First off: NO SPOILERS HERE. This is a game where I believe being spoiled can significantly impact your enjoyment, so I'd advise people to avoid them at all costs if they're interested in playing the game.

So I was a bit wary going into this game because of the amount of praise it's gotten in the past as well as its comparisons to such gems as Ace Attorney, Persona 3/Persona 4, Virtue's Last Reward/999 and Battle Royale, but Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc really does incorporate important elements from all of those:

Ace Attorney

The game's murder investigation scenes are pretty much the same as in Ace Attorney. Walking around the school, gathering evidence by finding evidence and interrogating witnesses to prepare for the "classroom trial." The actual trials have a different dynamic, since there's no prosecution or defense and every student basically takes part in them to determine the suspect, but that lends a different kind of intensity to determining the outcomes of a case since they involve characters you come to know.

Outside of "Nonstop debates", which are essentially sped up versions of cross-examinations in AA, the actual gameplay during the trials is fairly different than Ace Attorney. Some of them are basically like mini games, though they all essentially revolve around presenting contradicting evidence to statements. On this note, I'd recommend anyone who starts playing to set the "Logic" difficulty at the beginning of the game to "Mean." I went with the default "Kind", but that seems to remove a lot of the tension when it comes to the classroom trials.

Persona 3 / Persona 4

What Danganronpa has from the modern Persona games is less significant than what it has from Ace Attorney, but DR has moments which are labeled as "Free Time", when the story isn't actively taking place. These are moments during the game where you can freely roam around the school and interact with fellow students, which will take time out of the day.

Interacting with students will get you to know more about who they are and, as the main character spends more time with them, their relationship will grow stronger. Growing relationships with characters will unlock new skills or abilities that will come in use during the courtroom trials.

999 / Virtue's Last Reward

What Danganronpa shares with the Zero Escape Series is its thematic. There are no time traveling or morphogenetic field shenanigans here, but Danganronpa deals very largely with the sense of "despair", how one's appearance can be deceptive, whether to trust someone or not, the "prisoner's dilemma", etc. These students are stuck in a location against their will, by an unknown mastermind, forced to either cooperate or die painfully.

The element added by Battle Royale is that how the game is initially set up, only one can survive while the rest will die, and no amount of cooperation will change that.

The game has a lot of black comedy but, when it gets serious, it gets serious. I actually wasn't expecting it to be as dark as it is coming into the game.

I'm only almost done with chapter 1 after finishing my first courtroom trial, but I can tell that this will be a lot of fun. If you enjoy the Zero Escape series, at least, I'd recommend checking it out.

I might get this when it's cheaper. Someone spoiled the conclusion for me when the anime was running, so I imagine a lot of the suspense won't be there.

@fluxwavez: I'd love to hear more of your thoughts as you get further in or finish it. I love Phoenix Wright and Persona, and I thought 999 was cool(didn't play VLR), but thought the true end was super dumb. I don't think I have a way to play it right now, but it seems like something I might want to come back to at some point down the road.

I played the PSP game last year and absolutely loved it. I really hope it does well so they'll localize the sequel.

Interesting write up! Pretty far from my wheelhouse, and honestly I'll probably never play it, but I'm happy to experience it vicariously though you. I had heard of this game but had no clue it was a phoenix wright style detective game mixed with a high school setting. Sounds... awesome? Also Logic Difficulty sounds cool. "Mean" is hilarious.

And now to admit something dark and terrible.

Has, uh, anyone else found themselves singing "Dangonronpa style" as if it was "opan gangnam style"?

GET OUT OF MY MIND LIQUID.

Yeah, I've been really interested in this game since I heard that it has some qualities of my favorite games. But, the price is the only thing holding me back right now. I'm also interested in hearing your thoughts once you finish the game.

@yi_orange: Interesting that both you and @coafi cite the game's ending. Not that I had heard much about the game before playing it, but I don't recall hearing about the game having a disappointing ending. Intrigued to find it out for myself, though, just like finding out the game for myself when I first started playing it.

NIS stated that the game's pre-orders were doing far better than they expected and, more importantly, there might have been a leak earlier basically confirming the localization of Danganronpa 2.

We might find out about it at NIS' press event tomorrow.

I would've snapped this up immediately if it wasn't for the Vita barrier. Maybe one day...!

But thanks for making me want it more. Thanks a lot.

Sadly I already watched the show, so I know the answers to all the riddles.

You had me at it being phoenix wright like and am now playing the game

The music is pretty good too

As someone who just beat the PSP version of Super Dangan Ronpa 2 yesterday, let me tell you, brother: the crazy awesome train only gets started in that first game. Dangan Ronpa 1 is a hell of a game in its own right and, at least in Japanese, has some of the best game writing I've seen in a really long time, but 2 is one of those miraculous games that I feel like manages to improve upon what's already a really great, solid base. Just an even more confident work of prose in a game than even that first one and I hope everyone who isn't me indeed gets to play it in a language they understand sooner rather than later. Those two games combined with the Zero Escape series as a one-two punch have pretty thoroughly convinced me that Spike Chunsoft is definitely a developer worth paying attention to because of their writers alone, let along the unique gameplay mechanics they often manage to sneak in.

That being said, what's your take on the localization? You probably saw my post on GAF about how Dangan Ronpa is a ridiculously difficult game to translate well in a lot of spots because of how playful it is with the Japanese language as a whole, but I'm curious on what people's take on NISA's work is without that background. From what I've been seeing, hit-or-miss voice acting aside, it seems like they might have done a pretty solid job at making it all read and sound pretty natural in English.

@pepsiman: It's great to hear that Danganronpa 2 being better than its predecessor is such a common sentiment. Usually, that's not quite how these kinds of games seem to turn out, so "miraculous" sounds fitting when I'm enjoying this one so much already, heh.

As for the localization, yeah, the English voice work isn't too hot at times. I wouldn't say it's actively bad, but it sure could be better. I don't have the knowledge of how the game was conveyed in Japanese and if this localization stays true to the original version, but I think they did a great job at, well, pretty much what you said: making it all read and sound natural in English. The only things I could maybe point to is that I feel that the "Ultimate Fanfic Creator" might have a different vibe in the Japanese version because of the nature of his character and that the introduction to Celeste felt a bit odd when the main character was confused about whether she was Japanese or not because of her name, but those are probably nothing big.

It was interesting to read what a member of the localization team had to say about Japanese honorifics or Danganronpa's lack thereof. All in all, I do feel that it's a great localization effort, with the exception of some aspects of the VA.

The music is good. Very "appropriate" is how I would describe it.

@fluxwavez: Yeah, I was just mostly interested in hearing whether the character dynamics and whatnot came across naturally with just English knowledge to work off of, which seems to be the case. We translators will always have our differences with each other in terms of how to approach this line or that, just like how people interpret the same passages in literature written natively in their language differently, which is why I'll probably continue to just keep playing these games in Japanese as they come out, but as long as those localizations still make for a good time in and of themselves, that's what matters most.

You are right that there are some aspects of the characterizations that are a bit of a headache from a translation perspective, though. Calling Yamada a "fanfic creator" is an okay interpretation of the Japanese title since the original terms is somewhat nebulous and refers to a subculture that doesn't really exist outside of Japan. I think the original NISA announcement had him pegged as the ultimate otaku, which I honestly think better fits his character overall since his hobbyist authorial stuff doesn't really play that big of a part in defining his character outside the optional socializing bits. And yeah, Celeste is just a strange character to translate in general. The confusion about her nationality plays a lot more naturally in the Japanese version because she speaks in a pretty formal and stilted manner that is possible to replicate to a degree in English, but has to be handled delicately. The name plays a big part in Makoto questioning her nationality, but it's her speech patterns in Japanese that really make her stand out compared to everyone else and make her feel so distant.

Dangan Ronpa's a rough game to translate all around and good on anybody who gives it a shoot because, woof, it is very proactive about being an obtuse game to translate into any other language. It's a great experience in Japanese, but makes it basically miraculous in spots when the game is still just readable in English. Overall I'm just happy that the game is spreading outside Japan. It's always nice when I have more people to talk with about some of the more niche stuff I like when it comes to games.

Good to know most of you guys like the game. Going to grab this later on in the year although I don't think NIS games don't usually go on sale on PSN that often.

Did NIsa localize the bear's name or did they keep it Monokuma?

Hopefully the translation is better than the LP but it's NISA so I'm not holding my breath

Glad to hear you guys are enjoying it. It comes out in Europe tomorrow so I can put a lot of time into it over the weekend along with Toukiden.

I read the LP thread on Something Awful, so I know how the story goes, but I picked the game up since I was interested in actually playing it. Like the OP I really wish I had set the difficulty to "mean" rather than "kind" at the start since it really is pretty easy. Would be nice if there were an option to change it! I'm a bit mixed on the minigame stuff in the debates right now. A lot of it is basically a different spin on the Ace Attorney method of "present this evidence at this statement to find a contradiction." But maybe I'll turn around on that stuff when it gets to the truly gonzo games. (I am in the middle of chapter 3 right now, for the record.)

I've got nothing but good things to say about the localization so far. I saw a tweet that had me wary, but everything's got the sort of personality and outrageousness I expected from the game without making me groan. So that's good! I was iffy on the English dub at first, but it has grown on me a lot. Monokuma, Aoi, Celestia, Toko, and Taka are all great. I like Sakura, Mondo, Junko, Hifumi and Hagakure's voices, as well. Wish I liked Kirigiri and Togami's voices more, though, since I liked both those characters a lot when I first read through the game. But for the most part the dub is pretty good.

It's interesting going through the story again knowing what happens in advance. As is the norm with these types of games, I like spotting all the setups and foreshadowing that initially flew over my head when I just barreled through the story before. (I got into the Danganronpa LP after the whole thing had been translated.) My initial opinion on most of the story spots hasn't changed much (there's still some things I'm iffy on in chapter 2, for example, and that didn't change here), but getting a better understanding of the story's construction has been fun.

I really like how the game handles Celeste. Her voice actor gives her an accent -- sort of Frenchy, I suppose? Maybe something different -- it is a vaguely "foreign," faux-European accent, at least. It's enough that you can hear it, but not so strong that it's overbearing. It's the kind of accent that I would imagine someone who is pretending to be more cultured than they actually are would use. And it changes when she gets pissed and orders people around, of course. Her speaking style is also fairly elegant and playful, but not so much that they're overdoing it. I don't know Japanese, so I have no idea how well that truly hits the nuances of her speech patterns, but it's probably about as well as you could do in English.

I just finished the game and I thought the ending was satisfying. I might have enjoyed a tiny bit more closure, but I certainly wasn't greatly disappointed by it seeing as how it connected the whole game, from beginning to end, together. There are some floating questions that I'm sure are answered in the sequel but, as it is now, I don't think they matter too much concerning the story of DR1.

This will probably be one of the best games I'll play this year and I'm looking forward to the sequel this fall. Case 3 might as well have been a case directly out of Ace Attorney, which was great.

Hopefully it does well enough for Spike to consider a 3DS port. They did it for VLR, why not this one?

Virtue's Last Reward was a simultaneous release between the 3DS and the Vita. Not only that, but 999 was originally a DS game, so of course it was going to be on the 3DS. It also evidently didn't do much for the series since the Zero Escape series is currently in hiatus.

@fluxwavez: I know all this. I suppose keeping it to a single hand held might be a way of keeping costs down, but I cannot imagine they think that as the reason VLR didn't necessarily succeed financially.

I mean, there are more 3DSes out there then vitas by a far margin. I'd imagine the visual novel crowd is larger for the vita, but I don't think it'd be totally out of consideration on that basis alone. It could still happen.

I don't know if it was Spike, but I do recall reading how a developer answered a question concerning why their game was on the Vita and not on the 3DS by "that's where our audience is." Either way, I doubt there will ever be a 3DS version of this game.

I cannot thank you enough for bringing this game to my attention, it is right up my alley. Currently downloading on my Vita now and I am very excited to play it tonight.

Do you think you'd still find the ending satisfying if you didn't know about the sequel?

Though I wonder how Nisa is going to handle the plot holes that come up by not being able to read the DR0 novel.

Maybe less so, but not significantly. As the story stands now, there aren't any cliffhangers and any explicitly unanswered questions are simply up to the player's interpretation since they are not necessary for the understanding of the game's intrigue.

No problem! I'd like to hear what you think of the game.

Well, sounds like I finally have a reason to want a vita. It'll still probably be a long time before I play this game.

Also, I didn't mean I thought the end of this game was dumb, I don't know it. I thought the true ending of 999 was dumb.

No real spoilers here, just that "twists happen".

I was really hoping this was going to be similar to the Zero Escape games, it is kinda, but it also misses some of the aspects I thought made VLR/999 great.

The cast are alright, they do their archetypes well enough, though I still found the cast of VLR/999 (and Persona as it so frequently seems to get compared to) much more memorable. They try and incorporate some sort of social link aspect, but I've not really got it to work, maybe I just hung around with the wrong people? After the first few bouts of "free time" people seemed to just stop talking to me, so I didn't gain any SP or perks in the latter half of the game, which also meant no one had anything worthwhile to say. Not to mention that the person you could be trying to build a relationship with could end up dead a few minutes later.

The trials and evidence collecting are by far and away the best part. I get the impression that you can't really fail to collect all the evidence? I could be wrong, but looking for stuff I noticed earlier made me feel clever... The nonstop debate parts of the trials are amazing (like everyone so far; suggest playing them on hard to make them more fun), I always got a kick out of selecting the correct contradiction from a number of possible options. I'm not entirely sure I like the rhythm game and hangman parts, though they only really happen once or twice per trial. Hangman seems a bit simplistic, and there's no real puzzle to the rhythm game. The "put the events in order" part of the trial is pretty good too, though I often found myself a little confused, as the tiles can be a bit vague sometimes...

A couple of times I felt I had the trial sorted before anyone even started giving evidence, but the game threw enough twists (even arbitrarily sometimes?) to keep me from getting too clever clogs.

In all, I liked it. The tone put me off a little; VLR/999 didn't revel too much in their murder/betrayal situation, as in, there was a way out as long as people could cooperate. Where as Danganronpa positively glorifies the whole thing, so it turns from "who can you trust" to "don't trust anyone", the execution scenes were perhaps a bit much too... Though as a person who adores the Battle Royale film, I feel a little hypocritical writing this...

People keep saying the 2nd game refines everything set out in the original, which has me pretty hype. As getting all the elements thrown into this game right is a really exiting prospect!

Edit: I've not played any of the Ace Attorney series (I should probably get on that) so I don't have much basis for comparison there. But I imagine a series based around trials handles trials better than Danganronpa too. Even if the context is totally different.

The part about establishing relationships with characters who might end up dying sooner than later is a great aspect of Free Time for me. Conversing with them makes you learn more about who they are and their motivations, and oftentimes can foreshadow events later on in the game.

Just like the Ace Attorney series, no, you can't miss out on discovering evidence before entering court.

That does sound a bit weird that you like Battle Royale, yet you didn't enjoy the aspect of betrayal and hopelessness of Danganronpa. That's a big part of what I absolutely love about it and I don't see it as "glorifying the whole thing", but that that's what it is: there doesn't always have to be a good ending or good feelings associated with this stuff. In fact, I'm glad that's not part of this game since it would tone down the intensity of the whole thing. The game's main theme is "despair", after all.

Also, the execution scenes are just full on black comedy and also serve to show that the game isn't messing around when it comes to people's death. I like that about it.

@fluxwavez said:

Maybe I didn't quite phrase it right, I really dig the similar aspects of betrayal and hopelessness in both this and the Zero Escape games, it's just Danganronpa is maybe a little too madcap for me to truly appreciate it, or something like that? It's difficult to explain exactly. I mean Battle Royal is silly, but it's silly in much more of a grounded way, that I perhaps enjoy more.

Feel I should also clarify "Not to mention that the person you could be trying to build a relationship with could end up dead a few minutes later.". There were a couple of people I didn't even manage to speak to before they wound up dead, the net effect being I didn't really know enough about them to care much. Though you're right, when they kill off a character you've invested some time in, it provides a great incentive to get more involved with the story.

I think I might see what you're saying. Battle Royale has a much more grounded and dreary mood associated to the whole thing, while Danganronpa has some over-the-top elements to it, though I enjoyed how both stories were handled. In DR's case, I liked the dichotomy between its anime silliness and the grim setting, which is why I wasn't initially expecting how serious the game was capable of getting when I state in the OP: "I actually wasn't expecting it to be as dark as it is coming into the game."

But again, I guess I can see how some wouldn't like that part of it and would want it to lean one way or the other.

Either way, I'm thoroughly looking forward to the sequel! And thanks for kicking off the discussion!

I also forgot to mention that bloody capsule machine, goddamn that thing...

I finished up the main game a couple of days ago and really enjoyed it. I thought the story was pretty great even if it was frustrating sometimes when it was really obvious what was going on and Makoto would be acting like a complete idiot, that pulled me out of the game a bit. Chapter 3 was really frustrating because it was obvious what happened almost immediately. Oh and thanks @fluxwavez for recommending putting it on mean it seems like it was a lot more fun.

I think that the ending didn't have a really strong conclusion but with the sequel coming to Vita this year it doesn't seem all that bad as I'm sure a lot of questions I have will be answered.

I'm playing through the school mode right now which is pretty strange but I find the weird crafting, searching and social linking stuff really fun for some reason. So I'll keep playing and pumping coins into that damn mono mono machine.

Also I think the music is outstanding.

All in all I'm super looking forward to DR2 later in the year.

Well eleven or so days later, I have finished it. Man that was quite a ride. I really enjoyed how each court case twisted in ways I never expected, especially early on. There was really only one case that I had figured out pretty much everything after the investigation stage (chapter 4). I thought the characters were pretty well written and fun, and the voice acting was generally pretty good. I absolutely cannot wait for the sequel to be here now, especially hearing that it only improves everything from the original.

Yes, it's a great game and didn't recieve the coverage it should have. However, there are a few problems I had with it:

A - Poor ending

B - Too easy (but Super Danganronpa 2 fixes it. Also adding "Super" to the name is awesome)

C - Social Links impact story even less then Persona 4.

Glad to hear you enjoyed it. I did like how the design of the cases were different than in Ace Attorney, despite the similarities of the mechanics. In Danganronpa, the tools and evidence to piece together the events of a case are laid out from the outset, while Ace Attorney tends to rely on testimony and new evidence that pushes things forward. Two distinct styles, and I like that.

Can't wait for the sequel. It's looking like it'll be released in September.

The main game is good, although I find some characters annoying, namely Hifumi, Kiyotaka, Toko, Celeste, and Kyoko. The first 3 are pure annoying, and the last 2 are pure manipulative.

Gameplay wise, I really hate the bullet mechanics, it travels slower than my punch. But I doubt that they will ever change it, because the name of the game is DanganRonpa ! (Literally translated to Refutation Bullet).

Plus I played VLR before this, so the overarching plot in VLR is better, it's bleaker and makes you think more.

But still, it's a good game, I love murder mystery, especially closed room murders, and I find hypothesising who's the actual perpetrator is satisfying, way more satisfying that solving arbitrary puzzles in VLR's rooms.

PS: Keep your hands off Aoi and Chihiro, both of them are mine.

Puhuhuhu!

Just finished the game. Scratched my 999/VLR itch. Few complaints (weird trial mechanics, not always sure what information they are asking you to give, most of the killers are obvious before the trial starts) but they are overshadowed by how much I enjoyed the game. Definitely going to grab the sequel later this year.

How's the PSP fan translation? I was thinking about downloading that since I don't have a Vita. Sometimes fan translations can be a little chunky, or can be really awesome like Mother 3.

I just started playing it after Patrick's recommendation and, god damn, it's a hell of a ride! Really enjoyable and the presentation (graphical, music, voice acting) is the best I've seen in a while. Not technically, but what they do is really unique and fun. The trials are also totally awesome. Could well end up on my Top 10 for the year if it keeps going at this pace.

It's good :)

I finally got around to beating the game, and I don't know why, but I really wasn't expecting the ending to be so much of a downer. I mean, I know it tried to make it have a hopeful outlook, but god damn, I just felt kind of depressed. I really wish they were less ambiguous about it and just told you what really happened.

There were also some things that were REALLY hard for me to swallow near the end of the game that I can't mention since it's a HUGE spoiler. Not to mention I got really lost on trying to figure out how Monokuma kept showing up everywhere. It's established that the bear is a robot, but he kept showing up everywhere as soon as you called him. Where in the world is he coming from? Are there just hatches that he comes out of to talk to you? Also, how does everyone have food to eat? Is the school they're in self-sufficient? How?

It's just a lot of things like that that just kept adding up for me. I'm one of those people who NEEDS an explanation for this stuff, I can't just let it go!

For the most part I found the trial scenes to be a lot of fun, though I think they dragged on for a bit too long. Every time Kyoko is like "Let's review everything again", I'd just groan, because it'd go over something we've been over at least twice already by that point. I also got confused at a few of the debate parts on what exactly I was supposed to say. I mean, I'd know exactly what the issue was, but I wouldn't know how to get it across with the resources I'm given, if that makes sense.

I think the game does a good job of making you like most of the characters, and I was surprised at how funny it could be at times despite the fact that people I've grown to like are dying.

But yeah... I don't know about that ending man. Didn't really care for it. Does the sequel go into it more? I like the game well enough to give it a shot at the very least.

Got round to finishing this lastnight. Wow! One of the best games I've played in a while. Great characters, the story kept me interested and the court scenes were really fun to play through. Definitely high on the list in GOTY for me.

I'm really impressed they made, essentially, 15 main characters that I cared about. Can't wait for the sequel.

I can't say I really cared about all of them (Yasuhiro is particularly a mess) but, yes, the cast in general was pretty good, if a bit one-dimensional at times. Glad to hear you liked it.

I'm interested in this game but I'm not actually quite sure what it is. I see the term "Visual Novel" being thrown around a lot but since I haven't played one before, I'm not sure what to expect. Is it something similar to the real world in Persona 4? AKA a game without combat?

@fluxwavez: it's funny you mention Yasuhiro. He's almost identical to a friend of mine who passed away (he looked just like him, had big fuzzy hair like him, was INCREDIBLY laid back, really interested in astrology and things like that) so he actually hit pretty close to home for me, almost like seeing my friend immortalised as a video game character! I definitely cared about some more than others but every character felt like they belonged in the story. Just really enjoyed everything about it, and WHAT a soundtrack!

@el_tajij: Everyone's definitely appropriate for the game's setting. And yes, probably one of the best soundtracks I'll hear from a game this year.

@xyzygy: Uh, sure. Visual novels are essentially adventure games, and one has to walk in first person and gather evidence in Danganronpa in a sort of pixel hunt, Ace Attorney style.

Yeah, just beat it. Amazing soundtrack and I loved the art and characters. I don't know what it was but those cutscenes at the end of the chapters just knocked my socks off.

Anyway, almost certainly in my top 5 this year.

A little late to the party, but I just started playing this to accompany the E3 streams. I finished the first trial a few minutes ago and so far I'm really into it. I feel like it's walking a dangerous line between dark/horrific and silly though. So far it's effective and the deaths haven't been something to brush off. Most of the characters are growing on me(not Hifumi, fuck that guy), but I'm most interested in Kyoko, Celeste, and Mondo(he reminds me of Kanji) right now.

I'm trying to budget my free time with who I think is going to be around. I almost didn't talk to Sayaka when the game told me to because I figure she would either be the first dead or make it to the end. I'll probably just go with who I find interesting though and hope they don't die. Since half my time playing this been with an E3 stream I haven't gotten to really appreciate the soundtrack entirely, but I'm digging it so far and the general style of the game is pretty cool, kind of has a jazz vibe to it.

I just hope it remains satisfying and doesn't wear thin.

@yi_orange: Don't worry about about talking to be people, an addition to the Vita version makes it really easy to see the scenes you miss after the ending.

Considering deaths are completely scripted, is it theoretically possible to see all the conversations in one playthrough? And is it worth it to go back and see what I missed? Either online or otherwise. I finished the second case and I'm doing surprisingly ok at talking to people who die(coincidence), though I didn't get a chance to talk to Leon. Still really liking it though. The feeling of solving a case is the complete opposite of what it was in Phoenix Wright though. I think the only way I'll come away from a case happy about the killer is Hifumi(Hamster-looking jackass) and Toko, maybe Byakuya depending on where he goes.