Dangan Ronpa.

by **Ash** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 4:49 pm

Dangan Ronpa is a PSP game originally released in Japan in 2010, by one of the teams that worked on 999 and Virtue's Last Reward.

The basic plot is that in the centre of Tokyo, is an infamous school called Hope's Peak Academy. Only students selected by the school are allowed to attend. The two main requirements of being invited to be a student are that the potential student must be of High School age, and that the potential must be outstanding in their respective field.

As the school is so famous and so exclusive, graduating from Hope's Peak more or less guarantees the graduate a successful life. The students are considered to be the "hope" of Japan.

The newest class is comprised of fourteen students, all hand-picked by Hope's Peak Academy. Among these students are the "Ultimate Swimmer, Ultimate Baseball Player, but also Ultimate Heir and Ultimate Biker Gang Leader". There is also a fifteenth student, Makoto Naegi, the playable character, who got into Hope's Peak via a prize draw, and therefore has the title "Ultimate Lucky Student."

Upon Naegi entering Hope's Peak though, he finds himself trapped in the school, under a sadistic monochromatic robotic bear called Monobear, along with the other students. Monobear tells the students that they will have to spend the rest of their lives trapped in the school, unless they kill another student. Upon someone being killed, a trial will be held to find the culprit. If the wrong person is voted for as the culprit in a trial, the killer will be allowed to "graduate" and leave the school. The other students will be executed. However, if the correct person is voted for as the killer, the killer will be executed, and the surviving students will continue to live trapped in the school.

The two main parts of gameplay are the investigation stage, which plays like an Ace Attorney game, with the added element that you can choose to spend time with an individual student and give them gifts. This can lead to additional scenes filling out more information about a student's background.

The trial is the other part of the gameplay. These are basically comprised for several mini-games.

Although only orginally released in Japanese, an English translation of Dangan Ronpa has now been released on the Vita. You can watch the first trial here - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R34GK3D9RaI. Please note that this is the full first trial, and therefore has spoilers for the first case.

A sequel, Super Dangan Ronpa 2 was released in 2012, but as yet there are no announced plans to release this in English. However, a voice actor did recently announce that he would be playing a character from Dangan Ronpa 2. This was announcement was removed, and nothing has been said since. There are also theories that Dangan Ronpa 3 may be in development.

by **Henry Spencer** » Wed Feb 12, 2014 7:10 pm

It's out on Friday for Vita, and I'm really looking forward to it. Love Spike Chunsoft's games (like 999 and VLR). Game sounds rather insane and intense, from the little I've read about it. I love me some crazy Japanese adventure games.

I fixed your spelling in the post for you, hope you don't mind (it's Dangan Ronpa). ;)

Also, the music for these games are crazy good (it's the killer 7/Flower, Sun & Rain composer, Masafumi Takada; the perfect composer for these psychological/mystery adventure games).

by **Sonikku** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 2:53 pm

It seems like the parents would begin to question what makes the school so great when their kids keep coming home in caskets.

by **Ash** » Thu Feb 13, 2014 3:39 pm

Sorry about the spelling. :oops:

Thanks for fixing it.

I'm not considering buying Dangan Ronpa myself right now; I don't have a Vita, and I was spoiled (completely) for both Dangan Ronpa 1 and 2 when it was thought they would never be translated. I'd be really interested in your thoughts as/after you've played, Henry.

On another note, looks like the chances of Zero Escape 3 have dropped - https://twitter.com/Uchikoshi_Eng. Apparently, Spike-Chunsoft aren't interested because both 999 and VLR are in the red in Japan. Uchikoshi himself seems very disappointed. :cry:

He is still hoping he will be able to make it via another avenue though. Comparisons to Shenmue 3 have already been made.

Edited to add - Dangan Ronpa 2 for the Vita has been announced - http://gematsu.com/2014/02/danganronpa-2-goodbye-despair-coming-west-fall. The autumn release isn't as early as it may sound; in that announcement made by a voice actor claiming to play a Dangan Ronpa 2 character, he thought that Dangan Ronpa 2 was the game that had just come out, which indicates that the voice acting has already been done.

by **Henry Spencer** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 2:52 pm

The sales of Dangan Ronpa 1 must have been really good for them to announce 2 so soon. And it's coming this Autumn/Fall?

Groovy.

With regards to Zero Escape 3, I'm sure they'll find some way of making it happen. It's a shame that there's only three fans in Japan [their home market] and loads elsewhere, but they'll get over it and make it, I think.

by **Yama** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 5:23 pm

Picked mine up launch day this past week, haven't started yet thought wanted to immediately support the cause. Will dive into it next week though, expecting great things.

by **Ash** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 6:25 pm

By the way, please don't look anything related to Dangan Ronpa up; it's been out in Japan for years, so there are spoilers everywhere. I'd advise against even looking at any pre-English Dangan Ronpa 2 release screenshots until you've finished Dangan Ronpa 1.

by **Axm** » Sat Feb 15, 2014 7:50 pm

I picked it up and will be playing it on my 12 hour flight to Japan.

by **Henry Spencer** » Sun Feb 16, 2014 6:29 pm

Damn, this game is more brutal than I thought it would be.

I like how the game throws the standard story conventions on its head. Only on Chapter 2 so far. End of Chapter 1 spoilers:

I also really love how over the top the whole game is (Mondo is such a riff on Kenka Bancho/River City Ransom with how hard he tries to be the "Ultimate Bad Ass" at every turn), it just skirts the right balance between being surprisingly dark and surprisingly funny without being silly, to me. It's almost a piss take on typical adventure game conventions, like it's entirely self aware. The voice acting is damn good too, I've been a bit down on most of the recent games localized into English lately, with the half assed VA, but this is the best VA in a long time, all of them appear to be newcomers to VA too.

I also think the trials cut out a lot of the fat present in the Ace Attorney series and keeps it more direct. It's easier, but at least it keeps the pace of the trials speed along. I like the crazy mini-games they've inserted in there even.

by **Ash** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 4:12 pm

How are you getting on, Henry, Axm?

Seems like a few retailers are listing Dangan Ronpa 2 for release on the 2nd of September.

If anyone's interested, below is a list of currently confirmed voice actors for Dangan Ronpa 2.

Please note: I mentioned it before, but please don't look any of the character's up. You will likely be spoiled within two minutes.

The links next to each character lead to their official art; there aren't any spoilers, but it does make it quite easy to guess what each characters talent is, I'd recommend not looking at the art if you prefer to go in completely blind.

I'll be honest, I'm not really into the voice acting scene (Johnny Young Bosch is the only one I've heard of there), but the whole Union thing doesn't seem to actually have many benefits for it's members. Union members can't charge below a certain amount for their work, which means that many smaller companies can't afford to hire them, and if an actor agrees to take a role outside of the Union, they have to be uncredited so their role can't be traced back to them, resulting in them being penalised by the Union. :???:

Also seems odd that Nisa can't afford Laura Bailey (a Nisa staff member mentioned this on their forums), but can get Bosch, who has been doing voice acting in just about everything for years now (apparently, it's not 100% confirmed that he's got a role in this, he just mentioned the game on Twitter...could just be that he's a fan?). I'm assuming that the more lines an actor gets, the more they get paid? The voice actor for Hajime Hinata (the playable character) hasn't been announced yet....I don't know, it just seems confusing to me.

by **Henry Spencer** » Mon Feb 24, 2014 4:17 pm

I am at the end of Chapter 5. The game isn't mindblowing as the Zero Escape series to me [most of the twists are easy to figure out beforehand, but that's mainly because you're the one figuring out what happens at each murder and have to choose who the culprit is each time and debate against the others by presenting the evidence], but it's still really good. It reminds me more of Ace Attorney, but it definitely has elements from Zero Escape.

I like the English VA in this game since it isn't the same three-four actors that I've heard elsewhere and Laura Bailey and Troy Baker are good, but they're in everything nowadays, so it's a nice change.

by **Ash** » Mon Mar 03, 2014 4:23 pm

I thought the voice acting was quite good. Sakura was the only one that I wasn't overly fond of. My comments in my previous post were more me contemplating the Union thing, and why one well known voice actor was too expensive, but another one (assuming the voice actor does actually have a role in Dangan Ronpa 2) wasn't, rather than a complaint that none of the usual voice actors had a role.

There haven't been any updates in regards to Dangan Ronpa 2 voice actors, but I updated my previous post with a link to the official art for the Dangan Ronpa 2 students (sans one). Again, the links only lead to the official art of that character, there are no spoilers as such, but the art does, in most cases, make it quite clear what the student's ultimate talent is.

by **Ash** » Mon May 26, 2014 10:49 am

There's a clip of some English Dangan Ronpa 2 gameplay floating around. I recommend that you don't watch it to avoid spoilers.

by **Axm** » Wed May 28, 2014 5:20 am

I havent been playing but will jump back on it soon with how much I take the train these days.

by **Ash** » Fri Aug 22, 2014 1:14 am

The first part of the prologue in English has been uploaded now, as have the character introductions:

Please don't watch if you haven't completed Dangan Ronpa 1:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jOCLBdgGML0 - Prologue
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JRQyu1dnef8 - Character Introductions.

For anyone intending to play Dangan Ronpa 2 - you may want to pick Nagito Komaeda the first time you have a free time slot.

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