windows buffering but fact is the in-game buffering makes it all worse. I always leave this off in both games and feels quite bad for those who don't.

Apart from gameplay, graphics is also an issue with csgo. Let's just say 1.6's graphics is 60 years ahead of its time, and that's quite conservative to say at least. CSGO feels contemporary. You wouldn't notice how horrible it is until you do a head-to-head comparison against 1.6: feebly unrealistic buildings, hilariously dumb characters and poorly constructed hiding spots. Can it be any worse? Then we switch to 1.6. An almost impossibly masculine man greets our eyes. Holding his weapon with fierce and determination, he's ready to strike down any enemies that get in his way. The unmistakable manliness, as manifested by elegantly finished weapons and those thicc, muscular arms, would instantly turn the straightest man gay. One couldn't look at someone else while playing 1.6, for anyone around him would appear girly and frivolous. This isn't a game for everyone, it's built in mind for the braves who laugh last.

So much more can be said about 1.6 that I could ramble on and on for years. But its a CSGO review after all, so how do I like it? Is it BS?

No, by any means it's not. But I'd rather spend my time on 1.6, a game that is already at its best, a game that I'll take to the grave. It's a state of mind, a way of life. CSGO? It's just a game, will stay so for a couple o years and then fade out like every other games do. It's a good game nevertheless, gets intense and competitive, good enough for both your normal everyday friends and most skillful pros. Well then, you say, why am I still asking for more?

Because 1.6 exists, that's why. It's a game that breaks free of its codes and scripts and grips your heart the first time you touch it. It's an idea, a spirit, a movement that ironmarks you the instant you hit fire, a utopia that hails courage and skill. You walk out, look around and everything around you just pales in comparison. Arrrgghhhh, you sigh, the world is still far from ideal, espcially when 1.6's brought up to the table. A better game has yet to be made.