Do you like mysteries? Do you like anime? Do you like psychotic teddy bears and death? Then I have the game for you. Introducing... Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. Danganronpa is a game where a bunch of high school students find themselves trapped in a school, with some psychotic teddy bear pulling the strings and making them kill each other. Pretty fun premise, right? What if I told you it gets even better?
Danganronpa is a franchise consisting of about 4 games plus an anime, which I plan on reviewing all eventually. So we start (naturally) at the beginning, with the first installment, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. This game has a lot of ups, but it does have some downs. I'll be describing its mechanics, the story, and then, well, anything else that doesn't really fit in.
So, what is this game really? How do you play? To answer your question, it's mostly a visual novel, with the occasional puzzle and other mystery-themed minigames. The game has mainly 2 parts: the story part, and the trial part. The story part consists of the aforementioned visual novel style, while as the trial part does have some of that, the core of it is something different.
What are class trials? Put simply, they are trials which the students attend (involuntarily) to figure out who the killer is. Every chapter contains a killer (otherwise where would the story be?), and your job is to find who it is via the trials. The main mechanic here is a game where words will fly across the screen, and you have to find the correct weak point to shoot with the correct bullet. At its roots, it's pretty simple, however some of these mysteries can take a bit of brainpower to solve, and sometimes you'll end up just looking it up or just trying every possible combo. There are a few other mini-modes in the trials, however, which are a fill-in-the-blank comic, a rythym game, and a... spelling game. Obviously, not the best selection minus maybe the rythym one, but it works, as the comic has some fun art in it, and the spelling game... well, maybe not for that one.
So, for those who are curious, how is the story itself? It is a story based game after all, so buying it if it has a sucky plot would pretty much be a waste of money. Fear not, for this game has an excellent plot and shows outstanding execution of the story mountain. The setting is described quite well with a quick but interesting prologue, as you get to learn about this fascinating world that contains people with extraordinary talents. The action in the game does a great job of building up for the climax, each trial better than the last, with even crazier plot twists. Even the introductory trial has a pretty neat twist! The climax is definitely great, with an epic final battle with the main antagonist, solving many of the games presented questions with outrageous, absolutely crazy answers. The falling action definitely does its job of, well, leading everyone to the resolution, which is a great finish for the game, yet leaves you with a few minor questions, that will, of course, be discovered in later installments.
What about the rest of the game? The characters are quite the cast, each with their own unique personality, backstory, views, and secrets. How about a secret mode where instead of killing each other, you micro manage all the students in a weird little rpg/dating mode? It even has quite a fair amount of replayability, as it will take a while to actually complete it all the way through. Extras, you say? With the in game Monocoins you get, you can also purchase some of your favorite tracks, art, clips, events, and more!
So, I said Danganronpa had some bad. And it's true. However, it's only one thing. But its bad enough to put a damper on the whole experience. Allow me to rant.
Fuck purple words. Taking time out of my reading to press buttons, go through the same dialogue MULTIPLE times, and fucking like, it's just so tedious to always do. It practically ruins the first chapter because they use it SO FUCKING MUCH. If it's a story game, and I'm supposed to know the information anyways, don't hide it behind some stupid button press other than the main button. It's not even for like multiple endings, or different paths. It's a stupid hurdle that blocks your progress.
They removed the purple words in later games so thank god. Overall, great game, 8/10 needs less purple words.
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