Developed By Spike Chunsoft
Published By NIS America
” I’LL SHOOT THROUGH THAT CONTRADICTION ”
The Story
You assume the role of Hajime Hinata, a student who has been enrolled into Hopes Peak academy, a school for brilliant young minds who all have advanced knowledge in a certain field, Cooking, Mechanic, Nurse, etc, soon after arriving at hopes peak academy they meet their teacher a rabbit stuffed animal named Usami who sends Hajime and his classmates to Jabberwock island and asks them to perform a special trial which is to simply live peacefully on the island, when the students start to come around to the idea, they are interrupted by Hopes Peak academy principal Monokuma, a Bear who is outraged at Usami because of the task she gave them, Monokuma decides instead to give the students a different and more ” fun ” task, he orders one of the students to murder another class member and try to conceal the fact that it was them, and if they are not caught they are free to leave Jabberwock island and the rest of the class are executed. This is as far as I’ll go into the story aspect of this game, if I go on it will pretty much just be spoiling the game.
The Gameplay
DanganRonpa 2 plays like a murder mystery visual novel/simulation game. The game splits into 2 different gameplay styles, Daily life and Deadly life, the first being a simulation game similar to the Persona series where you build relationships and get to know the other students, this allows you to get skills which you can equip to use in the class trials which leads into the second part of the gameplay where a student has been murdered and you must find the culprit, this eventually comes down to class trials where you have to find out flaws in the students stories similar to the Phoenix Wright series, another little addition is the pet mini game in your inventory where you take care of a little virtual pet, very reminiscent of Tamagochi’s.
The Sound
The music in DanganRonpa 2 goodbye despair is a mix of Techno, Rock and other different types that I have no idea what category they would fall into, the best of the soundtrack is definitely the main title theme which unfortunately I don’t know the name for. Like a lot of Spike Chunsoft games DanganRonpa likes to save it’s voice acting for certain moments in the game usually ones that mainly feature Monokuma, who just sounds fantastic with his high pitched voice and sadistic nature it’s very interesting hearing something that looks like a children’s toy talking about wanting people to murder one another.
The Graphics
The game has a pretty diverse style of graphics, you have a 3D style done in a first person perspective, a 2D style used when traversing the island, and finally a chibi 8 bit style used for the menu’s and the virtual pet game, these styles really bring out a certain charm in the game and not one is done poorly, the characters are all drawn well with great expressions and poses, it really makes it more enjoyable for a game when you’re not stuck in menu’s all the time like some other Spike Chunsoft games, particularly Conception II.
The Lasting Appeal
DanganRonpa 2 is a pretty long game for it’s type, I finished it at around the 29 hour mark but it definitely would have taken longer if I’d have chosen a harder difficulty, another mode the game has after you’ve beaten the game is the Island mode where all you do is build a relationship with students and live on the island peacefully kind of what Usami wanted you to do in the first place. The game also has a lot of collectibles available as well as unlockables and Trophies so it could keep you busy for quite a while.
Final Thoughts
DanganRonpa 2 Goodbye despair is an incredibly fun murder mystery game with plenty of twists and fantastic events that will keep you playing the find out what happens next, even your favorite characters will die so prepare yourself, the only complaints about the game is that it takes a while to get started and the music isn’t the best compared to some other games of this style.
My Score 9/10
The Good
The Bad
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is available now for PlayStation Vita from all good retailers. Thanks go out to Reef Entertainment for supplying the game and assets used in this review. Be sure to let me know what you thought of the review in the comments section below and be sure to stay tuned to UGNN for all your gaming news and reviews and remember to follow us on Facebook, Twitter & YouTube.
]]>Review by Jonnie Dixon