Honestly? This game still rules imo. It's not going to be everyone's cup of tea but it's still a VN classic. Certainly the later entries of the series upstage it but it has a truly delicious atmosphere which I think comes mostly from it initially being a standalone game. It feels smaller in scope than 2 or V3 but I think that allows it to make Hope's Peak feel claustrophobic. Obviously school horror is nothing new, especially in J-horror, but Danganronpa manages to make it feel stylishly eerie and fresh with its neon lighting and anxiety-inducing soundtrack. It has a pulpy, kind of sleazy charm to it, like a B-horror film, and I still love it all these years later. I do think a lot of the commentary about the Japanese school system is going to inevitably be lost on most people unless they go out of their way to read about it, but still it captures that universal feeling of school simultaneously being a nightmare and a sanctuary to young people.

Also it has Celes, who's turbo mega slay is probably the reason why I'm into visual novels and the like in the first place. Like, her design intrigued 13 year old me so much that I immediately got into the game. Lol