Friendship Ending With (Meme)

I'm falling out of my Danganronpa phase after being obsessed for over 12 years.

Ever since I shared unfinished concepts of my favourite skeletons in a BUCKSHOT ROULETTE fusion AU, I've received interest from many people. Unfortunately, I've been busy with college and haven't played BUCKSHOT ROULETTE since last year in December with a friend, which inspired me to make silly comics from our gameplay interactions.

I've been addicted to playing Inscryption after buying a bundle with BUCKSHOT ROULETTE to the point I've completed every achievement. I realise I'm starting to lose interest in Danganronpa because I used to have an obsessive phase back when the "deadly game" genre was mainly just called "battle royale".

Honestly, I'm not a fan of the idea of characters killing each other just to win or survive a game — especially if they're forced to participate out of their free will. I didn't mind Danganronpa because the additional free time events and heavily-focused murder mystery made the battle roulette forgettable. Also, the Saw movie series is another exception I enjoy watching because most of the characters who are forced to participate tend to be terrible people, and I'm intrigued by the story.

I've been a fan of Danganronpa since I watched the anime as an introduction to the franchise. I'm half-joking when drawing the meme because I still like the series for what it was back at its time, and yet still working on my Undertale (AUs) x Danganronpa fusion AU, UnderDespair: The Ultimate Crossover, except I'm writing it in my own time as a hobbyist writer. The other part I'm not joking is me losing my interest in Danganronpa.

I'm content with Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony ending the series as a whole, until I lost respect for the franchise after its spin-off Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp was released due to microtransactions. Even though the original creator of Danganronpa has nothing to do with it, I no longer have any high hopes to later often left me feeling dissatisfied after consuming new contents produced by either company.

I can't hide the fact that I've been heavily inspired by Danganronpa and the Zero Escape series for a long time and enjoyed the movies they were inspired by. Many years later, I noticed Danganronpa's flaws more and more as I continued writing my own fangame fiction inspired by Danganronpa. The creator did say it's for entertainment in the end, and I did enjoy it when I was in my edgy teen phase. As an adult now, it's difficult to ignore anything illogical and inconsistent as pure entertainment due to the overuse of the "rule of cool". I began moving away from heavily following the writing structure of Danganronpa by having other inspirations and using free online resources to learn how to improve writing stories. Personally, I missed how good the story and animation of their anime, Akudama Drive — in my opinion — as the last amazing storywriting I've watched, despite the experience gave me an inkling feeling of leaving me somewhat a little disappointed.

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—Anyway, sorry about my ramble! I don't mind battle royale genres nowadays since I've grown used to the violence and gore to the point I'm desensitised from such themes long ago, but I tend to find the genre predictable than before, especially if it doesn't have the mystery element to keep me interested — or if the characters are highly unlikeable or too effin' stupid to continue such as, O*sama Games The Animation. However, it doesn't stop me from wanting more stories despite my picky acquired tastes from consuming so many in the past.

After playing BUCKSHOT ROULETTE and Inscryption, it took me time to realise why I'm into those types of genres and concepts, and why I found a new addiction to watch other people playing and talking about Inscryption instead of Danganronpa anymore. It turns out, Yu-Gi-Oh! (Season 0) was my very first anime and manga that got me fascinated with the death game concepts — along with my art style and characters and concepts inspired from the series — before the franchise became heavily trading card game-focused rather than different types of games since the series' name means "King of Games".

Nowadays, I'm happy to see more deadly game genres where characters are playing games with their life on the line that don't involve killing another person, which turns into battle royale instead — bonus if it's also a roguelike! I noticed a game called Bonesaw fits my required needs, where the player plays chopsticks (finger game), but I haven't played the game other than watching other people playing it until I see more content, positive reviews and bug fixes before purchasing the game for myself.

Lastly, I want to mention Inkshade is one of my most anticipated games I'm looking forward to playing once it's out. Not much information is known about the game, but I saw some demos played online to believe the game it's heavily inspired by Inscryption, except it's based on DnD instead of trading card games.

Hope you find or pique your interest in checking out any of the franchises I'm into lately, and I'm open to recommendations for such genres and themes!