Once again, me and my roommates were absolutely blown away by the level of quality Team Eden's Garden put out with their latest chapter. 

We had so much fun playing. As longtime Danganronpa fans, we loved all the references in the gachapon & spent a good hour or so pouring over all the gifts (along with analyzing each character's likes and dislikes—thank you so much for that anti-frustration feature). This was partially possible due to the fact that the pachinko game was also delightful to play, along with the really good pachinko song that never got old no matter how long we spent there (which was Hours).

The entire soundtrack was fantastic, I consistently stopped to appreciate how great the music was for each individual mood and segment. Also, the environment art? All the backgrounds? Wow. What a great looking world. Quirky in all the funs ways typical of a Danganronpa style game, but fantastic use of 3D, and so many interesting things hidden in the environments.

The art in general...I would go as far as to say it's better than Danganronpa, across the board. The character sprites, closing argument comics, CGs...anatomy, composition, color usage, body language...nothing wonky or weird looking, instead every art asset is standout quality. I love every expression, pose, and composition, and each piece of art communicates its intent so clearly. I could write an essay on the art alone.

The writing, too...I love the pacing in the daily life segments, along with how clues are introduced & the mystery is built up. The foreshadowing is great, and every interaction feels meaningful. And the character writing is fantastic—I'm immediately more invested in all these characters (much more than in any Danganronpa game), and the dynamics between them all are fascinating & deeply entertaining. This chapter especially introduced some incredibly intriguing and fun dynamics. (Also, the ways every FTE is introduced for all the characters...every conversation they proposed was so engaging, I wanted to talk to all of them every time. It felt much more engaging than simply finding someone to spend a free time with, they all had tempting conversational hooks).

(Side note: THE SYMBOLISM? Everything is so packed with meaningful symbolism. It's already impressive enough to assign a large cast with animals, but also gemstones? As a writer, I know that's much more challenging than it seems. My household wrote down all the gems we could identify & are planning to look them all up. Kudos on the art team for the work with creating identifiable facets/colors/patterns.)

And the voice acting? Again, I'd say better than mainline Danganronpa, which is saying something considering I love most of the actors in those games. But this team is absolutely fantastic. The quality is phenomenal, the voices are so fitting, and the emotion is conveyed so well. There's a line read here & there that aren't exactly the sentence flow I'd expect, but that's nothing in comparison to how much they got right. And there was always more voiced than I expected, to my constant thrill and delight.

Deadly Life was also fantastic, I loved the twists in the mystery (we couldn't guess it until well into the trial, and usually we solve mysteries during the initial investigation). I appreciated how genuinely disturbing the body discovery was, as well as how authentic everyone's discomfort and resistance was. SO much good foreshadowing too.

Speaking of disturbing, the execution animation—SO impressed. As a Danganronpa fan, executions always felt like poorly kept promises, never quite delivering in terms of how awful I felt they were supposed to be. Eden's Garden went harder than I ever expected, to the point that I sometimes struggled to watch...and that felt right! It's what I always wanted from Danganronpa, but never got! Visceral, gutting, and required zero suspension of disbelief when faced with the cast's overwhelming horror and despair. Incredibly well thought, storyboarded, and executed (haha).

The only portion I wouldn't say surpassed Spike Chunsoft would be the trial segments, and that's hardly a criticism. Controls continue to be a little challenging sometimes in gameplay segments, but considering this is a fully free game AND the team provides full video walkthroughs on their YouTube to watch if I can't progress I see no reason to complain.

For the bullet hell segment, I do wish there was a slight curb in difficultly—I'd love to see either a smaller health bar or, ideally, some way to reacquire health during the segments (maybe health packs that could be shot at?). I think that would lower frustration a lot, especially considering many Danganronpa fans might not be acquainted with this style of gameplay.

That said, this is a 5 star game. I find any harsh criticisms to be either missing some understanding of the material or simply unappreciative of the tremendous amount of free labor involved in creating this incredible project. I can't wait for chapter 2, and wish with all my heart this game is able to make it to completion.