"16 students wake up in a strange, seemingly abandoned ancient laboratory- a strange haze appears to fill the entire building... but slowly and surely it becomes unnoticeable. This 16 students have all committed a crime sometime in their life and have been on the run from it for a while... not like they'll let their fellow students know it. Soon enough they find themselves thrown into a killing game in this strange laboratory and one by one start to get punished for their crimes..."
Danganronpa: Antebellum is an ongoing Danganronpa Fan Game created by British game developer Rippilie. As of October 28 2022, a prologue and three and a half chapters have been released. The game is available for download on Gamejolt here
, while the official Youtube channel can be found here, complete with a silent playthrough, bonus content and character videos.
The story follows Shinku Kutsuki, the Ultimate Writer, who finds himself trapped in a facility with 15 other people, all under the run by a robotic cat known as Mononeko. As it turns out, Shinku and the others have all committed some sort of crime in the past, all except for one of them, and their goal is to be cleansed of their sins. Of course, Mononeko's also not above letting them put their criminal talents to use and giving them a chance to escape should they decide to try and murder someone...
Danganronpa: Antebellum provides examples of:
- Abandoned Laboratory: The game takes place in a rundown laboratory, complete with creepy porcelain dolls that serve as security cameras. The lab is so rundown, in fact, that in Chapter 3, part of the ceiling collapses and splits the group in two.
- April Fools' Day: In celebration of the game's third anniversary and April Fool's Day 2024, a version called Danganronpa Antebellum: Pink was released, which focuses on Maiko. Subverted in that, while it features multiple and often very ridiculous endings full of shout outs, Rippile has said one is actually canon to the main series.
- Art Evolution: The game's sprites received a complete redesign following Chapter 1.
- Art Shift: The art style shifts quite a bit between both the CGs and the minigames.
- Breaking Old Trends: In regards to the canon games.
- One of the biggest is the game having bonus online videos that explore the origin of the killing game from a greater perspective.
- Mononeko refers to themselves as the cast's doctor rather than their headmaster, and claims his goal is to cure them rather than outright murder or torment them.
- Rather than regular students, all but one of the characters are convicted criminals.
- There is no Ultimate Lucky Student or Ultimate ??? among the cast. Instead, Shinku is the Ultimate Writer.
- The cast is fairly ethnically and nationally diverse, rather than being full-blooded Japanese. This extends to multiple Ambiguously Brown characters as well.
- There is no one with a Non-Standard Character Design.
- The cast varies wildly in age, from 18 (Takiko and Kotaro) to 26 (Maiko).
- The Body Discovery Announcement actually stops a murder in progress.
- Big Guy Fatality Syndrome takes place in Chapter 2, rather than Chapter 4.
- A double murder not only takes place a chapter early, but one of the would-be victims actually survives and proves vital in solving the case.
- During the closing argument in Chapter 2, Taka takes over for a portion of the explanation.
- The Protagonist nearly attempts suicide at one point.
- Call-Back: Much like several of the games played in the canon games, a few of the students come together and play a game of UNO in Chapter 2.
- Cast Full of Gay: Most of the cast is LGBTQ+. Rippilie has revealed the full details for everyone's orientations:
- Shinku and Ismene are both pansexual, though Ismene is also demi.
- Dracul, Maiko, Taka, Lyra and Rei are bisexual. Taka is also a trans man.
- Emilia is a lesbian.
- Mint and Eiichi are both gay.
- Alora, Kotaro and Takiko are all asexual. In addition, Alora is aromantic, Kotaro is panromantic and Takiko is Sapphic.
- Asuga is a demiromantic polysexual demigirl.
- Yui and Kiyoshi are both heterosexual.
- Cats Are Mean: Mononeko, who's quite cruel.
- Cryptic Background Reference: The term "Antebellum" refers to a period before or during a war, and there are multiple references to some sort of conflict having taken place, although the details are unclear. And the ending of Chapter 2 implies Takiko was drafted for it.
- Dead Guy on Display: Chapter 1's Daily Life ends with Dracul's corpse propped up on a huge cake, complete with his intestines draped around it and his eyes on top.
- Fanservice: Subverted when the boys tell Shinku the girls are up to something and assume it must be a group bath, only for them to find Ismene showing them some kind of ritual that involves cutting Kotaro's hair.
- Framing Device: The bonus videos are presented as a series of video tapes found by someone named Pippi Roseblaid, all relating to their investigation of the killing game's participants.
- Freudian Trio: The Guild Trio, consisting of the upbeat and friendly Dracul, the aloof and intelligent Ismene and the balanced Shinku.
- Greater-Scope Paragon: The descriptions of the bonus videos contain written accounts from someone named Pippi Roseblaid, who's studying a video of tapes of the missing students and working to find them all. Chapter 3 of the game itself reveals "Pippi Roseblaid" was the name Lyra used when attending high school, and at the end of Dungeon Master.mp3, Lyra's voice can be heard complaining that it's busted.
- Justified Criminal: Everyone in the group is guilty of some sort of crime, but some had better reasons for breaking the law than others.
- Dracul shoplifted in order to support himself, his mom and eight sisters.
- Ismene murdered one of her professors after he tried to coerce her into sleeping with him, threatening to fail her and ruin her parents' very strict education plan if she didn't.
- Mint committed health insurance fraud and even agreed to hide murder evidence in his garden in order to get money to help his very sick sister.
- Let Us Never Speak of This Again: One of the minigames in the trials, Doki Doki Deliberation, is a dating sim-style game where the characters become cutesy versions of themselves, complete with Big Anime Eyes, while discussing the right answer. Every time it happens, those involved wish to never speak of it again.
- Multinational Team: Most of the cast is either foreign or of mixed background. Rippilie has revealed the full details:
- Shinku, Rei, Eiichi, Kotaro and Kiyoshi are all fully Japanese. Kotaro was adopted by one French parent and one Russian parent, while Kiyoshi was raised by his Egyptian aunt and Japanese uncle.
- Asuga is half-African American.
- Maiko is half-German
- Ismene is Greek.
- Dracul is Italian-American.
- Taka and Alora are both half-Swedish.
- Emilia is French.
- Mint is Irish.
- Takiko is one-quarter British and one-quarter American.
- Yui is half-Thai.
- Multiple Endings:
- A secret ending can be found by repeatedly pressing a button despite Mononeko's objections that it doesn't do anything, because the developers haven't decided on it yet. Doing so will cause Shinku to spontaneously combust, and the player is greeted by Lillith, who scolds the player directly that he died just to satisfy their curiosity. She also says it doesn't matter, because while he won't remember this once the game resets, the death order had already been determined before they ever started playing.
- October 2023 brought some new content, including a new hidden ending involving Lyra and Ismene.
- Pink has more than 30 endings, some entirely in-character and others completely ridiculous joke endings. At least one is canon to the events of the series.
- One Degree of Separation: Given the nature of this killing game, the cast is all distantly connected to one-another. Lyra and Takiko knew each other before the Killing Game, and Lyra was also in a relationship with Takiko's sister Sachiko. Sachiko also got medicine to help Takiko and money to support the two of them by working with Alora, who also provided medication to Mint's sister Lavender. Alora was also friends with Lillith, implied to be the game's mastermind, who may also have a connection to Lyra.
- Eiichi was childhood friends with Yui.
- Taka hosted a beauty pageant, one watched by Asuga, where she saw her brother.
- Implied by Voice Actress.mp3, where the description suggests that Maiko was actually engaged to Lyra's sister.
- Recurring Element: Some elements still do carry over from the canon games.
- Takiko is the Token Mini-Moe of the group.
- Yui is a girl with a musical talent as well as the unsympathetic culprit, albeit one chapter early.
- Emilia serves as Lady Swearsalot.
- Eiichi is the Gentle Giant of the group, although his talent is in gaming.
- Ismene is the aloof, arrogant student with an influential background.
- Someone close to protagonist ends up dying first. In this case, it's Dracul.
- Chapter 1 features a party that culminates in the first death.
- Switching P.O.V.: Chapter 3 switches back and forth between Shinku, Lyra and (briefly) Asuga.
- Villain Protagonist: Played with. Nearly everyone in the cast is a convicted criminal of some kind, but most of them are decent people.
