It’s also a step beyond the Danganronpa series in the sense that in those games have absolutely no agency, and it’s a moment that is very carefully choreographed to make you really think about the response you’d take. It’s a powerful hypothetical in which neither answer is right or wrong, and both can easily be argued to be a “happy ending”. Death Come True proves to similar, and that’s why that final decision that I mentioned at the start is so poignant. Whether it’s the Danganronpa’s approach of removing a class of school mates from the real world to drop them into a panopticon-like “manufactured utopia” to delve into human interaction within the context of Battle Royale-like death games, or the actual simulation of Danganronpa 2, Kodaka likes contextualising the human experience and what motivates people into the actions that they take through game-based hypotheticals. This leads on to another core motif of Kodaka’s recent output the idea of exploring the nature of humanity through an intellectual, dispassionate simulation removed from reality. In Death Come True Karaki himself needs to put himself through mortal, physical and emotional trials, including suicide, in order to uncover memories and slowly start to understand what is really going on in this world. In Danganronpa the protagonist would learn of his or her forgotten past, and the mystery itself, through the literal trials and executions that were meted out. The idea of the truth coming from confronting mortality was a core concept in Danganronpa, and it plays a similar, albeit more personal role here. It’s actually odd just how closely Death Come True parrots some of the key themes across the Danganronpa series, suggesting that Kodaka has some unfinished thoughts with that series that he wanted to take another look at ( and again we are going to get very spoiler-y from this point on). Because this is an FMV game, there’s not much for players to do other than make some basic choose-your-own-adventure decisions along the way, but thanks to the pacing, quality performances from the entire cast (and this game does have genuine star power as far as Japan’s film and television industry goes), and intriguing narrative, you’ll be fully invested anyway. From there, he starts trying to unravel the mystery. Within the first couple of minutes, Karaki experiences his first death, only to wake up right back at the start of the story, in his bed, with time having rewound but having remembered what happened in previous cycles. With all of that conflict going on, you’d think it would be hard for Karaki to survive and… well, that’s exactly the point. He’s soon to discover that he’s apparently a serial killer, the girl – Sachimura Akane – is actually a detective after him, and there’s a Jason Voorhees-like monster that is prowling the corridors looking for the two of them. Worse, that’s just the start of his troubles. Karaki wakes up in a (rather lavish) hotel with no memory whatsoever, but quickly discovers a passed out girl in his bath (played by Kuriyama Chiaki), and there’s a police officer wrapping on his door. The story follows Karaki Makoto, played by Hongō Kongo. Now, with Death Come True, Kodaka has played with the FMV genre to craft a highly tuned noirish thriller that features one truly poignant decision to make right at the end. A senior creative on Clock Tower 3 (to this day the most intellectually fascinating stalker horror game), Kodaka then penned the scenarios for a pile of Jake Hunter titles, before stamping himself on the industry with the endlessly stylish, vividly intellectual Danganronpa series. Kodaka Kazutaka is a unique talent in the games industry, in that he’s able to take a variety of fairly simple thriller/mystery concepts and spin them into stories and experiences that stay with you well after you’ve finished playing. In fact, for a game that bears a strong tonal resonance similar to Christopher Nolan’s classic film, Memento, it’s a little strange that the developer would want to undermine their work by framing it as a narrative of cheap twists that can be “spoiled.” Nonetheless, if you’re not interested in reading a discussion of a narrative game’s narrative before playing the game, this paragraph right here is the warning I’m giving you to absolve myself from feeling any guilt if you feel like I’ve “ruined” the game on you. This game doesn’t have a Sixth Sense-like twist such that knowing it in advance would ruin the experience for you. The game itself has a little clip at the start asking that people don’t spoil the experience, but it’s absolutely impossible to talk about this game without discussing plot points. Note: I’m writing this upfront and in advance there are spoilers in this review.
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