October Magazine

the same disturbing-yet-funny writing
that the series is known for. In
this way, combining a shooter with
a visual novel actually works well.
Save for collectibles along the way,
both genres keep you moving forward,
allowing players to focus on
the story/blowing up bear robots instead
of getting needlessly distracted
with side quests.
The actual battles offer a decent
amount of variety. Though you’ll
spend most of your time aiming for
the red-eye weak point of the various
types of Monokumas, progressing
through the story gifts Komaru
with further Truth Bullets that mix up
the action. Enemies can be halted
with Dance, knocked back with the
imaginatively-named Knockback,
and even remote-controlled. If
things ever get too hectic, a simple
press of the Triangle button switches
to your partner, Genocide Jack,
the serial-killer alternate personality
of Toko Fukawa, a survivor from the
first game. (Seriously, just go with
it.) While Toko cannot be killed and
has brutal finisher attacks, she only
lasts as long as you have batteries,
making her hack-and-slash style
the perfect solution to overwhelming
numbers.
It’s a very simple system that creates
one of the few drawbacks of
the game. Combat is often simply a
matter of keeping your distance and
aiming at the red eye. Between that
and always having Genocide Jack
in your back pocket, it can’t be said
that the fighting provides any real
challenge. In the same way, many
of the game’s puzzles fall over
themselves to give you extremely
obvious hints, spoiling the pleasure
of working it out for yourself. Dangan
Ronpa has always been about
the story rather than the puzzle, but
the variety on show here ends up
being diluted by refusing to trust the
player’s intellect for longer than one
personality-switching sneeze.
Thankfully, it’s not all bad. For the
fans, everything great about the
previous Danganronpas is back
in full force. The despair-inducing
horror of the post-Tragedy world
glows even more vividly outside of
the closed arenas of Hope’s Peak
Academy and Jabberwock Island.
Blood is rendered in pop-art pink,
seeping from blue and purple bodies,
creating stark contrasts against
gloomy streets and blinding right
into insane cartoon boardwalks. On
the musical side, Masafumi Takada
returns to deliver another wonderful
soundtrack, echoing the spirit of the
previous iterations. It all melds together
into a powerful experience,
as engaging as any good novel or
movie.
That said, there is one important
caveat: this game is definitely not
for kids. As one might expect from
a game dealing with children killing
adults and the savagery of a
ruined society, there are some extremely
confronting and upsetting
themes on display. Danganronpa
as a series has never shied away
from really making the player feel
the horror and despair it takes as its
main theme, but Ultra Despair Girls
shows no hesitating in plunging into
ever more horrifying scenarios. If
you have any kind of queasiness
about discomforting themes at all,
be sure to prepare yourself before
giving the game a go.
That just leaves one question, the
scourge of every gamer in this sequel-heavy
world: do you have to
have played the others to get this
one? In short, no. All relevant details
of the other games are skilfully relayed
through Komaru’s ignorance
of her situation and Toko’s reticent
explanations. Like always, playing
the others will help to catch little
hints and nods – there’s a lot there
for returning players – but never is it
necessary to stop and do research
to understand what’s going on.
Ultra Despair Girls is, understandably,
not for everyone. There are a
lot of roadblocks to stop prospective
players: the Vita exclusivity, the
deeply strange dialogue and characters,
the tackling of very upsetting
taboo topics. Despite these things,
fans will find another incredible entry
into the Danganronpa mythos,
faithful to the spirit and attitude of
its visual-novel brethren. For a newcomer,
there’s a deep, rewarding
story to be had and plenty of fun
shooting maniacal bear robots in
between.
Really, isn’t that all you can ask for?