#crane-talks

1- The Mastermind Dealie

Eva was absolutely as her best the way we got her- a fraud that was trying really, really hard to change the way people viewed her, but just couldn't shape up, and failed because she took a trap laid for her out of the selfish desire to prove herself to the rest of the cast. I'm absolutely NOT going with her beta existence as that one Junko sprite with the glasses but all the time, since that may as well be what she was going to end up being. I'm also not making Wolfgang a traitor or knowing participant to any capacity, though I do like his backstory's connection to the history of the school as a sort of red herring when the cast learns that information posthumously. But I also think the explanation provided for Cassidy is just... weak. It sort of just feels like making her a mastermind would be solely for the politics of her communist theming? Idk, I didn't like it, and you could kinda tell her backstory for being mastermind was tacked on because Eva wasn't mastermind anymore.

Take this in contrast with Mara, who kind of has nothing going on in every iteration of the game's story we're currently privy to. Hired help that switches sides in the penultimate hour was all she was ever going to truly be, and she feels more like a cheeky reference to Mukuro than a characrer in her own right. Mukuro was a wolf, Mara's a panther, Mukuro died early for the twist, Mara gets the kill shot, Mukuro's from a mercenary guild, Mara's ultimate mercenary. So on so forth. Her beta ending was shooting Eva with a real-life "truth bullet" once hit with the revelation she wasn't actually getting paid and was gonna be offed. It's... comical. And would probably have been one of those "so bad you have to laugh at your screen for 5 minutes before continuing" moments for me. Which sucks because I think having a Mukuro-inspired character on the side of the villains wasn't a bad idea, and she had a lot of potential. So, I'd like to mold that potential, and use the similarities to Mukuro to my advantage- making her the true mastermind.

To name a character after the demon Mara from Buddhist theology, a figure associated with death and destruction by name, and doing nothing with her feels like a severe oversight, a choice done for the sake of aesthetics. So to have her be the mastermind in plain sight, appearing to the cast as Tozu's bodyguard while truly being his boss, watchfully keeping him in line as much as she is everyone else, and allowing Ultimate Actor Tozu to be the perfect distraction from her scheming while the cast focuses on hating him and suspecting each other feels right to me. Have her be the one who orchestrated the game- her who swiped the class from the train by hijacking it, her who purchased the old building. Mara, the other survivor of the first killing.

When the first game was down to three people- Cara, Edward, and Mara- and the rules stated that only two could live, someone had to kill. Cara and Mara had split up to hunt Edward down, and Cara had the unfortunate luck of being the one to find him. Not strong enough to overpower him, Edward had killed her, and without enough students to hold a trial, the two survivors were released. The government did everything they could to conceal what had happened, paying off the students and their families, shutting down the building, and burying the plans for the school in the hopes they'd never be dug up again.

Mara, the ultimate mercenary, had never felt anything for a target. But Cara hadn't been a target. She'd been a friend, and she'd failed to protect her when they'd agreed to split up. Cara had died, as had 13 others who were meant to be her classmates. With Cara's death and the hush money that'd been shoved into her hands, she'd fallen prey to the trap of the first game. She'd been primed for induction into The Cult- which I've not named, but The Cult with animal theming is real and not just an elaborate environmental setup to distract from the true mastermind, Random Teenage Girl #5- as a proper member.

The Cult is made up of influential people- members of government, billionaires, household names- but no Ultimates. Ultimates were trickier, as they tended to develop their skills through pure devotion to whatever skill it was they held, and also had the potential to lose the title as they got older. And they could come from anywhere in the country- any family, any status, any beliefs or life experiences. The killing game as we know it is designed to teach something- to break down the survivors to follow the same line if thinking and beliefs of the Cult's- humanity is inherently selfish, and stripping oneself of it in favor of furthering the Cult's agenda is the road to survival. The Cult's overall goal is to bring about the biblical apocalypse and prevent the revelation, with most of its members caught up in a religious psychosis and the original founders of the Cult long forgotten, only their image for who they presented themself as being what remains. This image is what Mara makes into Tozu's character.

While the overall imagery and inspiration of the cult is biblical in nature, Mara isn't a Christian figure, but a Buddhist one. And it's in this way that Mara isn't a true believer in the Cult's cause. What she is, is a mercenary. The Cult believes her to be properly converted to their cause, and it's this mistake that will be their undoing, as having her mastermind the game will lead her to go off-script, making the game into her own without their permission. Simultaneously, the members of the Cult watching the game have reached a point of inflated confidence with how close they are to their current goalpost overtaking the country to realize Mara's rigging the game for her own beliefs.

Mara's ultimate talent is in being hired help, a fighter that kills without mercy or regret or personal involvement. Her "induction" from her perspective is no more than formality, as she has no reason to really refuse its members as employers. She never truly considers herself to be a part of them despite their assumptions. As such, when the next batch of Ultimates is being selected, she as the first 'successful' ultimate recruit is asked to carry out the next game. Refine it. Select who to kill in what way, and who to prepare for induction. What they believe they're doing is showing her she's one of them now. What she hears is their silent confession- Cara was always going to die. Edward was always going to live.

Mara is neither an antihero that wishes to save the ultimates, nor is she a true-blue member of the cause. She's a third party with her own agenda, resenting that the cult killed her friend and tried to control her outside of work, but simultaneously, that game did change her for the worse, ruining her ability to stay truly neutral as a mercenary and giving her a grudge against the ultimate system as a whole. Her goal is carry out a second killing game- only to then make it completely public, ruining the public's faith in the government and the ultimates, and exposing the cult before their takeover can be completed. Before they can actually recruit any ultimates. In this sense, they destroyed her ultimate as a mercenary, as she's no longer doing what they've "hired" her to do. Tozu is her assistant in this.

(Sidenote: If this sounds incomplete, that's because it is. I wrote this up in like an hour and would obviously have to do a LOT more work to make sure the religious storytelling carried actual meaning and weight for the story beyond just being cool religious aesthetics.)

2- Tozu: Ultimate Actor(?)

I know for a fact I wasn't the only one utterly disappointed to learn that Tozu's story was going in the direction of him being an overly dramatic fakeout, only for the true mastermind to be exceedingly typical. That said, the twist in and of itself of him being an ultimate actor isn't necessarily a bad one. Actually, I think it makes his grandiose behavior that much more fun- he's a fucking theatre kid improving his way into this game making a lick of sense. What an utter delight of a mastermind's lackey!

That said, with Mara now being unique as the only ultimate seemingly following the Cult's cause, where does this leave Tozu, and how do we have it continue to work in the context of the narrative? In the beta, he was recruited after avoiding the first game by simply not showing up, and started losing work for having a diva personality. He was difficult to work with, and Eva offered him the role of a lifetime, fully planning on killing him too for being an ultimate. We're... not doing that. Mainly on account of in this version of events, Tozu isn't the ultimate actor. At least, not anymore.

Tozu was the ultimate actor at one point, and was actually in the process of being recruited when he lost his title. This loss happened when he was still relatively youthful, being in his early 20s at the time, but what made him particularly bitter was losing the role to a child actor. A. Child. Actor. Child actors don't always maintain that quality of skill as they get older!! The kid might not even pursue acting in his teen years; what, are we just handing out THE ULTIMATE TITLE to child prodigies like candy now? What ever happened to putting dedicated work into honing a craft, pouring love and passion into a performance? And what, this kid can cry really convincingly and gets his title right before his magnum opus performance is released in theatres? Pathetic.

His recruitment continues regardless- he's still a major name in cinemas nationwide- and his films are still major successes- but "Tozu" continues to carry a deep resentment towards the ultimate program altogether. And he forever lives with the bitterness of being denied his penultimate role as ultimate actor, something the Cult is sure to embolden, to keep his loyalties as he spreads their selfish beliefs to the film industry. It was he who suggested the killing game when the Eden's Garden project was brought to his attention, and it was he who played the role of mastermind then, too. So when he's paired with Mara for the second go, he's more than a little pissy.

My favorite tidbit we got from Tozu's story amongst the leaks and the information drops was that he was going to rig the game to protect Toshiko, recognizing that she was forced into her ultimate role and attempting to sway the game in her favor. I'd like to carry that over, and have it be what gets him... removed from the game and mark Mara's true takeover. Rather than having her kill a member of the cast, though, and having him rig the investigation and later the execution, I had an idea on how to adapt it.

Tozu's attachment to Toshiko happens slowly over the course of the game, as Toshiko represents everything he hated about the ultimate system- she was a child playing a role and became an ultimate at an incredibly young age, yet she seems to take immense pride in her role and uses it to constantly remind the college-age cast that she's their equal. But as a mastermind with access to the cameras, he learns the uncomfortable truth, the other side of what happened to her he hadn't had to confront before in his self-important rage- she was forced into that role by her family for the recognition. She clings to her role because she feels as though she has to, and had she ever gotten to do things at her own pace, she wouldn't have that sort of self-important defense that makes her so unlikable to most outside of her work. That same coping mechanism that he, himself, has carried with him to this day. And it's then he remembers just how old he was when he got his role- fourteen. The same age Toshiko is now.

Toshiko, according to Mara's script, is set to kill someone. She, a child, only barely a teenager, is meant to be targeted and pushed into murder to show how the desire to survive is present within even the youngest of us, that selfishness is inherent. This was what Tozu had most agreed with, but Toshiko is anything but, and now he's forced to reckon with that fact. It's far too late for him to change what he's done and who he's become, and should he try anything, if he were to somehow escape Mara, the Cult would have him admitted to a psych ward or worse even if he did escape. What he could do, what feeble resistance he can offer, is try to get Toshiko out. So when Toshiko nearly falls prey to the motive, Tozu appears- and kills her victim first.

Uncovering not only that Toshiko was almost the culprit, but why she wasn't, is the chapter 4 trial, as chapter 4 is typically the turning point- it's past the midpoint of the game, gearing into the true mystery of the game itself, involving a sacrifice on account of the killer to give the remaining cast the opportunity to push past the game and solidify their conviction. It's tropey for Danganronpa, but I'd argue some tropes exist because of how well they work for a narrative. And in terms of structure, I'd much rather do this here to ramp up the stakes than I would in the smack-dab middle.

Tozu's pissiness is the main reason Mara gets away with as much as she does, as Tozu's dislike of her automatically calls any criticisms or worries about her motivations into question. In addition, she's the one with the gun, and she's director, so it's not as though he can go against her notes and her changes to the script. But his dislike of her often comes out in his performance, which signals to the cast participating that things aren't always running so smoothly amongst the perpetrators of the game. This also opens the door for them to try and reason with Mara or even persuade her to betray him, mistakenly thinking him to be the brains due to her position as the hired help, only for it to backfire horribly. She does listen to them, does take their advice, and does end up killing Tozu when he interferes with the game- only to reveal herself as the real threat, instilling fear into the remaining cast as to what will happen if they ever try to defy the game again and sway her. Tozu broke ranks, and was punished for it.

3- Damon's Survival

Damon is not killing himself. No, fuck that shit, I don't care that it was less evil in the revised version than it was in the original, his death was always going to be one of character-growth-defining necessary-self-sacrifice, and GOD we already have Sakura and Chiaki and dr3 Kyoko and Kaede and Kaito and K1-B0. And Nagito and Kokichi if you really wanna get loose with your definition.

No, Damon is not killing himself- but he can try. Here's my vision- Damon and Diana as planned were going to be foils that eventually met in the middle, and the end plan in the revised version was that he'd poison himself rather than kill anyone else, and Diana would become the lead. In this version, he nearly does the same, but it's Diana who stops him. Not to grab the poison and make him stab her instead, not to throw him at somebody else and make him a killer, not to just throw platitudes at him- to incite a rebellion. She suggests a gamble- if each and every one of them break the rules of the game, will she truly kill all of them? Will she be allowed to? Is Mara where the game ends?

With time running out, Damon is left with a choice- he can kill himself now, and the game will continue for the others. Or he can agree to let Diana try. He can put his faith in the remaining survivors that none of them are secretly affiliated with Mara and formerly Tozu. He can run the risk of someone letting everybody else get themselves executed just to secure a win, or at least less people to worry about having to survive. Five murder cases already carried out, one by Tozu himself, and suspicions and tensions have gone up and down again and again. Even now, Toshiko's position is in question- if one game master was willing to protect her, why wouldn't another? Why her? Damon is left with a choice, and so too is the player, mirroring Makoto's choice on whether or not to trust Kyoko- only instead of your greatest asset up until this point, you're faced with your rival, the person who's worked against you time and time again in reckless optimism, who's been proven wrong several times over- but who's also proved the innocence of many.

The game gives you three options- stick yourself, stick Diana, or drop the vial. Sticking yourself is an instant game-over, and the player gets a shot of the very end of the next trial- Diana trying and failing to carry out an investigation without you. Sticking Diana is a game-over as well, as you learn that Diana's gamble was something the rest of the survivors had already agreed to, and thus, they were all together and know the killer was Damon right away. Dropping the vial leads to the beginning of chapter 6.

4- The Killers

Chapters 1-3 will tie into the three daughters of Mara- Tanha, Raga, and Arati. Each daughter is meant to represent a temptation that impedes enlightenment in Buddhism, but can also appear like one of the seven deadly sins in Christian theology. This is why the fourth chapter is where things start to shift and fall apart, as Mara starts shifting the game and Tozu 'repents' in a sense.

Chapter 1's killer remains Eva, and her victim remains Wolfgang. Frankly, I don't see why that needs to change. Eva represents desire, the greed to take the form of another, better ultimate title, the desire to prove herself to the adults and peers around her, the desire to survive at the expense of everyone else. This is what Tanha represents as well- desire in the form of greed. And that same greed is found too in the victim, Wolfgang, who bought out his talent in an attempt to imitate his heroic mother and to be better than his ultimate father.

Chapter 2's killer would be Ingrid. Raga represents lust and other forms of sexual desire, and Ingrid is the only character I can think of to have had an established romantic partner outside of the game. (Outside of the game. If Desmond and Eloise are romantically involved, they're both present, and I believe I've said already I despised how they handled Desmond.) Ingrid had a long-distance girlfriend she was financially supporting, and being pushed to kill to get back to her when her traitor's perk offers the opportunity to set the two of them up for life- and to actually live together- Ingrid weakens. This also sets up the inherent flaw in the idea of the game pushing them towards selfishness- Ingrid kills so her lover will have stability even when she's not there. It wasn't about the proximity, but the providing, because she's motivated by love over lust. And yes, it's selfish in the sense she's sacrificing her classmates for her lover- but it's selfless at the same time, working herself ragged and killing for the sake of someone she's never met. Her target will be Ulysses- mainly to keep with the theme of personal relationships. I had the thought of Ulysses having an unreciprocated crush on Wenona and Wenona being a suspect on the basis of assumption- perhaps Ulysses pushed her and she killed him in defense, or she was just so disgusted by her friend turning out to be pursuing her and snapped. Both are untrue; Ulysses was a respectful guy, and he and Wenona had built pretty good trust between the two of them. The accusations hurled both at her and him in the case is what convinces Diana of her innocence, well before Damon reaches the same conclusion.

Chapter 3's killer would be Mark, and his victim would be Cassidy. Arati represents aversion and disgust, and while Mark's imposter syndrome is a major part of his character and why he's so short with the members of the cast that try to befriend him, I'm interpreting his character as developing a resentment to them for it. Despite their friendliness and eagerness, they continue to be effortlessly everything he believes he isn't- real. All that enthusiasm is as genuine as their titles, and it's worst with Cassidy, who continuously goes out of her way to try and make him feel like a part of the group when he not only feels unable to believe her, but when he's trying to survive a killing game. Mark was designed to be everything Damon's not- an imposter with little to no self-confidence who hates the amount of attention and thus criticism his ultimate talent brings him. Thus, his motive is in being freed from that altogether- should he kill somebody, his identity will be declared dead as well. He'll be given a new identity to disappear with, and he'll never face the pressures of being an ultimate ever again.

Cassidy is who he chooses to kill for two reasons- his resentment, which has only grown worse over the course of the game, and that she's an easier target than Jett. Cassidy is openhearted and earnest and proud and satisfied, everything Mark isn't, and seems to have a much stronger handle on her online fanbase- and critics- than Mark could ever hope to have. Even just looking at her becomes painful. When he is caught, it sets up for Jett to open up, watching the boy who he'd come to view as his brother betray him and admit to hating him and Cassidy all along. He takes off his mask for the first time. In Mark's final moments, he tries to prove that he was wrong. He tells him that he was making assumptions. He tells him that he's a murderer. He tells him- very solemnly- that he chose the wrong target. That they're the same. That Mark is lucky he won't have to live with this. Mark throws up.

Chapters 4-6 represent the three corpses in the necklace that the monk Upagupta had used to convert Mara to Buddhism in legend- the man, the dog, and the snake. The man, you can reason out, is Tozu. He sees the humanity, the victim in Toshiko, and he rids himself of the character he's played to save her. The snake, Damon, survives despite his perk when Diana's gamble pays off, and ensures the game's failure. The chapter 5 killer, therefore, is the dog- Jett.

It's my hope that over the course of the game, Jett would develop into everything the game doesn't want him to be, as Jett is actually one of the two targets for a surviving candidate. (The other is Diana.) Jett Dawson is meant to be the game's next Mara- coming in having already killed someone and gotten away with it, never being caught for his sabotage and it being swept under the rug. The Cult saw his potential as one of them, even assisting in his cover-up without his knowledge prior to his entry to the killing game. The Cult failed in the assumption that he was already like them- covertly selfish, intentionally killing his brother in the pursuit of his career.

This was not what happened, and his guilty remorse for what he'd done being met with what Mark had done in the third chapter is enough to motivate him to do the opposite of what the Cult had wanted, of what Mara had needed- instead of aiding in his own ostracization when the rest of the cast learns what he did, he makes a point of staying involved with the group- aided by Diana, whose relentless faith in the others comes in clutch to keep him from being outright shunned. When he does kill someone, it's in direct sabotage of the game's plan- he'd received no motive. Following Tozu's execution, Jett was no longer alone in being suspected. Toshiko was as well. And it was at this point with an odd number of people that Mara comes to the realization that either there needs to be a multi-kill of some kind or a suicide, lest history repeat itself. Cara flashes through her mind. She comes up with a motive of her own, independent of the Cult's approval.

Through her schemes, a double-killer motive is introduced- two people can work together to carry out one murder plan, and if the killer isn't caught, both people will get to leave. Kai accepts this motive, and brings Damon into it- the people around them are either too cruel or far too trusting or far too suspicious. If we do this, we can leave. I want to get out of here... I want to live. And I want you to live, too. With me. Please?

Damon hesitates. He shouldn't be hesitating, but he is. Because he does want to escape with Kai- and with Kai specifically, he's forced to realize. But trauma does funny things to people- he still believes he despises Diana, yet he can't bring himself to think of letting her die. It feels... wrong. And it's not just her. He asks Kai to let him think about it. Kai gets quiet. And he agrees.

In the privacy of the basement, he asks Mara a question- Does his accomplice need to know he's an accomplice?

"No."

Thank God.

Kai chooses to target Toshiko- the easiest target, the girl who's currently the most suspicious amongst the group. Nobody will bat an eye at her death. Nobody would think of him as an immediate suspect. When Jett kills, it's in defense not of himself, not in some bid to escape, but by complete accident when he protects Toshiko, because he's chosen to defend her when everyone hates her for nearly killing someone, for trying to kill someone. He kills Kai, and he carries Toshiko out. As Kai had already taken the perk- the unused vial of poison that'd clattered to the floor- Jett is a solo killer.

Once the discussions of the motive and the unused vial and Kai's innocence and who was his accomplice then, and does the motive still apply, is all settled, and the discussion on who the killer truly is comes up, they move on to the identity of the murderer. The murder takes place in Toshiko's room, with Toshiko having been knocked out with sleeping pills in her drink. The silent fight that had ensued had been between Kai and the killer, and the body had been found when Toshiko and Kai hadn't turned up for breakfast. Toshiko had been carried elsewhere in the school, and wakes up only once the rest of the cast finds her. Jett had carried her out so she wouldn't have to wake up in front of the body- and the reason Jett doesn't confess to the murder and allows people to suspect Toshiko is so he can find out who Kai's accomplice was and expose them. Damon being an unwilling accomplice is a shock to everyone, including him.

Jett doesn't have an ironic execution prepared for him. He wasn't supposed to die. And that makes Mara feel a mix of things- and embarrasses her when she has to admit there isn't one prepared. If there were any doubt amongst the survivors that the game wasn't rigged, that's completely and utterly gone now. Jett's death is a lot more blunt, then- she makes him stand in the center of the trial room, and blast shields go up in front of the rest of the survivors to ensure no stray bullets hit them. Jett puts his helmet back on- he hadn't worn it since the chapter 3 trial had ended- and he gives the survivors a thumbs up. He wishes them luck. And then he's gunned down.

5- Desmond & Eloise

Who says I have to pick one? I want both! I WANT BOTH, DAMN IT!!! And I'm making one last section about it!

I feel like there's an exceedingly easy pull for a Swan Princess call with these two- a marksman and a swan motif girl. Which, ignoring the fact that it relies them to both be reduced to their talent and animal respectively, is what I think the final motive should allude to- the one unused in the final chapter. When Damon and Diana return to the group, before they can enact their rebellion, the next motive is given- the imposter motive. Mara announces that one of the remaining members of the cast may have been working with her all along, and whoever kills them could end the game- but, if they kill the wrong person, a trial is held. Mara emphasizes to ask questions on who you trust- what's obvious isn't always true.

A weaker Eloise might've caved. So too might a weaker Desmond. But now- when the game being rigged has been proven to them all- they embrace each other right then and there. That they trust each other more than anything. And Desmond tells the others that he's certain this motive is directed at the two of them. Eloise asserts that the plan won't change. They'll all break different rules at the same time, and force Mara to a standstill. Damon thinks of Eva, of Kai. Toshiko insists they should be dating by now. Diana commends the two of them.

6- Final Challenge

When they all collectively break the rules, Mara decides to use their defiance to her advantage. This, she decides, is the perfect opportunity to uncover the corruption of the cult, and the time has come for the game to collapse in on itself. She announces that they've all broken the rules- broke the cameras. Forced through unlocked doors. Lived without killing when not permitted. But- but- rather than kill everyone here, she declares the second survivor will be whoever can uncover the purpose of the game- the meaning behind each and every case, and who the winner is. Who the winner was always supposed to be.

At this point, the executives who've been watching the game play out are panicking, and trying to figure out how to regain control. But Mara's been planning this middle finger since they told her of the game, and they'd given her all the time in the world to prepare. She sends the camera feed everywhere she needs it to go- the massive billboards in Times Square, the screens in the Oval Office, over Channel 5 News broadcasts, etc etc. The lights on the cameras blink into a different color- broadcast mode.

Similarly to THH, the cast has to split up and uncover the truth with the 'game master only' areas revealed to the cast. She doesn't fight them in their pursuit of answers- if anything, she aids them, answering any questions asked to her freely. And in the final trial, she not only affirms all their correct answers, but provides context. She thanks them for being so thorough, for unveiling her benefactors. She only gets angry once- when they bring up what happened to Cara. When they call attention to her as the second survivor. The final assertion is why she let them get this far- to tear the cult apart. Schematics for the cameras revealed the cameras were in broadcast mode. It's too late. Now the country knows. In the modern day of technology, evidence will spread, and fast.

Mara thanks them for their cooperation. Tells them that they've done well, and that she's happy for the game to end. Then she turns her gun on Diana. Declares that she has to die now. If she wants the cult to fail, ensuring she doesn't make it out is the final step to victory. Diana screams in fear, Damon jumps from his podium to pull her away-

The cast swarms Mara, her gun being shoved off target by Desmond in an instant. A struggle ensues, and while she's initially thrown, Mara is still an experienced mercenary, and she's able to regain her footing and shove them off her. But it's enough. It's enough for a rescue team to have arrived. And Desmond has her at his own gunpoint.

She drops her gun. Kicks it away. And tells them not to follow her. He hesitates to shoot, letting her run further. Eloise doesn't, cutting her open by the exit where she'd been waiting. Anticipating. Mara dies, but she dies by the hands of a duo that didn't give up on each other.

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#1- The Evaphant in the Room

Throughout the entire route, from the beginning onward, I was never able to fully enjoy any of the 'comedy' in this route. There's a very glaring choice made as one of the first major events to occur in the route, one that completely put me off and was never properly addressed. Eva, the paragon of nature, was captured as she'd been in the previous routes. But this was the first time Sirei was present for it, and what he did sickens me.

After several days of "treatment", Eva comes out of the infirmary completely brainwashed into believing she's a weapon meant for the Special Defense Unit to use on the invaders. All of her memories of her own identity and history, her family, her beliefs- they're all completely removed. And it's vile.

This kind of choice could make for a very interesting story of the defense unit coming to terms with Eva's humanity when she still has feelings and reactions as a member of the team, or discovering the methods Sirei used on her and raising questions about how much he is and is not sharing, how he was comfortable doing this because he doesn't see her as human despite clearly being such. The problem here is that they chose to do this in a COMEDY route- the funny silly one with gags and quips meant to pad space for the big triple digit ending number. So naturally, it goes completely unaddressed. There are occasional attempts to make a bit out of her lack of social skills due to acting so robotic, but they only serve to remind the player what's been done to her, and there's nothing about it that says comedy.

The dehumanization and disregard for Eva as a character is frankly appalling. They could've just had her escape or have her switch sides in the war for a cartoonishly innocuous reason. Playing the route makes it abundantly clear that basic logic and consistent worldbuilding aren't really a priority for the joke route, so it's not like it even would've been hard to come up with a bullshit reason for her to be freed or join. I don't know. This rubbed me the wrong way, and was a horrendous opener for what's supposed to be the joke route.

It's also worth noting that the only two characters to show ANY care for Eva as a living thing at all in this route are Shouma and Moko. Most of the group treats her like a ticking time bomb until they get accustomed to her, and Gaku and Darumi in particular have some not-so-considerate thoughts on how to treat her. It just feels more malicious than any of them were before this from what I'd seen of them. I didn't like it.

#2- Free Time

This route had so much free time. So. So much free time. Enough for me to max bond with 4 characters, max level 4 characters, get the remaining 11 characters (excluding Eito) to 14/18, max out the majority of my traps and enchantments, and get my report card to all 5s when it'd started at 4-2-2-2-2. And then some. There were a lot of explorations for material stacking involved, and of course trial and error with the gifts. But yeah, lots of time on Takky's hands.

This is a necessary bastion for the people who thrive on making number go up on RPGs, I think. I'm not necessarily that person, but I am a completionist and I'd like to get all the Steam achievements, so here we are! Good thing I maxed out the desperation potion. Easy BP comes from making your favs drink the kys potion and then following through, if ever you were wondering. This is probably thematic to the game's slowly building anti-war message.

Comedy Route is a thinly veiled grinding route with joke plots sprinkled around to keep the player somewhat engaged with the characters. I honestly think I would've rather they go all in on a training route, but shit, maybe they did. I wouldn't know :p

#3- Theory Corner

This line made me squint. It's almost immediately followed by OPE GOT YOU TO LAUGH WOMP WOMP but like. For just a moment. A split second. There was a gravity to the conversation. This felt... ominous. So now I have a theory.

Nozomi did regain the memory of Takumi as Takky, and had Karua's scar. So to some capacity, Nozomi and Karua are the same person, meaning Karua is or was real. But if we take Sirei at face value- if we believe he would share a deep secret if it meant furthering his goal- and Sirei believes Karua wasn't real, then maybe Kodaka hasn't let his V3 dreams go. Maybe Takumi, and the other members of the Special Defense Unit, are constructed humans.

My thinking is that, rather than it being a case of 'implanted characters' like V3 was, it's instead a case of virtual reality- they're lab-grown, and the TRC they know was a simulation to mold them. There was another mention in this route of Sirei mentioning they'd intentionally done "varied personalities", so maybe the simulation was intentionally giving them stories that would motivate them in unique ways and give them unique strengths and weaknesses to make their Special Abilities. Some were paired, like Ima and Kako, while most were on their own. There may have been more than them originally as well, lab-grown soldiers that failed, hence why a third of the team is sent to the decoy location and there are still empty rooms at the main campus. This would mean the reasoning for the strange teleportation in the prologue after saving Karua was because that was part of some sort of 'training', and the reason Sirei calls out our first defense as our first real battle is because it is, and the fight in the TRC was just the final test before we were transported from Kamukura Hospital.

This is mostly speculative, but considering Nozomi's issues with rejection symptoms, she was most likely one of these failed attempts, and that when she rejected the hemoanima, she ended up being removed and raised by her mother, one of the scientists on the project. So "Karua" not being real would be because the version of Karua that Takumi is familiar with was Nozomi's avatar in the virtual reality he was grown and trained in- either as a recreation of Nozomi or as some sort of other split. If they're really gonna go with the main guy-main girl romance in whatever the true route is, it'll probably be something like "she was in LOVE with him and kept re-entering the simulation for him 🥺 isn't it so sad and then she forgot because the plot demanded it. Now let's have the battlefield red with her blood again"

If Karua isn't real, but Nozomi is, and Nozomi is Karua, and we've confirmed this with her scar and dying memory of Karua's nickname for Takumi, and they all have a weird connection with Kamukura Hospital, a medical facility involved in human experiments that's named after the DR character who was artificially made via surgery to create a tool of hope for humanity. Then um. This is my best guess.

Or maybe I'm just looking wayyyyyyy too far into a fakeout line from the silly funny joke route where being sassy gets you exploded and people grow fish heads if they don't send enough chainmail to Gaku. Lol. Lmao.

(By the way, please don't tell me if I'm wrong or right or close or far or what-have-you! I'd like to find out authentically as I make my way through the game plz and thank)

#4- Sirei

I have to give my shoutouts and also congratulations to one Eito Aotsuki route 0. He had one thing right- this vinegar-soaked-egg looking motherfucker made of war propaganda and bad ideas deserved death, and the quicker the better with this one. This waste of Tsubasa's talents make the Monokubs look like little delights.

I didn't like Sirei in this route. His charm is nonexistent, his gags never landed, he stripped Eva of her humanity for convenience, and he's just unnecessary, to the point where when he's depressed about feeling unnecessary, the game directly proves him right and he just fades into the background. He's the commanding officer and is responsible for communications with the Artificial Satellite, should be training and motivating us, but all he does is pass busy work off to Takumi and piss me off.

He also brainwashed Eva and turned her into a weapon. Did I mention that part? Because I hated that part. I hated it so much.

#5- Route Branches

Comedy Route had 4 branches with 2 endings each- Smartass Syndrome, Mackerel Headitis, the 2400 hr No Laughing Challenge, and the 4th one. They vary in quality.

Smartass Syndrome is what happens when Gaku receives 27 threats from Satan via chainmail- 5 of which come from Takumi and at least one of which is from Kurara, but that's not important- and Takumi develops a condition called Smartass Syndrome, in which all the people around him slowly turn into total clowns and he gets progressively sassier. Every quip he says or even thinks leaves him with a 3% chance of exploding. So, naturally, he explodes every time he quips once he learns of the condition from Yugamu. My favorite part about this was when Yugamu had lines.

Mackerel Headitis is THE grinding branch, as it's the only one Takumi doesn't skip days on end via sleeping or Gaku. One by one, everybody's heads turn into mackerel, including the fireboy, except for Kurara, who becomes canned tomato with mackerel. Very distinct. Very lore-important, I'm sure. My favorite part of this route was that it ended.

The 2400 hr No Laughing Challenge is Sirei fucking with everyone for fun, remembering he's a character in a game, completely breaking my immersion because this fictional character hates me personally I think, and setting off explosions in place of an ending because Kodaka & co got especially lazy with this one. I'm glad one of the endings was just us throwing Sirei at his own explosives and watching him die. That was nice :)

The last one is the one where Gaku teaches an ungrateful Takumi about the magic of yuri for 10 days straight in his depression hovel, and Tsubasa invents a bunch of wellness items that mess with Takumi's head on accident. This is the best one of the four, and has the best ending of the route.

Look at him. So heartbroken he's comping Makoto Naegi's style. Rest in pieces, but you aren't him. You will never be him.

I liked the branching style; it made for a lot of opportunities to do new things that fit into the overarching theme of the route. It just so happened that the overarching theme of the route is 'do it for the content'.

#6- Fuck Gaku Maruko in Particular I Guess?

Okay, this has been brewing from as early as him dying day 4 on the kg/mystery routes, but is Gaku the group punching bag? Because there are soooo many instances of Gaku specifically getting totally fucked over by Takumi, the plot, the rest of the cast. Most of them are not his fault- Takumi assuming Gaku's asking for spare change when he's asking what the plan is with the original note, 27 copies of chainmail being sent to him by us and Kurara and at least 4 others, his laughing challenge punishment being GETTING BOILED ALIVE when Tsubasa's and Kyoshika's are mild nuisances, etc. There seems to be a specific desire to make Gaku suffer, and only Gaku.

And look, I know him getting BOILED ALIVE is after Sirei was reprimanding him for his perv prank gone wrong and he snorts. But have we forgotten that Moko, Nozomi, Hiruko, and Kyoshika (and Yugamu on request) have all already fileted him for it? Even planned to use the Revive-o-Matic "as many times as it takes"? Are we forgetting that Gaku didn't know the no laughing challenge was happening to begin with?

In route 0, Gaku didn't come across as this sort of pervert who deserves constant punishment, not in the slightest. The only hints to it were that he was an anxious teenage boy written by Kodaka and thus evoked Souda similarity by proxy. In route 0, Gaku came across as a sardonic, defensive teenager that works his ass off for every scrap and morsel he has and cares fiercely about the people he considers family to his own detriment. Gaku was a guy that cared about people even when he didn't want to, had a love of music, bonded with the rest of the Special Defense Unit. He had a collection of children he wasn't even related to but that depended on him wholly waiting for him that he desperately tried to convince himself not to care about, and failed consistently because he's got too big of a heart. This side of Gaku is still here, even if not really touched on.

In the comedy route, Gaku's a filthy little sewer rat that wants nothing more than to jack off to the girls around him and not get caught, and gets dunked on repeatedly. And don't get me wrong; you can be a stubborn-but-caring person with loved ones and also be a pervert. But to an extent, it feels like it got grafted onto him to make him "funny" and to make a punching bag character, even though the game already has perverts of all shapes and sizes. I simultaneously feel really bad for him and am annoyed. I don't know how to feel.

Gaku is, I think, the shining example of my biggest problem with this route- so much of the 'comedy' in comedy route requires you to be laughing at the characters instead of with them. Takumi gets his own share of the torture nexus, but since he's the POV guy, there's a little more you can get away with. With Gaku? This feels like flanderization from a skippable line that I missed. Like I can believe that this was present, but jesus, did he kill your dog Kodaka?

But hey, despite it all. We got #himedanshirep let's fucking go yuri historian Gaku Maruko let's go let's gooooo

#7- Takumi Sumino

Takumi felt a lot more in-line with his characterization in route 0. He's very uninvolved with the group until he's dragged in, despite being both Team Leader and a time traveler, and has a lot more random callousness with the people who are supposed to be his friends.

I didn't like Takumi in route 0. So this really isn't helping his case. Even when he's having his moments of pure determination and drive, it often falls short to him being restricted to straight-manning the wacky antics and shenanigans. He just feels very done with the whole thing.

What did keep me entertained, though, was Jay Rincon's performance in this route, because holy shit was rent overdue for this man. The line delivery on this route was so exasperated and over-the-top at all times, and it was the strongest part of the entire route for me. Takumi's final quip in ending 81 was so raw and pissed off, I felt it in my very soul. The voice acting for the localization is generally pretty well-done imo, but Takumi took on a whole other level in this route, and that, I absolutely loved.

#8- Overall Thoughts

I think all of the branches had highlight funny moments and I got a fair amount of good CGs out of them. But more than anything else, I think I'm just not going to enjoy a route like this no matter what, because I've grown to care about these characters enough for all these gags and sillies to feel sort of cheap? I guess? Like they're all still in the Serious Situation and fighting commanders and invaders, the war is still going on, but we're also mackerel heads because they wanted to 3d render a mackerel on top of Takumi's head while he ran around the map. I feel like a silly-billy route like this would just feel a lot less forced if the war ended early in some cartoon logic and THEN we get to enjoy over-the-top comedy or something like that.

1- Quadricule of Dreams

It would be disingenuous of me to start this with anything other than the part that punched me in the gut and rapidly became my faovirte part of the whole entire route- the killing game polycule that develops between Takumi, Tsubasa, Yugamu, and Darumi. Of all the places to find a semi-canon full-fledged polycule where everyone has a dynamic with everyone and there's a genuine core bond and an endgame goal between all parties that's achieved by the end of the story, the KILLING GAME ROUTE OF A KODAKA PROJECT WAS NOT WHERE I EXPECTED IT TO BE. And I won't pretend that its execution is pure perfection, but fuck, man. A group of traumatized, kidnapped teen soldiers then forced to go through a life-or-death hunting gauntlet all finding some form of comfort in each other and adapting to love and protect each other in their own unique ways is deeply, deeply meaningful. That despite everything, it's their mutual love for each other that not only motivates them to continue, but shows them the right path to take to get to the right ending.

Takumi and Tsubasa are the most developed part of this cule, and the pairing that's very expressly canonized, but their dynamic completely won me over by the end of it, as not only do they develop and come to trust each other as friends first, they also both avoid becoming absorbed by the ship they become apart of. Tsubasa doesn't just become "Takumi's boyfriend" following their kiss, and Takumi doesn't become obsessively protective over Tsubasa and Tsubasa alone the way he had in route 0 with Nozomi/Karua. He's shown repeatedly to be fighting for Yugamu (and the others, when applicable) as well, even when it's not quite given the same level of attention. The sole exception for this that comes to mind is..... well, the "Escape Your Fate" ending. Which is very distinctly a bad ending for a reason.

Speaking of Yugami, he and Takumi were fully where I thought the route was going at first with how much emphasis they were putting in the early parts of the route. Yugamu being the sole person not to shun Takumi after the start of the game and Kurara's death, developing a bond of trust within the ASA, losing Hiruko, and subsequently learning of Yugamu's original intentions to stoke Eito's flames instead of his felt like a near-perfect setup, particularly with just how quickly Takumi was comfortable with the idea that Yugamu may have FULL-ON ALTERED HIS BODY without his knowledge. Which, speaking of, Takumi being comfortable with Yugamu's deepest-running kinks, and Yugamu going out of his way to emphasize that he refuses to go forward with said kinks without express consent, paired with nearly every pass he makes at Takumi being made in the form of an invitation Takumi has the full freedom to decline, is just so oddly refreshing from a Kodaka-made pervert character, and makes his back-and-forth with Takumi feel that much more comfortable, natural, and two-sided- this is the kind of comfortable banter that they have, even when it flusters Takumi easily.

Tsubasa and Darumi come out of fucking NOWHERE, and immediately become adorable. There's something about Tsubasa's ability to not only roll with Darumi's worst thoughts, but also indulge her in a much more wholesome softness than Darumi's ever really been allowed to receive before now, that makes me forgive the complete lack of buildup to their kiss. Darumi was the character I was the most worried about stagnating in the killing game route, ESPECIALLY following Hiruko's death, so having someone so deeply self-destructing and depressed get a taste of comfort not at the expense of her personhood and find a place in the group that doesn't leave her on the outskirts after so long living there is just the treat she needed, and Tsubasa gives her that. (There's also something to be said about Tsubasa having a preference for people that are just constantly screaming at everyone else in their heads and helping them figure out how to focus that voice.)

Takumi/Darumi's lighthearted rivalry and Tsubasa/Yugamu's friendship from the ASA can't really be forgotten either in this conversation. It doesn't escape me that Yugamu and Tsubasa, the two characters who can upgrade our weapons and potions for mechanical upgrades, become close friends and stand on either side of Takumi for most of this route, and they make it so that when all 3 of them are together, there's chemistry as a full group and not as thought they're both solely here for Takumi. Darumi and Takumi, meanwhile, end up technically rivals for Tsubasa's heart, but ultimately, neither of them are trying to force Tsubasa into a hardline decision and still trust and value each other as parts of the group by the end to be excited to live together with everyone else.

But yeah, I really like Tsubasa and her beautiful little polycule she built with her own hands :)

2- The Game Itself

One of the few things I knew about the game going in (I've been dodging and weaving spoilers as best I can, but something always slips through the cracks) was that one of the routes was going to be a killing game. Naturally, this being a Danganronpa Guy game, I assumed it'd be in the format of a Danganronpa trial-and-execution game, but I'm incredibly relieved I was wrong. I can't imagine how ridiculously outlandish a Danganronpa game would look like with a cast this collectively fucking batshit insane would look like; anybody who calls V3 too outlandish would be put to SHAME.

A hunting competition, on the other hand, blended in pretty well with the established setting with the invaders, and made for some really fun scheming from the ASA. Between every unnecessarily long cut of "Detach yourself..... It's just work.... Detach yourself.... It's... just work...." Takumi was doing his best to push that braincell into a corner and lock tf in, and while I'd initially thought keeping track of the rankings would get tedious, they do a good job of keeping it in the background while actual shit is going on until that exact background thought it became would turn into a detriment. The bees and sponsor-in-a-weird-astronaut-beesuit were confusing, sure, but like, fuck it. We're fighting human bioexperiments with blood missiles launched from my blood car to protect a 16-year-old baby until the government's Kill That Baby project finishes buffering and launches the Baby Blood Nukes. Weird bees ain't shit. The game functions with pretty clear guidelines, and hidden rules that both aren't difficult to ascertain and make sense within the narrative. Cool beans.

3- Eito Aotsuki

I'm operating under the assumption that his just. Being here? Is going to be paid off in one of the other routes (and simultaneously, depending on your choices, this could've then been the payoff for other players who played this later on!) but fuck if I wasn't confused! And laughing! This reveal was so fucking funny oh my GOD. Of COURSE it's fuckign. Eito Aotsuki. Who else would it be? Someone with a motive that goes beyond just "hates you hates you hates you hates you hates you"??? NO! You'll get "The entire population is so fucked, thank god I'm the only normal one" AND YOU'LL GODDAMN LIKE IT!!!!

Maybe this retroactively becomes more meaningful and intriguing- I genuinely hope it does!- but as it stands, it's so laughably out of pocket that it just reads as one of the people that worked on this game seeing that half the game is decided by killing Eito right away and going "Unacceptable. You will fit my evil twink into your plot expeditiously" and BOOM you get successor plotline. I feel like I should be angry with this, but it's honestly so thrown in there that I can't even. It's just so.... needy of him. You really can't go without reminding us how much you hate us 5ever, huh, buddy? Do you need to go to the calm-down cage? I'm assuming that's where you go when we spare you, not that I'm doing that until I've gotten every ending possible squeezed out of the 'kill Eito' part of the map :^)

4- Nozomi's Family

I thought the vampiric nursing thing was cool. I thought it was cool! It was neato. I'm struggling to articulate it. I think what it comes down to is, vampirism and cannibalism as a metaphor for love has always been, in my opinion, a pretty fucking sick way of looking at relationships. Usually, this is used in a way that denotes a toxic drain or a desire to possess in a romantic or sexual relationship, but seeing it in a mother/daughter context and doubling it as a 'nursing' was a bold choice that I kind of just wasn't expecting from this route. This game doing cannibal/vampire shit with the blood, yeah, no, we started absorbing hemoanima at the start of the game. But I completely wasn't expecting it with this context, and I have to give Kyohei Oyama his flowers for doing it in a way that didn't put me off. Instead, it acts as a demonstration on the trauma Nozomi has faced from her mother's actions, and the parasitic relationship that motherhood is sort of expected to be. Nozomi feeds on Eva, and Eva not only doesn't argue with it- she demands it. She disregards her health and safety at the expense of protecting Nozomi because Nozomi's just never had that before, and Nozomi in turn learns from Eva about the world on Earth's surface and is taught empathy and mercy for Eva's people, relying on Eva as a source of information by literally having her history beamed into her mind.

And following Eva's death, she doesn't give up or fall right back into her old habits- not completely, anyways- as when Takumi and Tsubasa introduce her to Kamyuhn, she finds her role reversed, and now gets to be the protector for Kamyuhn (and later unnamed HemoBaby) under the promise that it won't come at the expense of herself. Her birth mother had swung too far into her projects and left her to both need to be cared for, and need to care for others. And while Kamyuhn is competent on her own, human connection and someone making the conscious choice to dote on her like a child, rather than a divine being, is something she wants more than she says aloud, if her excitement at the news of possibly having a sister is anything to go by. They're a family bound together in the choice to rely on each other from opposing sides of a war- jointly seeing the humanity in each other across layers of propaganda through the very weapon meant to drive them apart.

5- Takemaru's Little Ducklings

Mother Hen Takemaru being the only one to look at the killing game and thinking "hey I'm gonna make sure the MIDDLE SCHOOLERS don't get killed" and then drawing any lines he has to to keep said kids from getting dragged into any more life-threatening nonsense than they already have been is very telling to the kind of guy he is. It's not so surprising considering his character introduction was him being the one to raise the question of what was going to happen to the young kids and elderly who literally couldn't fight back in the complex, a complex that they all remembered in utter chaos. And while it was admittedly annoying hearing him call us cursed and a jinx on the basis of poor luck and circumstance, you can't really argue with results. Kako and Ima both survive the full game, and that's solely because of him. Nobody else was stepping up to bat for these actual children, after all.

Kako and Ima basically do nothing besides stand behind Takemaru and yesman him until he's dead, and they're accepted back into the group with little to no real struggle. I kind of want to be upset about this- no, I am- but at the same time, they're children, especially comparatively to the rest of the cast. They're children who've survived harsh conditions their entire life, and then they survived these new conditions because an adult in their life stuck his neck out to help. So their making it through to the end and being accepted as part of the group again because Takumi never fully gave up on his pack mentality is... It fits within the story, considering Takumi looped expressly to save as many people as he possibly could. I'm amazed more attention wasn't brought onto this; it stayed completely background because Takumi wasn't there for it.

What I really wish had come up more, though, was Takumi's regret with Takemaru specifically. Takemaru was one of his first allies in the original timeline, and pretty consistently remained one. He hyped Takumi up to save everyone else when he set out to travel through time, he stood up for Kako, he was a stable rock for the group. To have that wrenched from him because of Takumi's poor choices and alienating him, as well as that alienation leading to him choosing death, is something that I really feel should've given Takumi more turmoil, in addition to every other death of someone who'd survived in the original timeline. And conversely, Ima managed to make it to the end this time around, no thanks whatsoever to him. We're not even gonna mention that?

(For that matter, we're not gonna touch on childhood-best-friend NOZOMI surviving? I feel like we're not making a big enough deal out of this, even if I do prefer their platonic dynamic to any weirdly romantically charged one.)

6- The Endings

The Killing Game Route has 8 endings, 7 bad and 1 good. Thankfully, the one good is actually the one great, and is surprisingly hopeful (until you see that its name is a DR reference. It's less surprising then.) And the 7 bad range from good-bad to Escape Your Fate ending.

The good ending of the killing game route is the perfect encapsulation of everything the route is trying to say- we never see the end because what matters is the people you keep fighting to make it to the end with, the siblings survive without having to sacrifice each other, the adoptive siblings successfully protected each other, the quadricule's dream of living together in dreary domestic poverty is intact, pushing them forward, keeping them afloat as we approach the mysterious satellite. The mission to go through all 100 days to completion fails, but success would mean genocide so nobody gives a shit. What matters is that they survived, and that they survived together. That the love matters and motivates just as much with the living as it does with the dead.

The Escape Your Fate ending features Takumi deciding "but fuck everybody else, I have a girrrrrrlfrieeeeeend" and tricking Tsubasa into abandoning Yugamu, Darumi, Nozomi, and everyone else just so he doesn't cave and stab children and Takemaru. This then leads to Tsubasa getting her blood drained while asleep and defenseless as he's oblivious. What the fuck Takumi.

Most of the other endings are relatively on beat with the route's theme of protecting the ones you love at the cost of your life in a both literal and metaphorical sense- if he refuses the hand Yugamu extends, he dies. If Takumi abandons Hiruko, he dies. If he refuses to respect Moko's love for Nozomi, the Academy collapses. If he kills the baby for his blood and forgets their friendship, he dooms the entire surviving group to death at the hands of V'exhness. Escape Your Fate also follows this pattern- it just makes me more upset than the others. It makes the narrative feel cohesive, even when the endings themselves are clearly 'WRONG ANSWER, TRY AGAIN?'

7- Characters

Most of the characters who were significant players in this route got glow-ups. Tsubasa, for example, was already my favorite, but now she's like.... double-triple my favorite, good Lord. Her character arc as she learns to stand up for herself not from a sick pouch-induced minigame, but because the fighting spirit of the people around her inspires her to make change in herself, is sooooo good, especially from the lens that she was one of the first to believe in Takumi after Gaku's death prior to the true start of the route. She's a good voice of reason following her arc in the early-to-mid game, and quickly establishes herself as a lead to such an extent that I'm really gonna struggle not to look to her in other routes as a main character. I don't know how I'm gonna handle it when I come across a route she dies in.

Yugamu was another massive glow-up; he was sort of just there in route 0. Smart cookie, down for organplay, but just sort of there so that the 2nd-to-Last girls wouldn't immediately be mistaken for a yuri-cule. And yet, he becomes the most consistently dependable and devoted character in the cast, with a running undercurrent of that same flavor of self-blame for every misfortune that befalls the group Takumi feels when it comes to those he considers his friends. His flaws and quirks don't disappear- far from it- but he's not flanderized into just those gags either, and his fierce loyalty to people like Kyoshika and Takumi made him a bright spot in my playthrough that I didn't anticipate.

Of course, I have to give flowers to the 2nd-to-Last girls as well (an exception being Kurara, who dies at the start of the route) for their time in the game as well. The girl group felt like a really natural group despite their very differing personalities, and similarly to Moko in route 0, you could feel how losing Kurara shook them; there's a distinct absence within them, a differently-shaped hole from the one Moko had left behind, and it can be attributed well to the fact that we actually saw all of them together as Takumi's friends prior to the game this time around. Moko is a character I'm eager to see last longer in other routes; not only was she awesome in combat, but she had a sunny outlook I really enjoyed and I need her and Nozomi to kiss. Kyoshika was an utter delight while we had her, and grabbed me by the throat a la Supreme Overlord of Ice with her warrior's confidence to face her death aided by Yugamu to save everyone. She's growing on me the more time that passes.

Darumi finally got her killing game!!!! Good for her, I say. Even better, though, that she found a dream to continue living for once it ended. For all her love of eroges, I'm honestly surprised she hadn't already thought about it, but maybe it's moreso a matter of self-assurance to try. Darumi is a pretty violent depiction of how bad depression and physical/mental abuse can effect someone, and how deeply dark the coping mechanisms people in that situation can find comfort in. It's fitting, then, that it's not the killing game itself that inspires her newfound will. If anything, the killing game worsened things, fulfilling her unrealistic pipe dream and showing off just how empty and unsatisfying it was. Hiruko dies at her hands, at Hiruko's own request even, and all it does is secure her inability to die in self-destructive indulgence. She disappeared for the mid-game and I thought "damn, really, that's it?" up until Takumi approached her for help and it started coming into clear focus. Darumi's salvation was never going to be through ugly death and misery, but through human connection, something she's never felt in any sort of positive light. Her family and childhood was deeply abusive, and Hiruko begged her to kill her, even when she was trying to protect her. Murder and suicide and death as a comfort is a fiction- and it should've stayed a fiction. Which is exactly why Darumi's reality gets to become a comfortable polyhouse with crummy conditions built on love, and a dream to create a work of fiction that can reach people like her who need that sort of escapism. It's incredibly poignant for her character, and makes her feel all the more rounded out. A far cry from being reduced to a "when's the killing game?" gag in route 0.

(Damn, I had more to say about Darumi's arc than I thought)

8- Takumi Sumino

I'd still say I'm not his biggest fan, but Takumi was a lot more bearable of a protagonist than he got to be in route 0. His relationships within the group felt more fleshed out and grounded, less reliant on tropes (Nozomi ily but I'm looking at you), and he just generally felt like less of an asshole. I'll never get over him watching Ima stab Takemaru and threatening to "retrain" Kako when she asked him permission to fight and then siding with Ima about it, but thank god there's no massive fumble like that in this arc. Takumi's generally spacey and slower to pick up on things than some of the other lead cast members, but he has a lot of heart that I could feel the absence of previously around most of the cast in route 0. He feels like he's earned the protagonist role now, and his arc being centered around trying to save as many of his friends as possible even when they hate him, that love turning him to commit atrocities that make him sick to think about, and finding the will to continue because he's loved in turn is a good arc, and of course, fits well into the theme.

Conclusion

While I doubt I'd tell anybody to drop the full $60 on this game for the Killing Game Route alone, I'd definitely encourage anybody curious to find a no-commentary playthrough that includes every "bad ending" along the way. This was an engaging, thought out, meaningful story with a major focus on the different forms of human connection and love that can shape and save lives of those touched by it, and a queer undercurrent that can't be denied(even if they were afraid to follow through and give us that one vulnerable conversation that'd lead to the polycule being undeniably canon).