No Despair Here – Ultra Despair Girls: Danganronpa Another Episode Review

<p>The latest addition to the <em>Danganronpa<&sol;em> series hit the PS Vita with a bang&period; I had no idea what I was getting into when I was asked to review this game seeing as I&&num;8217&semi;ve not had the chance to pick up the first two&comma; but man I&&num;8217&semi;m glad I accepted&period; The <em>Danganronpa<&sol;em> series is a reason to own a Vita – the games are very Japanese&comma; very violent and very good&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Thankfully&comma; this game allows a newcomer to experience the story while playing and not be confused by anything&period; At first&comma; I was worried about not being able to understand the story line&comma; but once I got my hooks into the game&comma; I knew what was going on&comma; and was very interested in finding out all that I could about this world&period; Spike Chunsoft was even nice enough to give a little bit of backstory during the opening scenes and the Prologue which made getting into the lore of the third game very easy&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;04190513&sol;20150520164620&period;bmp"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-large wp-image-89609" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;04190513&sol;20150520164620-1024x576&period;bmp" alt&equals;"Danganronpa" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"349" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>When the game started up I thought that I had been given the code to the wrong game&semi; the scene opens up with a girl in a room&comma; and she&&num;8217&semi;s talking about how she&&num;8217&semi;s been trapped there for a year and a half&period; As she narrates about her life in the room she lets you know her name&comma; Komaru Naegi&comma; and that the only contact with the outside world is when one of her three meals is delivered through a hole in the wall&period; This particular morning as Komaru receives her breakfast&comma; a pair of claws cuts through the wall near her&period; The claws continue to rip through the wall until it is no more&comma; and slowly a half black and half white bear slinks in&comma; intent on killing anything that moves&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Komaru escapes and is rescued by The Future Foundation&comma; who gives her a Hacking Gun that is useful against the Monokuma &lpar;the monsters of the game&rpar;&period; Sadly the rescuing doesn&&num;8217&semi;t last long&comma; and soon she finds herself in the hands of The Warriors of Hope&comma; the group who runs the Monokuma &lpar;black and white bears&rpar;&period; Komaru&&num;8217&semi;s fate takes a turn for the worse when she upsets The Warriors of Hope by calling them children&comma; and they banish her back to the city where total carnage is taking place&period; Luckily she still has that Hacking Gun&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The controls in this game work very well on the Vita&comma; much to my surprise&period; I wouldn&&num;8217&semi;t think a shooter would do well on the platform as they usually are difficult to control on a portable device&comma; but I was wrong&period; The controls are very simple&semi; the left stick is walk&comma; and while you push the left stick forward&comma; you can hold down &&num;8220&semi;circle&&num;8221&semi; to run&period; The right trigger resets the camera while not battling&period; When you&&num;8217&semi;re in battle mode&comma; these controls change a bit&period; When you need to use the Hacking Gun you hold down the Left Trigger to lock on&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>In addition&comma; the Right Stick aims the Hacking Gun and the Right Trigger fires the Hacking Gun&period; The Hacking Gun fires Truth Bullets&comma; these Bullets have different qualities throughout the game&period; You start off with two and must find the rest to survive Towa City&period; As you continue your survival throughout the city&comma; you meet a few interesting characters along the way that help you in your journey&semi; controlling them is easy&comma; and their presence helps Komaru greatly&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;04190358&sol;20150520150640&period;bmp"><img class&equals;"aligncenter size-large wp-image-89708" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2015&sol;08&sol;04190358&sol;20150520150640-1024x576&period;bmp" alt&equals;"Danganronpa" width&equals;"620" height&equals;"349" &sol;><&sol;a><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>I was actually quite surprised with the visuals in this game&comma; I didn&&num;8217&semi;t expect them to be so vivid and of such high quality&period; The opening anime cut scene looked amazing on the screen&comma; and when I finally got to take control of Komaru those visuals looked great as well&period; Sometimes when I&&num;8217&semi;m playing my Vita&comma; and the game goes from cut-scene to in-game scene&comma; the visuals get really muddy and are not a pleasure to look at&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Danganronpa<&sol;em> is not like that at all&semi; the in-game scenes are crisp&comma; and even with all the running and action they hold together great&period; The character designs are unique as well&period; The main characters that you control&comma; the ones you meet&comma; and the The Warriors of Hope all have a nice distinction about them&period; I never wondered who I was talking to&comma; or what was going on in the scene due to a lack of creativity in the design&period; The game is very pretty&comma; and should be seen by as many people as possible&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Anyone who has a Vita should pick this title up&semi; it is a great addition to the small collection for that handheld&period; Sure there are a few things that detract from this title&comma; but they are minuscule in the grand scheme of things&period; There are a few scenes that I encountered that were just a bit too&comma; for lack of a better term&comma; &&num;8220&semi;Japanese&&num;8221&semi; for me&comma; and made me feel a bit uncomfortable as I saw them play out&period; It didn&&num;8217&semi;t make me want to put the game away&comma; but I was like&comma; what just happened&quest;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The other thing that really bothered me was the usual game trope where you start off overpowered&comma; and then lose your powers to &&num;8220&semi;balance&&num;8221&semi; the game out&period; That has always bothered me&comma; and this game makes a joke out of it&comma; but the Hacking Gun after the Prologue is insanely weak&comma; and it takes a while to upgrade it&period; If I can look past those tiny offenses&comma; &&num;8211&semi; any gamer can&comma; and any gamer with a Vita should pick this game it &&num;8211&semi; it&&num;8217&semi;s a wild trip that needs to be enjoyed by many&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><em><strong>A Vita code was provided by NIS America for review purposes&period; <&sol;strong><&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;