Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony Anniversary Edition

Genre: Graphic Adventure / Visual Novel

Players: 1

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Review:

(Note: This game is included in the physical-only bundle Danganronpa Decadence, along with Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc Anniversary Edition, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair Anniversary Edition, and Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp.)

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (from here on for the sake of simplicity simply referred to as Danganronpa V3) is the third mainline game in the Danganronpa series, after numerous spin-offs and side-stories produced in various media, even including an anime titled Danganronpa 3. As anyone following the Danganronpa franchise would likely tell you, this series’ story and timeline is so absurdly convoluted, it shouldn’t come as any surprise that two completely separate stories purport to be the series’ third entry.

This game was released on PC, PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita in 2014, with an enhanced “Anniversary Edition” coming in 2021 to mobile devices and Nintendo Switch, with a port to PC and Xbox One in 2022.

This game bears a lot of similarities to the first and second games in the series, so I’ll be re-using some of the text from the earlier reviews and changing it where it is warranted.

Similar to prior games in the series, this game combines elements of Graphic Adventure and Visual Novel games, with the player taking the role of one of a group of students starting their school year at an ultra-elite high school, only to find they have apparently been kidnapped and brought to an abandoned and crumbling high school where they are held prisoner, taunted by a sadistic animatronic bear named Monokuma (along with his five “Monokub” children) who claims there is only one way to leave the school – Monokuma tells the students that any of them who kills one of their peers without getting caught by the group will be allowed to escape back to the outside world.

With this plot setup, you can see multiple influences at work here. A story focused on a group of schoolkids forced to murder each other to win their freedom harkens to the beloved cult film Battle Royale, and more modern derivatives like The Hunger Games. The group dynamics and atmosphere of suspicion seems inspired by the classic game Werewolf AKA Mafia, or its popular recent successor, Among Us. And the game’s detective work and courtroom scenes to determine who’s guilty of murder frequently resembles the Ace Attorney franchise. Suffice it to say, I believe that all of these comparisons are apt, yet anyone who played the first game can tell you that this series is far more bizarre in its twisting plot and its unusual tone.

Much as with the first game, this game’s themes of death and despair clash with its presentation, which is frequently jovial and whimsical, with Monokuma himself being cartoonish both in mannerisms and in his over-the-top voice. And while I felt like the second game’s goofy and unlikeable cast pushed this oddball tone well past its limits, I feel like the third game acts as something of a return to form… and then some.

While many of this cast of characters are once again pretty absurd, far more of them this time seem to be relatively reasonable and likeable than the self-centered characters that formed the cast of the second game. What’s more, this game makes it clear early on that there’s something more going on under the surface of these absurd personalities.

On that note, for a series that is known for its absolutely massive plot twists, Danganronpa V3 has perhaps some of the biggest twists the series has ever seen, which I will not spoil here. However, I will simply say that this game toys with players’ expectations of what a Donganronpa game is, something fairly clear from the start. Personally, I found these changes to be one of the most exciting parts of this game, making it probably my favorite game yet in the series.

On a technical level, Danganronpa V3 combines 3D and 2D elements in a way that seems odd, but which can perhaps be dismissed as stylistically intentional. Characters all have highly-detailed anime-style portraits, and this is how they’re represented when you see them in the game’s simple but colorful 3D locales… which is to say that they all have the appearance of cardboard standees. Again, it’s visually-interesting, but it’s not going to be for everyone. Also, thankfully this game doesn’t seem to suffer from the framerate issues that plagued Danganronpa 2.

As with the prior games, the gameplay here has long stretches of story where players are listening to discussions between the game’s characters, as you’d expect from a Visual Novel. There’s also a “dating game”-style relationship system here. These story bits are interspersed with freely wandering around the school, and often this is what you’ll be doing after a murder has been committed and you’re searching for clues.

Finally, you have the series’ courtroom sections, when the game feels you’ve gathered enough evidence and must use it to piece together how the latest murder happened and who the culprit is. Mostly this plays out like an Ace Attorney-style search for contradictions in the statements characters make, but Danganronpa 2 once again piles on multiple tedious minigames on top of this, such as literally making players shoot away contradicting statements with “truth bullets”. If they just stuck with the “find the contradiction” stuff, this would be great, but all these additional elements seem unnecessary and junk up the gameplay to make it far more complicated and tedious than it needs to be.

There are a few other additions here, like a few really bad minigames. However, on the bright side, this game finally fixes the terrible first-person controls that plagued the earlier games in the series (though purists can still find a traditional control scheme in the options menus).

Quite simply, I think the solid character roster, wildly unpredictable story, and small but much-appreciated gameplay improvements here make Danganronpa V3 what I believe to be the best game in the series thus far. However, I say that with a caveat – I strongly encourage newcomers to the franchise to at least play the first Danganronpa game before starting on this one, as the story here depends on players having played one of the earlier games to get a fuller context. However, if you played and liked the first game, Danganronpa V3 is an absolute no-brainer.

tl;dr – Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, much like earlier entries in the series, is a game with Visual Novel and Graphic Adventure elements where players find themselves among a group of high school students who have apparently been kidnapped and told their only way to escape is to kill each other. This is a huge improvement over the second game, with better characters, an even crazier plot, and minor gameplay improvements throughout. If you haven’t played earlier games in the series, you’ll want to at least play Danganronpa 1 first for much-needed story context here, but if you enjoyed that game, you should absolutely get this one.

Grade: B+

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