Starting high school is never easy for anyone. Meeting new people, challenges and acceptance; it can be terrifying. Will you fit in? Will you see your old school friends? What if I’m targeted by a bully? Did I bring enough stationary? Ok, that last one was probably just me. High school is a scary time for youngsters. But at least you don’t have to MURDER your classmates in order to graduate! That’s right, be very happy you’re not new student Makoto Naegi of Hope Peak Academy. This is not a romantic high school comedy. Oh no, this is a tale of hope and despair.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is a visual novel set in the murder mystery genre and our young protagonist Makoto, is invited to join Hope Peak Academy, where the créme de la créme go in order to graduate, to be the top in their field. On the outside it looks like a regular school building, but unknown to its victims, it’s a prison. Makoto joins a group of 14 other students, each being the “Ultimate” in their field. From the Ultimate Baseball star, to Ultimate Gambler. Each one has their own unique look and personality, but don’t get too attached to them. Remember, this is a murder mystery game!

They are thrown together by a bear known as Monokuma, who is half white, half black and all round evil. This demonic bear headmaster fills the unfortunate students in and explains that the only way to leave the school is through the Graduation Clause; if you disrupt the harmony of the community of the school, you can leave. The only way to do that is if one person were to murder another!

“Stabbing, strangling, bludgeoning, crushing, hacking, drowning, igniting; how you do it doesn’t matter.

You must kill someone if you want to leave.”

Each student is given their own handbook, which contains all the rules you need, to follow in this school of horrors. Accessing the handbook can be done by pressing the Square button and you can use this menu to check the School Regulations and character info in the Report Card section. You can also save and load game data under the System Section. Transcript records all pertinent information, so use this to review comments from everyone involved.

Danganronpa is divided into chapters and you can replay each one from the opening menu. The game plays out in a day/night cycle, you go back to your dorm at 10pm till 7am the following morning. Sometimes you are given “Free Time”, where you can spend time getting to know your classmates, give them gifts that you acquire from the MonoMono Machine and if you give them the perfect gift, you unlock skills that you can use later in class trials. This reminded me of Persona‘s Social Link system. You also update characters report cards that can be viewed in your handbook.

Directional buttons or the L and R buttons adjust your viewpoint. Press the Triangle button to observe the room you’re in, this will display what people and objects you can interact with.  When you notice something you can interact with, a magnifying glass appears. Make sure you examine each and every possible object in the room that you find yourself in. Not only do you pick up clues, but also Monokuma coins, which you use on the MonoMono Machine.

Pressing the Circle button exits to the hallway or to return to whatever room you were just in. Left stick moves you, and holding down the Circle button allows you to run. Controls can be confusing at first, like an old school dungeon RPG. It reminded me of the original Persona 1 game on PlayStation One. L and R buttons move you sideways, whereas the R analogue stick moves the camera. I personally think it would have been better the other way round.

Each conversation is important to the overall story, so keep track of them as you go. Something you will come across in conversations with your fellow classmates is a Re: Action. While you are talking to someone, purple words are going to appear. When they show up, if you press the Triangle button, you’ll go into Re: Action Mode. At this point, you use the directional buttons to make a selection and the X button to confirm it. Also, when it comes to dialogue, you can review whatever you’ve talked about to look for more info.

When you are not in Free Time, you team up with, and sometimes against, your classmates in order to escape Monokuma and his mad hell. However, a death is usually involved and you need to catch the killer in order to survive. This brings us to the Phoenix Wright inspired part of them game. You become something akin to Hercule Poirot and have to search the crime scene and the rest of the school for clues. You can set skills you have earned through interactions with class mates to use in court.

As events progress during each class trial, you will engage in a number of nonstop debates. During these discussions, characters will speak one after another without pause. Its up to you to unearth any lies or contradictions buried within their statements. What that means is that you have to use your “Truth Bullets” to refute what they say, but you need the right evidence to back up your claim. After that comes Hangman’s Gambit, which is a mini game in which you must shoot letters in a correct order to spell out a word that is related to a key piece of evidence.

Its not over yet! Bullet Time Battle comes next and that is a one-on-one rhythm based mini game. I had some difficulty with this part because you must shoot down the accused’s words in rhythm, before delivering a vital piece of evidence that will get their attention. It does seem out of place and I had to restart this part several times, because it was just a noisy, colourful mess. The final part is the Closing Argument. Here you recreate the series of events leading up to the murder in the form of a comic strip, to reveal who the murderer is. I enjoyed this part of the trial because it meant piecing together the tragic events that occurred.

The art style of the game reminds me once again very much of the Persona series. Tonally, it’s dark and twisted, but visually the game is bright and colourful. For example, this is a violent game yet blood isn’t red, but a beautiful, bright neon pink! Danganronpa has a fantastic soundtrack, from happy upbeat notes to dramatic, spine chilling moments. Even Monokuma has his own theme!

You can select English or Japanese voice acting before you start a new game. Fellow Otakus will be pleased to see this option. I myself chose the Japanese option because it makes the game feel more authentic for me. I briefly restarted the game to see if the English casting would be any good and I was pleasantly surprised.

Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is a game every PlayStation Vita owner needs to have. At the moment there is nothing available on the console that comes close to it. Visual novel games are big in Japan and it would be nice to see more of these released in the West. This being the first I’ve played and I have enjoyed it very much so far and I would urge my fellow Vita owner to share my experience with this unique title.

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