Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls | |
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Developer(s) | Spike Chunsoft |
Publisher(s) | Spike Chunsoft [lower-alpha 1] |
Director(s) |
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Producer(s) |
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Programmer(s) | Shigeru Inoue |
Artist(s) |
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Writer(s) |
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Composer(s) | Masafumi Takada |
Series | Danganronpa |
Platform(s) | PlayStation Vita, PlayStation 4, Windows |
Release | |
Genre(s) | Action-adventure |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls [lower-alpha 2] is an action-adventure video game developed by Spike Chunsoft for PlayStation Vita. The game is the first spin-off of the Danganronpa series of visual novel games, set between the events of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair . [2] The game was released in Japan on September 25, 2014, and was released by NIS America in North America on September 1, 2015, in Europe on September 4, 2015, and in Australia on September 10, 2015. [3] [4] The game was released on PlayStation 4 and Windows worldwide in June 2017. [5]
A manga adaptation/continuation of the game, Genocider Mode , was published by Kadokawa Shoten and Dark Horse Comics across two separate runs from January 27, 2015 to October 13, 2017, respectively written and illustrated by Machika Minami and Touya Hajime, while an anime sequel, "Ultra Despair Girls", aired on August 22, 2016 as the seventh episode of Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School .
Unlike the visual novel gameplay of the previous games, Ultra Despair Girls is a third-person adventure game with horror elements, in which players control Komaru Naegi as she tries to survive in a city overrun by Monokuma robots. [2] Komaru is armed with a megaphone-shaped Hacking Gun that can use various types of Truth Bullets, which are unlocked as the game progresses. Using the Hacking Gun, Komaru can perform various actions, such as attacking enemies, taking control of them, activating certain machinery, or scanning the environment for clues or hidden items. [6]
During the course of the game, Komaru is also assisted by the first game's Toko Fukawa, who uses a stun gun to switch over to her split personality, the serial killer Genocide Jill. When the stun gun is charged up, players can temporarily take control of Jill, who can attack with razor-sharp scissors. Attacking enemies fills up the "Scissor Fever" gauge, allowing Jill to perform special attacks to instantly defeat multiple enemies. [7] Monocoins earned from defeating enemies can be used to purchase upgrades for both Komaru's Hacking Gun and Jill's scissors, and various skills can be unlocked and equipped, such as extended health. The game features three difficulty settings, with harder difficulties containing less ammunition and fewer opportunities to use Jill's assistance. [8]
The game takes place half a year after the events of the first game, prior to the events of the second game. Protagonist Komaru Naegi, the younger sister of the first game's protagonist, Makoto Naegi, has spent the past year locked inside an apartment complex in Towa City, unaware of the events that have gone on in the outside world. She is forced to flee from an attack from deadly Monokuma robots and comes across Future Foundation member and survivor of the first killing game Byakuya Togami, who gives Komaru a special Hacking Gun that can fight against the robots and orders her to escape the city. However, Komaru's escape fails and she is captured by a group of children known as the Warriors of Hope, who seek to create a utopia for children by murdering all the adults with their robots. They force Komaru to join their "Demon Hunting" game and drop her into the city, where she is saved by homicidal maniac Genocide Jill, who soon reverts to her true self, Toko Fukawa, a survivor of Hope's Peak High School's killing game alongside Byakuya and Makoto and who currently works as an intern of Future Foundation despite her status as a survivor. Toko can now control Jill with a stun gun. Learning that Byakuya may have been kidnapped by the Warriors of Hope, Toko agrees to team up with Komaru to find Byakuya and escape the city. Along the way they encounter a resistance group, run by Haiji Towa, and meet a white bear robot named Shirokuma.
Komaru and Toko learn that the Warriors of Hope worship Junko Enoshima, the Ultimate Despair responsible for bringing about the end of the world, and seek to create a successor. Confronting the group's leader, Monaca Towa, and defeating their advisor Kurokuma, Komaru is given the choice of destroying the Monokuma Controller, which would stop all the robots but at the cost of sacrificing all the children wearing Monokuma Kid masks. Monaca then reveals that her goal is to turn Komaru into the next Junko Enoshima, trying to coerce her into destroying the controller by allegedly revealing her parents were personally killed by her. However, Toko slaps some sense into her and together they overcome despair in order to defeat an out-of-control mech. After rescuing Byakuya, Komaru and Toko decide to stay behind in Towa City to help out those who need it. Meanwhile, as Monaca is inevitably rescued by the Servant, who encourages her to become the next Junko herself, it is revealed that both Shirokuma and Kurokuma were controlled by copies of the real Junko's AI, who has Izuru Kamukura carry out the next part of her plan. [2] [9]
However, if Komaru chooses to destroy the controller before learning its true purpose, the Bad Ending is triggered and all of the Monokuma Kids are killed as their masks explode. Komaru becomes the hero of the resistance, but she feels extremely guilty for what she has done.
With the two previous entries in the Danganronpa series being visual novel adventure games, members of Spike Chunsoft wanted to develop a spin-off game that was more action-oriented. [10] One of the proponents for a spin-off game was series writer Kazutaka Kodaka; [11] he had wanted to write a story of two characters running away from despair, and he felt that the easiest way to do this was through an action game that necessitated movement. [12] When Spike Chunsoft green-lit the proposal, they let Kodaka have free rein to write the narrative for Ultra Despair Girls. [13] Kodaka stated that he spent an equal amount of time writing the dialogue and backstories for the protagonists (originally developed for Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc ) as he did for the antagonists. [14] One aspect of Ultra Despair Girls that the development team was worried about was whether the shift in gameplay genres would alienate players who were not good at action games. They decided to add the mechanic of switching between characters, as Genocide Jill would make the game significantly easier. [13]
Ultra Despair Girls was announced at a Sony Computer Entertainment press conference in September 2013, where the first gameplay trailer was shown; the trailer also teased the third entry in the series. [15] It was then released in Japan on September 25, 2014. [16] To promote the game, Spike Chunsoft offered several pre-order bonuses, including digital wallpapers, mousepads, [17] and a smartphone stand. [16] Additional merchandise was also offered at Comiket. [18] NIS America localized and published the international versions of the game. [19] It was released in North America on September 1, 2015, in Europe on September 4, and in Australia on September 10. [20] NIS America offered a limited edition of the game, which included a concept art book, the game's soundtrack, and other collector's items. [21] NIS America released the game for PlayStation 4 in North America and Europe in Summer 2017. [5]
The game has received two manga adaptations. A manga by Machika Minami, titled Zettai Zetsubō Shōjo: Danganronpa Another Episode: Genocider Mode , began serialization in Kadokawa Shoten's Dengeki Maoh magazine from January 2015. A second manga by Hajime Toya debuted in Kadokawa Shoten's Famitsu Comic Clear magazine in February 2015, [22] and was serialized until July 2017. [23] Two comic anthologies by various artists were released on January 24, 2015, and May 25, 2015, respectively. [24] [25]
An Ultra Despair Girls mobile app featuring Komaru Naegi was released for Android in Japan in August 2015. The app allows users to manage their smartphone files and cache, and Komaru's expression will change depending on the amount of storage used. [26]
On August 22, 2016, an anime sequel to the game, written by Yuichiro Higashide and directed by Yohei Fukui, was broadcast as the seventh episode of Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School , following Monaca Towa appearing in a recurring role in the Future Arc , with a further epilogue to the game being included at the conclusion of the Hope Arc . [27]
In November 2017, Spike Chunsoft began hiring staff for a new Danganronpa game described as a sequel to Ultra Despair Girls. [28] In July 2020, the franchise's publishing rights outside of Japan were transferred from NIS America to Spike Chunsoft. [29]
This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (February 2019) |
Aggregator | Score |
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Metacritic | VITA: 72/100 [30] PS4: 67/100 [31] |
Publication | Score |
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Destructoid | 6.5/10 [32] |
Famitsu | 35/40 [33] [34] |
Game Informer | 5.5/10 [35] |
GameSpot | 7/10 [36] |
Hardcore Gamer | 4/5 [37] |
VentureBeat | 85/100 [38] |
Ultra Despair Girls received "mixed or average" reviews from critics. At Metacritic, which assigns a normalised rating out of 100 to reviews from mainstream publications, the game received an average score of 72, based on 35 reviews. [30] The game sold a total of 70,596 copies on the PlayStation Vita during its first week on sale in Japan and was the third best-selling game of the week. [39] The PS4 version sold a total of 1,810 copies during its first week on sale in Japan and failed to reach the sales charts. [39] The Steam release had an estimated total of 32,000 players by July 2018. [40]
The game has sold a total of 128,559 copies in Japan (PS Vita: 123,278 copies/PS4: 5,281 copies). [41]
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is a visual novel adventure game developed and published by Spike for the PlayStation Portable. The first installment in the Danganronpa series, it was originally released in Japan in November 2010. It was ported to Android and iOS in August 2012. NIS America localized and published the game internationally on PlayStation consoles.
Danganronpa: The Animation is an anime television series produced by Lerche, based on Spike Chunsoft's 2010 visual novel Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. The thirteen episode adaptation aired on MBS' Animeism programming block between July and September 2013. The series is licensed by Crunchyroll in the English-speaking regions of North America, Australia and United Kingdom and Muse Communication in Asia-Pacific. The series was succeeded by an anime-original sequel to the game series, Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, which aired in 2016.
Danganronpa is a Japanese video game franchise created by Kazutaka Kodaka and developed and owned by Spike Chunsoft. The series primarily surrounds various groups of apparent high-school students who are forced into murdering each other by a robotic teddy bear named Monokuma. Gameplay features a mix of adventure, visual novel, detective and dating simulator elements. The first game, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, was released for the PlayStation Portable in 2010.
Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is a 2012 visual novel developed by Spike Chunsoft. It is the second game in the Danganronpa franchise following Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (2010). It was first released in Japan for PlayStation Portable in July 2012, and a port for PlayStation Vita was released in Japan in October 2013. NIS America released the game worldwide in September 2014; a port for PC was released in April 2016 and a bundle for PlayStation 4 and Playstation Vita called Danganronpa 1-2 Reload, also containing the first Danganronpa game, was released in March 2017. An enhanced version with the subtitle Anniversary Edition was released for Android and iOS in August 2020, for Nintendo Switch in November 2021, and for Microsoft Windows and Xbox One May 2022.
Monokuma is a fictional identity adopted by several characters in the Danganronpa series, serving as the mascot and central antagonist of the series. Monokuma first appears in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc as a disguise used by Junko Enoshima during her killing game in the fictional school of Hope's Peak Academy. Monokuma was created by scenario writer Kazutaka Kodaka and designed by Rui Komatsuzaki. The identity is used primarily as a disguise for the masterminds of each game to conceal their identities while overseeing and organizing killing games, and as such has been voiced by several actors. The character has often appeared in popular culture since its inception, spawning a series of action figures and merchandise. Nobuyo Ōyama and TARAKO voice Monokuma in Japanese, while Brian Beacock provides his voice for the English versions of the games and Greg Ayres provides his voice for the English dub of Danganronpa: The Animation.
Danganronpa: Unlimited Battle is an action video game in the Danganronpa series, developed and published by Spike Chunsoft. It was released in Japan for iOS and Android platforms in early 2015, and ceased operations later that year. The gameplay involved using the touchscreen to shoot the characters from the player's team, as with billiards, towards enemies in a confined arena-like area. The game is free to play, and features in-game currency purchased through microtransactions, used to gain access to new content or get advantages in gameplay.
Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Sky is a role-playing video game developed and published by Spike Chunsoft, with assistance from tri-Ace, for the PlayStation Vita and PlayStation 4 video game consoles. It was released in Japan in December 2015 and worldwide in October 2016.
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is a visual novel developed and published by Spike Chunsoft. The game was released in Japan in January 2017 for PlayStation 4 and PlayStation Vita, and in North America and Europe by NIS America in September 2017. A Windows version was released worldwide on the same date. An enhanced version of V3 with the subtitle Anniversary Edition was released for Nintendo Switch in Japan in November 2021, and worldwide in December 2021. This improved version was also released for Android and iOS in April 2022, and for Windows 10 and Xbox One in September 2022.
Makoto Naegi is a fictional character introduced as the protagonist of the 2010 visual novel adventure game Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc by Spike Chunsoft. A fairly optimistic but otherwise average student who is selected in a raffle to enroll in Hope's Peak Academy as the "Ultimate Lucky Student", Makoto finds himself before a remote-controlled robotic stuffed bear named Monokuma upon entering the academy, who states that he and his fellow students will be imprisoned in the academy for the rest of their lives unless one of them becomes "the blackened" and murders another without being found out by the other students, prompting the character to solve crimes. Makoto returns in the game's sequels and in multiple adaptations featuring him in new story arcs, most notably in Lerche's 2016 anime series Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School, as a member of an organization known as the Future Foundation that seeks to take his life in a new killing game.
Junko Enoshima is a fictional character and the main antagonist of Spike Chunsoft's Danganronpa series. Featured as the mastermind in the series' first two games as the true identity of Monokuma, in the spin-off Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls in the guises of Shirokuma and Kurokuma, and in the prequel light novel Danganronpa Zero and anime Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School: Despair Arc, serving as the protagonist of the former as the Ultimate Analyst, Ryōko Otonashi. Junko is a student of Hope's Peak Academy and is the Ultimate Fashionista, a charismatic and hyperintelligent model of gyaru fashion who, along with her fraternal twin sister and body double Mukuro Ikusaba, forms the Ultimate Despair, ultimately bringing about the end of civilization through a movement known as "The Tragedy". In Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Junko arranges a killing game between her former classmates to test their metrics for hope and despair, counting herself and Mukuro as participants, before having her consciousness converted into an artificial intelligence known as Alter Ego Junko on her death, left to Izuru Kamukura to continue her plans along with his own, in Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair.
Kyoko Kirigiri is a fictional character from the Spike Chunsoft visual novel action-adventure game series Danganronpa. She was introduced in the 2010 game Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc as a high school student and the "Ultimate ???" of Hope's Peak Academy. Kyoko finds herself sealed within the building alongside her classmates, who are told by a robot named Monokuma that can only leave the school if they commit a murder and successfully evade conviction in the ensuing class trial. By the end of the game, Kyoko is revealed to be the "Ultimate Detective". Despite being initially distant to the cast, Kyoko befriends Makoto Naegi and they join forces to solve class trials and discover the identity of the mastermind behind the killing game. Kyoko Kirigiri reappears in other Danganronpa titles and sequels, most notably in the 2012 sequel Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair as a member of the Future Foundation, the 2017 game Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony as an apparition of the mastermind in the final trial, the 2016 anime series Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School and the spin-off video game Kirigiri Sou as a supporting character, as well in the series of prequel light novels Danganronpa: Kirigiri (2013–2020), which center on her childhood and rise through the Detective Shelf Collection (DSC), as she deals with new cases with her assistant Yui Samidare.
Nagito Komaeda, also known as The Servant, is a fictional character introduced in the 2012 Spike Chunsoft visual novel action adventure game Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair. Nagito is a high school student from Hope's Peak Academy, holding the title of "Ultimate Lucky Student" due to his supernatural luck. He is first seen in the game's beginning when meeting the protagonist Hajime Hinata as they and multiple other students find themselves trapped in a series of tropical islands. Initially presenting a caring personality, Nagito shows his true maniacal and hope-obsessed demeanor when a bear-like robot, Monokuma, orders the students to participate in a killing game if they want to leave the islands, with Nagito violently encouraging the killing game's progress. Under the guise of the Servant, Nagito returns in Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls as the secondary antagonist.
Cyber Danganronpa VR: The Class Trial is a free-to-play virtual reality tech demo in the Danganronpa series, developed and published by Spike Chunsoft for the PlayStation 4 for use with the PlayStation VR virtual reality headset. It was produced by Yoshinori Terasawa at Spike Chunsoft, who was inspired to create the game after playing Bandai Namco Entertainment's Summer Lesson.
Ultra Despair Girls: Danganronpa AE − Genocider Mode, is a Japanese manga series based on Spike Chunsoft's 2014 video game, Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls. It was published by Kadokawa Shoten in the magazine Dengeki Maoh and the webtoon platform Famitsu Comic Clear from January 27, 2015, to October 13, 2017, and has been collected in five tankōbon volumes across two separate runs respectively written and illustrated by Machika Minami and Touya Hajime. Genocider Mode retells the game's events and those of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc from the perspectives of Toko Fukawa and Genocide Jack/Jill, elaborating upon their relationships with Byakuya Togami, Komaru Naegi, and the Servant.
Rui Komatsuzaki is a Japanese illustrator and character designer. He is best known for designing and characterizing the cast members from the visual novel adventure games Danganronpa and the anime series Akudama Drive.
Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp is a role-playing video game with board game elements, developed and published by Spike Chunsoft for the Nintendo Switch in late 2021, with Android, iOS, PlayStation 4, and Windows versions released in 2022. The game, a spin-off installment in the Danganronpa visual novel series, is an expanded version of two side-modes from Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony (2017), and was released digitally as a standalone game and physically through the game compilation Danganronpa Decadence, as a part of celebrations for the 10th anniversary of the Danganronpa series.
Danganronpa is an adventure visual novel video game franchise created by Spike Chunsoft. The series follows groups of high school students who are trapped in an enclosed area, with the only way to escape being to murder a fellow student and not be caught in a subsequent investigation and trial. The music of Danganronpa comprises seven soundtrack albums, as well as numerous singles, mini albums, and other music releases. The main composer for the series is Masafumi Takada, who has composed for all of the series' soundtracks and has also released many of them on his label, Sound Prestige Records. Takada has been aided with the franchise's music by various artists, including other composers, lyricists, and singers.