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Scarred from the events of previous instalment Trigger Happy Havoc, skepticism is rife in Goodbye Despair. Every character is as likely to end up a victim as the next killer, and developer Spike Chunsoft isn’t afraid to flip the plot on its head at every turn. It makes you question everything and everyone from the start.
Danganronpa 2 is a narrative-driven experience. You’ll spend much of your time scrolling through text and interacting with fellow Hope’s Peak Academy island abductees. There isn’t a ton of “gameplay” so-to-speak, rather a truly riveting story filled with excellent characters that keep you hooked.
The narrative, while littered with comic relief, remains adult and challenging throughout. Voyeurism, domestic violence and sexism are just some of the themes addressed in a world designed to disjoint the player and create despair. The script falls flat in parts, but major characters, Monokuma especially, help the game maintain a consistent voice.
Goodbye Despair learns some lessons from its predecessor, while taking steps back elsewhere. Introducing the ability to quick travel is a Godsend. Too much time in Trigger Happy Havoc was spent walking around the school trying to find people to interact with. Here, everybody’s location is marked on the map. Interacting with classmates strengthens the bonds and develops your character, and is also now clearly signposted through ‘Hope fragments’, which can be spent on earning abilities for the class trials.
The class trials are where the real meat of the game lies. After a murder, you must conduct an investigation before negotiating a roundtable ‘whodunnit’ with all whom remain. This was one of the highlights of THH, but the introduction of too many new concepts bogs down the process. Agreements, counter-arguments and debates, all of which can be executed through touch controls, make the Vita feel like a bastardised Twister mat.
Danganronpa 2 tells a great story that’s worthy of your time. The characters will keep you invested as you wait for the next death. Monokuma continues as a great lead villain, and the new cast may feel familiar, but offer plenty of new tales to discover.
