Danganronpa 1.2 Reload Review

Developer: Spike Chunsoft

Publisher: NIS America

Release Date: March 14, 2017

Platforms: PS4

The influx of PSP/PS Vita titles coming to the PS4 has been hit or miss as of late. For every good instance like Gravity Rush there are unnecessary ports such as Final Fantasy Type 0. Originally for the PSP and then making its way to Western markets via the PS Vita, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havok and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair are the two best games in the franchise so far and NIS America has taken and released them in a single package for PS4 owners, and the PS4 has a much better catalogue of games because if it.

Monokuma Trappings

Taking the best investigation aspects from Ace Attorney, the social elements from the Persona series, a compelling murder mystery plot, loads of charm, and some of the most memorable characters in gaming, you get what Danganronpa is about. Both games in the collection tell the story of the students of Hope’s Peak Academy. This prestigious institution scouts high school students around the world in search of those at the top of their fields. These “Ultimate” students are granted entrance into the academy, essentially guaranteeing them a bright future in their field. However, due to unforeseen consequences, they find themselves trapped within its walls under the order of a black-and-white teddy bear called Monokuma, the self-proclaimed headmaster of the institution.

In Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc you play as Makoto Naegi and once everyone is locked inside the only way to escape is to murder. A murder will lead to a class trial where students must vote, and a wrong vote could cause an execution for everyone but the culprit who is now free. In Goodbye Despair which is a sequel to the original you play as Hajime Hinata. This time Hope’s Peak Academy opens up into a tropical island but the stakes are the same.

With both games, while escape is often a motive for these students, Monokuma utilizes secrets, threats, and fear to push these people into a corner where they feel they have no other option. Even when a character has pulled off a heinous crime, Danganronpa is full of redemption stories and other shades of grey. This multifaceted story shines a light on the worst and the best of these people, portraying characters and situations with deceptive nuance.

Solving The Mystery

The gameplay involves a variety of minigames to represent debating and arguing logical points, players will shoot truth bullets at false statements, solve hangman style puzzles, clear “white noise” in the form of everyone talking at once, and other activities. The puzzle and action sequences are strangely abstract portrayals of verbal discussion, but they somehow make the debates feel more real. Allowing the player to convey logical arguments and expose fallacies in a visceral manner is much more satisfying than simply choosing the correct piece of evidence. This portion always puts all your skills/investigative elements to the test and is not always the most obvious person.

One great aspect of the series is how notable each character’s personality is. Though many of them are killed off through the course of the story, it’s rarely set up in such a way you can easily guess who will die or who does the killing. Every character is written cleverly and given the opportunity to shine in their own particular style until the moment Monokuma splatters their remains in the signature bright pink blood.

The first game, while brilliant in its storytelling, falls into a few design traps, specifically with its mechanics being based solely on refuting what others are saying rather than potentially agreeing with them. Discussions go into bizarre directions to set up a chance to use gathered evidence to refute claims, making some characters feel like obstacles in the way of truth instead of assets, leaving much of the deduction to a select few. While in Goodbye Despair Jabberwock Island and the wackier cast don’t create the same eerie atmosphere as Hope’s Peak Academy, and for much of the game, the juxtaposition between the setting and the situation will likely be off-putting to some. The dark story of Trigger Happy Havoc was a major draw for the first game, but this aspect of the series only becomes prevalent in Goodbye Despair’s closing hours.

Twisted Paradise

With moving from the PS Vita to PS4, they improved on the framerate by making it 60fps and redid a lot of the environments in the school and island you explore. One thing they did not work on is pre-rendered art. Character portraits are noticeably low resolution along with some of the backgrounds and objects. The lower resolution images are not a big problem, but they definitely could have been improved a little. There is some screen tearing in some areas as well. Also, the audio sounds too compressed in certain sections, again, not a major issue.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair do not always look or sound perfect on the PS4, but what’s most important about both games is still there in Danganronpa 1.2 Reload. These two games, along with the soon to be released conclusion Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak Academy, make up an elaborately twisted, yet ultimately deeply human story about overcoming despair and moving forward, and this collection accomplishes this in spades.