Like its mascot character Monokuma, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is a strange beast. Originally created for the PSP, Danganronpa is an extremely dark and trippy murder mystery visual novel that’s gained a cult following on the Internet. Set in the prestigious Hope’s Peak Academy, fifteen ultimate students attend the school with the promise that graduating from Hope’s Peak will guarantee them success in life. However, the school’s headmaster Monokuma, a deranged monochromatic teddy bear with a yen for violence, has other plans. He’s trapped them in the school with no way out! Shut off from the outside world, the students are forced to live in the school together for the rest of their natural lives, or they can “graduate” by killing each other. Will the top high school students in the nation grin and bear it and try to live in harmony or will they dehumanize themselves and give in to bloodshed? Unfortunately, things at Hope’s Peak get grizzly when one of the students ends up murdered. 

As I said before, Danganronpa is a visual novel, meaning it’s essentially a novel told with pictures and sound, similar to games like 999 and the Ace Attorney series. Most of the game is composed of monologues and conversations between characters, although like Ace Attorney, there are periods where you will have to investigate your surroundings for clues. Gathering clues is an extremely important part of the game, as you’ll need to jot down everything you see and find to help determine the culprit responsible for the murder. Time can also be spent strengthening bonds with other students in order to gain skills that will be used for trials.

Monokuma presides over every trial, acting as the judge and the executioner, with the remaining students acting as their own prosecution, defense and jury. During a trial, the students will argue and present evidence in order to come up with the verdict. If a student is found guilty of murder, then he or she will be sentenced to death. However, if the guilty party manages to get away with murder and someone else is found guilty, then everyone else BUT the murderer is killed and he or she can “graduate” from Hope’s Peak Academy and get back to civilization. Gameplay for the trials is eclectic, with many ways to counter-argue and present evidence, such as firing metaphorical bullets at false testimonies, pasting scenes of a manga retelling of the crime based on your clues and a playing a bizarre rhythm game to shut out rebuttals and ultimately pin the evidence on the culprit. The fast-paced craziness will force you to think fast while your life is on the line.

With a diverse cast of characters, stylish visuals and great music, harrowing sense of danger, and a nice mix of gameplay that separates itself from other visual novels, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is a bizarre yet solid game that is definitely for those looking for a good mystery to solve. 

Hint: If you want to dive into the game blind, avoid potential spoilers by staying away from the Internet and the game’s digital instruction manual.

by Ray n.