Games: Danganronpa

Danganronpa is a visual novel/adventure game where you try to solve mysteries – specifically, murders.

(This post doesn’t have any real spoilers – just the premise that is revealed at the beginning of each game.)

The three main games in the series follow the same basic formula. You and a group of classmates are imprisoned together (e.g. in an abandoned school) and not quite sure how you got there. You are told that you will be imprisoned forever. And it’s true that you can’t find any way out. The only way out, you learn, is to murder a classmate and not get caught. Whoever has imprisoned you here is very eager that murders begin. They’ll even introduce possible motives to make the students desperate enough to commit murder.

The ‘rules’ are simple:

• If a murder occurs, there will be a time allowed for investigations, and then a class trial where everyone votes on who they think is guilty.
• If the murderer (‘blackened’) is correctly identified, only the blackened will be executed.
• If the group votes for the wrong person, the whole group will be punished, and the blackened will go free – back into the real world.

In short, there is a real incentive for the blackened not to get caught and for the others to correctly solve the crime.

Since solving the murders involve gathering lots of evidence, some of it quite puzzling, and then putting it all together, you don’t get a murder that looks like this:

Some time during the night, we don’t know when, (character) was stabbed. There is a knife on the ground, which could have come from anywhere at any time. Nothing else stands out.

Instead, you get something that looks like this:

Some time during the night, (character) was killed, and they have numerous inexplicable injuries all over their body. There is a knife on the ground, which came from the kitchen, which someone could only have entered before 10pm, because we’re not allowed in at night, and (character) thinks the knives were all in the kitchen at 9 so we know when our culprit must have gotten the knife. Then there are mysterious scrapings of wood next to the window, and the window is impossible to reach, but the door was locked, so there’s no way the murder could have gotten out, and there was a threatening note in the murder victim’s room, and the writing was in handwriting obviously done by someone who was left-handed (or trying to look left-handed), but there is a similar note in someone else’s room in completely different hand-writing. Then there is a scrap of fabric in the corridor outside which has a bloodstain on it, but it is DIFFERENT blood from the victim’s and we know that because…

You get the idea.

Not only that, but in a surprising number of cases, some other rando has walked in, interfered with evidence in some way (either intentionally or unintentionally) to muddy the waters.

In theory, the murderers use convoluted methods to kill because they are trying so hard to avoid detection. They want it to seem impossible that they could have done it. Of course, a less convoluted method – e.g. just stab someone and leave – would be far better, as it doesn’t leave a story to unravel. That wouldn’t make for much of a game though, so luckily it doesn’t happen.

So you go into a trial, generally with the haziest idea of what could have happened, and by talking over every element of the case, you gradually piece together what unfolded and who the culprit must be. In this sense, it’s very much like the Phoenix Wright games. If you like Phoenix Wright, you’ll probably enjoy Danganronpa.

The cases are frequently bizarre, and in some cases it would take a miracle for any real person to make the logical connections that the characters are able to make, but as you play through, they don’t feel unfair. As the case takes you through, step by step, you generally are able to make the logical deductions needed to progress. At the end, it all makes sense (though may still be bizarre!).

Danganronpa also has a few of what I call ‘bullshit’ gameplay mechanics – e.g. unnecessarily tedious ways of progressing in the story – during the trials, like where you have to override someone else’s objections with a stressful ‘rhythm’ game, wait an eternity for letters to crawl across a screen so that you can select them to make words, or my favourite: make logical deductions by hitting hookers with a car in your psyche.

This is part of the core gameplay which comes after a murder happens. First, you investigate all people, places and objects associated with a crime, and then go to the trial. In the trial, you present arguments, target other people’s wrong ideas, and, as mentioned, participate in some of those bullshit mechanics. It’s like a series of mini games, but the main objective is to find and put forward the truth to make the game progress.

During the happier (well – slightly less despair-filled) times, you can also go and make friends with your classmates, learn more about them, etc. There are elements of a dating sim, where you can win people over and get rewards.

The main series has three games, each of which has similar gameplay, though there are minor differences (like in the trial minigames). I have to say that over the course of three games with so many deaths to figure out, they did a good job at not making later murders feel derivative. Nearly every murder had some interesting or unique element to it, a unique motive (in some cases – like game 3’s third case, very unique), and I never felt like ‘ehh, this person’s death is just a rehash of that case from a previous game’.)

Werewolf-style single-player games

I first heard of Danganronpa in video game message boards for the game Gnosia. People were recommending other single-player ‘werewolf-style’ games. At that time, they recommended Raging Loop and Danganronpa. I got very into all three games and highly recommend all of them, so here’s a quick comparison. 🙂

The game that made me think the most, and that I most enjoyed the core gameplay of, was Gnosia. The story and characters were decent – I enjoyed finding out more about each character – but they mostly served as bonus extras – an incentive to keep playing longer. This game is the closest to the actual Werewolf game, with different roles (e.g. certain humans who can find out others’ roles, or a quisling human who is supporting the enemy, etc). Some people find this game repetitive, but if you get hooked by the gameplay mechanic, you can get really hooked. Every gameplay ‘loop’ is randomised, and can be customised, so it’s very replayable. The other two games have limited replayability (unless you just want to watch the story again).

The game with the best story was Raging Loop. I was really impressed with its storytelling; it was super compelling throughout most of the game play. (The intro was slow and the ending had some flaws, but for many enjoyable hours, this story didn’t drop the ball.) I loved the way you could go back in time to try different paths; it was very intelligently designed storytelling. This story had minimal gameplay – you need to go into realising you will pretty much be just reading, not ‘playing a game’ – but I would still recommend it.

Danganronpa had the characters I most enjoyed and the most interesting puzzle solving. Though all three games are Japanese, Danganronpa is the most anime-ish – if you have watched much anime, you’ll see very recognisable character ‘types’. As a result, it is more wacky and sometimes sillier than the other two games, but it also is a lot funnier. Of the three games, this is the least like the actual Werewolf game. As I mentioned, the gameplay has more in common with Phoenix Wright, where you have to identify and present evidence and arguments. Sure, like the Werewolf game, you have people who are incentivised to kill each other off, and you’re left trying to decide together who the culprit is, while they pose as an innocent among you. But catching a culprit doesn’t result in a victory; it just leads eventually to another death and another culprit. Each trial is quite a different thing.

I can’t recommend one of these games over another, because I thought very highly of all three. If you enjoy Gnosia, it certainly has the highest level of replayability. Raging Loop and Danganronpa both rely a good deal on surprise and discovery, but they have set stories, and so once you’ve played them, you might need to give them a long rest before trying them again.