Roleplay / Mono Escape

Seek a Way Out!

Mono Escape is a long-running Side-Game on r/DanganRoleplay which combines various mini-games with escape room sections and features an extensive evolving narrative. In a blending of the Zero Escape franchise and Danganronpa, Monokuma abducts nine players and forces them to compete in various challenges and solve unique puzzles in order to escape his deadly game in which all of their lives are on the line.

General Tropes for the Series

• Adaptational Heroism: With the exception of Monaca, none of the Warriors of Hope act as villains, participating in the game as ordinary contestants. Downplayed in Nagisa's case as he is quite the Jerkass.
• Adaptational Villainy:
  • Yasuke Matsuda, who attempted to kill Junko in an attempt to stop her schemes in the original series, is found to be an active conspirator in her games. Season 4 does portray him in a more sympathetic light though.
  • Kazuo Tengan acts as a willing traitor to his own organization, albeit one with his own agenda.
  • Ryota Mitarai eventually becomes an active co-conspirator of Monaca's after his role in the Tragedy is revealed.
• Alternate Timeline: The games take place in one where Junko also brainwashed her classmates and their loved ones into Ultimate Despair and, rather than hosting killing games, decided to host deadly escape games to spread despair.
• And You Thought It Was a Game:
  • Generally, the contestants in the Escape game react to the first death with horror after realizing that their lives are truly in danger. This is downplayed in later seasons as more and more of the participants lack Amnesia and are perfectly aware of the nightmare that they're in.
• Anyone Can Die: Unlike most projects on the site, characters do not resurrect for the next Mono Escape, leaving fewer and fewer Danganronpa characters still alive as the seasons have gone by.
• Ascended Extra: The game allows for any canon Danganronpa character to be a participant as long as they can have custom sprites, which has allowed minor characters from outside of the games such as Daiya Owada, Natsumi Kuzuryuu, and Santa Shikiba to be full-fledged participants.
• The Atoner: Hajime, Komaru, and Ryoko all end up becoming this after escaping their games, forming a group known as Crash Keys to try and save the world from Ultimate Despair.
• Big Good: Kyosuke Munakata acts as this for much of the series, being the most proactive force fighting against Ultimate Despair behind the scenes and leaving the Future Foundation to form a group dedicated to stopping the Mono Escape games known as Free The Future.
  • Ryoko is also an example as she becomes the leader of Crash Keys in order to fix the mess that she made as Junko Enoshima.
• Crossover: A Zero-Escape-based game featuring the cast of Danganronpa.
• Deadly Game
• The Dragon: Monaca acts as one, having provided Junko with the resources to construct these games, hosting the fourth season in her absence and being one of the only members of her inner circle to remain alive.
• Dragon Ascendant: Monaca takes up this role after the sixth season with the deletion of the Junko AI.
• Dwindling Party: Each game starts off with nine or ten players and slowly kills off the cast, with some seasons killing off a player after each challenge.
• Improbable Infant Survival: Through sheer luck, every single Warrior of Hope has managed to survive their escape games.
• Killed Off for Real: Unusually for the subreddit, characters who die in these escape games are not resurrected for future installments.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: At Junko's behest, Yasuke Matsuda inflicted this on brainwashed members of Ultimate Despair to make them forget about their lives after getting involved with Hope's Peak Academy to prepare them to be contestants in the Escape Games. It gets subverted more in later seasons after his death as more and more participants enter the games with their memories intact.
• No Fourth Wall: In the first two seasons, whenever a challenge requires players to use out-of-character information, Monokuma activates a Morphogenetic Field that allows the cast to break the fourth wall. This ability was phased out after season 2 as the games became more narrative-focused.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Each season leaves at least one survivor, but only after several horrific deaths.
• Spared by the Adaptation: Several characters who died in the backstory of the series such as Yasuke Matsuda, Natsumi Kuzuryuu, and Daiya Owada are revealed to still be alive well into the Tragedy.
• Ship Tease:
  • Komaru and Hajime become inseparable partners after surviving the second game together, even co-founding Crash Keys together with Ryoko.
  • Ibuki becomes very attached to Byakuya when the two become partners in Free The Future.

Season 1: Nine Coins, Nine Purses, Nine Bears

• Asshole Victim: Ibuki notes that she doesn't feel too sorry after learning that Makoto is to be executed for winning the vote for the number nine bracelet, pointing out that Makoto was openly trying to convince everybody to vote for her to be executed before learning the truth behind the vote.
• Doom as Test Prize:
  • After Monokuma declares that he'll be holding votes for who receives the Number 9 bracelet and who would be killed off, Makoto convinces everybody to vote for him to receive the bracelet. However, it's quickly revealed that both votes are the same and Makoto is executed with the Number Nine bracelet in hand.
  • Immediately afterwards, Aoi wins the challenge for the final round, only to learn that her prize is getting to choose between blowing herself up or blowing up the rest of the survivors.
• Downer Ending: After a final game of Russian Roulette kills that kills off Hiyoko and Celeste, Ibuki discovers that the three of them had been free to leave after Aoi's Heroic Sacrifice.
• Exact Words: Used several times to tragic effect
  • First when Monokuma declares that the remaining survivors must vote for one of them to receive the Number Nine Bracelet that has traditionally given them the advantage and for one of them to be executed. After Makoto wins the vote for the Number Nine Bracelet, Monokuma reveals that both votes are the same and Makoto is killed with the Number Nine Bracelet in hand.
  • In the final round, Monokuma does a riddle where everybody in the riddle is lying and promises that whoever solves the riddle will be allowed to move on to the next round and that whoever moves on will get to escape. Hina wins, only to be told that Monokuma was lying too. She is then forced to stay behind.
  • Monokuma never tells the Final Three Contestants that the game of Russian Roulette is necessary for them to escape. Celeste and Hiyoko end up shooting themselves, unaware that they were already free to leave.
• Heroic BSoD: Ibuki goes through a serious one after learning that Hiyoko and Celeste's deaths were pointless.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Aoi chooses to blow herself up rather than sacrifice the remaining survivors.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender: The three men in the first game all die prior to the final round, leaving four female characters in the final rounds of the game.
• Sadistic Choice: After solving the final riddle, Aoi is given the choice of either blowing up her fellow contestants and getting to leave or blowing herself up.
• Ship Tease: Ibuki/Celeste are strangely shipped together in the first season.
• Sole Survivor: Ibuki Mioda is the only survivor of the First Escape Game.

Season 2: Virtue’s Last Hope

• Bratty Half-Pint: Nagisa
• Call-Back: Hajime, Komaru, and Nagisa search a room that includes several references to the previous escape game, with traces of gunk hinted to be the exploded remains of six former contestants, a videotape showing off Makoto's death in the last game, and even Hiyoko's Kimono and Corpse being found.
• Death Faked for You: Five of the contestants who were eliminated throughout the second game awaken in a chamber after being seemingly executed in incinerators after losing their challenges. This doesn't last for long as the others end up sacrificing them to escape in the end.
• Declaration of Protection: Saying it's her duty to protect him, Peko tries her hardest to save Fuyuhiko from incineration. Her gambit fails.
• Defiant to the End: Akane refuses to remain behind after losing her challenge and rushes through the door regardless. She's promptly killed by her bracelet. This ends up getting her killed quicker, as she would've been apart of the final challenge had she not violated the rules and stayed put.
  • Likewise, Fuyuhiko refuses to abandon Peko and leaps back into the room with her rather than continue on without her.
• Downer Ending: The three remaining contestants ultimately decide to save themselves by sacrificing the other five survivors.
• Driven to Suicide: Knowing that Peko is about to be executed, Fuyuhiko throws himself into the chamber with her to share in her punishment.
• Exact Words: Monokuma never states that the eliminated contestants were going to be killed if they lost. In the end, five of the eliminated contestants wake up in the final chamber and are used as part of Monokuma's final challenge.
• Heroic BSoD: Komaru goes through one after it becomes clear that there's no way out of Monokuma's Sadistic Choice between sacrificing the finalists of the Escape Game or sacrificing the Captured Eliminees. It leads her to be the first to decide to sacrifice them.
• Heroic Sacrifice: When one of the challenges comes down to him or Peko to be eliminated, Fuyuhiko attempts to pull one by refusing to continue playing so that she'll survive. Tragically, it fails when she still loses despite his attempt to throw the game.
• Kick the Dog: Nagisa never seems to miss a chance to mock the latest eliminee during his Escape Game.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Peko awakens to find herself unable to remember her past or even Fuyuhiko. She recovers just before her elimination from the game.
• Morton's Fork: Peko attempts to frame the Ultimate Ambidex Game in such a way for Komaru, Hajime, and Nagisa to save Fuyuhiko: vote Ally and they die quickly from the poison in their bracelets, vote Betray and die horribly when the Kuzuryu Family takes revenge.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Komaru's reaction after condemning five fellow contestants to their deaths in order to save her life.
• Previous Player-Character Cameo: A few show up in the Escape Room. The contestants end up finding Hiyoko's kimono, her body, a videotape of Makoto's death scene, and a fridge with containers that are implied to contain the giblets of the six contestants who exploded in Season One.
• Sadistic Choice: The final challenge of the second escape game is for Hajime, Komaru, and Nagisa to decide whether to sacrifice themselves or the contestants who had previously been eliminated from the game. Monokuma even references the first game as his inspiration for the challenge.
• Senseless Sacrifice: Fuyuhiko's decision to throw himself after Peko only results in him being captured and killed with her. In fact, had he not made his sacrifice, there could've been four survivors in the escape game instead of three,
• Ship Tease: Fuyuhiko/Peko end up competing in the second season and are quickly shipped together despite her memory loss.
• Take the Third Option: When Monokuma reveals that the three finalists in the second game must choose between sacrificing themselves or sacrificing the other contestants, the trio desperately search for a way out for all of them. Averted when Monokuma insists that he'll activate their bracelets and kill them even if they managed to find that way out.
• Take Up My Sword: At Gundham's request, Komaru becomes the new Master of the Four Dark Devas.
• Together in Death: Fuyuhiko refuses to leave Peko behind to be executed and leaps back in just in time for the room to transform into an incinerator. It's double-subverted in that they don't die quite then, but still end up dying together later.

Season 3: Mono Time Despair

• Arc Villain: Mukuro Ikusaba turns out to be the main antagonist of Season 3, having been planted in the game as a traitor with the goal of killing them all.
• Adaptational Villainy: Mukuro is significantly more malevolent than usual.
• And You Thought It Was a Game: Hiroko Hagakure keeps this attitude up after three murder scenes, only abandoning it when Mukuro comes in, shoots Nagito in the leg, and abducts him after taunting them all.
• Axe-Crazy: Mukuro
• The Bad Guy Wins: Monokuma comes out of the first two seasons with the tragic ending he wanted and without any sign of repercussion.
  • Monaca also successfully escapes in Season 6 and goes on to create a new Successor to Junko Enoshima in Season 7.
• Bittersweet Ending: Mukuro is defeated and over half the cast is able to escape, but at the cost of Sayaka's life.
• Defiant to the End: Kyoko uses her final moments to take photographs of the scene of her impending murder in order to help the others investigate it.
• Exact Words: Monokuma claims that, if nobody is murdered after a round of the Third Game's challenges, it's because the killer was the one who lost. As it turns out, the killer ended up faking their death after losing the first challenge.
• Faking the Dead: After losing a challenge, Mukuro is forced to fake her death by dressing up Celeste as her and mutilating the body with a fire axe.
• Final Boss: Mukuro ends up being one, as the final challenge ends up being an RPG battle against her.
• The Heart: Teruteru of all people becomes this with his support of keeping everyone alive and his penchant for group hugs
• Heroic Sacrifice: Sayaka performs one to take out Mukuro while she was on the verge of killing Hiroko.
• Men Are the Expendable Gender: An inversion, as all the casualties end up being female
• Parental Substitute: Hiroko becomes one for Sayaka.
• Previous Player-Character Cameo: The survivors come across Akane's corpse. Celeste's body is also used to stage Mukuro's death.
• Sadistic Choice: Mononokuma tells the contestants facing off in an RPG battle with Mukuro that they may add to their HP by sacrificing the captive Nagito and Masaru. In the end, nobody takes him up on this.
  • Mukuro sets up her own by giving Sayaka a knife and offering to let her murder Mukuro and put an early end to the challenge. She gives Sayaka the choice of either murdering her with her own hands or letting Mukuro kill Hiroko Hagakure in the challenge.
• Take the Third Option: Sayaka is given the choice of letting Mukuro kill Hiroko in the final RPG-Based Battle or of killing Mukuro with her own two hands. She chooses to self-destruct in-game, draining her HP to zero and wiping out Mukuro's remaining HP in the process.
• Take Up My Sword: Mahiru gives Sayaka her camera while preparing for her death after losing the challenge. Sayaka herself gives the camera to Hiroko after her heroic sacrifice.
• Taking You with Me: The final challenge of the Third Game provides players with the option of self-destructing and inflicting an attack that does as much damage as their total HP. Sayaka ends up using this mechanic to defeat Mukuro.
• The Only One Allowed to Defeat You: Mukuro begins to feel this way about Sayaka and goads her into trying to murder her.

Season 4: Escape Seeking Havoc

• The Bus Came Back: The Epilogue brings back every surviving character to set up future plot lines and reveal how they've been doing.
• Dead All Along: Miaya turns out to have been killed prior to the game and replaced with a robotic copy of herself.
• Early-Bird Cameo: Maki makes an appearance before her game was even released running a Future Foundation orphanage that the Warriors of Hope, and Nagito, were sent to after escaping their games.
• Final Boss: The Miaya Robot takes up this role as the final challenge pits the survivors in a fight against her.
• Heroic BSoD: Ryoko suffers a prolonged one after she learns that she's actually Junko and cuts open a comatose Soshun Marasume without knowing that he was still alive.
• Kick the Dog: The Ultimate Imposter steals points from Jataro in a challenge, leaving the child struggling to get enough points to survive the challenge.
• Origins Episode: Some of the files found throughout the facility detail a previously unseen Mono Escape that took place prior to the Tragedy where Hope's Peak Academy's Student Council was forced to compete.
• Putting the Band Back Together: With his memories restored, Masaru meets with Kotoko and Jataro to reform the Warriors of Hope and rescue Nagisa.
• Sanity Slippage: Haiji Towa starts off as a relatively cooperative and reasonable ally of the other contestants. After discovering his father's dead body and that Ryoko is a mind-wiped Junko, he goes completely mad, to the point where he tries to get everyone killed to take Ryoko out and even threatens to molest Kotoko.
• Sequel Hook: The fourth season ends on several. Including: Nagisa's abduction by the vengeful Yakuza, the appearance of AI Junko, the confirmation that there's a traitor in Future Foundation, Hiroko telling her Branch that she knows where the next Mono Escape will be held, Masaru declaring his intent to rescue Nagisa and assemble the Warriors of Hope, and Ryoko going on the run and being recruited by Hajime and Komaru for a mission to atone for their sins.
• Ship Tease: Some between Ryoko and Mondo.
• We Could Have Avoided All This: Monaca points out that, due to how the rules worked, it was perfectly possible for every contestant to escape together had they co-operated.
• Wham Episode: Season 4 starts off with a different tone, with only one death in the first 4 episodes. Then, suddenly the fifth episode ends with a whopping 4 eliminations, the sixth episode reveals Ryoko to be a mind-wiped Junko and drives Haiji insane while dividing the team, and the final episode reveals that Monaca was hosting this game and ends with only three survivors.

Season 5: Escaping Harmony

• Back for the Dead: Chihiro is brought back to act as an example of how deadly the Radical Despair Disease is.
• Big Damn Heroes: After the supposedly final challenge leaves only Ibuki, Daiya, and Nagito with cures and the three proceed towards the exit, Munakata hijacks Mechamaru to inform the others of a way for them to proceed into the final challenge to get everybody out of the game alive.
• The Bus Came Back: Ibuki, Nagito, and Chihiro all return from previous seasons as contestants. Hiroko also shows up after the game ends to recruit players into Free The Future.
• Civil War: Various lore documents detail a feud between Tengan and Munakata that emerged after Tengan arrested Chisa Yukizome for being a traitor to the organization, one that led Munakata to form a separate group with many loyalists. After the survivors escape, they are given a choice of which organization to join.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Despite her usual silliness, Ibuki proves to be a very competent player and spends most of the game with a Radical Despair Disease cure.
• Cutting the Knot: Sakura tends to use brute force to solve as many of the puzzles as possible.
• Driven to Suicide: Chihiro commits suicide in a fit of disease-induced madness. His father Taichi decides to join him in the end.
• Dwindling Party: Mostly subverted, as the new rules allow for the cast to remain alive. The minigames no longer punish losers with death, but reward the winners with a cure to the Radical Despair Disease that will kill them in the end.
• Faking Amnesia: Ibuki acts as though she believes her name to be Ayaka, even with Chihiro recognizing her. In the end, she turns out to still have her memories, having replaced Sayaka's bandmate Ayaka in the game to act as the Future Foundation's spy in the game.
• Final Boss: Another RPG fight ends the games, this time against Shirokuma and Kurokuma
  • Dual Boss
• Heroic Suicide: Taichi decides against taking revenge against Nagito and chooses to join his son in the afterlife rather than participate in a final challenge designed to leave only three survivors.
• Honor Before Reason: Sakura spends much of the final challenge targeting the dead Taichi to remove him from the competition, leaving her unprepared when the alliance of Ibuki, Nagito, and Daiya quickly eliminate her once she's done.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: Shirokuma and Kurokuma were designed as one, but Munakata allows more players to be able to join the final Battle, rendering them unable to fight back.
• Kick the Dog: Nagito feeds the dead Chihiro's arm to some piranhas in a tank, much to the group's horror.
• The Load: Hagakure acts like this, particularly in the finale when Byakuya just outright solves his puzzle for him.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Nagito receives one for feeding Chihiro's arm to piranhas.
• Previous Player-Character Cameo: Teruteru, Haiji, and Toko show up as dead bodies being used in the games.
• The Reveal: The Epilogue reveals that Chisa was innocent of Tengan's accusations and that Tengan was the true Future Foundation Traitor.
• Sacrificial Lion: Chihiro returns from the third season to be forced to commit suicide by Radical Despair Disease in the second episode.
• Surprisingly Happy Ending: Although Chihiro and Taichi are dead, Free The Future is able to rescue most of the players, leaving the game with 8 survivors.
• Take a Third Option: Daiya, Nagito, and Mechamaru choose to go off on their own rather than join the Future Foundation or Free The Future. Santa tries to join them but is reminded that the Future Foundation needs a Botanist much more than they do.
• Together in Death: Taichi chooses to reunite with his dead son rather than participate in the final challenge.
• Tomato Surprise: Mechamaru learns that he is a machine designed to believe that he was Nekomaru after finding the real one dead in a coffin.

Season 6: Mono Time Dilemma

• The Bus Came Back: Nagito and Hajime return to the game as players.
• Doom as Test Prize: Yuta's victory in a challenge ends up putting him through the Sadistic Choice of choosing whether to let Himiko burn to death or play one of two difficulties of Russian Roulette to save her.
• Evil vs. Evil: Tengan turns out to have forced Monaca into the game to take a captured Ryota Mitarai away for his own plans. After she escapes, Monaca swiftly takes revenge.
• Final Boss: Junko finally faces the survivors in a challenge at the end of the season.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Despite having wanted Hajime dead for his role in Fuyuhiko's death, Natsumi ultimately partners up with him for most of the game and the two part ways on peaceful terms.
• Heroic Sacrifice: With only one member of their group being allowed to survive, Miu ultimately chooses to drag Nagito out of the safe spot to save Kaede.
  • Given the choice of letting her die, playing a Russian Roulette game that with fifty-fifty odds that would kill Himiko if he loses, or playing a Russian Roulette game with 1-in-6 odds of surviving that would guarantee Himiko's safety, Yuta Asihina chooses to play with the 1-in-6 odds, saving Himiko at the cost of his own life.
  • With Junko's deletion, one of the survivors is forced to stay behind in the virtual world to let the others escape, with Maki ultimately volunteering.
• Killed Off for Real: The AI Junko is finally deleted in the end, removing Junko as a threat at last.
• My God, What Have I Done?: With his team having allied with Nagito's team to win a challenge that granted them the power to choose which of the other teams will be killed, Yuta decides to betray Nagito's team to save Hajime and Natsumi and is left shaken after casting the deciding vote.
• Not Quite Dead: As the game took place in a Virtual World, Nagito, Miu, Kokichi, and Yuta turn out to simply be comatose rather than dead.
• The Reveal: The V3 characters in the cast turn out to have been members of Kokichi's group DICE who infiltrated the various factions in the Post-Tragedy World. They were betrayed by an unknown member known only as FIVE.
• Sadistic Choice: The game features many as it imitates the Decision Game from Zero Time Dilemma.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Monaca gladly chooses not to join the fight against Junko and escapes from the game as soon as possible
• Series Fauxnale: Junko is erased, Tengan is arrested, Ultimate Despair collapse, and many potential Mono Escape captives are freed by Free The Future. The Warriors of Hope also successfully rescue Nagisa while most of the Mono Escape Survivors decide to retire from fighting Ultimate Despair. However, Chisa Yukizome is still missing and Monaca remains at large after forming a partnership with Ryoma Mitarai.
• Ship Tease: Himiko/Yuta
• Then Let Me Be Evil: Having been exposed for his unwitting role in the Tragedy and knowing that his future is hopeless, Mitarai allies with Monaca to restore Ultimate Despair
• Token Evil Teammate: Monaca finds herself as a player after being betrayed by Tengan.
• Villain: Exit, Stage Left: Monaca pulls this off prior to the final challenge.

Season 7: New Coins, New Purses, New Bears V 2

• Affably Evil: Most of the Monokubs aren't particularly malicious, with the exceptions of Monokid, who dies early, and Monosuke, who just keeps rubbing Mahiru's death in Sato's face.
• Amnesiacs are Innocent: The ever-forgetful Monotaro shows no malice to the players and even forgets that he's supposed to be the villain after his siblings are all dead. Sato even decides to bring Monotaro with her when she was trying to escape.
• Brainwashed and Crazy: Sato's fate in the finale, as she is forced to become the new Ultimate Despair.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Despite their antics, the Monokubs prove to be deadly if push comes to shove, with even Juzo reluctantly to try fighting them after seeing how effectively Monodam sliced Kanon to pieces.
• Decoy Antagonist: Realizing that too many players already suspect the awful truth, Alter Ego is brought into the game to impersonate the diseased Kanon and act as though she was the true mastermind.
• Doomed by Canon: A prologue establishes from the start that only one player was ever going to be escaping.
• Downer Beginning: The Season begins with a prologue where Byakuya, Ibuki, and Kaede investigate the site of the season's Mono Escape, identifying eight victims.
• Downer Ending: Sato is the only survivor and is brainwashed to become the new Ultimate Despair as she tries to leave.
• Dwindling Party: The Monokubs fall into this as well, getting themselves killed through various hijinks
• Dying as Yourself: Monodam chooses to stay behind and be blown up to atone for having killed Monosuke and begun a bully towards Monotaro.
• Dying Declaration of Love: Izayoi makes one towards Ruruka before shooting himself in Russian Roulette.
• The Extremist Was Right: Shuichi plays a particularly ruthless game, wanting everybody to die out of a belief that the survivor is meant to become Junko's successor. He proves to be right in the end.
• Fake Memories: Kaito turns out to be a random teenager experimented on by Tengan in order to create an Ultimate, with there having never been a real Kaito Momota.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Sato, a girl who wasn't even important enough to receive a first name, is the one who wins the game and becomes the new Ultimate Despair.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Finding himself in a game of Russian Roulette with Ruruka, Izayoi decides to shoot himself with the remaining bullets.
• Historical Villain Upgrade: In the epilogue, the brainwashed Sato decides to do this with herself and Shuichi, editing the next season of Mono Escape to make herself look like the true mastermind and him look like her accomplice.
• Horrifying the Horror: Despite being rather deadly in his own right, Monosuke can't seem to get shaken whenever Sato threatens him over his petty attempts to bully her.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: Sato suffers from this, having been experimented on to the point where she forgot her own name.
• Noodle Incident: After a challenge had to be scrapped in real life due to complications, the game ends with one of the teams shocked at the miraculous strategy they pulled off to win.
• Not So Harmless: While most of the Monokubs don't show it, Monodam and Monotaro show themselves to be deadly when Monodam slices an angry Kanon to pieces with enough speed to give Juzo pause and a hijacked Monotaro is used as a weapon to execute losing players in the final challenge.
• Only One Name: Even Sato and the killing game hosts have no idea what Sato's first name is.
• Platonic Life-Partners: Shuichi and Sato form a strong partnership throughout the game.
• Punch-Clock Villain: Alter Ego shows up as one, having been designed by Chihiro for Ultimate Depair's use and remaining in their control despite a lack of any malice.
• Retool: The season makes use of elements from the first Zero Escape game that the first season didn't use to their full potential.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog Story: After being held captive since season 5, Chisa ends up as a casualty of the game.
• Sitcom Arch-Nemesis: Monosuke can't seem to stop bombarding Sato with petty jabs, earning her everlasting ire.
• Sole Survivor: Sato among the players and Monotaro among the Monokubs.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Juzo begins to hold a serious grudge against Shuichi and Ruruka after Yukizome's death, barely being restrained from killing them.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Monodam takes one towards his brothers as the game goes on, even allowing Sato to murder Monosuke and viciously bullying Monotaro until a My God, What Have I Done? moment drives him to commit suicide.
• Uriah Gambit: A journal written by Monaca reveals that she sent the Monokubs to get themselves killed hosting Mono escape because she found them annoying. Shuichi admits that the Villain Has a Point in that regard.