Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is a visual novel adventure video game, and the first part of a series known as Danganronpa, written by Kazutaka Kodaka and developed and published by Spike Chunsoft. It centres around a group of exceptionally talented students of a prestigious school called Hope’s Peak Academy who for reasons unknown are trapped in the school building by a sadistic robotic bear called Monokuma who claims they’re going to spend the rest of their lives there unless they commit murder and manage to get away with it, which isn’t an easy task as whenever a death occurs, the students are forced into participating in a class trial where they have to find the culprit or otherwise they’ll be the ones punished for the crime while the true killer escapes. The plot and the gameplay were both enjoyable to me, however, I wouldn’t recommend the game to everyone, as it definitely has its flaws and isn’t suitable for all audiences either.
Right off the bat, I find it important to mention that the game was made in 2010 and it’s very clear to see as there are a lot of scenes and jokes that probably wouldn’t pass the censorship today as some of them are very inappropriate or somewhat offensive. Of course, the game still has a lot of genuinely funny moments and well-written witty dialogue and comedic situations, but it’s good to keep in mind that some of the humour in it will make most people uncomfortable at times, as it simply tends to be “too much”. In some cases, it gets downright morbid, although I don’t have any complaints against that in particular since it’s to be expected of a game with this type of plot, but it’s also a thing worth mentioning. A lot of the serious scenes themselves can get morbid as well and although the blood in Danganronpa doesn’t look very realistic due to its bright pink colour, that doesn’t make the deaths or body discoveries less gruesome.
That being said, it’s not a game for children and it’s not a game for sensitive people. It portrays death and violence and tackles dark topics most of which I won’t mention as it would spoil certain plot points, but I would recommend looking up trigger warnings for people who in fact need them.
Now, with that out of the way, I’d like to focus on the good things about Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, as there are plenty, first of them being the characters. While most fans consider the cast of the second game (Danganronpa: Goodbye Despair) to be better, I’d say that the characters in Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc are pretty memorable as well and I got attached to a lot of them very quickly. That attachment is probably one of the most important things, as it allows the player to empathize with the characters, mourn them and even sympathize with the culprits after learning their motives. The game is filled with emotional moments, a few of which brought me to tears and the characters are the main reason why those scenes are so impactful. Even the protagonist, Makoto Naegi, who I initially thought I would hate as he starts out as everything I usually despise in protagonists (overly optimistic, yet lacks confidence in himself but only sees the best in others to the point of becoming kind of a pushover, rather generic and keeps emphasizing on how painfully average he is), has won a special place in my heart. Though at first, he might come off as a little annoying, his kindness and optimism are genuine and honestly endearing and still don’t make his reactions to everything too unrealistic. He grows as a character throughout the game and it makes the player root for him as he becomes someone worthy of being the hero of the story towards the end. I definitely finished the game with a much better impression of him than I first got.
Characters of course aren’t everything, as what’s just as important is the actual plot and gameplay, which consists of three parts: daily life – during which the characters interact with each other, form friendships and with every chapter slowly discover more hints and get closer to unravelling the mystery shrouding the school, an investigation – a part that follows a body discovery during which the player has to examine the crime scene, gather evidence, talk to potential witnesses and suspects and search through places that might be connected to the murder in order to get a clearer picture of what could have happened and to be able to play through the last and arguably the most fun part – the class trial. The class trials are when the player finally gets to solve the mystery by presenting the collected evidence, disproving false statements and occasionally playing a few minigames (though I feel like they’re a bit lacking in Trigger Happy Havoc and can’t compare to for example Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair’s Logic Dive in which the player basically gets to surf inside of the protagonist’s mind). It’s also when the characters are at their best and their worst, the interactions go from hilarious to heartbreaking and at the end, the culprit reveals their motive which is usually a very interesting thing to find out. I believe it brings quite a lot to the story.
When it comes to the main story itself, I do have a small issue with it which is that the pace at which clues are revealed is rather slow and then in the final chapter along with the main plot twists we also get a huge so-called “info-dump”. It doesn’t bother me too much though, especially since I liked the plot twists a lot and thought they made a lot of sense and the villain, who I also won’t speak too much on as I don’t want to spoil anything aside from mentioning that I find them to be the perfect antagonist for this game, was extremely entertaining throughout the whole time.
Overall, though the game has its flaws, playing it was a great experience for me, the kind that makes me wish I could forget it just so I could play it again without knowing what’ll happen next and the sequels that came out later are just as good. I would definitely recommend it to people who enjoy darker content and aren’t bothered by more violent themes, though when getting into Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc it’s still best to expect that at times the game will try and succeed at making you feel uncomfortable, but I believe the experience is worth it regardless.