Most Danganronpa reviews on here are memey so I thought I’d jot down some legit thoughts I have on the game here. I haven’t been so hooked on a game to this degree in forever. Within the span of 4 days, I had completed the whole storyline, I just could not put it down, I was so engaged as to what would happen in the story next. This’ll overall be a spoiler free review except the excerpt I will mark as such so watch out for that.
Presentation
This game visually slaps. The almost eerie visual style of 2D characters combined with 3D environments contributes to the heavy atmosphere. Sprite quality is overall great as well, and although they aren’t animated, each character can be seen with a distinct personality and look from how their sprites are drawn. The almost Tim Burton-esque look to the Execution FMVs look amazing as well, I love how uncannily they are animated. Other elements, such as the UI, are flashy and unique, and you can’t forget the ever famous “NO, THAT’S WRONG” cut-in animation (well I guess “Sore Wa Chigau Yo” since I was playing the PSP translation). Also, the music is banging. Love the techno sound to it, and the variety of tracks on display. "Beautiful Death" is one of the most boppin' and atmospheric tracks I've heard in a video game in recent memory.
Characters
Overall solid cast here. Some characters such as Fuwaka I absolutely could not stand (I’m assuming intentionally so??), but I ended up enjoying most of the characters. Makoto is a very vanilla protagonist but seeing him grow throughout the journey was satisfying for me. I also liked the mysterious Kirigiri, the swimmer donut girl Asahina, the strong and honorable Sakura, and my bro (but also borderline con artist) Hagakure. Byakuya is also a pretty decent rival character throughout. Seeing the number of the 15 characters slowly dwindle, along with the fact you can potentially make strong bonds with these folks makes their losses go harder if that ever happens. My friend TonySADX mentioned that the more of the school you unlock, the more desolate the population becomes, and I can't stress enough how smart that subtle dynamic goes the further you dive into this large mystery.
Gameplay
Danganronpa is compared to Ace Attorney alot, and structurally they are very similar. But I’ll be damned if the trials in these games are WAY more stressful then any of the Ace Attorney ones. Time limits, complex mechanics, a ranking system, it makes these trials quite a havoc (NOW LAUGH). I played on the easiest difficulty because I’m a slow thinker, but I’d imagine that they are more rewarding on normal and above. I liked most of the minigames, but SCREW the comic books, I hate doing those so much.
CHAPTER 6 SPOILERS BELOW
Sorta mixed on the final villain. I’m not the biggest fan of bonkers antagonists, but this one has such a great sprite set showing their insanity and I love that. A bit anticlimactic that we only get to see them face to face at the latter half of the final trial, but they were a joy to see and eventually take down. One of the most satisfying final villain takedowns I’ve seen in these detective style visual novels. Also I think they have a really solid character design so that’s a plus.
SPOILERS END HERE
Final Thoughts
In summary, I really enjoyed this game. Kept me engaged the entire way throughout, and I’ve been informed that it only gets better from here. However, it’s definitely a very flawed game in some aspects, and I can COMPLETELY understand both the fan and hater sides of the spectrum, both are justified in my opinion. I’m already thoroughly impressed by this first attempt in the series, and I hope that I enjoy 2 and V3 just as much.

It's not surprising to me that the Battle Royale concept has had such a big reach with mainstream audiences in all forms of media over the years, as putting a group of diverse characters in a situation where they are forced to kill each other until there is only one left is a sure way to inject thrilling drama and immediate excitement into any setting or cast of characters. So say what you will of Danganronpa, but turning such an exhilirating genre into a "whodunit?" mystery is such a concoction of genius that's it's not hard to see where its success lies.

It's not until you find yourself in the thick of the first Death Trial that the strengths of Danganronpa as a VN become apparent. You would think that the game railroading you into an unavoidable solution would hardly engage the player in the puzzle solving process, but once the accusations and reveals start rolling out interspersed with Danganronpa's stylish presentation and Masafumi Takada's bombastic soundtrack, suddenly the paper cut out characters' bickering and absurd over the top twists becomes more real and intense than what you would get out of a movie or tv show, and feeling like an active participant in the murder mystery is an interactive illusion that Danganronpa has over plain text or video.

But that strength is a double edged sword that Danganronpa reveals far more than it should. The VN limitations work wonders when you are figuring shit out alongside everyone else, but if you are instead guessing way ahead of the characters, it soon becomes a game of waiting for them to circle around the obvious solution and playing minigames where deducing evidence and confronting lies is replaced with figuring out what is the exact combination of phrases the game expects from you. This wouldn't be such a problem had Danganronpa been more willing to allow consequential choice and the threat of failure in its life or death world, instead of forcing the player to act dumb for the sake of it. Something as simple as letting the player pick what Truth Bullets to load would have done wonders.

Still, I don't think anything anytime soon will leave me as flabergasted looking at the screen like the Bad Ending of this game did:
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/2e/86/c8/2e86c801f658934323ace8427347d1a1.jpg

What I thought would be a bizarro battle royale that's slightly cringe ended up being (kinda) that but more cringe, with Ace Attorney-inspired elements and contents that absolutely make this a product of its time...

...but I also like it? It's weirdly endearing in a way seeing a decent amount of likable and/or fascinating characters trying to sort and debate their way out of insane circumstances and the mysteries into their situation with some great ass OSTs, fun court mechanics, and overall just a unique vibe and aesthetic that can be apart of an embodiment of the late-2000's - early-2010's.

but damn this bear is fucked up bruh.

Whenever this game comes up, whether through casually thinking about it or watching Youtube clips, I end up going through a little thought experiment. What would it be like if Danganronpa 1 was the only game in the series? There's two easy answers to this: 1) we lose one of the best games ever made (and DR2) or 2) world peace. It's hard not to consider a world where the game stayed niche, and it's different, subversive elements weren't buried under the most obnoxious surface-level anime twitter-type discussions that plague the community and its reputation to this day. Recently, I started a replay of the first game with a friend, and even though plans sort of fell through, experiencing it from the top and looking into the game's history/context of its release on the side was almost eye-opening for how unique it must've been at the time. There's something about going back to this and seeing the series' themes and concepts explored in a much more down-to-earth manner than its sequels. (Which says a lot given how absurd this game is) Do I wish for a world where the franchise never blew up and it stayed in a super niche corner of the internet? Of course not, it deserves to reach a wider audience, and one of those sequels is one of my favorite games of all time. However, I can't help but lament how warped its public perception is, when it should be seen as so much more.

been a week, wrote a bunch of shit and wasn’t happy with it. had to sit on this one for a bit. danganronpa is a love it or hate it kinda game but i’m still on the fence. whatever ideas that were presented (which i almost got interested in) are handled with the elegance of an elephant in a china shop. bordering on straight up offensive with chihiro’s gender identity or just laughably boring with “hope and despair.” there is a textbook, childlike understanding of the potential of these words. doesn’t help that they’re said about what i’d believe to be over a hundred times. hope and despair here is like some weird tongue twister whose words become jumbled and meaningless just after a few verses. i’ve gone on record many, many times to say that this isn’t for me. danganronpa’s story isn’t for me and there’s no other way for me to elaborate. stereotyping, lack of connection with its player, lackluster character writing. idk, maybe i was just spoiled by playing better games in the genre. didn’t care for any of the characters. don’t blame anyone for being a fan, though. game’s just not in my taste at all and i kinda figured it wouldn’t be even before i started playing. i’m sorry to have such loaded claims without much backing but that’s just how i feel. genuinely had to force myself to finish the game. constantly checking my phone every few minutes during play sessions i think is a clear indicator of my disinterest.

looping it back, before i had said danganronpa’s story wasn’t for me. the presentation and shit like that is what i truly liked. gonna try and highlight what i liked most about it as best i can.

school. a common-ground to tread on for games geared towards teenage audiences. i think the distorted presentation of school here is pretty unique compared to its contemporaries with even a bit of subtext to pick up on about the school system itself. in the walls of hope’s peak academy, a sterilized yet chaotic viewpoint is placed upon rooms we’ve familiarized ourselves with before. further sinking in the despair anxiety felt towards this alienated “academy” enveloped since our questionable arrival. wandering the dark and gloomy gradient covered hallways does almost hit me with a similar feel to a horror game. murder, confusion, and betrayal hang in the air while anticipation builds up with each step towards the next room. what awaits us beyond the next door, the next trial? masafumi takada understood this and his compositions accurately reflect the school’s atmosphere wonderfully. unironically the visuals and music do a much better job at emotionally investing me than anything else. i found this to be comparable to killer7, as far fetched as it may sound. in the final chapter you’re tasked with exploring every classroom and walking down every hallway in a completely abandoned school with a tragic political past that i won’t spoil. both k7 and dr1 give this very raw, unhinged outlook on school. something hits different with these emptied hallways and classrooms, your thoughts being the only thing that echo throughout.
now enter the wacky, exaggerated 2D character art. juxtaposed against the sharp modeled environments, it fits very well. i don’t particularly like the artstyle of the character art but i cant deny its place in the game and how well it works. aesthetically, everything is put together super tightly where it feels comfy and looks cool at the same time. the sprites popping up like cardboard standees, crisp UI elements getting shattered and battered during trials; arguably the most recognizable aspect of the series.

there is a whole lot more i had written about previously, but as mentioned before, i wasn’t content. i found myself lazily listing each part of the game one by one and saying shit along the lines of either i liked it or i didnt like it. lame. i do feel like i want to clarify my thoughts on more parts of the game but frankly im lazy as fuck and not the best at being completely constructive. im noticeably very bad at concluding these sort of things lol. as a whole, i don’t really care for about 90% of this package and thats about it. i dont like dividing stuff into chapters cuz i like looking at shit together as one experience rather than these smaller ones that make up a whole. danganronpa is one of the most influential games in the current state of the genre, or something. when the credits rolled an immense dissatisfaction came over me to a surprising degree. did not give a shit at all. to everyone who genuinely likes this game, i give you my respect. really wanted to enjoy this but it just was not happening. admittedly fell asleep a few times while playing. also no, i will not be playing dr2. at least not for a very, very long time.

She slowly walks up to me, emanating gatekeep girlboss gaslight energy from every step taken, deliberately. Once she makes sure I am within whispering vicinity, she utters those words

"Makoto get strapped or get clapped"

Ayo Kyoko I will never forget you manhandles an uncontrollable tear frenzy

I'm not the brightest bulb in the room, but neither are they. Do they deserve death for this reason? No!! Hence why this is a series of hopium and copium, and this is the train's first stop. Still kinda funny, these executions really have "mods kill this guy" energy to them. Everything is so over-the-top in its writing and presentation that it's very difficult to be whelmed. You gotta have an opinion on this game. Some people were FNAF kids and I guess I was a Dangan kid... a late bloomer though I was already 15, and since then the only game that came out was a beach episode cashgrab coming out in winter.

I won't sugarcoat it, this is W writing. It's absurd, it's complex, it hits you when it needs to. Kodaka's style is something special. He knows how to blueball his audience and you're still in his grasp. The protagonist Big Mac is a template compared to the others, the whole cast has grounded designs and less complex personalities but they bounce off eachother due to the story's nature, and it's a delight to see. A battle royale with emphasis on relationships and deductions is like, best template ever! So many quality fangames are being made for this reason. Very few are actually completed, people don't see the labor needed for the whole package, meanwhile Kodaka made a sequel in 2 years the mad lad.

Uh oh, someone died. You better not have been watching Shrek 2 in the projector room or you won't have an alibi! The main course is, naturally, the class trials hosted by horror-mascot-before-mascot-horror-games-existed Monokuma! Fun fact: he's feeling white. These transracial statements don't surprise me, he's never been one for being likeable. Gather round fellas, the council has decided- wait, you're part of it. Democracy sucks it should be an authoritarian Kirigiri government but Big Mac needs to grow a spine and somehow outsmart Byakuya, whose face is shown next to "sigma male alpha chad" in Urban Dictionary. No seriously, he faces off an entire country in the novels it's wild. My favorite character is and will still be Sakura, I trust I won't have to explain this one. But, really I only dislike Celeste. She's hyped up to be a whole lot of nothing in the end that can't live up to expectations. The VA's shoulders must be sore by now.

This happened to my buddy Silver once.

Despite me thinking it wouldn't really be my thing, I managed to gather some curiosity in the series when I saw a friend of mine go through it. In spite of its shortcomings, the first Danganronpa manages to be a stylish and engaging experience that I ultimately enjoyed at the end of the day.

DR1 excels in its presentation, from the visually striking art of the backgrounds, UI, character portraits, and groovy soundtrack to the feeling of tension and uneasiness that only manages to get worse and worse as you start to slowly unravel the mysteries of Hope's Peak Academy, and watch your number of friends slowly dwindle over the course of the game.

And that is a good enough segue into the story and writing, and unfortunately, where my problems with this game start to come through. Not every character in this game is bad, per se, a lot of them just.. aren't very interesting. There are some characters I did very much like, such as Makoto, Kyoko, Monokuma, Byakuya, and Sakura, those fellas have a ton of wonderful moments (Byakuya is stretching it because i find him funny more than anything) and for some like your time spent with Kyoko and Sakura, I can safely say were the best moments for me in the game; but a lot of the other characters I ended up just.. not really giving too much of a shit about or flat-out didn't like. Toko and Hifumi especially are downright insufferable, and I just about hated listening to them nearly every time they had something to say.

The trials in this game aren't too bad, with some really goated ones like in the first and fourth case, and some simply enjoyable, or meh, and a particularly bad one. Solving the mysteries of whodunnit are made fun by the minigames within these trials; my favorite being the Closing Arguments, where you match up everything that's happened up to that point in a comic book, with a sick ass art style to boot. Most of the mysteries are well-written (except for the mystery in Chapter 2 where characters do stupid-ass things) and there are some genuinely good plot twists and developments that happen within them; a large part of why I love Chapter 4 especially. That being said, my problems with the trials are that a large majority of developments happen thanks to three characters in particular: Makoto, Byakuya, and Kyoko. Everyone else.. doesn't really feel like they contribute too much to the development of the trials a good chunk of the time other than saying something funny, or just some flat-out stupid shit before Makoto has to put them in their place and remind them to use their brains for once, it's odd. The Bullet Time Battle minigame also seems very unnecessary and more like, again, having to force one of the chucklenuts you're arguing against to think. It's like if before you deliver the final evidence in Ace Attorney that will convict the culprit for good, you had to play a game of Dance Dance Revolution against them. It's unnecessary. And remember that particularly bad trial I mentioned earlier? I was referring to Chapter 6; the final trial, and the worst in the game. I agree with what my friend UnluckyLucky said about it; it feels exclusively like an exposition dump, and full of information that really could've been told earlier, which is a shame since that means the game fumbles right at the end.

I have a lot of negatives to say about this game, but the game's still damn good. What it does right it does more often than what it does wrong, and it what it does right, it does damn right. But I just wish it was always that good instead of stumbling so much. But hey, that's what sequels are for.. right?

By the way, my friends and I kept a count for how many times they say the word "despair" as I went through this game. We ended with a total of 194 counts of said word. And I felt like I was going fucking insane by the end of the game where it's in like, every other message.

[EDIT 07/05/22]: Oh, you have no fuckin' idea, past me. You ever hear about hope?

Hahahahaha screw this game

This game sets such an amazing intro with its first case. It's fluidly paced, the twists and turns in it are genuinely intriguing, the aesthetics and music work wonderfully, and the cast is fun with setting down a foundation for their growth later on.

The game's core strength is its presentation. The designs of the characters, the settings, the art style, the music, everything is so distinct. It's all really charming and memorable and the aesthetic alone does a lot for this game. It even tricked me into having a fun time with this game which gets worse and worse in hindsight.

The game's writing is dumb. The characters will take forever to get to basic conclusions the player got to a long time ago, there's frequent moments that defy common sense that don't even make sense in character, nobody but exactly three characters actually progress the investigations/cases with everyone else seeming like wastes of space there to give testimony or be there to be argumentative, a lot of things feel like contrived like Case 2 with the Genocide Jack stuff and Case 3 with the hammers and Case 4 with the multiple pointless suspects and Case 5/6 with the very obvious fake nails, the characters get zero development outside of one getting genuine development and a few others either getting posthumous fleshing out or very barebones development, and the plot twist at the end feeling really forced.

Case 2 is a case I enjoy for the neat twists and turns but also kind of hate for having a lot of deeply uncomfortable transphobic stuff. Case 3 and 4 are just boring, and Cases 5 and 6 are genuinely infuriating to me.

I'm trying to keep this as spoiler free as possible so all I can really say is that the game peaks at the first case and curves downward the more you go into the game. Maybe if this game had more intelligent writing or better characters I'd be more forgiving, but nope. This game is the wet dream of an edgy Hot Topic tweenager who thinks anime tropes are interesting personalities.