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- NIS America
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- NIS America
Danganronpa 1-2 Reload
Released On: Mar 14, 2017
83
8.4
All Platforms
PlayStation Vita
tbd
Based on 29 Critic Reviews
83
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 29 Critic Reviews
83
93% Positive
27 Reviews
27 Reviews
7% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
Metascore
Generally Favorable
Based on 29 Critic Reviews
83
93% Positive
27 Reviews
27 Reviews
7% Mixed
2 Reviews
2 Reviews
0% Negative
0 Reviews
0 Reviews
hat is important to any great visual novel is that it has great writing, and the Danganronpa games are by turns hilarious, reflective, intense and jovial, the characters are all unique and interesting, and the twists and turns are often startling. Visual novels just don’t get better than these.
Numerous Japanese visual novels have been coming to English-speaking audiences lately, many of them excellent. The Zero Escape series manages to excite and confound, the Phoenix Wright games lets players live out a Japanese take on Law & Order and even BlazBlue got in on it via the X-Blaze series. Danganronpa manages to eke out a place at the top of the pack. Players new to the series have no reason to pass up this collection. Both games are extremely well written and hard to put down. Returning players who already know the solutions to all of the conundrums but don’t mind re-experiencing the story will find a better looking version of the original two titles here. Since this is releasing at a lower price, that’s enough of a reason to go through again in preparation for Danganronpa V3.
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 154 User Ratings
8.4
84% Positive
130 Ratings
130 Ratings
4% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
12% Negative
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
User Score
Generally Favorable
Based on 154 User Ratings
8.4
84% Positive
130 Ratings
130 Ratings
4% Mixed
6 Ratings
6 Ratings
12% Negative
18 Ratings
18 Ratings
对于任何伟大的视觉小说来说，帽子很重要，因为它有很好的写作，弹丸论破游戏轮流搞笑、反思、激烈和欢乐，角色都是独特而有趣的，曲折往往令人吃惊。视觉小说没有比这些更好的了。
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PlayStation 4
This is the first time I've played the Danganronpa series. At first, it didn't attract my attention to play it, but seeing it closely, I begin to understand what it's about, the game system reminds me of the Ace Attorney series about trials, but This time it is about a violent trial, what I liked the most about it are the executions of the characters, totally brigid, recommendable.
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PlayStation 4
Danganronpa 1 & 2 Reload provides a powerful and gripping experience that will keep players addicted from the opening sequence until the final credits begin to roll. If you enjoy disturbing visual novels, odd characters, and solving murders, then Danganronpa 1 & 2 Reload is well worth experiencing.
The Danganronpa series is concerned with the ongoing battle between the power of hope and the power of despair, and while these games are overlong and peppered with some less-than-stellar moments, the excellent plots give the player a sense of hope for the future of dynamic narrative in videogames. This is some of the best, most suspenseful, storytelling that I’ve ever seen attempted in the medium. While there’s no new content and the graphics remain unchanged from the Vita versions, 1.2 Reload is a great jumping-on point for fans of visual novels who’ve never experienced the series before.
A very welcome compilation of two of the best story-based games of recent years, that manage to transcend their anime presentation and apparent absurdity.
One part Persona, one part Ace Attorney, and one part Battle Royale, Trigger Happy Havoc and Goodbye Despair are two of the very best murder mystery titles available for PS4 right now, together in one pack. While the games may move just a tad too slowly for some players, those willing to take a chance on a visual novel with a difference will find Danganronpa to be a fascinating, multi-faceted, frequently surprising story that's among the most compelling on the market, full of engaging characters, anarchic humour, and jaw-dropping twists.
While it won't win any awards for how it repackages the material, Danganronpa 1.2 Reload deserves attention for making two of the most captivating and mind-bending murder mysteries in any medium more accessible.
A compilation of the best games in the franchise. I prefer this over the trilogy as Danganropa 3 final twist ruins the game(s) for me. Both games are visual novel videogames which are in detail a mixture of detective game aka murder mystery investigation and daily school life. Its strength are the well written story and characters atop the interesting cases that are intense. Some describe this as mixture of “Ace Attorney” and “Zero Escape”. Those are set in or around the in universe famous Hopes Peak Academy school. It is the most prestige school that exists and studying there grants you great recognition and opens all doors. However they do not take anyone and the only way to get invited is to have an ultimate talent and get scouted. Be it sports, science, writing or something else you need to be a prodigy. There a very few ways to get around this like being the one Ultimate Lucky student which is randomly chosen out of normal students. In both games a group of students are trapped in a real nightmare. The headmaster in form of a seemingly robotic bear Monokuma explains to them that they are trapped and the only way to escape is killing a fellow student. But this is not battle royal as you have to get away with the murder undetected and there are rules that are enforced. After a dead body is found all students investigate the crime scene and after some time passes there is a class trial where the evidence is analysed and the culprit is decided by mayor vote. If they get the right person the culprit is executed. If the majority is wrong everyone except the culprit is executed. This is the setting of the games. Everyone is caught between hope and despair while you do not know who you can trust. The story has great twists and uses the characters excellent. Everyone is unique has their own motivations and values. I could understand everyone and they avoided the traps of making anyone one dimensional. Also the voice actors are great and near perfectly chosen. The gameplay is like I said a visual novel and less a true videogame. You have murder investigations and daily life parts. For the cases you collect evidence called truth bullets you use in class trials to fire at arguments (Visual system for discussions), present them and have some mini games. Those trials are intense and a highlight as the truth comes out slowly. Also Monokuma is a sadist that enjoys making your life more miserable. Maybe you will find out the truth behind everything. The second game improves the formula. The graphics are dividing. I find them nice but they are a bit 2,5 dimensional and look like the scenery books for children that unfold by opening it. Acoustically the games are excellent with voice actors and soundtrack alike. Overall I think this is the best compilation for the franchise and earned a 10/10.
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PlayStation 4
During my everlasting research about mystery murder games, Danganronpa was a name that I always stumbled across. I finally decided to try it after seeing a massive discount on a Playstation Sale and the game positively surprised me
The game is a visual novel with a pre-determined path as the player passively watches the story unfolds, doesn’t seem very exciting in the surface but the narrative is so freaking good that gets you hooked from the very start.
A little rundown of the story: fifteen students find themselves captive in an school building until Monokuma, a mysterious talking plush bear – you heard it right, shows up and explains that the students must murder each other without getting discovered in order to be allowed to return to the outside world. So every chapter deals with a murder, the subsequent investigation and the class trial. Besides each murder stories that is also the mystery behind Monokuma, the school and the outside world in a compelling and addicting narrative that only Japanese storytelling could provide us.
The game works on an anime style with still images and dialogue boxes as the storytelling media (as I said it is a visual novel). During the period known as “Free Time” the player is given freedom to interact with one of the characters and learn more about them; basically you walk toward someone and press X to engage conversation. Here is the weakest part about the game: the Free Time should be more developed and at least give us more exciting things to do. Don’t get me wrong the conversations are entertaining and have that typical distinctive anime style with a bunch of humor thrown in between but ultimately they are meaningless to how the plot unfolds.
The true highlight of Danganronpa is the Class Trials, where you gather the clues from the investigation and discuss with your classmates whodunit. The best and most utilized mechanic is the Non-Stop Debate: as the dialogue unravels you have to pinpoint the contradiction/lie in someone’s speech and use either a clue you gathered from the investigation or something a character said as the correct counter-argument; the difficulty range from easy to straight up guessing as some contradictions are a tiny detail that you pay no mind. The class trials have other mechanics like the Hangman’s Gambit (basically a hangman minigame… this ****), the Bullet-Time Battle (a rhythm frantic battle where you must press the correct button at precise times to win) and, another one of my favorites, the Closing Argument where you revisits everything that happened during the crime using the correct panels to describe the murders.
A warning: Class Trial are long as f*ck. They take at least one hour and a half, you can save anytime you want but I like to do the trials in one sitting.
There is a break between the investigation and the beginning of the trial. After you get the final clue the game sends you to a corridor, opening the door ahead triggers the trial, what I like to do here is to revisit every clue and see what I can make of the crime (how it happened, my main suspect and whatnot) before having the game unfolding it in the Class Trial itself. And don’t be fooled with the cases, although the first one murderer is really obvious and **** the subsequent cases are absolutely nothing like it and leave you completely in the dark. I would say that from the third case onwards I had little to no idea of what happened.
And the writing of the cases is the best thing about Danganronpa, as they are surprising and really clever. The game is all about the narrative honestly so if you happen to hear a spoiler your experience is basically ruined.
The second game works just like the first but in a different setting and with a different cast. If one thing, the cases of the second installment have slightly better writing although the overall main mystery of the first one was better. Class Trials are much better though as they add more mechanics and improve old ones: for the Non-Stop Debate you can also consent (instead of just counter-argument) and the Hangman’s Gambit turns into an awesome minigame now.
Danganronpa really surprised me with its amazing narrative. I’m a 100% gameplay guy but even then this story based game managed to captivate me. It’s basically an interactive book where you press X to pass text boxes and while I do think that is a lot of room for improvement (mostly the Free Time sections) I assure you the story is so much f*cking better than any American triple A game could ever dream of.
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PlayStation 4
My numerical rating is for Dangonronpa 1; I couldn't finish the 2nd one.
Compared to the first two Zero Escape games, Danganronpa isn't nearly as intelligent, mature, or believable. But at least it's not absolute trash (like the 3rd Zero Escape game).
The setting is a school where students are trapped and they must kill someone, without getting caught, to escape. You'll spend most of your time investigating murder scenes and then determining who the murder is.
The character interactions, mysteries surrounding the school, and murder investigations kept me interested. The character writing is relatively good when a character isn't doing something that involves the main plot. But when the plot demands it, the characters become uncharacteristic or outright stupid.
As for the school's mystery, much of it becomes obvious due to various hints given by the antagonist, but the last few bits aren't made clear until the end. The final secrets aren't very profound or thought-provoking, but they were interesting enough.
Investigating murders is good. Finding a clue and having the other characters have no idea what it meant while I was able to deduce exactly what it meant felt good. It's too bad that investigations are basically on rails: you're not able to proceed until you gather every clue, which made investigations seem fake and manufactured.
The worst part of the game is the class trials. After all evidence is gathered, you go into a courtroom setting and argue about the evidence in a very tedious and repetitive way until you get to the conclusion. There's many issues with this. There's only one conclusion to reach, so you can't misinterpret the evidence except when built into the plot. Difficulty isn't based around logic, but shooting, rhythm, and spelling minigames. And when you have the option to make a choice, such as bringing forth evidence to disprove an argument, it requires reading comprehension more than reasoning; you must simply remember the details of a piece of evidence that you previously about. I felt like I was in elementary school again.
Failure isn't possible. If you fail in a shooting minigame or choose the wrong option too much, you're automatically chosen as the culprit, even if most characters suspect someone else, and that section of the trial restarts immediately.
For the few times I failed at making a choice, it was because I didn't provide the evidence in the right order. Unfortunately, the trials like to beat to death insignificant pieces of evidence before they move on to important evidence, which normally overrides the prior evidence. So even though you know exactly who the murderer is, and know which pieces of evidence proves it, you must first wait until everyone makes incorrect conclusions about each piece of insignificant evidence.
After the group comes to a conclusion, you must irritatingly do it all over again in storyboard format. You must match up somewhat-vague pictures without descriptions to a storyboard so that the protagonist can restate the events for awesome's sake. Or maybe to remind everyone of what you talked about for the last hour, since the game seems to want people to improve their reading comprehension.
So it's an okay game, but the main gameplay mechanic, the trial system, isn't interesting to an intelligent adult or anyone else who already has good reading comprehension. It it weren't for the murdering, it would be a great learning tool for elementary or middle schools.
I then played the post-game mode, which is essentially a mobile game where you collect materials and build robots. You can also go on trips with the characters during your free time, but your relationships with them don't progress beyond becoming friends. There were no rewards that I could see and the gameplay was incredibly monotonous, so I quit after a few hours.
And then I moved on to Dangonronpa 2. I was expecting improvements in the characters and plot, but I was wrong. Dangonronpa 2 gets even more unrealistic/unbelievable and the characters are dumber. After completing the first trial, which is so long it needs an intermission, I couldn't take it any more and quit. The first murder motive was simply stupid, dumber than any from Danganronpa 1. There was no intelligence behind most people's arguments, and all the characters treated this more like a game than real life (when compared to the first game). Also, the minigame variety and difficulty is ramped up, so if you were annoyed by the first game's mini games, you'll be twice as annoyed by these. All of the clues and choices are also much more vague this time around. So I ended up having to deduce which options the creators expected me to choose rather than the ones that made sense.
I feel a bit deceived that this was advertised as an intelligent well-told story. It's simply not, unless you're moved by elementary-school writing. Don't waste your time unless you're okay with works aimed at kids.
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PlayStation 4
Why is this a game? If I want a manga I'll read a manga. There's no interactivity in this game. The sounds are horrendously bad - just random squawking. There's nothing to do.
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PlayStation 4
The game is trash as is anyone who thinks it deserves better than 1/10. Anyone who likes this game should come with a warning that they are absolutely not fit for society. People should have something to signal that they are a danganronpa fan so humanity knows to give them a wide berth and avoid any contact with them.
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PlayStation 4
Summary Hope’s Peak Academy — home to the nation’s best and brightest high school students… and your new prison. You and your classmates have been trapped here, forced into a winner-takes-all killing game. You’ll have to solve the mystery of the school to survive, but be careful what you wish for — sometimes, there’s nothing more deadly than the...
Rated M
for Mature
Platforms:
- PlayStation Vita
- PlayStation 4
Initial Release Date: Mar 14, 2017
Developer:
- Spike Chunsoft
Publisher: NIS America
Genres:
