I made extensive notes on Danganronpa V3 when I was first playing it, meaning I have a record of a lot of my first impressions and reactions. Here are the notes I made while playing the demo, including my first impressions of all the characters!
There's a demo out for Danganronpa V3! I thought I'd give it a try.
I played the first two Danganronpa games with Japanese voices, because those were the voices I'd become used to through Let's Plays, but this one's got a new cast, so I thought I'd try out the English voices. This proved to be a great decision, because one of the characters occasionally just exclaims 'FUCK ALL Y'ALL' and it's delightful.
First complaint: the demo finished too early! You can't set up a case that obviously isn't going to be in the final version of the game (the person who was murdered wasn't actually a V3 character) and then not let us find out who the culprit was! That means the murder is going to remain unsolved forever! That's not fair!
Second complaint: this demo has given me a STUPID THREESOME SHIP featuring characters who AREN'T ACTUALLY GOING TO BE IN THE FINAL GAME, DON'T DO THIS TO ME.
(The demo isn't actually a segment of the finished game - it's a little noncanonical case to show how the game's mechanics etc. work - and they've taken advantage of its noncanonicity by putting Makoto and Hajime in it. The protagonists of the first two games, hanging out with the protagonist of this one! Encouraging her! Telling her they believe in her! Sharing a room with her, because obviously the game's setting wasn't designed with separate rooms for Makoto and Hajime, because they're not actually characters in the game! A room with only one bed! oh no oh no oh no oh no)
Here are my first impressions of the V3 cast!
Kaede, Our Protagonist: I like her! Danganronpa protagonists tend to be fairly ordinary sorts, but that works well, because it means they can bounce nicely off the over-the-top characters they're surrounded with. I like her design, I like how she encourages people, I like her quietly going '??? these people are so weird' in her thoughts (a grand Danganronpa tradition). I like her relationship with Makoto and I'm VERY SAD that it isn't going to be in the actual game. And she has a talent! She's the Ultimate Pianist. She's actually the first Danganronpa protagonist to have a 'real' talent, so I'm interested to see whether that comes into play.
Amnesia Boy, The Ultimate ???: I don't trust this guy. I'm pretty sure he knows more than he's letting on.
Huge Muscular Entomologist Who Looks Scary But Is Actually Sweet, Unless You Hate Bugs: awww! Both my housemate and I were cooing over how cute this guy is. 'He's going to get killed early on and I'm going to be sad about it,' I said. That was before he had his scary 'do you hate bugs? DO YOU HATE BUGS?' bit. There is a good chance he's going to murder someone who accidentally steps on a bug. And yet somehow he's still pretty endearing.
Detective (Shuichi?): he's going to get murdered first. He's a detective, which makes him a massive target when your goal is to murder someone undetected, and it seems like he's being set up to have a sort of connection with Kaede; he talks a lot about how he wants to trust her, even though they've just met. He's almost certainly going to get murdered first.
Religious Artist: all she's done so far is talk about her god, so I'll reserve judgement on this one.
Cosplayer: she's a little shy, she makes nerdy references and Kaede was massively flirting with her, which I enjoyed. I like her! I'm looking forward to seeing more of her in the full game.
Maid: she could be interesting. Very serious, very skilled. I want to learn more about her (and why someone once asked her to take down a rival nation). Kaede's a little in awe of her, I think.
Tennis Pro: unsettling! But I'm intrigued by him. I do enjoy the 'gruff voice, "I'm a killer, don't go near me" attitude, adorable design' combination.
Miu the Sweary Inventor: oh, she's great fun. I enjoy her strutting around, talking herself up and insulting everyone. And I loved her angry reaction when Kaede complimented her most commercially successful invention, which Miu herself wasn't happy with: 'It doesn't make you more productive when you sleep, so it's a failure! Just like you!'
Anthropologist: the second this guy started talking about how he finds everything about humanity beautiful, even the uglier aspects, I went, 'You're going to be thrilled by all the murder that's coming up, aren't you?' There's something a bit Nagito-esque about him, I suppose: he just wants to see something beautiful, even if terrible things have to happen in the process. I doubt I'll love him as much as I love Nagito, though.
Straw Feminist Martial Artist: not a big fan. I wonder whether she was created as a response to criticism of Mahiru Koizumi, one of my favourite Danganronpa characters, who had issues about men but still felt like a real, interesting person. Did the Danganronpa writers go 'no, look, Mahiru's issues don't make her a bad character, this is what a bad character with issues about men looks like'? Whatever the reason behind the existence of Straw Feminist Martial Artist, I hope she gets more depth.
Astronaut: basically the Space Core from Portal 2. 'Space! Space! Wanna go to space.' I have to respect this guy's drive.
Magician Who's Convinced She Can Actually Do Magic (Himiko?): I don't have a strong impression of her yet, beyond 'she sounds really bored'. I like that Kaede's immediate reaction to her claim she could do magic was 'hey, could you send us back in time to before we ended up in this place?' - she just really seemed to want to believe it!
Supreme Leader: this guy is fun. He's a horrendous little shit, but in a way I rather enjoy. I look forward to him causing conflict and being terrible.
K1-B0: why is there a robot in this game? From his appearance, I thought at first that he was going to be some sort of scary destroyer robot, but he seems to be a fairly restrained, ordinary young man who... happens to be a robot.
Child Carer: another one I'm looking forward to seeing more of! She's wary, she thinks things through, she's a little closed-off. I think she could be helpful in the trials.
When the protagonist is trying to reason things out, her thought process is represented through a driving minigame called 'Psyche Taxi'. You get asked a question, and then you're presented with people who represent potential answers, and you have to answer the question by running the correct person over. I can't believe this wasn't a feature in previous Danganronpa games, because it's the most Danganronpa thing I've ever seen in my life.