By: Persephone Pond

‘Danganronpa’ is a Japanese visual novel video game franchise that is available on consoles such as Playstation, Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, and Linux. Total, there are five official games, a few anime series, manga adaptations, and more.

The first game in the series is ‘Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc’, released in 2010, and is the basis of all the world building and lore. This first game is followed by ‘Danganronpa: Goodbye Despair’, released in 2012, which is then followed by ‘Danganronpa: Killing Harmony’, released in 2017. ‘Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls’ was released in 2014 and takes place in between the first and second games, and finally there is ‘Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp’, a mini game series containing all the characters from throughout the series. In this article, I’ll be covering a small fraction of the basic lore and timeline, in addition to what makes these games so good.

In addition to all these games, there were many anime adaptations of this game, the most important ones being ‘Danganronpa: Despair Arc’, ‘Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak High School’, and ‘Danganronpa: Hope Arc’(chronological order). There are more anime adaptations of different aspects of the characters and lore, but these specific three cover a huge part of the lore that is only spoken of in the games, and add on to the end of the second game. If you like knowing the canon events more than interpreting your own ending like me, then you’ll love watching these three arcs after finishing the second game.

‘Danganronpa: Killing Harmony’ is separate from the lore of the first few games, and was added on to the franchise years after the previous games and anime were released. This game holds the same basic plot, but it’s more self-contained and not involved in the overall storyline of ‘Danganronpa’. I do think this game has an amazing atmosphere and some of the best and worst characters throughout the franchise and is worth playing, but it’s more of just an add on to the series instead of an important part.

The whole concept of ‘Danganronpa’ is that there is a class of students at/or from Hope’s Peak Academy, the most prestigious high school in Japan who are forced to fight to the death. In order to be scouted to attend Hope’s Peak, you must be the best in your field of talent, such as baseball or writing. Sixteen students are brainwashed and trapped together, the only way to escape being to get away with murdering a fellow classmate. Once a dead body is found, a trial will begin after a brief investigation time, and if the culprit is discovered, they get executed on the spot. If the culprit is not uncovered, the culprit alone escapes, and the rest of the class is sent to execution. The overall goal is to find out who’s behind these murder games, and how to escape together.

This complex mystery game creates elaborate murders to investigate, and really challenges the player during the trials to piece it all together. Along with the thrilling plot and gameplay, the extensive lore and world building of these games creates an amazing mystery, and every time a new piece is uncovered, more to the overall story is revealed.

One of my favorite parts of the franchise is how it takes many games and anime series to piece it all together. The first ‘Danganronpa’ game can be played as a self-contained game which is better for some people, but if you want to get deep into the lore, playing the second game is essential. In addition to the anime, the game ‘Ultra Despair Girls’ is a great game to play if you want to get into more details of world building and smaller parts of the lore. There’s so much media out there around ‘Danganronpa’, so getting into it really isn’t too hard.

In addition to the wonderful storytelling and lore, the characters in these games are easy to get attached to. Usually, my favorite parts of video games and shows are the characters and their relationships, and there is definitely no exception for this game.

Each character has been scouted to attend Hope’s Peak Academy for their own talent, and that aspect of these characters is very well developed. Of course there are many exceptions as there usually are with anime characters and their strange stereotypes, but overall the good balances out the bad. The protagonists are always underdeveloped at the start to give you that sense of control over your actions and development, yet they’re still their own character with their own story for the player to learn more about.

The hangout scenes and events for all the other students are also interesting, as there’s no character that can be analyzed at surface level. These optional hangouts are a great way to get immersed in the characters, and this creates a more sinister atmosphere as the characters you’re getting attached to could be killed or executed at any turn.

Everything from the elaborate mysteries to the beautiful artwork and backdrops of these games is absolutely wonderful, and I would recommend the ‘Danganronpa’ games to anyone interested in dark story driven games. I’d rate this series overall a 10/10.