Hello Inception | Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair Review

<p>Last February&comma; Nippon Ichi Software released Spike Chunsoft&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Danganronpa&colon; Trigger Happy Havoc<&sol;em> for the first time for Western audiences&period; Right after release&comma; they announced that they would be bringing over the sequel as well&period; Fast forward 6 months and here we have it&colon; <em>Danganronpa 2&colon; Goodbye Despair<&sol;em>&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s apparent that the localization teams at NIS know what they&&num;8217&semi;re doing&comma; as the short span of development time did not hinder the translation in the slightest&period; First and foremost&comma; if you haven&&num;8217&semi;t played the first game&comma; I do recommend that you go and play that first&period; The sequel is totally its own self-contained story with new characters&comma; however&comma; majority of the references and little tidbits here and there will only be understood by those that played the first game&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>For those that stuck around anyways and are still unaware of what the series is about&comma; <em>Danganronpa 2<&sol;em> takes place on an almost innocent school field trip to Jabberwock Island&period; The students of Hope&&num;8217&semi;s Peak Academy think they are having a nice vacation with their loving rabbit principal until a certain bear villain appears and causes absolute mayhem&period; Without spoiling anything&comma; the 16 students&&num;8217&semi; fun in the sun quickly turns into a messy bloodbath&period; Entitled the &&num;8216&semi;Killing Game&&num;8217&semi;&comma; the students are forced to murder someone and then get away with it if they wish to leave the island and go back to their normal lives&period; However&comma; these aren&&num;8217&semi;t your normal students as all are &&num;8216&semi;Ultimate&&num;8217&semi; students&comma; being the very best at whatever gift or talent they have&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;08&sol;05081238&sol;Danganronpa-Screenshot-1&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-65415" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;08&sol;05081238&sol;Danganronpa-Screenshot-1&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Danganronpa Screenshot 1" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"338" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Despite not being a huge fan of the first game&&num;8217&semi;s story&comma; my favorite part had to be the characters&period; But <em>Danganronpa 2<&sol;em> goes above and beyond having a cast of lovable and unique individuals&period; Like the first game&comma; there are your typical anime tropes&comma; but the struggles and adversities these characters face mold them into people that you can root for&period; Spike Chunsoft crafts the cast from some digital creation into living and breathing people&period; Unlike <em>Trigger Happy Havoc<&sol;em> or Capcom&&num;8217&semi;s <em>Ace Attorney<&sol;em> series&comma; I could pity and sympathize with almost every single murderer throughout the games 6 chapters&period; Their motives&comma; inner conflicts&comma; and regrets were apparent and real&period; None of the crimes were thrown in just to add extra game time&period; Instead&comma; each and every scenario has a purpose and direct effect on the overall story&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Sadly&comma; one of the most damaging aspects of the game is its setting&period; This sequel has a much more darker tone than that of the original game&period; The same old &&num;8220&semi;breaking the fourth wall&&num;8221&semi; and sadistically dark humor is present&comma; but it takes a backseat to a much more serious and provocative story&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s sad that the settings of the two games should have been switched&comma; as the island does not lend itself well to the rest of the plot&period; The island has literally no purpose other than to provide a much larger setting than the first game &lpar;around 5 times larger&rpar;&comma; except in one particular case where it is used but only in the most remote way possible&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;08&sol;05081230&sol;Danganronpa-Screenshot-2&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter wp-image-65416" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;08&sol;05081230&sol;Danganronpa-Screenshot-2-1024x576&period;jpg" alt&equals;"Danganronpa Screenshot 2" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"338" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>But the setting is far from the weakest aspect of <em>Danganronpa 2<&sol;em>&comma; as that award goes to the gameplay&period; Each chapter is divided into two halves&colon; the Daily Life and the Deadly Life&period; During the Daily Life&comma; you will be progressing the story along&comma; getting to know the characters more&comma; and attempting to gather hope fragments&period; These fragments are obtained by unlocking more and more of each of the 15 other students&&num;8217&semi; backstories&period; Each character has 6 fragments and the actual fragments themselves are key in purchasing new skills and upgrades used in the class trials&period; Also new to the game is a leveling system&period; Each step&comma; conversation&comma; observation gives you XP&comma; allowing you to level up all the way to 100&period; The higher your level&comma; the more skills you can have and also the more your new virtual pet grows&period; The more steps you take&comma; the more the creature grows&comma; but you also to clean up the messes it leaves behind&period; The creature evolves into 6 different forms and you get a special prize should you reach its final stage&period; I won&&num;8217&semi;t say much&comma; but the entire game is littered with little minigames and special events that break away from the normal cycle of things&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>However&comma; when someone commits the ultimate sin of taking another human being&&num;8217&semi;s life&comma; the game switches into the Deadly Life&period; The entire purpose of this portion is to collect clues&comma; investigate&comma; interrogate&comma; brainstorm&comma; and figure out as much as you can about the case before the class trial begins&period; Here&comma; the game shows its <em>Ace Attorney<&sol;em>-like inspiration&comma; having you refute other people&&num;8217&semi;s arguments&comma; present evidence&comma; and put all the pieces together through a series of interactive quicktime events&period; Unfortunately&comma; the game falls apart here&period; The first game had this same issue&comma; but it actually feels worse this time around&period; The controls are wonky and sometimes downright unresponsive&period; The system becomes increasingly unnecessarily complex as the game goes&comma; causing me to become frustrated and stuck many times&period; The only actual entertaining and fun part is the new Logic Dive&comma; where you do a snowboarding-esque psychedelic minigame that also involves answering questions&period; Sadly&comma; that part only occurs two or three times per trial&period; The rest is extremely frustrating and the trials in this game all drag on longer than any in the first&period; Fortunately&comma; each case is so crazy and smartly done that I was willing to suffer to see the fantastic writing through to the end&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;08&sol;05081223&sol;danganronpa2-trials8&period;jpg"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-full wp-image-65417" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2014&sol;08&sol;05081223&sol;danganronpa2-trials8&period;jpg" alt&equals;"danganronpa2-trials8" width&equals;"600" height&equals;"338" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Overall&comma; <em>Danganronpa 2&colon; Goodbye Despair<&sol;em> could have taken more cues from games like <em>Ace Attorney<&sol;em> in the gameplay department&comma; but there is no doubt that every other game could take cues from its writing&period; Any person that likes a good story should play this game&period; The pacing&comma; characters&comma; and murder mysteries are brilliant&comma; all leading up to a climatic finale that unlike the first game is both satisfying and memorable&period; Spike Chunsoft took the foundation built from the first game and truly crafted something magnificent&period; With a story that takes around 35-40 hours to complete&comma; along with 3 other modes unlocked afterwards&comma; this is a game that provides just as much value as it does thrills&period; Just don&&num;8217&semi;t give up during those quicktime events&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;