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The Game : Free Time

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The final piece of Danganronpa’s investigation-based active play sections is what the game refers to as “free time.” Within free time the player is able to undergo the collecting of additional information about the other characters trapped with them. One of the first things that the game tells the player when the player is first confronted by the other characters is to “aim at a student and press the A button to talk to them. Each conversation is important to the overall story, so keep track of how they go” (Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc). The game makes a point to tell the player that each piece of dialogue is important. The player has the chance to skip through the dialogue of course, but this may come back to haunt them later when a …show more content…

This way, the player is forced to prioritize not just the characters that the player enjoys speaking with, but also the characters that the player thinks that they need to know the most information about or have the skills that the player may need later on based on the player’s abilities and play style. In addition, by limiting the amount of free time, the game makes the player’s choice more valuable within the game. As Espen Aarseth, a leader in the theory on video games explains, players “are constantly reminded of inaccessible strategies and paths not taken, voices not heard. Each decision will make some parts of the text more, and others less, accessible, and you [the player] may never know the exact results of your [the player’s] choices; that is, exactly what you [the player] missed” (Aarseth 3). There are characters that cannot be spoken to and paths that cannot be taken, which makes each choice that the player does make more valuable. The player’s time is valuable and using that time correctly could mean the difference between passing and failing. This idea enhances the game experience because it is more realistic while at the same time making the game more difficult. The collection of information helps to augment the basic narrative, making the game world more complex and

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