Would've been 4 stars if not for the resolution. Just felt so unsatisfied and annoyed as the game winded down, and the way the 'final fight(?)' went down was pretty cringe. I get you have to 'just go with it' with these games', but still there's too much that either doesn't get explained, or it gets this half-assed, hand-wave of an explanation. Too many logic moments that just don't click because its so hard to wrap your head around everything. I love the gameplay improvements, but DR2's plot was way too wonky for me.

Danganronpa 2 is an interesting sequel that takes the core aesthetical mix of murderous insanity and exaggerated dark humor in an iterative if somewhat separate direction. It reflects a bit on the flaws of the previous games but ultimately doesn't do a whole lot to fix them, and more so swaps them out with something else.

The core plot is still a walking trash fire, with convoluted elements that walk straight off a cliff at the conclusion arc, leaving no satisfaction other than making true on just being insane as the game's first step let on. Characters are a bit more fleshed out now, with some interesting relationships and a few good motivations, but the game also does a good deal of throwing that out just to hit the core themes of the previous game, with one character in Case 3 especially turned straight into fucking mush for the sake of a gotcha. The game also ditches its grounded and dismal atmosphere for something way more surreal, and that doesn't come off as a welcome change because again, DR2 doesn't have much more of interest to say with it. This kinda leaves the setting to be a lot less memorable overall.

What is fun though, are the cases. They're an entire step up from DR1 by having more intricate puzzle solving structure to them, with situations so bizarre and outlandish but with case logic so strictly put together that each reveal in-game is interesting as it is satisfying to figure out. Each case still has a decent who dunnit, and a crazy interesting how dunnit. The why dunnit is still a crock of shit, but at this point it's something you have to accept when jumping into this game. In general the HEART of DR2 is still almost entirely absent for much of the runtime.

That's probably the most grueling flaw that DR is in no rush to fix. At the end of the day, DR is comfortable in drenching itself with an insane and somewhat satisfying junk food look, and leaves you with very little to mull over aftewards.

I have to say, in pretty much every aspect I can think of, Danganronpa 2 builds off of all of the great concepts of the original and goes further. It's more refined, the areas are more diverse, the complexity is raised, the story is even crazier, the cast is even better, the mysteries are even less straightforward, and the trials have become even more unpredictable, mentally stimulating, and go further beyond the established formula.

Danganronpa is a franchise that's extremely prone to spoilers, which is why I'd like to get to the rest of the franchise relatively soon before I get anything spoiled for me, but because of that I will be avoiding spoilers as much as possible here. So I'll be skipping out on a lot of details about story and characters that I could elaborate on so people can go into it with a sense of mystery still.

As far as I can say without spoiling either the first game or this one, a bunch of students end up on a seeming island paradise with a lot of questions as to how they got here and why they're here, when it once again gets interrupted by Monokuma, and the killing school life starts anew. Just like the first game, it's split up into chapters, involving relatively normal yet quirky school life and getting to know the rest of the cast, punctuated by unfortunate murders, investigation into all of the relevant details, and culminating in a class trial to figure out just whodunnit, full of tons of twists and turns. The original game ended with still a fair amount of vagueness and unsolved mysteries, which this game capitalizes on, even adding a whole other layer of questions and confusion at the very beginning. Even though in a sense the first game starts with a bait-and-switch, it's pretty much already known going on what that is, but this game goes even crazier with its bait-and-switch, generating genuine mystery with the sheer oddity of its introduction. Also appreciated is how it establishes a simple yet effective premise keeping the narrative moving forward. The first game having no sense of moving towards anything specific rather than just investigating and staying alive works for a first entry, but this game realizes its potential as a sequel to change things up and raise the stakes, and the sense of narrative propulsion benefits it in a way that just repeating the premise of the first game but on an island wouldn't have. I won't spoil the key story events, but I will say that while I loved the story of the first game, the way this game expands upon the mystery, breaks from its own conventions, and goes further with the established themes definitely makes it even more impressive. Like stepping even higher above an already proven proof of concept.

The cast is also generally even better. At first I was worried they wouldn't be able to stick with me as much as the ones in the game I had just beaten, and I had noticed a lot of seeming parallels between these characters and the ones from the last game. But there were more characters this time around that had a strong impact on me, and on average I'd say I probably got more out of individual characters this time around. I mean Nagito should be obvious. Visually he didn't impact me as much at first, but I think Hajime is a more interesting and stronger protagonist than Makoto was. Also thought there were lots of interesting aspects about Chiaki, Fuyuhiko, Mikan, etc. The dynamic between Monokuma and Usami/Monomi also becomes very interesting, full of a lot of mystery.

Like I said, the gameplay gets more refined, more complex, more open. It breaks away a lot more from its established formulas. Obviously it's still a very visual novel style game with most of the real gameplay in the trials, but if you understand that expectation it is very compelling. Without spoiling exactly what happens, right off the bat, on the very first trial, it's significantly more off-the-walls than the trials in the first game were, as if it's building off of that game as a starting point instead of going back to square one, which was really appreciated. And they only play with their own formula, structure, and expectations even more going forward. By the last trial it gets absolutely insane. I thought there was a lot to juggle with in terms of the trial mechanics in the first game, but then this game expands it even more. With a varied amount of mini-games that are expanded enough to add more diversity compared to the trials of the first game, but short enough that the fact they're simplistic and maybe not fully polished won't settle in too much.

Stylistically it also feels like a step-up, maintaining the same basic appealing art style while making the UI more appealing and offering a more vibrant environment that changes up the scenery more often and more significantly. I'm not sure whether or not this game has more "rooms" compared to the first one because instead of navigating hallways you basically have island hubs you lap around on with areas you visit on them, but because of that change in how you traverse them it feels much more spacious. And of course the first game was set in a closed space, so being more claustrophobic, intimate, mundane, and involving going back over old areas more often made more sense, but it's nice that the game expanded the scope to prevent it from becoming stale. And of course, the soundtrack is as solid as ever, arguably even better with the new additions, though it is missing my favorite track from the last game, Box 15.

Any gripes with the game are very minor, the mini-games aren't always super polished but they're brief and functional enough, sometimes certain models and art assets don't seem to have as polished detail but it has a generally solid aesthetic, don't really know what the pet feature added, would've been nicer if the map was easier to figure out how it was oriented, and I won't spoil which one, but I thought one of the trials was a bit of a letdown that threw out good characterization for a more generic and unexplained twist. Also make sure you play on the hardest difficulty, because the mini-games can be slightly frustrating sometimes, but the game is not very punishing at all for failure if you just restart from a checkpoint with full health back. The only truly challenging part are the mysteries, which they should be, though some answers were probably a bit too obtuse (I had to look up a few sometimes because I was just too stumped and it was taking too long).

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair takes all the best aspects of the first game and builds off of them, expanding complexity and mystery and bending with its own rules. It's more fun to play and explore, and even more intellectually stimulating to solve its mysteries, with solid visual style and charming and compelling characters. I highly recommend you play it, but only after playing the first one.

A definite improvement over the first installment, this game returns to the same formula of trapping students and pitting them against each other for freedom. Absurdism is toned down compared to the original, characters are less focused on being stereotypical archetypes, and it just feels more fleshed out. At its core, it's still the same gameplay with some slight improvements. Overall, I enjoyed this story a lot more than the first, however the original is necessary to help understand quite a bit of the ending.

As a huge fan of the first game, I was really looking forward to this sequel, and I wasn't disappointed.

Of course, there aren't too many changes compared to 'Trigger Happy Havoc', but that's to be expected. I mean, there are only so many innovations you can put in a virtual novel, so the gameplay, the investigations and the trials are almost completely the same, no surprises there.

However, the fun, weird (but also relatable) cast, the well-paced, exciting story, the incredible and often emotional plot twists more than make up for the predictability in gameplay.

Although, I have to admit, some twists this time around seemed unnecessarily cruel to me... but I admit, it's my own fault for growing so attached to all the characters in a game like this.

All in all, another great addition to the franchise, I'll definitely play the next one, too.