Murder. Lies. Anime. Everything that makes up a good story can be found in Spike Chunsoft’s Danganronpa: Trigger-Happy Havoc.

My friend group has gotten really into the Danganronpa series recently, so I have spent the last month or so replaying the first two games and watching the anime. Despite having played them before, I rarely found myself skipping through important dialogue.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. What is this game, should others play it and why or why not? Let’s answer these questions first.

Danganronpa: Trigger-Happy Havoc (just “Danganronpa” from here on out) is an anime visual novel murder mystery set in an elite high school. 

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15 students are gathered from around Japan and locked into Hope’s Peak Academy, a high school for students with incredible gifts. They are given everything they need to survive (food, shelter and so on) but have no means of escape.

As I’ve hinted, these are no ordinary high schoolers. Each of them is the best at what they do, referred to as an “Ultimate” (though in Japanese, they are called “Super High School Levels” instead of “Ultimates”). 

There are 15 students, so I won’t go into all of them, but examples include the Ultimate Programmer, the Ultimate Gambler and the Ultimate Swimmer.

The lovable headmaster, a robotic bear named Monokuma (which literally means “monochrome bear” in Japanese), announces that there is one way to escape Hope’s Peak: to kill a classmate. 

When someone dies, the student body is given a period of time to investigate, during which they may do whatever they like. When the investigation is over, Monokuma gathers everyone and begins the class trial.

During the class trial, the students present their arguments for who the murderer, or “blackened,” is. At the end, everyone casts their vote. 

If a majority of people vote for the blackened, then only that person is executed. But if the wrong choice is made, everyone else is executed and the blackened “graduates” from the academy.

With an understanding of the premise and plot of Danganronpa, let’s take a look at the gameplay.

As a visual novel, the game isn’t exactly teeming with action sequences. There are a few minigames, but the majority of this game is reading dialogue. 

The game is divided into three gameplay modes: school life, deadly life and class trial. 

During school life, the player is allowed to spend their free time with a friend. Each character has different friendship bonuses that help during the class trials. 

Deadly life is the aforementioned investigation segment. It begins with the discovery of a body and ends with the start of the class trial. The player is encouraged to investigate the crime scene, interview witnesses and so on.

The class trials are a diversion from Danganronpa’s normal gameplay. While there is still a good amount of text, the trials are built around facilitating debates among the class and pointing out contradictions in pursuit of the killer. 

A question that many may ask upon hearing the premise is, “What is the player character’s Ultimate ability?” The protagonist, Makoto Naegi, is the Ultimate Lucky Student.

He doesn’t even have an official ability. He was chosen as an Ultimate by a lottery. Personally, I think this is a really neat way to have a main character be believable from the player’s perspective while among all of these Ultimates.

The music in Danganronpa can only be described as a fever dream. It’s tonally appropriate, whether the moment is somber or lighthearted. It’s an extremely solid foundation for a game with a sometimes inconsistent tone.

Given this game’s anime art style and influences, tropes from anime were bound to peek their heads in Danganronpa. Sometimes it’s fine. Heck, sometimes it’s funny. 

But sometimes two characters are talking about how they could die at any moment and Monokuma shows up just to make a boner joke. 

This doesn’t ruin the game. In fact, for the most part, I like how the conflicting tones keep the player on their feet. But every now and again, a bit will drag on too long or the shift will be too sudden and abrupt. 

Honestly, I think the game’s opening cutscene captures everything one needs to know about Danganronpa in 90 seconds.

Not every single character is a winner, of course, but the cast is likable overall. The 15 students of Hope’s Peak have colorful personalities that clash and compliment one another wonderfully. This is one of my favorite casts in a video game in general.

The murders themselves are gruesome and interesting. It’s hard to forget the shock of initially discovering a body, usually covered in blood. 

The investigations and trials are full of twists and turns. I audibly said things like, “No way” and “What” throughout the course of the entire game. In fact, they’re so impactful that I can recite the details of every case, victim and murderer from the top of my head.

It’s hard to go into the details of twists and turns, as that is very clearly spoiler territory, but the game does a good job of casting suspicion on multiple individuals during each case. Frankly, these murder plots end up being more elaborate than I’m capable of comprehending at times.

Danganronpa: Trigger-Happy Havoc isn’t a game for everyone, but it’s certainly a game for me. I recommend it to fans of murder mysteries, so long as anime tropes won’t put them off. I award it a 4/5. 

Tolbert can be reached at tolbernj7262@uwec.edu. What is his Ultimate talent?