DISTRUST

DISTRUST (ダンガンロンパ DISTRUST) was a murder mystery novel being developed by Spike for the PlayStation Portable. Though the game was simply a prototype and never officially released, it eventually evolved into Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. Unlike the Danganronpa series, DISTRUST was meant to be much darker and gorier; as evident by Leon Kuwata's execution - The 1,000 Blows - which was present in DISTRUST and remains unchanged in Trigger Happy Havoc.

Background
Danganronpa, like every game, started out as a beta version and was not originally known as it is now. The mystery game was initially known as "DISTRUST". According to some promotional materials, there were taglines that translated into 7 Days and 15 Students. It is somehow evident that a 7-day limit was put in action instead of the final version which has an indefinite amount of time. "DISTRUST" was a darker and more sinister game compared to the finalized version released.

Development
The main reason why the DISTRUST was scrapped was stated by the original creator, Kazutaka Kodaka:
 * “DISTRUST was the original image of the game obviously, and it was psycho shock, so essentially, for us, that would be something like just straight up gruesome horror. However, when we were thinking about whether or not to do it, we felt that the audience for that was really small. Even in a place like America, the audience would still be small but because the population bigger, it might sell more. But at the end of the day, things of that nature are that gruesome and that dark, the audience was too small for us to really want to pursue that to its end.”

Characters
The characters were also released in beta images which bear many distant characteristics from their finalized illustrations.

(Top, going from left to right)
 * Byakuya Togami
 * Sakura Ogami
 * Kazuo Matsuzaki/Kurosaki
 * Aoi Asahina
 * Yuji Ando
 * Gyaru Kirigiri
 * Chihiro Fujisaki

(Bottom, going from left to right)
 * Shujinkō
 * Toko Fukawa
 * Yasuhiro Hagakure
 * S. Rudenberg
 * Mondo Owada
 * Sayaka Maizono
 * Kiyotaka Ishiru
 * Junko Enoshima
 * Noriyuki

Gameplay
The mechanics of the Class Trials have also changed from the beta version. In a material beta screenshot, a meter called Trust/Distrust Meter is showcased. The meter determines if fellow students trust the player or not. This may be an early version of the Influence Gauge but it has not yet been proven true. In another beta screenshot, the Weak Points appear in dialogue boxes instead of the text floating across the screen.

A beta version of an execution is also included in a beta material. Showcased in the execution graphic are panels stylized as a manga strip, unlike the finalized ones that are animated. In this prototype execution, the beta version of Junko is found guilty, or perhaps, the mastermind. This execution is also darker in terms of theme as the panels seem to insinuate Junko's head was chopped off by a guillotine. The blood is also colored red instead of the graphically-colored pink used in Danganronpa successors. Much like how the final class trials have certain "mini-games" used to help solve the case, a rhythm trial game was shown in a screenshot. In it, bullets with trial information would flash by and you would click the corresponding buttons shown when an important piece of evidence passed by.

The most common beta video footage shows the execution of Kazuo Matsuzaki (who would later be renamed to Leon Kuwata) after he murdered Kyoko. There were little differences to Leon's execution with the exception of the notable red blood and Leon's visible corpse at the end of the execution.

Trivia

 * Originally, DISTRUST was a text adventure game but the producers decided to scrap it for a more action/mystery game which lead to Danganronpa's creation.
 * The characters had much more realistic looks to them along with the executions also being more realistic, such as Junko executed by the guillotine and the red blood from Kazuo's execution.