Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, often abbreviated to Danganronpa, is a murder-mystery visual novel developed by Spike. The script and storyline were written by Kazutaka Kodaka and the illustrations were done by Rui Komatsuzaki.

The original Japanese game is entitled Dangan Ronpa: Academy of Hope and High School Students of Despair (ダンガンロンパ 希望の学園と絶望の高校生, Dangan Ronpa: Kibō no Gakuen to Zetsubō no Kōkōsei). It was released for the PSP on November 25, 2010 in Japan, and later in August 2012 for mobile devices.

In June 2013, prior to the official localization, a fan group (Project Zetsubou) released an unofficial translation of the game for the PSP.

On July 6, 2013, NIS America announced at Anime Expo that they would localize the game for North America and Europe with an English dub. The localization was entitled Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and was released on February 11, 2014 in North America, and on February 14, 2014 in Europe for the PlayStation Vita. The North American version of the game is compatible with the PlayStation TV, though the European release isn't.

On February 18, 2016, Danganronpa was released on PC via Steam worldwide. It was first referenced throughout January by tweets through the official English Twitter account for Danganronpa.

A sequel was released on July 26, 2012 named Super Dangan Ronpa 2: Farewell Despair Academy (スーパーダンガンロンパ2 さよなら絶望学園, Super Dangan Ronpa 2: Sayonara Zetsubō Gakuen). The localization for the sequel, titled Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, was announced Fall 2014.

The original game was adapted into an anime, and there is a light novel detailing a what-if scenario concerning the events of the first game available after completing the main storyline of the sequel. There is also an unused alternate ending includes in Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy blu-ray box set titled Danganronpa Another End.

Gameplay
In Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, the player controls Makoto Naegi, a student at Hope's Peak who is forced into a killing game with other students. Each chapter is divided in two parts: School Life, in which the player can explore the academy and progress through the story, and the Class Trial, in which the player must deduce the culprit of a murder.



During School Life, the player can explore the school grounds in the first-person perspective. In certain locations, the player moves a crosshair cursor to converse with other characters and interact with various objects. Examining specific objects yields the player Monocoins, which can be used to get presents from a capsule machine in the school's store. As the game progresses, more areas in the academy become available.

School Life is separated in two sections: "Daily Life" and "Deadly Life". In Daily Life, the players converse with other characters and progress through the story. When speaking with other characters, some comments can be "reacted" to reveal new information. Daily Life also features "Free Time" segments, where the player can spend their time with other characters and give them presents, which in turn reveals more information about them and unlocks "skills", which aid the player in certain aspects of the Class Trial, and "skill points", which determine the amount of skills that can be used.



Once a murder has occurred, the game transitions into Deadly Life, where the player must look for clues throughout the academy. Evidence and testimonies are stored in the player's e-Handbook. After all possible evidence are found, the game shifts to the Class Trial.

In the Class Trial, the students must discuss among themselves who the killer is. The Class Trial consists of four main styles of gameplay: Nonstop Debate, Hangman's Gambit, Bullet Time Battle, and Closing Argument. The most common of these is the Nonstop Debate, where characters will discuss their thoughts on a case. During these sections, the player is armed with "Truth Bullets", metaphorical bullets containing evidence relevant to the case. In order to break the debate, the player must find a lie or contradiction among the weak points, words highlighted in yellow, in the characters' arguments and shoot them with the correct truth bullet. In Hangman's Gambit, the player must shoot specific letters to spell out a clue. Bullet Time Battle is a one-on-one debate against another student featuring rhythm style gameplay. As the opponent makes remarks, the player must press buttons in time to the beat to lock onto the remarks and shoot them down. Finally, Closing Argument is a puzzle in which the player pieces together a comic strip depicting how a murder went down.



Occasionally, the player must answer a multiple choice question and present an evidence to progress through the Class Trial. The player's Influence among the other students are represented by hearts, which is reduced whenever the player makes errors in shooting contradictions or presenting evidence, and is slightly replenished once the player does otherwise. The game ends if the player loses all their Influence, or if they run out of time during a segment. At the end of a trial, the game ranks the player's performance and rewards them with Monocoins.

Synopsis
The story is shown from the perspective of the protagonist, Makoto Naegi, who starts a new year at the elite Hope's Peak Academy, an exclusive government-funded school which is renowned for recruiting students that are emblematic of their disciplines. These students are given the title of "Ultimate", and range from talents such as the "Ultimate Baseball Star" or the "Ultimate Programmer" to ideals such as the "Ultimate Moral Compass". However, every year the school hosts a raffle in which every ordinary high school student nationwide is entered, and a random student is selected to enter the school as the "Ultimate Lucky Student". This is the case with Makoto Naegi, and the events leading up to the raffle are shown through the short story, Makoto Naegi's Worst Day Ever.

The story revolves around fifteen students who are trapped in the school under the control of a sadistic monochromatic bear named Monokuma. They are forced to live a communal lifestyle together under a set number of rules for the rest of their collective lives, although it is possible to "disrupt the peace" in order to escape. In order to do this, a student must "graduate" from the school by murdering a classmate. After a body has been discovered, the rest of the students must work together to discover the culprit, who is known as the "blackened", while the innocents are on the side of the "whitened," playing off Monokuma's monochromatic color scheme. If the murderer can deceive the rest of their classmates, they alone will graduate and escape the school while the rest of the students will be punished through execution. However, if the classmates uncover the true culprit, then the culprit alone will be punished with a gruesome execution while everyone else remains unharmed.

In each chapter, Monokuma releases motives to encourage students to commit a murder. During this time, the students attempt to uncover the secrets of the school, including why they were trapped there in the first place, as well as other ways to escape the school other than the graduation clause.

Critical response
The game Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (both Japanese and English versions and the PSP version) had received very positive reviews from critics, IGN gave it an 8.5, calling it "a must-own game for hardcore Vita owners". Another publication, Made For Gaming, awarded the game with a score of 9, stating that the title is "one of the craziest, most disturbed Japanese game in history".

Sales
It was released to PSP on November 25, 2010, and in August 25, 2012 it was later made available for iOS and Android OS in Japan. The game was released on January 13, 2014 in Taiwan, February 11, 2014 in North America, and Europe and Australia on February 14, 2014. It sold 25,564 copies in Japan in its first week, debuting in 8th place in the weekly game sales charts, and in three months of sales sold over 85,000 copies.

Trivia

 * The series' title, Danganronpa, is compounded from the words "bullet" (弾丸 dangan) and "refutation" (論破 ronpa).
 * As a game defined in part by its bold aesthetics, Danganronpa was originally supposed to have a monochrome color palette of purely black and white, but with the original pink blood which was later decided to be starkly red-colored blood in order to make instances of death stick out, similar to the hyper-violent Sega game MadWorld. Even after the color scheme was reworked to be more conventional, the blood was stylistically colored back to a bright pink in order to create the same visual effect.

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