Review #635: Danganronpa Trilogy

 Hope and Despair face off on their eternal struggle in the world of DanganRonpa.

 Well, I'll make it short... Danganronpa is amazing. Since I've already said my piece about Danganronpa 1 and 2(Spoilers: They are brilliant) I'll be focusing exclusively on Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, the latest game in the franchise.

 There's absolutely no way I can talk about the story without spoiling things, the publishers even went out of their way to protect some of the story developments on the game's various covers. What I can say is that the game follows the same formula it's always followed, which isn't a bad thing, with 16 highschool students waking up trapped in a school. The story being divided into chapters and each chapter being divided into different sections: Every day life, where the story progresses between scripted events and 'Free Time' you can spend mingling with other characters, the Investigation of the inevitable murder and then the class trial. The new highschool is fairly large and fun to explore, this entry also has some of the most endearing and some of the most vexing characters in the franchise yet. As per usual, the script gets getting more and more juvenile from entry to entry, which is, arguably, a bad thing. It IS a Japanese game after all, so, y'know, it's got a few questionable portrayals as far as female characters go, from a western perspective. Miu, for instance, is all about flaunting her sexuality and calling other girls 'flat', and of course, they get self-conscious. Because that's what every woman is like in Japan. That aside, the ending has proven itself to be quite divisive, and for good reason. For my part, I enjoyed most of it, but didn't quite like the way it connected with the previous two games, and I'll leave it at that. On the other hand, I feel like I was a bit too kind with Super Danganronpa 2, since it was supposed to be 'an even better sequel', but to be honest, I think this game was closer to Danganronpa 1's charm, which is a good thing.

 There's one thing I've always disliked about Danganronpa, and it's no different now: The trials are too convoluted. There's beauty in simplicity, like Phoenix Wright has prove time and time again. But Danganronpa isn't content with that, so let's see: As per usual, during Trials characters will debate with each other about what they think happened, and you'll have to use evidence, in the form of Truth Bullets to agree or disagree with colored statements. New to the series are 'Lie' bullets, which don't really make sense, but sometimes you'll have to lie about an evidence piece in order to get to the truth. It's a bit weird and doesn't make much sense, but it's there. Showdowns return, when you have to cut through white noise and use evidence, now in the form of Truth Blade, to argue. The fill-in-the-gaps comic book closing arguments is still the same, as well as the boring Hangman's Gambits, in which you have to wait until the correct letters pop up on the screen in order to form a word.

 The new mechanics are: Mass Panic Debates, in which you'll have to do with three testimonies at the same time, Psyche Taxi, in which you have to drive a Taxi to collect letters and answer a question, Debate Scrums, which are basically about rebutting arguments with the correct arguments and, finally, Armored Arguments, where you have to rhythmically press buttons to deal damage to an obstinate culprit. As always, the game is way too convoluted, I picked up a guide and called it a day, since I just couldn't be arsed. And it's fine, Danganronpa's main draw is the story, not the gameplay. As you interact with objects, during the exploration segments, and walk around you'll level up, which in turn lets you equip skills to make Trials easier and more manageable.

 Once you are done with the lengthy main story, you'll unlock a bonus mode... although, this time, you get multiple bonus modes. The micromanagement bonus mode has been tweaked into a more streamlined experience, in which during the day you can go out with various characters, so as to complete their individual development, and during the night you can spend coins on the Casino minigames, a bunch of them being rather fun! Afterwards you might want to play the Talent Plan Mode, which is a quirky Board game that has you increasing, and sometimes decreasing a character's stats, you can also learn RPG-like skills, such as super moves and the like. At the end of the mode you'll engage in a turn-based RPG battle against a boss. Finally, there's Monokuma's test, a rogue-like turn-based RPG where you can take your developed characters, from the Board Mode, in order to clear a 50-floor dungeon and fight powerful bosses. These two latter modes let you use characters from the older Danganronpa games, which is quite a treat, particularly because the board game includes over 500 different events in which characters from any of the three games get to interact with one another!

 I don't know if I'd say that Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is the best one in the series, but it's dang close. The new characters are memorable, the murders are fun and the ending... well, your mileage will vary on that one. As for Danganronpa Trilogy, you get three fantastic visual-novel styled murder-mystery stories that are bound to last you a long, long time. Getting all three games in a single disc is a fantastic deal, even if the included 'art-book' is a glorified instruction booklet!
Danganronpa V3 - Killing Harmony 9.5 out of 10
Danganronpa Trilogy 10 out of 10