For almost a decade now, Danganronpa has given us bone chilling tales with its visual novel games, anime, and even a shooter spinoff. And now another round of the killing game has started with Danganronpa V3 and there are a few things you should know about the game before you buy. Before I begin, I would like to say that I am reviewing this game fairly and I promise to be unbiased to the best of my ability. Lastly, this article is spoiler free.  So, let’s get started. 

About Danganronpa V3

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is the third installment of the Danganronpa franchise created by Spike Chunsoft. It carries the style of a murder mystery visual novel, with a dash of JRPG, and is made for solo players only (sorry multi-player fans).  Although it has a few new additions to the gameplay (which I will talk about later), it closely follows the same formula as its predecessors (Danganronpa: Happy Havoc Trigger and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair).

Danganronpa V3 was released on Playstation 4 and Playstation Vita platforms in Japan on January 12, 2017 and later Steam for PC for its American release on September 26, 2017, and in Europe three days later. It was overall very well-received in the gaming world.  In Japan, it received a pre-release rating  of 37 out of 40 by Famitsu and won Famitsu’s “Excellence Prize” in the Famitsu Awards of 2017. In the first week of its release in Japan, the game sold over 76,000 copies for PS Vita and over 40,000 for PS4, ranking it 2nd and 3rd most high demand game in Japan that week. By the end of July 2017, it sold over 136,780 copies on PS Vita and over 72,900 copies on PS4 for a total of 209,734 copies breaking its predecessor’s records of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc with 157,179 copies within its first year of release and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair with 183,472 copies.

It also did well in the States. By the time the game was ready to be released in the U.S., Danganronpa V3 was already ranked the #1 most popular game in the PSVita category and the #11 most popular fame in the PS4 category on Amazon US.  On the day of its release, it was rated #3 on the Top Sellers’ list on Steam and sold 28,463 copies by the end of its first week. By six months, it reached over 50,000 copies sold! It also received several awards such as Game Informer’s 2017 Adventure Games Best Plot Twist award, Best Adventure/Visual Nobel of 2017 award, RPGamer’s Best Non-RPG of 2017, and IGN’s Adventure Game of the Year award.  It currently holds a Metacritic score of 81 and an Open Critic score of 83.

Danganronpa V3 Story

As I mentioned before, the storyline closely follows the same setup of the previous two games. 16 gifted high school students find themselves kidnapped and trapped inside a high school called Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles by Monokuma (a robotic teddy bear who has a lot of time and gadgets on his hands). The only way a student has any chance of leaving is if they “graduate” by killing a fellow classmate and successfully get away with it.

But wait, there’s more!

Once a murder occurs, the students must work together find out who the killer is. This involves conducting investigations and collecting evidence at the crime scenes and around the school to present at  “Class trials”.  During the trials, the class must discuss the evidence and have debates to determine who the killer is. The cool new thing that the game brings to the table is that it allows the player to lie during a class debate to turn the case around.

But wait there’s still more!

If the class figures out correctly who the killer is, only the killer gets punished (and by punished, I mean executed for their crimes). If the class accuses the wrong person, the whole class gets executed and the killer goes free and it is game over for you!

Yes Monokuma. It sure is. 

Danganronpa V3 Gameplay

When it comes to the gameplay, there are six chapters that you will have to play through.  It is split into three parts: daily school life, investigations and class trials. With each new chapter, you’ll be able to visit new areas and learn more information about it, yourself and your classmates. You’ll also be granted “free-time” where you can spend more time getting to know your classmates and even earn special perks that will help you greatly during the class trials.

The most intense part of the game are the class trials. They are very time consuming taking about an hour or two to complete. Not only are there class debates but there are also timed minigames, puzzles, and even racing game/minesweeper style games like Psycho Taxi and Mind Mine.

Survive the class trials of life and death.

Take a ride to solve the crime.

Danganronpa V3 Graphics

The graphics of the game are great and up to par based on what I saw.  I noticed that the cut scenes have improved from the other two games as well. The music although it has some of the tracks from the previous games, there are new tracks as well that flows with the game nicely. The game features a performance of “Clair de Lune” by played by one of the Ultimate Pianist Kaede Akamatsu.

Danganronpa V3 Developer

At the beginning of its release in Japan, there were several complaints over PS Vita demo’s audio quality. There was concern that that same issue would occur in the full version of the game. As it occurred in both Japanese and American/European versions, an HQ Audio DLC was released by NIS America on their release dates and is presently the only add-on offered for the game - for now anyways.  

Danganronpa V3 Price

The game is currently priced at $59.99 on PS4 and $39.99 for the PSVita version at Playstation store.  There is also a free demo for both. For those that would like to play to learn the backstory of the game, Danganronpa 1 and 2 Reload is also available for $39.99 at Playstation Store.

Final Verdict

Overall if I had to rate it based off my experience I would give it an 8.5/10. I really enjoyed playing this game. Although it didn’t have the same emotional impact as Danganronpa 1, I really loved the characters, the plot twists, and the fact that it kept some of the familiar elements (soundtracks, past characters, etc.) as the other two games. The ending (again no spoilers here), I will say is very unexpected and original. Other players had mixed feelings about it. But whether you love it or hate it, it will stay on your mind for days.

Pros:

• +Has a great set of diverse characters
• +Great story line with plot twists and jaw-dropping moments from the beginning
• +Strong visuals
• +Great soundtrack
• +Sticks to the formula of the previous games

Cons:

• -Some trials are a bit dull and drag out longer than they need to
• -May cause the gamers to get emotionally invested with the characters, only to be devastated when one of them gets murdered or worse are revealed as the killers
• -The humor might be a little offensive
• -Could use less dialogue
• -Does not have a skip option when replaying debates -which can consume more time than needed

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• Top 10 Games Like Danganronpa (Or Better In Their Own Way) 
• Danganronpa Trigger Happy Havoc: (2016) 
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