A Visual Novel-style Among Us before it was cool | First Impressions - Danganronpa

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In Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, A group of high school students find themselves trapped in their new school and are forced to participate in a twisted battle royale game of murder and survival. 

The player takes on the role of Makoto Naegi, the game's protagonist and one of the students trapped inside the school Hope's Peak Academy. Throughout the game, Makoto must work with his fellow classmates to uncover the truth behind the school's mysteries and survive the deadly game they have been forced to play.

The game's main antagonist is Monokuma, a bear-like creature who forces the students to kill one another in order to escape. There are a bunch of house rules set for the students, but the main one is that they are trapped living in the school forever, unless somebody commits a murder against the other students, and then a trial begins.

If the killer is correctly revealed, the killer dies and the game continues. If not, then everybody else dies and the killer “graduates” and is allowed to re-enter the outside world. This trend of murder and trial will continue until  there are two students left. This is highly reminiscent of Werewolf or more popularly in recent times – Among Us mashed up with Battle Royale mechanics.

The game is divided into two main parts: the investigation phase and the class trial phase. During the investigation phase, the player must explore the school, talk to fellow students, befriend them and even build relationships. You can also gather clues and evidence to use during the class trial phase.

This includes examining crime scenes if there’s any, questioning witnesses, and searching for hidden items. The investigation phase is a crucial part of the game, as the evidence and clues gathered during this phase will be used during the class trial phase to solve murder mysteries. The system is pretty hand-holding and guided, ensuring the player sees all important information before leaving an area, and the option to just mark every interactable entity in a given scene.

The trial phase involves a series of mini-games that are used to determine the identity of the murderer. The player must use the evidence gathered during the investigation phase to refute false statements and identify the killer.

The game is divided into chapters, with each chapter focusing on a new mystery. While this works well for the most part, there are times when the game's pacing can feel slow, especially since it is mostly composed of reading text dialogue between the characters. Some of the investigation phases can drag on for hours, and the class trial phases which can also take 1-2 hours can feel repetitive after a while. Despite that, Danganronpa is a solid experience nonetheless if you are really immersed in its murder mystery story.

Full Review will be posted soon here on Taptap! Stay tuned!