Holy shit this is an improvement. Trigger Happy Havoc is what I like to call shit, but it's my shit. I love that game, but it is very flawed. Going into Danganronpa 2, I heard decent things about it but I never thought it would improve a lot of my flaws with the original.

I think my biggest flaw with the original game was definitely its dialogue and the fact that it just drags on and on. The problem isn't totally non-existent in this game but they definitely knew the general things that don't really add anything to the story, and it was far more of a breeze this time and not just me doing something else, half paying attention to the game like it was in the first.

I don't think the characters are more memorable than the first, but maybe that's because I just came out of this game, the most interesting character is obviously Nagito Komaeda, he's like Joker, but apply the Danganronpa themes, he is crazy, but at the same time you sort of want to root for him, and once he dies you feel general shock because you not only expect him to survive but because it comes in a time where you are kind of stuck knowing what to do.

I feel like Hajime is also a much more relatable protagonist, instead of having a boner and being incredibly short, Hajime is much more likable. Also, Makoto felt more like, "Oh, I'm playing a separate character", but Hajime is much more like a self-insert than Naegi, which honestly could be an argument for and against the character, but I much more like it that way.

The thing is, with the original, you're most likely to have one favorite character instead of liking all, that's ok, but that also makes some of their deaths and executions a lot less meaningful and hard-hitting. With THH, they felt more in line with character stereotypes, and though that worked well in the sense that they killed off the characters that you least expected, that comes down to subverting expectations, not because you liked them. At least for me, I'm genuinely interested to see if you were invested in all of the Danganronpa 1 characters other than the ones that are designed to be likable (like Sayaka and Sakura). I don't know, maybe I'm just a completely emotionless being who only cries at Nintendo games aimed at children.

For Danganronpa 2, I felt like they built off that type of archetype character with people like Gundham, Fuyuhiko, they make you care, and if one of them dies, you feel a genuine loss. (Except for Hiyoko, fuck her)

The executions are also super innovative, be it a bit more random. There's one, if you've played the game you know which one, it made me cry. And I barely cry. Well, give me anything with animals and I will cry, but still, it was effective.

I think the trials are a bit worse, I really didn't like the trials in the first game, but now it's a lot more confusing. They added this SSX-type mode which is pretty fun, but now it becomes a lot harder too. Trust me, I like hard content in games, but this is just unfair.

And that ending, holy shit that ending hits hard. Yes, it's a bit stereotypical, but who cares. It gives an inspiring message and though you can lose track of it, the payoff for the characters and the introduction of the protagonists of the first game, it pays off everything from the 1st and 2nd game.

So, overall, it's much better than the first. Monomi is a bit annoying, but the interactions with Monokuma are pretty funny be it cruel. Monokuma is so likable, you hate him, but you really can't hate him, though I do prefer him in the first game just a bit more. It definitely leaves much more of an ending reaction and impact than the first game, even though that ending was also rock solid.

8.5/10.

I have to say, in pretty much every aspect I can think of, Danganronpa 2 builds off of all of the great concepts of the original and goes further. It's more refined, the areas are more diverse, the complexity is raised, the story is even crazier, the cast is even better, the mysteries are even less straightforward, and the trials have become even more unpredictable, mentally stimulating, and go further beyond the established formula.

Danganronpa is a franchise that's extremely prone to spoilers, which is why I'd like to get to the rest of the franchise relatively soon before I get anything spoiled for me, but because of that I will be avoiding spoilers as much as possible here. So I'll be skipping out on a lot of details about story and characters that I could elaborate on so people can go into it with a sense of mystery still.

As far as I can say without spoiling either the first game or this one, a bunch of students end up on a seeming island paradise with a lot of questions as to how they got here and why they're here, when it once again gets interrupted by Monokuma, and the killing school life starts anew. Just like the first game, it's split up into chapters, involving relatively normal yet quirky school life and getting to know the rest of the cast, punctuated by unfortunate murders, investigation into all of the relevant details, and culminating in a class trial to figure out just whodunnit, full of tons of twists and turns. The original game ended with still a fair amount of vagueness and unsolved mysteries, which this game capitalizes on, even adding a whole other layer of questions and confusion at the very beginning. Even though in a sense the first game starts with a bait-and-switch, it's pretty much already known going on what that is, but this game goes even crazier with its bait-and-switch, generating genuine mystery with the sheer oddity of its introduction. Also appreciated is how it establishes a simple yet effective premise keeping the narrative moving forward. The first game having no sense of moving towards anything specific rather than just investigating and staying alive works for a first entry, but this game realizes its potential as a sequel to change things up and raise the stakes, and the sense of narrative propulsion benefits it in a way that just repeating the premise of the first game but on an island wouldn't have. I won't spoil the key story events, but I will say that while I loved the story of the first game, the way this game expands upon the mystery, breaks from its own conventions, and goes further with the established themes definitely makes it even more impressive. Like stepping even higher above an already proven proof of concept.

The cast is also generally even better. At first I was worried they wouldn't be able to stick with me as much as the ones in the game I had just beaten, and I had noticed a lot of seeming parallels between these characters and the ones from the last game. But there were more characters this time around that had a strong impact on me, and on average I'd say I probably got more out of individual characters this time around. I mean Nagito should be obvious. Visually he didn't impact me as much at first, but I think Hajime is a more interesting and stronger protagonist than Makoto was. Also thought there were lots of interesting aspects about Chiaki, Fuyuhiko, Mikan, etc. The dynamic between Monokuma and Usami/Monomi also becomes very interesting, full of a lot of mystery.

Like I said, the gameplay gets more refined, more complex, more open. It breaks away a lot more from its established formulas. Obviously it's still a very visual novel style game with most of the real gameplay in the trials, but if you understand that expectation it is very compelling. Without spoiling exactly what happens, right off the bat, on the very first trial, it's significantly more off-the-walls than the trials in the first game were, as if it's building off of that game as a starting point instead of going back to square one, which was really appreciated. And they only play with their own formula, structure, and expectations even more going forward. By the last trial it gets absolutely insane. I thought there was a lot to juggle with in terms of the trial mechanics in the first game, but then this game expands it even more. With a varied amount of mini-games that are expanded enough to add more diversity compared to the trials of the first game, but short enough that the fact they're simplistic and maybe not fully polished won't settle in too much.

Stylistically it also feels like a step-up, maintaining the same basic appealing art style while making the UI more appealing and offering a more vibrant environment that changes up the scenery more often and more significantly. I'm not sure whether or not this game has more "rooms" compared to the first one because instead of navigating hallways you basically have island hubs you lap around on with areas you visit on them, but because of that change in how you traverse them it feels much more spacious. And of course the first game was set in a closed space, so being more claustrophobic, intimate, mundane, and involving going back over old areas more often made more sense, but it's nice that the game expanded the scope to prevent it from becoming stale. And of course, the soundtrack is as solid as ever, arguably even better with the new additions, though it is missing my favorite track from the last game, Box 15.

Any gripes with the game are very minor, the mini-games aren't always super polished but they're brief and functional enough, sometimes certain models and art assets don't seem to have as polished detail but it has a generally solid aesthetic, don't really know what the pet feature added, would've been nicer if the map was easier to figure out how it was oriented, and I won't spoil which one, but I thought one of the trials was a bit of a letdown that threw out good characterization for a more generic and unexplained twist. Also make sure you play on the hardest difficulty, because the mini-games can be slightly frustrating sometimes, but the game is not very punishing at all for failure if you just restart from a checkpoint with full health back. The only truly challenging part are the mysteries, which they should be, though some answers were probably a bit too obtuse (I had to look up a few sometimes because I was just too stumped and it was taking too long).

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair takes all the best aspects of the first game and builds off of them, expanding complexity and mystery and bending with its own rules. It's more fun to play and explore, and even more intellectually stimulating to solve its mysteries, with solid visual style and charming and compelling characters. I highly recommend you play it, but only after playing the first one.

I liked the original Danganronpa, and I was wondering about a number of things when I started this sequel. Would it simply be the same thing with a different cast? Or can it find ways to evolve meaningfully? The short answer is that it's a little of both.

The first thing I noted was the length: D2 is about 10 hours longer than D1. That doesn't really translate to a more interesting story. It actually feels like the story goes on for longer than it should, with a lot of filler dialogue going back and forth. Some mild spoilers for the beginning of the game ahead - The game actually starts off with a two hour bait-and-switch sequence. I wonder if this actually worked on any of the returning players. I mean, we already know what to expect, so why bother with this misdirection at all?

The story is something of a mixed bag, and your mileage may vary about how much you enjoy it. This is mostly with regard to the larger Danganronpa mythology. If the first game's story was crazy, D2 uses that as a springboard to go into downright insane territory.

Mechanically, D2 feels smoother. Minigames have been polished and expanded, and new ones have also been added. Class Trials, the core of the game, are longer and more involved this time around. There's even an intermission (a prompt to save) at the middle of the trial, because the trials can take around two hours from start to end. The mysteries themselves are also constructed very well. Arguments are clear, logical and lead from one step to the next in a straightforward manner.

I also have to mention the kickass soundtrack. D1 had a number of impressive tracks, and D2 extends that by adding a number of new tracks. They do reuse a number of tracks from D1 as-is, but the new additions balance that out. My pick of the new soundtrack so far has been 'Tropical Despair'.

So that's Danganronpa 2 in a nutshell. It's better than the first game in some ways, worse in other ways, and pretty much the same for the most part. So I think I'll stick with the 'same as the first one' conclusion. If you liked the first one, you'll enjoy this one as well.

Danganronpa 2 is an interesting sequel that takes the core aesthetical mix of murderous insanity and exaggerated dark humor in an iterative if somewhat separate direction. It reflects a bit on the flaws of the previous games but ultimately doesn't do a whole lot to fix them, and more so swaps them out with something else.

The core plot is still a walking trash fire, with convoluted elements that walk straight off a cliff at the conclusion arc, leaving no satisfaction other than making true on just being insane as the game's first step let on. Characters are a bit more fleshed out now, with some interesting relationships and a few good motivations, but the game also does a good deal of throwing that out just to hit the core themes of the previous game, with one character in Case 3 especially turned straight into fucking mush for the sake of a gotcha. The game also ditches its grounded and dismal atmosphere for something way more surreal, and that doesn't come off as a welcome change because again, DR2 doesn't have much more of interest to say with it. This kinda leaves the setting to be a lot less memorable overall.

What is fun though, are the cases. They're an entire step up from DR1 by having more intricate puzzle solving structure to them, with situations so bizarre and outlandish but with case logic so strictly put together that each reveal in-game is interesting as it is satisfying to figure out. Each case still has a decent who dunnit, and a crazy interesting how dunnit. The why dunnit is still a crock of shit, but at this point it's something you have to accept when jumping into this game. In general the HEART of DR2 is still almost entirely absent for much of the runtime. That's probably the most grueling flaw that DR is in no rush to fix.

At the end of the day, DR is comfortable in drenching itself with an insane and somewhat satisfying junk food look, and leaves you with very little to remember afterwards. (6.5/10)

4.5 stars

I was a bit distressed when I started Danganronpa 2 and it started off pretty much exactly like the first Danganronpa. I was looking for story continuation with the sequel, not scenario replay. Luckily it's a little bit more complicated than that, although I did end up sold on the differences Danganronpa 2 provides even before some of the references to the first game started cropping up.

The biggest difference that you'll notice early on is that Danganronpa 2 expands the setting from a school to an island (or, more accurately, a series of small, linked islands). So that's a big aesthetic difference, although in practice each island has about the same amount of space that can be explored as the floor of the school. It's just spread out further. While I kind of prefer the school atmosphere, it was probably a wise decision to take things to a new locale.

In addition to the setting, a few other bells and whistles have been added to separate Danganronpa 2 from its predecessor. On the casual side of things, the game has a Tamagotchi-style digital pet built into it that helps get you items (of varying quality depending on how you take care of the pet). The pet "grows" by your step count, something I was pretty obsessed about developing to the point that I all but ignored the fast travel option. But the biggest bells and whistles come during the class trials. A few new mini-games have been added. (Unfortunately one thing that has not been added from the first game is anything resembling competent instructions; expect to Google each new mini-game to figure out what the fuck you're supposed to do.) The worst of these modes (a sort of "spell the answer by shooting floating letters" thing--which is technically an "improved" Hangman's Gambit from the first game) is awfully hard in English--there's a big difference between shooting a handful of Japanese words and trying to spell out a 20 letter sequence of words, especially when you don't know what that sequence of words is. The other new mode is actually pretty fun, featuring your character boarding down a pipe and having to dodge obstacles and make jumps.

Aside from a few standouts, the characters this time around felt a bit bland. I loved the characters in the first game and these never had quite the same spark. And yet, ultimately these are still characters that endeared themselves to me, such that each time one of them was killed, I was like, "Oh wow, not so-and-so--I actually really liked so-and-so!" I think what made them grow on me is how strong the relational dynamics were.

Anyway, contrary to my initial reaction, Danganronpa 2 is a great follow-up to the first. It does some things less successfully than the first, but also brings along some keen improvements.