Fanfics that tell a story similar to canon but diverge from it at some point tend to have to walk a narrow line in which they're both somewhat faithful to canon, but also have the author's original touches. System Restore achieves that balance fairly well for much of the early story.
The characterization is usually well thought out, and well explained in the Character Summaries, especially in Koizumi's case (particularly why she seems like more of a jerk than in canon). On the other hand, some characters aren't given much attention (e.g. the first killer, whose fate was sealed when he killed someone) or portrayed as well, such as the the second killer in canon, and the second killer in this fic (before, and to some degree after the rewrite). There's also a surprising lack of narrative or in-story sympathy for the killers, however sympathetic or well-intentioned they may be, which can be fairly jarring if you've played the games.
The fic generally follows canon for the game's second and third chapters, with most of the changed events being explained fairly well (although the issues with characterization do come into play at times), but when the story seems to be going a fairly interesting direction, it suddenly changes course, when it might have worked well to let things play out similarly to canon.
Granted, fanfics shouldn't be complete retreads of canon, but there's times when being similar to the source material works better than being different (although the opposite is true). It's hard to explain without spoiling it, but if you like how the first two and three "chapters" of the game went in this fanfic, you should be prepared for something completely different, and possibly for the feeling that it was better off with what it had before.
The trials are occasionally a bit simplistic compared to the first game, particularly in that the first is almost completely glossed over, and the second largely boils down to alibis.
Another concern is that the fic sometimes has long gaps between updates. It's been six months since the last one, which is long enough to raise concern over whether the author will ultimately finish this.
In the end, it might be my opinion, but the fic started out going in a somewhat promising direction, albeit with its share of flaws, but unfortunately seems to have lost sight of it. If you find the concept interesting, I'd recommend you give the first three "chapters" a read, but then it's up to you whether you want to go further than that.
FanFic It Had Me, But It Lost Me
Fanfics that tell a story similar to canon but diverge from it at some point tend to have to walk a narrow line in which they're both somewhat faithful to canon, but also have the author's original touches. System Restore achieves that balance fairly well for much of the early story.
The concept makes a simple but effective change to Super Danganronpa 2 canon- the first killer succeeds in taking out his intended target, killing someone who survived for most of the game while letting the first to die live significantly longer, both o which naturally have long-reaching repercussions for the plot.
The characterization is usually well thought out, and well explained in the Character Summaries, especially in Koizumi's case (particularly why she seems like more of a jerk than in canon). On the other hand, some characters aren't given much attention (e.g. the first killer, whose fate was sealed when he killed someone) or portrayed as well, such as the the second killer in canon, and the second killer in this fic (before, and to some degree after the rewrite). There's also a surprising lack of narrative or in-story sympathy for the killers, however sympathetic or well-intentioned they may be, which can be fairly jarring if you've played the games.
The fic generally follows canon for the game's second and third chapters, with most of the changed events being explained fairly well (although the issues with characterization do come into play at times), but when the story seems to be going a fairly interesting direction, it suddenly changes course, when it might have worked well to let things play out similarly to canon.
Granted, fanfics shouldn't be complete retreads of canon, but there's times when being similar to the source material works better than being different (although the opposite is true). It's hard to explain without spoiling it, but if you like how the first two and three "chapters" of the game went in this fanfic, you should be prepared for something completely different, and possibly for the feeling that it was better off with what it had before.
The trials are occasionally a bit simplistic compared to the first game, particularly in that the first is almost completely glossed over, and the second largely boils down to alibis.
Another concern is that the fic sometimes has long gaps between updates. It's been six months since the last one, which is long enough to raise concern over whether the author will ultimately finish this.
In the end, it might be my opinion, but the fic started out going in a somewhat promising direction, albeit with its share of flaws, but unfortunately seems to have lost sight of it. If you find the concept interesting, I'd recommend you give the first three "chapters" a read, but then it's up to you whether you want to go further than that.