1.5 -> I find this entire chapter to be sheer genius in the most troll way possible, plus I'm p strongly fond of it because I figured out the answer (which is a completely troll answer btw) before it was formally revealed, which I imagine you're not supposed to be able to do ._.
2.3 -> I like this case so much more than Celes' case from the first game, tbh. for a plan that basically relies on her deceiving everyone and them believing her, her plan is actually _really_ solid; since usually once you find out the "trick" behind the case it becomes obvious who the culprit is, you basically need to make the truth so inexplicable that it requires a bunch of mental gymnastics to break through everything and even get to the answer, which most people completely fail at doing but she managed to utilize her prior behavior to almost actually get away with it. unlike Celes' plan, her execution of it was basically seamless (all the way down to using her authority as the Ultimate Nurse to falsify the cause of death, which I found p nifty), and she was never _really_ condemned until she scum slipped right at the very end of the trial. plus my face thoroughly lit up when she started ATE'ing all over the place after people first caught onto her; I was basically like "O MY GAWD THIS IS STRAIGHT OUT OF A MAFIA GAME", and I actually had to stop and question if someone who would theoretically no experience with that kind of thing would be able to pull off that kind of shit before reminding myself it was the only logical conclusion. so ya I basically like this trial because the scum game Mikan tried to play, in that situation, was really formidable and mad props to her for actually almost getting away with it! even if maybe her being infected with the "despair disease" is kind of a deus ex machina.
1.1 -> I think I like this trial because it does a really good job emphasizing just how ridiculous everyone's situation actually is, and how completely nonchalant Monokuma is throughout the whole thing. everyone, freaking the hell out: "um, when you say 'punished'..." Monokuma, all excited and completely apathetic to how everyone else is freaking the hell out: "I'm talkin' executed! *lists off a bunch of different executions here*" plus Sayaka winds up being a huge trollfuck and tries to betray Naegi, which I have to have some respect for in similar vein to Mikan from 2.3 because the way she went about it was p solid imo, while at the same time I feel really strongly for her because I can obviously see why she'd be so conflicted in her position.
1.4 -> I find the fact that two fake scum claims happened in this case fucking hilarious. in complete contrast, I find the third (Asahina's) scum claim, and the ending, to be really legitimately sad, and I feel so awful for her. plus I have to give the case a lot of credit because I actually _didn't_ figure out the culprit the first time through, despite having a lot of the events of the actual case figured out in advance even though I had the order wrong. my working theory was that Asahina did it on accident ><
2.1 -> I liked this case and I completely flipped out when I first realized Nagito was a perpetrator, although mostly because at that point I was working under the assumption Nagito was Naegi and I had no idea what would drive someone like Neagi to kill someone. the other thing I like is that even once you figure out how it happened, it's really really difficult to figure out _who_ specifically did it until the thing with Nagito is cleared up, and even then it's not quite clear how it's possible (that being the culprit had information he shouldn't have had because Nagito told him about it). plus, oh my god that ending is so awful. :<
2.5 -> I don't really know where to put this, because while the case itself is brilliant, the outcome was so sickeningly awful that I actually broke down crying.
1.6 -> the case itself is really fun, and Junko is a massive troll who mostly succeeds in inducing despair in anyone who argues with her. if I could book a complaint with it, I feel like a lot of the answers were made to be too obvious, i.e. her outright telling us stuff that we probably should had to have figured out or proven for ourselves.
2.4 -> IDK, I found the culprit in this fairly obvious via POE even though I couldn't figure out a solid reason which condemned him (until near the end) or his motive for doing it. I have to give Monokuma some credit bc his motive in this chapter is pure deadliness, though, and I thought playing as both Hajime and Nagito was really cool. plus I liked how much of a role the structure of the building it was in played into the chapter, in that it gave you a lot to think about even if you don't come up with the correct solution immediately (my first instinct, for instance, was that the alarm in the red house was set to allow the killer to solidify an alibi, that implying the killer was someone from red house).
1.3 -> Celes' plan in this case was mostly a good one and her execution of it was a very good _attempt_, but I had it figured out 30 seconds after the "incident" started because there was obviously no way there would be a "madman" running around in the school to begin with. that plus despite Yasuhiro being a huge derp, he was bleedingly obvious town for practically the entire game, so I would say her choice of target was a bad one. figuring out exactly how it happened isn't straightforward, though.
2.2 -> I didn't really like this trial much, for a lot of reasons. the thing with "Sparking Justice" I thought was just a huge ripoff from Shou in the first game. the mystery itself is blindingly obvious when you realize the killer wasn't Hiyoko and put together what actually happened in the beach house, as long as you keep track of or can remember the events leading up to it. I found myself screaming at everyone the whole case that there had to have been a third person who discovered the body and that it had to have been Fuyuhiko. no one, Hajime _included_, realized it until _after the votes were cast already_, and I thought it was inexplicable that everyone ignored Sonia protesting at the end and voted anyway. moreover I found Peko's reasoning for it just to be really shallow and not really thought through at all (as testimony to this, _both_ Fuyuhiko _and Peko_ after the case ends comment on how completely pointless Peko killing someone for that reason actually was).
1.2 ->
I pretty much hate when people find Chihiro's secret, and their reaction is to flip the fuck out and have no idea what anything means anymore. just _seriously_?
2.6 excluded because it's not really a "trial" in similar vein to all the other trials and there isn't much mystery-solving involved, it's mostly just a huge info dump/the ending.
, I love her cos she's probably the most brave/courageous one out of all the characters in the game despite thinking she isn't, and she's a total math/programming nerd. ~