Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

Tanto folle e malato quanto geniale, un ottimo esempio di grande potenziale ben sfruttato.
Danganronpa non si limita a proporre un incipit narrativo già di base geniale, ma ci costruisce sopra una narrazione avvincente piena di colpi di continui colpi di genio. Lo sfondo narrativo consiste in 15 studenti, ognuno rappresentante l'eccellenza nel proprio campo, che vengono invitati nella scuola di Hope's Peak, dove verrà insegnato loro ad essere i leader del mondo futuro. Peccato che, una volta arrivati alla scuola, scoprano di essere bloccati al suo interno, dove un orso robotico assassino li costringe a partecipare ad un killing hunger games, nel quale possono o accettare di vivere lì per sempre, o uccidere un proprio compagno per fuggire: nel caso in cui riescano a farla franca, tutti gli innocenti verranno uccisi e loro avranno in premio la libertà; in caso opposto, verranno brutalmente uccisi. Unendo questa geniale idea di fondo ad una lore paurosamente bella, personaggi sfaccettati, colpi di scena continui e delitti dannatamente affascinanti nella loro complessità e varietà, si può capire perché non possa che consigliare Danganronpa a chiunque. Era da parecchio tempo che non smaniavo per proseguire la trama di un gioco in modo così insistente e morboso: mi sono sparato 30 ore di gameplay in neanche una settimana, l'ho divorato con sessioni lunghissime alle quali mi ero disabituato. Affezionarsi ad un personaggio regala puntualmente un sonoro pugno nello stomaco, accentuato dal fatto che (quasi) tutti siano molto interessanti nel modo in cui si relazionano col protagonista e mettono a disposizione della vicenda i loro talenti e la loro personalità. Danganronpa ha carattere da vendere e lo mette perfettamente il gioco, proponendo una storia avvincente, piena di personaggi che non mancano mai di stupire (sia in positivo che in negativo), che si sforza di non cadere mai nella banalità o prevedibilità. Lo svolgimento del gioco porta inoltre a ragionare su diverse tematiche estramemte importanti, come il dualismo tra disperazione e speranza, la vera natura dell'uomo e il suo comportamento una volta portato all'estremo, la pericolosità del pregiudizio basato sulle apparenze, l'importanza del sapersi mettere al posto dell'altro, il valore della cooperazione rispetto la competizione, il tutto senza farsi mancare una bella dose di black humor e macabra spietatezza.
L'unica cosa che posso contestare al gioco è un sistema di controlli un po' legnoso, qualche passaggio narrativo che non mi torna del tutto e la logica nella scelta dei truth bullets durante i class trial, ma sono inezie, specialmente considerando che la parte di gameplay non costituisce affatto il piatto forte del gioco. Danganronpa è un titolo coraggioso e merita molta più attenzione di quanta ne abbia ricevuta, probabilmente a causa della sua natura di Visual Novel

This might be becoming my favourite VN-style by far and one of my favourite games in general, was already a big fan from just watching the anime a while ago and now playing it feels amazing. The game's style, character cast and their writing is unironically one of the best and most unique that ive experienced, looking forward to finishing it and trying DR2 and V3, I have high expectations

A classic, if you like it or not. Everyone should experience this. There's nothing quite like it. Unique, though annoying at times. But still worth it at the end, even if just to learn what this danganronpa is that everyone references.

dont do it. run. get out while you still can. ive been a danganronpa fan for a few years now and it has ruined my life. dont make my mistake.

amazing game, gripping you from the first minutes and not letting go until end. One of best stories in gaming. Move worthy

Good game
Very original survival and mystery concept.
The narrative is quite good, and the gameplay is quite good.
It's a good visual novel.
7.8/10

This game.....it´s just incredible. Since the beginning to the very last text will make you engage to the story and specially the characters. futhermore, the trial gameplay is something unique, i don't know if the devs got inspired by something except Ace Attorney, but they did a good job with all the mechanics (I didn't liked bullet time battle tho). If you´re new to visual novels I highly recommend you to start here, it´s definaly a experience full of....despair (dramatic pause).

Oh, and there´s a goth girl too
10/10

This is one of the weirdest experiences that I'd give anything to feel for the first time again, and honestly, that goes for almost all danganronpa games in general.

"The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History" —a single event whose essence was captured in a video—can be used to brainwash any person into becoming full of despair and absent of any vestiges of morals and decency. Eventually, it destroys society itself and brings an end to the world as we know it.

This tragic video is almost like a magical relic, capable of casting a spell on any human being and turning them into a monster, which the game calls Ultimate Despair. It's so poetic that its counterpart also comes in the form of a video—a message, or rather, messages, since there are many instances of it.

The computer with the alter ego AI, the many messages left by the characters before the memory loss to their future selves, and finally, the airing of the Hope vs. Despair debate to the world... it is storytelling at its peak.

The game, however, SUCKS in every instance and attempt at gameplay. It is clunky, dull, not challenging (ever), and often spoils the whole premise of investigation by accidentally revealing the culprit at the beginning of the case... Seriously, there was not a single case where I didn't instantly know who did it.

And yet... I kind of love it.

Not the gameplay aspect isolated, but the experience as a whole—the story, the characters, the way it pulls you into its twisted world by letting you play through it. It’s genuinely compelling to explore the narrative from a first-person perspective, to talk to characters, build relationships, and always carry the dread that your favorite might die a horrible death at any moment. That immersion simply wouldn't be the same in any other medium.

So I can't just say "the anime is the ultimate way to experience Danganronpa," because as flawed as the game is, it has a unique approach to narrative that is essential for what this series is.

So yes, I do recommend playing Danganronpa—even over watching the anime. Even though the game’s lowest points might honestly make it one of the worst games I’ve ever played, at its peak, it’s insanely good. That said, I don’t think you gain much from experiencing both. The anime is considerably more compact, rushed at times —though not as rich—so in the end, pick your poison.

A good game, the idea is pretty cool but for this first game in specific i didn't find anything truly great, it has a pretty original idea and great artwork (3d in this game is pretty bad), overall a good game, not a great one, and not even close to being perfect, but still worth a good playthrough and a worthy start to the series

7.15/10

Everything the composer on this, Takada Masafumi, has worked on is given a very distinctive character as a result. This is no exception. The visuals and story are also exceptional, but the soundtrack alone is enough to recommend this over.

great plot with great characters

dont even know what else to say

honestly a amazing game

writings all right and the gameplay pretty fun. The real beauty is how you are never completely certain regarding the murderer until the end. Great vn 10/10

This is such a great character driven horror experience! It uses murder and the relationships of you and your other killing game contestants against you so when your favorite character dies it hits so much harder with far more impact. Its colorful and zany when it wants to be. Its dark yet lighthearted its funny but dead serious. Its something i don't want to spoil and something you shouldn't play with a guide but have one just in case for the trial sections as somethings may not make sense until the big reveal is made. Either way, this game is a wonderful time to play with friends or as a good visual novel to experience yourself.

Danganronpa is a chaotic but well-written murder mystery visual novel. It has interesting characters, a bit of humor, a bit of mystery to the story together with absurdity and twists and turns. The story really makes you want to keep going and unravel the mystery.

You can actually spend some time and get to know your fellow students, which I love.
The investigating is my favourite part of the game, where you explore the school and find clues. The trials have minigames, but some feel a bit too cluttered with a lot of mechanics pushed into it. But it's still a fun gameplay loop.

The art is in popup style which is nice, and the soundtrack is pretty catchy too.

I do recommend this game, and I can't wait to play the next entries.

sick game but if you are eager for class trials then the game might come a little boring.

I'm using this review for every entry, because they all have the same feeling in my head. Did I have fun, yeah, but it's just barely palatable in retrospect.

Play these games, they have interesting and fun mysteries, but the style and gameplay is unappealing to me now, and I can't ignore it anymore. 6.5/10

I don’t have a love for these games for some reason, looking back, I only feel so-so about them. The characters I like die off, and the characters I hate stick around, but that's too petty to say it is my only sole problem with the series. The game's art style is stylish and unique, but every time I picture the game in my mind, it just registers to me on an emotional level to that of anxiety, it just churns my stomach for some reason and that sucks. The game mechanics change from game to game, but they aren't exactly perfect, and I have no drive to jump in just to play one of the minigames.

It's not deserving of a thumbs down, its entertaining, but I feel like you can do a lot better in 2025 if you want a narrative, a game, or something to genuinely wow you.

I spent 4 hours straight trying to beat chapter 1 i did and was like this is peak and saved and logged off but when i got on the game on my other pc my precious 4 hours of game time was DELETED! I will not be leaving a bad review but this really annoyed me i wasted 4 hours of gooning for that. (peak first chapter tho)

It's a certified classic that deserves the status. I highly recommend this game.

really solid first entry to the series, good cast and overall good overarching story

Danganronpa fans, Junko Enoshima is playing another killing game
Makoto needs your help to put an end to this!
But for that, I'll need your credit card number,
and the three digits on the back!

fun game with a good story and characters. It also uses the whole killing game premise the best out of the 3 imo

Absolute cinema.
Im only done with the first chapter but the story, character writing, overall writing, gameplay, mystery aspects, detective aspects, etc are all amazing.

The first part of the danganronpa trilogy is in my opinion one of the best games i've ever played the twists etc. were actually unpredictable and tbh, Most executions were at least decent

This game is and always will be one of my favourite. Nothing beats the feeling of playing this game for the first time!

This game is poorly written and i only played it because i thought it would be fun to dunk on with friends. If you're looking for a good game play "of the Devil".

Probably one of the peakest story games oat hands down it really has a good way of getting you sucked into it and just wanting to know more about what happened or whats gonna happen or why something happened that already happened its literally good in every way it needs to be (also honorable mention to the trial mechanics they are SUPER fun and really add to how the pressure of an actual trial feels)

Whoever reads this, GET. THIS. GAME. I felt like a detective and the plot twists were CRAZYYYY

Great game, just don't look it up online or you're guaranteed spoilers lol

Up until this game, I had only been playing gacha games. one of my friends recomended it, and though i was skeptical, I decided to give it a try after 2 years of convincing. you may not have a friend to tell you what to play, so let me tell you. PLAY IT!!!! I love this game so much, and it opened my world to visual novels. This game has loveable characters, hatable one, and cases that will boggle your mind. the cases arew just the right difficulty, and the story is incredible. if you dont like visual novels dont play, but if you do, of boy you're goanna love this.

play this with friends and get them to VA, watch them cringe at the dialogue and over explaining. Its so much fun with friends.

extremely engaging and messes with your head the best way it can :) i recommend looking at everything you can while you can to get a full experience. the perfect game to stream to your friends, twitch, or even just to play on your own. brilliant!

Honestly would give anything to be able to experience this game for the first time again, highly recommend everyone to give it a go! Currently in the process of trying to 100% it a second time for the nostalgia :')

Danganronpa is truly a wonderful mystery visual novel and it has become one of my favorite visual novels.

With it's dark mood, mysterious conditions and the comical relief moments of Monokuma it is quite a pleasant experience.
If you liked Ace Attorney then I would recommend this visual novel (although beware that it is more brutal).
The only part that I disliked a bit was the trial gameplay since not only you have to determine what happened but the gameplay is so diverse that it becomes a bit awkward handling the trial.
This is only a minor inconvenience and I cannot recommend it enough to mystery lovers who enjoyed Ace Attorney.

Great game from the PSP days - it's a nice enough remake despite occasional glitches into the floor.
The storyline is definitely interesting and a creative mix of action/mystery, just don't question the premises of the story too much.
The post clearing school mode offers a nice AU to the cruel story although it does get a bit too repetitive for the achievements...

The appearance of the game is old but it doesn't take away the experience, Every character is flashed out depending on whether or not you spend time with them. On that note, even if you don't spend time with them, they aren't one dimensional.
W voice acting,though it only happens in class trial. Would be better if more parts of each chapter are voiced though since the class trial isn't the majority of every chapter.

Surprisingly interesting concept for a game. What I mean, is that once you are IN, there is no going back (literally and figuratively speaking). There is some slow-ish goings-on, but you don't want to rush this game anyways. So, enjoy! And don't get despaired! :monokuma_DGR:

Probably my favorite Visual Novel that I've ever played. I've made the interesting decision to play this series out of order, starting with the second and returning to this one, and honestly I think I slightly prefer this game. Firstly the story is incredibly. Since I played the sequel already, parts of this game's story were spoiled for me, but regardless of that the story is so well written that I didn't mind and enjoyed seeing everything unfold. Unlike the second game, this game feels like it has stakes and the characters are constantly feeling the pressure. You are actively suspected for multiple trials and have to defend yourself. I also really enjoy how a lot of the cases, the player can actually piece together during the investigation based and it's really exciting when you're actually right! The second game has more complex cases where there's just info that your character just isn't privy to during the investigation and only learn about during the actual trial which while more realistic sometimes feels more like giving the case a plot twist. Regardless, you really get immersed in the setting alongside the rest of the cast. The story also wraps up really nicely and makes me feel satisfied in general with how things went without leaving obvious loose ends. I also think the trials themselves are fun! They're much simpler than the trials in the sequel, but it really lets you enjoy the "Non-stop Debates" that the series is known for since they're the main trial mini game. When compared to the sequel, I do generally prefer the second game's characters to this one. Not that I think they're bad by any means, but since this game is so deep in the hopelessly trapped vibe, you don't really get to see them express themselves much as they are either eaten up by or battle against the despair of their situation.

In this game where hope battles despair, you will definitely have a great time as Danganronpa's unique charms make themselves clear from the jump. It takes itself as seriously as it pokes fun at itself and this dynamic just makes it so memorable. If you are ever thinking about playing this game, I highly suggest you do so cause I had a great time.

This was my first ever danganronpa game and it proved to be the one to hook me into the entire franchise! The twists and plot was so amazing, the cast was incredible, and the game mechanics such as the bullet battles and figuring out the fallacies was super fun to me. Highly recommend as somebody who is bad at more action packed games, because this one can let you set the mechanic and logic difficulty beforehand.

cool game, while outdated today it still has an intresting story that motivates the reader to pay attention

Really good! I watched the anime before, but the experience still was fantastic!

It would be incredible if I could just forget the history so I could play the game without knowing anything.

I have never been so invested in a story before. It ruined my sleep schedule because it kept gettiing more and more interesting and i couldn't hold my self from playing to discover the truth of the murder game. Very fun characters, they all had good synergy and the soundtrack is banger. 8.5/10

I have never been so torn between recommending something and telling people to avoid it. This is a game that itches every inch of your deductive reasoning on the field. It starts off a pattern quickly showing you what you can and can not expect. Trigger happy warnings. Be prepared for any possible depictions.

it holds up surprisingly well despite its 2010 release date and I would definitely recommend it. This is the only visual novel game series I've ever played or been remotely interested in but I still had a very good time. It has a genuinely gripping story despite how formulaic it might seem from the outside, and the characters had a good degree of depth such that you do care when they get killed.

I played on Mean difficulty and felt like that level of difficulty was about right. There were some sections where the answers were so blindingly obvious that you're just sitting there waiting for the game to catch up to you, but there were also sections that I had to retry a couple times because I just couldn't understand what logical leaps or inferences the game was asking of me, so I guess it balances out. For better or worse, failure has no real consequences because failing a particular part of the trial just means you have to retry that specific section (and it gives you full health upon retry).

While the first trial is fairly sensible, the murders rapidly turn bizarre and my suspension of disbelief was frequently destroyed. I understand that the whole idea is that a student has to murder in such a way that they won't get caught even by the combined investigative skills of the class, but these plots get so elaborate that it honestly kinda brought me out of the game at certain points. Every time a character mentioned a piece of incongruous information, or something remotely out of the ordinary happened, I saw it through a very game-y lens. Instead of reacting naturally, I was just like "Ah, yep, this completely random fact is gonna be a clue in the eventual trial." That being said, I think that's also part of the charm of the series. The murders and trials are many things, but "boring" is absolutely not one of them, BECAUSE they're so elaborate and unbelievable.

I'm not sure if I loved or hated the last trial and the ending, though I can't really talk much about it because I don't want to spoil anything. It's simultaneously very touching, but also very stupid. It's a great ending, but it also doesn't really make a lot of realistic sense. But again, that's part of the charm I suppose.

The mode you unlock after the game is complete is vaguely interesting, but it kinda feels... wrong? Like, I watched these students rip each other to shreds and do heinous acts of murder, and now (because of the alternate reality scenario of the mode) they're working together and I can just talk to them...? I suppose it's nice if you really want to get to know EVERYBODY to the greatest extent possible but otherwise, I don't think it's worth doing.

It's an entertaining game, though there are occasional moments where the logic feels a bit rigid. Fortunately, these instances are rare and don't take away from the overall experience. The final chapter tends to drag on with excessive dialogue and explanations, making it feel somewhat drawn out.

Forget about the fandom this game is so good.

You should go in blind.

8.5 / 10, would play the other games

Story: ★★★★☆
Music: ★★★★★
Gameplay: ★★★★☆
Overall: ★★★★☆
Good game gives me lots of zetsubou

Being a Danganronpa game ( and the first in its series ) it definitely has its flaws, but it's still a fun play nonetheless .

I did absolutely hate grinding out the achievements though . Just a warning for any fellow completionists .

I'm am really enjoying this game it's so much fun and reminds me of the series on Crunchyroll. Monokuma is my favorite in the game he can be so funny sometimes but this game is a 10 out of 10!

Played this as preparation when people hyping up The Hundred Line had caught my interest. Amazing anime logic-arguments in a story right up my ally, great characters and a nicely developing-as-it-goes-along plot not lacking in edge. I had to force myself to play it for no more than 2 hours a day so that the enjoyment would last.