#...ok look

DR3 is split into two arcs: The "Future Arc" is a sequel to DR1 and DR2, and the "Despair Arc" is a prequel. (There's also one episode called the "Hope arc", but that's basically just the finale of the Future Arc.) The Despair Arc features the kids from DR2 and the events leading up to The Tragedy. The Future Arc features the DR1 kids, and their contentious relationship with the Future Foundation, which has been rebuilding the world since The Tragedy.

I don't have a lot to say about the Despair Arc. It's a tragic story, and it does fairly well weaving the bits of backstory from DR1&2 into a coherent narrative. In a weird way it reminded of watching the Star Wars prequels. You've got all this organization of super-prodigies at the height of their power, and in their hubris they let a few unforced errors snowball into the collapse of their civilization. I was mainly interested how Despair episodes added context to subplots in the Future Arc: the Munakata/Sakakura/Yukizome stuff is an obvious example, but there are plenty of others.

But I'm sick of prequels. I prefer to move forward. Give me Blorbo.

In the Future Arc, Makoto Naegi is in trouble for his unauthorized plan to rehabilitate the kids from DR2. So he's brought before the Future Foundation leaders for questioning, but then the whole group is trapped in a new version of the Killing Game. The kids from DR1 want to work together to figure this out, because that worked before. The Foundation leaders, who have spent years at war while the DR1 kids were isolated in their school, think that approach is naive, so they quickly descend into trying to kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out.

Most of the new characters in this Killing Game are really absurd. I mean, that's Danganronpa for you, but it's harder to roll with it when these weirdos are sitting around a Wise Council Elders table deciding the fate of the world. Not to single out Ruruka Ando, but she's only a couple of years older than Makoto and her special talent is making delicious candy. I Guess dot jpg.

Despite this, each character gets just enough development to make me care about most of them, at least a little. Danganronpa has always been surprisingly good at that, often with little effort. You'll meet a dude named "Hentai Dakimakura" and he's the Ultimate Coupon Clipper or something but also he speaks through a ventriloquist dummy, and you're like "...the hell is this?" But then a month later you're like "Ha ha, that's our Daki, always up to his shenanigans."

Of course, my favorite character is Kyoko Kirigiri, and I watched this primarily to see what happens to her...and uhhh to see if she hooks up with Makoto. This did not go well.

[Above: just fuck me up]

...OK, look. I read over a year ago that Kyoko seems to die in DR3, and then in the end she's still alive. If I wasn't sure she'd be okay I wouldn't have watched this thing. I thought I was ready. I was not ready, because I didn't know how she "dies." All at once you learn that her poison bracelet was going to kill her unless Makoto died first, and that she must have know this the whole time. I had to stop and drink some rum. I cannot believe this hit me so hard.

This leads to a pivotal scene where Future Foundation leader Chad Munakata challenges Makoto to a showdown. See, all along Chad believed Makoto didn't have the nads for defeating despair. So he figures Kyoko's death will break Makoto's spirit, proving his point, and I'm like "YOU SHUT YOUR DAMN MOUTH, YOU SON OF A BITCH." But Kyoko asked Makoto to promise not to give up, so then I'm like "i know it sucks little buddy but you have to shake it off and get back up, dude, you promised." And then he flashes back to that scene and balls his fists and I'm all "yeahhhhh go get 'im, tiger."

The general theme of the Future Arc is about refusing to surrender to despair, even in the face of abject doom, even when empty violence might seem more personally satisfying. Makoto can't bring back the dead or undo the damage done to the Future Foundation, but he stays the course for its own sake, and therefore wins the ideological fight. So I think I understand why the Hope Arc might come across as magically fixing too much--not only is Kyoko resurrected, so is nearly every casualty from Danganronpa 2. I don't think that undermines the premise, though; like I said, I knew Kyoko wasn't dead but I still felt Makoto's grief as if she was truly gone forever. And besides, the series has always rewarded characters for enduring despair with a timely stroke of luck, even if it's not always so transparent.

["I think it's very nice of you to give that dead woman another chance."]

I ended up pulling an all-nighter to finish Danganronpa 3, because I just couldn't put it down and...well, I had to get to the part where Kyoko returned. About ten minutes before that scene, it finally hit me that nothing is going to happen when Makoto finds out she's alive, just like they didn't confess their love for each other in DR1 and they weren't explicitly a couple at the start of DR3. I feel dumb for just now figuring this out in 2022, but the tease that two characters will get together is the draw, so the storytellers always have an incentive to kick the can down the road rather than deliver a payoff. If you need a payoff, well, that's what fanfiction is for. Which explains why I had to write two of 'em, probably.

Harvester reminds me a lot of Darkseed II, in that you're some ordinary shlub wandering around a small town where everybody acts like nothing is amiss, even though everything is obviously very amiss. It reminds me of Thimbleweed Park in that the game is filled with crude stereotypical characters that talk too much because the writers think it's biting satire or something. It reminds me of Kathy Rain because there's a spooky cult at the center of everything, but that's clearly a half-baked idea that won't begin to explain the huge plot twist that's inevitably coming. It reminds me of something else, too, but I can't put my finger on it.

So this uninteresting guy Steve wakes up with amnesia, trapped in this weird predicament, and the only other person who can help him get to the bottom of this is Stephanie. Conversations with Stephanie seem important but don't reveal very much. I keep thinking the story would be more interesting if they worked together and you could follow her around. There's some unconvincing romantic tension, but I can't rule out the possibility that it's a swerve and she's going to betray our dopey hero. The plot only really gets cooking when Stephanie disappears and Steve finds what may or may not be her remains, and then Steve falls down a shaft and...aw dammit.

...ok look, I'm just noticing certain patterns that interest me.

A tip at the start of the game warns you to "avoid cliches like the plague," which is ironic because the entire game is filled with cliches. I'm sure the writers thought it was fresh for Steve's mom to act like a "typical" 1950s housewife but actually it's all weird, but I feel like I've seen it a million times. The mortician that looks like a reject from a vampire LARP is old hat. The butcher that's obviously carving up cat meat might as well be Barth Bagg from You Can't Do That On Television. Range Ryder is literally every Buffalo Bob spoof you've ever seen. I could go on, but I'd rather not get into the gay firefighters. It's like these guys thought it's not a cliche as long as their parents wouldn't have thought of it.

It occurs to me that this is where aesthetic comes through in the clutch. I mean, Darkseed II was an unwitty fever dream too, but at least it had HR Giger art, and Danganronpa had...whatever the hell Danganronpa was doing. But in Harvester, even the sex dungeon is pretty dull.