Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

While focusing on class trials like the first Danganronpa, Goodbye Despair introduces the "Rebuttal Showdowns" where two students duel.

In a similar manner to the series' previous game, Danganronpa 2 has two modes of gameplay; School Life, which is split into Daily Life and Deadly Life sections, and the Class Trial. In the dating sim-like "Daily Life" section, players interact with other characters and progress through the plot. Conversing with characters during "Free Time" sections earns items known as Hope Fragments, which can be exchanged for skills that can be used in the Class Trial, increasing the protagonist's skill in debates. Players earn currency known as Monocoins by finding hidden Monokuma Figures and performing well in trials. Monocoins can be exchanged for presents that can be given to other characters during Free Time segments and thus create more Hope Fragments. In the Deadly Life section, which occurs when players discover a crime scene, the player must search for evidence that will help them in the upcoming Class Trial to expose the culprit.[5][6]

The Class Trial, in which players must determine the identity of a culprit, has the same features as the previous game with new gameplay elements. Class Trials, which uses the first-person shooter genre, mostly consist of Nonstop Debates, in which players must find weaknesses in the students' discussions and shoot them with "Truth Bullets" that contradict them. Yellow "Argue Spots" and blue "Agree Spots" must be shot with a Truth Bullet, indicating someone is telling the truth. In the minigame Hangman's Gambit, players must combine matching letters appearing from both sides of the screen before they collide and combine incorrectly. Combined letters may either be destroyed or used to spell a clue. "Panic Talk Action" replaces "Bullet Time Battle", with a similar rhythmic timing gameplay mechanic used to overcome a student's mental defenses as the latter refuses to listen to logic. Controls from the last game are slightly revised; players must spell out a phrase in the correct order at the end of the section rather than firing a specific Truth Bullet. In the Closing Argument, players fill in a comic strip depicting the events of a crime; panels are selected from stocks, and must be chosen correctly, rather than being available from the start.[7][6]

New gameplay elements have been added to the Class Trial. Rebuttal Showdowns take place when a student tries to refute the player's logic. In these sections, players must slash apart their opponents' argument to gain dominance in the conversation and reveal new information before using a "Truth Blade" to strike the correct weak point when it appears. Logic Dive is a snowboarding minigame in which players steer themselves down a logical tube while avoiding obstacles and pitfalls, and occasionally choosing between multiple routes based on a question to arrive at a logical conclusion. The final segment Spot Select requires players to examine an image and indicate an important spot.[7][6]

Besides the Class Trials and Daily Event, Goodbye Despair also offers several mini-games. Players always have access to a virtual pet, accessed from the pause menu, that grows as players walk in the game and earns players rewards based on its Hope and Despair statistics. Magical Girl Miracle☆Monomi is a minigame in which players control Monomi, a mentor of the main characters, who fights waves of monsters. Island Mode, which is available after clearing the game once, is an alternative mode in which the students are not subjected to Monokuma's killing game and aim to make friends with each other and earn Hope Fragments, allowing players to bond with characters more easily than in the main story mode. Danganronpa IF, a short story depicting an alternative storyline for Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, is also unlocked after clearing the game once.[8][6]

In Goodbye Despair, players control new protagonist Hajime Hinata, an amnesiac boy who has just become one of Hope's Peak Academy's "Ultimate" students alongside fifteen others, including the calm but mentally unstable Lucky Student Nagito Komaeda and the seemingly ordinary and quiet Gamer Chiaki Nanami . The game is set on a remote tropical island called Jabberwock Island, where they have been marooned by their alleged teacher, a small, rabbit-like mascot named Usami, who claims it to be a field trip. However, the school's principal Monokuma hijacks the trip and usurps Usami’s authority, reducing her to a powerless mascot named Monomi. He then announces the students cannot leave the island unless they participate in the Killing Game, a period of time in which students murder one or two of their classmates and attempt to get away with it. After the discovery of a body and an investigation is performed, the students deliberate the identity of the murderer in a Class Trial. If the students can identify a murderer in a Class Trial and vote accordingly, that culprit is executed, but if they make the wrong assumption the killer goes free whilst everyone else is sentenced to death.

Several students are murdered over the course of the game, and, through Hajime's investigation, the killers are discovered and executed. Byakuya Togami (later revealed to be the Ultimate Impostor) is inadvertently killed by Chef Teruteru Hanamura in an attempt to stop Nagito from committing the first murder. Photographer Mahiru Koizumi is killed by swordswoman Peko Pekoyama, to prevent yakuza Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu from killing her to avenge his sister. Musician Ibuki Mioda and traditional dancer Hiyoko Saionji are killed by nurse Mikan Tsumiki as she was under the effects of Despair Disease. Team Manager Nekomaru Nidai is killed by animal breeder Gundham Tanaka in an honorable duel to prevent the rest of the students starving to death. As these murders occur, new areas of the islands are discovered and the group becomes aware of an organization monitoring them, the "Future Foundation". Nagito, through a convoluted process, arranges his own death so that Chiaki is considered his killer, and executed. During the graduation, it is learnt that she is actually an AI program created by the late Chihiro Fujisaki to observe and protect the students during the Future Foundation's experiment. After Chiaki's death, Hajime recovers a memory of arriving at the islands with Nagito, who had transplanted the arm of a woman, Junko Enoshima. As reality falls apart around him, Hajime learns that Nagito and his fellow students are surviving members of Ultimate Despair, a group Junko led, whose terrorist actions led to a crisis known as The Biggest, Most Awful, Most Tragic Event in Human History, also known The Tragedy, which caused societal collapse worldwide.

The Future Foundation has been attempting to undo Ultimate Despair's damage. Makoto Naegi, the previous game's protagonist and survivor who now works for the Future Foundation along with his surviving classmates, captured the surviving members but, rather than executing them, decided to rehabilitate them by erasing their memories and putting them in a virtual reality program. During the Graduation Ceremony, Makoto enters the virtual reality before the survivors can choose to Graduate. He warns Hajime that an artificial intelligence copy of Junko has hijacked their program and is trying to manipulate events to possess the bodies of the deceased students, which are still intact in the real world, once the surviving students "graduate". Alter Ego Junko's ultimate plan is to download herself into every person on the planet. Makoto tells Hajime if the class votes not to graduate and instead hit the “Graduate” and “Repeat” buttons simultaneously, the system will shutdown, reset and purge Alter Ego Junko. Since there aren’t enough students to activate the shutdown, Makoto’s fellow survivors and friends from the previous game Kyoko Kirigiri and the real Byakuya Togami also enter to allow the shutdown to happen.

Junko attempts to deter Hajime by revealing he is Izuru Kamukura, the leader of Ultimate Despair. The other students hesitate, afraid of reverting to their original personalities, but with the help and encouragement of Chiaki's essence, Hajime awakens to his true talent as the Ultimate Hope. Having the courage to create the future, he persuades the other surviving students, Fuyuhiko, princess Sonia Nevermind, mechanic Kazuichi Soda, and gymnast Akane Owari to refuse graduation, proposing that they create a future in which they do not have to live in despair. Hajime, Makoto and the others reset the system, which revives Usami who uses her power to delete Alter Ego Junko. As the digital world shuts down, the survivors promise to retain their memories.

In the epilogue, Makoto and his friends awaken in the real world and depart the island on a ship. Makoto is confident the students will find a way to revive their friends and that they too can create their futures. Kyoko and Byakuya wish him luck on explaining these events to their superiors in the Future Foundation as the three leave the island. Hajime, having also returned to the real world with the others, watches them depart as he resolves to keep living his life as who he now is.

After the release of the first Danganronpa game, there were no plans for a sequel, and the game's development team was split up to work on other projects. As a result, writer Kazutaka Kodaka was attracted to the idea of creating the novel Danganronpa Zero, which he decided to write after consulting producer Terasawa. While writing Zero, Kodaka was approached by Terasawa with the idea of writing a sequel, and took on writing for both Zero and Goodbye Despair concurrently, eventually finishing with the former in October 2011. Kodaka considers the novels needed more structuring work than the game. As Zero foreshadows events of Goodbye Despair, Kodaka recommends gamers read Zero before playing the sequel.[9] The writer attempted to create unique storytelling methods for Goodbye Despair; this is more relevant to the second half of the story, in which Hajime starts playing a video game when the player is already controlling Hajime. In retrospect, Kodaka felt proud of the way the game's segments were developed. While he personally prefers the original Danganronpa over the second one, Kodaka felt more emotionally moved by the second half of Goodbye Despair.[10]

To bring more variety to the sequel, Monokuma was given a counterpart named Monomi (or Usami). Kodaka also said the islands were used to give players more content to explore, comparing the sequel to the television series Lost in terms of amount of plot twists and how different the narrative is. Kodaka said characters like Nagito, Byakuya and Gundham were created to confuse returning players due to their similarities with characters from previous games. However, he still feels he made the cast more human as the story progresses.[11] The characters were designed by Rui Komatsuzaki. In early sketches, Hajime's design differed from those used for the series; his hair was originally meant to be longer, and at one point, he was designed to be wearing glasses.[12] He was the earliest designed the character which generated a major contrast between his white clothing to Nagito's dark clothing.[13]

Both Megumi Ogata (left) and Bryce Papenbrook (right) voiced both Nagito Komaeda and Makoto Naegi in Japanese and English versions, respectively.

Nagito was made to be an absolute rival to Hajime, with a relationship similar to the one between the Joker and Batman in Batman (1989). Some traits of Nagito ended up making players believe the characters Makoto Naegi and Nagito Komaeda may be the same person, Makoto and Nagito were both voiced by female actor Megumi Ogata. The name "Nagito Komaeda" was conceived as an anagram for "Naegi Makoto da" ("I am Makoto Naegi") to infer it is a pseudonym.[14] Although the truth is that Nagito is a twisted version of Makoto Naegi, where instead of being a protagonist, he is an antagonist. Ogata had problems playing Nagito because she did not understand him. Komaeda was introduced with the same Lucky Talent as Makoto Naegi but the staff considered them opposites based on their ideals of "hope". There was a lack of pre-release promotion materials for the original version of Goodbye Despair in its release year. This surprised Ogata because the anagram had been kept secret from the other developers and voice actors, including Ogata.[15]

Other characters include the heroine Chiaki Nanami with whom Hajime would often interact and bond romantically; Kodaka said the relationship between Makoto and Kyoko Kirigiri, a skilled detective and supporting character from the previous game, was meant to help the player solve cases.[16] In the Japanese version of the game, Hajime was voiced by Minami Takayama, famous for voicing the main character of the detective manga Case Closed; the staff put a reference to her career in the snowboarding minigame of Goodbye Despair as Jimmy Kudo often surfs a turbo skateboard.[17] Junko's resurrection was left to the player's interpretation. Kodaka compared her to comic book villains like the Joker and Magneto who always survive. Kodaka said Junko can be killed and that she may be the strongest villain he ever created.[18]

Danganronpa 2 was first released for the PlayStation Portable in Japan on July 26, 2012. A limited edition that includes a Monokuma PSP pouch, an art booklet, a soundtrack and audio commentary CD, keychains and badges, and a download code for a custom theme was available.[19] A compilation of the game and its predecessor, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, titled Danganronpa 1・2 Reload, with new touch controls and high resolution graphics, was released in Japan for the PlayStation Vita on October 10, 2013.[20][21]

After releasing the Vita remake of the first game in North America and Europe in February 2014, NIS America released the sequel under the name Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair in Western territories in September 2014.[22][23][24] Localization member Robert Schiotis said finding a voice actor for Nagito in the English-language version proved challenging because he is meant to clash with Makoto's ideals. Bryce Papenbrook voiced both characters, making the connections between them more interesting according to localization staff.[25] Johnny Yong Bosch took the role of Hajime; Bosch found being immersed in Hinata's role difficult due to the lack of artwork depicting him. When a Danganronpa player asked him to sign a copy of Goodbye Despair, Bosch could better understand the character he voiced.[26] As well as a standard edition, a limited edition was released via NIS America's online store, including an art book, soundtrack CD, stickers, Monokuma medals, and a pair of sunglasses.[27] Danganronpa 1・2 Reload was also released in North America and Europe for PlayStation 4 in March 2017.[28] An enhanced version for Android and iOS, under the name Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair Anniversary Edition, was released on August 20, 2020.[29] This version features the gallery mode, allowing players to replay the character voices and view event illustrations. During E3 2021, it was announced that this version of the game will also be released for the Nintendo Switch in 2021, both as part of the Danganronpa Decadence bundle, as well as separately.[30] It was also released for Xbox One and Windows via Microsoft Store on May 10, 2022. It was made available through Xbox Game Pass on the same day.[31]

Several manga publications based on Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair have been conceived. A direct adaptation began serialization in Enterbrain's Famitsu Comic Clear magazine from December 10, 2012. The spin-off manga Dangan Island - Kokoro Tokonatsu Kokoronpa♪, Chō-Kōkō-Kyū no Kōun to Kibō to Zetsubō, and Nanami Chiaki no Sayonara Zetsubō Daibōken were published by Mag Garden from October 2013.[53][54] Another spin-off, Nangoku Zetsubo Carnival!, was serialized in GA Bunko's magazine from April 2013. Other two include 4Koma Kings and Comic Anthology compilations by various artists. Dark Horse Comics has released the Chō-Kōkō-Kyū no Kōun to Kibō to Zetsubō manga under the title Danganronpa 2: Ultimate Luck and Hope and Despair in North America on September 15, 2018.[55] They also published the first of three volumes of the Super Danganronpa 2: Sayonara Zetsubou Gakuen manga, as Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair in North America, on March 25, 2020.[56][57]

Monomi appears at the end of the final episode of the first game's 2013 anime television adaptation Danganronpa: The Animation.[58] An anime adaptation of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair was initially planned but the producers instead chose to make an original anime series titled Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, which aired between July and September 2016. The series' second part Despair Arc focuses on the characters of Goodbye Despair prior to the events of the first game.[59][60]

A Monomi costume is available in the Japanese PS Vita and PlayStation 3 versions of Terraria.[61] Downloadable outfits based on Monokuma and Monomi also appear in the Super Sonico game Motto! SoniComi.[62]

• Official website
• Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair at The Visual Novel Database