It's been eleven years since Danganronpa first made its debut on PSP, although it wouldn't be until four years later that the series got its first English release on the Vita. Following its success the series would see multiple sequels, spin-offs and ports including the most recent Switch reveal. It almost seems fitting that the series started on handheld only to end back up on the current most popular handheld system on the market. Dangaronpa Decadence is offering a total of four titles in its bundle, with one being an entirely new spin-off exclusive to Switch at this time, so is that more than enough reason to pick it up? This review will cover the first three titles, while those interested can check out our review for Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp here.

The story of the main three Danganronpa titles all have similar premises to them. A group of students find themselves trapped in a set location and are inevitably told the only way to escape is to murder one of their classmates and get away with it. Almost immediately the students will agree that it's a ludicrous endeavor, but more often than not are pushed to the edge by a conniving bear named Monokuma. Eventually the murders begin, but the one who does the killing never has a get out of jail free card. They must first escape a trial where all the parties at hand try to find out just who did it with the threat of all their deaths on the line as a consequence. It's up to the students to see if they're able to survive and either find a way out or die trying.

Before heading to the trial, life locked up isn't too awful. The main protagonist changes from title to title, but they live their everyday life with everyone else trying to get by. This is often talking about their situation, eating and doing simple mundane things depending on their location. A key part of this is that each character has their own story and learning more about them is part of figuring out what potential motives may or may not exist. While it's technically entirely optional, the character does receive free time to occasionally speak with the other students and gift them items bought from various locales in each title. In befriending characters the player will earn more skills to help them in court cases. Depending on each entry this can differ dramatically, as Dangaronpa 2 for example also has a leveling system that takes into account walking around and taking care of a Tamagotchi-style pet. For those who simply want to move the story along they can skip the free time, but it's well worth doing as each character tends to be rather interesting the more one learns about them, especially with the threat of them being the next to die. Those who just want to explore can freely walk around usually in a first or side-scrolling perspective and investigate the rooms to see if there's anything of interest. After certain time passes there will inevitably be a murder, which begins the countdown to the court trial.

Once a murder has taken place the investigation begins in which characters will seek out clues as to the true identity of the murderer. After a set amount of time, Monokuma will announce that the trial must take place and the students gather in a courtroom where the fast-paced trial begins. The concept of a trial may seem straightforward, but is in fact a series of multiple mini-games played over and over depending on the situation. The most commonly used of these is the non-stop debate, in which characters will recount what they believe to be facts and the main character must find a flaw in their statements using the clues they've gathered along the way. Depending on the selected difficulty this can vary in how hard it is, and in later titles they also add debates in which the character must choose a statement to agree on. The catch to all this is it's a time session with a time actively going down, so it occasionally requires quick thinking but the time given is almost always more than enough. Getting an answer wrong will cause the main character to lose stamina and if completely lost could end the trial, but they are given the choice to restart from where they left off at no cost except ending score. Other challenges include hangman's gambit where the player must figure out the term needed to uncover some truth as letters fly around the screen and the closing argument in which they recreate the entire incident of the crime from beginning to end. These all vary and add from title to title, but they make the trials always feel fresh and fast-paced without being boring. At most it might take a few tries to get some timing down, but it's an enjoyable experience and where most of the chaotic fun is to be had especially in the second and third entries.

The visual style of Danganronpa is charmingly unique. The characters when walking around all have a cardboard-cutout style aesthetic which was likely used in place of 3D models simply because it was easier, but ends up really adding to the eerie and often depressing nature of the story going on. The music is an absolute blast and just a constant joy to list to the entire time, from the calm nothing-is-wrong exploration theme to Monokuma himself with a whacky beat so fitting of his character it's fun to just stop and listen to it. The story also plays out very well, and it's very easy to feel invested in trying to guess who the murderer is really early on. In fact there's a few cases where it's very easy to guess the murderer before the trial even begins, but it's rewarding for those who pay close attention to all the details. Overall the story may not be overall outstanding or fantastic by any means for a murder high school focus, but it's enjoyable and the characters are entertaining to learn about, even if it's easy to want a few of them to die along the way at times.

Closing Comments: 

Danganronpa is bizarre in the best kind of way. It's an engaging visual novel that never stops being excessive, but so many of the characters are charming it's easy to want to learn about what happens and see if favorites will make it out alive or perish at the end. Visual novels as a genre crave more creativity like this and other detective-styled adventures, so it's nice to see it now made available for more to try out on Nintendo Switch. Although it's been some time since it released, Danganronpa is a delight and easy to see why it has such a strong following after all these years. Anyone who hasn't tried it yet but even has the slightest amount of interest can't go wrong with trying out Danganronpa Decadence.