My Year of Gaming: ‘Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair’
My Year of Gaming: Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
I purchased a Playstation 4 at the beginning of 2017 and it is the first time I have had a console since Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword came out on the Wii. Naturally, I have a lot of catching up to do and my backlog is incredibly massive. During the course of a year, I played my way through 23 games, and I figured I would take the time to share a little bit about each game. Perhaps you’ve played them and want to hear another opinion, or maybe you’ve been holding off on investing in a particular game. Either way, it’s never a bad time to spread your love of gaming.
A sequel to Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (2012) once more finds an unsuspecting group of students forced into a game of mutual killing by the evil Monokuma. In order to escape this hellish game, you must commit murder and get away with it. After a murder occurs, there is a period of investigation followed by a class trial. If the person accused did not commit the crime, then the real murderer (or “blackened”) goes free while the others are punished. If the blackened is correctly identified, they will be punished.
Goodbye Despair builds upon the story set up in the first game, answering the question of what the “Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History” actually is. So in that way, it’s important to play both of the games, which are conventionally bundled together in a PS4 release. The dynamics of the game are similar to the first, but there are some changes made during the class trial, including new mini-games to play as you work out who committed murder.
Much like the first, this game is not for the faint of heart. This game truly sends the player into a fit of despair the further you progress in the game. I don’t think I’ve ever experienced a game as twisted and messed up as this one. Some of the things that happen in the later trials just about destroy you. It’s because the characters are so strong that this happens, and I actually think Goodbye Despair trumps the first game in terms of characterization. As I stated in my review of Trigger Happy Havoc, be careful who you pick as your favorite, because nobody is safe. Luckily, my two favorites made it through, but I still felt just about every death.
This game is incredibly engrossing and I found I could do nothing else because I wanted to know what was going to happen next. Again, the characters are incredibly strong and bring brand new personalities to the Danganronpa franchise. There were very few that I didn’t care for.
If you’re interested in murder/mystery games, then this series is definitely for you. There’s a lot of reading involved since it is a visual novel-style game, but the class trials are really fun. Overall, this game is designed to make you think and feel, and that you will definitely do. Danganronpa 1-2 Reload bundles together Trigger Happy Havoc and Goodbye Despair and is worth the purchase.
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