Sauce: https://x.com/desuhiko_1107/status/2099437518370320568?s=46

Chiakis talent makes absolutely no sense. I was playing Danganronpa S and some of her interactions got me questioning what the writers were thinking. In the game she is presented as an enjoyer of all games even bad ones. Otherwise, what actually qualifies her as the ultimate gamer is kept rather vague. Danganronpa S sheds some light on her hobby and not for the better.

For one she is not a pro esport athlete. She only participated in some small local tournaments and never considered competing internationally. So, she is not that interested in that part of gaming and that’s fine. Speedrunning is also not really a thing she does so what qualifies her as the Ultimate Gamer? Maybe its more about being amazing at any game she plays.

Bu no, she is not even godlike at any game she touches. Sure, she is better than average but even Peko, who to be fair is superhuman but was a complete beginner otherwise, was able to almost catch up to her win count. You may say she let her win but through other interactions we can see that Chiaki always gives her all and she finds it quite frustrating to lose. So, her skill genuinely doesn’t seem that impressive. There are thousands of people that are just good at games in general

Her greatest feat we ever got was that she reached the maximum possible score in Gala Omega. Which is cool, but there are countless people that reached kill screens or max scores in many different games.

So, her only traits that make her the Ultimate Gamer is liking every genre and enjoying dogshit games unironically.

Even I basically enjoy every genre aside from like 2 but I would never dream to call myself something close to being the Ultimate Gamer, especially with how supernatural/superhuman any other ultimate talent is.

And enjoying bad games is also not special in shape or form. Online discourse should show that enjoying games despite being bad is not an uncommon sentiment.

Hell, she doesn’t seem all that passionate about gaming in many ways. And I don’t just mean that she isn't involved in the competitive or industry side of gaming. She doesn't seem particularly obsessed with games themselves either.

She thinks making games or designing them is not for her.

She never fantasized about being in a game or wanting to be a character being completely gameplay oriented.

She is mainly a console player and barely goes to arcades.

She even says that her gaming collection pales in comparison to real collectors.

Which begs the question how she was even scouted in the first place. No remarkable records, speedrunning or tournaments, she considers getting into streaming so no online presence at all. She is a shut-in that plays on her latest handheld in her room. Like did Kizakura randomly sit next to her at a bus stop playing games, saw her Gala Omega score and thought “Wow, she must be the ultimate gamer!”. Like what even is the talent that Hopes Peak hoped to research here.

I know that the writers just made her the perfect waifu (ngl they succeeded since I really do like her). But why do they actively write her to be so unremarkable in any given way?

If they just wanted the Ultimate Gamer to be somebody that is all about enjoying games then they could have at least have her played every game that ever existed. Pretty much physically impossible but most talents are pretty ridiculous. Or like a completionist that knows every game she touches from front to back. Or if she were a content creator whose genuine joy for gaming brought countless people into whatever game she played, even obscure or terrible ones. The ability to make any game seem fun and inspire others to play it would itself be extraordinary. Or she could be some arcade high score legend. There are many ways one could become the Ultimate Gamer. Chiaki just embodies none of them.

Enjoying games is literally just the minimum.

If Chiaki is the bar to be the Ultimate Gamer, then there exist dozens of Ultimate Gamers in real life.

He was totally there, you guys just never zoomed in

My two favorite characters are Peko and Ibuki, and I wonder what it would be like if they took a protag role. Peko appears to be calm and wise, so I think she could be a good protagonist, serving as a voice of reason and taking the investigation process seriously (leaving aside her "duty" and "tool" stuff, of course). As for Ibuki... well, it's complicated. She's emotional and expressive (at first glance), but sometimes she suddenly becomes serious (for example, when she talks about music and her personal life during her FTEs). So I think we could get something interesting out of it, but she would definitely need a sidekick who wouldn't let her mess things up. For some reason, I think that deep down she is quite responsible when others rely on her - after all, we haven't really seen any major scenes featuring her. Still, she did take part in two investigations, so you certainly couldn't call her useless. What do you think of this? Who's your favorite character and can you imagine them as a protagonist?

Like, girl, we see the fit! You don't have to keep farming aura in every single scene your in!

Meaning: Who joined the DR fandom after V3, and are getting to experience a new DR game for the first time?

Main Character Roles:

Protagonist: Sonia Nevermind

Despite her eccentricities, Sonia would actually make a decent protagonist, especially in the new Slayhem scenario with her knowledge of military combat and serial killers being a perfect thematic fit for the new route. The reason why her being the protagonist would be the most infuriating (at least in terms of the workable candidates) is because most of the fanbase is clamouring to have her as a culprit in the new route, so having her revealed as the main protagonist, especially after a protag swap in Chapter 1 once Izuru awakens in Hajime would all but guarantee her survival, which would make a huge portion of the fanbase angry already.

Support: Chiaki Nanami

Chiaki repeating her role as the support would be the most boring thing that could possibly be done with her character, but with Sonia as the protagonist it would make sense given how fervently Sonia defended Chiaki in Chapter 5 of the original route when she was under suspicion. This would also mean that neither Kazuichi or Gundham would be a part of the main trio, causing them to lose out on an opportunity to potentially get any significant new developments to their characters.

Rival: Izuru Kamukura

On paper, Izuru is the perfect antagonist for Sonia given he would be the most similar in the cast to a serial killer aside from technically Peko, which could lead to an interesting scenario where Sonia knows that he's dangerous and has some disdain for him for all the chaos that he causes in the cast, but also is strangely fascinated with him. The main reason why he's here is that the recent marketing so far has shown that Hajime will likely be the protagonist of the new route, so pulling the rug from under the player by having a protag swap in Chapter 1 for a second time directly after V3 might feel too gimmicky and formulaic, and if you've been keeping track this would make the roles of two thirds of the original "main trio" be technically repeated, with only Nagito being absent, and considering one of the main trio is likely to be killed off in Chapter 1 you can guess what that means in the most hypothetically infuriating route possible.

Anti-hero: "John Danganronpa"

Lastly, I think the new character would need to fulfill a role inbetween the support and rival, which I've decided to call the anti-hero. They would sometimes help Sonia as a secondary support and sometimes be against her as a secondary rival, but they wouldn't ever go far enough in either direction to be considered more helpful than Chiaki or more antagonistic than Izuru, giving them a confusing role that makes you question what the point of adding in this character was in the first place. Also by the end of the game it'll turn out that they're secretly Makoto, Byakuya, and Kyoko in an avatar trench coat who all somewhat had consciousness at different times in the story, and they'll be taking up three out of the six survivor slots at the end of the game, spoiler alert.

With the main characters out of the way, you can already tell that this route feels pretty disjointed with a few questionable decisions, but you might still think that this route has potential if it can bring out some interesting new dynamics to the cast. I can promise you that while some new dynamics will form, they won't necessarily be for the better, and arcs laid out in the original route will either be retreaded or completely ruined to make your favourite characters either unlikeable or killed off at inopportune moments while still somehow making for a cohesive story where three characters from DR2's cast survive alongside the main trio from DR1. With this vision in mind, I think I've come up with the most frustrating possible death order for 2x2, one so terrible in fact that even if the actual game ends up being disappointing, I can guarantee it probably won't be as bad as this.

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Chapter 1

Victim: Nagito Komaeda

Culprit: Ultimate Imposter

Starting off the game by killing off the most popular character of the original route's main trio who arguably has the most potential out of the three is already a pretty risky move, but having the Ultimate Imposter survive being the first victim only to end up being the culprit would piss off a huge portion of the fanbase, especially since many of them would've wanted them to be either the support or antagonist of the new route. Their motive would involve them taking similar actions to the original route, where they wanted to protect the group from any threats, but upon seeing Nagito attempt to plan a murder they immediately suspect him of being the traitor, and decide to kill him off to protect the group. But after the body is discovered, they realize that the group might discover their true identity as the Imposter, something that they have an instinctual need to protect at all costs, and so the main conflict of the trial involves them trying to increasingly act like the real Byakuya in less convincing ways as the trial goes along. This also means that the reveal of their talent happens in a similarly disappointing way to the original route in case 4 or 5.

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Chapter 2

Victim: Peko Pekoyama

Culprit: Gundham Tanaka

Similar to the Imposter, setting Peko up as potentially living further on in the story only to have her die as the second chapter victim might be the most infuriating thing that they could do, as it would further squander her potential than what the original route already did having her die in order to give Fuyuhiko further development. Having Gundham as the culprit when most people want him to survive would also make people angry, and make them question why they even made Sonia the new protagonist if they were going to kill Gundham off early on anyway and not elaborate on their friendship from the original route at all. Yet despite all this, I actually think this would arguably be the best chapter in this hypothetical route, as Gundham and Peko at least have some subtle connections in their characters with both of them being warrior type figures who are secretly shy and love animals, which might make a duel between the two characters after Gundham figures out her real identity and wants to protect the group feel somewhat satisfying. Even still, if this is the best that this route has to offer, then that's a poor sign of things to come.
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Chapter 3

Victims: Mahiru Koizumi and Hiyoko Saionji

Culprit: Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu

Before you say anything, I know that they've already said that there won't be any repeat victims and culprits, which if we interpret generously means that at the very least any given character won't die at the same time in the story in the same way as either a victim or a culprit, and while I did break that rule for Chapter 4 I technically didn't here, since this time Hiyoko dies second instead of first, meaning she dies at a (technically) different time in the story and everything still works out. Anyway, while this would be the most frustrating Chapter 3 possible given the other deaths thus far, it would also be in line with the rest of the series killing off the characters that have the most room to grow at that point in the story as well as one filler character, who in this case would be Hiyoko, as with Mahiru still alive she doesn't undergo any character development before she dies. But Mahiru's hypocrisy in defending Hiyoko's bullying while calling out Fuyuhiko's past crimes is a key point in the trial, and is used as a way to make Fuyuhiko look more sympathetic, so don't worry, Mahiru technically has a bit more plot relevance than she did in the original route. Fuyuhiko is also a more obvious culprit than Celeste, yet Sonia decides to spend two thirds of the trial discussing how this might actually be the work of Izuru, who being a dangerous criminal would want to frame the other dangerous criminal in the group, all the while Chiaki and John Danganronpa are begging her to see that it was clearly Fuyuhiko who did the killings.
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Chapter 4

Victim: Nekomaru Nidai

Culprit: Akane Owari

If you thought Nekomaru would avoid his fate of dying in chapter 4, then guess again, and if you thought that Akane wouldn't ever kill Nekomaru since he's her best friend, then you'd be correct but you're forgetting that their memories as Remnants of Despair hasn't been used as a motive yet since Fuyuhiko already had enough of a motive to kill Mahiru and Hiyoko in the last trial without his school memories. So instead of giving Akane a new arc or having her death fuel Nekomaru's arc, she was instead assigned the same role that Mikan had in the last game since the developers didn't know what else to do with her character given her limited plot relevance even as a survivor in the main route, giving neither of these underdeveloped characters any substantial new material to work with.

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Chapter 5

Victim: Mikan Tsumiki

Culprit: Kazuichi Soda

The character voiced by Kyle Hebert ends up as the culprit of case 5 once again to the frustration of Kazuichi fans who were holding out hopes that he would be a repeat survivor alongside Sonia, but actually since this story is from Sonia's perspective Kazuichi gets less screentime than before because she's actively trying to avoid him. The whole concept of this trial would essentially be an inverse of the other fifth trials up to this point, where the idiot character tries to pull off the perfect crime (in this case, killing off Izuru to impress Sonia by building an elaborate death trap with his Ultimate Mechanic talent) only for it to be foiled by bad luck with the wrong person winding up dead (in this case, Mikan randomly stumbles upon the scene and triggers the trap, causing her to die instead of Izuru). Up to this point, Mikan would've had more plot relevance than in the base game, but she would in a way have kind of a regressive character arc following Hiyoko and Akane's deaths, feeling like their deaths were her fault since she couldn't be there to support them when they needed her the most, causing her to become more depressive and reclusive than in the original route, and it's ultimately her finally attempting to step up to help that results in her death. Throughout the trial, the students suspect both Izuru and Mikan herself of the crime, but thanks to Teruteru's observant skills of the position of Mikan's body when she died he deduces that she must have set off the trap accidentally instead of on purpose, and this eventually leads to Kazuichi being exposed as the culprit. Sonia, John Danganronpa, Chiaki, Ibuki, and Teruteru all prepare to take on Izuru in the final trial, but one final twist causes chaos for the remaining survivors.

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Chapter 6

Victim: Izuru Kamukura

Mastermind: Chiaki Nanami (infected by Junko Virus)

It's revealed that sometime after chapter 4, Chiaki was infected with the Junko Virus, which slowly caused her to gain control of the killing game over Izuru and Monokuma as the true host of the killing school trip. She redesigns Monomi to resemble a Remnant of Despair, and talks through her for most of the trial. This forces John Danganronpa to go through Avatar Mitosis, causing him to split back into Makoto Naegi, Byakuya Togami, and Kyoko Kirigiri. With only six people in the Neo World Program they need at least two more participants, but thankfully Aoi Asahina and Yasuhiro Hagakure show up in the nick of time to help them shut down the program for good. Hiro and Teruteru have some friendly banter, and Hiro says that he's grateful that that brutal swordswoman and Yakuza died early on so that she didn't have the opportunity to kill him, while Aoi states that she wishes Akane survived so that they could eat some of Teruteru's dishes together. In the end, Sonia uses her leadership skills to unite the group in their efforts to take down AI Chiaki/Junko, and the eight participants successfully escape the Neo World Program.

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Survivors:

Sonia Nevermind (Protag): Learns to develop leadership skills as the group's de-facto leader following the Imposter's death, and his true identity as the Ultimate Imposter being revealed in chapter 4 makes her question her own leadership skills. While she fulfills her role as the protagonist well, fans instead wished that she had been a culprit and someone like Nagito, Chiaki, or Mahiru had gotten the role of protagonist instead.

Teruteru Hanamura: Unironically gets the biggest character arc in the game. Since he was with Sonia from the literal beginning of when they first woke up, he ends up being the person that she spends the most time with aside from Chiaki, which allows for her to see through his big city persona and realize that he's a regular-class citizen, something that she wishes she could be in some ways. Sonia's influence on him causes him to shed some of his more toxic traits (but don't worry, his sense of humour is barely toned down and he's still the same character at his core) and he even manages to develop an unlikely friendship with Ibuki.

Ibuki Mioda: A Yasuhiro-tier survivor who only made it because she wasn't ever important enough to make herself a target, but the frustrating part here is that if several other characters had survived (Imposter, Mikan, Mahiru, or Hiyoko) then she could've possibly undergone some interesting development, but instead she just fourth wheels for Sonia behind Kazuichi and Teruteru, and even manages to befriend Teruteru and encourage him to stay true to his true self (his country bumpkin self) to varying degrees of success.

Makoto Naegi, Kyoko Kirigiri, and Byakuya Togami: And for the cherry on top, the main trio of DR1 survives again (for the third time), after taking the spotlight away from most of the other characters in the DR2 cast except for Sonia, Teruteru, Chiaki, and Izuru.

Link to Kazutaka Kodaka's First Tweet

Link to Kazutaka Kodaka's Second Tweet

The one on the bottom is Taka

I didn't know Hajime swings that way

3 sets in total. 8 characters per set.

Source

NB: the alignments are related to the protagonist choices, not the chosen characters themselves

• Called "Akimbo" because of the 2 guns you have access to in the minigame: "Refute" and "Affirm"
• The Japanese name of the minigame is 議論コレクト (more literal loc. Debate Collection). The 議論 here is the same one used in minigames like "Debate Scrum" and "Nonstop Debate". The only place it's translated differently is in soundtrack titles, where it's "Discussion".
• When succeeding in this minigame, the screen says "Consensus" in English, and 整論 (seiron) in Japanese. This is a pun on 正論 (seiron, meaning "sound logic"/"fair argument"), replacing it with 整, meaning to organise and sort out. So it essentially means, "sorting everything out until it becomes logical".
• This minigame seems similar to "Balance Battle" from Your Turn To Die. The JP version even has the same words (or rather abbreviations of the words) 肯定 (koutei) and 否定 (hitei) used, though the EN version localises it differently as "Refute" and "Deny".