Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
Score: 90% ESRB: Mature Publisher: NIS America Developer: Spike Media: Download/1 Players: 1 Genre: Adventure
Graphics & Sound: Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair has the same animated graphic novel feel of the previous title. In other words, while the world you are traveling through is in full 3D, the people and objects you interact with have an odd cardboard cutout style as if you are looking at a comic. Then again, both Danganronpa games call themselves interactive novels, so this somewhat static feel actually fits quite well with the game. The other visual detail that stands out in this series is its character designs. Given that most of the game's cast are considered the "Ultimate" person of some field, the fact that each character looks extremely stereotypical works well for this game. As far as Danganronpa 2's audio is concerned, there is a good mix of background music that sets the game's odd tone, along with voices that seem to fit well with the stereotypical visual designs, but are well acted, even if all of the dialogue isn't always voices. Often times, only the first few words or lines in the dialogue box are actually spoken.
Gameplay: Like the last game, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair puts a collection of students in an impossible life-or-death situation, where the only way out is to kill your classmates or prove them all guilty of murder. Where the first Danganronpa title kept you confined to Hope's Peak Academy, Goodbye Despair brings its victims, I mean students, to a small tropical island chain. At first, it seems like the school trip is all about having fun, but when the crazed mechanical teddy-bear headmaster, Monokuma, appears and destroys the student's teacher, the field trip becomes a much more dangerous event. In the last game, you played the Ultimate Lucky student who won a lottery to go to Hope's Peak, but this time, you aren't the lottery winner. Instead your character actually doesn't remember what his talent is. You quickly befriend this year's Ultimate Lucky student, who introduces you to the other 14 new freshmen. Among them is an Ultimate Cook, Mechanic, Gamer, Gymnast, Yakuza, Princess, Sword Fighter and a few more unusual talents. Of course, not everyone is who, or even what, he/she appears to be, and only by working your way through Monokuma's sadistic exercise can you figure out exactly what is going on. I have to say, while I enjoyed the first game's story, I found Goodbye Despair's story to be an even rockier roller coaster that gets its hooks into you pretty early (before the epilogue is even over, actually). Not only does the story of the 16 kids trying to get off of Jabberwock Island pull you in, but the revelations about the world around these kids get leaked out at just the right pace to keep you wanting to know more. Like before, the game is divided up into three segments: Daily Life, Deadly Life and Class Trial. During Daily Life, you walk around the small island chain talking to whomever you can in the hopes of learning as much about everyone as possible. Anything you gather during this part of the cycle becomes invaluable as you will get a good feel for who each character is and what they are doing. Deadly Life occurs when a body is discovered. It's here where you start to gather evidence about the death and determine who the guilty classmate might be. Finally, it's Class Trial time. Accusing the right classmate and convincing the rest of the group that you are right will either lead to you being right and the murderer being killed, or you being wrong and the killer being the only survivor.
Difficulty: Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is all about paying attention and catching people in their lies. While the setting of the game is crazy and the premise is pretty ridiculous, it really does come down to putting the evidence you've gathered and observed together to determine who the guilty party is. Given that the game is an interactive novel, there isn't a whole lot of room for deviation from the main script. When you do deviate from where the game wants you to go, you will find out in the most brutal ways.
Game Mechanics: Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair introduces a few new mechanics. Truth Bullets return as a way to point out contradictions in classmate's testimonies, but now you don't just shoot when you find a flaw in someone's story, you also shoot Agree spots when you can confirm that the statement is corroborated. Other changes include showdowns where students will attack to either break down mental defenses or prove logical flaws in arguments. Overall, Goodbye Despair adds enough new elements to the mix that fans of the first game will find this sequel to be an improvement over its predecessor. Meanwhile, the story will give most people who have even a passing interest in this game a run for their money. While you don't need to have played Trigger Happy Havoc to know what's going on in this game, it does give you a good foundation of what to expect since this game seems to kick things up a notch.
-J.R. Nip, GameVortex Communications AKA Chris Meyer
Related Links: PlayStation Illustrated's Review of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc Buy Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair at Amazon
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