Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

yTVOul3-1Sk&t – Danganronpa V3 opening soundtrack.

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, also known as New Dangan Ronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Killing (NEWダンガンロンパV3 みんなのコロシアイ新学期 New Dangan Ronpa V3: Minna no Koroshiai Shin Gakki) is an visual novel game in the Danganronpa series, developed by Spike Chunsoft. It's the third main title in the game series and it's both a sequel and something new for the series.

Like the title "New" implies in the original release, the game has a completely different storyline, characters and environment than the first three games (the "Hope's Peak Academy" storyline ends with an anime series), with only the series' mascot Monokuma returning. The "V" in the title stands for "victory." .

The overall theme is mentioned to be "psycho cool", unlike the "psycho pop" and "psycho tropical" themes of the first two games. The visual style will have a "cool adult-like image" and the Class Trials will have "high-speed reasoning action". While the storyline and the sixteen new characters are different, the gameplay is similar to the earlier games, including exploration, talking with other characters and the Class Trials. It will have notable additions and improvements, though, like the possibility to use your own lies to defeat opponents during the trials.

The game features a new killing game called the New Killing School Life. It also features sixteen new characters and a new setting called Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles or the Prison School for the Gifted. The Academy (and hotel) is in a garden surrounded by a cage. It's implied that the story is set in the future.

It was released for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita on January 12, 2017 in Japan and will later be launched on September 26, 2017 in North America and September 29, 2017 in Europe by NIS America.

In the Weekly Famitsu Magazine Spike Chunsoft revealed that a demo will be released, where they featured Makoto Naegi, Yasuhiro Hagakure, and Hajime Hinata as guest characters to prevent spoiling the main game, and it will feature a different story from the main game. It was released in Japan on December 20, 2016.

It was announced on March 2nd, 2017 through a re-release of the North American Trailer that Danganronpa V3 would also be released on the same time as the physical copies.

Development
In March 2015, in an interview, the writer Kazutaka Kodaka talked about Danganronpa 3 and the possibility of doing a sci-fi story set in the future, "If I were to do something sci-fi, the rules of nature could change. In the present day, you can't go through walls and these laws of nature can't be broken. But, maybe with a future setting those laws can be bent or altered. Then I could develop murders and tricks based on what technology could be possible in the future".

At the time, he mentioned that his current plan is something like Back to the Future: Part III, "I said Back to the Future just because I like the movies, but I guess to think more about it… Do you remember Back to the Future: Part III? Even though they go to the Wild West the story ends up being a story about the future. I like that idea of being able to play with timelines as a narrative idea". This has lead to some fans speculating that the third game will include time travel.

The game was first teased at the end of the first trailer for Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls, followed by another teaser and a full reveal of the game during the Sony Computer Entertainment Japan Asia press conference on September 15, 2015.

In November 2015, Weekly Famitsu revealed new information about the game: Like the title "New" implies, the world view of Danganronpa V3 is completely new, and it doesn't follow the characters and Hope's Peak Academy setting featured in the series thus far. The series' mascot Monokuma and its basic systems, however, will be carried over.

On December 2, 2015, Spike Chunsoft held an event where they announced more new information about the game. The new setting was revealed to be Ultimate Academy for Gifted Students.

Gameplay
The gameplay is similar to the previous main games, with each chapter divided into three sections; Daily Life, Deadly Life, and Class Trial, although notable changes with class trials can be seen in the trailer. In it, you can see multiple Shirokumas and Kurokumas (most likely being used as placeholders to prevent spoiling any future characters) being elevated upwards from their respective seats, highlighting that class trials may have a more intense atmosphere. Also, the player can listen to multiple testimonies at once, more than ever before.

During the Class Trials, you'll defeat opponents with "lies", using fabricated truth bullets. There are situations where lying is necessary. To use it, you have to hold the fire button for the truth bullets. By doing this, you can change the "Truth Bullets" into "Lie Bullets". By doing so, you turn the original truth bullets into the opposite of what they were. If you fire a lie bullet into a weak point that matches up, you can break that statement. However, using lie bullets are optional, so you can advance the debate with just truth bullets. By using lie bullets, you can access a short-cut or back route to move through the game. This will lead to different developments from the straightforward route.

"Scrum Debate" is a new system that divides the debate into two sides with different beliefs.

“Panic Debate" is another new system where multiple students will talk at the same time. Because of this, the screen will be divided to several characters for them to give separate testimonies at the same time. A normal person wouldn't be able to tell what they are saying when they are talking all at once, much less who is saying what. However, Kaede, using her talent as the Ultimate Pianist is able to figure out what is said and who said it. Her ability is similar to how Ibuki Mioda from Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair was able to figure who said what in the dark during the 1st murder. This system is similar to a normal "Non-Stop Debate", but far harder because you have to keep up with multiple testimonies at once, all the while not confusing one testimony with another.

Along with the Class Trials, the game includes other familiar gameplay like exploration parts and talking with other characters, which have also been improved.

Demo
The Trial Demo involves a condensed version of the game play, with Kaede Akatmasu, Makoto Naegi, and Hajime Hinata investigating the murder of Yasuhiro Hagakure. If its completed, the first time you start up the main game you'll receive a Skill, a Present Item (which can be used to unlock a CG event within Chapter 1), and 333 Monocoins.

Merchandise
On the 14th December 2016, Sony announced the release of 3 special edition Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony themed consoles in the lead-up to the release of the game. A Monokuma themed PlayStation 4 and two engraved PlayStation Vita consoles were released on January 12, 2017. Each console came in a Danganronpa V3 themed box and with a pre-installed Danganronpa V3 theme.

Trivia

 * In NIS America Press Event 2017, Kodaka said that the game title in English version was changed without him knowing, so it was surprising to him. However, he thought that "Killing Harmony" is cool, so he didn't mind.

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