DanganRonpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

Hope’s Peak Academy is a government-funded private high school recognized all across the nation as the cradle of hope and prosperity, providing a complete education for “ultimate” students of all stripes.

Thanks to a national lottery, one extremely lucky but otherwise ordinary student—Makoto Naegi—has been chosen to attend this prestigious institution.

But when Makoto arrives for his first day of class, he suddenly falls unconscious, and when he wakes up he finds himself in a classroom within the school—with the windows barred and the doors locked. As he explores the abandoned, dirty halls, it becomes clear that something is very wrong. He and his new classmates make their way to the gymnasium, where a demented robotic bear, calling himself Monokuma and claiming to be the school’s headmaster, makes a declaration: “You’re all going to be living here from now on. If you want to go free, your only choice… is murder.”

And so… fifteen high school students gathered from across the country have been imprisoned. Their strength, their commitment, their very humanity will be tested time and time again. Why must they clash in these class trials? Who’s the mastermind behind it all? And what is this shadowy figure really after? The battle against the looming, invisible enemy known only as despair is about to begin…

From VNDB

I played both in English, but since I really am passionate and loved the game, I want to give my opinion on why I liked it and why if you haven’t, you should play! I played both games last year but totally forgot to talk about them. Interesting that I just now remembered I hadn’t done it because I saw Danganronpa is coming to Steam (I wish it was coming to more than Steam but my dislike for Steam isn’t important).

Danganronpa is a mystery visual novel along the lines of Ace Attorney (who I’ve just realised I haven’t talked about either ಥ_ಥ). I’ve been quickly discovering I really do like visual novels with gameplay (that isn’t goddamn RPG!!).

It has a lot of mini games like rhythm, hanged man, putting comics in order, shooting inconsistences and lies with the truth.

Actually, it reminds me of Umineko in that regard, though Umineko has no gameplay. If Umineko had gameplay, I think it’d be like this, or similar.

The mini games are fun, and we control the character moving around, but where Danganronpa shines, like all visual novels should, is on the characters and the plot.

The plot is a bit of a mix of Hunger Games/Battle Royale, in which to escape they have to kill someone and get away with the murder, and again, like Ace Attorney, standing on a court and figuring out who the murderer is.

I love me some mysteries, what I liked the best was no fantasy on the murders, they were all logical (although sometimes farfetched) and capable of being done by humans.

A warning:
A lot of likeable characters die while the saltless ones tend to survive. Which I think is unfortunate, but also, I felt those deaths in my guts when they happened.

When I reached the last chapter I was dreading that it would become bust, about who the villain was and the resolution. It was an epic final chapter, full of sweat and unravellings, but indeed the ending…

Was open ended.

Which is so infuriating.

(¬_¬)ﾉ

But it has a sequel, so I forgave it. It’s just I wanted more. I didn’t want the game to stop, specially there!

Happy gaming! ♥(✿ฺ´∀`✿ฺ)ﾉ

Have you heard about this game before? Have you played it? If so, I’d love to know what you think of it!