Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc was a game that I didn’t expect to enjoy but found myself head over heels for after just a few hours with it. The game’s great writing, interesting characters, gorgeous art style, and awesome soundtrack all worked so perfectly together that it created one of my all-time favourite gaming experiences. Before Trigger Happy Havoc made its way to international markets though the game had already received a sequel in Japan. Thankfully the PlayStation Vita received both games in 2014, and they shortly made their way to other platforms such as the PS4 and PC. But does Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair tread too much familiar ground to fully justify its existence as a sequel, or does the Meta-narrative offered provide a good enough reason to play through another 30+ hour text based murder mystery.
Goodbye Despair places you in the shoes of Hajime Hinata, a young man who has been chosen to study at the prestigious Hope’s Peak Academy. Shortly after arriving however Hajime loses consciousness and awakes on a tropical island surrounded by fifteen other people who also claim to be students of Hope’s Peak Academy who fainted on arrival. The students are tasked with getting to know each other and collect ‘Hope Fragments’ in order to complete their ‘school trip’ by their teacher, a bunny named Usami. Things quickly turn sour however when Monokuma, the robotic bear who oversaw Trigger Happy Havoc’s killing game, appears and hijacks the school trip. He informs the students that in order to escape the island they must murder another student and get away with it. The student’s, all ultimate’s in their respective fields, set about to either defy Monokuma’s demands, or succumb to despair and murder their fellow classmates.
The plot is basically the same as the first game. Sixteen students are placed in a confined area until one of them kills. An investigation into the murder begins and once all the clues have been gathered a trial takes place where the killer must be uncovered, or everyone other than the murderer will be killed. As a result much of Danganronpa 2 feels like a re-tread of what happened last time around. Some of the characters have very similar personalities, and there aren’t enough new mechanics to really allow the game to distinguish itself as anything new. To top it all most of the new characters aren’t as well written or interesting as those from the first game, and the Island simply isn’t as interesting to explore as Hope’s Peak Academy was in Trigger Happy Havoc.
Goodbye Despair places you in the shoes of Hajime Hinata, a young man who has been chosen to study at the prestigious Hope’s Peak Academy. Shortly after arriving however Hajime loses consciousness and awakes on a tropical island surrounded by fifteen other people who also claim to be students of Hope’s Peak Academy who fainted on arrival. The students are tasked with getting to know each other and collect ‘Hope Fragments’ in order to complete their ‘school trip’ by their teacher, a bunny named Usami. Things quickly turn sour however when Monokuma, the robotic bear who oversaw Trigger Happy Havoc’s killing game, appears and hijacks the school trip. He informs the students that in order to escape the island they must murder another student and get away with it. The student’s, all ultimate’s in their respective fields, set about to either defy Monokuma’s demands, or succumb to despair and murder their fellow classmates.
The plot is basically the same as the first game. Sixteen students are placed in a confined area until one of them kills. An investigation into the murder begins and once all the clues have been gathered a trial takes place where the killer must be uncovered, or everyone other than the murderer will be killed. As a result much of Danganronpa 2 feels like a re-tread of what happened last time around. Some of the characters have very similar personalities, and there aren’t enough new mechanics to really allow the game to distinguish itself as anything new. To top it all most of the new characters aren’t as well written or interesting as those from the first game, and the Island simply isn’t as interesting to explore as Hope’s Peak Academy was in Trigger Happy Havoc.
To touch on this meta-narrative I spoke of earlier, Goodbye Despair ultimately tries to pull a Metal Gear Solid 2 on the audience and reveals a series of major plot twists just a couple of hours before the end of the game which require you to re-evaluate everything you have experienced so far, and ultimately end up having a massive explosion dump on you for the remainder of your time with the game. The difference is that Metal Gear Solid 2 did it so much better than Danganronpa 2. With Danganronpa it simply feels like all the story is in the final 2-3 hours of the game where you’re just given endless amounts of exposition that doesn’t make an awful lot of sense because you’re not meant to actually understand any of it. Or to be more specific you’re not meant to understand any of it until you digest the post-game content and other Danganronpa material like Manga and Anime series. So yeah…not well handled. As a result this makes the game feel even more pointless at times because not only do you spend most of the game doing exactly what you did last time, but once it does change things up it’s all for nought unless you’re prepared to go looking for the answers outside of the game.
The game looks and sounds as great as ever though. But that’s mostly because the art style hasn’t changed since Trigger Happy Havoc, and the soundtrack is mostly comprised of the same tracks. There are some new additions, and they’re just as great as all the original songs, but when over half of the soundtrack is songs from the last game it begins to call into question just how much effort went into Danganronpa 2.
The trials are the only thing to have any significant work done to them with some new minigames added, and the returning ones have almost all had some kind of revision. Nonstop Debates now have the opportunity to agree with what people are saying, rather than just call out lies or incorrect statements. Hangman’s Gambit has seen a huge revision where you must now match letters that fly across the screen to form a word. Personally I’m not much of a fan of this version, I preferred the original one. Then the new games are Logic Dive, a platform-racing hybrid where you must navigate an obstacle course as quickly as possible whilst also choosing the routes corresponding to correct statements in a question. Plus there is Rebbuttal Showdown wherein you must cut through statements made by a classmate with the correct Truth Sword…it’s basically just Nonstop Debate but instead of shooting the incorrect statement you cut it.
The game looks and sounds as great as ever though. But that’s mostly because the art style hasn’t changed since Trigger Happy Havoc, and the soundtrack is mostly comprised of the same tracks. There are some new additions, and they’re just as great as all the original songs, but when over half of the soundtrack is songs from the last game it begins to call into question just how much effort went into Danganronpa 2.
The trials are the only thing to have any significant work done to them with some new minigames added, and the returning ones have almost all had some kind of revision. Nonstop Debates now have the opportunity to agree with what people are saying, rather than just call out lies or incorrect statements. Hangman’s Gambit has seen a huge revision where you must now match letters that fly across the screen to form a word. Personally I’m not much of a fan of this version, I preferred the original one. Then the new games are Logic Dive, a platform-racing hybrid where you must navigate an obstacle course as quickly as possible whilst also choosing the routes corresponding to correct statements in a question. Plus there is Rebbuttal Showdown wherein you must cut through statements made by a classmate with the correct Truth Sword…it’s basically just Nonstop Debate but instead of shooting the incorrect statement you cut it.
STORY: 7/10
GAMEPLAY: 8/10
PRESENTATION: 8/10
LIFESPAN: 8/10
SCORE: 8/10
On the whole Danganronpa 2 is just more of the same but not quite as refined as the original. If you like the original game then you’ll have a good time with Danganronpa 2, but those new to the series should play the original first because the final act really hinges on your knowledge and understanding of the events of that game in order to even follow what’s happening. Whilst it’s a good game, it’s really quite hard to recommend to anyone other than existing fans of the series.