Danganronpa had caught me completely by surprise when it hit Western territories early last year. Released on the Vita as enhanced ports of the Japan only PSP series, its first exposure outside of the Eastern market left a lasting impression. With it and its sequel, these titles pushed beyond what we’ve come to expect from text adventure titles with its dark, yet humorous premise, memorable characters and ambitious mix of game play styles. So much so in fact, that I named the series my favorite games of last year! Now, about a year later, the series takes another bold step forward with Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, the first original title the series has seen since 2012, built specifically for the Playstation Vita. Ditching the visual novel format, this spinoff takes on the third person shooter genre while bridging events between the first and second game, all while delivering the same ambition and creativity the main games are known for.
Ultra Despair Girls follows Komaru Naegi, the younger sister of the first game’s protagonist, who is being held prisoner by an unknown assailant. As time goes by, Komaru gets used to this life of solitude but her world takes an unexpected turn when a bloodthirsty Monokuma robot breaks into her makeshift home with the intention of killing her. After being rescued by an enigmatic group known as the Future Foundation, Komaru is tasked with surviving the Monokuma onslaught. Unfortunately, since her kidnapping, the world has fallen into ruin. Finding herself trapped in the isolated Towa City with a team of sadistic children known as the Warriors Of Hope, these kids plan on killing every adult they come across, including Komaru herself. Armed with a hacking gun that can fight off the robot army, and the schizophrenic fiction writer / serial killer, Toko Fukawa, (from the first Danganronpa), at her side, can this ordinary girl become the ultimate hope to fight off the despair?
Death and destruction has never been so cute.
Split into multiple chapters, Ultra Despair Girls primarily plays in a similar style to over the shoulder survival horror shooters similar to Resident Evil 4 or Dead Space. Using a variety of ammo types, Komaru will find herself blowing away countless waves of Monokuma robots, relying on a steady aim to take them out in most situations. Shooting them in their glowing red eye with the standard Break ammo deals extra damage, rewarding players with bonus Monocoins, which are used to upgrade the hacking gun or Toko’s alter ego, Genocide Jack. Each kill rewards experience, which levels Komaru up and allows her to equip more upgrades at a time. As the game progresses, the hacking gun gains a variety of “Truth Bullets”, each of which has its own strategic use. Are a group of enemies lined up in front of an electric car? The Move bullet will force the car to drive forward, running them all over. Is there a Siren Monokuma in your way, who will alert nearby enemies when it spots you? Shoot it with the Dance bullet to make its light set off an irresistible disco flair, forcing it and its friends to boogie uncontrollably, (and vulnerable to your attacks.) Or you could just do your best Bioshock impression and electrocute every enemy standing in water. It’s this level of variety in both the weapon and enemy types that help the combat stand out, helping it emerge as one of the better executed third person shooters in recent memory in terms of weapon variety. Naturally, weapon variety doesn’t matter much if there isn’t enemy variety to go with it, which this game has in spades. Between the variety of Monokuma types and the bosses at the end of each stage, you’re constantly asked to approach situations differently, even if they rarely provide a challenge, (but more on that later.)
The game offers a good amount of enemy variety, like this terrifying thing.
With so many attack options available, it wasn’t just enough to create a level of variety as you progress through the story. As you explore more of Towa City, you’ll come across Challenge Rooms, most of which you’ll encounter through normal progression. Here, Komaru is asked to accomplish a certain goal while only using certain Truth Bullets. Some will have you sneak to the exit without being spotted, while others will ask you to destroy all the robots with one attack. While most of these rooms aren’t particularly difficult, they play the role of helping us think outside the box in terms of how the game can be played, all while teasing our brain a bit in between all the shootouts. Then again, you CAN just kill everything in the room however you want, but it will hurt your end of stage rank, which becomes tempting in a handful of rooms where the objectives are explained poorly. Confusion, trial and error are never fun, but these moments are so few that they do little to hurt these challenges as a whole.
Surrounded? Just make them dance!
Speaking of killing everything, what kind of serial killer would Genocide Jack be if she doesn’t murder anything? When not serving as the absolute best escorted NPC ever in a video game, (seriously, Toko NEVER gets in your or the camera’s way despite always following right behind you,) Genocide Jack can be called upon at will to slice up her enemies with her trademark scissors as long as you have enough battery power to sustain her. A fast, invulnerable melee attacker, Jack is used as a kind of power up, helping you get out of jams or clearing the screen in an instant with her comical special attacks. Using a variety of combos and charge attacks, ripping through armies of Monokuma robots is a joy to play. Unfortunately for fans of the character like myself, her role as a temporary fighter minimalism her role in combat. Outside of a handful of story sections where you’re forced to use her, the game discourages you from swapping out too much since your end of chapter rank can also drop if she’s abused. Naturally, you can always start the game in Genocider Mode, where using her becomes unlimited, but be prepared to watch your rank plummet as you do so.
With this in mind, the question must be asked; if the serial killer is a hero, how evil do the villains have to be? Heading into Another Episode, I must admit that I was disappointed in the direction the game decided to go in in terms of introducing a new set of characters as antagonists. After all, the end of the second game created the perfect set up for a whole group of villains that we could already be invested in. Thankfully, the Warriors of Hope turned out to be far more memorable than I could have ever expected. Sending conflicting messages, the game has this uncanny ability to show the children committing horrible acts in their pursuit of an adult free world, then shortly after, make you feel their mindset is justified. Each child has their own set of motivations that are pretty twisted, making me put my head down in disbelief as some of these details slowly became apparent. Let’s just say if you thought the premise of the first two games was sick, (forcing high school students to kill each other, while the culprits would get slaughtered in an often graphic, yet always comical way when caught,) some of the content in this game tops it, and then some. You’re a monster if you don’t feel uncomfortable at some point during your play through.
New and old faces alike make appearances.
Outside of the Warriors of Hope, the story is Danganronpa‘s strongest point once again, quite possibly serving as the best in the series so far. Told through a mix of anime cutscenes, in game dialogue sections, (making use of the very expressive character models,) or the grim, 2D cutout style found in previous entries throughout the story mode, the game offers plenty of insight into the characters from the first game, somewhat logical explanations for some of the events that seemed impossible by the time the initial killing game came to an end, and plenty of foreshadowing towards the events that would take place in Danganronpa 2. If anything, the story’s biggest problem is that it doesn’t do enough to bring the two games together. If this was meant to fill in the gaps between the two main games, it’s as if it only filled half of it. Seemingly doing more to set up a second Another Episode game rather than answer the questions left behind in the second mainline title, which left me feeling like the closing moments ultimately amounted to nothing aside from some cool references.
Aside from the anticlimactic ending, the amount of story content disrupts the pacing often throughout its 18 hour run. Sounds good for a shooter, but when you take out the cutscenes, that 18 hours is cut down to about 8 of actual play time, and that’s being generous. Considering that this is spun off from a visual novel, lots of text is to be expected, but 30 minute scenes constantly popping up really hurts the flow of an action game. While expertly acted out by some of the top voice actors in the business today, sometimes you just want to get on with shooting stuff. Oh, and can the cast stop calling Komaru weak and a coward throughout 75% of the story? It’s hard to make that argument when she’s the only one destroying an army of killer bears. I think she’s earned the right to complain once or twice a chapter.
On the flip side, it may be true that Toko has grown as a character since surviving her previous ordeals, (which is a trait she displays many times,) but not so much when it comes to Byakuya, her crush from the original. Her calling him “Master” throughout the game is slightly humorous at first, but becomes grating as the game goes on. The amount that her self confidence has increased in every other aspect is a welcomed, (and natural,) progression when it comes to her character, but going in the opposite direction when it comes to Byakuya doesn’t match up. It’s not worth it to compromise Toko for a few laughs that ultimately fall flat, even if she does still manage to shine.
Komaru and Toko are amazing together… Sometimes.
Either way, the two girls will need to find a way to work through their quirks to fight off enemies as threatening as the Warriors of Hope… Or maybe not. Unfortunately, another one of Another Episode‘s biggest flaws is that considering how dangerous they claim to be, the Warriors of Hope don’t put up much of a fight. Even on the hardest difficulty, the game is almost insultingly easy, with enemies doing very little damage. Throughout the entire game, I died a total of three times, once when I didn’t know a certain enemy would self destruct, once when I got knocked off a ledge for an instant death, and once when I made the mistake of playing in the sunlight that made my screen hard to see in the final moments of the 18 hour play through. Even then, if you are killed by a standard attack, Toko has the opportunity to save you with a timed tap of the correct button at the cost of one of a segment of the Genocide Jack meter. If that wasn’t lenient enough, if you time the save just right to where the prompt closes in on the blue portion of the prompt instead of the yellow, the save costs nothing, essentially giving you infinite lives. Oh, and if you’re expecting this to change with the boss fights, don’t. The fights themselves while interesting at times, are just as easy as the rest of the game. Even if you have trouble, every time you’re low on health, the enemies are kind enough to start dropping hearts all over the field. Combined with certain abilities, each one will replenish your health in full, making battle feel more like a formality than a challenge or reward.
The Warriors Of Hope never lose their sense of humor, even as you breeze through their plans.
Then again, maybe the light difficulty is better than raging over unfair deaths due to the in game camera. While I never experienced any major issues with the sometimes unwieldy view, it’s still prominent enough to be addressed. The game essentially has three ways to control the angle, two of which are formal while the other is the very first power up Komaru is given at the start of the game. Auto is the default setting, where the camera sticks to your back by default. As the most ideal mode, this creates issues when trying to explore the environment for its many hidden items, since its hard to walk and search with the camera constantly moving. Second is manual, where the camera is rotated by the right stick and stays wherever you leave it. A quick tap of the R button will center the camera behind Komaru, but while minor, this causes the player to lose control of her for a brief moment before adjusting the direction she’s moving in. Ideal for exploration, it makes basic traveling an annoyance, especially since the only way to run and move the camera is to hold the Vita like you have a claw hand. The last, (and unofficial,) camera control method is the auto aim ability, the first power up provided at the start of the game. Coming in handy for most of the campaign, this move lets you automatically target the closest enemy to you. Considering how slow aiming is, this function is a life saver when you need to shoot quickly. However, when you’re surrounded, it has a terrible habit of targeting the wrong enemy if they’re slightly closer than your intended target. Each method has its strenghths and weaknesses, and while a consistent camera would have been ideal, alternating between these three modes is the way to go, even if periodically switching shouldn’t be the case.
On the subject of its aiming, I have no idea what the developers were thinking in this case, but the most apparent head scratcher was the design choice to make lining up your shots move painfully slow. I say design choice because rather than offering the option for aim sensitivity, the game instead offers faster aim as an unlockable power up, one that doesn’t even increase the speed that much. This makes the auto aim ability feel almost mandatory, but as mentioned, when you’re surrounded, you’re lucky if you target the enemy you’re trying to. As the only huge game play flaw, Spike Chunsoft made sure to make it count.
The Warriors Of Hope’ s strongest weapon might be forcing Komaru to use such awful aiming.
And finally, I can’t let the game get away with its terrible handling of collectables. This game has a huge amount of pick ups to find throughout its five chapters, which range from notes that explain the history of Towa City and its citizens, additional power ups for Komaru, ID Cards that offer insight on the pasts of the first game’s cast, and even an adorable story about Socki the Sock. These amount to what must be close to 100 items, many of which are must finds for Danganronpa fans. But good luck with that, since the game gives you no clue as to what items are in what chapter, or if you’re even missing anything in a particular section. Once you beat the game, a completion list tells you the percentage of each item type you found, but that does absolutely nothing to help you narrow down where you’re missing these flashing pixels. Naturally, this is a nightmare for people who don’t want to rely on a guide, but if you want to save yourselves hours of scouring stages, you might have to.
Despite its flaws, Danganronpa: Another Episode is one of the most refreshing shooters I’ve played in a long time. Rather than relying on tried and true methods set by other games in the genre to dictate its gunplay, Komaru’s adventure marches to the beat of its own twisted drum. Its unique ammo sets create a variety of strategic possibilities, which range from destructive to adorable, all while its story sets up so many gruesome scenarios. The strange part? It still manages to be so charming, just like the main games before it. Sure, the pacing of the game is hurt by its constant dialogue, the slow aiming feels like an example of forcing a handicap on players to force them to use power ups, the camera an collectables can be a pain, and the story ultimately goes nowhere, (even if its an amazing journey before the ending disappoints,) but in the end, Another Episode‘s can’t miss narrative and creative game play help it stand strong as one of the Vita’s best games this year. Don’t fall into despair, make sure you check this one out!
tl;dr
+ Creative game play that constantly asks you to approach situations differently, either in the field, or in specialized challenge rooms.
+ Decent enemy variety.
+ A deceptively dark, often shocking story, even by Danganronpa standards.
+ Unexpectedly scary.
+ Expertly voiced by a strong English cast.
+ End of chapter ranks, lots of power ups and collectables, will keep you playing.
– The game is way too easy, rarely offering a challenge, even on Despair (Hard) Mode.
– Long story scenes break the flow of game play, while its climax falls flat and some of the characterization feels out of place.
– Aiming is made slow to encourage power ups, while the only real solution doesn’t work properly when surrounded.
– Multiple camera options; none of which are ideal.
– No way to track missing collectables.
Verdict: Buy
Final Score: 4/5