Sun, Sea & Slaughter: Danganronpa 2 - Goodbye Despair
Danganronpa 2 [Steam page] is a game about students killing one another because a teddy bear tells them to. They're on an island rather than in a locked-down school building because this is a sequel. New game, new environment. If you've played the first game, you'll have a good idea of what to expect - lots of conversations, occasional investigation scenes when someone does a murder. Think Phoenix Wright but replace the judicial system with a bizarre and sinister setup that's more like And Then There Were None than Battle Royale. It's out now.
When I heard that there would be PC ports of the Danganronpa series, I was excited. People with a history of recommending good, weird things had told me these particular weird things would be right up my street. I played the first game for an hour, maybe two, and never went back to it. Maybe I'm just not attuned to the flow of visual novels but I hated the characters and found clicking through the tiny snippets of dialogue intensely tedious. I don't care about backstories that appear to have as much depth as the clothes these people are wearing. I'm not surprised or interested to discover that the girl with the sporty build and clothes is really into sporty things and, yeah, I can give her gifts to make her like me!
I didn't even see a murder! I signed on for murders and mysteries and investigations and I ended up with a lot of clunky dialogue smeared across a clumsy interface. The pace, as with many visual novels that I've tried, made Everybody's Gone to the Rapture seem like a hundred meter sprint.
But maybe you're one of the people who enjoyed the first game. There are plenty of you out there and a second helping might be just what you're after. This installment promises improved trials and minigames.
Once you’ve got a suspect in your sights, turn up that tropical heat in a variety of timing and reflex-based game systems to reveal the ultimate truth and escape with your life.
Meanwhile, my wait for an enjoyable murder-student holiday simulation that caters to my specific tastes continues.