Triple Click - What's The Deal With: Danganronpa?

Episode Date: December 2, 2021

Come join Maddy, Kirk, and Jason for a battle to the death staged by a foul-mouthed, adorable talking bear. That's right — it's time to talk Danganronpa. What's the deal with this popular series of killing games? Why is it so popular? And what do you have to know ahead of the Switch release this week?One More Thing: Kirk: ArcaneMaddy: Last Podcast on the Left’s six-part JFK assassination seriesJason: Final Fantasy VLinks:Support Triple Click: http://maximumfun.org/joinJoin the Triple Click Discord: http://discord.gg/tripleclickpodTriple Click Ethics Policy: https://maximumfun.org/triple-click-ethics-policy/ Happy MaxFunDrive! Right now is the best time to start a membership to support your favorite shows. Learn more and join at https://maximumfun.org/jointripleclick 🚀  SUPPORT TRIPLE CLICK:Join Maximum Fun | Buy TC Merch💬 JOIN THE TRIPLE CLICK DISCORD🎮 Triple Click Ethics Policy📱 SOCIALS | @tripleclickpodInstagram | YouTube | TikTok | Twitch

Welcome. Everyone must adhere to the rules and regulations of this podcast. And if you yell and scream, help will not come. Welcome to Triple Click where we bring the games to you. This week we talk about Dangan Rompah, a series of games about how high school is a death match. The only way out is to unmask the mastermind. It's simple, really. Don't despair. I'm Maddie Myers. I'm Jason Schreier. And I'm Kirk Hamilton and hi there. Hello. Hello. It's us. Again, here we are. Nice to see you both. Welcome back for another episode of our podcasts. I hope you had a good Thanksgiving, a restful long weekend.

A lot of pie. A lot of pie. A lot of leftover turkey. Mm-hmm. Nothing better than that. Jason, how did your midnight turkey preparation go? Yeah, midnight turkey. It was great.

People said it was the best turkey they've ever had because I spatchcocked it, which my family has not done before, which is, if you guys aren't familiar, it's when you cut the backbone out of the turkey and then lay it flat. on a roasting pan. And so A, it cooks more evenly because the dark meat and the white meat are cooking at a little bit different temperatures because that's what they need, or a different amount, a different like exposure because that's what they need. And and B, it only takes like 80 minutes in the oven, which is incredible. And it was amazing. It was really good. I just think Spatchcock is an amazing word. And it's even better when you know that it's a verb.

Oh, yeah. That's really, really good. I didn't know what it meant. I loved the explanation. I've learned so much. I'm excited to immediately forget what it means right after this episode so that I can learn it and new the next time someone told me they spatch cocked something. So anyway, I'm doing the vitals. You are. I forgot that until right now. It's fine. It was a real distraction that Jason brought in there.

Anyway, I have no transition from spaschocking a turkey into telling our listeners how much we appreciate them when they support our show. but maybe we too are like a nutritious meal that is perfectly cooked, perfectly baked and supported in both the dark and light meat by our listeners who can't afford to support us in this you can. We're a little bit half-baked sometimes. How about we too? We too have no backbone. No, what? That's not true at all. We have quite a lot of backbone. Thank you very much. That's true. Wait a minute. Okay, I got it. I got it. We too have a backbone, but we would have no backbone if we accepted advertisements for this podcast, which we do not.

It's not quite there, but you're onto it. I think this is the right. It's something along those lines. It's definitely true that you can get some additional triple-click stuffing. If you were to become a maximum fun member, you could you could just get that little something extra that like really awesome, salty stuffing from the inside of the turkey that's like super buttery and good. If you go to maximum fun.org slash join, you can get that proverbial stuffing and become a member and get a monthly. Unless he's bad. cocked and turkey because you can't have stashed cocked it, you should have

a look. It doesn't work with the metaphor. That's not how, Tina and I prepared the turkey this year, so I can't speak to that at all. We stuffed that turkey. There was stuffing inside. It was great. But anyway, maximum offund.org. Join is a place where you could become a member. And for

the low, low price of $5 a month, you could get a bonus triple click every single month in your feed, special donors-only feed. And this month, we are talking about Battles Royale. We watched the movie Battle Royale. Today we're talking about Dangan Romp on the main show. Spoiled it for you, Jason. But on the bonus, it's going to be like a sequel where we talk about the movie Battle Royale and the Hunger Games and Squid Game and

all kinds of other battle. They're all going to compete and we're going to see which one is Victor. We're going to see whether Fortnite could take Squid Game in a fight and who will emerge as the only living battle royale. But that's for the bonus feat. you're here for the main episode and let's get to it shall we jason we shall tell us about the game series we are discussing to say so as mattie so kindly revealed today we're talking about dangen rampa what is the deal with danganranpa and everybody out there is just going to have deal with our american like butchering of the word dangan rompa which i'm sure is pronounced much differently in japanese but dangan rampa is a super popular

series of video games that we are going to talk about today. And the reason we're going to talk about it today is because this week on the Nintendo Switch, there is a package being released of the three main Dangan Rompah games, as well as like this weird bonus board game that like isn't worth anybody's time. But the three main games are we'll focus on. It's weird. It's like this weird ass like fan service thing. It's not fine. Wait, weird ass fan service and dangen rumpa? Yeah. It's like a virtual board game with all the characters and it's like all of the characters from all the games except they're not caught up in a killing game so they're just all friends and it's really weird and it's got a bunch of micro transactions

all wrong the micro transactions that sounds fine the characters all being friends that's horrifying to me it's against the spirit of the game ruins it totally selling out by letting all of the characters be friends instead of trying to murder each other i want to get to that to that point in a little bit But first, let me explain for people who have not heard of Daniel Rumpa, because it's a really cool series and I love it. And I'm sure people out there have heard of it. In some way or another, it's gotten really popular over the years. Essentially, it is a series of visual novel games, at least the three main ones are. And that means that it's mostly reading. You are doing a lot of just reading text and letting a story unfold in front of you. There's also kind of an action-adventure element. There's some puzzles, some like clicking on things as if you're in a point-and-clim. adventure, but it's mostly reading. And these games are all set in some sort of like school-like environment. And there are 16 students who are brought together in this school for one reason or another. And they are, or it's not always 16, I suppose. So the X number of students, around 15, 16 students who are brought together in this environment and told by this little adorable bear named Manukuma

that they have to kill each other. And they will be trapped in this kind of hellish environment. Well, I guess it's not that hellish. They're trapped in this environment forever unless they kill each other. And the way that it works is once someone kills someone else, the murderer has to get through this, what's called a class trial, where everybody else tries to figure out who did it. And if everybody votes on, everybody gets to vote at the end of the class trial, and if they vote on the wrong person, person, then they all die and the murderer gets to escape. But if they vote on the murderer,

then the murderer gets executed as his punishment or her punishment for murdering because he can't murder and get away with it. So that's the basic premise. And each of these games has kind of like a series of micro mysteries and then a big macro mystery or a bunch of big macro mysteries. So like each individual chapter has a micro mystery of like, hey, someone got killed. Who did it? How did it happen. And then there are these overarching mysteries about like, for example, in the first game, what is this school? How did it wind up this way? Who's monocuma? How did this bear in a mascot costume become such a realistically moving bear? That mystery's actually never explained. And yeah, they're pretty good games, I would say. I've been replaying them recently.

Curious to hear your guys' as kind of experience with the series and thoughts on the series before we start diving into each one. Kirk, what's your... I remember you and I used to... We geeked out about the first couple together when they first came out. Yeah, especially the first one. This series is kind of a series

of diminishing returns for me, which is actually sort of true of a lot of things in this genre, which I suppose we'll talk more about when we talk about the other Battle Royale, battles Royale, that we're going to be talking about in the Beanscast, just because I've been noticing how I have a sort of similar trajectory

with particularly the Hunger Games, where the first one is the one that I loved, the one that really grabbed me, the one where the premise was so mysterious, where I got really into the vibe. And then the more the series zooms out and explains things, and then the more necessarily convoluted it gets in subsequent installments,

just because a sequel needs to introduce new ideas, the more it loses me. So you mentioned the premise. This is Hope's Peak Academy, And there's a lot of fun things going on with Hope's Peak. Like, I like the whole idea that each student is an ultimate. So each student does not. I didn't mention that.

Yeah, you should explain that. Yeah. So each student is like the ultimate musician, the ultimate chef, the ultimate businessman, the ultimate yakuza leader. They get really weird. But they're all like 15 years old still while being the ultimate businessman. The ultimate swimmer. So it's like, oh, this business prodigy who's going to be the heir to his father's, you know, CEO empire or whatever. Yeah.

The idea is that they're all child prodigies. Because they're children, but that's also what's gruesome about it at the same time. Well, but it is. I mean, like when you're 17, you might be the, in real life, you might be the best basketball, like high school basketball player in the country. It's like the equivalent of that. Yeah. But it is funny that, like, one of the characters is the ultimate detective and is, like, 16 or whatever age they're supposed to be.

Like, it's, I enjoy that. I think that's fun, that each of those occupations is juxtaposed as completely believable that each of these children would be so good at these things. Well, what's funny is that some of them are like, one of them is like the ultimate, like, fan fiction writer. There's some that are hilarious. Yes, yes. Why not? Why not? So, and I, I think it's an effective way of sort of lampshading the type of character development that similar games like Persona do. I mean, there's a child detective in the persona series as well. Like typically students are associated with one skill or one thing that they're into and they're kind of this,

they start as a kind of a caricature, and then you get to know them, and that's definitely true in Dangan Rampa. It's an effective way of letting you know who's who. There's also great voice acting in these games, so you really like, and really good character design. So you get a really strong sense of the cast really fast, and they don't have to flush everybody out that much. And I like that, and that kind of goes into the less-as-more thing with this series where when they start explaining things, or when they spend too long on stuff, I start to like it less, and it starts to kind of lose me. So in that first game, they're in the high school, Hopes Peak Academy. You know, there's a great premise.

It's like all these ultimates. And then it's like, what's going on? Why are we here? And then these mysteries play out. The sequel, they're on an island. So it's like a tropical paradise. And there's this new bear. What is her name?

And now I'm forgetting her name, the little pink bear. Who's, it's like Minoki. It's Monokuma's like little sister. So they introduce a new character. Monomi. Monomi. Manomi, that's it. It's scrappy dew, basically.

They introduced Scrappy-Doo. And so that's like a new dynamic, which is a little, like, different. I don't know. It's nice having just the one antagonist. And then in the third game, they're kind of back at the school, but it's a lot bigger. And then they introduce the mono-cubs, which I've actually been playing the third one most recently. And that's, like, really diffuse. And each cub is like a really specific, weird personality.

And there's just a lot going on. And it's even more complicated. Well, it's not Hope's Peak, by the way. That's a new school. Right. It's a different school, right? but a similar kind of location to the first game. It's not a tropical island, is what I mean.

It is not, no. So, you know, they just get more baroque and complicated as they go because they're kind of having to top themselves, and that just kind of makes me lose steam, because these are not short games. They're very long. You have to really be invested. So I think the first one, sorry, this is a long answer,

but the first one is like the one that I really like and the reason that I love this series, and I've been sort of let down by each subsequent one. So you finished the second one, but you have not finished V3. Correct. And I went back to V3 on Switch and had been playing it and liking it, but I had to start over. And it was a little exhausting because I think I played a lot of three the first time on the Vita and then just sort of don't really remember everything. So I need to start over. But it's a lot of game that I need to get through.

Okay. Curious to see if you finish that. Maddie, what about you? What's your kind of overall impression and experience of the series? So I have only played the first one and part of the second one. And I did it pretty recently for the first time because I talked about it on split screen with the two of you, the very first time that I played it. And for me, it's surprising that the conversation around which is the best has changed so much. Because I remember when V3 came out, a lot of fans I knew were like, this is the best one of all.

And they get better as they go along. And the twists on twists are what's so exciting about it. But it feels as though now when people talk about the games, they no longer. describe it that way. They describe it the way Kirk just did, where the premise is what's actually interesting. And the nature of the twists is only surprising to you the first time. And then when you actually look at it, zoomed out, the artifice is not as impressive. Because what's actually impressive about Dengen Rump is the premise is not just the Battle Royale premise, but the fact that it's a murder you have to get away with. Like, that's the additional layer of interest is that it's, it's not

just, oh, you each need to kill each other in order to survive. And whoever is the last one standing wins the game, that's it. It's you need to kill each other, but you need to do it in a way that none of the other students can figure out. You need to perhaps frame someone else. You need to form survivor-esque alliances with different students. You can't necessarily trust anyone, but also you kind of have to if you want to figure out the mysteries and like interrogate each of the witnesses. And And that introduces so much fun social interaction within the game that I don't think is replicated by twists on twist. Like, that's not really why I play.

I feel like I would have enjoyed just endless mysteries. And the end of Dangan Rompah, one, is a pretty decisive ending, actually. Like, they could have just ended the series there, but they don't. And the beginning of two is very strange as a result, in my opinion. didn't beat two, but I remember being like, oh, so they have to completely change this because they've upended the structure at the end of one. So now they need to essentially justify why this would happen again. And that was harder for me to buy into because again, it felt like diminishing returns. But I do think I recommend the first one. I mean, I guess that's why we're here is because

it's out and we're talking about it. But the first one also has some problems, which I'm sure we're also going to get into. Yeah, we can get into that in a sec. But I think what's interesting is that both the second and the third games are both the second and v3 are so subversive in that they both kind of like are trying to almost point the finger at you for enjoying sequels and point the finger at themselves for creating sequels and a lot of that stuff you can't really get until you play them all the way through and i'll be vague for the sake of avoiding spoilers but especially the third one has a lot to say about the nature of these games and the nature of like um watching students kill each other and all the lurid enjoyment we get out of the Danga Rompah series. And it's kind of interesting. The 3, V3 was very controversial when it came up. Yeah, like, I'll finish it, or maybe I'll just watch the ending on YouTube.

But I got to say that I'm not really moved by that, oh, so you like watching kids kill one another? Because I, similar to what you, I think you were describing, Maddie, the actual joy of this game typically is in the revelations about the characters and their goodness. Like, I'm not playing the game because of the joy I take and watching them die. But, Kirk, that's not the message. But that, no, that's not what it says.

All right. So, never mind. I mean, I'm not going to rebut an ending to a game that I haven't played and you have. That's not something that is productive. A lot of what the series does and has done since the very beginning is a lot of just fourth wall breaking and subverting tropes. Dangan Rwanda, the first Dangan Rwraba, like, opens up. I'll try to be vague because I know some people out there probably want to play.

through it for the first time now that it's on Switch. So I won't spoil what happens in the first case. But the first case alone just kind of subverts your expectations of what's going to happen throughout the course of the game. Like you might, you like meet these characters and you think certain things of them over the course of the game like, oh, this character, okay, I kind of get what's happening here in terms of relationships. And then it's completely upended by the end of the first case.

And that to me is really fascinating, just some of the ways that these games do subversion. something I noticed on replaying me. So what I've been doing on the switch, I replayed all of Dangenerampo 1, which was a blast. And then started both two and V3, which was less of a blast. And I was trying to figure out why. And I actually think something that I found interesting is that the characters in Dengen Rampa 1 are just likeable than the set, the cast of characters in especially two, where everyone is kind of just a jerk, but also in V3. The characters in one are, a lot just stronger and you grow fond of them a lot more easily. And perhaps coincidentally, perhaps not in the first game, it actually takes a little while before they'll start killing each other. And it gets to the point where Manukuma, this is part of the story, Manakuma comes out, part of the early story, comes out and is like, hey, you guys aren't killing each other. So here's some motives to get you to kill each other and like pulls out these intense motives for everyone. The main character like sees a video of his family being, being like whatever, something happening

to his family. Yeah, they're basically threatened externally outside of the game so they have to continue. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And so that's what ultimately triggers the first murder. But like in the next couple of games, murder happens a little more seamlessly or more quickly. It's, it's, there are a lot more evil people among the, the castes of characters. And I actually think that is, that is why the first one, I think, stands out more than the others these days.

Yeah, the first one's cast is just a little less, there's a, a few fewer grotesque characters. There's a lot of grotesquery in the kind of art design and the character design. And there are grotesque characters in all three, but replaying three, I was definitely reminded that I just didn't really like any of the characters where I still think about characters from the first one. So I agree with that. I think there's a thing, so the trial format, I think, is a really interesting format for character development and storytelling. So I've been playing through the Great Ace Attorney Chronicles on Switch as well, and I'm almost done. The game is like 60 hours

long or something. I've been playing it's two games. No, I know. But it is quite long regardless. And I am near the end. And it's so different. Clearly Dangan Rampa is inspired in some way by

the Ace Attorney games because I mean there's a trial and you have to find contradictions and testimony. On the surface, when you look at it, it kind of has that similarity. But there's this crucial difference, and that's that in Dangan Rampa, you're in a closed environment for the most part. They sometimes trick you. A character will reveal that they're actually somebody else, and then they

switch personalities. You know, that happens a couple times. But by and large, and in usually the most affecting cases, what you're discovering is just new things about the characters you already know through their testimony and then eventually the truth coming out. Wherein Ace Attorney, it's so different. In Ace Attorney, you typically go into the courtroom without a anybody there. You don't know who you're even going to be talking to. A lot of times the prosecution calls up witnesses, oh, here are these new goofy characters, and they're

like brand new to you. And then you just get to know them. Very realistic. Right. It's exactly like real trials where you have no clue what's going to happen. Right. Every witness is a surprise witness. Every piece of evidence has been thrown at you seconds earlier. Right. And then of course the witnesses from the previous

case are now jurors. Yes, of course. That's how the legal system works. everywhere in the world. It's just very different. Like, because the Ace Attorney Games are mostly concerned with, you know, Reunuske and his friends,

and they're the recurring characters. So you see how he deals with adversity and how he's reacting in his inner monologue. And it's all about him. And he's the only one really getting any character development. I guess, what's his name? Racist vampire prosecutor is, like, also being developed. But most of that stuff is just,

there's a lot less happening. Where in these games, I think that's really the remarkable thing. cases I'm really remembering from the first game are the cases where one person was trying to help their friend by setting up a way that their friend could get out like they wanted, you know, and then they screwed it up or they, you know, they accidentally framed them or like something went wrong. And the thing that you uncover is this really tragic story of all of these characters that you've been getting to know for the past few hours. I think that's really cool and

that's the thing that is distinct about these games. Yeah. Something else that's interesting, I think, is that Ace Attorney is all about defending people who are accused of being guilty who are not, whereas Dengar Rompah is all about accusing people who are claiming to be innocent, but they're not. It's interesting kind of an interesting role. They're both farcical, though, and they're both funny in a similar way, although Dangan Rampa is playing with horror tropes more than it is legal drama tropes. And it's, I mean, I guess I would say Dengen Romp is a horror game, but I was just reading this old story on Polygon earlier, an interview with the creator, about how the blood is pink in the game and there's a lot of cartoon violence as opposed to realistic violence, which gets more realistic over the course of the game to just, you know, emphasize the stakes being raised, but it's never quite scary in the way that, like, Silent Hill is or whatever. It's, it's funnier than that, and it's sarcastic. And Monacuma, like, makes fun of everybody all the time. Like there's just a certain tone to it that is unlike anything else and is appealing about it.

It's very M-rated also. I was just playing through some V3 and there's one of the monocubs keeps talking about his boner. That guy, the worst. Is that mono kid? Is that his name? Yeah. It's pretty crass. I've never seen that level of crassness in a game that I can remember other than like the schlocky, like your postal, your type of postal games.

Yeah. And there is sort of that vibe in a way in Dangan Rompah where each of the characters is presented as a stereotype and then you learn more about them and they're deeper than you thought. But there's still a lot of tropes on display, even with the revealing of a character being more than you thought. Like it never quite rises above the operatic farce of it all. And that I think is something that can be very hit or miss with people. And it's hard for people to describe. I feel like I see this with the persona games as well where people are like, oh, well, like, they're wildly homophobic and like there's so many problems with persona five, but it's also the greatest game ever and you just kind of have to deal with or persona four is the homophobic one. My bad. But hey, persona five's got its own problems. You know what I mean? Yeah. Yeah. So there's there's certainly issues in Dangan Rompah with like very deeply stereotypical characters. But it's also just schlocky. And if you can get on board with. that specific brand of schlock and like horror tropes and like final girl and like every the nerd character and and and so on and so forth the fan service art right the still shots of girls with

their skirts like you know there's that kind of stuff too yeah that stuff gets worse as a series goes because dangerumpa too has more of that of that like the still shot they really try to have their cake and eat it too by like calling themselves out for it and you're like come on you're still just doing it right right there's a character yeah there's a character in two who is really probably the worst character in the series this guy named taru taru who is like this this chef the ultimate chef oh see the like super horny inappropriate yeah he's like straight at like borderline like like it seems like he's going to rape someone like he's extremely creepy says some just horrifying things and

yeah it does it does get a little less tolerable as a series goes i would say dangan rumpa one I think is probably the least problematic of them. Which is funny to say, given some of the things that Dengen Rump in 1, but yeah. Yeah, I mean, I think Dangan Rumpa 1 is the one that I would really recommend that people jump into. I think once you play Danger Rumpa 1, you probably are going to want to see the series through because it's a pretty addictive series and just like wanting to know, like each. The thing is the murders and the mysteries, the micro mysteries are crafted so well.

Like, some of the murders are just ingenious and the way that. that they twist and turn and the way that all the clues are laid out for you at the beginning, but you don't piece them together until you go through the trial and you realize like, oh, oh, that's how it happened. Like it's all, the crafting is really, really, really, like, meticulous and really well done of the individual micro level. And it's almost, I feel like it's worth playing all of the games just for that even, just to see on a chapter by chapter basis how that's handled.

Yeah, I agree. Yeah. I think the way the trials work is also weirdly, easier than Ace Attorney ever was for me. Like the truth bullets and like the goofiness of it all, it's way more action-packed and like rhythm, rhythm music is pumping while you're doing it. But in terms of the putting together clues and feeling as though you, the player, are having a realization at the same time as the protagonist, it feels more naturalistic in Dangan Rompah to me, whereas an Ace attorney, I am the queen of the walkthrough with some of those things where I'm like,

I know what the clue is that I need to show them, but I don't know what stupid thing I need to say. Like, do I need to, like, present it to them in this sentence or this sentence? And, like, it's some weird, tricky aspect where I just, I'm not clicking the right thing at the right time. But Dangar Rompin doesn't have that problem. And I remember there being very, very few instances where I was like, I'm genuinely not sure how to proceed with this mystery. I'm going to Google it. It was barely ever. I could just coast through it and actually feel like a super genius.

every mystery, which is what you want, you know? Yeah, there's a fundamental difference in the way the mysteries and the two games are designed that I think is really interesting. We've talked before about how a good mystery shows you all the clues and then, you know, shows you the solution. This is like what, you know, Sherlock Holmes mysteries classically would do. And the amazing thing is what Sherlock Holmes can do with the same information that you were given.

He can deduce the whole thing. And you'll think, oh, but it's also fun to read it and try to figure it out. and then if you read enough of those, eventually you do figure one out ahead of time. And that, I remember having that experience in the first Dangan Rampa being like, I clocked this. I know who did it. I know how they did it. I know the whole thing. And it wasn't laid out for me.

It was just I figured it out by the way people were acting. It was some subtle character stuff. Someone was kind of hiding something. And then going into the trial with that knowledge, it made it really fun to work through where write an ace attorney, it's just totally different. Like you get a clue and you just think, well, when that's important, you. and I'm sure I'll pull it out. But you know, you don't even know half the people involved until five minutes before you're pointing out their contradictions. And of course, the villain is usually super easy to figure out because it's like this capering villain comes in with a maniac grin.

And it's more like, how do you prove that that person is the villain with what few clues and evidence you have? And that might be almost impossible for you. But you already know who did it as opposed to actually look at all the clues Sherlock Holmes style, which is a lot more fun. fun in a different way. They're both really fun. And, you know, to compare it to, because we're doing a lot of comparing with Phoenix Wright, with Phoenix Wright, to compare it to a different mystery game, I think this, I think Dangan Rampa, those mysteries are more satisfying than something like L.A. Noir as well. Like, they're actually, they're really good mysteries, especially the very best ones.

There's the one, is it in V3, where you have the two houses, the two buildings that are mirrors of one another, and some people are in one building, and some people are in the other building, and someone was in one location, but sometimes there are clues indicating that maybe they were in the other one. And it's this really next level mystery of figuring out like, okay, wait a minute. So if someone saw someone in that room,

maybe they were actually in this similar room in the other building, and you have to put together this whole really complicated thing. It's super good. I would definitely take that kind of way of communicating information in a mystery to even pretty much any other mystery game that I've played, actually,

including the really high buzzer. legit ones, like in L.A. Noir, where you kind of, you know, it's such a weird thing, like solving a mystery and that kind of game as well. It's so based on performances, where I just give me the information, show me the clues, and then let me make my own, make my own conclusions. Yeah. The other thing that I think really makes these games worth playing is Manakuma himself, because despite the annoyances of, like, his kids and, like, Yeah, the girl bear who's also the scrappy dews of it all. I really just miss him.

I think that's why I don't like the sequels as much. I just like when it was him. Monakumo, yeah, he is, he's one of the all-time villains, like one of the greatest villains in video game history. He's just so. Very fun reveal as well. I mean, it's a classic. It's like the twist when people talk about the twist of the game. Yeah, the twist is great.

Well, so, I mean, the twist in one, well, it's one of the many twists, but yes, the twist of like the reveal is great. and then subsequent twists involving him are great. Everything about Lano Kuma is great. But the way he's like, not only is this like adorable bear who is like constantly saying the most vulgar stuff and taunting you and just like like just saying the most heinous things. He's also one step ahead of you the entire time. Like he always knows what you're about to do.

He pops up like there are times throughout the games where like your your group of characters like thinks they're outsmarting him and then they'll turn around and he'll just. be in the corner just watching or like he'll just pop up like he'll contribute there's one amazing moment that's very scooby-dew where it's like everyone's going around the room and saying stuff and and monakuma like chimes in and something he's just there i think it's this yeah like he's just there and then everyone's like oh okay oh wait a minute and they turn around they're like what yeah he's such a good villain yeah also um uh shout out to masafumi takata uh the composer of this game for his monochuma theme his theme is incredible all the music is

is very, very good. The trial music kills. They've timed those, like, kick drum drops. It's always, you know, the thing starts and it's like just high hats and you're like, I think that actually it's this and this and this. And that means you did it. It's like, and like the thing comes in and it gets going. His music is such a big part of why this works. And going way back to the kind of horrific, creepy elements of this game, as much as he writes these great kind of exciting, you know, house music sequences, he also writes. He also writes, it's a lot of weird, creepy, kind of discordant, sort of like jazz influence, just weird shit where you're walking around in this, like, trumpet is kind of playing, and it's just

a very specific musical vibe that's such a big part of the game. I mean, when I started playing it again, and like also just the UI, the way that the sort of menus move, the way that it's this kind of flat imagery, like everything looks like a cardboard cutout, and when you walk into a room, it's like, flip, flip, and everything comes up almost like a flip book. And the characters are all 2D, but in a 3D space. And they all are like the way that it arranges itself for you is remarkable and not like anything else. And then mixed with his music, it's just this like total, total vibe.

I mean, such a strong vibe in these games. Yeah. I feel like another big part of the vibe is the fact that unlike the Hunger Games and many other battle royals, there's no government organizing it. It's just this bear. It's not like people have heard about this school before and they know what it. deal is with it. Like, they just thought it was an excellent school that they got into. They don't know they're entering a battle royale or essentially a battle royale. They have no idea because it's all just the work of this one solo mastermind character who arranged it, which is absurd because it's

like, well, how did this character have the capacity to do that? But I don't really feel like that's the point of Dangan Rampa. Like, again, the more the games explain it, the less interesting it is to me personally. What's fun about the first one is the fact that it gets to be an allegory for how high school feels and just be that and just be like, oh, yeah, every other kid, like the protagonist famously doesn't feel like he's the ultimate anything at the beginning of the game. And he's like, I'm just no one. I don't understand why I'm here. And that is also how high school can feel, or at least it did for me, where everybody else has their cliques that they fit into. And I was always like, well, I don't really know what my problem is. And also just like the infighting, the cliquiness,

of course, people aren't literally killing each other and trying to get away with it in high school, but they're doing something kind of like that socially where you're trying to get away with fooling everyone something in high school. And like that overarching metaphor and having it all just be secret, it's not like on the news or whatever the way it is in the hunger games. It's just like this private torture that these children are going through makes it work really, really well, like just as an allegorical story about what it feels like to be a teenager. Well, and there's this sort of fantastical element as well in that in high school we were never probably never unless you like went to theater camp over the summer but you were rarely put in a situation where

you kind of had to open up to everybody and really then share the truth of yourself i think you're gonna say you're probably not put in a situation we're going to kill each other but at theater camp anything goes i mean we all know that that's like all bets are off at theater camp no but like you know you're you're very rarely going to be in the kind of situation that winds up playing out because every trial ends with the sad music coming in and someone actually finally like letting down their guard and saying who they really are. And usually that's right before they die. Because like they're being like, I was just so scared. I was so insecure. I was so worried about my friend or I had this feeling that I didn't think was okay, whatever it is. And it's like, that's the thing

that never happened in high school. And those are always the kind of the real catharsis before the horrible murder that you then also do watch. And it is usually pretty good. Jewish as outsizes about. Yeah, the executions. Right. I mean, it is a murder, but it's more specifically the execution of the murderer character that Monacoomah will stage some absurd, like, also allegorical murder device where it's like, I don't know, you're too obsessed with gumballs, you're going to fall into a massive pit

of gumbulls while Monacuma laughs at you. Like, that's, it's more clever than that, but you know what I mean. It reminds me of Freddie Kruger. It has a very nightmare on Elm Street kind of an energy because he's always doing shit like that. Also, like a very, like, farcical, like, you know, foul-mouthed energy to Monacuma that Freddie Kruger shares. They would definitely be BFS. They would get along.

Terrifying astral planes. They would hang out, yeah. Although he might accidentally, like, tear Manacuma's fluff apart with his... That's true. He could never pet him. That's true. I guess that would have an impediment there to their friendship. I think one of the things that I think works really well in these games also is that

between each chapter, between each murder mystery, you have like this free time where you can go around and you can skip it all if you want, but it's a lot more for it to go around and bond. And you have these like persona like bonding events with your friends. And you can pick which character you want to go bond with and then you'll get to know a little bit more about their personality. It can be kind of a bummer if you're like, oh man, I really wanted to know this person and then they died or then they got killed. Then they killed someone and got executed. But it's still very fun to do that in between. between each chapter and get to know them.

As I've been replaying some of the games, I, there's some stuff I forgot because I haven't played these games since they originally came out, each of them. But I have a basic memory of who dies and who lives at each point. So I've been intentionally going to the people I know who will die

and doing their bonding events, which is also fun to just see what they get to know them before they ultimately meet their demise. Yeah, I struggle with that some, the optional downtime stuff. Like, my memory of playing these games at least is that whenever that stuff happens

I'm like, man, I just want to get to another trial. I just want to get to another mystery. Yeah, well, that's how you can skip it, which is nice. One on a subsequent play-through, I could see it being better just because it is kind of designed for people who know what's going to come next so they can, I mean, you could min-max it so I think you can max out your friendship

with everybody, but you really have to know the story if you're going to know. No, you can't. You definitely cannot. Oh, you really just can't. So each game has a bunch of like optional mini-games, like bonus stuff. One of them is that after you beat each of the games, you can play through like a school life mode with everybody alive and then you can like build your relationships with each one if you want to see all of the different scenes with each of them, either in the school or in

the island. But yeah, one thing we should mention before we wrap things up is there is another game that came out in 2014 called Dangarapa another episode. And it's like a shooting game and it's not great. but it's like canon. One of the things that's crazy about the series, and again, talking about subversion, is that the director and Spike Chunsov, the developer,

they ended the Hopes Peak Academy arc, which is like the first two games and then the spinoff. They ended it with an anime and like a spinoff shooter. And that's how they ended this like the story that you started in Dengarapa. It's kind of perfect, right, for where this series has gone. Yeah. It's spun out in. so many directions. But it's also just like, hey, fans, like, you know what, you have to go

watch a friggin' anime if you want to see how this story ends. Because then Dengarumpa V3 is essentially like the beginning of it, something else. It's like, it's not a new story. It's very much related to the first games, but it's not in HopeSpeak Academy. It's like the end, that arc is over, right? So yeah, it's kind of a weird thing. But that said, I think if you are out there, you haven't played any games, you think they sound interesting. I certainly recommend playing through all of them, even if, even though some moments, are weaker than others. Some games are weaker than others. I recommend get them on the Switch. It's like so worth it. Get the first two games. Forget about the board game, but get the first two

games, play through them. Dangerumpa, Dangerumpa 2 and V3, all worth playing, I would say. You're going to have a good time if you play through all. Yeah, they're great on Switch too. I mean, I played these all on Vita and they were great on Vita, but the Switch has a bigger screen, so therefore it is even better on Switch. Yeah, I'm running into a weird issue with V3 where like all of the M-dashes are just gone, and so everything looks weird. I don't know if it's like a unique to my switch or something? I don't know. I'm going to figure it out.

And then there's some weird performance issues, which you wouldn't think would be the case. But there definitely are. Yeah, definitely some performance issues. Well, it's not out yet, right? As we talk about this. Especially in two. There'll be a day one.

It'll be available. Yeah, it'll be available when this episode is live, I think. Day one patch for the M dashes. We got to get a in there. Just try to imagine. Yeah, Dengen Rump of E3 needing a day one patch for performances.

Yeah, it's weird. That's weird. It's strange. Yeah, but yeah, looking forward to more. I don't know if you guys remember, but the creator came out with another game earlier this year that I absolutely hated that I thought was terrible. I do remember what it's called.

I feel like I do remember. So wait, can we go back to the shooter? Is it a battle royale game? What kind of shooter is it? It's not. It's kind of like a weird like third person shooter that's just very clunky and you're like shooting down these like, yeah, it's like it's set between the first two games.

My memory of this is this game is called Ultra Despair Girls. Dangan Rampa, another episode, colon, ultra despair girls. And I remember, I think Jason, you and I saw it at E3. And it was like, hey, look, it's the new Dangan Rapa. Because we were known even at the time that you and I really liked Dangan Rampa. And it was like, check it out. And we were kind of looking at it like, huh? Because it's just kind of crusty-looking third person.

I was like, where's Montacuma? Why are they cheating? What is this game? It's very skippable. It's skippable. Go get the switch. go get the switch package play the first game if you're into it and you'll like the rest yeah um yeah for all the the nitpicking and quibbles um and yeah enjoy it i think it's worth that i think you guys would enjoy

playing through uh the games you haven't finished yet um respectively because uh because there's some good stuff in there yeah when they're pretty soft on two so i was like maybe i'll just skip to three but well i'm i was soft on replaying too just because the characters are so awful but i still might do it also also Maddie it might be because I just mainlined all of Dangerapa 1 and I'm kind of like, okay, do I really want to play through like another entire game like this so soon? So it could be that. Yeah, they're long games. They're very long games.

All right. I'll give it to try. Yeah, it's worth it. I think you should. I think you'll enjoy it. Even the first case, if you play the first one, like the first cases are meaning the the characters, there's like a big twist in like actually meeting the characters in Dengarampa, too.

Once you've played Dangerampa 1, I'll avoid, I'll avoid spoilers there. Anyway, why don't we take a break and we'll be back with one more thing. Hello, I'm Pee Wee Herman. You might know me from TV, but I really want to be a DJ. It took some convincing. But KCRW finally agreed to give me an hour on the radio to play you some music with my friends. Anyway, tune in for one hour of the bestest, most funnest time you'll ever have. on the Pee-Wee-Herman Radio Hour.

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Hi, I'm Biz. And I'm Teresa. And we're the hosts of One Bad Mother, a podcast about parenting. Parenting is hard, and we have no advice. But we do see you doing it. Honk if you like to do it. Didn't we have a bumper sticker a while back that was like, honk if you did it? That's what it was.

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And we are back, Kirk. Maddie, it is time for one more thing. Maddie, kick us off. Sure. So I didn't really know. that much about the assassination of JFK? Just a confession about me. I mean, I knew he was shot. I knew there were a lot of conspiracy theories. I'm not a boomer.

I wasn't alive when that happened. I've talked about not knowing history and really enjoying history podcasts on this show. And this, I saw a friend tweeting about how she also didn't really know anything about the assassination of JFK, but she listened to this great six-part series on it. And I was like, oh my God, tell me what it is because I'm embarrassed that I don't really know anything. And she was like, well, I don't know, Maddie. It's like, there's a lot of, like, really sexual jokes. It's like three comedian dudes. And like, I don't know if you'd be into it. And I was like, I think it'll be just fine. And it is. But I will say that that same warning applies

to anyone listening to this. So it's a six-part series by the last podcast on the left is the name of the show. How did they fit sexual jokes into a series of a series of the assassination? Honestly, I really, I don't know what they do. Like, every, you know. few minutes they will make some type of like dick joke about something. I mean, they have a lot of information about the dick sizes of various politicians at the time and they've done a lot of research. So it's like an actual journalistic enterprise that has mostly correct. Like, you know, I looked at the subreddit for the podcast and I was like, how many people are there in the comments saying that they got facts wrong? And there are a few people. But like largely, it seems like they did a good

job of recapping both the events of the assassination and then the final two episodes about the conspiracy theories. And then at the end, they're like, here's what we're pretty sure happened. And it's this just delightfully anticlimactic explanation that is also still very sad and is not entirely about Lee Harvey Oswald. I won't spoil the actual theory that they share at the end because they provide enough evidence that I was convinced by it and kind of amazed by it. Interesting. That makes me want to listen to this. Yeah. I recommend it. It's, It's definitely like very blue humor, which I personally think is quite funny, but I think people will just have to like try it and see if that works for them or not. So it's called The Last Podcast on the Left.

I know they do a bunch of other shows. I haven't listened to any of the other ones. I just listened to all six of these episodes and I really, really enjoyed them. And I feel like I learned a lot. So I recommend it. Good stuff. Yeah, ever since reading 112263, that's Stephen King book that's all about this, where he researched did a lot. It's a lot of accurate stuff in that book, even though it's fiction.

And it's very interesting. That makes me want to listen to that for sure. And that book is incredible. My favorite of his. Kirk, what's here on my thing? My One More Thing is a new Netflix show about my favorite video game, League of Legends. Yeah. Uh-huh.

You know how I'm always talking about League of Legends? And I'm like, yeah, you play it all the time. Yeah, you're like, Kirk, you can't pick League as your one more thing again. Stop. Well, I played a bunch of league last week. and really into those lanes and stuff. No, I don't know anything about League of Legends, but I...

Juggling. You're right, I was... These are words. Juggling with some... Really, I got nothing else. I don't know anything about League of Legends, but I've been watching Arcane, which is the new Netflix show

that is set in the League of Legends universe. I've watched four episodes of it. It's pretty good. It's like an animated show, but it looks a little like a video game, too. It looks like dishonored the story and the world and everything really feels like dishonored. It's got a lot of dishonored energy.

Even though I know League of Legends is also kind of similar magic steampunk, you know, technology. But it really works, and it's at least so far, I've watched four episodes, and we're enjoying it. It's a very enjoyable sort of show. It's edgier than your average Netflix animated show. It's a little more like why that I mean, they say shit, and there's people get killed, and there's violence, and, you know, a little bit grittier, I suppose, than your average animated show, but I like it. And it looks amazing. Like it's some of the most amazing looking animation I've seen in a while. It's the same studio that made that music video for League

of Legends for that sort of... Oh, yeah. The KDA music videos. They're like sort of fictional pop music group based on the characters. So I know people who like the game really like those videos and I believe they're also very technically well done and this show is similar and I think they just had a long time to work on it. So I read Joshua Rivera's review at Polygon where He was like, you can watch this even if you don't like League of Legends. This is just a good show. So I decided I'd start it. And I really think it's interesting watching it without knowing anything.

Because I know, like, there will be a, you know, the camera will linger on some weird little monster. They'll be going through the bazaar and the undercity and it's neon lights and all this crazy stuff going on in the background and a million different types of monsters and people. And it's like, well, I'm sure that a lot of this is Easter eggs that people who play League of Legends will be like, oh, yeah, I know that thing. Oh, that's that thing. You have to fight on that one level or whatever. I guess there's kind of only one level in League of Legends, but you know what I mean. So that stuff is a loss on me. But it still works as kind of show-don-tale world-building.

Like, it's just like a cool world with lots of cool stuff going on. And I don't need to know what the little rock monster with no face is. Like, it's a little rock monster with no face. That's the thing a guy has on a cage that he's like selling at his stall. Like, it's probably whatever. Like, I don't need to know more than that. So I'm enjoying that. And it's making me think about video game adaptations.

and sort of the site, because we're getting more and more of those, right? The Castlevania series on Netflix was kind of a recent example of a widely appreciated Warren Ellis, notwithstanding series that, you know. The live action Witcher show was the live action Witcher show, which of course is based on books, but, you know, I mean, it really feels as much based on the video games. And then, you know, we're getting The Last of Us. We're getting an uncharted movie. Who knows what else?

and it just seems like this kind of game is an interesting one to adapt because League of Legends is not a narrative game but it has a world with like a ton of characters and a ton of lore and backstory it's sort of similar to Overwatch and when Overwatch was announced remember how everyone was it was like those amazing cinematics that Blizzard would make and you'd watch it and I would watch those I would watch those and I didn't play Overwatch I just liked them because they were really cool and they implied this whole world with like this interesting conflicts and characters and all this excitement, this show really

feels like it could have been Overwatch. Like I could be watching the same show and it's about whatever. It could even be about like, you know, Young Tracer or whatever, like joining the team. And anyone who plays Overwatch would know all about Tracer. But if you didn't know, you could still watch it and enjoy it. And I just wonder if this kind of game actually lends itself more to an adaptation because there isn't already a story where something like The Last of Us are uncharted. I basically watched The Last of Us TV show.

It was called The Last of Us. And it was interactive. But, you know, it was pretty much what the show is going to look like. And I'm less interested in that. Yeah. So you're not going to watch the Halo TV show because I feel like that really straggled the line. Is that happening? It's been supposedly happening for the past 10 years.

Was that the thing with Steven Spielberg and they announced it like 75 years ago? And they like showed a trailer that like showed Master Chief for like one second. Yeah. We all pretended it was still going to happen. Yeah. No, I get what you're saying, though. Like it is interesting when a sort of competitive multiplayer game is like, okay, we're going to just come up with a story that's based on lore that people who read wikis know. Right.

Like we invested in the lore, but it wasn't necessary. Like it wasn't a huge part of the game, but we've got all this lore and some of it's apparently cool. So like let's make a story out of it. And like in riots case, they're using all that lore actually for like they're making an MMO. They're making, they have all these other games that are that are part of the league universe. So I think it's more that they just have years and years of like this canon. But yeah, that's a good point. That like in general, I think you're right that like the best video game adaptations are based on games that don't have a ton of story because you can fill in the blanks yourself.

And I just have Rich Lahr. Like the Doom film, for example. Exactly. A masterful movie. Incredible. Yeah. And that just makes me think I can't believe that there was never an Overwatch show because that would have done gangbusters. And I feel like people were always.

asking for that too. It would seem that Blizzard maybe didn't really have their shit together as much as it might have seen. Yeah, it's Blizzard making a weird decision? I don't think so. That's never happened. My one more thing is a little game called Final Fantasy 5, which is a game before Final Fantasy 6, which you guys both got to experience. It's like a Kefka origin story.

It is a Kefka origin story. Yeah. No, each of these games is a totally new story. Yeah, so the pixel remaster, the new version of Final Fantasy 5, just came out a couple of weeks ago, and I started playing it on a whim, and I've somehow played through most of the game already. This is one of the games that I haven't played a lot on like six or seven, unlike of the others, because this one didn't come to the U.S. when it first came out on the Super Nintendo. Wouldn't come to the U.S. for another few years until, like, a PlayStation port.

But, yeah, it's a good game. It's a solid Final Fantasy game. I've got to say, got a lot of charm, got a lot of characters. It's one of those games where you have the four, instead of your party changing, like it does in six, you have four set characters and you can change all of their classes. And you got like a bunch of different jobs. You can cycle between sort of like Final Fantasy,

the original and tactics. Yeah, tactics, you played a bunch and sort of like that. And a lot of the classes are similar. So one of the reasons that people are really into this game is there's like this whole subculture around it called like the job fiesta or like the single class runs where like people are assigned classes to go with and like you can either make your entire party a single class or like you you get these assigned classes and you have to figure out how to beat the game with all of them

and so it's super replayable which I think is one of the fun parts about it is that like you can customize your your characters in some really interesting ways and a lot of the jobs are really well balanced so you can you can beat the whole game with with all of them and yeah it's just a fun game. Good story. Good, good characters, good, just interesting, interesting stuff. Unfortunately, has the invisible random encounter problem that can feel really tedious in this day and age. And unfortunately, the pixel remaster version, the new version that just came out, doesn't have a fast forward button. It does have auto battle, does have auto battle, which makes things a little bit more palatable, but the lack of a fast forward

button would make me, like, say, no, don't play this unless you like, but, uh, but other than that. I mean, it's a good version, good game, good part. I certainly would not recommend it to YouTube, but if people out there are curious to check out an old school Final Fantasy game, if you played six with us this year and you're hankering for more, this is a good option. The other thing is that, like, for some reason, Square just hasn't announced that these Final Fantasy remasters are coming to consoles yet. Right now, they're just on PC and phones, which is super weird, because like, obviously they're coming to consoles. Obviously, they're going to be on Switch, but maybe they're waiting for some reason. Maybe they want to release all of them first so people double dip. I don't know. But yeah, I guess maybe next year. That's bizarre that there's not a fast word button. I'm not over that. Very bizarre. Oh, also the main villain of this game is a giant tree. You get to beat up a tree. So it's a day tree. He finally broke bad. Yeah, it's the daycare tree. Yeah, you take him down. Stupid mustache. You're just like, oh man, screw you. I don't want to go inside of you and fight a spider. I want to. I want to.

want to take you down. Yeah, you fight a giant tree at the end of this game. It's pretty cool. Cool. A lot of good music in this game, too. Battle of the Big Bridge is one of those iconic Final Fantasy tracks. Okay, that's it for this week's episode. Yeah, it is.

It is. We did it. Can't believe it's ready. December, our December bonus episode will be up on Monday. I think earlier, actually. It'll be earlier. Earlier. Just kidding.

Our bonus episode, is it up already? No. I don't know. When's that up? It's up at some point. It can be up at some point. It could be up any time. It may already be up or will be up soon.

It might be up in the past. Nobody knows except Kirk Hamilton. And also one of us has gotten away with murder and you'll find out who knows when. Good times. All right. See you guys next week. Yep. See you both next week.

Bye. Triple Click is produced by Jason Schreier, Maddie Myers, and me, Kirk Hamilton. I edit and mix the show and also wrote our theme music. Our show art is by Tom DJ. Some of the games and products we talked about on this episode may have been sent to us for free for review consideration. You can find a link to our ethics policy in the show notes.

Triple Click is a proud member of the Maximum Fun Podcast Network, and if you like our show, we hope you'll consider supporting us by becoming a member at Maximumfund.org slash join. Find us on Twitter at Triple ClickPod. Send email to triple click at Maximumfund.org and find a link to our Discord in the show notes. Thanks for listening. See you next time.