Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havok

Danganronpa started as a Vita exclusive. There's not a lot of those but Danganronpa garnered a cult following. It's easy to see why as they ooze both visual and narrative style. At their core they are visual novels with investigation and courtroom mechanics not unlike Phoenix Wright. They are much grittier than that though.

All of the games feature a protagonist going to a school for "ultimates" or students with an extraordinary ability in a particular subject. Upon entering they experience memory loss and this provides the narrative momentum. Along with a bunch of other classmates they are forced to participate in a killing game where they try to murder each other and not get caught. The entity that arranges all of this is Monokuma, a half-white, half-black bear robot that talks like a serial killer and wants to sow despair in the world. This really sets the tone for Danganronpa. It's ridiculous, but also depressing and really messed up in some ways.

This is enhanced by the style. Art is mostly 2D, including things in the 3D environments. Characters are billboards that do not change with perspective which is a very interesting intentional choice. Environments are simplistic and get the point across and most of the gameplay is dialog amongst still portraits with a highly distinct style. The music is also quite nice too.

The core loop is largely split up into distinct sections. You start with a lot of world building dialog to set the stage for the next murder case as new parts of the overworld open up. Eventually a murder happens and you need to investigate to find the clues you will eventually use in the class trial. These are all just mostly linear text dialogs but you'd be wise to pay attention to the details because sometimes you won't get a reminder about a particular observation but it might come up in the trial. The active gameplay comes in the form of the class trial and these are the best part of the game. Like with Phoenix Wright these are made exciting through strong character personalities and visual charm. The primary mechanic is the "nonstop debate" where you find an incorrect statement and match it up with the appropriate "truth bullets" (the clues you collected) to advance. This is made slightly more complex because you need to use a cursor to hit the statement as text flies by and occasionally is obscured by other text. This works just well enough I think to not be super bothersome. Unfortunately the rest isn't very fun. "Hangman's Gambit" has you guessing a word by firing at letters but given that they are all short words it doesn't add anything. Once you progress enough you need to break through the mental barrier of one of the students in a "bullet time battle." This plays out in a horrendous rhythm game that is not explained well at all. You basically have to press and release button based on the on-screen prompt, it starts simple and then more mechanics like reloading are added. This plays terribly and was not fun. Finally you are treated to a cartoonishly gory cutscene of the "blackened" being executed with a theme of the their talent, it's over the top but also a bit sad.

I found myself fairly enthralled in the narrative. It has a lot of anime cliché, but it also paints a good mystery and not one that takes itself overly seriously. There are definitely parts about the game that didn't age well though. At least one character I thought wasn't dealt with enough tact, and in 2022 it really feels a bit "problematic." There's also just little bits of dialog that probably wouldn't fly today and including lot of anime perv tropes and fan service to round it out. Thankfully the rest of the game shines through these weaker spots.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Dispair

Danganronpa 2 turns out to be much of the same. The core engine is clearly the same, as is most of the music and gameplay. This time it plays out on a tropical island where the students have taken a school trip. Overall, I think the characters in this addition are some of the best and so I would say this is a better game than the first. Still, it really demands you play the previous entry to get the full effect so don't skip.

It does feature a few new mechanics. One of the new them is consent in nonstop debates. Occasionally characters say things in blue and shooting these means that your truth bullet agrees with them. This is definitely the best new mechanic because it adds a little bit but also is pretty easy to grasp. The other one I thought was fun were the "rebuttal showdowns." Here you slice at words the come from your opponent as they fly across the screen. After a round or 2 of this, they'll give a phrase you can use a Truth Bullet (or Truth Sword as they are called in this mode) against it. While the slicing is more of an action segment, it at least feel exciting unlike some of the other sequences which drag on for way too long. The first big drag is the new Hangman's Gambit. It's difficult to explain but letters fly across the screen and collide. If two of the same letter touch they stop and become a big version of that letter which you can either use to fill in the clue or destroy. You take damage if two different letters collide. It's easy at first but latter version become very, very hectic. The phrases you fill in are much longer this time though, so it requires a bit more thought but it just takes so long to wait for the letter you want to randomly appear. The other is Logic Dive which is like a very minimal snowboarding game. You dodge obstacles and try not to fall off the course. At different points you are asked a question and need to pick the right path to respond. This too takes way too long and is neither hard or engaging. They also did a redux of bullet time battles called "panic talk action", it's largely the same but you can hold the button down across multiple notes. You're also require to make a final blow by selecting the order for 4 words to spell out the evidence. Still sucks.

The second game also has a very nasty bug. During the end of the 3rd case the game frequently crashes meaning you have to do the whole second part again. I had to do this section about 3 times. Basically if I did it fast enough it wouldn't crash. Even worse was one crash that happened after missing the final blow because the word order just happens to make sense in all permutations. Each crash loses you about 15 minutes as you speed run to redo the trial. Very frustrating.

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

The third game changes up the style a bit. Technically it's a much more elaborate game, the camera pans across environments to characters and there's just more 3d and special effects going on. Unfortunately as stylistic as it is, it can make it a bit visually noisy. The Switch version also has considerable slow down, sometimes the music can even lag, it's really unfortunate for a Vita port. This is especially true of the final class trial in which there are sections that are completely unacceptable, dropping to single digit frames with crackling audio. I also had it crash about 5-6 times, definitely save frequently.

Characters in this one orginally felt more annoying, like their personalities were dialed up to 12. This subsided a little bit as you get more exposed to them but the Monokubs add nothing. Their dialog is not really fun or interesting save for a couple of sound clips for their catch phrases. At one point there is an absolutely bizarre and not-related-to-anything joke about incest and abuse between them that comes up and they carry with it for a while. I have no idea why anyone thought to include that but it's bad. Complete edge-lord shit. Ultimately, if you just replaced them with the vastly more interesting Monokuma, the game would have been better for it.

Gameplay mechanics are largely the same. Hangman's Gambit has been revamped again. Letters scroll across the screen but they are in shadow until you create a light to show the letter. You then need to memorize them and select them to fill in the answer. Answers are short like the first game and overall these segments take a lot less time so that was appreciated. Still, it's not good. Logic Dive has been replaced with Logic Taxi. This is similar but it's now a simple driving game. You collect letters to fill in the question (all letters are generic pickups, you just need to collect enough of them). Then you choose an answer to the question to pick up a person. There's occasionally hazards but it's stupid easy. I guess it's a little better because they have the courtesy to give you a little bit of time to read the question before forcing you to pick. There's also a new throw away game that involves uncovering picture clues. It's sorta like a puzzle game, but the main penalty is time. It's really not interesting at all.

What I did enjoy is the new lie mechanic. The way it works is that you essentially assert the opposite of the Truth Bullet selected and lie, which in game logic uncovers the truth later. Like saving a statement it can be a little hard to tell when you should use it. However, sometimes it gives you access to alternate ways to progress a conversation which is really cool. There's a new way to earn more points by shooting a special weak spot in a statement but who cares about points? Somewhat more interesting is "Mass Panic Debates" which is definitely the coolest phrase in the English language. It's like a Nonstop Debate, except multiple ones are going at the same time and so you usually have to listen to it a couple times to get each side. It's fine. The last is a split showdown. Here you have to match up statements from different people based on keywords in their quotes. It doesn't require any special thought, just match on the words in the text but it looks cool and exciting at least.

The third game really goes all out with the ending. They had a lot of fun with it. Also the execution cutscenes were all more brutal than the previous games I thought. Overall it's still a very fun game, minus the shit port job.

Overall I was very happy to play the series. I can say I'm definitely a fan now, for whatever bad parts it has the good parts greatly exceed it. Switch is not a bad platform for them but it was very annoying to deal with crashes. I would hope other platforms fair better. Very recommendable if you don't mind some weeb shit.