Atlas/Mars

First of all, the deaths.

Chapter One: Wolfgang and Eva.

If you thought I was gonna glaze PJ:EG, you were wrong.

With the information we have now regarding Obelusk’s plan, this feels like it was done out of spite. For those who don’t want to read the 70 page document, Obelisk had planned for Eva to be the mastermind and Wolfgang to be her accomplice. 

I don’t know what Obelusk did. I have not interacted with the staff and the only people from the fandom I’ve interacted with have been my friends and my girlfriend. For all I know, they could’ve been throwing bricks through windows or dropping anvils on the heads of passerbys. That does not change that the deaths of those in the first chapter feel spiteful.

However, that is not my only issue with it. Back when the chapter first came out, I was very vocal in discussion with friends that it felt as though the team saw comparisons of those two characters to characters from other media (Kinjo Tsurugi from Danganronpa Another for Wolfgang, Homura Akemi from Puella Magi Madoka Magica). Some of these comparisons were based on personality, some on look: that does not change that I felt as though it was done because the team jumped to “We need to have characters that aren’t reminiscent of other characters!” and therefore killed them off.

Another suggestion for why it was done was brought to me by a friend I discussed this with in late 2024/Early 2025, in which they suggested that was an attempt at a fakeout, as done with Kaede in V3. Even if it was, I would not change my mind about this chapter being poor and the deaths being stupid, as something like that can only be done a few times, and it has to be done well. It is my opinion that PJ:EG failed to do so. 

No matter the reason, the first chapter was bad and I feel as though it was only saved by the graphics and the shipping focus. (I will talk about that later.)

My opinions on the death itself… It was too over-the-top and complicated. When I first went through the playthrough, I jumped to “Oh, Wolfgang was beaten to death with the rolling pin!” Because it felt like the simplest death and therefore befitting of the first chapter. I don’t think first cases need murder methods that have ten thousand steps to them in order to be complicated, so the method that Eva went with just felt like overkill.

Now, from here on, I’m not positive on who died in which chapter, so I’ll be going based on victim/blackened duos. 

Ulysses and Jean

Okay, having Jean as a drug smuggler or whatever is just… I don’t like it? I don’t like Obelusk’s idea of Jean being an arms smuggler, either. The idea I did like, however, was that of him stealing supplies from ports he visits and delivering them to poor towns that he visits on his many trips across the world.

In the so-called “Obelusk Manifesto,” it is written that they viewed Jean through the lens of a modern-day Robin Hood when it came to the latter idea. This would’ve worked extremely well. Stealing is still an “evil”, while giving is a “good.” It is seen as a heroic act, even. I think, should this have been chosen, Jean would’ve been a lot more interesting.

However, it feels as though they[both Obelusk and the “Current” writing team] just looked at their cast and went “mmm… Crimes.” Which I think sucks. It can be done right, but there comes a time where one just has to look at the past behavior of a character and go “Hm. This doesn’t feel right.”

Before I continue, I’d like to make note that I haven’t rewatched the playthroughs for either the prologue or chapter one. (Chapter one is 11 hours… I’ve got a job, I don’t have time for that.) I’m writing this based on memory alone.

Anyways, from the Jean I recall from the prologue and the first chapter, the ideas of him being a smuggler of any sort feel bizarre. This actually falls into an issue I have with a lot of the things regarding PJ:EG, in which the characters feel out of character. Even considering his knowledge on chemicals seen in the trial, it still feels like something that’s not right. Not for a character like him, at least.

As for the death itself… From what I can tell, it was via poison. I’m a fan of the simple deaths, so I don’t have issues with this. And I don’t have issues with Ulysses being a victim. Honestly, it felt like he was gonna die from the start. All of what I disliked was Jean actually being an irredeemable killer + a criminal who only killed to get out. The backstory Obelusk wrote for him could’ve been utilized to make a sympathetic killer here, after all, as it shows him caring for his crew. If the motive was less about money and more of one of the classic “the people you love will DIE!,” I think using his crew against him definitely could’ve worked.

Kai and Toshiko.

I have the same problem with this that I have with Obelusk’s: Toshiko is 14. And before people get up in arms, I know children can kill. There are many such cases of it. In Obelusk’s plan, Toshiko killed both Eloise and Kai, which… I have thoughts!

Either way, it doesn’t feel right. From what we’ve seen of Toshiko, it feels wrong. U/Trickster___ on reddit calls it a crime of opportunity, but even that feels absurd. While nobody truly has the mental fortitude to kill in the cast(Except maybe Jean?), it still feels even more crazy to have the 14 year old be the killer, as they have even less mental strength than an 18 year old. Remember, 14 year olds are going through puberty, so her emotions are definitely all over the place.

I suppose someone could argue that's why she would be capable of killing—or at least that it better added motivation to it—though. 

 I’d make a point about her height, seeing as she is 4’9”(145 cm) and he is 5’10”(178 cm), however the method of death U/Trickster___ gives is the following:

“Toshiko originally drops something on him on a theatre stage using a lever, I was rewriting it for many reasons to have her drop him down the theatre's trap door and he would hit his head. It was always a crime of opportunity and very detached methods though.”

Compared to the chapter one method of death, this is relatively simple and I like it. Despite this, I still feel like it’d only be “good” because it is shocking. Much like how people will find certain horror games, shows, movies, etc., as “good” because it shocked them. In other words, shock horror but without the horror. 

The only reason she does this is because she wants to get out. I don’t take issue with this motive, but it won’t stop me from viewing “Toshiko as a killer” as an inherently dumb choice.

I’ve seen people take issue with Toshiko’s execution, though. One person called it the torture of a 14 year old, I believe? However, I’m not sure I’d call it torture. Granted, the only thing I know about her execution is from U/Trickster___, who says “Toshiko execution early on involved her running from something in a dark snowy landscape, that's all I know.”

They go on to state “The idea to not show the moment of death by having Damon and player pov look away was also thrown around I think.”

So. We don’t know if it was torture, at least not in the sense that one could say an execution like that of Emma Magorobi(SDRA2) was torture.

Again, even though I’ve said it multiple times now, I don’t take issue with Toshiko dying other than that it feels out of character(to be a killer), that it feels also like it would’ve just been something to get a reaction/rise out of people, and that I just don’t see how she’s going to manage it in the psychological front. (Teenage killers have their own mental issues and Toshiko doesn’t seem to exhibit any that I am familiar with. 

Ingrid and Mark

I don’t even know how to describe my thoughts on this one… I do believe in Ingrid having a self sacrificial nature. From what we’ve seen of her character so for, I’d never doubt it for a second. 

She seems like a character who loves Too Much. To a point I’d be unsurprised if she described it as physically painful for herself just because of how much she cares.

This is why one of Obelusk’s ideas for her just felt so… wrong. To give the run down(as I’m not able to copy/paste from it for… some reason.), Ingrid had a contract with the US government wherein she’d make them weapons for Mass Destruction. What?? How is a BLACKSMITH making those??

To be clear, she’d make them such weapons in order to get funding for her own personal projects and to financially support her long-distance girlfriend who didn’t have the financial means to constantly fly out and visit her. 

Now, I know this isn’t related to the deaths, but I couldn’t wait any longer to point this out. And I want to comment on it: Ingrid is not the only character connected to the US government in some way. Wolfgang’s family got government payments, Jean also had a contract with the government, Ulysses’ father was a senator, and there was the idea of how Wenona’s backstory would tie into the game & the other participants: by having a connection to political leaders(Congress & Governor Wilhelm.)

Hell, even Eden’s Garden Academy was connected to the government, as it was built out of a result of the goddamn Cold War. It was supposed to be a bomb shelter of sorts?? SO THAT SHOULD BOMBS FALL, THEY CAN REBUILD THE NATION USING THE TALENTED PEOPLE FROM THE ACADEMY???

Sorry, I’m going on a tangent here, but I can’t tell if Obelusk was wanting PJ:EG to be a political think piece in some regard or not. The [Obelusk] backstories feel like they’re saying “government bad!” without saying exactly why “Government bad.” And the government, especially currently, has done a lot of things that need criticizing, which is one of the main reasons I’m so annoyed with what feels like this vague “Government bad” story is. At most, it says in the part about Wolfgang’s backstory/Wolfgang’s Father that “the power of this nation had gotten out of control.” from what I recall.

And for Mark. I’m not even sure as to what to say. His backstory for Obelusk is decent, but I’m not sure how I feel about the drug thing. However, I do believe it has potential to be a commentary on how fame and insecurity get to people. Hell, it could even be a commentary on how bad anxiety or other mental illnesses get to people to the point that they need to rely on drugs in order to feel okay. Although I doubt that’s what was going to happen…

On the deaths, I think a bomb is overkill. Are the bombs just… easy access? Did Mark build it? How did he get a bomb? Because that’s what the death was, from what I understand. And, even if Jett took his helmet off, I find it hard to believe that he’d give anyone much of a chance to snag it. 

Granted, maybe Mark went into his room while he was away.

No executions were planned after Toshiko’s, based on what U/Trickster___ said.

Demond and Eloise

Okay, to get this off my chest first and foremost: I hate that Desmond killed himself. In Obelusk’s story bible, they state that they based Desmond off of the late streamer Etika, who committed suicide on June 19, 2019, after showing signs of mental distress. 

This is the very reason I take issue with Desmond’s fate. It feels highly insensitive and, while talking with others about this fact and the canon fate of Desmond, many agreed that it was downright disgusting and should not have happened. Try as you might to argue, I am standing by this.

I wouldn’t even say that claiming “maybe they didn’t read what Obelusk’s document said!” is an excuse because they absolutely should’ve. At least then we wouldn’t have ended up here.

u/Trickster___ is unable to give us a solid answer on what led up to this other than that he was not doing well mentally by that point and the situation with Eloise gets very toxic. He had continuously tried to stop people from killing and was continuously shown that nobody would listen to him, ruining his trust with everyone except Eloise.

It’s not clear what happens with Eloise to make the situation toxic. I don’t have many guesses myself.

But what I’m not sure about here is why Desmond would specifically choose Eloise. I can’t remember if they seemed to know each other in the prologue or chapter one, and there doesn’t seem to be many published backstories outside of those made by Obelusk—most of which seemed to have been scrapped.

To give a brief rundown, however: Desmond and Eloise met at the olympics and became good friends from then on.

There’s no specifics on the specific form of death for Desmond that I can find. Nor is there one for Eloise. We just know she got killed because “Cassidy does something during voting to ensure Eloise is pegged as the culprit (which she technically is) and she's executed.”(U/Trickster___)

… It makes me wonder, though, why there absolutely HAS to be someone executed for the death. It doesn’t feel right and it just feels like it’s supposed to cause more devastation. This is also an issue I take with SDRA2, in which a rule is literally made up on the spot so that Nikei can be executed. Granted, Nikei wasn’t executed for the death of Shinji Kasai(A suicide), but nonetheless.

Cassidy and Damon

Now, this isn’t exactly a killer-victim thing, but I wanted to talk about it. 

I don’t think Cassidy should’ve been a mastermind. No matter what anyone says about it having potential, I don’t think it did. As far as I’ve heard for motivations, she believed Eden’s Garden Academy and the Ultimate Talent Program were at fault for her friend’s demise. As a result, she resented the UTP/Ultimates since.

I do not like this. 

I’m someone who cares for my friends deeply. I’m sure there’s a chance that some people have seen me getting up-in-arms about defending my friends and their boundaries. But I’m not sure I know ANYONE who, as a result of their friend’s death, would be willing to round up 15 more people and kill them. I don’t know anyone who would be willing to be responsible for the death of a 14-year-old as a result of their friend dying.

As interesting as the motivation is, I do not think it works. I know, I know, “It’s danganronpa so it doesn’t have to be realistic!”

But that can only work so much. 

Damon has his own issues. I don’t like the unfairness of the traitor perk or the fact that it forces him to kill. I’d say it’s barely even a traitor perk in that regard. After all, there’s no doubt that they would’ve executed him anyway. They don’t care about the traitors and we see that with Eva. 

They died, and if we reached that point in the series, I don’t think I would particularly care. Because I’d view it as “Wasted potential and Wasted potential died, oh well.” instead of something tragic.

Story (this section isn’t organized. Sorry but also I don’t feel like organizing it.)

Okay I gotta say. I don’t think Grace and Wolfgang should’ve had sex, nor do I think it should’ve been confirmed if they did or not. 

I don’t know about anyone else, but I do not see the appeal of having sex with someone I just met. Granted, I’m on the asexual spectrum, but the only person I’d consider having sex with is my girlfriend. Even if I weren't in a relationship, however, thinking “Welp. Might as well have intercourse.” with someone who is a stranger while in a killing game is BIZARRE to me.

The only other fangan I know that had characters canonically have sex while in the game was Tetro Danganronpa. I’ve never watched this one myself, I just know it happened in chapter two of one of them and I think it’s equally unnecessary. People can argue “stress relief!” but I’d argue having intercourse with a stranger is arguably going to be pretty stressful during a killing game. After all, you’re naked in front of someone, therefore adding to the vulnerability. 

Never in my life have I heard of someone who’s prepared to start throwing hands mid-intercourse because their partner pulled out a knife. Because it’s a time where people are vulnerable and should be with someone you trust dearly, not a stranger. 

Should Grace have been any less sane, Wolfgang would’ve gotten his dingdong cut off AND his throat slit. 

On the topic of Wolfgang, I don’t like that he’s a fraud. I get they’re trying to go “oh he’s actually a pathetic wet cat and he sucks–” and bla bla bla. But honestly, what’s the point?

There’s a lot to be said about corrupt lawyers. The entire first chapter, it felt as though they were trying to go “Wolfgang Bad and Evil and only Eva and Damon see it!”, so why didn’t they stick to it? The writing in the story itself feels all over the place and indecisive. Characters personalities feel like they change to whatever is needed for the “main characters” of that chapter instead of the writers finding a way to actually work with the personalities.

If we’re supposed to pity Wolfgang, why did it feel as though we were supposed to hate him?

All of my friends came out of the first chapter hating Wolfgang and I felt similarly, with only a bit of pity towards him regarding his family. It felt like they were trying for a sympathetic evil character, but that just wasn’t something they could manage. And if they wanted a pure evil character, they could’ve done it with him.

Lawyers are meant to be smooth talkers, which means Wolfgang could utilize Grace’s issues against her.

Said issues? She gets attached easily, as stated by U/Trickster___. “I'm not 100% sure but I think it's simply that Grace gets attached to people very quickly. I might be misremembering but I'm pretty sure this has burned her in the past so it always affects her a lot. But this discussion was so long ago I could be completely off mark.”

So. Say we have a character who is supposed to be viewed as good by the rest of the cast. Say that very few characters actually see through him because he’s good with his words and he is a smooth talker. This is how he is able to charm Grace and get her comfortable with him. 

Let him live past the first chapter. Let him manipulate Grace into acting as an accomplice because she’s viewing him with rose-tinted lenses and her fighting spirit is almost entirely drained due to the mental strain of it all. He doesn’t word it like it’s going to be murder: he claims he has a plan to get them out of there. Maybe he holds her hands in his while he’s saying that, promising they’ll leave together(using the loophole of “I didn’t say it’d be all of us, just the two of us.”) and then he gets her to help him jump Eva.

She realizes what’s going on too little, too late, and maybe tries to stop him before he jumps into action and says that. 

I know i’m going on a tirade here, but it could keep Wolfgang as the victim and Eva as the killer by having her get the advantage in a struggle and kill him in self defense. She still had his blackmail, after all, so she could make a comment regarding his father after it while there’s still adrenaline in her veins.

He’d be a victim due to his own pride getting to him and Grace would be forced to help the player + the rest of the cast truly process the absolute cruelty of Wolfgang.

However, if he is supposed to be a character only made for pity, then my only other suggestion is what Obelusk’s idea was: Him getting coaxed and manipulating into co-masterminding the game. He was in a vulnerable position, after all.

I’d also like to talk about his father. We already know he was bad because of how Wolfgang talks about him in the first chapter, but we didn’t know to what extent until the leaks + the Obelusk document.

Meet Edward Akire, the former ultimate violinist.

Aka the killer of Cara Koskinen, the former ultimate Teacher’s Aide, and Teresa Akire: Wolfgang’s mother.

In the Obelusk lore, it was the first killing game of Eden’s Garden Academy. In the new lore, it was a “mass hysteria slaughter.” Edward Akire would have been the sole survivor of the first killing game but it is unknown (to me) about the slaughter.

However, whereas Cara was stabbed multiple times in the new lore, whoever Edward killed in the Obelusk lore had been shot. 

I’m not sure what’s set-in-stone about Edward in the new lore other than that he bought Wolfgang’s talent. (I don’t even know if they kept the name Edward for him!)

Although, in the Obelusk lore, he was left with severe, untreatable trauma after the events of the killing game. He could not be rehabilitated, so the government supplied his family with paychecks. At one point in time, he did recover enough to eventually get married and have his son. (Wolfgang is named after Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart while Edward was inspired by Edvard Grieg!) 

What I don’t understand with the Obelusk lore was why Edward would be so passionate over having his son also do music. I mean, wouldn’t he have struggled with the fear that the same situation he went through would happen to his son if he went down the same path? Sure, he was calmed by Teresa playing music for him, but I’d be shocked if Edward himself was ever able to look at a violin the same when the result of being good at playing it forced him to participate in a slaughter.

Anyways, his desperation for his son to follow the music path led to arguments with Teresa in which she argued that Wolfgang shouldn’t have to follow such a path. And this triggers Edward’s PTSD, leading to him attacking and killing Teresa in such a brutal manner that Obelusk describes it as “mauling.” This results in Edward getting institutionalized.

My question is: Why didn’t Obelusk have Wolfgang more traumatized by such an event? Even if he didn’t witness it while it happened, it would be unsurprising for him to have seen the bloodshed and made the connection early on that Oh. Something happened to his mother. Because a child is bound to notice when their mother is not breathing or has suddenly vanished.

I don’t feel like Obelusk really did much with this…

Even in the new lore, though, it feels iffy. He still killed his wife, he still killed someone else, and he still traumatized Wolfgang in some way. But why hasn’t he been jailed? Or has he been? Because from all I’ve seen, it seems he got off scot-free. Sorry to say another “this could be used to discuss,” but this seriously could be used to point at the fact that many wealthy people will get off scot-free for their horrible actions.

Moving on, there’s Eva. As I’m sure you all have heard, she was the OG mastermind who coerced Wolfgang into helping her out. And, listen, she would make for a great mastermind! But there’s issues, and it’s something i’ve written elsewhere as critique for the Obelusk lore:

She is cartoonishly evil.

She goes on the dark web, she leaks information, she convinces Wolfgang to help her kill his grandparents, and worst of all, she starts a killing game. Of course, this is just a few of her misdeeds, but it shows that she’s a character that I’m not sure HOW we’re supposed to sympathize or empathize with. In Obelusk’s document, he refers to her as a victim of perspective, but it is hard to view her as a victim at all.

Granted, her parents did neglect her, which makes her a victim in that sense, but she has gone to an indescribable length for that. And there’s not really an explanation as to why she just… decided that all talented people suck? I feel like I put it rather simply when I wrote down “it read as Bad parents -> unrestricted internet access -> Dark web -> "whoa, everyone who is good at something is actually a horrible person." without proper reasoning behind it.”

Were her parents former ultimates?? Did she meet someone she hated online who was an ultimate?? What happened there.

And I feel it was ultimately pointless to have her kill Wolfgang’s grandparents, as it felt it was just there to go “Whoa, see how EVIL she is? She kills elders!” when she could’ve used the manipulation and whatever that Obelusk claims her to be skilled at in order to get him back on his feet and make him dependent on her for emotional support and the like. When he’s back on his feet, they’d get money from his grandparents and be able to use that for the game.

Much like I suggested Wolfgang do with Grace, it’d just show the cruelty of it all and truly highlight that Wolfgang was a victim of circumstance as well as desperation.

There’s also the issue that talent was supposedly decided based off of competitions and other similar things, so she’d stick out immediately for having the lying talent. How would the UTP even go “wow this kid’s good at lying! We should get her in on the academy!” because they wouldn’t be able to tell that she’s lying. It’s just a stupid lie of hers because its so blatantly obvious. It doesn’t matter if it’s MEANT to be obvious, because it feels like a thorn in the side. “Oh, well, there’s no way she could’ve actually gotten this talent, which means she must be the mastermind or working with the mastermind.” This applies to the new lore as well, even though they revealed the lie in the first chapter.

In the new lore… I can’t say I like what I saw for her backstory. But moreso, I didn’t like how she was treated for being the “ultimate mathlete,” because they were effectively going “LMFAO YOU WERE AFRAID TO TELL US BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T WANT US TO BULLY YOU? WELL WE’RE GOING TO BULLY YOU ANYWAYS BOZO!”

Sure. it’s in character for some. But it felt like the entire group. Even Mark and Eloise, two characters who should be horrified by it and want to be away from the entire group as soon as they realized they were just a bunch of bullies who’d probably target one of them as soon as Eva died, seemed to go “well, this is fine.” and didn’t seem to have ANY issue with it. Hell, I feel like I vaguely remember Mark even making a cruel comment about it at one point in the chapter.

Those two are specifically why I’ve been so persistent on the cast being out of character. 

Chapter One made me decide that I would not continue PJ:EG if more chapters came out. No matter how many of my friends fawned and went “Oh, the deaths of Bingbong and Bingus were so well done but so heart wrenching!,” I decided I would not continue, because that chapter alone failed in what felt like every field.

Pacing, characters, storytelling, etc. Hell, they had the overly complicated murder method, too! Save that for chapter two or three, at least, because the full chapter was 11 hours long and the trial + deadly life took up most of that time. Sure, Danganronpa cases are long. But oh my fucking god.

I don’t have much to say on many of the others that I didn’t already say, so I guess I’ll focus on the survivors.

Jett’s original story by Obelusk pisses me off. Of what we see of him in game, he seems so far from someone who would sabotage a drag car, because he’d have KNOWN the danger that it could cause. Having him be competitive is fine, but he killed his brother. And here’s the thing: There’s drag race cars that are two seaters. He could’ve used one of those and been showing his brother the ropes of drag racing before getting into an accident where only he survives. This survivors guilt would make him go “I killed my brother” instead of viewing it as a tragic accident. I don’t know what the new lore for him was going to be.

Wenona… I don’t have much thoughts on her. She works as a good commentary on corrupt business practices and how even things that begin with good intentions can end bad, but I feel like more could’ve also been done with her. Maybe I’m just spitballing here, though.

Diana… I don’t like that she ended up taking her chameleon thing to the route of taking Wolfgang’s place and acting like him. I think that’s dumb. It feels like the writers going “SHIT! We actually could’ve used that guy! What were we thinking?!” And scrambling for someone to behave exactly the same. Of course there were the mental issues that come with it, but I also… I don’t know, I feel like even those wouldn’t have been handled properly. 

I feel like Grace was going to end up centered around Wolfgang. Maybe it’s just because a lot of the questions I saw about her related to Wolfgang, but I was reading those and I had to take a deep sigh because it felt like such an interesting character was going to waste all because of a ship.

To be blunt, I don’t like how much it seemed Grace and Diana ended up revolving around Wolfgang. The guy that died in chapter one. Diana witnessed his demise, yes, but she gave that whole cheesy speech at the end of the trial that has it feeling like she’ll go the completely opposite route when compared to what they decided with her. With Grace, I just… I don’t even know anymore, man.

It just feels sad, because I keep repeating “Potential! Potential!” over and over again, but that’s how I genuinely feel. These characters had potential but it was never utilized and, with Grace, it doesn’t seem it ever truly would be.

I want to talk about ships now. But I’m not going to go “Ummmmmm  ummmm Cassidy x Wenona bad” or whatever. No, I’m not talking about ships in that regard.

I’m talking about how they were utilized so frequently in Eden’s Garden. First thing’s first: Kaimon.

Kai and Damon have been teased since the start, but I never really could get behind them personally. I just didn’t see the chemistry outside of some sort of “enemies to lovers” dynamic. And I’m not big on those, either. So with it feeling so, so, pushed, I just about got sick of it.

Within the first chapter, I’d say two main ships were pushed:

Wolfgang x Grace

Kai x Damon.

And the runner-ups of:

Diana x Eva

Jett x Mark

Of course, there were others, but as soon as the dorm-sharing shtick happened, I came to the quick realization that I didn’t like this. It felt very much like the team was merely feeding the fans. Sure, it was incorporated somewhat into the case(I wouldn’t say it was a big part, though…), but it still just felt like it was only there so people would draw 10,000 things of Kaimon making out and 20,000 of Grace grabbing Wolfgang by the tie. (I have no idea if there’s actual art on these i am NOT TARGETING ANYONE I SWEAR THE ONLY PJEG ARTISTS I KNOW ARE MY GIRLFRIEND AND MY EX-LAVENDER HUSBAND)

I read the leaks and I noticed something: ships have a high prominence in the story. Jettski, Kaimon, Wolfgrace, Deloise(Is that the ship name?), etc. And, listen! I don’t hate ships. And including romance and ships and whatever in stories can be done well! But with PJEG, I was exhausted by the first chapter alone. If I had to handle 5 more chapters of “whoa they’re in LOVE” I think I’d start pulling my hair out.

There comes a point in ship-heavy stories where every other chapter feels like a repeat. “Oh. These characters liked each other and now one is dead.” Am I supposed to cry when the same story plays out multiple times?

And, back to the characters… They all felt 2d. Not quite one dimensional, but also not three dimensional. They fall into that little spot just before a character truly feels real but where they also don’t feel entirely fake. And they’re reaching so hard to feel real, but they fail, because they get changed based on what another character needs for development.

Miscellaneous

A commenter on u/Trickster___’s reddit post asked about the Logos/Pathos feature in the trials and if it’d impact the ending character lines, they responded with “It would not affect the ending, just a trial thing.” 

This is stupid. I’m going to be blunt with this. Logos/Pathos is something in writing where, should you include it somewhere, it should have a point. Some people may go “well, how would they make it work? Killing everyone if you get to Pathos and refuse to accuse someone you deem a friend?”

No. Honestly, I can’t say myself how I think it should’ve been done, but it should have had an actual effect on the story. Going the Logos route maybe getting Damon pushed away more because they felt he was too cold despite the fact that someone was going to die and the Pathos route getting Damon included more because people realized he wasn’t just an asshole or whatever.

Even if V3 did something similar, I’m not gonna be more understanding. I think making that a part of the trials and then never utilizing it outside of said trials is just… disappointing. I know it’d be hard to incorporate—more writing, more coding, whatever. But at the same time, why have Logos/Pathos and do nothing with it?

I think a good example of a story using a Logos/Pathos route feature is Your Turn to Die, another death-based game that shares similarities with Danganronpa whilst still being far different. It has the Logic route with Sou/Shin and the Emotion route with Kanna. Should you let Kanna die, Sou will not forgive the protagonist, threaten to kill her, and hack the AI of her close friend to blame her for his(the AI/Jou) death as well as Kanna’s. Should you let Kanna live, Sou will spend his final moments hacking the aforementioned AI in a way that helps lighten the protagonist’s burden so she stops having hallucinations of Jou. 

So, not only do we spend the rest of the game with either one of those two depending on our choices in that route, we also get the bonus of either a positive last scene with the protagonist’s best friend OR a one traumatizing enough that she forgets entirely who he was in the first place.

All this to say: it's not impossible, and I, again, deeply dislike that it was effectively useless and just for an aesthetic. At least in My Opinion.

Also, at one point in their document, Obelisk says “I understand that the Japanese names are a staple of Danganronpa, and I wanted to continue that with the protagonist. But, I felt that if I created a character with such a complex name, people might not be able to relate to him.” which felt?? Really weird to me? (for reference, Damon’s original name was Korsura Tadashi.)

I have never in my life met someone who has gone “well I’d relate to this character if it weren’t for the name.” or anything of the sort. Relatability comes from personality and experiences, not from names. So this very much reads Obelusk as having never understood this nor having ever tried. 

There’s also the animal motifs. And it’s because of these that I feel like Damon had wasted potential. Because the name of the game is a biblical reference, and I wonder where a snake plays a big part in the story of the bible? OH, RIGHT! THE GARDEN OF EDEN! 

The snake is responsible for the “downfall” of mankind or whatever. This could’ve been used for so much more, but it wasn’t.

I feel like, in the end, the team failed the biblical theming. Sure, I think there’s a lot of failures in the story, but I feel as though the biblical references thing is such a low hanging fruit, I don’t know how it was missed. Even if someone goes “Well, Damon had the traitor perk!,” it doesn’t matter because he never used it on anyone else. Give the snake motif to someone else, because that bastard twink isn’t “snakey” enough.

Also, oh my fucking god, WHY DOES TOZU LOOK LIKE A TWINK. Why are we afraid of aged men. I feel like both Mara and Tozu had potential but I’m not a fan of where they went. Whereas Eva kills Tozu in the Obelusk version, i don’t… I don’t think anything happened to either Mara or Tozu in the new lore??? 

Having them both as former ultimates is a neat choice! But also… if they were participants in a killing game themselves, why would they willingly put other people through that hell? 

I do kind of prefer the Obelusk lore regarding them. They don’t know each other, they’re co-workers in the sense that both are working with/for Eva, and she would’ve probably killed both of them should Mara not have shot her first. 

Conclusion