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Of the glorious trinity of VN Trilogy games (Ace Attorney 1-3, Danganronpa 1-3, Zero Escape 1-3) Which is your favorite?

Ace Attorney 1-3, Danganronpa 1-3, Zero Escape 1-3 Which is your favorite Trilogy

  • Ace Attorney 1-3 - Pheonix Trite all the way

    Votes: 538 61.9%

  • Danganronpa 1-3 - School of Hope and Despair Yeah?

    Votes: 126 14.5%

  • Zero Escape 1-3 - Love is powerful

    Votes: 143 16.5%

  • I Love all three equally!

    Votes: 26 3.0%

  • None, Infinity Trilogy - Can I be ForEVER 17?

    Votes: 12 1.4%

  • I have not played any of these games.... I should play them *cat reading newspaper*

    Votes: 24 2.8%
  • Total voters
    869
Zutrax

Zutrax

"This guy are sick"
Member
Oct 31, 2017
4,231
Ace Attorney is the most consistently good, but it's probably my least favorite setting and tone overall.

Danganronpa has the highest highs, but the lowest lows. I also adore it's insanely cartoony violence and the characters are the funnest to me.

Zero Escape has the best tone and twists, it has that overwhelming complexity going for it too. The first two are fantastic, but the third kinda drops the ball which leaves an overall sour taste on the whole thing.

So I guess most people might say Ace Attorney since it's the least offensive one, but for me it's probably Danganronpa due to those highs hitting so hard for me.

I'd personally probably say Danganronpa > Zero Escape > Ace Attorney.

But they're al worthwhile and you can't go wrong with any of them.
 
Strings

Strings

Member
Oct 27, 2017
31,829
Zero Escape even though Time Dilemma is a big step down. 999 and Virtue's Last Reward are just too fucking good.
 
jay

jay

Member
Oct 25, 2017
2,279
I thought VLR was bad after enjoying 999, so I can't imagine the last game considering most fans like the second.

Anyway, the lawyer game trilogy is great. The second trilogy less so.

The Jake Hunter trilogy, meaning the only games in English, are pretty good.
 
MrCinos

MrCinos

Member
Oct 26, 2017
740
Danganronpa > Zero Escape > Ace Attorney.

All three are very good, but DR had by far the best culmination/last game among those three series' IMO.
 

t26

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
4,625
The word 'ADV' is in the Japanese title of Virtue's Last Reward. This forum should be informed enough to call them adventure games instead of VN
 
FluxWaveZ

FluxWaveZ

Persona Central
Verified
Oct 25, 2017
10,908
It's Ace Attorney. The best characters, the best story, the best music, the best presentation, the best gameplay. Everything.

Danganronpa is a disappointment that makes me wonder if certain great elements of the trilogy were just pure fluke. Same for Zero Escape, actually, but much worse because of the third game.
Shining Star said:
Nah, they're VNs. It is what it is.
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No. You call them VNs, you disappoint people who try to branch out into actual VNs like Steins;Gate only to discover what a true VN is. They're hybrids of a sort, but they're more adventure game than not.
 
GamerJM

GamerJM

Member
Nov 8, 2017
15,797
Zero Escape had the highest highs with 999 and VLR. Those games blew my mind like a dozen times over and told a story that I don't think could have been told anywhere else. Easily my favorite narrative in gaming. ZTD wasn't as good but I still liked it and enjoyed it for what it is as an ending to the trilogy. It's dumb, but it's dumb in a way that's just so quintessentially Uchikoshi. So yeah, Zero Escape gets my vote.

Ace Attorney vs. DanganRonpa is much closer. I think I prefer the DanganRonpa games like judged each on their own, but feel Ace Attorney works better as a trilogy. Especially if you factor in crap like Ultra Despair Girls and the DanganRonpa 3 anime. The Ace Attorney games are relatively more grounded while also having a pretty unique tone. They also have my favorite cast, music, and "gameplay" of any of the three franchises. I also think the original Ace Attorney trilogy does an awesome job at maintaining a consistent thematic throughline between all three games, making it feel super cohesive as a trilogy. A strike against Ace Attorney is that I think I just significantly prefer the "several people trapped together and have to find a way to escape" premise of DR/ZE. All three DanganRonpa games have immaculately crafted endings that left me satisfied and impressed every time. I also have to say I'm never bored when playing DanganRonpa, and the games are also just really damn funny. I think the DanganRonpa games are crazier and more out there than Ace Attorney, and generally "aim" higher. While they might not always meet their target (which the Ace Attorney trilogy did pretty consistly), I at least respected the attempt. But yeah, the DR3 anime is kinda cheeks and Ultra Despair Girls is absolute crap. V3 is kinda disconnected from 1 and 2 in certain ways so it feels a bit disingenuous to call it a "trilogy".

So basically:
ZE>AA=DR (which I prefer depends on the day you ask me)

FTR, I've always been really surprised at just how much I liked both Zero Escape and DanganRonpa. I played the Ace Attorney games years and years before I played either of those series, and have nostalgia for them in a way I don't for ZE/DR. Additionally Ace Attorney appears to be the prevailing most popular choice. But....every time I revisit these games I come to the conclusion that Ace Attorney just appeals to me a good bit less in some ways.
 
Professor Beef

Professor Beef

Official ResetEra™ Chao Puncher
Member
Oct 25, 2017
22,510
The Digital World
Ace Attorney, all the way. Haven't played ZTE so I can't speak on it, but Danganronpa has far too much busy work during the actual trials themselves for me to enjoy it fully.
 
Damn Silly

Damn Silly

Member
Oct 25, 2017
7,257
Having not played Ace Attorney and gotten bored of Danganronpa a couple of chapters into the first game, Zero Escape would win by default. I love all three ZE games anyway though, so I still think AA or Danganronpa would struggle even if I had played the respective trilogies.
 
Japanmanx3

Japanmanx3

One Winged Slayer
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
5,998
Atlanta, GA
Ace Attorney. I really like the 999 Trilogy. But man. AA has everything! Plot, Characters, MUSIC, and payoffs! AND MUSIC! The first game is still almost unmatched at how well the OST gets the blood pumping!
 

Hikari_Ryu

One Winged Slayer
Member
Nov 7, 2017
212
Ace Attorney is the best of them, all three games are good and it has the best ending. Zero escape is really let down by the third game and danganronpa is weird because the story of the first two games ends with the anime (and it was kind of awful too) V3 is almost like a spin off and even though I liked it, it just isn't really part of a trilogy.
 
Mauricio_Magus

Mauricio_Magus

Member
Oct 25, 2017
13,179
Zero Escape: 999 and VLR are great but then ZTD was super disappointing.
Danganronpa: D1 is not that great but it was fresh when it came out, D2 is great until the final chapter, and Danganronpa V3 is pretty good.
Ace Attorney: AA1 is good, AA2 has a great final case, and AA3 is incredible.

So I'm going with Ace Attorney.
 

Deleted member 16657

User requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
10,198
It's Danganronpa for me. Even though Ace Attorney is superb, the setting and style of Danganronpa puts it over the top. I also got way more attached to the DR characters than the Ace Attorney ones.
 
Rosebud

Rosebud

Two Pieces
Member
Apr 16, 2018
44,444
Danganronpa because I actually like all 3 games.

Ace Attorney would win if I could cheat and count Phoenix Wright 1 and Investigations 1 and 2 (the best games of the franchise by a mile).
 
Terraforce

Terraforce

One Winged Slayer
The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
18,956
Danganronpa is the only truly consistent one imo. It's a consistent increase in quality with each subsequent entry.

Ace Attorny 1 and 3 are absolute highs, but 2 was mostly lows outside of the first and last cases.

Zero Escape 1 is pretty good, 2 is really good, and 3 is...
 
Soriku

Soriku

Member
Nov 12, 2017
6,978
Both AA and Danganronpa trilogies are really good with the third games being the best in the series. The first two ZE games are good, ZTD was a disappointment though. At least AI Somnium Files turned out pretty good following that.
 
Trigonometrize

Trigonometrize

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
5,143
I've never seen a series so effortlessly justify sequels when the original game is as specific as Danganronpa. 2 took the twists and settings of the first game and turned them on their head and introduced a superior cast of characters, and then V3 amped up the emotion and themes to 11 in a way I didn't think possible.
 
Temtastic Muns

Temtastic Muns

Member
Apr 19, 2018
6,938
I actually thought there was a fairly big drop off in quality between AA1 and AA2, but AA3 brought it back in a huge way. Danganronpa was consistently excellent in the storytelling department, genuinely shocking me with its narrative twists in the best ways possible, but the gameplay systems grated on me in several instances. I've only ever played the first Zero Escape, and while I wasn't a fan of it, I don't think I can objectively include the series in this running.

Probably going to have to give it to Ace Attorney, just because the characters as a whole are so memorable, the music is all around catchier, and the trilogy's highs absolutely soar.
 
mrmickfran

mrmickfran

The Fallen
Oct 27, 2017
27,600
Gongaga
Ace Attorney the GOAT

Danganronpa is mid, I only play it when there's no new Ace Attorney

Zero Escape 1 and 2 are great but 3 was ehhh

Hell even if it was the 2nd trilogy vs the other two I would still pick Ace Attorney
 
Bernkastel

Bernkastel

Teyvat Traveler
The Fallen
Jan 15, 2018
2,340
Brazil
Virtue's Last Reward>Ace Attorney 3>Danganronpa 2>Danganronpa V3>999>Danganronpa 1>Ace Attorney 1>Ace Attorney 2>Zero Time Dilema
 
Kupo Kupopo

Kupo Kupopo

Member
Jul 6, 2019
2,959
was there ever any doubt about the outcome of this poll?...

i've replayed the ace detective trilogy, & had a blast. afa danganronpa & zero escape series, i've only ever had interest in replaying the first game of each. unlike ace attorney, those series only get worse with each sequel...
 
Ashes of Dreams

Ashes of Dreams

Fallen Guardian of Unshakable Resolve
Member
May 22, 2020
15,079
Shining Star said:
There's a lot of reading, that makes them a VN.
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Glad to know Final Fantasy VII is a visual novel.

Or, to highlight this as being silly in a different way, I can argue that X-Com 2 is a FPS because "there's a lot of shooting guns in it". That's not how genres are defined.

This is such a clear thing that even the wikipedia entry for Visual Novels addresses it up front.
In Japanese terminology, a distinction is often made between visual novels (abbreviated NVL, derived from "novel"), which consist predominantly of narration and have very few interactive elements, and adventure games (abbreviated AVG, or ADV derived from "adventure"), which may incorporate problem-solving and other types of gameplay. This distinction is normally lost outside Japan, where both NVLs and ADVs are commonly referred to as "visual novels" by international fans.
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This may have been fine a decade or two ago for America, when we didn't really get actual Visual Novels. But there's a legitimate market for the real thing now, so I really think we should acknowledge the distinction these two genres have always had in Japan (the source for that wikipedia quote is from 14 years ago). Someone who likes Ace Attorney and Zero Escape likes adventure games. Fate/Stay Night and Steins;Gate are visual novels, that same person may not like them. These are two different things, and not acknowledging that makes it confusing for someone who is trying to understand either genre.
 
Jawmuncher

Jawmuncher

Crisis Dino
Moderator
Oct 25, 2017
39,034
Ibis Island
AA3 is really fucking good along with 1 & 2 (even if 2 drags a bit).

while with ZTD & Danganronpa I feel theres a lot more ups and downs in their trilogy.
 
OP
OP
Richardbro

Richardbro

Banned
Oct 29, 2017
335
Kupo Kupopo said:
was there ever any doubt about the outcome of this poll?...

i've replayed the ace detective trilogy, & had a blast. afa danganronpa & zero escape series, i've only ever had interest in replaying the first game of each. unlike ace attorney, those series only get worse with each sequel...
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Honestly yeah, I mean the nonary games are well loved here and for good reason. Part 1 is definitely the best single title in all of these series.

Danganronpa on the other hand is fantastic as well, the twists and mind games and incredible.
 

Deleted member 401

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
11,251
The Ace Attorney trilogy is all excellent, although Justice For All is a lesser game.

The Zero Escape games aren't as good as average, but the first two games are still excellent. I enjoyed Zero Time Dilemma, too, for all its flaws.

I like all three Danganronpa games (especially V3), but in comparison to the other two series, they feel much trashier, for lack of a better word. They just seem to have too much of a foot in the aspects of Japanese media that I find off-putting.
 
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