Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair Anniversary Edition (NSP, XCI) ROM + v1.0.1 Update

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair Anniversary Edition is a 2012 visual novel developed by Spike Chunsoft. It is the second game in the Danganronpa franchise following Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (2010). It was first released in Japan for PlayStation Portable in July 2012, and a port for PlayStation Vita was released in Japan in October 2013. NIS America released the game worldwide in September 2014; a port for PC was released in April 2016 and a bundle for PlayStation 4 and Playstation Vita called Danganronpa 1-2 Reload, also containing the first Danganronpa game, was released in March 2017. An enhanced version with the subtitle Anniversary Edition was released for Android and iOS in August 2020, for Nintendo Switch in November 2021, and for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One in May 2022.

GAMEPLAY

In a similar manner to the series’ previous game, Danganronpa 2 has two modes of gameplay; School Life, which is split into Daily Life and Deadly Life sections, and the Class Trial. In the dating sim-like “Daily Life” section, players interact with other characters and progress through the plot. Conversing with characters during “Free Time” sections earns items known as Hope Fragments, which can be exchanged for skills that can be used in the Class Trial, increasing the protagonist’s skill in debates. Players earn currency known as Monocoins by finding hidden Monokuma Figures and performing well in trials. Monocoins can be exchanged for presents that can be given to other characters during Free Time segments and thus create more Hope Fragments. In the Deadly Life section, which occurs when players discover a crime scene, the player must search for evidence that will help them in the upcoming Class Trial to expose the culprit.

The Class Trial, in which players must determine the identity of a culprit, has the same features as the previous game with new gameplay elements. Class Trials, which use the first-person shooter genre, mostly consist of Nonstop Debates, in which players must find weaknesses in the students’ discussions and shoot them with “Truth Bullets” that contradict them. Yellow “Argue Spots” and blue “Agree Spots” must be shot with a Truth Bullet, indicating someone is telling the truth. In the minigame Hangman’s Gambit, players must combine matching letters appearing from both sides of the screen before they collide and combine incorrectly. Combined letters may either be destroyed or used to spell a clue. “Panic Talk Action” replaces “Bullet Time Battle”, with a similar rhythmic timing gameplay mechanic used to overcome a student’s mental defenses as the latter refuses to listen to logic. Controls from the last game are slightly revised; players must spell out a phrase in the correct order at the end of the section rather than firing a specific Truth Bullet.

In the Closing Argument, players fill in a comic strip depicting the events of a crime; panels are selected from stocks and must be chosen correctly, rather than being available from the start. New gameplay elements have been added to the Class Trial. Rebuttal Showdowns take place when a student tries to refute the player’s logic. In these sections, players must slash apart their opponents’ arguments to gain dominance in the conversation and reveal new information before using a “Truth Blade” to strike the correct weak point when it appears.  Logic Dive is a snowboarding minigame in which players steer themselves down a logical tube while avoiding obstacles and pitfalls, and occasionally choosing between multiple routes based on a question to arrive at a logical conclusion. The final segment Spot Select requires players to examine an image and indicate an important spot.

Besides the Class Trials and Daily Event, Goodbye Despair also offers several mini-games. Players always have access to a virtual pet, accessed from the pause menu, that grows as players walk into the game and earn players rewards based on its Hope and Despair statistics. Magical Girl Miracle☆Monomi is a minigame in which players control Monomi, a mentor of the main characters, who fights waves of monsters. Island Mode, which is available after clearing the game once, is an alternative mode in which the students are not subjected to Monokuma’s killing game and aim to make friends with each other and earn Hope Fragments, allowing players to bond with characters more easily than in the main story mode. Danganronpa IF, a short story depicting an alternative storyline for Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, is also unlocked after clearing the game once.

PLOT

In Goodbye Despair, players control the new protagonist Hajime Hinata, an amnesiac boy who has just become one of Hope’s Peak Academy’s “Ultimate” students alongside fifteen others, including the calm but mentally unstable Lucky Student Nagito Komaeda and the seemingly ordinary and quiet Gamer Chiaki Nanami. The game is set on a remote tropical island called Jabberwock Island, where they have been marooned by their alleged teacher, a small, rabbit-like mascot named Usami, who claims it to be a field trip. However, the school’s principal Monokuma hijacks the trip and usurps Usami’s authority, reducing her to a powerless mascot named Monomi. He then announces the students cannot leave the island unless they participate in the Killing Game, a period in which students murder one or two of their classmates and attempt to get away with it. After the discovery of a body and an investigation is performed, the students deliberate the identity of the murderer in a Class Trial.

If the students can identify a murderer in a Class Trial and vote accordingly, that culprit is executed, but if they make the wrong assumption the killer goes free whilst everyone else is sentenced to death. Several students are murdered throughout the game, and, through Hajime’s investigation, the killers are discovered and executed. Byakuya Togami (later revealed to be the Ultimate Impostor) is inadvertently killed by Chef Teruteru Hanamura in an attempt to stop Nagito from committing the first murder. Photographer Mahiru Koizumi is killed by swordswoman Peko Pekoyama, to prevent yakuza Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu from killing her to avenge his sister. Musician Ibuki Mioda and traditional dancer Hiyoko Saionji are killed by nurse Mikan Tsumiki as she is under the effects of Despair Disease. Team Manager Nekomaru Nidai is killed by animal breeder Gundham Tanaka in an honorable duel to prevent the rest of the students from starving to death.

As these murders occur, new areas of the islands are discovered and the group becomes aware of an organization monitoring them, the “Future Foundation”. Nagito, through a convoluted process, arranges his death so that Chiaki is considered his killer, and executed. During the graduation, it is learned that she is an AI program created by the late Chihiro Fujisaki to observe and protect the students during the Future Foundation’s experiment. After Chiaki’s death, Hajime recovers a memory of arriving at the islands with Nagito, who had transplanted the arm of a woman, Junko Enoshima. As reality falls apart around him, Hajime learns that Nagito and his fellow students are surviving members of Ultimate Despair, a group Junko led, whose terrorist actions led to a crisis known as The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History, also known The Tragedy, which caused societal collapse worldwide.

The Future Foundation has been attempting to undo Ultimate Despair’s damage. Makoto Naegi, the previous game’s protagonist and survivor who now works for the Future Foundation along with his surviving classmates, captured the surviving members but, rather than executing them, decided to rehabilitate them by erasing their memories and putting them in a virtual reality program. During the Graduation Ceremony, Makoto enters the virtual reality before the survivors can choose to Graduate. He warns Hajime that an artificial intelligence copy of Junko has hijacked their program and is trying to manipulate events to possess the bodies of the deceased students, which are still intact in the real world, once the surviving students “graduate”. Alter Ego Junko’s ultimate plan is to download herself into every person on the planet. Makoto tells Hajime if the class votes not to graduate and instead hits the “Graduate” and “Repeat” buttons simultaneously, the system will shut down, reset, and purge Alter Ego Junko.

Since there aren’t enough students to activate the shutdown, Makoto’s fellow survivors and friends from the previous game Kyoko Kirigiri, and the real Byakuya Togami also enter to allow the shutdown to happen. Junko attempts to deter Hajime by revealing he is Izuru Kamakura, the leader of Ultimate Despair. The other students hesitate, afraid of reverting to their original personalities, but with the help and encouragement of Chiaki’s essence, Hajime awakens to his true talent as the Ultimate Hope. Having the courage to create the future, he persuades the other surviving students, Fuyuhiko, Princess Sonia Nevermind, mechanic Kazuichi Soda, and gymnast Akane Owari to refuse graduation, proposing that they create a future in which they do not have to live in despair.

Hajime, Makoto, and the others reset the system, which revives Usami who uses her power to delete Alter Ego Junko. As the digital world shuts down, the survivors promise to retain their memories. In the epilogue, Makoto and his friends awaken in the real world and depart the island on a ship. Makoto is confident the students will find a way to revive their friends and that they too can create their futures. Kyoko and Byakuya wish him luck in explaining these events to their superiors in the Future Foundation as the three leave the island. Hajime, having also returned to the real world with the others, watches them depart as he resolves to keep living his life as who he now is.