Ranking all of Danganronpa V3's Cases/Trials

Hey everyone, it's time for another Danganronpa ranking!

In my last 2 Danganronpa posts, I ranked the cases in Trigger Happy Havoc and SDR2, so now it's time to rank the cases in Danganronpa V3! Although the ranking for this one wasn't quite as competitive as the ranking for SDR2, it was still pretty competitive and there were definitely a few placements I was tempted to change. V3 has some really unique and twisty trials.

If you have no idea what Danganronpa is, don't go any further, because this post will contain spoilers for the entire trilogy!

I mentioned this in the last posts, but I'll repeat it before jumping into the ranking:
I mostly see people talk about ranking the trials, which are definitely part of this, but in this ranking, I'm ranking the cases as a whole. So basically I'm focusing more on the mystery, how interesting it was to investigate and solve, how complicated it was, etc. Things like the trial being long/dragged out and the mechanics of the trial aren't things I have too much interest in discussing, so they're not things that will really come into play on this ranking.

Without further ado, let's jump into the list!

6- Case #2- Ryoma's Murder

Honestly, when compared to the other two games, it was much easier to choose my least favorite trial for V3. Not because this case is that bad, but rather because all of the other cases of the game are just leaps and bounds better than this one, so it gets easily & very obviously left in the dust. Yes, even by case 3. I said what I said. 

Ryoma's murder is just really forgettable within the grand scheme of V3 for me. It gets lost in the shuffle among all of the other huge cases throughout the game. Kirumi is one of the least notable killers and has one of the most random-seeming motives, and while Ryoma has inspired tons of memes post-game, he's also not one of the most memorable characters within the game either. Furthermore, although the piranhas and the magic show are an interesting element for the case, the case is honestly pretty straightforward in comparison to the other cases in V3. If it were in... Trigger Happy Havoc, for example, it might have been ranked a lot higher, but the V3 list is really competitive, so it's at the very bottom. 

5- Case #3- Angie & Tenko's Murders

Although it's in 5th place, I'm very firmly a V3 case 3 defender and wanted so badly to put this higher on the list. Because the investigation of case 3 is possibly my favorite part of V3 overall. The seance sequence, followed by Tenko's murder and Kokichi subsequently pretending to be dead is one of the most compelling sequences of events in the entire series for me. However, there's the obvious downside of the fact that this is also one of the most stupid cases, motives, and killing methods in the entire series. So that tips it in the other direction... much like a SeEsAW.

Ugh, the seesaw. And the fact that Tenko was murdered in general. It's all just so... dumb. Look, I get why Kiyo felt the need to kill as many people as possible for Sister, but that doesn't stop me from thinking it's a really stupid motive for the writers to create for his character. And on top of that, Kiyo is so obviously the killer, to the point that you almost want to write him off because he's so obvious. And on top of all of that, we also miss out on what could've been a really cool opportunity. The game presents us with the option of there being two killers... just for there to only be 1 killer. That's such a flagrant violation of the concept of Chekov's Gun. Don't dangle the idea of multiple killers right in front of us if you don't intend to actually give it to us!

The final piece of this case, and the final thing that makes me want to move this up the list... the development it gives to Himiko. One of the reasons I love case 2-2 is because it gives my favorite character, Fuyuhiko, the start to his redemption/growth arc. Similarly, 3-3 gives Himiko her own growth arc. She finally begins to pull herself out of inaction and is inspired by Tenko's last words to her to show her emotions and express how she feels. The more times I experience this case, the more I grow to love Himiko, for this exact reason. 

4- Case #6- Rantaro's Murder pt. 2

Of the 3 final cases, this is the one I have the most mixed opinions on. Firstly, to get my interpretation of it out of the way, I firmly believe that Tsumugi was lying about several of the aspects of the trial. I don't believe that they were really these soulless, messed up potential killers before being given their in-game personalities. I think the prologue pretty handily proves that on its own. Past that, however, I think her lies are a bit harder to parse through. I view Trigger Happy Havoc & SDR2 as real things that happened to real people, but I'm not sure whether I view it in the lens of V3 being an alternate universe version of the Danganronpa world or if V3 is significantly in the future and inspired by the original real killing games. IDK. But that's generally my personal opinion on the matter.

Anyway, the ending of V3 really reminds me of The Truman Show, which I think is why I was pretty quick to accept how meta it was. I'm not sure I personally totally love it, but I also didn't find it as controversial as the fandom at large seemed to find it. I liked the way the trial at first seemed to be returning to the original concept of hope vs. despair before finally returning to the game's true concept of truth vs lies. I thought it was a really clever way of wrapping up the themes of the game and emphasizing the idea that truth and lies aren't black and white morally, and lies can have positive impacts on people as well. 

Personally, my favorite aspect of the case was the actual retrial of the first case. The idea of Monokuma purposely manipulating trial outcomes certainly wasn't a new concept for this game (see: Trial 1-5), but it was a concept I thought was cool the first time around & thought was handled significantly better this time around. Going back over the case with new evidence was a really awesome idea, and seeing it all culminate in the mastermind being revealed was just the cherry on top. 

3- Case #5- ???????'s Murder

Honestly, although I like this trial, I think I would have much more positive opinions about it if not for the people involved in it. This is the only case in the entire series where one of my favorite characters is both the victim and the culprit. Apart from Case 1-4, but including that feels like a cop-out. So this case really broke me in a way none other had done before. Because no matter what, I knew I was coming out of this trial losing both Kaito and Kokichi, aka half of my favorite characters. That hurt.

That said, though, the obvious most interesting aspect of this case is the fact that we don't know who the victim is, so we're forced to figure out not only the culprit, but the victim too. All while one of them is inside an exisal, changing personalities at the drop of a hat. And even more mind-bendingly, Monokuma also doesn't know who the killer is. The 5th cases in Danganronpa games tend to be the most mind-bending cases-- 1-5, a body inexplicably appears despite all the students being accounted for, 2-5, Nagito fake-suicides and uses his luck to get another student to accidentally kill him, and then this one. 

Overall, I think 2-5 is the most mind-bending of all of them, but the thing that makes me really appreciate 3-5 is, of course... Kokichi. He creates this entire plan to make a murder Monokuma can't solve and effectively ruin the killing game. In my opinion, this is when we finally see the closest thing to the real Kokichi we will ever see, and to me it speaks volumes about his intentions both in this trial and throughout the entire game. This case was the key piece to put Kokichi into perspective to me, and I think that's what I like most about the case, even if we had to lose him in the process. 

2- Case #1- Rantaro's Murder

The previous two first cases haven't ranked very highly on my lists. 1-1 was my least favorite case from THH, and 2-1 got 2nd to last solely by the grace of me disliking 2-3 that much. But 3-1 changes everything for me. This case is not only one of my favorites in V3, but also across the entire series as a whole. The plot twist of "the protagonist is actually the villain" can still be done well, but is a bit overdone at this point. But the "protagonist isn't really the protagonist and dies in the first chapter" twist? Now that's interesting. 

Unfortunately, I mildly spoiled this for myself-- I liked to look up which gifts I should give characters and in doing so, saw something that alluded to Shuichi being the one giving the gift rather than Kaede. Probably because I was trying to do my free time with Shuichi lol. Which is another key point-- as much as I was excited to have a main-game female protagonist... I didn't really like Kaede very much. And I still don't. So switching to playing as Shuichi, who was immediately my favorite character? I was a fan.

The build-up to the murder (especially all the hints to what she was doing) and the subsequent realization in the 6th trial that Kaede actually didn't end up killing Rantaro both add really interesting layers on top of what is already a really unique, interesting case within the series. This is truly the case that just keeps on giving, and subverting all of your expectations every single step of the way.

1- Case #4- Miu's Murder

As I mentioned in my rankings for SDR2, I love when the characters are forced into a different environment and the way that the resulting case hinges around understanding the secret to that new environment. And although I think it was still done best in case 2-4, this is a really great spin on it. And that's even before we get to the fact that the culprit is someone that you'd never think would be a culprit, and that fact once again hinges on understanding the new world that they were forced into. 

Although I don't find the virtual world quite as compelling as the funhouse, I do really still enjoy the process of trying to understand the world, not only on its own but also as it relates to the case, to the real world, and to Miu's own murder plot, which is an extra twist that I found really compelling.

The obvious downside for me of this case is, of course, Kokichi's involvement in it and the way that he manipulated Gonta into essentially doing his dirty work for him. It's Kokichi's lowest point morally in the game and the biggest thing that Kokichi detractors can point to when they want to say how evil he is. And I get it, it's definitely a side of him that I really didn't enjoy seeing. It shows the extent to which he is truly self-interested, even above his desire to end the killing game. That said, I do also believe that his tears for Gonta were real. Maybe I'm being naive or seeing him through rose-colored glasses because he's my favorite character in the game, but that's how I interpret that moment. If I'm wrong, I'm wrong. 



That's all for this post! I still haven't decided if I'm going to rank all of the cases together, or if I'm going to do a 5 favorite/least favorite, but that should be my last Danganronpa case/trial post. That might also be my last Danganronpa post for a while, because I've gotten to the point where I've done the posts/rankings that I most wanted to do. But if I have more that I want to do in the future, you'll definitely see more, because I love talking about Danganronpa any chance I get!

Let me know which Danganronpa V3 case is your favorite down in the comments!
Thanks for reading!

The Genius: Black Garnet Main Match Rankings

So, here we are once again to do a ranking of things related to The Genius. It's been a while since I posted anything Genius-related, but I have done a few rankings related to The Genius over the past couple months, so if you want to check those out, you can click on "The Genius" tab at the top of the blog.

Like always, I'm assuming you've found your way here because you're also a fan of this beautiful show. If that's not the case, turn back now, because I'll be discussing spoilers through the end of season 3 and I really don't want to spoil you. 

Or, if you're curious about the show, I've embedded episode 1 below, so you should definitely check it out. However, don't continue reading the rest of this post until you've finished all of seasons 1-3 because I'm going to be massively spoiling them. Don't say I didn't warn you. 

Before I jump into my ranking of the Main Matches of S3, I wanted to briefly touch on my criteria for this ranking. Although I moved stuff around afterward, I did begin ranking these using a set scoring system. My 3 criteria for that were concept, gameplay, and entertainment. Breaking that down a bit:

Concept- Does the concept of the game interest me? Is it something I want to try? How does it compare to other Genius games in intrigue and complexity?

Gameplay- The actual strategy used by the players. Did they figure out a hack? Did they come up with clever strategies? Did The Genius theme or Extreme Ways start playing at a key moment?!

Entertainment- Was it overall fun to watch this main match unfold? Usually, clever gameplay is entertaining, but sometimes it's not.

Like I said, I scored each match in these categories, but I did shift stuff around just a touch because I like to keep things fluid. But I'll get into more detail when discussing each game. Let's go ahead and jump into the list!

11) Constellation Game

OK, maybe I'm just being a little bitter but oh boy do I dislike this game. Every season, there's always one game that stands out as the absolute worst and this season, it's Constellation Game. Some people might assert that it's just the way that the game played out this time, not an inherent flaw in the game. Apart from the fact that I'm taking every aspect, including the players' gameplay, into account, I think this game is incredibly flawed. Yes, this time it was boring to watch because everyone ganged up against two people to box them out of the game all together, but I think that this game will always play out this way. It's the most obvious, safest strategy for everyone to team up and make it so that two people simply cannot play the game. Sure, one of them will probably get picked for the Death Match, but when they have Black Garnets at their disposal, this becomes less of a concern. 

Sure, I was frustrated that the two people who were clearly the best players (who also happened to be my two favorites) were the ones getting completely shut out. But the real frustration lies in the fact that the opportunity to shut someone out exists. When you have all of these intelligent people in one place, they will always realize that shutting people out is the safest play, and they will always do it, resulting in a boring, straight forward game that never gives the other people any chance to fight back.

10) Doubting Yutnori

I don't think that this game is awful, but I think that it has some of the same drawbacks as Tactical Yutnori, but this time in a Main Match, which just amplifies the problems. And one of the best aspects of Tactical Yutnori is that it's a leveling war. AKA-- "I think my opponent wants X result and will therefore throw these sticks, so I'm going to throw these sticks to block them from getting the result they want." However, Doubting Yutnori takes all of the leveling away and returns it to essentially a role of the dice like in the original Yutnori game. Sure, the person who rolled the die can lie about it, but you have to be able to lie convincingly and not get doubted. I think that there are definitely better versions of "doubting" games (namely, Swords and Shields) and this one just doesn't stack up. 

On top of that, we have additional players in the game, which (reiterating previous posts) I'm usually not a big fan of. Per usual, the fact that they're from the same season bothers me a lot less, but the fact that the players are largely relying on their "teammates" that are chosen completely by chance is something that I don't really like. Maybe that's just because my boy Hyunmin got stuck with Kyunghoon, but still. Ugh.

9) Middle Race 2

I don't want to be a broken record, so quick reminder: I'm generally not that high on games with guests. They always come on "reiterations" of previous games and typically, the entertainment level is upped while the strategic level is lowered. In this instance, I might argue that almost everything was slightly worse. I really enjoyed the original Middle Race. Sure, there were a couple flawed characters that were improved upon for Middle Race 2, but I think this game is quite a bit better when played with Genius players who are all self-interested. It makes for some really interesting partnerings and alliances. People can work together fluidly and help different people as they see fit. In "loved ones" games, the guests are only interested in helping out the player they came to support. Which means that you'll have partners purposely choosing characters that work well together. And at this point in the season, the alliances are pretty set in stone, so instead of people fluidly working together, it's pretty rigid. Add on the fact that this is the most forgettable set of "loved ones" throughout the seasons (except for the lovely Gayeon unni), and this is definitely a downgrade from the original. Honestly, I think it's possibly the most forgettable main match of the entire season for me. 

8) Investment and Donation

This game is perfectly fine. I think in nearly any season, I would consider this to be a solid middle of the road game. It's not one of the super intriguing ones with an interesting concept and hackable props, but it's solid and allows for a lot of interesting gameplay. The only real problem I have with the game is the way that it played out. As a general rule, it's always more interesting to watch people try really hard to win than it is to watch people try really hard to lose. And in this episode, both Youhyun and Dongmin are trying to out-miser each other and it makes the game a little less fun. And of course, Yeonjoo blabbed Dongmin's entire plan to Youhyun, which is really the catalyst for the two of them both trying to be the loser. Overall, I think that this could have been a much more interesting game if we didn't have to deal with two people trying to undercut each other as the losers. 

7) Fruit Stand

I know that there are a lot of people that really love this game. I like it, but I'm certainly a lot more on the fence than many fans. Personally, this is probably my least favorite opening game. That being said, I'm really glad that this was used as the first game rather than later in the season. If this were played at a point in the season when there were already solid alliances, I think this would have been a really boring game. As it played out, it was actually pretty interesting and there was a lot of solid strategy. Despite the fact that I touted this as my least favorite opener, that's not saying too much because I tend to really love the opening games (123 isn't necessarily my favorite game, and I probably like it less than Fruit Stand in general, but it's perfect as an introduction to the show). 

We do get some really great moments in this game. We see Hweejong and Dongmin immediately pair off because they have the same fruits. Youhyun pulls a very clever move and switches fruits to interfere with the other players. And of course, that absolutely phenomenal camera work zooming in on Kyunghoon after his massive betrayal of the other melons... as well as the betrayal in general. And, of course, the beautiful irony of Dongmin calling Hyunmin an idiot. Overall, this isn't one of my absolute favorite games of the season, but I did think that it was a solid start and overall was a pretty solid game. 

6) Stormy Stock Market

Information wars are always some of my favorite games on The Genius. I always enjoy seeing people piecing together several different clues in an attempt to get a complete set of information. While I definitely prefer games like Scamming Horse Race, this was still a really interesting take on the "information war" concept. This was also still in the budding stages of the HyunDongmin alliance, so it was really great to see them shake hands and decide to go all the way together and to watch how that played out in the main match. The aspect of having to go in the dealer room and having an allotted amount of time in there was also a super intriguing concept, as was that time gap that no one had information on. The fact that they had to have a bidding war for the 2:40 information was a super intriguing concept and the only thing that made me slightly frustrated about it was that it forced Hyunmin and Dongmin to be pretty open with their alliance.

That being said, the absolute best part of the entire match was the brilliant gameplay that the two of them exhibited. Hiding information around the set is something we'd never seen before on the show, and it was so clever and perfectly hid their alliance at the beginning of the match. It allowed them to have all of the information and it was just so brilliant. On top of that, the way that Hyunmin was able to easily get people to let him into the room whenever he needed to was absolutely masterful. He and Dongmin were forced to out their alliance a bit because they had to pool their garnets to buy information, but even with that, they played the main match so well. It was really impressive.

5) Middle Race

I think Middle Race is one of the games that people tend to have really mixed opinions on. Some people think it's over-complicated, but most of the games that are often described as "over-complicated" are the ones that I absolutely love. While I'm not totally in love with Middle Race, it's one that I really enjoyed. I know that it was really boring for the players in-game (poor Lawyer Kang apparently had to wait a few hours while the other players finished the race), but I found it really intriguing as a viewer. I think that the different character abilities are really interesting and found myself trying to figure out which one of the characters I'd want to pick if I had the chance to play (My gut reaction was Silence, but that might not actually be the best play. Might be more aggressive than I would want to be). 

Either way, one of the most interesting aspects of the game is the way that certain characters interacted with each other. There were some really awesome combinations that the players made both to launch people to the front or back, or even to just create an infinite loop to help out all of the players. It was really cool to watch, and to see how the players decided to go about creating different scenarios and who they decided to lock out. In some ways, it makes me think of Food Chain in the fact that each player has a specific identity that has specific abilities that play off each other to really cool effects. I think Food Chain definitely did that better, but this was still a really cool game. 

4) Swords and Shields

Apologies for the blurry gif, but Verita's reaction upon winning is so presh. I think this is one game where people will disagree with me. And I'll admit, the actual way that the game played out could've been better. But the concept and the entertainment level were really awesome for me, so that rockets it up higher in the rankings for me. I've said it once, and I'll say it again-- games with secret identities are my fave. In this case, there's a secret identity aspect, but there's also the secret weapon aspect that I find really cool. And even better is the bluffing aspect. In fact, the bluffing might be my favorite part. I really like that aspect of trying to catch people lying about what weapons they actually have. 

And that's made even better with the fact that Yeonjoo totally doesn't understand the way that bluffing works in the game. Dongmin's yelling at her, Yeonjoo is utterly perplexed, and everyone is worried she's going to ruin everything. It's so much fun. It's really disappointing that both teams immediately pegged each others' leaders because it made the game really short, but I still thought that it was entertaining despite the brevity. Unlike the Constellation Game, I don't think that Swords and Shields will necessarily play out this same way each time, so I don't think that the game itself is flawed... I just think that Hweejong was always going to look suspicious, and Dongmin is way too good at reading people. 

3) Chain Auction

I might be biased because I'm a Hyunmin stan, but the gameplay in Chain Auction is off the chain (I'm so sorry for that terrible pun but it had to be done). I'd go out on a limb and say that his gameplay in Chain Auction is one of the best Main Match showings in the history of the show (although I'd also say that he has an even better showing in another of the games coming up in a minute). Anyway, Chain Auction is just awesome all the way around. And of course, the most fun aspect of the entire episode is that we get the return of Jinho and Sangmin. You don't realize how much you miss having them on a season of The Genius until they pop in for an episode and make everything perfect again. Seriously, they're such legends and they're so much fun. 

But on top of that, we also get such an awesome game. This one kinda makes me think of Open, Pass. Not in terms of the concept of the game or anything, but when it's first introduced it sounds like it might be an alright concept... and then one of the players comes up with some fantastic strategy that totally demolishes everyone else. Seriously, I was already super impressed with Hyunmin as a player, but this just sent me completely over the edge. Jinho kinda lucked into the same strategy, but the fact that Hyunmin figured it out so quickly was outstanding. And the way it was revealed was also so awesome. Just that casual "I'll always get 10" was so great. I know I'm gushing over Hyunmin but he's such an epic player. Strategically, I'll continually argue that he is the most elite of anyone who's ever played The Genius, and this game is one of his highlights. 

2) Miner Game

I love every aspect of this game. The concept? Really awesome, with hackable props-- my favorite. The entertainment level? Also super high. Everyone is super stressed out, worried about the bombs. Dongmin and Ayoung are on a team, which leads to Dongmin just yelling at her all the time. And then the gameplay gives us this sick reveal of Hyunmin and Dongmin's partnership, on top of Dongmin figuring out the weights of the bombs. Seriously, this game has. it. all. In fact... I'm moving its placement right now. I had it in spot #3 but I just swapped it with Chain Auction for a few reasons. Yes, the gameplay in Chain Auction was phenomenal, but for me the concept was slightly below Miner Game. I'm a sucker for hackable props. 

Anyway, this episode and game are both absolutely phenomenal. This is when we get the first little hint at a HyunDongmin alliance and it's so great. They worked in secrecy so flawlessly and they used their advantage with the bombs so perfectly and you can just tell how much effort both of them are putting into the game. One of my favorite scenes in the episode is where Hyunmin is practicing mining at the beginning and discovers the slight difference in the bombs even before Dongmin does. And of course, this is when we get our first introduction to sensitive, fussy Dongmin, which is one of my favorite storylines to follow. This episode is just the catalyst for the rest of the amazing season, and it's just so good. From the awesome partnership (that Hyunmin almost messes up), to the outstanding gameplay, to the sick reveals, to the awesome concept, I absolutely love this game. It's so. good. 

1) Jury Game

If I've said it once, I've said it a million times-- secret identity games are my absolute favorite thing. And this is one of the best iterations of that concept. And on top of that, we get one of the best reveals in the history of the show, some really entertaining moments, and some absolutely outstanding gameplay. 

If you've made it this far into the post, you're well aware that I'm a Hyunmin stan. And this game is one of the main reasons why. I think that his showing in this Main Match is the best gameplay anyone's shown in a single game across all of the seasons. He plays this so masterfully. Every single aspect of his gameplay was so perfectly crafted. When you play one of these secret identity games, you want to make sure that you don't act out of character-- if you're more quiet or more talkative than normal, you stand out and look suspicious. And Hyunmin did a flawless job of maintaining his normal personality, while getting the criminals to trust him so they didn't think that he was the leader. He was able to suss out that Youhyun would be the one leading strategy on that side, so he got especially close with Youhyun so that he would trust him. 

And then, on top of all of that, the reveal for Hyunmin being the leader is one of the best reveals in the show's history. The show does such a great job of keeping him hidden (partially because he did such a good job of keeping himself hidden) and then dropping this epic twist on the audience. They do such a good job of explaining everything that he did to keep his identity secret. 

Also, notice that all I've talked about so far is the gameplay. I haven't even discussed the game concept itself, which is so cool. I love the idea of the hidden identities and trying to put together a jury that will vote correctly while trying to figure out everyone's identities. The fact that the criminals all know each others' identities is one of the coolest parts of the game, because it allows them to get together and figure out how to trick the citizens. And the entertainment was really high on this one as well, because Dongmin is just overpowering everyone and trying to lead his team to victory despite everyone doubting him. It's too good. 

Also, interesting side-note, although it looks like Youhyun kinda ruined it for his team by grouping them all together, it was actually entirely Lawyer Kang's fault. In an interview, Youhyun revealed that they'd had a meeting earlier where Youhyun essentially told them that if he called everyone together for a meeting, the leader shouldn't join them. And Lawyer Kang joined them. OOPS. Entirely his fault. But it gave us that amazing reveal of Hyunmin absolutely losing his mind when he realizes that he knows who the criminal leader is. 

So, those are my rankings of the Main Matches of The Genius Season 3! I'm sure that everyone reading this will have a pretty different ranking, or will disagree with me on at least one of these, so let's get a discussion going in the comments because I always love talking about this beautiful show. Coming up next will be my rankings for the Season 4 players and Main Matches!

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The Genius: Rule Breaker Main Match Rankings

So, here we are once again to do a ranking of things related to The Genius. I've done a few rankings related to The Genius over the past couple weeks, so if you want to check those out, you can click on "The Genius" tab at the top of the blog. (I swear I'm going to actually make one this time!)

Like always, I'm assuming you've found your way here because you're also a fan of this beautiful show. If that's not the case, turn back now, because I'll be discussing spoilers through the end of season 2 and I really don't want to spoil you. 

Or, if you're curious about the show, I've embedded episode 1 below, so you should definitely check it out. However, don't continue reading the rest of this post until you've finished all of seasons 1 & 2 because I'm going to be massively spoiling both of them. Don't say I didn't warn you. 

Before I jump into my ranking of the Main Matches of S2, I wanted to briefly touch on my criteria for this ranking. Although I moved stuff around afterward, I did begin ranking these using a set scoring system. My 3 criteria for that were concept, gameplay, and entertainment. Breaking that down a bit:

Concept- Does the concept of the game interest me? Is it something I want to try? How does it compare to other Genius games in intrigue and complexity?

Gameplay- The actual strategy used by the players. Did they figure out a hack? Did they come up with clever strategies? Did The Genius theme or Extreme Ways start playing at a key moment?

Entertainment- Was it overall fun to watch this main match unfold? Usually, clever gameplay is entertaining, but sometimes it's not. 

Like I said, I scored each match in these categories, but I did shift stuff around just a touch because I like to keep things fluid. But I'll get into more detail when discussing each game. Let's go ahead and jump into the list!

11) King Game

I'll have to re-think this while I go through all of the games throughout the run of the show, but this might possibly be my least favorite game in the history of the show. The gameplay redeemed it slightly because of Doohee's secret betrayal of his alliance, but overall I don't find anything particularly compelling about the concept. While there is some sort of strategy to it, the different components really aren't that interesting. People literally just make symbols with their hands and are then are told to stand by letters. I honestly forgot it existed until listening to the Dom & Colin recap of the season because of how completely forgettable it is. With some changes, perhaps this could become a compelling game (maybe a hackable prop instead of a hand signal?), but this format just has way too many non-compelling components. 

10) 7 Commandments

This game gave me vague shades of Zombie Fluxx, a card game where the win-condition can change based on the cards that people play. That's a game that I think is interesting in concept, but extremely frustrating to play. In this game, the rules change instead of the win-condition, but I think that's almost a less interesting difference. Overall, I just didn't find this game compelling. I thought that different people having different personal bills was a fairly intriguing concept, especially as Hongchul used Junghyun's to his own advantage, but the rest of the game was fairly uninteresting. In addition to this, some of the personal bills were extremely powerful in comparison to others. Sangmin and Jiwon were essentially able to hack the game and ended up leading their allies to an assured victory. It was way too easy to hack, and overall it's a fairly forgettable game.

9) Monopoly Game

The Monopoly Game is this far down on the list mostly because of the ID incident... but not quite for the reason that you'd think. So much stuff happened in this episode. Yohwan helped lead Sangmin to the token of immortality, Jinho eventually discovered the safe... to find it empty, Doohee's ID was stolen for the main match, he got the token of immortality from Sangmin, betrayed Sangmin, and then discovered that the token of immortality was fake and promptly went to the death match and was eliminated. I just said a lot of words there. Barely any of them were related to the main match. 

Because of all of the other insanity going on in this episode, there wasn't really a huge emphasis on the Monopoly Game itself. Sure, there was some emphasis on the ID theft, but that's not really related to any sort of winning strategy-- just to the surefire way to make someone lose. Like I said in my last post on Season 2, I'm not out on a witch hunt against the people who stole the ID. If they'd taken it and used it to peek at Doohee's resources or to get something they needed & then returned it with ample time, I'd consider it good gameplay. I feel like the producers expected some sort of ID trading or else the IDs wouldn't have even been a game mechanic. However, I think it was a low blow and really poor sportsmanship to take the ID and not return it until Doohee's fate was sealed. All things considered, everything in this episode that was interesting happened at the periphery of the game, while the game and any real strategy related to it were put on the back burner. 

8) Big Deal Game

When I ranked the games of Season 1, I mentioned that games with extra players brought in aren't necessarily my favorite. And that's the case with this one. The group Super Junior was brought in to play, and I thought it just ended up being alright. One or two of them played well, while another was completely convinced that their partner was lying to them about being their partner. In terms of this game as a betting game, I think it's fairly interesting. We get several iterations of betting/bidding games throughout The Genius and this one is very different because the players actually decide whether or not they want to accept another player's bid for that certain color. 

Overall, I think it's a fairly interesting game. However, I think my main problem with it is the extra players being brought in. For every other season, it's at least a "loved-ones" type visit, whereas this time it's just random members of a boy band. I think this game would've been more interesting with all players, therefore playing by alliances. It also probably would've been more interesting with loved-ones because the hidden partner twist ended up being a little silly to me. 

7) Blackout Game

As I've mentioned in other posts, I listen to a few Genius-related podcasts, and I'm pretty sure that none of them like this game. I think I'm a bit higher on it than they are. I think that it was an entertaining game to watch, and it was probably really fun to play as well. It's especially good when one of the participants is Hongchul, who is just going completely out of his way to be silly. And I also really loved the eventual reveal of Eunkyul betraying his team to help out the opposite side. Despite what anyone else says about him being a bad player, I think this was a cool move despite the other people completely ruining it for him. That being said, I think the strategy is a bit weak here. Realistically, there are only two real options-- have a mole planted on the other team feeding you information... or guess. Everyone will be trying to trick you about whether or not they crossed the line, so you're completely in the dark (ayyy, bad puns) unless the other team is giving you information. So, tl;dr: fun to watch, not the most strategic thing in the world. 

6) Seat Exchange

I really like the simplicity of this game. It's about as close to musical chairs as The Genius is going to get. A lot of the fun of this game derives from Sangmin's extremely impressive ability to just look at someone and know if they're lying. My favorite moments in this game are all the times that Sangmin demanded that someone was not the number they claimed to be, just for them to cower and admit to lying. It was hilarious and wonderful. I feel like this is also one of the easier games to understand, which is a bonus for it. I really don't have much negative stuff to say about this one-- I just enjoyed other games a bit more. I love the games with secret identities or secret hacks, and this one boils down to sitting in chairs. Still a cool game, just not quite as fun as some of the games with hacks. 

5) Layoff Game

This is the classic "let's revamp a game from earlier in the season and bring in guests" game, and as is common with these games in The Genius, I think the entertainment level was upped, but the strategy was brought down a bit. First off, the segment at the beginning where Sunggyu enters and Sangmin freaks out is still one of my favorite moments in the entire run of the show. The sunbae/hoobae alliance will always be the best. And I also loved getting the return of previous contestants and the pseudo-return of a game that I really enjoyed earlier in the season. 

However, the obvious elephant in the room is that Sangmin is still there. And obviously the season 1 players will want to help him and anyone he's aligned with. If you weren't already suspicious of the producers for leading Sangmin to a win, you certainly were after this episode (Not accusing them of doing so, just pointing out how clearly this casting choice helps Sangmin). And plus, as aforementioned, I'm already not a huge fan of bringing "outsiders" into the game, so when they probably all favor one player, it rubs me the wrong way even more.

That being said, this is a game that I really enjoy. I loved Food Chain (we'll get there in a minute), and I thought that this was a cool office twist on the game. In fact, I actually kept thinking about The Office tv show and the potential character correlations. Overall, I really like the concept of the game, and I enjoyed getting to see some of my favorite (and... not so favorite...) players from season 1 back again, despite some of the wrinkles that it put into the actual gameplay. 

4) Elevator Game

I like to refer to this game as glorified Chutes and Ladders, because... c'mon. Is there any chance that they weren't inspired by Chutes and Ladders for this game? That being said, I think that most of my enjoyment of this game derives from the actual gameplay and the entertainment attached to that gameplay. Sangmin was an absolute delight in this game (even more than usual). He had such obvious tells-- hitting his head, dancing, etc. and he's just so... Sangmin... that you don't even realize that they're tells until the flashback. Like, he's just so out-there already that you're not even phased by him breaking out into a silly dance or smacking himself on the head. And then you have the added enjoyment of watching Junghyun try to rally the troops and get so angry at their betrayal that he takes a lap around the set. 

This, of course, is an episode where extra people were brought in, but this is one of the less heinous instances to me due to the fact that they're previous players. I also like that it's previous players from this season as opposed to players from season 1 (or just other seasons in general-- which is more relevant for later seasons than for this one). There are already pre-established relationships and I feel like bringing back eliminated players just works better in the context of the season as a whole. 

As for the concept of the game, I really enjoy it. I really enjoy this twist on Chutes and Ladders. I love that it gives Sangmin the perfect opportunity to completely betray his team despite the fact that he won't gain as many garnets. I think that the strategy to this is kind of an improvement on the blackout game. Instead of having to guess what your opponents are doing, it's a bit of a leveling war. You have to figure out what they're going to do, and how to respond to that, while they're trying to figure out how to block whatever you're trying to do. Or, of course, you just have a spy hitting his head as a signal. Either way, it's a cool game.

3) Minus Auction

This game has popped up a couple times, and I've loved it every time. It's not a game that immediately jumps out to me as "whoa that's a cool concept!" but it's consistently very entertaining and requires a lot of strategy and good gameplay. When it eventually returned, I was really excited because of how much I enjoyed this first iteration of it. There are several different strategies that I think are good ways to go about playing this game, especially when playing with people who are absolutely terrified of getting any of the large numbers. And possibly even better is the little wrinkle where one of the numbers has been completely taken out of the game, and you have no idea what it is until the end. That adds a whole other level of intrigue and suspense to the game that makes it really fun to watch. I don't have too much to say about this game, but it's just a really cool one to watch every single time it comes up.

2) God's Judgment

This is basically the Open, Pass of Season 2... except this time it leads to poor Jinho's elimination rather than his glorious rise to icon-status. Like I've mentioned many times, the games with prop hacks are often my favorite, and this is no exception. I'm honestly surprised it took some of them so long to figure out what was going on with the dice. Immediately upon seeing them, I thought something was really weird about them, because they just didn't look like normal dice. When I looked at them, I immediately noticed that there were the same number of holes on each side, but only some of them actually had white dots. So, I thought that perhaps the outside holes and inside white dots could be fiddled with so that they could create different combinations of numbers altogether. I was a little disappointed that I was wrong, but at least I was right that they came apart in some form or fashion.

I loved seeing everyone figure out the hack at different points throughout the game. Obviously, Sangmin was the first, but we didn't get to see that until a flashback much later. It was really awesome to see how he manipulated people into letting him mess with their dice... all while Yohwan was still trying to figure out how to keep the dice magnetized while throwing them. That fake hack (which I believe was actually just one of the things keeping the dice together) made the game even more entertaining, because everyone was completely convinced that it was the real hack, adding even more to the confusion since it was extremely unhelpful. Overall, it was just a really entertaining game (Hongchul's rolls tho) and I loved the hack aspect to it as well. 

1) Food Chain

I really enjoyed Food Chain, but I didn't realize exactly how much I loved this game until I ranked this season's Main Matches and it just kept beating every single one that I put up against it. It's such an interesting, complex game with a ton of different layers and so much opportunity for a ton of entertainment as well as great strategy. Hweejong was a great character for this episode. I was absolutely rooting for him to get eliminated because I didn't want that dominant gameplay all throughout the season, but this was just such a great episode for this perfect character arc. Of course he got the lion, and of course he overplayed it and it was absolutely wonderful to watch.

So many of the animals have really cool strategy and win-conditions. The chameleon's ability to disguise itself is a cool wrinkle, as is the prey animals' ability to group together and stay alive. It becomes an even more interesting situation when people start forming alliances regardless of their animals, creating dynamics between players that probably wouldn't have existed otherwise. I just think that absolutely everything came together for this game-- the concept was really intriguing, there were so many opportunities for really great gameplay, and Hweejong alone made it one of the most entertaining games of the entire run of the show. And don't even get me started on Jinho holding the stickers hostage and running all over the room, because of course he would. Kong holds a special lil' place in my heart, as does this game.

So, those are my rankings of the Main Matches of The Genius Season 2! I'm sure that everyone reading this will have a pretty different ranking, or will disagree with me on at least one of these, so let's get a discussion going in the comments because I always love talking about this beautiful show. Coming up next will be my rankings for the Season 3 players and Main Matches!

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The Genius: Rules of the Game Main Match Rankings

So, here we are once again to do a ranking of things related to The Genius. Recently, I ranked the players of season 1 of The Genius, so if you missed that, you can check it out here. 

Like last time, I'm assuming you've found your way here because you're also a fan of this beautiful show. If that's not the case, turn back now, because I'll be discussing spoilers for season 1 and I really don't want to spoil you. 

Actually, I take that back. The first episode of the show is embedded below, so I encourage you to check that out. That being said, don't return to this post until after you've finished the season, because I'll be talking about stuff from the entire season. But that's all I'll talk about, so there will be no spoilers for subsequent seasons of the show.

Before I jump into my ranking of the Main Matches of S1, I wanted to briefly touch on my criteria for this ranking. Although I moved stuff around afterward, I did begin ranking these using a set scoring system. My 3 criteria for that were concept, gameplay, and entertainment. Breaking that down a bit:

Concept- Does the concept of the game interest me? Is it something I want to try? How does it compare to other Genius games in intrigue and complexity?

Gameplay- The actual strategy used by the players. Did they figure out a hack? Did they come up with clever strategies? Did The Genius theme or Extreme Ways start playing at a key moment?

Entertainment- Was it overall fun to watch this main match unfold? Usually, clever gameplay is entertaining, but sometimes it's not. 

Like I said, I scored each match in these categories, but I did shift stuff around just a touch because I like to keep things fluid. But I'll get into more detail when discussing each game. Let's go ahead and jump into the list!

11) Abundance and Famine

Don't even pretend you didn't see this coming. This is by far the weakest game of the season and it was also the least interesting one to watch. It's hard to even say that there was good gameplay on this as well, because the winning team miscalculated their tickets and would've lost if they hadn't purchased more. This was the first episode that was extremely straightforward, and that simply wasn't entertaining to watch. After the first round, it was incredibly clear that the large group was going to win and nothing got in their way. The most interesting thing that happened in this game was Changyeop pretending to purchase tickets and actually going through the motions. 

10) Election Game

When I first learned about this game and watched the episode, I enjoyed it. I listened to Geniuscast afterward and they described this as one of the worst games this season. I was surprised at the time, but looking back I have to agree. The rewind reveal is really great and clever, but it basically makes everything we've watched for the rest of the episode completely pointless. In terms of the concept, it's pretty solid. In terms of the gameplay, it's pretty solid as well. Both sides of the game make smart decisions to propel them toward a win-- it just turned out that one side was being completely played. However, in terms of entertainment, it's pretty low. Nearly every game is more entertaining to watch than this one. Except Abundance and Famine, of course.

9) Expression Auction

From what I've seen online, this might be a controversial opinion, but I thought the Expression Auction was just alright. When I scored this one in the 3 categories, it got average scores across the board, meaning that it's a solid game but not as memorable as other games for me. It's got a fairly interesting concept-- the best aspect of which is the betting blocks that you can't reuse. Gameplay-wise, it's pretty solid as well. Most of them have solid strategies and are able to implement it well. Entertainment-wise it's pretty average. There's not a major twist/reveal, but there are some clever moments. And Sunggyu being smug.

8) 1,2,3 Game

I think that this was a really great game to start off the season, but in the grand scheme of Genius games, this one is just pretty average. The gameplay is all over the place-- some people play really complexly and form a solid strategy, other people take a simple route and secure a spot in the middle, and other people are completely miserable. In terms of entertainment, it's a bit up and down as well. The Minseo/Sunggyu/Kyungran controversy is really entertaining, as are Jinho and Junseok's problems. However, Jimmy Cha teaching everyone is one of my least favorite things in this season. I enjoy everyone puzzling things out on their own, not having a single person explain the simple strategy. We could've gotten more entertaining gameplay from that, while instead we only got solid but boring strategy from about half the players.

In short, across the board, this is a solid game with a wide range of gameplay solidity and entertainment.

7) Confined Scamming Horse Race

Nearly all of the entertainment from this episode came from the clip embedded above. The Sunggyu/Sangmin bromance was in peak form this episode. However, this is only partially because of the game itself. The fact that they were locked in separate rooms made this scene really great... but I don't necessarily think that it made the game really great. In general, I tend to be biased against games that bring in people from outside, whether it's friends, randos or previous players (though the previous players are the least egregious for me). I guess it's an extra variable for the contestants to work around, which can be a good thing strategically. However, I feel like I never enjoy watching the dynamic created by the new group of people. 

In this case, it was hit and miss. HaHa was TV gold. He did exactly as Sangmin instructed and made it hilariously entertaining. I'm fairly certain there'd be no Hongchul on S2 if not for HaHa in this game. However, the other three helpers were duds in one way or another. Jinho's helper was a mess (shoulda got Yohwan), Sunggyu's helper refused to listen to him, and Kyungran won despite being oblivious because of her partner. I just don't think their influence on the game was a good thing. The concept of the game was alright, HaHa and Sunbae/Hoobae were entertaining, but the gameplay was a bit weak. Except Sangmin, of course. 

6) Kong's Dilemma

This is another game that I think is well-loved by Genius fans, and I think I'm a bit lower than most people on this one. Overall, I think this is a fairly interesting concept for a Genius game. It's not an all-time favorite for me, but it's definitely an interesting concept. And in general, I think the gameplay was really good in this game, especially from Sangmin and Sunggyu. Entertainment-wise, this one didn't stick with me very much. I remember a couple things here or there, like Sangmin trying to share his team's information and obviously, Sunggyu betraying his team and getting a solo win by keeping back a single kong. But other than that, there's nothing that stands out to me as extremely fun to watch (relative to other games in The Genius. Obviously in the grand scheme of things to watch this is still elite). This is a game that is stronger in the concept and strategy department, but weaker in the entertainment department.

5) Scamming Horse Race

I really enjoy the concept of this game. Games that hinge on information exchange are generally fun to watch because it's so easy to lie to someone and completely screw everyone else over. I definitely like this version of the game better than the "confined" version of this game, because I prefer the contestants having their fate in their own hands instead of depending on some sort of outside force. Overall, I felt like most people played this game well-- even Eunji, whose lie threw everyone else off their game. And those who weren't playing well (*cough*Poong*cough*) were really fun to watch, because he just went all-in on some random horse and it was hilarious. 

4) 5:5 Game

I think many people aren't big fans of this game, but I really like it. I think the concept is really interesting- from the fact that random strangers show up with no explanation, to the fact that they have a limited number of characters to work with. In the end, I think that the weakness of this game is that it's one of the easier ones to figure out, but I think it was really entertaining to see the different ways that each of them was able to hack the game. Kyungran figures out quickly that she can add things together to get exactly 5, Sangmin runs around giving people bracelets and noting specific things about people, and Jinho creates unique information by rubbing people's hands and telling them his brother's name. 

I think all of them showed their cleverness in different ways and that was really great to watch. On top of that, it was so much fun to watch the three of them completely confused when they're simply told to ask people questions with no context. Overall, although this is a game that is fairly easy to figure out, I loved seeing the different ways that each of them hacked the game, and I think that's where the quality of the game lies. 

3) Catch the Burglar

I'll admit, I'm rather biased. I'm a sucker for what I like to call the "Hidden Traitor" trope. AKA someone is secretly a traitor & betraying other people. Hence my love of And Then There Were None by Agatha Christie & the early 2000s TV show, The Mole (which you should totally watch if you're a fan of The Genius). And that's why I love games like this. There were two of those this season, and I liked this one just slightly less. I think the concept for this game is really cool. I think that in practice, it may not be the most entertaining to watch, but I absolutely love the concept. I think the gameplay overall was pretty solid. They came up with a smart way to determine the burglar quickly, and one village ran with that information, while the other made a critical blunder. I don't think this stands up to later games with the "hidden traitor" trope, but I can't help but love games that center around something like this. 

2) Zombie Game

I don't want to be a broken record, so I'll just briefly mention that this is the other "hidden traitor" game that we get this season. This one ranks higher because I like it slightly better than Catch the Burglar in all three categories I was looking at. This concept is by far my favorite of the season. I absolutely love games like Mafia/Werewolf, so the second I heard this concept, I was all-in. I think that this game would've benefited from either a re-shuffling of the Zombie cards (*sigh* Jungmoon. *UGH*) or the removal of Sangmin. I'm still impressed by how he immediately pegged Gura as the other zombie. If we'd gotten better zombies, I think this game could've been played to its full potential. 

We still get some really great gameplay from the 5 human winning alliance, who somehow managed to get everyone to the same point total despite the fact that Poong was having trouble keeping track of all of the touching. We also get a really great moment of Changyeop spitting into his cure and Sangmin drinking it. The chaos that ensues is hilarious. And we also get some really clever gameplay by Gura and Sunggyu, who dupe everyone into thinking that Gura isn't a zombie. From what I've seen and heard, this one isn't considered one of the better games this season, but it's definitely high up there for me.  

1) Open, Pass

Open, Pass is the perfect example of a game that just didn't grab me immediately. When it's first explained, it just doesn't sound very entertaining, even if there's good strategy. And then Jinho steps up with his cards, Extreme Ways starts playing, and we get the best reveal of the season. While Sunggyu was buying up packages of cards and discovering the different colored backs (which was also fun to watch, especially when Eunji called him out), Jinho discovered a hack that I'm surprised anyone figured out. Originally, I wasn't even sure that it was supposed to be a hack (because the card colors were clearly supposed to be used for the strategy). However, one of the producers confirmed that they hoped that someone would use the backs of the cards to figure the game out, but seriously... he figured it out via the direction of the pattern on the backs of the cards. That's absolutely genius. Thank goodness Jinho discovered it, because it gives us the best moment of gameplay of the entire season. 

This is the only game out of all of them that got a perfect score for gameplay, because this was an absolutely masterful move from Jinho. I think the best part was that the rest of the players didn't even understand what he'd done with the cards. The fact that the other players split up their cards by color to create optimal equations was clever in its own right, but it pales in comparison to Jinho being able to make the best out of being completely excluded from the rest of the players. This game just ended up completely exceeding all expectations that I had going into it and left me feeling incredibly impressed by the gameplay that Jinho exhibited. 

So, those are my rankings of the Main Matches of The Genius Season 1! I'm sure that everyone reading this will have a pretty different ranking, or will disagree with me on at least one of these, so let's get a discussion going in the comments because I always love talking about this beautiful show. I'm pretty sure that I'm going to create a separate page on my blog for all of my upcoming posts on The Genius, so when that's created I'll link it here. Coming up next will be my rankings for the Season 2 players and Main Matches!

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