Danganronpa 1 and 2 Review

So I've been lazy, and not just normal lazy, I'm talking full on fuck lazy.  Full on not doing shit when I'm at home besides playing with my animals and sitting my butt in front of the TV trying to recover from the holiday season. But I didn't do it all for naught, you see while I was lazy I was also looking up and doing some research to find out what all is coming out in the next few months, and well it would appear that one of my favorite game series on the Vita is finally getting a PS4 port.  That series being Danganronpa of course.  "But its an old series, why are you reviewing it?"  Well for starters, fuck you, we covered that in the original post, I'll review whatever the hell I feel like, and second the port comes out this month  oops, spoke too soon there, it turns out it actually comes out in March of this year, and I know a lot of people who got PS4s recently and they might be enticed to play it.

Seeing as this is a visual novel I'm not going to be posting any major spoilers, and the majority of the story components in this review happen in the first 30 minutes of the game and can be obviously gathered from both the box art and the paragraph about the game in the Playstation store so I'm not going to use my standard spoiler warning tags, BUT, if you want to go into this game 100% blind and not even knowing the basic premise of the game stop reading here with this brief "review": it's good  It's fucking good.  It's like having sex with an angel and a demon at the same time good.  Seriously this game will make you love, laugh, and cry.  Seriously if you like visual novels or good mysteries take some time and play this game, it's only going to be $40 for 2 games so its SUPER worth it.

Now that that's over with, on with the review!!

Since this is technically 2 games in one, and they both play very similarly with minor differences I'll cover the first, then the changes in the second one as far as game play, music, extras, and anything else that comes into mind.  I'll also go over their settings in a one-then-the-other fashion so as not to confuse people...too much.  Now, with that said, on with the show.

Danganronpa starts off with a description of the setting of the game: Hope's Peak Academy, a premier school where the best of the best are educated and groomed to lead Japan into the future.  These students are the very best at what they do, so much to the point of being called Ultimates.  You play as Makoto Naegi, the Ultimate Lucky Student, who won a national raffle of all high school students in Japan to be lucky enough to enroll in Hope's Peak Academy.  However, after arriving at your new school you black out to awaken alone in a classroom, but soon head to the entrance to discover the other students you are in school with (I'm not going to go through all of their names because that's just a lot of unnecessary typing on my part, but if you want to know I'd refer you to go here but be warned it does contain spoilers).  Upon meeting your fellow students you discover you are trapped in the school and summoned to the Gymnasium where you meet the nefarious Monokuma who reveals that the only way out is to murder one of your fellow students and get away with it.  But that's just the start of the fun as you unravel the events and reasons you and your fellow students are trapped in the school, and to what end this horrific"Killing School Life" serves.

Danganronpa 2 starts off very similarly to Danganronpa, but this time you play as Hajime Hinata, the Ultimate ????.  Instead of being trapped in a school though, you and your classmates are on a majestic island resort called Jaberwock Island for a field trip supervised by the kind hearted Usami.  You and your classmates must gather the hope fragments, which you obtain by discovering the personalities and pasts for your fellow students, to bring them into a bright and wonderful future together, that is until Monokuma comes to spoil all the fun!  Monokuma reveals that he has taken control of Jaberwock Island and set his Monobeasts (colossal robotic monstrosities) to  guard parts of the island he doesn't want you to go to, and forces Usami, now known as Monomi, to obey his bidding by breaking her magic stick that gave her control of the islands faculties.  During the course of this "Killing Island Life" you'll discover what happened to the island, why your there in the first place, and why Monokuma is interfering all over again.

One of the things that really stands out about these games for me is the music, and how well done and polished it is.  Not only are the sound tracks fun, but they are perfect at setting the right tone in the right places, like when you make a big discovery about the setting, or you find a body, or are in the middle of a class trial.  The music is absolutely amazing.  The other noticeable thing with the music is that between the first and second game the music is almost the same, however they "remix" it to fit the tropical theme of the game, and they also tell you what song is currently playing.

Something else that sets this series apart is the gameplay, while traditional VN's just have you interact via dialogue and choices therein, Danganronpa actually has you explore your environment to interact with characters and discover clues and items hidden throughout the world.  Then once a murder happens you are given time to investigate, you initiate a more traditional VN style of gameplay in the form of a class trial, or when you try to discover who the killer was.  There are minigames and times when you will need to use your gathered clues to break counter arguments, present information, or find key words that help with making a solid case.  Overall its a very unique experience that makes the game feel more alive because of it.  Other great things are the the exploration is done in first person, and while traveling around Jaberwock Island in the second game you see your character in 3rd person, and while a fast travel option is available, I often found myself walking anyways because of much I enjoyed it.

The character design and art style is a bit different at first, but it will quickly grow on you throughout the series and the sprite for the characters can be quite funny as well.  I personally found them at first to be off putting, but quickly fell in love with all the little details placed in them to further enhance their characters.  Also every character has a full body concept that shows them with items that relate to their Ultimate ability in some fashion.

There is a lot of other parts of this series too, which while they're not necessary, they do help to flesh out and explore the universe a lot more.  The first game has been redone in both manga and anime form, and while this misses a lot of subplot and character development, they do serve as a decent means to enjoy the series without committing to a 30 hour gameplay, even though I highly encourage it.  Additionally a 3rd game, Danganronpa: Ultra Despair Girls,  does exist to help explain events that are occurring outside of the school as well (saying more would lead to pretty big spoilers, but trust me, it's interesting).  Then as recently as last summer two concurrent animations, Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School Future Arc  and Despair Arc, aired to explain the events that happen after the second game and before the first game respectively, though both of these contain MAJOR spoilers so I would avoid both of them till you have finished both games.  And finally this year saw the release of the 3rd entry in the main series, Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony.  Overall if you find the first two games enjoyable please by all means check out the rest of the series as it does tie together everything nicely.

As I stated earlier I love these games, they're amazing and really set you in a mood of wanting more and coming back to enjoy another play through.  Are they perfect? No, but they're about as damn close as you can get, and it is for this reason I give Danganronpa 1 and 2 Reload 9.5 giggling bears, out of 10.