REVIEW

Danganronpa 1.2 Reload Review

by Rob Pritchard, March 10th, 2017

The celebrated author Stephen King once wrote that “Murder is like potato chips: you can’t stop with just one.” This is certainly true in the case of the Danganronpa series, where the aim of the game is to find the guilty individuals who try to commit the perfect kill. The first two games in the Danganronpa series have been ported several times over the years since their initial PlayStation Portable release, and now for the first time the series has arrived on PlayStation 4. Regardless of the reason for the high definition upgrade, it is great that Spike Chunsoft have given more people the chance to experience two of the best visual novels of the last decade, ahead of Danganronpa V3’s English release in September.

Danganronpa 1.2 Reload was originally released on the PlayStation Vita in Japan, but like with Digimon World Next Order, it was given a high definition facelift for Sony’s current home console upon its localisation, instead of a simple translation of the portable double pack. This compilation includes both Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc and Danganronpa 2 Goodbye Despair, which were previously released separately for the PlayStation Vita and PC, as it was unclear if the games would find an audience outside of Japan. The sales figures and critical reception proved that there was indeed a place for the quirk filled battle of hope and despair, which we at VGU discovered for ourselves when we reviewed both games in February 2014 and September 2014 respectively.

In Trigger Happy Havoc, you are thrust into the role of Makoto Naegi, an ordinary high school student who is chosen to be part of a group of fifteen individuals who are especially talented at one particular activity. Things take a wrong turn when they are locked inside the school and taken hostage by a robotic toy bear by the name of Monokuma. In order to escape, one of the students must commit the perfect murder. If they do, they can “graduate”. If they are discovered, they will be executed for both their crime and their failure to succeed.

The sequel Goodbye Despair follows some of the trends set by Trigger Happy Havoc, except the location has now moved to a tropical island, and the protagonist is now a high school student named Hajime Hinata. Sixteen new students have been thrust into a “vacation” provided by Hope’s Peak Academy, but the villainous Monokuma hijacks the serene location, and forces the new class to perform another killing game, and takes control of Usami, the pink robotic rabbit whose role was to ensure that no conflict arose during their holiday.

The gameplay style of both of the games included in the collection is essentially the same, but there are some minor differences which offer a refreshing amount of variety between each release, such as the virtual pet mini game and experience points meter which was added in Goodbye Despair. Each chapter begins with a set of events, which eventually lead to a murder being committed by an unknown assailant. After performing an investigation phase, the remaining students hold a class trial to uncover the murderer. Most parts of the game take just the right amount of time to complete, although on some occasions, the ability to skip dialogue at your own pace is highly appreciated.

The graphics for both games in the collection has received a well deserved upgrade, which makes both Trigger Happy Havoc and Goodbye Despair look better than they ever have previously. There are some occasions where there is slight pixilation present during the menus, and it definitely obvious that the cut scene videos have been merely up scaled rather than remastered, but these complaints are barely noticeable unless you are looking for chinks in the armour with a fine-tooth comb. One of the best enhancements that has been included is that the frame rate of the animation and character movement has been increased to 60 frames per second. This vital change, combined with the power of the PlayStation 4 hardware, means that I never experienced the slowdown which sometimes appeared in the older ports of the original games.

The sound quality appears to be relatively the same as its Vita counterparts, but as both the music and dialogue were already of a reasonably high standard, this is more of an observation than an outright criticism. A good thing to note is that the the option to choose either the Japanese or English voice over tracks have been retained for this re-release, so fans of both the localised or original character dialogue will be able to cater for their specific taste.

Overall, Danganronpa 1.2 Reload is a solid port of two highly entertaining visual novels. Both the graphical presentation and the overall performance of Trigger Happy Havoc and Goodbye Despair have been enhanced to great effect by the PlayStation 4 hardware, and the ability to choose your favourite voice track is always a welcome sight in today’s multi cultural society. If you have been waiting for the Danganronpa series to continue, this high definition port of the original entries will keep you entertained just long enough for Monokuma to begin his long awaited resurrection.