Spike Chunsoft | Geekscape

Ranking The Executions In ‘Danganronpa’

by Josh JacksonSeptember 12, 2017

Danganronpa is known for destroying its fans by getting them attached to the characters that make up its colorful cast, then killing them in some of the worst ways possible. With a whole new set of deaths to discover with the impending release of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, we ranked the executions from the first three chapters of the story, sorting out the most despair inducing punishments in the series. From the gruesome to the silly and everything in between, it’s time to watch our friends die all over again.

Mikan Tsumiki: Bye-Bye Ouchies!

Kicking off the list is Mikan’s execution, which was the worst one by a long shot. Things didn’t seem quite right in Danganronpa 2, which felt apparent when the executions were a lot more out there than the first outing, but this one just left me confused and unsatisfied, contrary to the sexual undertones of her big death scene.

After being discovered as Ibuki and Hiyoko’s killer, she launches into space on a giant arm that’s been injected with some kind of… fluid. Matching up with her Ultimate Nurse talent, there were so many more interesting ways this could have went down. Instead, we got what was essentially an off screen death for someone who had embraced her dark side at this point in the story, making me feel robbed of the satisfaction of watching one of the bad guys lose AND an interesting death. Thankfully, they get much better down the list.

Monomi’s First Death

Serving as less of a formal execution and more of a wake-up call to the main cast letting us know that this second killing game is serious, the former Usami is gunned down by one of the fearsome Monobeasts, clearing the way for Monokuma to take over the second class. This one is low on the list considering there’s a lack of emotional connection since you just met Monomi, her death played up the comedy aspect of a stuffed bear getting shot up, and it’s extremely temporary since she comes back minutes later, but it was still an important scene for Hajime and his friends.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5EWS-gydlMk

Alter Ego: Excavator Destroyer

Much like the above entry, this one is eventually undone, and it’s not the same feeling when you watch a computer get killed instead of a friend. Still, Alter Ego’s death was especially shocking at the time I played it since it died spying on the mastermind when we thought it had gotten away, AND it was a total surprise since the real killer of the case couldn’t be executed due to it being a suicide. True despair rose to the surface as our only way to discover the circumstances around the school had seemingly been crushed, but this wouldn’t be the case for long.

Jin Kirigiri: Blast Off!

The very first execution of the series gains much more significance once the game has reached its conclusion compared to when you actually watch it play out, but it’s important for a few reasons. One, much like Monomi’s death was a wake-up call for the cast of the second game, this being the very first scene you see when you start the game let players know what they were about to be taken on a wild ride of death sprinkled with a bit of lighthearted cartoon imagery. Finding out later that the unnamed victim was both the Headmaster of the school and the father of one of the main characters gives it much more weight in retrospect.

Celeste Ludenberg: The Burning of the Versailles Witch

Celeste was a true manipulator, pulling off the first double murder in the series after manipulating the gullible Hifumi to help her kill and cover up her first victim before tying up loose ends by killing her accomplice. Being granted a death fitting for the noble she pretended to be, the Ultimate Gambler has her perfect death snatched from under her feet when her death by burning is interrupted by a fire truck falling on her. As the first comedic punishment, it managed to have a decent amount of anticipation before the bait and switch, which both helped and hurt its position on the list.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I8ynirdsev8

Teruteru Hanamura: Deep Fried Teruteru

Teruteru’s execution was one of the saddest. As the first class trial came to a close, it turned out that the Ultimate Cook killed his victim by mistake as he did everything he could to prevent the Ultimate Son of a Bitch, Nagito, from killing a member of the group in his quest for the the brightest hope in the face of despair.

If it was an accident, then why risk his friends’ lives to try and get away with the killing? It turns out he has a sick mother who he desperately wanted to see, making him fight tooth and nail for his own survival. Yet, we never find out her fate. Instead, we get a battered, deep fried chef who’s turned into a literal tempura after being dipped into a volcano. Considering the previous executions were relatively grounded, this was the first clue that Jabberwok Island wasn’t as it appeared, as the cast of the second game would later learn.

Mondo Owada: The Cage of Death

Equal parts funny and disgusting, Mondo’s execution after his insecurities led him to murder the Ultimate Programer, (and everyone’s favorite trap,) Chihiro Fujisaki, the former motorcycle gang member goes out as he lived. While strapped to the seat of his bike, he’s placed in a stunt cage and drives around so fast while being simultaneously electrocuted, that he ends up being liquified. Signaled by the reveal of Monokuma’s new favorite butter, it’s pretty disgusting when you see the bear eating the remains of your friend on top of his stack of pancakes.

Junko Enoshima: The Ultimate Punishment

As the mastermind who led both your classmates and the entire world to go on a murderous rampage, we should have reached peak satisfaction when it was time for Junko to get what was coming to her. Yet, her comeuppance felt bittersweet, considering the despair obsessed psychopath was actually excited to feel the true despair that only death can bring. Rather than setting up a unique execution for herself, she ends up going through every other execution from the first game! It makes you wonder what this girl is made of to survive being burned alive, crushed by a truck, electrocuted and bulldozed before finally being smashed to death by a giant weight.

And even then, this wouldn’t be the last we heard from Ms. Enoshima…

Gundham Tanaka: Gundham Tanaka Stampede

Gundham seemed to be a polarizing figure in the second game, and I landed on the side that couldn’t stand him. His obsession with the occult, his absurd speech mannerisms and his belief that he was some kind of demon king above all us mortals was only slightly offset by the Ultimate Breeder’s adorable crew of hamsters, the Four Dark Devas of Destruction. But even then, I couldn’t help but feel bad for the guy once his time finally came.

After reaching an agreement to fight and ultimately kill a fellow classmate as a sacrifice to spur the waning crew back into action, Gundham is placed in the path of a heard of stampeding bulls. Not being one to take his fate lying down, he sets up a magic seal, seemingly making good on the demonic power he claimed to possess all this time. Unfortunately for him, his spell doesn’t activate in time, leading him to being trampled to death. In his last moments, he gives a comforting look to his pets before the animals that had long since passed carry his spirit up into heaven. Part silly and part heartbreaking, seeing how much he cared for his companions meant he couldn’t be all bad. Right?

Makoto Naegi / Kyoko Kirigiri: After School Lesson

This one barely counts since one is a “what if” scenario if you make the wrong choice during the fifth trial, and the other one doesn’t go through. Regardless, it ranks high on the list mostly due to the tension it creates when experiencing it for the first time.

Setting up a fake murder for the purpose of getting rid of the Ultimate Detective, Kyoko Kirigiri, the player as main character Makoto Naegi has the choice to either fall into the trap, leading to Kyoko being killed and the remaining classmates living the rest of their days trapped in Hopes Peak Academy, or having Makoto take the fall, leading to our lead being killed instead. Naturally, things don’t go as planned, because just as Makoto is about to be crushed on the conveyor belt, Alter Ego comes back from the dead and shuts down the device just in time to save him.

On another note, I feel like dying while being strapped to a desk and being taught reproduction by a robot teddy bear would be a terrible way to go out.

Chiaki Nanami and Monomi: Please Insert Coin

Considering how serious this moment is, it’s almost unfitting to see such an important character die via Tetris block. But that’s what happens with Chiaki Nanami, our inaugural waifu of the year in 2014.

The Ultimate Gamer was a beacon of hope and encouragement for the class in the second game, especially when its protagonist, Hajime Hinata, felt completely lost. All the while, the class had an underlying suspicion of one another since it was established early on that one of their peers was a mole sent by the mysterious Future Foundation. As it turns out, Chiaki was that mole, but all wasn’t as it appeared to be.

You see, Chiaki was actually an AI created by Alter Ego from the first game designed as a sort of anti virus to help prevent outside interference. It turns out the entire game was a virtual simulation meant to rehabilitate some of the worst criminals the world had ever seen, but it had been hacked by the true mastermind on behalf of Junko from the first game. Nagito, that lunatic that I mentioned from Teruteru’s execution, discovered the truth before anyone else and decided to set up an unsolvable murder, using himself as the sacrifice. He planned on killing himself and all of his classmates, ridding the world of the criminals they really were and leaving Chiaki as the only survivor. Only things didn’t pan out this way, and Chiaki’s undying faith in their true selves helped her convince them to choose her as the killer. A choice that ended up being both correct, and completely unbearable. Luckily, AI’s never truly die, and both her and Monomi (as Usami), return to help the survivors during their final showdown.

And to think, this isn’t even the worst of what Chiaki ended up going through.

Peko Pekoyama: One Woman Army

None of the class were supposed to have known each other when waking up on Jabberwok Island, but two of them had an instant familiarity with each other. Peko Pekoyama, the Ultimate Swordswoman and Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu, the Ultimate Gangster, were childhood associates, with the former being the latter’s bodyguard. All of this was unbeknownst to the rest of the group, so when case two came along and it turned out that Peko killed a classmate in Fuyuhiko’s name after being threatened by the victim, who was really responsible?

Ultimately, it was Peko who was sent to her death since she was the one who actually committed the act. But what makes her death even more noteworthy isn’t so much over how much of a badass she came off as while slicing down all of the dummies trying to kill her, but that in the process, the tough exterior of her boss fades away as he pushes through the danger to try and help her. What he gets in return is an accidental near death experience, as Peko inadvertently slices through him while cutting down one of the puppets. In her sorrow, she cradles her friend as she’s stabbed to death be her endless hoard of enemies.

As the only execution that made me audibly gasp once it appeared as if we were getting two deaths in one execution, we ended up getting a much more cooperative, level heading Kuzuryu, taking Peko’s death to heart. He may have lost an eye, but in return, he gains a whole new level of maturity that carries him through the rest of the game.

Chiaki Nanami: The first punishment

You may be wondering why Chiaki is here again if she was already killed above? It turns out that the AI from the game was based on a real person, and she was the victim of the first true execution as we would come to know them.

As the only real punishment in the Danganronpa 3 anime, the real Chiaki was the class representative to the Danganronpa 2 class. The anchor that held them all together so to speak. So when Junko decided that she needed a group of followers to help her spread despair around the world, she used a combination of brainwashing and the murder of their beloved classmate to drive them all insane by forcing them all to watch her death.

Mimicking video games like Gauntlet, the Ultimate Gamer was forced to traverse an endless labyrinth full of deadly traps, each one landing with brutal effectiveness. Over the course of what’s essentially a ten minute murder porn session, we witness this girl who both the characters and the viewers grew so attached to have her arm broken, her eye smashed, her foot impaled and her physical limits pushed to the absolute brink before finally finding the exit and reuniting with her friends.

Or so she thought. As she seemingly escapes, a room full of spikes shoot from the ground, impaling her entire body and leaving her in a bloody heap. As she bleeds to death, she sees her friend Hajime one last time, now approaching her as the artificial Ultimate, Izuru Kamakura. In her final moments she cries out her desire to see her friends again, leading the emotionless Izuru to cry for the first time since transforming into what he had now become. Compelled by Chiaki’s undying will, he realizes that Junko’s brand of chaos isn’t the only way to reach one’s full potential, leading him to go behind her back and set up the Chiaki AI. Seeking to see which ideology is the strongest, he sets up a scenario where their ideals will clash one last time in the final showdown between hope and despair.

This scene showed that despite how charismatic and humorous she could be, Junko was a real monster. But most importantly, it showed the catalyst that led to the events of both games, even if we had to have our souls completely crushed in the process. I still get sad thinking about this scene… But there can only be one top execution, and for that, we’ll have to go from the end to the beginning.

Leon Kuwata: The 1,000 Blows

As the saying goes, you never forget your first.

Leon Kuwata, the Ultimate Baseball Star, was the first character to be executed after being outed as the murderer of Sayaka Maizono. She was planning to murder Makoto in an attempt to escape and discover what had happened to the bandmates in her idol group, but after being spotted by Leon, a series of events took place where he ended up killing her instead.

As the first execution, the game wanted to make sure to leave a lasting impression on us, and that it did. From not knowing what to expect as the first real conclusion to a case, to the haunting animation that would be associated with the rest of the punishments going forward, to the way he is chained and dragged away kicking and screaming is a level of fright that none of the other executions have achieved since. But then, we get to the actual execution, one fitting for a baseball star such as himself.

After being tied to a pole, Kuwata is shot with a ball from a pitching machine. And then another. And another. Suddenly, he’s being shot with hundreds of baseballs all over his body to the point where he eventually dies from the endless injuries being inflicted upon him in such a methodical, painful way. As the last bloody baseball rolls to the camera while his limp body hangs in the background, it’s at this point that you know you’re going to be in for a sick, twisted affair of a game.

You know what the crazy part is? This version is actually more tame than the original concept! As the only execution that was altered due to the graphic nature of the scene in the anime adaptation, the game version was actually toned down from the beta version. There, the scene plays out similarly, but eventual blood splatter starts flying from him while he’s still alive. Each ball results in another splatter until the whole room is eventually full of the stuff as if we were suddenly playing Mortal Kombat. It’s hard to imagine that this death could get any worse than the one we were presented with, and yet, here we are.

If you couldn’t tell, it takes a special kind of sadistic to come up with these executions. With a whole new game right around the corner, I can only imagine what new, sickening ways the developers will come up with when it comes to killing off our friends. Yet, its this despair that keeps us coming back, and I can’t wait to feel that sting all over again in two weeks.

What would your execution rankings be? Do you think any of them are off base? Let us know in the comments!

‘Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls’ Is A Much Better Game On PS4

by Josh JacksonAugust 12, 2017

Back in 2015, I reviewed Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, a third person shooter that spun off from the point and click adventure games that have been all the rage on the Vita. When I first played it, I adored its creative use of weapons, its creepy atmosphere, and its variety in enemies, with my biggest complaints centering on the camera issues. Having fewer buttons made handling all of the game’s tasks a bit awkward on the handheld, which ultimately held it back from being as great as it could have been. That all changed with the PS4 remaster releasing ahead of the much anticipated Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, allowing a wider audience to enjoy this quirky action title with a slew of improvements. After playing through it again on the big screen, it’s clear that Komaru benefited greatly from the jump to Sony’s home console.

Trapped in the devastated Towa City with an army of Monokuma robots out to kill anyone they can find, Komaru Naegi finds herself fighting off the machines with one of the first game’s survivors, (and part time serial killer), Toko Fukawa. In between them and their freedom are the Warriors of Hope, a group of children who are seemingly responsible for the chaos with ties to series antagonist, Junko Enoshima. Part horror movie and part coming of age drama, tying Komaru’s journey of a regular girl in a world of geniuses to the loose ends of the first two games is done masterfully, still serving as an entertaining backdrop to all of the chaos that surrounds you.

As a remaster, my thoughts haven’t changed much regarding the game as a whole compared to the Vita version. Considering how shooters haven’t advanced much since 2015, Ultra Despair Girls still feels incredibly fresh with its unique use of weapons for both combat and puzzle solving. Using your gun to hack, destroy enemy weak points, push Monokuma robots into water and forcing them to dance among other functions are still equal parts fun and hilarious. It’s always nice to see a dark game that manages to retain a sense of humor. Still, long cutscenes reminiscent of its text adventure roots tend to hurt the flow of the action while the game makes it hard to keep track of what you’re missing for all of those completionists out there. With the improvements made to the controls, the PS4 version makes an already easy game slightly easier, meaning it won’t last terribly long from a game play standpoint.

But there are some key improvements that make the game worth checking out a second time, as well as making it a can’t miss game for PS4 owners who never had a Vita to play the original on. As soon as the game gives you control of Komaru, it’s immediately noticeable how much smoother the game runs on the console. The frame rate has received a boost, making moving the camera and exploring Towa City a much more seamless experience. Komaru, the city itself and the enemy character models look much more vibrant this time around, taking advantage of the high definition boost the game received in the upgrade process. But what was probably the original’s most glaring flaw, its awkward controls when trying to both shoot and move, have been improved with the addition of extra shoulder buttons. Now, what was once a clunky, unintuitive movement method that asked the player to make concessions with comfort is much easier to play. Adopting the Resident Evil model of control is always going to come with a certain amount of clunkyness, but it’s minimized to the point where I barely noticed them during my time with the game. However, aiming is still annoyingly slow, which is by design since one of Komaru’s skills during upgrading is her aiming speed. Hey, we can’t win them all…

With Danganronpa 1+2 Reload and Ultra Despair Girls both on the PS4 and the Danganronpa 3 anime available on demand, there’s little reason to miss out on the entire saga before we dive back into this world in Danganronpa V3. But even without that extra incentive, Ultra Despair Girls is a worthy action title that’s worth checking out. Whether its your first time or your next of many trips to Towa City, the game’s small annoyances can’t take away from this creepy, funny, incredibly dark but never dull shooter that always manages to keep things interesting. Whether you consider yourself an Ultimate Gamer or a regular old player, you’d do well to check this game out and see what all the fuss is about. Who knows? Maybe you’ll jump on the V3 hype train with us in the process!

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘J-Stars Victory Vs.+’

by Josh JacksonSeptember 30, 2015

Game: J-Stars Victory Vs.+

Available For: PS4, PS3, PS Vita, (Reivewed on Vita.)

Publisher: Namco Bandai

Developer: Spike Chunsoft

MSRP: $59,99 (PS4), $49.99 (PS3) and $39.99 (Vita, digital only.)

Importers went crazy back in 2014 when J-Stars Victory Vs. hit the Japanese PS3 and Vita. This crossover fighter that brought together Shonen Jump’s most popular franchises and characters into one explosive package was never expected to arrive outside of Japan. Much like Jump Superstars for the Nintendo DS, we figured licensing issues would be tough to sort out, especially for a niche title such as this. Yet, Namco Bandai surprised us late last year when they announced that not only would the game receive a Western release, but it would include an extra game mode and a PS4 release as well! Now dubbed J-Stars Victory Vs.+, characters from Dragon Ball Z, Naruto, One Piece, Bleach, Yu Yu Hakusho, Rurouni Kenshin, and so many more franchises will finally get to brawl in the West. Now that the title has come and gone, was it worth the wait?

J Stars uses a somewhat basic model for its fighting mechanics, which typically take place as a two on two showdown with a third character acting as support. Standard matches end once the first team reaches three KO’s, but can vary depending on how many people are fighting in that particular battle. On the surface, every character is essentially the same, with a weak, strong, and special attack button making up their offense. Special moves cost meter, which can be charged up at any time, while tapping the block button right before you’re hit results in a teleport behind your opponent, leaving them wide open. I mean sure, you could just block, but absorbing too many hits will result in a guard break, with no choice but to accept your incoming punishment. Double jumps, dashing, and the ever important lock on button round out the game’s basic functions, with these three moves being especially vital since it would be easy to get lost in the game’s mostly large 3D arenas. Nothing sucks more than getting ambushed because you had no idea where the enemy was.

Using a unique momentum meter that constantly fluctuates as the fight goes on, once one team shifts it all the way to their side, the team will be able to activate their Victory Burst, a temporary state where their attributes are slightly boosted. More importantly however, is that players can choose to sacrifice time in this state in exchange for an Ultimate Attack, your character’s strongest ability that has the potential to do HUGE damage to the opposing team. Great for when you’re behind in a battle and need to shift the tide of battle, or when you’re dominating and want to put an exclamation point on your win, watching these animations, (and the resulting destruction,) is often rewarding.

As I mentioned, at first glance, each one of the 39 playable characters has similar combos and team attacks, making the core mechanics feel repetitive quick. What fixes this however, is that most characters have special properties that usually reflect their powers from their respective properties. For example, Goku and Vegeta can both charge up their second meter just as fast as their first, (as opposed to most of the cast’s meter gain slowing down after the first one is filled,) and once maxed, results in a Super Saiyan transformation. Naruto absorbs and stores his energy all at once, doubling his meter after risking precious seconds being completely vulnerable, can switch to Sage Mode, giving him the option to throw his Rasenshuriken, and gains a completely different move set during a Victory Burst with his Nine Tails Mode! Yusuke will revive in his demon form at no cost if KO’d during Victory Burst, but will immediately fall once it ends, while Seiya will sport his golden armor… The list goes on and on. So while the depth of the mechanics might not be all there, the special traits of each character still keep most of the cast varied, especially for fans who follow these Jump properties closely.

Then again, what good are the fighting mechanics if we don’t mention the modes? J-Stars has a variety of ways to put this fighting to the test, including Free Battle, Arcade, Victory Road, Online and J-Adventure Modes. Most of these are your standard fighting game affair, with Free Battle letting you fight against the CPU or your friends locally with custom conditions, Arcade, where you fight a series of enemies with increasing difficulty, (though this game’s version has a variety of tracks to take on set by how hard it is to at the start, much like Mortal Kombat), and Online, where you fight friends and strangers alike in this strange space we call the Internet. Just expect lag. And rage quitting. And no penalty for those who quit while those who stay get no reward. If you couldn’t tell, Online isn’t worth the trouble.

While these staple features are all well and good, most of the game’s unique single player content comes in the Victory Road and J-Adventures modes. In Victory Road, players will pick a team and take on themed battles against the CPU, where you’ll have to meet certain requirements during battle to earn a 100% clear rating on each fight. As you progress, the fights will continuously alter their settings and completion conditions, so it’s constantly asking you to approach battles differently. Unfortunately, the game doesn’t actually tell you what the challenge conditions are until AFTER the fight, so that bit of forced replayability will likely have completionists playing through each fight more than once.

J-Adventure on the other hand, starts off strong, but wears out its welcome for far too long. Choosing between one of four paths led by either Luffy, Naruto, Toriko or Ichigo, each story follows these characters as they navigate Jump World, a land where all these characters exist in the same universe. While attempting to assemble a team of fighters to win an upcoming tournament, each path leads to different partners, support characters, and missions to find on the world map. Using a ship to traverse the world, (which gains enhanced mobility as the story progresses,) players will earn precious currency to unlock new ship parts, characters, and J-Cards, items that can tweak the attributes of your team, while leveling up their fighters. Unfortunately, this is a case of too much of a good thing. Each story is so long that it’s unlikely that players will be able to get through one path, let alone all four. The camera is too close to your ship, often leading to accidental battles against opposing ships in the environment, and with no way to back out of them once their triggered. What’s worse, is that once your main objective in the story mode is complete, a whole new plot point opens up, extending the game even farther when you’ll likely be tired of the adventure mode by then, kind of like certain Shonen Jump stories that drag on 500 chapters past what should have been their ending point. Even though I had fun playing J-Stars, the combat is too shallow to maintain interest for that long, especially when you’re forced to play as the same three characters for the majority of these adventure sections.

So is J-Stars the dream crossover that Playstation fans have been waiting for? Not exactly, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t plenty of fun to be had. Between the huge character roster, the unique abilities for each fighter, lots of goods to unlock and plenty of modes to use them in, fans of at least a few of these properties will surely enjoy picking their favorite manga fighter and pit them against an opposing team. Yet, the shallow core mechanics, the overly drawn out story mode that’s seemingly mimicking the 700+ chapter stories from the Shonen Jump books, poor online and artificially lengthened content is sure to be put off some people. If you’re an anime or manga fan, you’ll surely have a great time with J-Stars Victory Vs.+, but everyone else would do well to get their fighting fix somewhere else.

tl;dr:

+ A huge roster that will surely satisfy the Shonen Jump faithful.

+ Unique abilities for most of the cast, adding a feeling of authenticity to their portrayal.

+ A good amount of modes to play around with.

+ Tons of unlockables, including characters, ship parts, and customizable cards.

– The core mechanics are shallow, forcing most of the characters to feel identical from a basic combo standpoint.

– Story mode is far longer than it should be, failing to keep an already repetitive experience interesting for long.

– Some modes like Victory Road are artificially lengthened by withholding challenge requirements, while the rest of the modes don’t offer anything new.

-Online is a mess.

Final Score: 3/5

The ‘Danganronpa 3’ Reveal Trailer Teases Updated Gameplay, A New Academy And The Same Old Monokuma

by Josh JacksonSeptember 20, 2015

During Sony’s press conference at this year’s Tokyo Game Show, Spike Chunsoft officially revealed Danganrona 3, complete with its first trailer.

Originally said to have been in the works at last year’s TGS, this reveal trailer comes fresh off the heels of the latest game, Ultra Despair Girls, releasing in the West, so everyone should be on the same page when it comes to the story! Teasing a brand new academy, and a type of testimony called “skimmish,” where multiple classmates give their sides of the story at the same time, it’ll be even harder to cut through their words to find the truth. With Monokuma, Monomi, Shirokuma and Kurokuma all making appearances in the trailer, could they all be in the main game as well? Or were they simply stand ins for the yet to be revealed cast? All I know is that I hope that line about Togami being dead was only an example and not a spoiler.

Watch it below and tell us what kind of despair you hope the third main game in this popular text adventure will bring. Danganronpa 3 will release on the PS Vita, as well as making its console debut on the PS4, on a yet to be determined release date.

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls’

by Josh JacksonAugust 31, 2015

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

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Attack On Titan: Humanity In Chains’

by Josh JacksonMay 11, 2015

When you bring one of the most popular anime franchises in Attack On Titan, and the developer behind my favorite game of 2014 in Spike Chunsoft, together to create an action game where you slice up giants using dual swords and an awesome set of grappling hooks, it’s hard not to get excited. This was the case when Nintendo and Atlus announced that a localized version of Attack On Titan: Humanity In Chains was on its way to the Nintendo 3DS, putting us on the frontline in the war against the Titans, human-like giants that have feasted on humanity to the point of near extinction. And really, considering that the franchise has produced a live action movie, car commercials, and even its own line of fragrances, is anyone surprised? With such an exhilarating concept, swinging around cities and bringing these monsters to their knees sounds like it was tailor made for gaming. Unfortunately for Humanity In Chains, the title’s strengths are overshadowed by its shallow game play, limited campaign, and visual shortcomings.

AOT retraces the steps of five characters up until the end of the first season of the anime. Taking control of Eren Jager, players will get the chance to relive key battles from the main story, while unlocking a total of four other characters along the way. Told through still frames and a surprising amount of spoken dialogue for a game meant for a cartridge, it doesn’t mean much when the Japanese voices aren’t subtitled during missions. I still don’t know what they’re saying when I select them, but I’ll guess it’s something full of angst, stoic, or involving food.

Primarily, each Scout Regiment Member is tasked with eliminating the titular Titans, with slight variations thrown in the mix, (such as protecting allies, keeping powerful enemies at bay, or collecting items throughout the environments.) Using their Omni-Directional Mobility Gears, (sets of steam powered grappling hooks strapped to their waists,) each character can speed through environments, latch onto enemies and maneuver into the perfect spot to attack their weak points. While there’s a bit of a learning curve, once you get movement down, killing Titans is highly rewarding. Part stealth, part action and part rhythm, attacking involves charging at the monsters at a distance. As your character gets closer, a ring closes towards the center of the screen, prompting you to attack once the ring is in the red, or critical zone. If timed properly, you’ll slice off the limb or neck you’re targeting, resulting in either a stun or a kill depending on where you were aiming. Miss, and you’ll do significantly less damage and dull your blade, eventually forcing you to switch out the weapon and leaving yourself vulnerable in the process. In addition, if you flick the left stick while attacking, this starts a spin attack, which will do more damage and cut through counterattacks, but with a much smaller critical zone. It’s a give and take.

Admittedly, this combat style is an accurate depiction of what the anime is all about when you consider that the goal is to cut the nape, rinse and repeat, but after the shock and awe of pulling off such amazing kills, it becomes easy to see where the game play goes wrong. The timing for critical hits will sporadically change speed, throwing off the needed timing to pull them off. To make matters worse, the spin attack is all but useless since the prompt rarely reaches the critical zone before the attack connects. Especially when normal attacks are more than enough to land a one hit kill, there’s rarely a point where you need to use it. What’s worse is that positioning is harder than it needs to be due to some horrendous camera controls, which constantly move against the character and need to constantly be reset. Thankfully, New 3DS or Circle Pad Pro owners can use the second stick, which is an absolute must if you expect to keep your handheld from getting thrown against a wall.

Oh, and did I mention that this is pretty much all you do throughout the entire game, which is contained in small, blocks of land surrounded by invisible walls? It’s disheartening to see so much city in the distance with no way to explore it. There are a few missions here and there, like one in an open field, where you need a horse to get around on with no buildings to grapple onto, or taking command of Eren’s Titan form, breaking down the fights into a straight brawl. The problem is that there are literally only a handful of these missions, and most of them can be completed in minutes. In the Titan stages specifically, these are easily beaten by mashing the two attack buttons while occasionally blocking, lacking any real depth that we would hope for in a giant on giant brawl.

These flaws are only made worse by the fact that most of the missions are repeats of each other since most of the character’s stories intersect, with little to distinguish the characters aside from looks. In fact, aside from Eren’s Titan missions and Sasha’s item collection quests, the cast are essentially just copies with different skins. The ONLY difference I could find was that Mikasa and Levy can escape being grabbed on their own, while everyone else needs to be rescued by an AI ally, (which they are surprisingly good at.) To top it all off, even with repeated missions, I was able to finish the story in about three or four hours with almost all A+ ranks on the first try, which would have been even shorter if I didn’t get stuck on an item collecting quest since the gleam on the ground is almost impossible to see.

Humanity In Chains‘ only saving grace is its multiplayer World Mode, where you take the character parts you unlock in story mode, splice them together to make horrifying mixes of your favorite team members, and take on more difficult quests either alone, or with up to three other friends. Here, team members can customize their gear, level up their stats and fight enemies in new ways, including guns, which help give an upper hand against these stronger foes. At least, they’re supposed to, but Titans at a distance tend to spaz out, with their, (and ONLY their,) framerate dropping to the point where it looks like they’re part of a flip book. Between this, the bland environments and the huge amount of pop in, it’s safe to say it won’t win any visual or technical awards come year end.

Still, there’s fun to be had in World Mode. In fact, I can’t help but feel that the story mode was an afterthought, considering I rarely had to switch blades, and never healed or refilled steam there, whereas it’s a necessity in World Mode as missions get harder. If you can get a group of friends to play either locally or online, the hardcore fan will likely have a good time, but there’s little reason to do so otherwise.

If we could describe AOT‘s problems in a more concise way, it would be that it’s marred with repetition and a lack of depth, further hindered by some big visual glitches and very little to do. Couple that with its abrupt non-ending and painfully short length, and all you’re left with is an entertaining multiplayer mode that will do little to entice anyone outside of the most devoted fan of the series. If you can find a group of otaku to play with, you might find some fun, but otherwise, I’d pass on Humanity In Chains. If this is the future humanity has to look forward to, extinction isn’t looking so bad.

tl;dr

+ Rewarding core mechanics

+ Multiplayer has numerous customization options, unique missions and exclusive weapons. Fun with a group!

– Repetitive, one note attacks that don’t work some of the time.

– Terrible camera controls that almost require a New 3DS or CPP to make playable.

– Repeated missions with little to no difference between characters, contained in small areas that are rife with invisible walls.

– Ugly graphics made worse by odd framerate dips and way too much pop in.

– A three-four hour campaign with no real resolution, an abrupt ending and only partially subtitled Japanese dialogue.

Final Score: 2/5

Geekscape Games Reviews ‘Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair’

by Josh JacksonSeptember 1, 2014

Back in February, a somewhat obscure text adventure game about a group of high school students who were forced to kill each other in exchange for their freedom ended up becoming one of the biggest surprises of the year so far. So much so in fact, that we raved about it in our review, to the point where I’d still call it one of the year’s best games even months later. One of the biggest strengths of the original Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, was its creative take on the visual novel, implementing elements of action games, rail shooters, and dating simulations to become one of the finest titles in its genre.

With that said, the obvious follow up question is; “What’s next?” How can a sequel to a text adventure, by which is fairly limited in what how much it can innovate, manage to feel like an improvement only seven months later? And yet, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair does just that, finding a way to succeed in nearly every area while finding multiple ways to stay fresh. And in case you were wondering, this version is every bit as dark and twisted as you would expect from the series.

Monokuma is back, and is as big of a troll as you’d expect.

This time around, players find themselves in the unfortunate position of controlling Hajime Hinata, one of a group of 16 students from the prestigious Hope’s Peak Academy. Despite not being able to remember his talent, Hajime and his classmates are each considered “Ultimate” students, who are at the top of their respective fields. Whether it’s the “Ultimate Cook”, the “Ultimate Princess”, or the “Ultimate Yakuza”, each student serves as a beacon of hope for the future of the world. Only, things aren’t as they seem. After being seemingly abducted and held on Jabberwock Island in the guise of a school trip by their teacher, a talking stuffed rabbit who goes by Usami, it isn’t long before the trip gets out of hand. While the goal of the vacation is to build up their friendships and spread hope, it isn’t long before Monokuma, the antagonist of the original, commandeers the island and changes the rules to his liking. Now, there’s only one way off the island; kill one of your classmates, and get away with it.

In its opening moments, Jabberwock Island feels instantly familiar to anyone who explored Hope’s Peak Academy in the original. The majority of the game play is split up into two sections, which are Daily Life and Deadly Life. In Daily Life, Hajime traverses the islands in both the first person perspective of the first game in more enclosed spaces, or a new 2D side scrolling perspective when moving between the larger areas. These sections mostly consist of interacting with the characters to move the story forward, or participating in Free Time events, which allow Hajime to get to know his classmates better in exchange for Hope Fragments. With a little talking and a lot of bribery, fully exploring each character uncovers special abilities, while granting the means to buy extra ones by purchasing them with the fragments.

Solving crimes is rewarding as always.

But the island can’t stay tranquil forever, which is where the Deadly Life sections take center stage. When a murder is committed, the cast goes into full investigation mode, using the on screen cursor to uncover evidence, (called Truth Bullets), to figure out what went down and who committed the crime. Once everything possible is uncovered, a Class Trial is initiated, where the surviving students participate in a Nonstop Debate. Like in the original, the characters discuss the case while the player has a small selection of evidence to choose from. Various key phrases are highlighted, which may contradict a piece of evidence you hold. After sifting through the distractions caused by White Noise that look to block your shot, Hajime must take aim and shoot through these contradictions using the right line of logic. Solving the mysteries end up feeling far more rewarding this time around, since they come off as more complex with less hand holding. With this sometimes backfires since the linear nature of the game can make it hard to guess which piece of evidence to use and when, even if you have the right idea, especially when the answers can be really farfetched at times.

In between the debates, new mechanics have been added while old ones have been changed, but not all of them for the better. For example, the standard debate leaves room to agree with blue statements, (which was only featured in the post game in the first title), showing that you don’t always have to be argumentative to be successful. Another original mechanic that changed in the sequel is the Bullet Time Battle, which has been replaced with Panic Talk Action. The rhythm themed button tap mini game now asks us to hold and release the X button to the beat of the music, with the length of time the button is held deciding how many statements are shot down, or how many bullets are reloaded. While an interesting change, it feels like one that wasn’t necessary, filing itself in the category of innovating for the sake of it. Still, these sections are still fun to play, which is the end goal regardless.

Yet, we can’t talk about needlessly changed mechanics without discussing the new take on Hangman’s Gambit. The first game had us selecting letters off of the screen to spell out words that would reveal the next clue. Now, we have combine at least two of the same letter before we can add them to our board in order, which admittedly has a fun, fast paced shooter game feel to it. While the concept sounds harmless at first, there are times where the right set of letters takes forever to crop up, or in later stages, where so many letters spawn at once that you take unfair amounts of damage. I’m sure some of you might be ready to fire off about how I shouldn’t fault the game for sucking at it, but it’s definitely not my fault when opposite letters spawn on top of each other, resulting in instant damage before they’re fully on screen. If the third game can bring back the old way of doing things, that would be great.

Hangman after those funny cigarettes.

Even if Hangman’s Gambit is worse for wear this time around, I’ll gladly take the trade off when you consider how much Closing Arguments have been improved. My biggest complaint about the game play in the first game was how these comic book panels that piece together the crime were far too vague, forcing you to guess on the sequence of events based on small pictures with very little context. Now, not only does highlighting the blank spaces and the options at your disposal provide text clues saying what they mean, but each option is provided in increments instead of being distributed all at once. This results in losing the overwhelming feeling of having too many options while giving players a more balanced shot at choosing the right options.

Closing Arguments went from the biggest flaw of the original to the most improved feature in the 2nd.

No longer acting as passive observers to your crazy arguments, classmates can now refute your statements as well, triggering a Rebuttal Showdown. When someone dares question your sound logic, things quickly turn from a shootout to a sword fight, allowing players to slice through their words using the touch screen or control pad in order to stay in favor. Once the key word comes up, cutting through it with the right Truth Bullet will put them in their place.

Fighting for supremacy in a clash of words.

In one of the stranger additions to trials, the Logic Drive starts a snowboarding mini game that gives Hajime the means to connect logic strings together by sliding down the right paths. Yep, I just said there’s a snowboarding mini game in a text adventure. Surprisingly, the controls, physics and challenge is fairly strong, making them enjoyable to play. I’m sure I’m not the only one opposed to seeing this idea fleshed out more fully, because I would actively look forward to playing these sections as they came.

Logic snowboarding is the next big sport!

The best part, is on top of all these changes and improvements, the biggest draw of the game has stayed the same, which is its brutal cutscenes, dark sense of humor, and undeniable charm, all wrapped up in a somewhat innocent presentation. Both the old and new songs bring the emotions the game is trying to draw out of us to life, while the 2D cardboard cutouts and pink blood amplify the ironic cuteness of a death game arranged by a sadistic teddy bear. Movies have a change in animation, providing some moments that are made of pure nightmare fuel, although these scenes are overall weaker than the first game.

This is furthered by the feeling that the new characters just aren’t as good as the ones in the first game. While the innocent charm of Sonia Nevermind, the strong impression Nagito Komaeda leaves, or Teruteru, a special kind of pervert character who’s nose will bleed for literally anyone, will stick with you, other characters like Nekomaru Nidai, Gundham Tanaka, Mikan Tsumiki and Kazuichi Soda range from annoying, to grating, often coming off as caricatures rather than people you’re supposed to get attached to. Not that the game doesn’t have a knack for tugging on the heart strings, making my jaw drop many times over, but while the cast of the first game was definitely eccentric, they all had a level of humanity that this cast mostly lacks. Not to mention that the game expects us to suspend our disbelief to absurd levels at some points, but these moments are eventually explained in a satisfying way, saving the story from a bit of ridicule.

Characters like Mikan bog down the narrative, making it hard to care about them.

After about 30 hours or so passes and the main game is completed, Danganronpa 2 still has so much to offer. Like the first game and its School Mode, Island Mode lets Hajime focus on building friendships, both by using the 100+ presents that can be purchased with unlockable Monocoins to round up any remaining Hope Fragments, or using Trip Tickets to go on dates with them for expanded endings. In between all the lovey dovey stuff, a mining mini game asks the team to build certain items in exchange for more Trip Tickets, all while managing each person’s HP, the island’s cleanliness, and the amount of each item needed for a successful build.

In addition, the game does a complete 180, unlocking Usami’s very own mini game which pits her against the evil beasts that inhabit the island. Playing somewhat like an action platformer, Usami can jump on enemies, circle around them to create magical attacks, or unlock stronger equipment which allows her to progress through six short, yet entertaining stages, which include multiple difficulty levels to keep things interesting.

The crazy part? Between hundreds of unlockable gallery items, hidden Monokuma plush dolls scattered throughout the island, (which replace the magical coins that pop out of the environment), a virtual pet simulator that houses over half a dozen pets based on how many steps Hajime takes and a freaking in game novel, and Danganronpa 2 comes close to almost having too much content. This isn’t even all of the new content and improvements the game provides, but for the sake of not wanting to make this a novel of my own, we’ll spare the details on everything included, and leave some surprises for the game. Can we have too much of a good thing? Apparently not!

So after thinking that it would be near impossible to further the visual novel genre more than the first Danganronpa did, Goodbye Despair does so, and then some. While it doesn’t surpass its prequel in every aspect, it knocks most of what it tries to do out of the park. With a wide variety of game play mechanics, constant experimentation, (with mixed results), tons of distractions to give your sleuthing brain a break, and more unlockables than you’ll ever need, and you end up with a game that is a near perfect representation of what thinking outside the box can result in. What we’re left with is a sequel that takes risks instead of resting on the laurels of its successful predecessor, and is better off for it, making Danganronpa 2 one of the best games in its genre… And by extension, a strong candidate for one of the year’s best games. What’s more hopeful than that?

tl;dr

+ A return to form for the Hope’s Peak student body, providing deeper mysteries and more of a focus on exploration with its sick sense of innocent, self aware humor intact.

+ Features like in game digital pets, full fledged side games and new core mechanics, (like snowboarding logic), are bold inclusions that pay off in big ways.

+ Storytelling and cutscenes that will stick with you long after you’ve put the game down.

+ An insane amount of unlockables that will keep completionists playing for hours.

– Deeper mysteries result in moments where illustrating your point is hard to do, resulting in having to guess which similar piece of evidence is the right one.

– Certain story moments are too far fetched, which is made worse by a third of the cast ranging from annoying to insufferable.

– Not all changes were for the better, with a frustrating new take on Hangman’s Gambit.

Final Score: 4.5/5