Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

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 a visual novel game and the third main title in the Danganronpa series developed by Spike Chunsoft.

Like the title "New" implies in the original release, the game has a completely different storyline, characters, and environment than the first three games, with only the series' mascot Monokuma returning. According to the developers, the "V" in the title stands for "victory".

The overall theme is "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.

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.

A demo was released in Japan on December 20, 2016, with Makoto Naegi, Yasuhiro Hagakure, and Hajime Hinata returning as guest characters.

Development
Danganronpa V3 is produced by Yoshinori Terasawa, and planned and written by Kazutaka Kodaka, while the character design is done by Rui Komatsuzaki. Terasawa and Kodaka described developing it as being difficult, since it was being developed at the same time Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School was being made. Both also described the game's production level as being significantly higher than that of the previous games in the series.

When deciding whether to create a sequel or something new for the third installment, Spike Chunsoft settled on both, since there was divided opinion among the studio.

The game was first teased in the first trailer of 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. It was then released in Japan on January 12, 2017.

Localization
The game is one of the biggest, most complex games NIS America has ever localized, with over 400 pages of text, 2.4 million Japanese characters, 96,000 English lines, and 12,000 voiced lines. Because of its immensity, NISA had to redistribute the work among multiple members of their localization team.

Four translators individually paired with an editor were chosen to work on the game. The characters were evenly distributed to each pairing to localize, which allowed the team to work on the entire story and maintain consistency of tone and voice for each character.

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. Additionally, 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 Bulletss" into "Lie Bullets", and 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 first 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.

Synopsis
High school student Kaede Akamatsu is kidnapped and awakens in the "Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles", where she meets fellow student Shuichi Saihara and 14 others. Trapped inside with no escape, they are forced into a killing game by a robotic bear named Monokuma, accompanied by his Monokuma Kubs. The only way to escape is to successfully kill another student and get away with it in a subsequent Class Trial. If nobody is killed within two days, Monokuma will prematurely end the game by killing all of the students.

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.

Videos
Opening
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Trivia

 * Completing the demo rewards the player a skill, a present (which unlocks a special event in Chapter 1), and 333 Monocoins once they start up the main game.
 * This is the first game in the series to be localized in French.
 * In the NIS America Press Event 2017, Kodaka said that the game's English title was changed without him knowing, but also said that he didn't mind "Killing Harmony" and thought it was cool.

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