Main installments: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc | Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair | Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School | Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
Spin-offs: Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
Even ignoring the battles between hope and despair throughout the franchise, you can tell that Danganronpa really likes to ramp things up.
This installment is no exception.
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Main Game
- The fact that this time, the students go straight to planning to trap the Mastermind as early as Case 1. Granted, Kaede's attempt fails badly, but it's still awesome that she tries. That's better than any other protagonist has accomplished that early.
- Actually, she doesn't fail. She dies believing that to be the case, but Shuichi is able to finally identify the mastermind by re-visiting Rantaro's murder with the knowledge of the secret passage. If Kaede hadn't pushed Tsumugi to kill Rantaro and frame her, the Mastermind's identity would have gone forever unsolved.
- Also, Kaede maintaining everyone's resolve to escape so well that nobody commits murder to escape even after Monokuma promises the first blackened can get away without a class trial. Monokuma is forced to threaten to kill everyone if a murder does not occur within two days...and still no one kills, being willing to die together rather than betray their friends, even though there are no less than three experienced murderers among them already and Ryoma volunteers to be killed. The death happens less than an hour before the time limit runs out, and it was actually Kaede trying to kill the mastermind. Or it would have been, if not for her Death Trap failing and the mastermind committing the murder instead.
- Just before Kaede is executed, Kaito, Gonta and Tenko flat out try to fight Monokuma to prevent Kaede from being killed. Yes, it likely would have ended in all three of them dying, but they were fully prepared to throw down to save their friend.
- Even if it's all for naught, you gotta hand it to Kirumi for doing, or at least attempting, what other culprits in the franchise didn't think to do: Run like hell from her own execution.
- Maki choking Kokichi after he taunts her once again. After his numerous attempts to sew dissent among the group it's nice to see one of them finally backfire at him. The triumphant New World Order - V3
really underscores the awesomeness of this moment. - While it seems like delusional tyranny at the time, Angie smashing the Flashback Light in front of the Monokubs becomes awesome in hindsight when it's revealed that the Flashback Lights were just tools used by Tsumugi to manipulate the students with false memories, and Angie unknowingly flipped off the entirety of Team Danganronpa by destroying one.
- Monodam's Hostile Show Takeover. It doesn't last, but considering that it takes until at least Chapter 4 or 5 for the cast to inflict a significant setback on Monokuma's plans, it's quite impressive that Monodam temporarily ousted Monokuma as game master in early Chapter 3."...STEP-ASIDE, FATHER."
- Whether you like Tenko or not, it's impressive that she'd have the fortitude to infiltrate Angie's cult to protect Himiko, knowing that if she's discovered she'll piss off not only Angie and Himiko, but probably Ki-bo, Gonta and Tsumugi as well. Then when she learns what Angie is planning on doing, she has the balls to approach Maki and Shuichi alone and beg them for their help.
- Kaito punching Kokichi in the face at the beginning of Chapter Four. He may have been lying about enjoying the killing game, but he really had that one coming.
- In Chapter 4's class trial, Shuichi finally has enough of Kokichi trying to browbeat the culprit, an amnesiac Gonta, into confessing, and firmly tells him to stop, insisting that he'll be the one to convince the culprit to confess. Since Kokichi had been essentially running the entire trial as payback for Shuichi's earlier lie, it's quite impressive to see someone turn the tables on him and actually get him to shut up.
- The Reveal behind the Chapter 5 murder: Kokichi teamed up with Kaito (begrudgingly complying to save Maki from becoming the blackened), orchestrating his own death while disguising it as Kaito's murder, while disabling all surveillance and using the Exisals to keep Monokuma trapped, all as one huge Xanatos Gambit to create a murder that was even impossible for Monokuma to solve, invalidating the class trial with the purpose of destroying the killing game itself, while completely obfuscating so much as the victim of the case to all parties thanks to brilliant use of an Exisal at the class trial, with Kokichi even writing a script for Kaito to use throughout the trial. The kicker? It worked until Shuichi found a breakthrough piece of evidence in the video tape. Counts as a moment of awesome for Kaito as well, who had to ad-lib lines for Kokichi even with Kokichi's extremely accurate script of the trial. Additionally, after the truth is revealed, Kaito's final act of defiance is to die from his illness in the middle of the execution, after having properly seen space, rendering it a failed execution. He died having achieved his dream and said his proper goodbyes to his friends. When was the last time a story made you cheer for a character finally dying to a terminal illness?
- It's even more impressive when you consider the fact that, in the very next chapter, Tsumugi claims she wrote all of the characters. Yet even she didn't see any of this coming. The very characters that she created completely defeated all her expectations.
- Finding the second Back Route of the 5th trial results in an impressive Batman Gambit from Shuichi. Instead of simply showing the Electrohammer to prove someone could disable an Exisal to climb inside, he lies about the locks and poses that Maki, with her skills as the Ultimate Assassin, would have been agile enough to climb inside one while it was moving. Maki quickly interjects to prove him wrong... and in doing so, shows knowledge of the cockpit locks that she couldn't have known unless she'd been inside one.
- During Kaito's execution, Kiibo attempts to shield the other students from falling rocks, only for a rock to snap off his ahoge. This shuts off his 'inner voice', which leaves Kiibo with only his own thoughts to guide him. He comes to the conclusion that the Ultimate Academy is steeped in despair... and proceeds to upgrade himself with a laser gun and flight capacities, takes to the air and starts destroying the academy. And when the Exisals come after him, Kiibo can hold all of them off just by himself.
- Chapter 6's Argument Armament.
- Shuichi vs the audience-hijacked Keebo. Not only does Keebo look awesome in full 3D, but this is the first PTA in the series to require multiple Final Strikes, and Shuichi has an amazing Shut Up, Hannibal! accompanying every one. The battle gets more and more intense in each phase, with the voices of the audience getting faster and eventually overlapping each other to sound like a Voice of the Legion, and you still keep shooting them down.
- In a way, everything leading up to it. In order to defeat the game, everyone does all in their power to make as frustrating an ending as possible. You control Himiko and Maki just to agree with committing suicide, then intentionally fail every single prompt and minigame.
- "Together, we're gonna end Danganronpa!"
- Even if it resulted in the deaths of countless innocent teenagers, Team Danganronpa managing to plot out 52 different killing games full of dramatic twists and elaborate murders, each containing at least 14 students with unique personalities, and turning them into episodes of a reality show with a 100% approval rating across the whole world (or at least Japan) is pretty impressive.
Bonus Modes
- One event has Kaede and Miu sitting next to Byakuya in the canteen. When he tells them they can't sit with him and insults them, Miu isn't having any of it and pays him back in his own coin, refusing to leave and telling him that she's an actual genius and he's "some guy who came out of a rich dude's ballsack" and calls him a fuckface. It's both hilarious and very refreshing seeing Byakuya getting the treatment he usually gives everyone else. And when Byakuya tries to insult her back, instead of going into Shrinking Violet mode, she either ignores it or begins getting off on it.
- Miu does this again with Hiyoko, who tries insulting her as usual and Miu starts to really enjoy herself, much to Hiyoko's horror.
- Sayaka's friendship event with Hiyoko and Usami has Sayaka overhearing Hiyoko's attempt to put thumbtacks in her shoes. Rather than get angry, Sayaka instead respectfully says that they both have their own pride when it comes to the stage, leaving Hiyoko frazzled by her words.
- At the end of Chihiro's talent plan, he has gained enough courage to tell everybody his secret.
- Even more awesome when you remember that Genocide Jack attends the school, and mentioned that she would have killed Chihiro in the had she known Chihiro was a boy in the main game, which could either mean Mondo's willing to defend Chihiro from the Ultimate Murderous Fiend, or Chihiro's trained with Mondo enough to defend himself.
- Kirumi's diligent service manages to impress Byakuya, of all people.
- In a strange way, there's something impressive about Miu being so insufferable that even Junko (who enjoyed every last bit of her Cruel and Unusual Death) finds the idea of losing a game to her too despairing for her.
- If Mikan carries all of her drinks to the party that happens around her third year winter event, Hiyoko tries to bully Mikan for being late and tries to punish her by making her clean the entire place after the party all by herself. However, everybody decides to clean after the party together as they had enough of Hiyoko's bullying towards Mikan.
- Also, in one of Maki's options during her second year event, Teruteru tries to feed her and Mahiru some drugged soup but Maki is not having any of that, forcing Teruteru to make a new bowl.
- It is revealed in Izuru Kamukura's path that Chiaki Nanami actually still manages to beat him at video games from time to time. Given how wide of an ability difference his all-inclusive talent is canonically shown to have put between himself and other holders of individual talents (such as against Mukuro and Nagito), this feat is honestly ridiculous. Not only that, her win-rate against him is even increasing as their school time goes on.
- Mikan instantly sees through Kokichi's attempt to get out of the sports festival by playing sick.
- After seeing her almost effortlessly subvert the cast to her cult in the main game, seeing Mondo No-Sell Angie's attempt to convert him because she made the mistake of trying to play on his guilt over his older brother's death is cathartic as hell.
- Toko also manages to No-Sell Angie's attempts to convert her during her stories and even Angie is surprised that she, of all people, was willing to confront her about trying to convert her.
- In almost all of his events, Izuru either brushes people off or insults them. He hates being forced to socialize and only goes along with it to get it over as quickly as possible. The only two exceptions to this are Chiaki and Kaede—not only is he comparatively nice to them, he agrees to spend time with them. Those two girls not only caught the interest of the most apathetic man in the franchise, they were able to win him over.
- Celeste is having absolutely none of it when Teruteru tries getting all perverted with her after she asks for gyoza. She drops her usual calm demeanor and angrily threatens him make her gyoza, successfully scaring him into doing so.
