{This review will contain spoilers for Danganronpa 1, Zero Escape: Virtues Last Reward, and Ace Attorney. I would suggest playing them before reading this review.}

There's about a billion ways to introduce Danganronpa; it's just one of those types of games. So rather than picking one and feeling dissatisfied, I am going to go against the very structure of essays and using mostly intros to start reviewing this very *very* weird game:

I have been playing games since I was five years old. And thanks to becoming a gaming buff very early on, I have played hundreds maybe even thousands of games. Because of this, I felt pretty much every emotional state that a game has provided. Games that praise or advertise themselves as being unique or innovative will always fall into bringing out similar feelings but not Danganronpa....

Visual Novels are an intimate genre to the point where the genre feels like going on a date, and each visual novel is like going out with a different person. For example, in Ace Attorney, it is like going out with a classy girl. She's quirky but extremely likeable. You two have so much in common. She's funny but knows how to get deep at the right times. Everyone likes Ace Attorney. And if you don't, then you can kindly go fuck yourself.

Danganronpa, on the other hand, is some random gal you happened upon on Tinder. You wouldn't normally go for girls like her, but your standards are lower or why else you would be using Tinder. Her hair is ragged. She might have a questionable history with drugs and other substances. Frankly if her Tinder bio didn't send in a billion red flags, then I don't know what will tip you off. She is obviously a terrible potential partner. But you got to admit, you are gonna remember that girl for the rest of your life...

God, I love games that make me feel like a virgin-and that's as far I got with that intro to be perfectly honest....

Hopefully, those intros will suffice. Because honestly, you can't review Danganronpa in the traditional way, and I am not talking about numerical review scores. The basic and essential tool of adjectives is useless to discuss this game. You can't simply call it good or bad. It is not great or terrible; it's not enjoyable or frustrating. It's not average or boring. It's Danganronpa.

That said, I am going to try to review Danganronpa anyway, at least the qualities that can be examined objectively.

The Objective Qualities...and flaws...

In Danganronpa, you play as a special needs kid who is kidnapped and thrown into a death game with fourteen other high school students. And right off the bat, the game presents a gameplay loop that feels like it was made up as it went along by a flustered designer trying to be unique.

"So in Danganronpa, you have to figure out murder mysteries via courtroom stylings and cross examinations."

"Oh, kind of like Ace Attorney."

The designer starts to sweat. "Eh well, the game will also have boss fights that function like a rhythm game!"

"Oh, so like Guitar Hero."

"EH BUT ALSO, the game will have social mechanics where bonding with characters will give you special abilities and buffs."

"Oh, so like Persona 3."

"AND, the game will have the player fill out words by finding specific letters."

"Oh, so like Elmo's Letter Adventure."

"OH MY GAWD!"

Jokes aside, the gameplay loop is pretty fun. And if there is one thing that this game has over its Capcom counterpart is that it has snappier pacing. For one, difficulty has a more interesting ramp up by having a more traditional approach to level design. For example, your truth bullets that you use to point out contradictions starts off with one bullet. Then, you have to cycle through multiple truth bullets. Then, you have to pull truth bullets from the statements. Then, you have objects that can block your truth bullets and so on. There is a nice escalation of the mechanics that gets more complex. Ace Attorney, on the other hand, feels lacking in comparison since their version of adding difficulty is by layering more stuff onto one mechanic. It is not adding complexity but rather adding quantity of the same thing. Evidence inventory becomes more cumbersome. Witness statements become longer. The tools you are using in the first level is what you will be using in the last level. This is not a knock on Ace Attorney, but I enjoyed Danganronpa's approach a little more.

The pacing is also shown in the investigations. Danganronpa is much more clear in where you need to go and what you need to do in order to progress the story. Ace Attorney has more tedious roadblocks, and I find the worst part about playing the Ace Attorney games are dealing with these roadblocks.

That said, Danganronpa is not a point for point improvement. While Danganronpa is certainly more fun to play, the gameplay doesn't integrate well into the story. It's hard to explain, so let me use an example.

One of the highlights in Ace Attorney involves Phoenix Wright cross examining a parrot who merely speaks in squawks and one-word sentences. It's a great story moment mainly because it puts the core mechanics in a different context.

This is the flip side to Danganronpa. Danganronpa simply has no clever moments where the story and gameplay mesh in an organic way. I was waiting for that moment where the gameplay would shift because we were pressing a particular character, but it never did that which leaves a sense of missed opportunities. To be fair, this shouldn't also be a knock on Danganronpa, and it certainly isn't fair in most cases to fault a game for the absence of a gameplay mechanic.

You have to see it for what it has. And what it has is really good music and art direction. Yeah, the music slaps.

The Story...God Where Do I Start

Unfortunately, that's where my opinions with any sense of conviction ends, and it's no coincidence that it is right as I am talking about the story that I'm left with a wash of uncertainty.

Like the intro, I had multiple ideas on how to approach this thing. So rather than pick one, I am just going to use all of them.

Method #1: The Ten Detective Commandments

The Ten Detective Commandments are a series of guidelines created by fiction writer Ronald Knox to ensure a mystery (specifically whodunit mysteries) were engaging, made logical sense, and didn't fall into bad clichés or routine.

Now nowadays, this set of rules are pretty meaningless. Most mysteries now have gone on to break at least one rule from these ten and still manage to be enjoyable. However, I feel these commandments serve as a good framework when analyzing a story's mystery. How a mystery sets up a surprise. How a mystery breaks from these conventions and so on.

So, these commandments aren't here to clinically grade Danganronpa's story but as a means to explore certain parts of the plot that doesn't involve me pulling my hair out in the process. So with that in mind:

Commandment #1: The criminal must be mentioned in the early part of the story but must not be anyone whose thoughts the reader has been allowed to know.

A simple one that most mysteries follow, and Danganronpa is no different. Although, Danganronpa cheats a bit with this one which I will get to later.

Commandment #2: All supernatural or preternatural agencies are ruled out as a matter of course.

No supernatural elements and no preternatural agencies. The closest you can argue that may break this rule is the logistics and finances needed to upkeep Hope's Peak which they don't fully address. I haven't played the sequels, so maybe it is addressed there.

Commandment #3: Not more than one secret room or passage is allowable.

Hey, this one is actually faithful in a nice straightforward way. There are only one secret room-two if you count the one near the end that sticks out to the point of not really being a secret-and that's it. The rest are unopenable hatches or locked doors both of which are in plain sight.

I suppose I could bring up one thing that kept bothering me that somewhat relates to this. How did the mastermind get around physically? There are times where the mastermind clearly had to go out to clean crime scenes, restock supplies, relocating the corpses to the upper floors to store them in the bio lab, and so when did they have the time to do that? I don't know. Maybe the elevator rides to and from the crime scenes are really long, so the master mind has plenty of time to clean and stuff while the kids are coming back from the courtroom. They don't really address it, but I suppose you can suspend your disbelief that the mastermind is capable of allotting alone time to do the necessary upkeep.

Commandment #4: No hitherto undiscovered poisons may be used, nor any appliance which will need a long scientific explanation at the end.

Again, nothing that blatantly breaks the rule per say. However, there is one thing that kind of breaks this rule.

It's established near the end that the mastermind used a memory agent that wiped the last two years of all the kids' memories. Again, it is not really addressed. How does the memory specifically wipe the last two years and nothing else? Are there side effects? While it doesn't blatantly break the rule, I feel the memory agent breaks the spirit of what the rule is trying to address. No overly convenient plot device, and the memory agent is pretty close to that.

To be fair, at least the memory agent is set up well, and the reveal is one of the better moments of writing in the story.

Commandment #5: No Chinaman-woah woah, ok.

Yeah, this particular commandment, while useful, has a bit of racial insensitive stank that's hard to ignore. I have taken the liberty of updating this one to be more applicable.

Commandment #5: The mystery shouldn't contain stereotypes that would be considered insensitive to race, gender, and or sexual minorities as well as those with mental or physical disabilities.

Danganronpa unfortunately stumbles quite a bit. We have a pretty shallow depiction of dissociative personality disorder. We have women athletes that contain lesbian undertones. Sexist name calling like Hiro calling Sakura "ogre." The most blatant, however, is this muddy messaging regarding gender identity when it is revealed that Chihiro was a guy posing as a girl. While Chihiro's gender identity is technically a guy thereby somewhat skirting around the idea that the characters were misgendering him as a guy, the politics of this character are still very sloppy. It has the dated notion that women are considered inherently weak as well as men who are physically weak are considered lesser than. This becomes even more absurd when you have characters like Sakura who constantly breaks gender stereotypes by being a sensitive woman who also happens to be very capable physically.

I won't say the creative team were flat out transphobic, but there is an ignorance and insensitivity there that through lines the entire story, especially in chapter 2.

Commandment #6: No accident must ever help the detective, nor must he ever have an unaccountable intuition which proves to be right.

The only example I can think of that goes against this is when Makoto is saved by Alter Ego after Alter Ego supposedly died. It was very plot convenient. And like commandment 4, it doesn't specifically break this rule but does something that goes against the spirit of what this commandment is trying to address.

That said, they follow this one pretty well. At its worst, Kyoko has an absurd amount of attention to detail, but it makes logical sense with her character.

Commandment #7: The detective must not himself commit the crime.

Assuming we are referring to Kyoko and Makoto, then yes, they follow this commandment. Yeah, I don't think Makoto could get away with committing a crime if that poor boy tried.

Commandment #8: The detective must not light on any clues which are not instantly produced for the inspection of the reader.

This game doesn't fully follow this rule, but it would be unrealistic to expect this game to make every clue inspectable before it is pointed out by the characters. Some clues involve a kinesthetic sensation like touching body parts. And while Kyoko is a detective in this context, we don't follow her POV or even follow her in a Watsonlike relationship. So unless she divulges every piece of information, which isn't realistic to her character, it would be impossible to follow this commandment. It would also not make for good storytelling in certain sequences.

This commandment in particular is a good example as to why these commandments don't age well with modern mysteries much like the next commandment...

Commandment #9: The stupid friend of the detective, the Watson, must not conceal any thoughts which pass through his mind; his intelligence must be slightly, but very slightly, below that of the average reader.

This commandment is completely inapplicable. For one, the 'Watson,' which I guess is Makoto, is also the Sherlock Holmes. Secondly, his intelligence doesn't really matter since he is a vessel for the player. They can't make him less intelligent than the reader without frustrating the player. And trust me, the times where Makoto was less intelligent than the player were definitely frustrating.

Frankly, I don't know what the point of this commandment is. It feels like an extension of commandment #1. I guess Ronald Knox is about as OCD as I am and wanted an even ten rules. Hey, Old Testament God did the exact same thing. Any idiot editor would mesh the covet commandments together, but noooooooo-

Commandment #10: Twin brothers, and doubles generally, must not appear unless we have been duly prepared for them.

Anyway, the last commandment is coincidently the most important, at least in the context of Danganronpa, since one of the major twists revolves around doubles.

We finally reach near the end of the game and figure out that A.) Junko is still alive and is the mastermind. And B.) the sixteenth student was posing as Junko which meant she was the one initially killed off by Monokuma.

I mention earlier how Danganronpa cheated a bit with establishing the criminal early on, and I was referring to this part of the story. I can't help but feel cheated that a character assumed to be permanently dead becomes more of a major part of the story later on especially before we learn about the sixteenth student and the possibility that they are twins. Granted, that is just my old way of thinking much like how these commandments are an old way of thinking. Danganronpa encourages a stronger sense of lateral thinking than other mysteries. If this was a traditional mystery, additional clues would do more and more to build what you know, but Danganronpa will give clues that outright make the mystery harder to solve. Clues will seemingly contradict each other in some ways. But with a little know how, you can solve most of the mysteries by simply approaching the clues with more creativity. It is kind of like the riddle involving the mother and the two boys, "A woman had two sons who were born on the same hour of the same day of the same year. But they were not twins" At first, it seems each piece of information makes the other impossible. But once you see the answer, all of it makes sense. Danganronpa, for how baffling the entire experience can be at times, is really good at laying out this particular mystery in a way that is retroactively satisfying and has the hallmarks of a good twist. You are given pretty much all the information before the reveal. It recontextualizes things that weren't apparent before such as the photoshop conversation with Junko. And finally, it doesn't break its own logic or does any other cheap thing that undermines itself. It's great and probably my favorite part of the mystery in the entire game.

Oh and also, the woman had triplets. Thought you should know in case you couldn't figure it out.

Method #2: Just Compare it to Zero Escape

{Seriously, Imma bout to spoil some Zero Escape.}

You know, I feel bad for comparing Danganronpa to other visual novels, but it just can't be helped again.

Virtues' Last Reward is one of my favorite games. And anytime I find myself comparing another game to it, it doesn't turn out well for that game. Danganronpa is no exception.

The comparison lies in another major twist near the end of the game. This time we figure out that A). They were living in a post-apocalypse after an unexplained cataclysmic event. And B.) The Antagonist used the game the characters are in as some device for an ulterior motive related to that cataclysmic event.

Sound familiar? Well Virtues Last Reward did a similar twist a few years later. And while Danganronpa gets a few points for doing this twist before Zero Escape, I still think Danganronpa has a weaker take on the "it was the apocalypse the whole time" trope.

For one, the twist feels completely needless since the memory agent part of the story is already compelling. The idea that the students actually consented to locking themselves in the school to avoid their terrible circumstances is great, and it doesn't need the additional apocalypse element. It's great that Byakuya's dynasty is in ruins. And if we got a reveal of each character's tragic backstory before the events of the game to color in why they joined the lockdown, it would have been more striking due to how personal it is. We spent the entire game connecting with these characters not to the outside world, so the fact that a large part of the twist and emotional crux relies on the outside is weird. You could take out the apocalypse element and the story would barely change. The themes of the event would still be applicable. You can still have the lockdown program by just contriving that the thing is just some random experiment a weird private school wants to implement. It wouldn't be as weird as some of the other anime shit in this game.

Secondly, the game's final moments don't leave quite the impact as Virtues Last Reward despite Virtues Last Reward having a more substantial cliff hanger.

One of the strengths of the visual novel is how the story is designed to have a more traditional flow. Unlike movies or novels, games inherently have an archaic approach to storytelling. Stories can often be ignored for side content. And even if the story is extremely linear, you can likely undermine it with how you play. If for example a speedrunner's playthrough of Castlevania was made into a movie, the ending would lack any tension. The speed runner will simply dispose of the final boss, and any excitement and suspense expected from a climax of a story will be lost. With visual novels, you trade some interactivity for a story more carefully design to give you an emotional experience.

How this ties back to Danganronpa also ties back into the idea of how the game ties its mechanics into its narrative. Most of the character's development is locked behind optional Persona-like bonding mechanics making the actual main plot feel bare bones in the character department. Virtues Last Reward is much stronger since all the character development is tied into the main plot. So by the end, you get a sense of completion by how the character arcs resolve. Danganronpa doesn't quite have that sense of completion for its characters other than the vain notion that they gain a new sense of hope. Man, maybe Junko had a point because the characters become far less interesting once they become hopeful. Say what you will about despair, but it made the game more enjoyable.

Method #3: The Dumb Person Tier List

I feel I have gone too long without really talking about the characters. So in a bit of a carefree break from reviewing, let's talk about the cast of Danganronpa by ranking them based on how dumb they are during the events of the game. We will start from dumbest to smartest, and I already know who I want to put as the dumbest.

Literal R*tard Tier (Rank #15): Byakuya Togami

Now considering I will be talking about a hack fortune teller later, I must have a pretty good reason for considering this guy as the dumbest.

Ignoring his numerous accusations that end up being wrong, instigating aggression against people that could easily kill him (like Sakura), and treating obvious deductions like some Sherlock Holmes levels of lateral thinking, there was one moment in particular that settled it for me.

Going back to chapter 2, it is revealed that Byakuya staged the crime scene diverting attention time away from the actual killer only to "scope out his competition" and "to make the game more interesting." What kind absolute nonsense is that?

I can't even begin to talk about why this shit is dumb. First off, this plan could fall apart at so many points in the trial. In fact, let me play you one scenario right now....

“It’s Toko, and here is the evidence as to why!”

“Ok, we believe you over a serial killer. Let’s vote.”

“Uhhh, I changed my mind. It’s Mondo!”

“Wait, so now it’s Mondo?”

“Yes.”

“How?”

“Because I saw him. And then I changed the crime scene for shits and giggles.”

“That sounds weird and farfetched. Almost as if you’re the killer.”

If Kyoko, Makoto, or frankly, the real savior, the writer of the story weren't there, there is no telling how Byakuya would have fucked everyone. It's more than he is arrogant. That much is already clear. It is the fact the story doesn't highlight just how stupid his actions are.

His motivations are also paper thin. Ok Byakuya doing it to make the game more interesting is fine. That at least fits his personality. Although, it again doesn't excuse how the game never highlights how stupid this stunt is. The fact he did it to scope out his competition also doesn't make sense. Wasn't he there during the first case? It's not like he couldn't pay attention to who was clearly carrying the trial. Literally, Makoto talked his way out of being falsely accused of murder and Kyoko made some incredible deductive reasoning. He could also just use some process of elimination. "Oh ok, a clearly fraudulent fortune teller, two athletes, and whatever the hell Taka and Hifumi are, aren't going to be much of a threat.

I feel this is a case of bad writing, because I don't think the writer's intended for Byakuya to be this dumb. He was merely an arrogant heel whose folly is putting himself before others like a Seto Kaiba and would only be outsmarted by the player character. If his dumb actions were intentional, they would be played up more like it is for Hiro.

Let me suggest a rewrite. And I don't like going around rewriting stories that were already published but hear me out.

How bout instead of Byakuya seeing Mondo, he saw Toko. Let's say Genocide Jill was out and about, saw Mondo, went into the locker room to admire his crime scene, and leaves not noticing Byakuya spotted her. Byakuya sees the crime scene and believes it is Toko. But how can pin her? It is his witness account against hers. And let's face it, people don't quite like this guy by this point. So, he stages the crime scene to frame Toko to better his chances. You can still retain the arrogance he always conveys. His actions would make logical sense. And, you can still retain that Edgeworth and Seto Kaiba moment where you outsmart him to the point of stunning him into silence.

I don't know. I like Byakuya as a character, but he is probably the worst written out of the main cast due to these moments that feel like mistakes from the writer. And trust me, I know people will disagree to that. I made this argument with the fine folks at Reddit and got a heap of disagreement even trying to claim that Byakuya is actually a smart guy. Then again, it makes sense that the fine folks of Reddit would stand behind what is essentially a stereotype of an Internet edgelord who thinks he's smarter than he actually is.

Canonically Dumb Tier (Rank #14 & #13): Yasuhiro Hagakure & Hifumi Yamada

God, the Byakuya one took way too long. Ok, the next few should rather quick. Yes, Hiro and Hifumi are really dumb. However, unlike Byakuya, it feels way more intentional. It makes sense with their characters to, for example, work with a clearly conniving goth girl because you got the hots for her.

Their moments of ineptitude are clearly for laughs, and I am all for it. Hiro especially is really funny. This game has the case where you start out by hating the characters. But overtime, you grow to really like them, and I think Hiro best demonstrates that.

"But it was self-defense..." Tier (Rank #12): Leon Kuwata

We don't get much of this guy since he gets obliterated before chapter 2. However, chasing a girl into a locked bathroom, leaving the room to get tools to break into said bathroom, and then killing her isn't self-defense. Unless you are Kyle Rittenhouse, you won't get far with that argument.

Thankfully, Celeste points that out, so I am glad the writers were aware of it. Therefore, he ranks a little higher.

Their Hearts are in the Right Place, but They Still Dumb Tier (Rank #11 & #10): Mondo Owada & Aoi Asahina

Ah Mondo and Hina, two well-meaning but ultimately dumbass human beings. One killed someone to avoid being considered unmanly in the eyes of two lesbians, a Redditor's fantasy, among other losers. The other tried to trick her friends into joining her suicide pact.

That said, Mondo wasn't annoying throughout his story while Hina's cute and likes donuts. They alright.

Needs to Address Glaring Mental Health Issues Tier (Rank #9 & #8): Toko Fukawa/Genocide Jack & Kiyotaka Ishimaru/Kiyondo

Yeah...I frankly don't have much to say on these guys.

Kind of Smart, Did Dumb Thing(s) Tier (Rank #7 & #6): Sayaka Maizano & Makoto Naegi

Sayaka's initial plan, had it worked, is honestly the smartest murder scheme among the students. Her only dumb mistake that puts her next to Makoto is that she decided to lure in a freaking baseball player. Yeah, a daintily pop singer is definitely going to find a way to overpower an athlete.

As for Makoto, he is awfully gullible sometimes. The times where I found myself yelling at the screen because of him; like when he didn't go into the archives room simply because Byakuya told him there wasn't anything worthwhile in there.

And this is getting existential but isn't most of the smart plays done by Makoto done by us? I guess the line of whether the choices are made by the player or the character is too Spec Ops the Line for my taste. Let's move on before my head hurts any more than it already has.

Mostly Smart Tier (Rank #5, #4, #3): Celeste, Sakura Ogami, Junko Enoshima

These characters are mostly smart and mainly did one or two minor dumb things. Celeste is an excellent liar and played the death game better than anybody. Her only mistake was not being thorough in murdering Hifumi. Sakura has a good head on her shoulders. That said, it's not the best idea to lure three people, who are deathly afraid of you by the way, into a room alone with you. What do you think was going to happen, Sakura? And finally, Junko, with all her ingenuity, didn't think early on that having a hyper intelligent detective and programmer would be a tremendous liability.

Smart in a Plot-Convenient Sort of Way (Rank #2 & #1): Kyoko Kirigiri & Chihiro Fujisaki

I am not big on the anime trope of child prodigies, so I am not too big on these characters. They lean closer to plot device than being actual people. I guess that is fine, but I don't really connect with them. Despite Kyoko clearly having the most developed backstory of the cast, it is ultimately meaningless because Kyoko is so uninteresting. She is so matter of fact with no hint of levity, and it is just dull to me. It's telling that most people's favorite moment with her is when she is seen with noodles on her head. It shows that a little spontaneity can make a character just a little more endearing.

As for Chihiro, the character has the most potential in being the most developed in terms of character. However, as previously mentioned, the writers don't really stick the landing due to its approach on gender. A more nuance and openminded approach would have garnered a lot of sympathy from me. But the way it is now, I'm too distracted by how Chihiro is depicted.

A Brief Mention of the Animation (& Conclusion)

Danganronpa certainly has some problems. I didn't even mention the incessant recap dialogue and other pointless dialogue to pad out the runtime which to me is the worst part about Danganronpa's story. It's very reminiscent of YU-GI-OH: Battle City dialogue making this the second YU-GI-OH reference I didn't intend on making during this review.

Thankfully, if you hate recap dialogue but still want to see teenagers mutilated, look no further than Danganronpa: The Animation.

Danganronpa: The Animation is a point for point adaptation of the video game. And already, there is clear benefits you can from the switch to television. As I mentioned, the dialogue is much more streamlined improving the pacing of a game that likes to start and stop to remind the audience of a clue that was established no more than thirty minutes ago.

The dialogue and voice acting also have a bit more personality. I watched the English dub and certain characters were more lively to me than in the game counterpart, specifically Monokuma & Genocide Jack who were far funnier.

There are some trade offs. Mystery elements lack any tension since they speed by the build up to make the 20-minute runtime. You obviously lose the interactivity expected from a video game. It also feels less like Danganronpa and more like a traditional anime. And for me, one of the draws is Danganronpa's unique energy. It's a catch 22. You either suffer through the interesting yet stupid aspects of the video game or go through the more polished yet pedestrian anime version.

Overall, the animation gets a mild recommendation especially if you were annoyed with how padded the dialogue was in the game.

Danganronpa was an emotional roller coaster. The game will go from being genius to idiotic to likable to annoying, but it never stays as one thing. I am pretty mellow right now writing this as I am a couple of months removed from my initial playthrough. But when I was playing it, I was beside myself to how baffling the whole experience was. The fact that I discussed the ethics of gender roles, referenced Elmo's Letter Adventure, and even criticized a game for not being anime enough should indicate how much of a fever dream this game can be when you play it.

I don't love this game nor think this game is unconditionally great, but I would highly recommend it. I am not exaggerating when I said this was one of the most unique experiences I had playing a game in a while. Despite being a hodgepodge of random games like Ace Attorney and Persona, this game stands as its own. It's own, weird ass, Tinder girl with a drug problem like self.

M. Rambles

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