The idea of Danganronpa is instantly a stupid one if you think about it logically. The school recruits the “Ultimate” students with the assurance that if they graduate they are guaranteed to succeed. I don’t know about anyone else, but… if you’re already the Ultimate at something, why couldn’t you just go to a regular top-notch school and be the best? It all makes sense when you realize what it takes for these kids to be called an Ultimate. Where they excel as a professional in a field, they lack completely when it comes to social matters.
Hajime Hinata has always wanted to grace the halls of Hope’s Peak Academy, and when he finally gets his chance he’s gathered up with 15 other students into a classroom. A stuffed rabbit named Monomi appears before the students and whisks them away to a secluded island. Hajime wakes up and learns that he and the other Ultimates are supposed to live their lives peacefully forever on this island. However, the murderous bear Monokuma shows up and ruins the peaceful getaway and turns the trip into a bloodbath.
Monokuma is back to spread despair amongst the students with his motives. He’s a lot less caring about the students this time around, and practically forces them into killing each other to survive. On the other hand, Monomi is the friendlier stuffed animal and she tries to fight off Monokuma at every turn. Unfortunately, it’s not clear that she can be trusted either… because she is the one that brought the kids to this island.
To top it all off the kids have a case of selective amnesia, they remember most of their lives and even their Ulitmate abilities… but they can’t recall how long they’ve actually been on the island. Hajime has it ever worse than everyone else, he doesn’t remember his Ultimate ability, and he is the only one that doesn’t have a ridiculous personality. That being said, he’s the only one with enough of a level head to solve the inevitable murder of his friends.
Monokuma has a rule that if one person can kill and get away with it, the others will be killed and that person will be released from the island. Now as nice as most of these people may seem, it isn’t hard to understand that they would be willing to do anything to go home. However, Monokuma provides people with a motive to kill when he starts to get bored. So even the nicest person in the group could end up being the coldest assassin to return to their lives.
It’s seriously dark and twisted this time around, with the personality types drifting into the more anime like characteristics. You never really know who is going to be the next killer or why they are even willing to go through with it. As much as I liked the original Danganronpa, I didn’t really care who was getting killed or why they were doing it. In the second iteration, there are more reasons to hate or like certain people… and the despair is hiked up by 1000 percent.
With that come some dramatic changes to Class Trial sequences. In previous games there were a few mini-games that the player could get involved in. In Danganranpa 2, there are three more and an Improved Hangman’s Gambit. The other kids in the courtroom can now interrupt the player and engage them in a Nonstop Debate Here the player can swipe along the screen defeating their words and battle to win over the screen. If the battle ends up somehow being a tie – the two will have to rapidly spam the action button until they proceed to the next phase. Hajime must find the correct evidence and cut down the words of the duelist.
Improved Hangman’s Gambit forces the player to combine floating words into one and assemble the proper words to succeed. Players an also select locations in the game where certain hidden objects may be, it’s similar to what we’ve seen in the Ace Attorney series. Hajime can also perform a Logical Dive, and this is a surfboard style game where he has to avoid obstacles and choose the correct argument. It’ll be familiar to anyone who play infinite runner titles.
Mini-games are a staple of the Danganronpa series, and there are even more than ever before. They are fun ways to get to the bottom of a case, but if that’s not something you’re into. You can’t really avoid playing them to get to the next part of the trial. You can turn the difficulty down or up individually between the logical sections and the action sequences. I’d prefer is they would add a “skip” sequence for the mini-games altogether, or come up with a better way to logically solve the murders. I’m more into the investigative parts of these types of novels, and I’d like to be engaged in that manner as well.
Like the in the original game, players can move about the Island and learn new things from the other stranded students. The best way to do this is during the Free Time sequences. Hajime can meet up with each of the Ultimate students and spend some time with them, he can give them presents to get them to open up to him about their pasts and emotional state. This impacts how players earn “Hope Fragments,” which is basically the currency used to purchase skills in the game. New skills can be obtained from obtaining Hope Fragments from each character.
As skills become available players can use them to enhance Hajime during Mini-games like increasing Bullet Time, or regenerating Influence during Class Trials. The amount of skills earned is based off the current level of our hero, and he earns that by walking around the island, searching for items, talking to people, or solving cases. He also has a digital pet that will grow as he moves around the island, and he can use presents he purchases with Monocoins (Monokuma Coins) to keep it from dying due to despair.
Speaking of the island, it’s vastly different from Hope’s Peak Academy. The large fiirst-person corridor style rooms still exist, but the color palette has been expanded to match the island aesthetic. Traveling now takes place by moving along a 2D landscape to different sections of the islands. Each locale has a different theme associated with it. The first two Islands maintain the resort feel, while the third island for example features a rundown entertainment section. Entering a zone still sends the area cascading in like a pillar of puzzle blocks to form an area, and people will spring from the ground similar to a pop-up book.
The characters look different enough from the main characters from the first game. Each of them have their own unique style accompanied with their personalities. The voice acting can range from fantastic like Nagito, to lukewarm like Akane. My main issue is the main protagonist himself, who doesn’t seem to be trying as hard as the other characters. He just doesn’t impress during high tension situations during the Class Trials. It is somewhat disappointing when the other characters are trying so hard to prove their points, and Hajime ineffectually blurts out his rebuttals.
Danganronpa 2 is in many ways better than the first game in the series. It’s much more hectic and full of despair that I didn’t really feel in the first game. Monokuma is more creative with his motives to kill and the mysteries are more intriguing as a result. If not for spoilers I’d reveal some of the creative cases involved in this title, but you’ll just have to take my word for it as to how good they are. Geek Citadel gives Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair four stars out of five. This feeling of despair is worth the trip, and exceeds the great Phoenix Wright titles as they currently stand.
