Two months after the release on PC di Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Spike Chunsoft is preparing to release on Steam also the porting of the second chapter at a cost of 29,99 €, offering an experience to 1080p e 60 FPS. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, originally released in Japan on PSP in 2012 and landed on PlayStation Vita in the West in September 2014, is a title that now boasts numerous fans. This will be successful porting to offer an equally valid experience to a large and demanding audience like that of PC gamers?
Version tested: PC
Destination Despair
The beginning of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is very similar to that of the first episode of the saga: the protagonist, Hajime Hinata, is admitted to Hope's Peak Academy but passes out upon entering and finds himself in a classroom with a new group of Ultimate to be discovered. The boys are taken to a desert island named Jabberwock Island from the bunny-mascot use me, who proclaims himself as their teacher and proposes a program completely opposite to the perfidious killing game: the students will not be allowed to exercise any kind of violence and the only way to leave the place is to live in peace until they get enough Hope's Fragment. When the boys seem to have finally abandoned their initial suspicions, starting to enjoy all the attractions offered by the island, Monokuma will forcefully breach the atmosphere of tranquility created and put Usami out of action by stealing her magic wand. From this point on, the evil bear will continually subdue the poor bunny, changing her connotations and even renaming her Monomi. He will also work to add his rules to the students' e-handbooks to kick off a new edition of the killing game: if the kids want to leave the island, they will have to kill each other without being discovered, exactly like in the first chapter.
Dopo un slow start, perhaps capable of allowing time to get to know and appreciate this new group of protagonists, will begin to more and more clues emerge about what happens after the end of Danganronpa: Happy Havoc triggers that will push the player to want to continue with his head down to be able to unravel the skein and unravel all the mysteries Spike Chunsoft's guys have in store for them. The plot reaches its own superscript in the final chapters and the moral slaps will be such as to seriously force the player to question his thoughts on the matter and on his own vision of good and evil.
One of the strengths of the whole series is the stereotyped characterization to the limit of the characters, who in Danganronpa 2 are even more appreciable due to a strong emotional growth and a wide development of their personalities following the events of the plot. Last, but not least, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair suffers a sharp surge in difficulty, now decidedly better calibrated to offer a much more difficult and enjoyable level of challenge to satisfy even the most demanding players.
You're the only one!
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, as well as its predecessor, is one Visual novel investigative that includes exploratory elements typical of point and click. In the stages of Daily Life it will be possible to explore Jabberwock Island and socialize with classmates during the Free Time, offering them gifts to get Hope's Fragments. By deepening a relationship to the maximum, the character will give a stronger ability than those available in the shop: in fact, unlike the first chapter, they can be purchased with the aforementioned currency and the equipable limit will be provided by the level of Hajime, which will increase as you walk , interacting with objects and with other students.
Among the new additions to make the gameplay even more varied we find thee-pet, a sort of Tamagotchi that will have to be taken care of to make it evolve and hunt for Hidden Monokuma, the only way to get Monocoin apart from the processes. Once a body has been found, the investigative phase will begin Deadly Life, in which it will be necessary to find all the clues and testimonies useful to find and expose the culprit. Once the quest is complete, Monokuma will log players into the Monokuma Rock (a place that is very reminiscent of Mount Rushmore) to take the elevator and enter the bowels of the earth, up to the new settings for the infamous Class Trial.
During these real processes the player will be guided to the solution of the case through various mini-games whose difficulty was calibrated much better compared to the first chapter: one will be needed good amount of logic e English knowledge to solve the puzzles. A great thing turns out to be theunpredictability right from the start of the culprit, making it fun to create your own theories about the case and then watch them collapse like a house of cards thanks to absolutely superb twists. From time to time you will have to deal with a composition
different from the following minigames: Nonstop Debate, Hangman's Gambit, Logic Dive, Rebuttal Showdown, Spot Selection, Panic Talk Action and Closing Argument. As for the games already present in Trigger Happy Havoc, they have been revolutionized in order to make them equally attractive and, if possible, more intricate than before to make them compatible with the new difficulty level. In Nonstop Debate now it is also possible to decide whether to agree with the statements made by a partner, highlighted in blue instead of orange like the weak spots. During the'Hangman's Gambit sometimes it will be necessary to compose even more than one word and to do so it will be necessary to combine at least two letters of the same type and shoot them in the correct order, avoiding that different letters collide in order not to suffer damage. The Closing Argument has more clues about the empty spaces to fill in the comic, but the tiles will be given in groups of five and you will not be able to see the others until you have entered all the correct ones from previous sets. There Bullet Time Battle has turned into Panic Talk Action, in which the player will rely on their own pace to destroy the psychic shields and claims of other characters to silence them by force. Finally, let's examine the new additions starting with Logic Dive, a minigame in which you will have to guide Hinata in a virtual obstacle traverse in his mind to help him collect his ideas and arrive at the correct solution by answering up to three questions. It may happen that a photo is presented as proof - in which case we will have one Spot Selection, in which the player will be required to show a particular point of the image, which contradicts or agrees with what emerged during the process. Sometimes some characters will emerge with arrogance to interrupt Hinata with their chatter: it will therefore be necessary to face them in a Rebuttal Showdown, minigame in which it will be necessary to literally cut all their statements without being overwhelmed and finally attack their weak point through a Truth Sword. Once all the pieces of the puzzle have been put together, the culprit will be unmasked and Monokuma will subject him to one of his "Special Punishments".
Once finished the game will be available much more content compared to Trigger Happy Havoc. First it will unlock the Island mode, completely equivalent to the School Mode of the first chapter: this adventure takes place in an alternate plot, in which Usami managed to defeat Monokuma and therefore students will be able to enjoy their school trip in peace. The bizarre teacher will from time to time assign them deadlines within which the kids will have to build certain objects for her. In his spare time and thanks to Trip Ticket you will be able to deepen all the relationships missed in the main story. We find then Magical Girl Miracle ☆ Monomi, a mode in which you can impersonate Monomi and defeat some enemies to better understand some events that took place behind the scenes of the plot, all extra like the various galleries of images, movies and sounds and, finally, the novel Danganronpa IF divided into four chapters.
It'll probably be okay… I think.
Il port of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair on PC it worked very well, and this time no graphical glitches or similar problems were detected. The only trick we took was to set OpenGL as Renderer instead of the recommended Direct3D9. Checks through mouse and keyboard they don't make you feel the lack of a controller or a PlayStation Vita, and the graphics consistently maintain 1080p and 60 FPS e system performance does not undergo perceptible alterations.
Recommended requirements:
- Operating System: Windows 7
- Processor: Intel (R) Core (TM) i5-3470 or better
- Memory: 4 GB RAM
- GPU: OpenGL 3.2 or DirectX 9.0c compatible GPU with at least 1GB of VRAM
- DirectX: Version 9.0c
- HDD: 6 GB of available space
Our configuration:
- Operating System: Windows 8
- Processor: Intel (R) Core (TM) i7-3632QM CPU @ 2.20GHz (8 CPUs), ~ 2.2GHz
- Memory: 8 GB RAM
- GPU: 7700GB AMD Radeon HD 2M Series
- DirectX: Version 11
The only criticizes it's probably about the Rebuttal Showdown mini-game, which turns out rather uncomfortable to be carried out with the controls designed for porting: to cut the statements it is in fact necessary to use the keyboard, rendering the quite complex oblique cut. Perhaps it would be more natural to use the mouse for this functionality and leave it to the keyboard to drop only the final Truth Sword with the press of a key. Another sore point is the "need" to resort to dubbing in English: unlike the console version, in fact, it is not possible to turn the screen to your liking to be able to read the sentences better (which often flow very quickly and in the most disparate directions in the excitement of the moment), therefore it is much more comfortable feel what is said rather than read. This unfortunately makes it difficult to enjoy the first playthrough with the original dubbing, losing some of that extra thickness that is given to characters with Japanese voices. However, there are no impediments that undermine the experience or enjoyment of the game.
Cuz it's a game!
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair retains all the characteristics of its predecessor by putting highlight the obvious difference in setting: in Trigger Happy Havoc we find a closed environment, barricaded, gray, devoid of any glimmer on the outside, Goodbye Despair instead offers a colorful desert island where students can enjoy the sunlight and all the comforts that a holiday can offer (supermarket, airport, cinema, amusement park, hospital, etc.). This false sense of freedom helps to make it all even more disturbing and, almost as if to accompany the player on his journey, Masafumi Takada has composed a soundtrack of extreme impact, capable of arousing a wide range of emotions on those who take the game in hand.
The dubbing issue is often recurring with regards to localizations and unfortunately this Danganronpa 2 is no exception: the English voices once again fail to hold a candle to the Japanese original, almost distorting some personalities as in the case of Monomi. Except for some characters who turn out instead pleasing in equal measure and for the possible game need during the Showdown Rebuttal it would be better to enjoy the title with the original voices to better savor all the different character facets thanks to the best acting of the Japanese cast.
Often breaking the fourth wall and containing a myriad of quotes (even to manga like Death Note), Danganronpa 2 is a jewel to be discovered for fans of the genre and not, even if we feel compelled to recommend it only to those who have played the first chapter to better appreciate all the various references to Trigger Happy Havoc in the plot and, above all, the ending.
Verdict 9/10 No! That's wrong! Comment Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is a successful sequel, finally able to reveal all the doubts and mysteries left open by Trigger Happy Havoc with a new cast of varied and even more complex characters than the previous one. The surge in difficulty and the introduction of new mini-games contribute to making the title fresh and appreciated even by those who considered the first chapter too simple. Porting to PC is more than recommended and represents an excellent opportunity for those who do not have the opportunity to play on PS Vita and must absolutely enjoy this little videogame pearl. Pros and cons ✓ Engaging storyline✓ Calibrated difficulty
✓ Challenging puzzles
✓ Excellent soundtrack
✓ Great porting x Knowledge of English required
x English dubbing
