Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

(No major plot points are spoiled in the review, only minor details.)

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is the sequel to Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc that came out earlier this year - both games have reached the west for the first time this year on the Vita after previously coming out in Japan on the PSP. In short - Goodbye Despair brings a lot of the same things to the table as the first game, pros and cons, and if you liked the first game I cannot see any reason not to pick the second up.

Goodbye despair's set up is very similar to its predecessor - 16 "ultimate" students (the best at whatever it is they do) are taken to a resort island (as opposed to the school from THH) and eventually are told by a mechanical bear, Monokuma, that the only way to leave said island is to kill another student and get away with it. This sets up 6 chapters of mystery-solving and whodunits that gradually become more and more insane and never leave the player bored.

The chapters are split into three different styles of gameplay; free time - where you can choose which character you want to spend time with and learn more about their life before the events on the island, investigation - where you investigate the murder scene and gather evidence, and the class trial - where you use the evidence you have to show contradictions and find out the killer. It's here where I think GD improves upon THH and feels overall like a much tighter package. The free time events feel more natural here with each character and seem to fit into the events of the story a lot better whilst THH felt very disjointed at times. The investigations will be familiar to anyone who's played the first game or similar games like Ace Attorney and they're all very well done.

The class trial is where most of the action happens in Goodbye Despair and it's also where the game's problems lie. The meat and potatoes of the trial is shooting (literally) your evidence at contradictions that your class mates will present as you all try to uncover the truth - this is fine for the most part. It's the mini-games that are thrown at you that present all the problems. Hangman's gambit is a terrible, hangman style game that seems so pointless. Logic dive is a weird platformer that is also unnecessary. The game also has frantic one vs. one duals with other characters where you need to slash (again literally) away their premises as a means of refuting them - this just isn't fun. It's annoying because I just feel that all of these mechanics could have been replaced with dialogue prompts and the game would flow all the better. At least the rhythm game is still fun.

The characters in Goodbye Despair are all likable and I believe the cast on a whole is a step up from THH. We have people like the Ultimate Team Manager, who provides consistently funny dialogue, as well as the Ultimate Yakuza who's development actually startled me with how well it was handled. One character in particular, Nagito - the Ultimate Lucky Student, is absolutely fantastic with his continual switches from being happy in a sinister way and just damn creepy and condescending - he acted as a bit of a wildcard in all the cases and continually kept me guessing. Some of the moments with one of the female characters had me consistently rolling my eyes with how much "fan service" moments she kept finding herself in but thankfully there are only a few of these scenes. Monokuma, the evil bear headmaster, and Monomi, a new rabbit character who seems to oppose our favourite evil bear, are both well written as well and their interactions were entertaining. The localisation on the whole was good and the voice acting was fine as well - each of the characters had voices that fit them and none of the lines sounded noticeably awkward which can be a problem with English dubs.

The design of Danganronpa 2 is definitely a plus as well. Each character has a retro sprite design that all look fantastic, and the UI is clean and sharp throughout. The OST is fantastic as well and creates a great sense of setting as well as adding tension when it's needed. The character sprites and designs are great as well and the game looks fantastic on the Vita throughout the 20 hours or so that you'll be playing the main storyline.

It seems now that with Spike's other visual novel series, the acclaimed Zero Escape, stuck in eternal limbo Danganronpa will serve as our niche Japanese murder-mystery visual novel series over here in the west for the time being. Despite the fact that it hasn't yet reached the level that 999 and Virtue's Last Reward were on I'm encouraged to say that the series is heading in the right direction. Goodbye despair presents some absolutely fantastic mysteries to the player and improves on nearly everything that is in Trigger Happy Havoc. The game looks great and has a fantastic art style and design that really pop on the Vita's screen. There are still problems with the class trial section that sadly detract from the flow of the game and will prove frustrating to most players but thankfully the positives of the game far outweigh the negatives. If you're a fan of visual novels you should definitely check Danganronpa out (you probably already have). Really though, if you just want something different - and Danganronpa is the definition of strange and different - then check it out. It's a real crazy ride but I can guarantee if you get past the small problems then you'll probably end up loving it.