Game Analysis (Game Mechanics): Dangan Ronpa

My attention's being caught by a game that seems to be a mix of Battle Royal and the Ace Attorney series. This is Dangan Ronpa: Academy of Hope and High School Students of Despair!

This is a game described by the publisher as a "High-Speed Mystery Action Adventure", which translates to us as a murder mystery visual novel with more of an emphasis on faster gameplay.

WARNING: SPOILERS UNDER THE CUT

There are two types of difficulty for this game: Logic and Action. Both come in Friendly, Lenient, and Malicious levels.

Logic difficulty affects the choices that are made available to the player when it comes to figuring out the mysteries. A lower difficulty setting will filter out more choices.

Action difficulty comes into play during the trial sections. A higher setting will make weak points fly by faster, your scope shakier and more difficult to aim, and give you a likelier possibility to make the wrong choice.

The game has a six chapters, not counting the prologue or epilogue. Each chapter is divided into three distinct phases: Exposition, Investigation, and School Trial.

Exposition:

During the exposition, you mostly get story and even instances to socialize with other characters and get to know them more by spending your "Free Activity" periods with them and giving them presents. You can get these presents by using coins found in the environment during your exploration of the school on a machine in the lobby. This phase always ends with murder being discovered.

Investigation:

Much like in the Ace Attorney series, you get mostly free reign over your exploration of the school in order to talk to characters and find evidence by searching the environment. This phase ends once you've had all the necessary conversations and found all the evidence needed for the case.

School Trial:

This is where all the fast-pacing parts of the game happen! During school trials, you have to work together with other characters to find the true culprit.

There are four types of mini-games that occur during the trial. These are Non-Stop Debate, Flashing Anagram, Climax Inference, and Machine-Gun Talk Battle.

Non-Stop Debate

In this mode, you use your scope to aim. Your gun's cylinder will be loaded with multiple Evidence Bullets (more bullets at higher difficulty settings of course). You have to cycle through them and shoot the correct Weak Point-- lies or contradictions in other characters arguments-- in order to break an argument. Not being able to match these two correctly will harm your reputation and decrease your Expression Meter. You get scored at the end of each debate section. Things that affect your score are:

• Remaining Time
• Reduces your score if you go over the entire conversation more than twice
• Later on in the game, you get a lower score for going over the conversation more than once in the highest difficulty setting.
• Slips of the Tongue
• Hitting the wrong Weak Point or using the wrong Evidence Bullet
• Skill
• Missing shots completely or overusing helpful skills

You'll fail this phase if your meter hits zero.

Flashing Anagram

During this phase, your mission is to complete an important keyword relating to the case. You have to deduct the required keyword from the flying letters and the hint letters, shooting down the letters in the correct order in order to complete the keyword. Shooting the wrong letter will damage your Expression Meter. If either the your meter or the clock reach zero, you will fail the phase.

Climax Inference

In this phase, we go over the details of the crime, step by step. Everything that happened will be presented to the player in the form of a comic, with missing panels. Your job is to choose from the "Inference Panels" laid out before you and attempt to complete the comic before time is up.

 

Problems with this phase are that the panels you choose from are all laid out on the bottom of the screen in a way that makes it difficult to tell what is happening. Some even look too much alike. Aside from that, the layout of the comic itself is pretty chaotic. In the end, you're rewarded with a slightly animated version of the comic.

Machine-Gun Talk Battle (MTB)

This is a one-on-one battle against an opponent that refuses to listen to anything you say. During this phase, your goal is to destroy arguments made by your opponent by matching a rhythm. In the beginning it's all action and no logic, since the arguments themselves are things like "You don't have any proof!" and "It wasn't me!". After you've inflicted a certain amount of damage, your opponent will come out with a Weak Point argument. You shoot those with an Evidence bullet like in regular Non Stop Debate mode. In higher difficulty settings, you have to use logic along with actions earlier on.

You have to time your button pushes to match the moments when the tempo markers reach the middle of the screen and lock onto your opponent's argument. You will destroy the argument when the next tempo marker reaches the middle of the screen and pressing the appropriate button. Doing so will inflict damage on your opponent-- failing will harm you instead. 

Getting the button presses on a row will nail you combos and make the tempo faster. Missing several times in a row make the tempo go down. As the tempo changes, so does the timing of your button pushes. 

 Do all of this within a certain amount of time and victory is yours. If your Expression Meter or time runs out, you fail.

In addition to the four main mini-game types, there are also instances in which you get timed multiple choice questions related to the case and evidence.