Not to be stereotypical, but…

sigh Where do I begin?

Let’s start from the previous game in the series. Danganronpa 1 is a game of high tension and low payoff. The oppressive atmosphere of the school combined with the music is masterful, but outside of the first case’s twist I failed to really connect with the game. There’s all these characters but all but one or two are meaningful; there’s the themes of hope and despair and nothing interesting is done with them; and worst of all, I started figuring out the formula.

Focus on relevant characters for the case so the audience is forced to care about them. Kill them off or make them the murderer and THEN kill them off. Sprinkle in some half-baked themes of hope and despair and leave it to fester in the summer heat. End off with a truly aggrivating (for me) finale that made a 4/10 drop to a 3/10. What’s left is Danganronpa 1.

I won’t deny the game does a lot well, but it never becomes exceptional anywhere. It never even becomes exceptionally bad outside of a few characters I truly hated, three out of the four sticking around in the finale. Its mediocrity and lost potential made me want to tear my hair out along with so many pet peeve tropes I felt like I was going insane.



Danganronpa 2 is in many ways a better game than the first but in many ways a far worse game than the first. It’s such a fascinatingly mixed bag I never knew how to feel about it at any given time even in its peaks and its below sea level faults.

To start, let’s go over the positives.

The atmosphere, while weaker, still gives off an aura of complete surrealness which is shared with the first game but twisted to become an odd mix of cheer and sadness. This ties into the game’s climax of hope AND despair rather than hope vs. despair, which I appreciate, but I still miss the oppression and tension of walking the halls in the first game like I could die at any time. In this game, I felt on guard in the sense that things could change at any time and throw me for a loop. The final case’s atmosphere is masterful with its glitchy aesthetics and ramping the surrealness to 11 and reusing Hope’s Peak Academy in a good way.

Music good as usual, Masafumi Takada is a genius, but I can’t help but feel the soundtrack is weaker in general. There’s catchy tunes as usual but this doesn’t feel iconic in the same way DR1’s soundtrack does.

The characters that ARE good are better here than the first game. Low standards but I’ll take what I can get. I appreciate Hiyoko’s presence a lot as a constant pot-stirrer and source of antagonism that the cast really needs in it at all times that was taken too soon. Peko and Fuyuhiko are absolutely masterful in Case 2’s epilogue and execution and are the source of my favorite thing in the series so far in general even if Fuyuhiko loses his depth midway through Case 3. Gundham for being such a tryhard is genuinely funny, a rarity in this game, and Case 4 he becomes genuinely cool and his execution is the second best in the series and game. Hajime is mostly bland but Case 6 escalates him into being a genuinely compelling and fascinating character. But far and away the best character is…

Nagito Komaeda. The sexyman himself. Gosh, what an amazing character. As soon as Case 1, he CHURNS that pot with his insanity and personal philosophy landing him in the middle of being a proactive dueteragonist and a horrifying antagonist. He takes on the roles of Kyoko and Byakuya from the first game and goes buckwild with them in so many more interesting ways than either character did in the first game. His philosophy of hope is so genuinely fascinating it’s tragic he didn’t make it until the end to bash his despaired hope against Junko’s despaired…despair. (Man, I hate that word now.)
I can never predict what this character is going to do. He’s as true of a chaotic neutral as any character can get, and it’s always SO fun to experience every single scene with him in it. He’s the best qualities of this series distilled into one character and everything he’s done is magnificent. I’d watch DR3 just to see him throw a monkey wrench into the plot as he goes while simultaneously hardcarrying the plot but, uh, nobody should watch DR3.

Nagito as a plot device carries the plot forward in a massive improvement from how awfully Cases 1-3 to 1-5 were paced from a combination of bad plot decisions like overreliance on Alter Ego and Kyoko constantly screwing off and refusing to elaborate. The plot in general is also more compelling in its endgame than the first game which lends to how DR2 first and foremost seeks to be a step above DR1.

Sayaka died too early in Case 1? Here’s Nagito to fulfill those same Case 1 tropes but way better. Genocide Jack is an awful character who made the trial go nowhere? Peko forces the trial to a close to cover up her being a good character. Case 3…is equally as unforgivably bad in the context of each game. Case 4 has the killer do it for the sake of self destruction. Case 5 tried to bring everybody down at once but 2 used the mole plot from 1 in a more compelling way. Case 6 takes hope vs. despair and makes it hope plus despair.

There’s a lot of small echoes and improvements from character arcs to gameplay to general plot feel that are too long and too tiny for me to talk about in depth. I do, however, admire the game for this and very much despise it at the same time.


Now to talk about the bad.


The cast is still bad. So many filler characters who are either braindead, annoying, horny, or a combination of the above. There are so many chances to develop these characters outside the FTE system that my mind is boggled how many characters stay extremely flat. I can rag on Mikan for being human waste, Kazuichi and Sonia for being useless AND SURVIVING, Machiru being so annoyingly misandrist with no nuance I popped off when she died, and my gosh the most disappointing one in general has to be Akane. Both times Nekomaru dies she’s being handed character development on a silver platter. What does she do? She throws the platter away along with any brain cells she has left. She, for me, embodies the worst of Danganronpa writing: stupid, the source of endless horny jokes, of little to no help to anyone, and worst of all just aggresively mediocre. Not even the kind of mediocre you can brush past either, like a plan Hershey’s chocolate bar, but the kind that just wears you down.

In the book “A Swim in the Pond in the Rain,” Saunders explains that characterization is a process of “increasing specification.” A character should be specified further and further as the story goes on. A character should not respond the same ways to situations all the time. And a character should be a person.

To use my own metaphor, imagine one of those adult coloring books where you get to draw in predisposed areas dictated by numbered areas. Now imagine each character, black and white, with lots of numbers scattered across them. Characterization should be like coloring in these characters to create a vivid and bright picture at the end, but that’s not the sense I get from these characters. What I get are two colors filled in for most of them…and nothing else. Everyone is dull, lifeless, and hollow just like they act in this game. They aren’t characters, they’re charactiures without any nuance besides only about two or three in this crowd. The only characters I feel truly are vivid in color are Hajime Hinata only by the climax of the last case, and Nagito Komaeda who I already sang my praises of.

As for the cases themselves…meh. Meh meh meh meh meh. I can say I liked a case but that feels relative since every case but the last one is filled with so much cotton fluff every good or great part has a bunch of bad or eh to get there. Even in the overall strongest cases, 5 and 6, are undermined by Danganronpa being the way it is.

Case 5 sets up its atmosphere and problems masterfully. The music switching out at the final parts as everyone is so deeply saddened is masterful. But it’s still undercut by feeble attempts at humor at the end which completely ruined the mood for me, already not helping my friends are idiots and kept making “Chiaki doesn’t like Tetris” jokes. So even in this Case full of great things, I came out apathetic especially because the surviving cast is so genuinely nothing.

Case 6 is really cool in general and would be a case I confidently would say is great if it weren’t for my severe, burning hatred to Junko Enoshima. The worst case of Villain Sue I’ve ever seen alongside becoming even more irritating than her first appearance. If I went on about her, it would devolve into swearing and keyboard smashing. It’s like alternating bites of my favorite food and rotten meat during this whole case. What it does is very cool but because this is Danganronpa they had to add the awful, horribly written, narratively flawless, tone destroying villain in there.

Right there is one of the three fatal flaws I believe Danganronpa has: tonal inconsistency. It’s good to change tone but Danganronpa is so genuine schitzophrenic in its tone I can’t get a handle on anything I’m supposed to be feeling. Often in the last case where the main cast is slowly having a breakdown, you get horrible jokes wedged in that make me feel really confused on what the approach is supposed to be here. What am I supposed to be feeling here? I do not know so I come out frustrated and apathetic, the two emotions a consumer should never feel at the same time towards a product.

The second fatal flaw is that it provides you with amazing ideas you could do so many cool things with then proceeds to execute them in the worst ways imaginable. So many cool things could have been done in Case 4 because of the really good set up but, no, have days straight of doing nothing but starve. Even Case 2’s brilliant execution is led up to by the worst bait and switch anybody could have thought of with that stupid mask. I see these problems and I want so strongly to just FIX them because it feels so easy to do but there isn’t being anything done here. It feels so lazy on the game’s part that it always shoots to whatever will make the biggest shock in the moment with no foresight or nuance at all.

The final fatal flaw is the FTE system. As much as I wish I could say the last fatal flaw is Hangman’s Gambit because that minigame is genuinely awful, the FTE system is so reductive to the game I just hate its inclusion. In theory, you’re investing time into characters to learn more about them outside the main story where they’re already interesting. In actuality, you’re investing time into characters to MAKE them interesting and even then you’re banking on winning that chance that you succeed in getting a character with good FTEs like Nagito. This shoving of even fundamental character details you could easily splash into the main plot (worst example is still Sayaka from 1) but just don’t for the sake of removing padding but this actually creates SO MUCH MORE PADDING for the people who want to learn more about these characters, especially since you need to trigger so many conversations with a single character to max them out which needs presents which is a whole other ordeal of immense padding. The system creates the ability for the developers to not care about giving characters depth since you can shove it into side content like Kazuichi’s entire character arc. Not helping DR characters drop like flies so having so many conversations is incredibly bad because you could invest in characters who keep dying and learn nothing about nobody and waste potential hours.



Overall, DR2 averages out to a 5/10. This is definitely an improvement over the first game but it desperately needed more time in the oven, especially Case 3. This game is amazing when it wants to be, awful when it really shouldn’t be, and just mediocre when I don’t want it to be. I’ll probably have “more” fond memories of DR1 because blind early game is uncomparable, but DR2 definitely shines brighter. I really hope V3 will be what I seek out of this series when I get to it. If nothing else, there’s Your Turn to Die, I suppose.

Its like danganronpa 1 but worse in pretty much everyway. Firstly, just the fact that a sequel exists to Danganronpa 1 retroactively cheapens its ending, which was great. But its a trilogy now so whatever.

The hook in Danganronpa 1 was a combination of Ace Attorney style trials (with a mixed bag of minigames) with a connecting narrative/overall mystery that was constantly being developed, with characters being picked off as it went. D2 certainly has some good trials (the 4th and 5th in particular) but the connecting narrative and overall msytery sucks!

First of all they give away the key "twist" within the first five minutes, which uh, good job. Secondly basically nothing happens for most of it, literally and figuratively for most of it were waiting for the plot to happen, with and actual ominous timer in the main square reading "x:00:00 until plot" for most of the cases.

Also this is when they decided to add the "unpredictable" character that every subsequent entry needed, an annoying tumblr bait edgelord who pulls his get out of murder free card in the first trial and inexplicably gets to walk around freely after a token effort to keep him contained (rather than y'know breaking his kneecaps with a 2x4). I guess you could argue that monokuma would just heal him or whatever but still, this fucker caused a death! Why are you so nonchalant about it! Him being so front and centre in this game ruins a big chunk of it, I think you were supposed to rethink your attitude when he caps himself but even after that I was just glad he was gone.

I think the most damning thing about D2 is just how much I forgot about it a few months after playing, compared to V3 and D1, all the characters are so unmemorable and forgettable. The only good ones get capped. With the exception of the yakuza dude every survivor at the end was either boring or annoying (this game would have earned another half a star if the sex pest mechanic had gotten iced by the end, but no such luck). Compare to D1 where at least the survivors were likeable and you were invested in their and your survival.

The ending in general blows, its a tired retread of the original, but more convoluted and stupid. In reference to my D1 review, this game does not pass the suspension of cringe test, I was utterly bored by the final trial. The only thing I liked was the fact that its not explained how you got out, that was neat.

I will add a a caveat that I replayed this the same week I gave up cigarettes and played it on max difficulty on account of already knowing a lot of the answers (though surprisingly a lot I had forgotten because of how unmemorable most of the trials were) therefore wasnt in the cheeriest mood but the minigames in the trials suck ass. They ruined a lot of them. In particular Hangmans Gambit in this game can go fuck itself on hard difficulty.

I will give one thing to this entry, the music is the best in the series and earns it another half a star.

So thats my summary of Danganronpa 2 : mostly unmemorable. I am well and truly perplexed why people like it more than the others, the existence of trial 3 alone should knock it down to last place IMO.