Danganronpa seems to be the third visual novel-ish series that broke outside the constraints of the genre’s niche audience, at least here in the west. Just like Ace Attorney and Zero Escape, it features other gameplay elements than just making choose-your-adventure selections, which I bet is the actual biggest reason for why people would even check it out. But weirdly enough, it shares a lot more with the previous two series - investigations and court trials from Phoenix Wright’s adventures, and the premise of life-and-death games in enclosed areas, unsure of what the world outside of their confines is like, very much in spirit of 999. However, it’s completely different tonally from the other two, and in fact, it’s quite unlike anything else I know.
Series’ writer Kazutaka Kodaka made up his own name for this genre, “Psychopop”, which I understand as presenting something vulgar and gruesome with addition of pop flavor. So we have this horror-esque premise of a group of teenagers being locked up, completely cut off from the outside world and forced to kill each other under various pretexts by some evil mastermind who’s using bear robots and remote-controlled weapons to do their bidding. And there’s plenty of room for fear, sadness and dread caused by those circumstances. But the story isn’t doom and gloom - in fact, it’s full of different kinds of humour, from dark, edgy jokes, through innocent light-hearted jabs (often juxtaposed against serious revelations) and even plenty of fourth-wall-breaking meta-humour. There’s a general sense of “coolness” and “stylishness” in the music, AI and character designs, and if we look a little deeper then we might find some commentary on the entire nature of how popculture hackneys and normalizes dark themes, but that’s a story for another day.
Since I’ve already mentioned it, I’m gonna state right away that the game’s comedy is one of main reasons why I’m such a big fan. I particularly like the dark humor, as I was always impressed by how direct and taboo-breaking it was. But clever wordplays and tone-breaking punchlines out of nowhere played just as big part in making me laugh, and also making me wheeze, sometimes at the same time. But the story can also carry emotional weight when it wants, and be a light read when it doesn’t. It’s that ability to go from silly to exciting to dark to uncomfortable (but funny) that really makes the writing stand out and not fall into the trapping of over-using shock humor. I’d say that it maintains the balance between all its tones and flavors really, really well.
As one of the more interactive visual novels, Danganronpa isn’t just a constant stream of dialogues and written narration. As early as 10 minutes into the game, player gets control over the camera, and they can pan around the room and investigate the surroundings in classic point-and-click style. And furthermore, after leaving that room, we are put in a 3D space which we can walk around in, and we can decide where to go, what to do and who to talk to. There’s also a Persona-esque system of building relationships, where we invite people to hang out with and offer them gifts in order to get them to like us and open up about their life stories. The core however is centered around “class trials”, because, back-of-the-box-spoilers alert, people get killed and it’s your job to find out who was the murderer. So you collect the clues, acquire testimonies, and proceed to talk things out with others in a trial format, hoping to catch the murder on a lie, and then prove who it was and how they did it. This is mainly done with use of truth bullets - a set of facts, hypothesis and clues that you’re able to shoot at certain key words highlighted during the debates. If you properly hit a statement with a truth bullet that contradicts it, the protagonist will speak out about it, moving the conversation closer to finding the truth. After you get all the facts right, you are tasked with recreating the events of the murder, and once there’s no room left for doubt, all that remains is to sentence the culprit.
I do enjoy detective stories in general, although I wouldn’t call myself particularly well versed in the genre. But of those I know, Danganronpa ranks at the very top, with clever mysteries that are engaging to solve, a colorful cast of characters that make the investigations interesting, and very well paced trials that task the player with making lots of deductions on the way to reaching the truth. And while common sense goes a long way, often you have to immerse yourself in the setting, and consider what’s possible and what’s impossible within its realm. For instance, every character in the game is a recognized prodigy at something - ranging from swimming, writing and programming to talents such as “Ultimate Bike Gang Leader” or “Ultimate Fanfic Creator”. Their abilities don’t always come up in trials, but estimating what they would and wouldn’t be able to do is definitely something to consider, and it fuels the outside-of-box thinking that is so crucial in making experiences with stories like this truly immersive and special.
Thematically, I think what makes Danganronpa an interesting text is the internal dialogue that writer seems to have about constraints of the genre, about our relationship with entertainment, and about his own reading on the underlying conflict of almost every fictional work, which he characterizes as the battle between Hope and Despair. I really enjoy the way this takes a very literal meaning, it’s almost like Kodaka took Garth Marenghi quote about subtext to heart, which I think ties into one of many layers of irony in the story. There’s a spirit of punk here with trampling on values and taboos like it’s nothing, but also a lot of nuance in the space between what’s said and what isn’t, self deprecating jokes that purposely omit the details that would distort the clear image, and maniacal behavior that shifts away the focus and allows us to cleanse the palate. And that gives a lot of room for really good humour, that works even better because of how engaged the player was and how unexpected the transition is.
This goes back to the “psychopop” idea, which is expressed not just in text, but also stylish and bizarre art, garish interface and incredibly catchy music. I bet sounds like this don't come to mind when thinking of jury debates, yet within the context of Danganronpa, it’s incredibly fitting and made me keep coming back for more, which in itself plays into the meta-narrative consideration I’ve hinted at in the previous paragraph. Player is constantly questioned about their ideas and perception, even if the story is almost completely linear and doesn’t really allow them to express those views. But I think that’s fine, I enjoyed the thought pathways which the game put me on and I think that’s enough to ask.
Whether Danganronpa could work in a different medium… Is debatable. I think the writing is strong enough to stand on its own without immersion and presentation, but those three aspects elevate each other so much that I’m really glad this is the way I could’ve experienced it. Along with the rest of the series, it’s genuinely the most funny game I’ve ever played, and overall it’s a very nice read which I found smart and thought-provoking. It turned me into a life-long Kodaka fan and I almost certainly will keep thinking about it for a very, very long time.
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