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Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc Chihiro Death Story Layout

INTRODUCTION 0100 Welcome to my walkthrough for Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. You will be playing a murder mystery visual novel. Anime/Manga Short Stories Kiyotaka Ishimaru Chihiro Fujisaki Nagito Komaeda Danganronpa. Byakuya Togami Makoto Naegi Sayaka Maizono Super Danganronpa 2 Trigger Happy Havoc Danganronpa 2 Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc Toko Fukawa Unused Executions.














No-one seems to be able to agree whether this game is actually called Danganronpa or 'Dangan Ronpa', presumably due to the confusing layout of the box art. According to Wikipedia it is indeed 'Danganronpa' so we'll stick with that one, which apparently is a compound of two Japanese words that roughly translate as 'bullet refutation'. No firearms are involved in any of the deaths contained in this murder-mystery visual novel, so the bullets instead refer to the gimmick of having to aim and shoot contradicting evidence into witness statements as they appear on screen.
In other words; the English title Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc contains two references to the absolute worst part of this game.

It can also be said that the title doesn't give away too much in terms of what to expect from the actual game. I was attached to it through my enjoyment of the Ace Attorney series and the assurance that Danganronpa's trials would put the former's to shame. The basic premise is 15 high school students (ugh I KNOW it's anime let's just go along with it okay?) are selected to join a special elite Academy, all of which have their own special 'Ultimate' skill with the exception of the player character Makoto who lucked out and was selected at random. Things soon get messy as all the student become trapped in their new school, with the only way to escape to murder one of the other students and escape accusation at the following trial.
So that's the story, the events unravel as the students try to live together in their new prison while being tormented and potentially homicidally motivated by the 'headmaster' Monokuma (who's an evil robot bear). Not only do they have the threat of each other to be concerned with, there's also the threat looming in the background of a true 'mastermind' overlooking all the events as well as other mysteries that crop up as things develop. It's a pretty fantastic premise, Danganronpa holds your attention by breaking itself down into smaller chunks of drama, investigations and trials while maintaining the appeal and feel of a much larger story. Much like a lot of good books, it's perfectly viable to consume Danganronpa in an episodic fashion or just blow through the entire thing in a couple of long sittings.
Danganronpa also cleverly works its way around some of the shortcomings of other narrative-focused games I happen to like. In my thoughts on The Walking Dead: Season 2 I commented on how the overarching feeling of hopelessness to the franchise was making it more difficult for me to feel attached to any of the characters, Danganronpa avoids this deattachment by making it ambiguous regarding how many characters actually can or will make it out of this okay. There is potentially a happy ending to this mess, and I sure hope *character that I like* makes it out of this hellhole with me! Also, there's also been this dark subtext to the Ace Attorney franchise that the sentence for being found guilty of murder within that game's setting is capital punishment. Maybe Japanese and American audiences don't think much of it, but as a wussy European it sure felt weird at times that I was furiously fighting my hardest to get someone sentenced to death, and sometimes that person wasn't even the one who actually did it (thanks Justice For All!). Danganronpa again avoids this occasional ambiguity by establishing that accusing the wrong culprit not only lets the murderer escape unpunished but sentences everyone else to execution in their place, so not only are they a murderer but they're willing to sacrifice everyone else for their own freedom. So yea, you should probably catch the real murderer!
Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc Chihiro Death Story Layout

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Now let's talk about the trials, the ones that allegedly put 'Ace Attorney's to shame'. Well short refutation, they don't. I do like how they play out with all the students standing in a circle having one continuous discussion as it causes the case the naturally play out from key point to key point. Rather than having a stacked deck leading to the wrong conclusion you have to grind against it's more about establishing the truth from the evidence provided. How this plays out is having character argue about relevant points to the case, and certain parts of testimony can be broken with your 'truth bullets' (evidence) to render particular arguments moot. Ironically, despite a more stylised and complicated layout the game is actually a simplification of the Ace Attorney system, as you can't press points, there's a limited about of phrases you can interact with at all, and depending on your difficulty setting the game limits what evidence you can present in the first place.
The whole presenting evidence thing works as a string of puzzles but other than that I find the trials in Danganronpa annoying and gimmicky. Sure, in terms of dramatic story development they play out fine, but actually interacting with them turns out to be a chore. Trial sections also contain testimonies where you have to break a phrase with another phrase in the very same argument. This irritates me because 1) you always get a MASSIVE hint when you have to do this when the game loads obviously irrelevant evidence into your 'truth gun' or whatever they want to call it 2) they stole this idea from MY BRAIN and 3) they executed it in a way that barely makes sense because if two characters are saying things that contradict each other in direct response to each other than surely they don't need me to point it out for them?
I also HATE having to shoot the phrases, because timing and aiming are actually important for no discernable reason. Not difficult in any skill based way mind you, it's just that there's a delay on the evidence actually hitting the statement so you have to time the firing perfectly. You can slow down time to make it easier, but this ability is limited and even then sometimes 'white noise' or 'random phrases that block the testimony for some reason' can block your shots and make you have to waste your time going round and round in circles until the correct phrase turns up again. It's needlessly obtuse and adds nothing to the game other than frustration. Also, there's rhythm minigames and a bit where you shoot letters to spell out obvious clues. All of this is merely window dressing, or some bizarre at attempt to be 'stylised' that comes off more as 'obnoxious', it's like Danganronpa is ashamed of how simple it is actually is and put in as many distractions as possible.
One part I did really enjoy however was the wrap up 'closing argument' segment where you fill up panels of a manga comic detailing how the entire murder played out. It's a visually interesting and clever way to make the player prove he/she has an understanding of the case as a whole. Sometimes it can be a little confusing what the panels you're supposed to be dropping in are actually showing, but hey it's still a neat idea and that's a minor complaint so we'll give it a pass.
It's also worth mentioning that of the 5 murders that this game contains I consider 3 of them to be pretty obvious, and this includes the final 'all mysteries revealed' trial which kind of sucks. This isn't a huge issue, after all half the time Ace Attorney flat out tells you who did it at the start of the case and the fun comes from the adventure getting to prove it and the characters involved. However in Danganronpa it does feel like it's supposed to be a mystery and more often that not it doesn't necessarily come off as one. All 5 cases have their own little twists and turns in the details though so it's not a complete loss, but I hope the sequel contains less obvious culprits and 'misleading evidence'.

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Speaking of twists and turns, to put it in the least spoilery way I can, the second case is pretty gross. It's twist 'gotcha' moment is horrifically grounded in misogyny and is also blatantly transphobic too. I have to say, that's kind of a running theme of the entire experience for me. Not to say Danganronpa is *badly* written, but it does contain a cast of borderline ridiculous anime stereotypes, bizarre takes on mental illness and suicide and has a motivationless mastermind villain who rants and raves about 'despair' and is defeated by the power of friendship in the way that shows so little acknowledgement of the concept of 'subtext' you'd think all books had been banned in Japan. All I'm saying is the whole thing comes off something written by a man who was locked in a basement for the entirety of the 90s, not necessarily a stupid man, just one who could do with a bit more sunlight. And hey, maybe being in that basement for so long is what gave him the idea for this game!

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Anyway that's Danganronpa, I don't think it has the heart or the ingenuity of the better Ace Attorney games, but it is a pretty interesting little trip in its own right. The core premise is more than enough to hold interest right to the very end, and unlike some games I don't think the ending is going to be a dealbreaker for anyone. There's a few loose ends that I was disappointed to not see addressed, but in terms of the mysteries it sets up and then solves it all works out fine. There's frustrations and eye rolling moments along the way, but I think it's worth getting to the end of, and there's very few games of this length I would say that about so consider this a recommendation.

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Oh, and this game is what put me over the edge to buy a PlayStation Vita!
The PlayStation Vita rules.