On its own, it wouldn't. However, DR1 & DR2 do not acknowledge themselves being works of fiction, only V3 does. And in the same regard, V3 does not acknowledge itself as a work of fiction, either. Yes, the killing game within V3 was presented as fiction, but the characters aware of the nature of the killing game do not think that they are fictionalized characters to us in the real world. The 4th wall breaking occurred between the fictional world of V3 and the metafictional world of V3's killing game, not between the real world and the fictional world of V3.
I disagree. Every Monokuma Theater is breaking the 4th wall. The player is addressed directly multiple times by those segments and other moments scattered throughout the series.
I acknowledged this already. What we experienced then was not fake, but can you replay DR1 & DR2 knowing what you know now and think of them the same way? I certainly can't.
Of course I can. I enjoyed them as fictional stories then, I will continue to enjoy them as fictional stories now. Literally nothing has changed.
When you say "as a friend", do you mean a friend to the original person or the clone? If it's the former, then yes it would matter, because that clone's memories are not their own. If it's the latter, then it doesn't matter at all. I do think a difference exists there, but you a free to disagree with that if you wish.
I mean the latter. Could you be the clone's friend? Judging by your response, I think your answer is you couldn't and you mixed "former" and "latter". I actually think this disagreement is the crux of it all. I would have no problem being the clone's friend because if they say their past was X and everything they do is consistent with that, why would it matter to me? To put this another way, do you vet all of your real life friends about their life stories? How do you know they are being 100% truthful about their experiences and what made them who they are today? Are they even capable of telling you accurately? I don't think I can even accurately describe everything that makes me who I am, even if I wanted to. There must be some aspects of the people in your life that you just take at face value. I know this might sound like a weird tangent, but I look at the fake characters in V3 the same way. Their memories are fake through no fault of their own, but fake or not, the characters all grew in their own way in accordance with their fake histories. From the perspective of me, the player, I have no issues having conversations with these people.
It's like the Chinese Room. If someone on the other side of a locked door spoke and wrote fluent Chinese, knows all 5000 years of Chinese history, and is intimately familiar with modern Chinese culture, does it matter to you that they're not actually Chinese? Does that diminish your interaction with them? There's no right or wrong answer here, but I think this is where we simply disagree and that's ok
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Team Danganronpa are the makers of the V3 killing game, not the developers of V3. That's Spike Chunsoft. To me, it would be a disservice to the characters of V3 to explore their fake characterizations more because Team Danganronpa implanted those into them. I sympathize heavily with V3's cast, so me doing that would be the best thing for them since I would otherwise feel like I'm exploiting them.
I guess this is weird to say since V3's characters do not actually exist in the real world, but... well, look at Undertale and you'd see what I'm talking about.
I know they're the "fake" developers invented for the game
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Similarly to what I've said above, they are "real" characters to me. They were basically clones with implanted memories, but they suffered through a "real" killing game, and they struggled through their own "real" character arcs. I sympathize with them deeply, so I'm more than eager to listen to what they have to say and treat them like the "real" people they deserve to be treated as imo. I don't think that's exploitation.
Storywriters ignore or retcon things they've written previously all the time. Putting V3 in the box to make a DR4 wouldn't really be anything crazy to me. That said, if I had to choose one or the other I think V3 should continue to be the focus.
But why do you put so much weight on what they say? I think the only thing stopping you from enjoying DR1+2 again if your own mental block because you think the devs think they didn't matter. But that's not true because first and foremost, DR1+2 mattered to their own casts, but also because the devs painstakingly explained how the fiction of DR1+2 had an effect on the "real world" of V3. In the context of the game, DR1+2 may hold different meaning from before, but nothing is stopping you the player from allowing DR1+2 to retain it's original meaning. The beauty of the ending imo is that I can retain the original meaning PLUS they have gained new meaning.
And as for the reason I play these games? Well, it's more than just seeing a group of high school students getting killed while solving the mysteries surrounding their deaths. It's probably too complex to put into words, but if the games had no meaning beyond the premise then it would be rather empty.
Totally agree. The overarching narrative's purpose is to put weight on the killing game. But I think as a standalone plot, it's pretty weak. It's why most people didn't like either DR1 and DR3 animes.
I think the killing games between DR3 and V3 basically were just that: empty. We know that the struggles of the characters within those games were solely for TV ratings and have no further meaning past that. That's why it would be a waste to ever go into those games unless V3 is no longer a thing.
Suppose God exists. We are essentially a shoebox ant colony to him. Our mortal struggles mean nothing to him. Does that invalidate our struggles? Are our problems not real?
I think because the experiences are real to the characters of DR1+2, they're real enough for me to engage and relate to them. Because again, we all know they're not real. But that didn't stop us from engaging with them before. You still haven't really answered my main question (or I haven't really understood it): Why does it matter if the fictional game tells you it's fiction?
Headcanon: DRV3 takes place in an alternate reality where the DR3 anime was well received. "Well if they liked the anime, how about a live action series?" and then they followed that through to its conclusion.
LMAO
