Operation Backlog Completion 2025
Sep 222023
 

While TGS is still going (with the exciting news yesterday that the Apollo Justice Trilogy will be out on January 25, because of course it is), it’s time to take a break from our video game discussions for some writing news instead!

A new pulp fiction collection starring the classic character Professor Challenger is now available from Airship 27. The Challenger Chronicles Volume One contains four short stories that send the professor and his allies on all-new adventures.

In mine, “The Unseen Star,” Professor Challenger calls upon Edward Malone and Lord John Roxton to help him face off against a fanatical group of researchers who hope to make contact with a threat from far beyond the stars.

It’s joined here in this collection by stories from Gordon Dymowski, Barbara Doran, and Michael Panush. Each of us has written our own addition to the Professor Challenger adventures.

Professor Challenger is a character originally created by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, now in the public domain. Unlike the more famous Sherlock Holmes, Challenger is aggressive and hotheaded, which made him a lot of fun to write about. I had a fantastic time writing “The Unseen Star,” and I hope you’ll enjoy it too.

The Challenger Chronicles Volume One is available now in print from Amazon for $16.99, and ebook copies should become available soon.

Sep 202023
 

When we talked about Granblue Fantasy Relink coming out on February 1 and Persona 3 Reload on February 2, I commented on how Final Fantasy VII Rebirth and Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth were also set for “early 2024.”

Then Final Fantasy VII Rebirth was announced for February 29, turning February into an insane month for JRPGs…

…and last night, at the RGG Summit, Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth was confirmed for January 26, which is far earlier than I expected.

While the RGG Summit didn’t have any new surprise announcements, it did show a lengthy story trailer and a fun-filled gameplay trailer for Infinite Wealth, and all I could think while watching them is that this has the potential to be one of the best games ever.

The story trailer was emotional, with one shocking reveal that you’ve probably seen posted all across social media by distressed fans by now unless you’re good at avoiding spoilers, and the gameplay trailer looks like it’ll be so much fun.

I’ve been playing Yakuza: Like a Dragon now in the hopes of catching up ahead of Gaiden, and my one criticism of the combat so far is that your position matters but you can’t actually manually move your character. So the gameplay trailer confirming that you can move in combat in Infinite Wealth is all I needed to see. It’s actually the one thing I was hoping for from a combat reveal!

They showed so many mini-games that look fun, too. When Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth was first announced, they said it would be the largest game in the series so far, and I believe it after seeing these trailers.

In short, I’m excited, terrified (of the story), and desperately trying to figure out how to manage my backlog in early 2024!

Like a Dragon Gaiden is out on November 9, with Like a Dragon: Infinite Wealth to follow on January 26. Since they had no other surprise announcements, that just leaves me wondering what RGG Studio might have in store next… hopefully with a long enough break in between for us to catch our breaths.

Sep 182023
 

After finishing Ultra Despair Girls I continued my Danganronpa experience by watching Danganronpa 3.

Yes, watching. The story set up in Danganronpa, Danganronpa 2, and Ultra Despair Girls is concluded in the anime Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak High School, which is not to be confused with the entirely different game called Danganronpa V3.

As if that isn’t confusing enough, Danganronpa 3 is split into two arcs, the Future Arc and the Despair Arc, and the intended viewing order is to alternate between the two.

(Note: Due to the nature of the story, it is impossible to discuss Danganronpa 3 without implying spoilers for the previous games, especially Danganronpa 2. If you haven’t finished Danganronpa 2, stop reading this post now.)

The Future Arc is set after the events of Danganronpa 2, with Makoto being called in by the Future Foundation to answer for what they see as treason. However, this inquest is brought to an abrupt end when everyone is trapped and forced into a new killing game. Each person is given a bracelet that restricts them from performing a specific action. Breaking the restriction will result in death via poison. The bracelets also knock everyone out after a set amount of time passes, at which point an attacker will awaken to kill someone.

While a different setup than the traditional Danganronpa situation (it actually reminds me a bit more of Zero Escape), it creates a great deal of paranoia and tension amongst an already-fractured team.

Meanwhile, the Despair Arc is set ahead of the games and follows the events at Hope’s Peak leading up to the Tragedy.

For about the first half of the anime, I was really enjoying it. The Future Arc was exciting and suspenseful, even if it amped up the action to the point where being an Ultimate basically means you have superpowers, and the Despair Arc was full of comedy tinged with sadness due to my knowledge of where it was going. There were a few things I had to get used to – like different voice actors, different translations for key terms (“Super High School Level” instead of “Ultimate”), and the dub’s decision to make Monokuma’s laugh “nyek nyek nyek” instead of “puhuhu” – but overall I was having a lot of fun.

Then things started to fall apart.

Click for major Danganronpa 2 and 3 spoilers
I already had mixed feelings about Chiaki being a real person, but I could accept it. And I didn’t like Junko making the Student Council kill each other instead of Izuru actually killing them all, but it was just a minor gripe. And Monaca giving up on despair and blasting off into space was a bizarrely boring way to handle her character, but at least it wasn’t a major plot point.

Then the brainwashing part started.

I had been looking forward to seeing Junko interact with the Danganronpa 2 cast. I expected to see her psychologically manipulate them into falling to her side. Some of them, such as Mikan, felt especially set up for this sort of manipulation.

But no. Junko creates a despair-filled murder video and adds in subliminal messaging created by the ultimate animator, and this causes anyone who watches it to be brainwashed into loving despair. The Remnants of Despair ending up that way because they saw a magical brainwashing video was so, so much less interesting to me than what I’d expected. It’s basically presented as mind control, too.

That plot point made Junko a less interesting villain to me and retroactively lessened the impact of 2’s reveal that you are the Remnants of Despair. It changed Makoto’s perspective from, “You did terrible things, but we believe if you’re reminded of hope and given a chance to bond, even you can be saved” to “You were brainwashed, but we can undo it,” which weakens it a lot for me.

And then, when the secret of the Future Arc turned out to be that there is no traitor, just that one person is woken up each time and shown a brainwashing video that makes them kill themselves…… well, I suppose I felt some despair at that plot point, so at least that’s something.

While the Future Arc remained interesting for a while before falling into the same trap, the second half of the Despair Arc increasingly felt like less-interesting retcons to what the games implied.

The climax, therefore, hinged on a plot point I hated… but I actually didn’t mind the final episode. It had a lot of fanservice (of the “catering to fans” variety) and glossed over some points too quickly, but at least it was fun, which is more than I can say for those earlier plot revelations.

In the end, I’m not sure what to say about Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak High School. It has a lot of fun parts, especially in the first half, but I also feel like my overall Danganronpa experience would be the same or even improved by not watching it. Regardless, I’ve now finished the Hope’s Peak storyline, so next up for me is Danganronpa V3!

If you watched the Danganronpa 3 anime, how did you feel about it?