WMG / Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony

As this is a WMG, all spoilers will be unmarked ahead. You Have Been Warned!

---

Pre-Release

The third game will have another Nostalgia Level set in Hope's Peak

So let's set the scenario: the Future Foundation needs information about their enemy, the followers of despair. The problem is that the Tragedy has left communications and recon around the world in shambles, and any scouts they send out to the areas still affected by Despair never make it back alive. Thus, they come up with a new plan: help the 6 survivors regain their memories, and find out what was going on inside the academy in the months and weeks leading up to the Tragedy. Using an early version of the Neo World Program designed specifically to undue memory tampering, the 6 go through a series of sessions where they relay what they find to the Foundation doctors^note obviously many of these sessions wouldn't hold any useful information, but you wouldn't be playing those particular sessions. Perhaps you could retcon that e-mail Hajime found to mean that they've regained some of their memories without necessarily regaining all of them (the Foundation might even have written that to throw off any Despairs that might intercept their e-mails).

Because Hope's Peak was so private, these memories become key to finding out where the last of the Despair followers might be hiding, finding out what Junko and her people might have been planning, or if you treat this mode as an interquel between Danganronpa 1 and 2, finding out what the Remnants of Despair are up to. Playing through these memories much like the Animus, you start out as one of the survivors walking through the halls of Hope's Peak, and seeing students from your own class, the Jabberwok group and whatever new group this third game focuses on (you might even run into fellow survivors). Inbetween heading wherever the survivor you're playing as was going that day, you have a series of seemingly inconsequential conversations with the other students that turn out to hold vital information knowing what you now know, which would show up on your screen as Truth Bullets. This essentially plays out like an investigation where the memory ends in a Climax Inference/Closing Statement that lets the player put together what they've learned. The memory could end as you speak to key people that become available to speak to after you've gathered the other Truth Bullets, such as Mukuro, Headmaster Kirigiri, or even Junko herself.

These memory restoring sessions would unlock as the player finishes chapters in the game much like Usami's extra mode, in a girl-boy format. In Chapter 1 you'd play as Toko, and then Yasuhiro to Aoi, Byakuya, Kyoko and finally Makoto in the last chapter. The ultimate point is to fill out exactly how the survivors regained their memories, perhaps deepen the game's lore or push the plot forward, and to find out what sort of relationships the students might have had during their time at Hope's Peak (perhaps Yasuhiro avoided Gundam due to his dislike of the occult, or Byakuya could have been one of the Ultimates that mistreated Hajime for being from the Reserve Course).

• Partially confirmed: it's a post-game bonus life sim/board game mode called the Ultimate Talent Development Plan.

The big twist in the third game will involve the protagonist actually being Junko herself.

There's a pretty clear progression in the protagonists of the games, especially if one used the in-universe chronological order.

• Dangan Ronpa - Ultimate Lucky Student who is utterly ordinary in every other way and is declared Ultimate Hope at the end of the game.
• Dangan Ronpa: Another Story - Utterly ordinary girl who is not "ultimate" in any way, becomes recognized as a symbol of hope, but has potential to become the "successor" to the Ultimate Despair instead.
• Super Dangan Ronpa 2 - Utterly ordinary Reserve Class student who is later revealed to be the official Ultimate Hope who later becomes the Ultimate Despair's right hand man.

The next logical place for it to go is to make the protagonist the Ultimate Despair herself. The game will start with a flashback of several Remnants of Despair willingly going into the Neo World Program to be cured, but the protagonist's face will be hidden in the image just like Junko was in the photos from the first game. As the game proceeds, the characters will get more and more of their original memories back, ultimately leading to reveal that the protagonist is actually another Alter Ego Junko, which Future Foundation is running experiments on to find a way to counteract her despair in the event that another Ultimate Despair (including other digital copies of Junko) should arise in the real world.

Besides all that, it's only way to top the Mind Screw of the second game's ending.

• The problem is Dangan Ronpa Zero already did that. If not for that, I could believe it.
• Jossed; Junko's only involvement is as a disguise of Tsumugi's.

Danganronpa V3 will not feature any of the past characters from the first, second, and even in Ultra Despair Girls.

It's been stated that the Danganronpa 3 series would be split into two different things, an anime, then a game. The anime seems to be "ending the Hope's Peak story", so perhaps none will appear in the video game adaption

• It's a sequel to Danganronpa 2, but something new for the series. ("new" meaning the game version will have a different storyline, and the anime as stated above ends the "Hope's Peak storyline").
• Jossed (in spirit), as every character from Danganronpa 1 and 2 reappear in V3's last trial while Tsumugi goes on her roleplaying spree.

The next game in the series will be an Alternate Continuity

It'll be the beginning of a new sub-series called Danganronpa: Distrust. It'll have the unused Trust mechanic from the DISTRUST prototype. How it would work is that during Free Time Events, you can either make a potential Blackened reconsider their actions or have a future victim save themselves.

• Partially confirmed. It isn't in the Hope's Peak continuity, but there's no Trust mechanic.

Confirmed/Jossed Theories

We haven't seen the player character yet

As the title implies, the three characters we have seen so far are not, in fact, the player character. There isn't much evidence to back this u except that one of Robokoto's argument's looks like it is getting destroyed in a trailer, and that including him there is a second character with an ahoge. (Seen only in the silhouettes at the very end.)

• Confirmed. A second PV show that the protagonist would be Kaede Akamatsu, a character that hadn't previously appeared. She does have an ahoge.
  • Original theory of not seeing the player character in promotional material yet is confirmed, but Kaede Akamatsu being the protagonist is jossed. She is executed in Chapter 1 after her supposed "murder" of Rantaro Amami.
  • The true protagonist is none other than the supposed Deuteragonist, Shuichi Saihara.

The "cyborg" character's talent is...

• Ultimate Teacher. He might be an upgraded version of Alter Ego, and serve a similar role to Usami from the second game in trying to reform the students under his charge.
• Ultimate Astronaut. He's not actually a robot, he's just wearing some sort of futuristic space suit.
  • Jossed. Kodaka's official statements state the character is supposed to be a robot.
    • "Astronaut" and "Robot" are not mutually exclusive; it could still be possible!
• Ultimate Cyborg. Simple and to-the-point.
  • Mostly confirmed (his actual talent is SHSL Robot).
• If he's the protagonist, then he might be the game's Lucky Student or ??? character.
  • It's not likely there will be a lucky student, as the game takes place in a prison.
  • Jossing this whole point since Kodaka never said that the character was a robot. He said he was some human who wore futuristic stuff to fit the environment.
    • He is confirmed to be the SHSL Robot
    • But Jossed to being SHSL Hope. This is later un-jossed.

The pigtail girl's talent is...

• If she's the protagonist, she might be this game's Lucky Student or ??? character, though they've done these before. If they go with ???, a new spin on the concept is if she claims not to have a talent at all, adding to the mystery of what she's doing here.
• Ultimate Mystery Writer. "Mystery writer" might be an useful talent for trials, since writing mysteries for a living would translate well to solving them.
• Ultimate Lawyer. This is a series about trials, so having a bona-fide lawyer available would obviously be helpful.
• Ultimate Something Related To Music. You can see in her character design that she has a treble clef hair clip. Usually character designs match up with their talent.
  • We already have an Ultimate Musician. Perhaps an Ultimate Composer?
  • She definitely has the air of a composer.She seems to be strict might possibly be a perfectionist
  • Ibuki's "Ultimate Musician" title is actually a mistranslation. In reality, her title should be "Ultimate Light Music Club Member". So anything is possible.
• Alternatively,based on her character design,she could be the Ultimate Florist considering she has a flower pin on her blouse.
• Actually, her talent seems to be SHSL Childcare Worker or SHSL Nursery School Teacher
• All jossed. She lies about being SHSL Nursery School Teacher to deflect suspicion from herself and is actually SHSL Assassin.

The goatee dude's talent is...

• Ultimate Thief. He seems to have the right amount of smugness and shadiness to pull the concept off. Thief would make for an useful talent for investigations(being able to get into places he's not supposed to be).
• Ultimate Lawyer. For similar reasons as above.
• He seems to be the SHSL Astronaut.

The girl with the pigtails is the actual protagonist.

In the silhouettes depicting the new cast, she appears to assume the central position, while the other assumed protagonist (robo-Naegi) is off to the side. Also, after two games where the protagonists were the "normal" students in a cast of over-the-top talented students, an obvious robot seems like a bit too much of a departure. Maybe the "robo-Naegi" character is a Decoy Protagonist, and might even end up as the first victim, after which the real protagonist takes over. She doesn't have the protagonist hair, but if there's an Ultimate Barber/Hairdresser in the cast, she might end up having an Important Haircut.

• Except this is pure nonsense seeing how the cyborg looking student isn't even a robot as confirmed by Kodaka and his ahoge would give him more a chance of being MC over the pigtails girl. The reasoning for her on how she would be the protagonist is baseless speculation and honestly pure nonsense, More evidence goes towards the cyborg looking student being protagonist for now.
  • To this point, the protagonists haven't stood out among the rest of the cast, and they've been the least over-the-top. Why would they suddenly make the protagonist of the next game stand out?
• To end this debate before things get out of hand:
  • I am squarely on the side of those who believe the theory is baseless. The cast silhouettes are very likely non final in positioning and even then it's not like they add to anything, are you suggesting that the muscle character is a main character? Because I find that hard to believe.
  • The evidence towards the Robo-Naegi not being protag is pretty bunk as well since the new set-up is made to show the protagonist he's front and centre on the promo art on the site, has the most promotion and, as always, has an Idiot Hair. Given everything, I'd honestly be surprised he isn't protag.
  • Are you forgetting that the novels' protagonists and their quirks? Or the dozen or so other main characters in the franchise with their own traits? Honestly, considering what happens to Naegi and Hinata at the end of their games, I'd say the only 100% "normal" protagonist is Komaru.
• Chill. It's wild mass guessing for a reason, there's no need to try and "prove" a theory as "nonsense" or "baseless". Since DRV3 is the beginning of a new act, it's not impossible that it will break previous series conventions. Especially in a series like Danganronpa that loves to surprise the viewer.
• Jossed, the protagonist was revealed in another PV, it's Kaede Akamatsu, who hadn't appeared yet.
• All jossed. The protagonist is Shuuichi Saihara.
  • Well, jossed from our perspective. In universe, Kiibo is technically the protagonist, being the audience surrogate for this game.

Guessing about the Talents

So, due to the students this time hardly dressing as student, it might be harder to try and guess, but who knows can be right? This is just a wild guess.

• Kaede Akamatsu
  • Ultimate Composer. Due to the musical theme on her, and the fact that a Musician already exists.
  • Ultimate Musician, because technically, Ibuki is the Light Music Club Member, not Musician.
    • Alternatively, she could just be good at a particular instrument.
    • Confirmed. she is the SHSL Pianist.
• Key-bo
  • There's already a WMG for him.
  • Later revealed to be the SHSL Robot.
    • Later Jossed as SHSL Hope
• Maki Harukawa
  • There's already a WMG for her.
  • Later revealed to be the SHSL Nursery Teacher.
    • Later revealed to be lying about her talent to avoid suspicion; she is actually SHSL Assassin.
• Kaito Momota
  • There's already a WMG for him.
  • Later revealed to be the SHSL Astronaut.
• Miu Iruma
  • Ultimate Aviator. Due to the glasses she is wearing.
  • Ultimate Dominatrix. A weird talent, but matches the accessories she is using.
  • Ultimate Daredevil. Would also fit with the goggles.
  • Ultimate Mad Scientist/Roboticist. In this promo art◊ she seems to have a backpack with robot arms coming out the side.
    • Almost. She is the SHSL Inventor
• Korekiyo Shinguuji
  • Ultimate Assassin.
  • Ultimate Surgeon. The mask and bandaged hands might fit into this.
  • Ultimate Ninja. Looks sort of ninja-esque.
  • Ultimate Actor, on the box art he holds a second mask, this one covers his face, it could be possible that he is just in costume.
  • All jossed. He is the SHSL Folklore Specialist
• Kokichi Ouma
  • Ultimate Chess Player. Due to the scarf.
  • Ultimate Escape Artist, he appears to be wearing some kind of tattered straight jacket
  • Ultimate Racer. The scarf could also fit a race car driver.
  • Ultimate Lunatic. If the straight jacket isn't for show.
  • All jossed. He is the SHSL Supreme Ruler.
• Ryuuma Hoshi
  • Ultimate Smuggler.
  • Ultimate Thug, just for the sheer hilarity of it.
  • Ultimate Mime. Under his jacket he appears to be wearing a striped shirt and pants. That and the pale face might suggest a mime.
  • Ultimate Lockpick. He's got what might be a makeshift pick in his mouth, the logo on his hat looks a bit like two keys, and the chain around his ankle might be some bizarre thematic element.
  • Ultimate Tennis Player, in the box art it looks like he his holding a tennis racket and the symbols on his hat resemble them as well. Considering his size, it would be pretty funny if he was.
    • Confirmed.
• Tenko Chabashira
  • Ultimate Ninja. Her pinwheel kind of look like that 4 sided huge kunai, but that might be a long shot.
  • Ultimate Skater. It's hard to tell her talent from her appearance.
  • Both jossed. She is the SHSL Aikidou Master.
• Gonta Gokuhara
  • Ultimate Bug Catcher. Due to the compartment he is holding.
  • Ultimate Entomologist. Which might make more sense.
    • Confirmed.
• Angie Yonaga
  • Ultimate Painter. She seems to be wearing brushes on her skirt.
    • Almost. She is SHSL Art Club Member.
  • Ultimate Survivalist. A wild guess, but originally, I thought the brushes were blades of some sort, combined with the coat, she seemed like a survivalist to me.
  • Ultimate Lifeguard. Due to wear a bikini, a bright colored coat and a SHSL Swimmer already exists, a lifeguard seems to be the closest to it.
  • Ultimate Sand Sculptor. Would combine the apparent beach and artistic themes.
  • Ultimate Marine Biologist.
• Himiko Yumeno
  • Ultimate Occultist. Simply due to the fact that witch would be weird.
  • Ultimate Cult Leader. On the theory of the group actually have all criminal talents.
  • Ultimate Magician. Maybe she's a stage magician that dresses like a witch.
    • Confirmed
  • Ultimate Cosplayer. Or she's cosplaying as a witch character from an anime. These games usually have someone to fill the "nerd" archetype, after all.
• Tsumugi Shirogane
  • Ultimate Librarian. She looks similar to Touko, so I'm guessing a literary talent.
  • Ultimate Falsifier. If they all have criminal talents.
  • Ultimate Forger. Again, if all talents are crime related.
  • All jossed. She is the SHSL Cosplayer.
• Kirumi Toujou
  • Ultimate Maid. A maid is different than a Housekeeper, so I'm guessing that from the headband.
    • Confirmed.
  • Ultimate Seamstress
• Shuuichi Saihara
  • Ultimate Guard. Since his clothes look remarkably like a Japanese guard.
  • Ultimate Soccer Player. He could also be wearing an athletic uniform with a cap.
  • Both jossed. He is the SHSL Detective.
• Rantarou Amami
  • Ultimate Surfer. He seems to be wearing clothes fitting of someone who spends a long time in a beach.
  • Jossed. He is our SHSL ??? for this round.
    • Later revealed to be the SHSL Survivor, who has survived two killing games before this one.

Tsumugi Shirogane will speak in shout-outs

Bonus points if she has several shout-out costumes and her changing outfits indicates changes in her personality.

• Confirmed, she does quotes her favorite shows
• Confirmed also for changing clothes.

Guessing about the Voice Cast

Please note that we are not guessing who's going to voice Monokuma in both Japanese and English, as we all know that TARAKO is taking over for Nobuyo Oyama, and, well, I think we can safely assume that Brian Beacock will reprise the role in the English version. We are also not guessing who Kaede Akamatsu's Japanese voice actress is, as we already know that it's Sayaka Kanda.

• Kaede Akamatsu
  • English: Laura Bailey, Kate Oxley, Eden Riegel, Melissa Fahn, Lauren Landa, Kristen Bell, Kelly Sheridan
• Ki-bo
  • Japanese: Hikaru Midorikawa ^note I believe that this one is probable due how Midorikawa's Star-Making Role being Heero Yuy... and it's got similar spelling rhyme with Key-bo, just with different consonants ("Kii-bo" with "Hii-ro")
  • Jossed, it's Tetsuya Kakihara.
  • English: Bryce Papenbrook, Keith Silverstein, Zach Aguilar, Martin Sherman, Sam Riegel, Elijah Wood, Erik Kimerer
• Maki Harukawa
  • English: Cindy Robinson, Julie Ann Taylor, Olivia Olson, Idina Menzel
• Kaito Momota
  • English: Kirk Thornton, Matthew Mercer, Troy Baker, Josh Keaton
• Miu Iruma
  • English: Kimlinh Tran, Sarah Anne Williams, Erica Mendez, Kate Higgins,
• Korekiyo Shinguuji
  • English: Jalen K. Cassell, Chris Niosi
• Kokichi Ouma
  • English: Sam Riegel, Joseph Haro, Jesse Mc Cartney
• Ryouma Hoshi
  • English: Travis Willingham, Spike Spencer, Vic Mignogna, Jamieson Price
• Tenko Chabashira
  • English: Eden Riegel
• Gonta Gokuhara
  • English: Liam O'Brien, Tony Oliver, Richard Epcar
• Angie Yonaga
  • Japanese: Kikuko Inoue
  • Jossed, it's Minori Suzuki.
  • English: Jesse Nowack, Stephanie Sheh, Michelle Ruff, Cindy Robinson
• Himiko Yumeno
  • English: Sarah Anne Williams, Eden Riegel, Sandy Fox, Mela Lee, Ariel Winter
• Tsumugi Shirogane
  • English: Wendee Lee, Erin Fitzgerald, Lauren Landa,
• Kirumi Toujou
  • English: Tara Strong, Tara Platt, Karen Strassman, Laura Post, Kira Buckland
• Shuuichi Saihara
  • English: Erik Kimerer, Marin Miller, Michael Sinterniklaas, Haley Joel Osment,
• Rantarou Amami
  • English: Ben Diskin, David Vincent, Lucien Dodge
• Monotarou
  • English: Patrick Seitz
• Monofunny
  • English:
• Monokid
  • English: Xander Mobus
• Monosuke
  • English:
• Monodam
  • English: Xander Mobus

Kaede's music notes have nothing to do with her talent.

Instead it's just a reference to her voice actress Sayaka Kanda, who sings the OP and ED of Danganronpa 3 Side:Future.

• Jossed. She is the SHSL Pianist.

Iruma and Ouma were already friends/coworkers

Perhaps as magician and assistant. I cannot think of any other practical reason for their getup... well, besides the obvious...

• Jossed due to Yumeno being the Magician. It remains to be seen if Iruma and Ouma have some other connection, though.
• Actually Confirmed. Just like Danganronpa 1, everyone knew each other before being mind wiped by the Big Bad.
  • Sorry, Jossed... possibly. Depending on interpretation. The flashback lights made them think they knew each other before the events of the game. Tsumugi claims that they all auditioned to be part of this, but we don't know for certain how much we can believe her words. As such, we can't say for certain if they auditioned or not, or even what their real pasts are. As such, we don't know whether they knew each other or not.

This game takes place in an Alternate Universe where the Despairing Incident didn't happen.

Perhaps Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School will end with Naegi going back in time to prevent the Despairing Incident from happening. This game might therefore take place in a new timeline where Ultimate Despair failed, and the creation of this new school might be a consequence of that failure. The creators did cite Back to the Future as an influence in the new game during interviews.

• Jossed unless we missed some scenes.
• The alternate universe part is confirmed but not in the way you would think.
• Now jossed since the idea is confirmed a false information. It was more like still unknown. Based on the current ending it is confirmed for alternate reality; jossed for what happened (i.e.: nothing to do with the Despairign Incident, BUT with the possibility that explaination itself is a lie.

Alternatively, the maid girl is named Munakata, and she's the descendant of Kyosuke and Chisa

Given that they were from Class 74, it's not outside the realm of possibility that the two had a child before the final killing game. The maid girl also appears to have gray hair, and if she's an Ultimate Maid she would have a similar talent to Chisa's.

• Jossed. Danganronpa 3 most likely doesn't take place in the same universe as V3 because, according to the mastermind, all of Danganronpa 1, 3 and everything in between is fictional.

The talent designator for the students is not "Super High School Level".

Gifted Inmates Academy is explicitly said to be the Spiritual Successor to Hopes Peak. Going off this logic, it be...a bit odd, to say the least, if they retained the SHSL designator the talents. Furthermore, changing it would help push forwards a concept that the creators want to push forwards, that this is a new scenario and setting. Of course, that raises the question of how the localization would handle it...

• Going solely from what we have the title might be "Gifted XXX" like, "Gifted Mechanic" or "Gifted Robot". But then again the SHSL and, on a lesser level, Ultimate title are one of the symbols of the franchise, so they might not give up on it.
• Appears to be jossed, the students will have Super High School talents (though they haven't been revealed yet).

• Jossed, their SHSL talents were announced.

The characters will be Ultimate Criminals

We've already had an ultimate Biker Gang Leader and an Ultimate Yakuza. Because the characters seem to be in juvenile detention, I believe they all will have criminal talents- e.g., an Ultimate Hacker, Street Racer, Cultist, Con Artist, etc.

• Jossed, they're all still Super High School Levels, and their talents don't really have anything to do with crime.
• Not only that, their talents were just implanted to their brain.

There'll be a new game mode just for lies

Lies are one of the bases of the new game's ideal, so there'll be a separate game mode during judgement to fabricate lies, but i have no idea how that mode would work out.

• Jossed, lies will be used in the Non-Stop Debate, by pressing a certain button, a Truth Bullet becomes a Lie Bullet, you don't need to actually fabricate the lie.

Settings/Timeline related

This game is not a complete Continuity Reboot, but takes place in the future.

Since Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School will be wrapping up the stories of Hope's Peak and Naegi, I'm guessing this game will take place in the future after the world has recovered enough from the Despairing Incident for a new school for talented students to open. Some of the new students here might be descendants of characters from the last two games.

• Jossed. Just like many thing Team DR claimed, not a Continuity Reboot itself is a lie.

The game takes place on a timeline where The Tragedy never happened, but someone wants it to happen

This is a pretty wild guess, but what if the plot takes place on a timeline where Junko never fulfilled her plans, possibly, never became the Ultimate Despair. Maybe Kaede is actually the Junko from that timeline, but she never fell in despair, and the game is meant so she would.

Following the line, maybe the characters are alternate timeline versions of the Student Council, since the Tragedy never happened, they wouldnt have killed each other, and the mastermind believes that is the way to restart the Tragedy on that timeline. Plus, I believe the mastermind would be that timeline's Mukuro who wants to create a Junko to lead the world into despair.

• By the ending it is a mere alternate universe with no relationship to the Tragedy, but even then there is a possibility the explaination is a lie itself. Not confirmed nor jossed.

The Gifted Inmates' only "crime" is having talent

In a future following The Tragedy, humanity still remembers who was responsible. That one young woman with an exceptional talent decided it would be fun to end the world. If Junko Enoshima and the kids of Ultimate Despair proved anything it was that anyone with any talent, no matter how harmless it may sound, could use that talent to make others suffer. And so, despite the best efforts of groups like the Future Foundation and the new Hope's Peak Academy, society decided the only safe thing to do was take everyone with talent and lock them away where they couldn't use those talents to hurt normal people. Thus, Gifted Inmates Academy.Alternatively, thanks to people fearing those with talent, the Gifted Inmates Academy was founded by a new group (possibly Hajizuru and the Remnants of Despair). They take those who society fears because they possess talent and bring them to the school with the intent of training them to use that talent to help mankind ala the Xavier Institute from X-Men. And then Monokuma happens...

The students are in the academy because they used their talents to commit crimes

We know we are dealing with prison, but since the previous theory that the students are SHSL Criminals was jossed, the truth might be that the group is stuck there, because they used their talents to commit crimes. For example: Tsumugi might have disguised herself to commit an assault, Miu might make killing machines, Himiko for thievery using illusionism, Maki might be a serial killer that uses kids as victim or bait and so on.

The group was brought there to rehabilitation, the reason why the Killing Game started though, I have no theory. Most likely someone decided they don't deserve redemption.

• If that's true, Kaede might have composed a Despair Song, similar to Mitarai's Despair Video.
• Semi-confirmed. Ryoma kills mafia members with tennis. For one.

The Gifted Inmates program exists to prevent the rise of a second Junko

The inmates aren't imprisoned solely because they possess talent or because they used them to commit crimes. In the future, Japan may have moved into an Orwellian level of control to prevent the Tragedy from ever happening again. As a result, while they reinstated the system of collecting high school students with talent, it now has a secondary purpose of filtering out troublemakers. Knowing that Junko Enoshima was not only insane, but also completely unrestricted by a school obsessed with researching talent, they've taken what they see as the necessary steps to ensure someone like her never rises to power again. That means scanning the country for talented high schoolers for admittance to the new academy. If any of them show signs of being problem individuals, they're imprisoned without trial inside a dome, possibly forever.

The game is set in a One-World Dictatorship

There's never been any kind of specification about where V3 takes place, only vague names like "the state" and "the nation." Kirumi was also selected to be the bodyguard of the "head" of the nation. Perhaps the future of V3 has a One World Order ruled by a single leader. This could play a major role in the students' imprisonment.

• Presumably Jossed, as Kirumi states she was once asked to eliminate a rival nation. She rejected the request as impossible, but for someone to even think it might be possible, there would have to be other nations.

Murderers/Victims/Survivors

The first murder will be an accident.

Going with the tradition. Leon killed Maizono on accident, and Teruteru killed the wrong person.

• Confirmed. Kaede Akamatsu accidentally kills Rantarou Amami while she was trying to kill the Mastermind.
  • Subverted. Kaede is framed by the true killer, the mastermind.

The first victim will be a character you wouldn't expect to be victim

Also going with tradition, Sayaka was made out as the main love interest of the game, and Fauxgami was supposedly a survivor of the previous game.

• My guess is that the first victim or killer will be robo-Naegi.
• Depend what you mean by "unexpected". Amami is the "victim", and the "protagonist" Kaede is the Culprit and executed.

Saihara will be a murderer

And not just and murderer, he will be the first one to kill someone. However, starting from the prologue and all the way up until near the end of the first trial, Saihara will be not exactly close to Kaede but helpful and will help in the trial. While letting Kaede take the lead, he will help her with recalling evidence, however he will only talk about evidence that leads suspicion away from him and brush aside anything incriminating before he accidentally hints that he is the real killer.

• Jossed. In fact you play as him.

Either Amami, Suuichi, or Kaede herself are the Sayaka Maizono of the game.

Which is to say, they're made more important than they actually were in-story, and all the time building them up to be important, main characters will be just to throw another curveball at the audience so they can pay attention to the real star of the show:

• In Amami's case, it's like the other WMGs describe as setting up his talent and then doing jack all with it by the time he gets murdered in the first chapter. Character-wise, most people would think he'd be important because he looks similar to Komaeda and carries his mysterious air, only for that too to be ignored in favor of other survivors.
• Suuichi's case is the same— bring back an established and long-surviving SHSL talent, and then have that person become irrelevant or on the wrong side of the case in the early stages.
• In Kaede's case, she might be the viewpoint character for a Chapter or two before she gets killed, is a murder, or dies somehow.
• You could probably add Kiibo, Maki, and Kaito to this list, the teaser images made them all look really important, with Kiibo, and to a lesser extent, Maki, serving as Decoy Protagonists.

• Confirmed. Amami is the first victim, while Kaede is the first culprit and got executed. Then Amami is discovered to be actually alive.

  • Jossed. He's truly dead.

  • Amami is also not as important as he's made out to be, despite his ??? talent, so that is at least confirmed. Jossed however on all other accounts.

If she isn't a murderer, Kirumi will be an accomplice

As a maid, Kirumi would be very good at cleaning this, so she could tamper with the evidence. This makes sense if she was a killer, or from a killer's perspective finding a way to get her to help you without her giving you away would be a serious help.

• Confirmed. Culprit of Chapter 2.

Ryoma Hoshi will survive the game.

Both to subvert the "Non-Standard Character Design character dying" tradition, and to fulfill the "dumbass that survives mostly due to pure luck" position.

• While the first point is still fair game, the latter is pretty Jossed. He's The Comically Serious.

• Jossed.

The loose "formula" the previous two games followed will be subverted

It seems like the thing they'd do for it. My guesses are:

• There will be a character who gets a bunch of Character Development in the first chapter, and we'll all expect them to die first. They end up not dying/being the first murderer.
• The third case will appear to be a double murder, but will possibly end up being 2 people killing at once OR a murder suicide.
• The fourth case will involve the big guy, however if he is the victim, he was killed out of malice, or he's the murderer.
• The main trio of the game does not involve the protagonist- it's Robo-Nagito, Twintails, and Purple Guy, and the members of Kaede's trio will be early victims.

• Depend on your point of view... Jossed. It followed the Advertised Extra, Self-Sacrifice led to culprit, Chapter 5 brutal corpse disposal, Chapter 3 double murder...
  • Not entirely Jossed. Chapter 1 has Kaede as the killer, and Saihara survives. Chapter 4 does have the big guy as the killer, so that's confirmed. And he got the main trio two thirds right: except instead of Kiibo, it's Saihara. Also, to add to this whole idea of subverting tradition, Ultimate Hope isn't part of the power trio and dies, the rival isn't part of the power trio, and only two of the power trio survive (as opposed to all three in the first game, and only one in the second).

The murder cases in New Dangan Ronpa V3 will not follow the "formula" of the murder cases we've seen in the previous two games.

Or at least, not in the same order as the previous games. E.g., the first murder victim will not be an unimportant character initially set up to be important (to be honest, this one specifically I'm not so sure on), the second murder case won't involve serial killers in any way, etc. It's just a hunch, but seeing as how DRV3 is supposed to be the start of a new saga, I do hope that the writers use the "setup" of the previous games as an opportunity to exploit players' expectations and completely throw them off.

• Jossed. In fact it fits to the Tee.

Tsumugi Shirogane, the Ultimate Cosplayer, will at one point disguise as another of the students

Would be a clever use of her costuming skills. Maybe she'll dress as someone else to try framing them?

• Jossed. She's the Mastermind of the game.
  • Well, she does at one point cosplay Kaede to demonstrate her "cospox".

Someone will use Kiibo to commit murder

Someone, most likely Iruma herself or someone using her tech, will hack Kiibo and force him to commit murder. Once this is revealed in the trial I can see a few things happening:

• The player will discover this fact, figure out who hacked Kiibo, and execute them, since unlike with Peko, Kiibo would only be seen as the murder weapon, not the murderer. After helping Kiibo, Kaede will help him out of some Herioc BSOD and they'll join forces to discover the mastermind
  • Or Monokuma might pull a What Measure Is a Non-Human? and destroy Kiibo anyway
• The player will be forced to execute Kiibo since he'd still be considered the killer, and the following chapter will be about the characters growing distrust of each other since one of them was the one who used Kiibo to kill someone else.
• Either Kiibo or the hacker will be considered an accomplice, resulting in the death of who ever was considered the blackened and extreme punishment towards the other.

  • Half Jossed, Half Confirmed, it was revealed that Ki-Bo was used but not as a weapon of murder but as a Cameraman. But he was unaware of it, until the mastermind told him on the 6th Trial.

Predictions for the first victim:

In the first two games, the first victim has been someone surprising; a person who seemed to have Plot Armor and a bigger role in the story. It's likely that the third game will continue the trend. Some possibilities as to who dies first:

• Kaede: The biggest twist would be to introduce a Decoy Protagonist - the person who you thought was the protagonist actually dies first, and the real protagonist was someone else. However, I don't think this will be the case for Kaede, given the focus her abilities have gotten in the previews.
  • Confirmed, sorta. You do play as her for the Prologue and Chapter 1, but she's later revealed to be the culprit and is executed.
• Shuuichi: As this game's Ultimate Detective, his abilities will prove invaluable during trials. His talent is very likely to elevate him to the position of deuteragonist if he lasts very long. So, having him die early would be quite the twist.
  • Jossed. He becomes the main protagonist after Kaede dies.
• Rantaro: Likewise, the position of Ultimate ??? has always turned out to be important in this series. So it's possible this will get subverted by killing Rantaro off before his talent is revealed.

  • Confirmed.

• Keebo: Keebo has gotten a lot of focus in the previews, which is often a sign of the Red Herring character that dies first.
• Maki: Like Keebo, Maki got a lot of focus in the previews, but the focus on her isn't as strong now that the other characters have been revealed. Either she's going to be important to the plot, or an early victim.

  • Jossed. Ki-Bo is the last person to die and Maki is the survivor.

Predictions for who will kill/be killed/survive/be the mastermind

• Survivors: Kaede (after all the BS with Aoi and Kyoko in DR3, I doubt Kodaka has the balls to kill off the main protagonist), Maki (probably going to end up The Lancer), Gonta (his personality is too kind for murder, but taking him out would be another case of Big Guy Fatality Syndrome - boring!), Miu (no logical reason, I just like her design), Ryouma (baritone and ugly design scream killer, but he'll probably turn out to be innocent and eventually make it through)
• Murderers: Tsumugi (cosplays could easily be used as a disguise), Angie (I dunno, something's just off about her), Tenko (will probably kill a dude after thinking "Oh, he's going to grope me" or something), Kaito (will probably be a subversion of the Butt-Monkey who proves too unimportant to kill off), Shuichi (subversion of the intelligent lancer, sorta like Nagito was)
• Victims: Kokichi (subversion of the jackass who turns over a new leaf and survives), Korekiyo (someone will feel threatened by his incredibly off-putting appearance and waste him), Ki-bo (someone will think What Measure Is a Non-Human?), Kirumi (I feel like she might stumble on a murder or preparations for the same and get He Knows Too Much pulled on her), Himiko (will piss off everyone with a poor attitude, and someone will decide to ice her)
  • Some are confirmed, most are jossed. Kaito was a culprit, Kokichi was a victim, and Maki survived. 18.75% success rate - that's worse than Hagakure!
    • Tsumugi was also a culprit (she's the actual one who killed Rantaro), she just didn't count as the "blackened" because she was the Mastermind.
• The Mastermind: Rantaro (he pretends to be helpful, but is actually your lunatic enemy)
  • Jossed. It's Shirogane.
  • Alternatively: The multiple Monokumas are because there's multiple masterminds; going by the initial reveal poster, it's going to be Maki (her "deep love" capacity is warped-she thinks the Warriors of Hope had the right idea, and most adults deserve to be killed), Kaito (his weirdness is a cover for his disgust for humanity), and Kii-bo (he's long decided that Humans Are the Real Monsters).
    • Half-Confirmed. Tsumugi is the Mastermind within the game, but she's only part of Team Danganronpa.
  • Jossed. He's the SHSL Survivor and saves the students at the end of the game.
  • Double Jossed. He didn't survive and Ki-Bo sacrificed himself to save the students to finally end the game at the cost of his life.
• Jossed. Kaede died in the first chapter.

The survivors based on third trailer.

Going by this image◊ from the third trailer. It looks like Kaede, Tenko, Shuichi, Ki-bo, Himiko and Kokichi will survive, or at least be the final six. These six people do fit the "formula" of the usual survivors. However, please keep in mind that Danganronpa is made by a Trolling Creator, so its safe to Never Trust a Trailer. But on the off chance they slipped up, here is why these characters have the strongest chance of surviving:

• Kaeda: Being the protagonist usually means your likely to survive.
  • Jossed.
• Tenko: Like previous survivors Aoi and Akane, Tenko would fits the "athletic girl" criteria.
  • Jossed.
• Shuichi: Being the V3 version of "Kirigiri" (who survived 2 killing games).
  • Confirmed.
• Ki-bo: Well he basically looks like "Robo-Makoto", and Makoto tend to survive these kind of things. It would also be a subversion of the Token Nonhuman being killed off, like with Chiaki, Gekkogahara, and Nidai (when he was turned into a robot).
  • Confirmed.
  • But Jossed in the end.
• Himiko: She seem to be shaping up as the "Hiyoko" so the group, and remember Hiyoko was originally planned to be one of the survivors in DR2 before her spot was given to Fuyuhiko.
  • Confirmed.
• Kokichi: Like Byakuya, Fuyuhiko, and Munakata, Kokichi would be the "jerk" character that survives.
  • Jossed.
  • I don't think so. In the trailer, it pans up and continues until Monokuma pops out, just like he did in the previous games. It's probably the panning shot of his introduction at the beginning of the game, just cut weirdly so we don't see the other students.
• Survivor: Shuichi, Himiko and Maki

The first victim will be Amami, the deuteragonist will be Ki-Bo, based on the demo

On the demo, Makoto and Hajime take Amami and Ki-bo's places on the class trial, meaning that there's a chance one(or neither) of them took part on the first Class Trial, and could be substituted on the demo. The fact that a Deuteragonist for this game has never been specified might also be connected. On the demo, Makoto was the closest thing Kaede had to an investigative aide, meaning that the deuteragonist is yet undefined.

My belief though that Ki-bo is the deuteragonist and Amami is the Sacrificial Lamb comes from the fact that Amami is the sole character that doesn't have a sprite specific for the Scrum Debate. You can see in the images that the sprite used for him in the Scrum Debate is actually a sprite he has normally while everybody else has personalized sprites. This means that they didn't bother making one, because they knew they wouldn't use it anyway. Besides, Amami has been so heavily advertised that it's starting to get suspicious, while Ki-Bo has appeared in the cover for the special edition, which is makes his role of importance in the plot more cemented, like how Nagito was in the cover for the OST of SDR2 and Chiaki had a special place in extra material.

• Confirmed for Amami being Chapter 1 victim. Also correct for KI-BO

Angie will be like Celeste/Mikan/Ruruka and commit an unsympathetic murder halfway through the game

A Recurring Element within the franchise is how a female tends to commit an unsympathetic murder halfway through the game. I kinda feel like Angie may do it as she may commit a murder because "god told her to". She stated that the sacrifice truck comes twice a week to collect blood hinting that she may not the most morally good character.

• Jossed. The third culprit isn't female.
  • The third culprit is Korekiyo Shinguji.

If Himiko commits a murder, one detail of it will never be properly explained and it will end in the player questioning whether she really used magic

• Jossed. Himiko is a survivor.

Predictions for the Mastermind

Post 'em if you got 'em, preferably with reasoning.

• Rantaro: His talent will be something like Ultimate Psychologist, and he's running this as an experiment.
• Miu: She's a Mad Scientist who built the Monkuma Cubs.
• Angie: Because it's always the cute, demure ones-the god she worships is a God of Evil.
• Korekiyo: He started the killing game specifically to test his pet theory on humans.
• Jossed for all. It's Tsumugi.

Character related

The protagonist will be the one student who is innocent of any prior wrongdoing, or has no idea why they ended up at the inmates' academy.

The reasons why they ended up there will be one of the mysteries that will be important to the plot.

• Adding evidence to this, the teaser trailer shown at TGS 2015 shows a trial of 8 Kurokuma, 7 Shirokuma and one Monomi. How very suspicious. Of course, it could be just part of a twist that one of the students is innocent, not the protagonist.
  • But then again, I've seen Kurokuma being used as stand-in for males and Shirokuma for females, if there are equal number of males and females in the game, then the Monomi might represent the pigtail girl. Then again, it could also mean any given character of the plot.
    • It is now likely, going by the colors and how there's only one Monomi, that Monomi represents Kaede.

Cyborg-kun is a prison guard.

And he's not the only cyborg skulking about, but for whatever reason, he was the only one to be captured or spared. The unfortunate situation hasn't shaken his contempt for the inmates (indeed, it may have worsened it), and he initially has little interest in cooperating with them, since his job is to keep them out of "civilized society" no matter the cost—and death is very effective at that.

• Jossed, he's also caught in the killing game.

Cyborg-kun's primary character arc will involve overcoming this contempt and realizing that, prisoner or no, the inmates are still human beings worthy of compassion and don't deserve to be put through mutual killing.

Kaede Akamatsu and Rantaro Amami knew each other before the game started

• Each game features two and only two characters that knew each other prior to the game starting (Naegi and Maizono in DR1, Kuzuryuu and Pekoyama in SDR2). As pointed out here, Amami's birth flower is the maple, which is "Kaede" in Japanese. I refuse to believe that this is a coincidence and am going to guess that the two knew each other beforehand.
  • We already seen a screenshot of Akamatsu telling Saihara "This is the first time I'm meeting another Super High School Level"
• Confirmed. That's why the Big Bad wipe their mind, and even then it didn't stick.

Two of the students are siblings.

The silhouettes depict two girls who are clearly wearing witch hats and are standing next to each other. This suggests that these characters are related somehow. They possibly might be sisters, with the shorter one being a Child Prodigy that was able to skip grades.

• Looking at the silhouettes again, while the shorter one to the right is clearly wearing a hat, it's less clear with the one to the left. Though the head might look vaguely hatted if you squint right, those could also be hair spikes. That doesn't mean they may or may not be siblings, though.
• The silhouettes were Yumeno and Chabashira, it was just that the latter's bow looked like a hat.

Amami's actual talent is...

Since he's this game's "mystery student", his talent will be revealed to be:

• Ultimate Thief. Since a previous mystery student turned out to be an Ultimate Detective, making him an Ultimate Thief would be a nice contrast. It may also serve to create a rivalry between him and this game's Detective.
• Ultimate Survivor. He gained this title from surviving a previous mutual killing game. But did he beat the mastermind, or did he graduate?
  • Confirmed.
• Ultimate Assassin. Because that's not the sort of talent you'd want to be up-front about.
• ???. Because we always expect the mystery student to be important, they subvert this by killing Amami off before we learn his talent. Neither he nor his talent turn out to be of any importance to the story. He's the Ultimate Red Herring.
• Ultimate Zero. Amami claims to have no talent at all. He's actually part of an anti-talent terrorist organization who blames talented people for the Tragedy and seeks to wipe them out. They'll be suggested early on as a possible culprit for the identity of the mastermind, but turn out to be a red herring.
• confirmed for Ultimate Survivor. Got it by involving in both DR 51 and DR 52 game.

Ouma is actually president of a soda drink company

Unlike most of the other characters who have a bunch of props showing their talent, Ouma just has a cape and a bottle of grape soda. While the cape make sense, the Ultimate Dictator holding some soda makes no sense until you remember that his title could also translate to president. Possibly, his could just be in charge of a very successful company but due to eccentric dreams of grandeur he would call himself a dictator just because he could.

• It's worth noting that he's holding a Panta. Its real life counterpart, Fanta, was invented in Nazi Germany. It's tenuous, but there there is a connection.
• Jossed, he's the leader of a prankster group.

One of the students is lying about their talent.

Because of the new mechanic of Lie Bullets, and deception apparently being an important aspect of the story, it would be an interesting twist if someone was lying about what their talent really is. The revelation of their real talent will be an important plot point. They've sort of done this before with the Ultimate Impostor, but it was only revealed posthumously.

• Or the talent is a derivative of their true talent, such as Ultimate Analyst becomes Ultimate Fashionista
• Confirmed. Maki is actually Ultimate Assassin. And to be honest, aside from Amami, everyone is actually just good, but not SHSL

Ouma will have an underling in the Killing Game

Ouma's dictator status might mean that someone in the group is already under him.

• Partly confirmed. In the fourth trial a glitched Gonta avatar works for him but outside the simulator nobody really likes him.

Ouma's true talent is to turn the environment he is in into a dictatorship

Ouma can't be a dictator anywhere and still be in the game, the most likely thing to happen is that he can make the environment he is into a dictatorship. For example, if he is in the student council, he can manipulate and control people around him to depose the current Student Council President and give him the head position, and rom there, make everybody follow his orders. He would be able to make this anywhere he is in, including a classroom, he would try to do it in the Killing Game, but as previous installments showed that talents aren't foolproof, Kaede's stronger influence than him stops him from doing the same on the Killing Game, similar to what Byakuya and Makoto did in the first game. For that reason, and the fact that influence-related talented characters always survive (Byakuya was the son of a influent family, Fuyuhiko was the successor to a big mafia family and Sonia was a princess), I believe he will make it to the end of the game.

• Jossed.

Kirumi has a prior relationship with one of the other students.

Kirumi's stoic demeanor gives off a similar vibe to Peko from DR2. Perhaps, like Peko, she serves as the maid/bodyguard to one of the other students, and their relationship figures into the plot later on. My guesses for her "partner" would be either Ouma or Tenshi.

• Jossed.

Angie will turn out to be a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing

In the recent famitsu scan Angie, Tenko, and Himiko are all simultaneously declaring themselves not the murderer. Himiko and Tenko are getting angry/scared by these allegations while Angie upbeat. Considering that she might now have a 1/3 chance of being a culprit, maybe she plays up being cutesy to make people think she wouldn't be capable of killing someone.

• Jossed, unless you consider the Student Council cult founding to be bitchy enough.

Kiibo will be the Kirigiri/Nanami of the game

In the sense that he will help Kaede with the investigations. After a rough start, the two will bound and he will put his recording functions to use to keep careful track of alibis to help her solve the case.

• Jossed. He is the Naegi of the game.

If Kaito is a culprit at some point, his execution will seemingly start out as a Call-Back to the "Space Journey" execution from the first game, but it'll turn out to be a Bait-and-Switch.

• Confirmed.

Kokichi isn't really a dictator- he's just insane

The fact that his attire consists of an undone straitjacket could suggest he's just a mentally ill student who has a delusions of himself as a tyrant.

• This would fit the idea that he's similar to Gundham
• Gundam Tanaka wasn't accepted into Hope's Peak Academy for his chuunibyou eccentricisms, he was accepted in for his animal breeding talent. If Ouma's talent as a dictator is merely a delusion, then why would he be in the Gifted Inmates Academy? Unless maybe everyone in the Gifted Inmates Academy is delusional and don't actually have any talents.
• That isn't what's being said. They said that it would fit the idea that he's similar to Gundham personality-wise, in that he's an eccentric individual with delusions of grandeur. Nothing's being said about his talent, but about if Ouma is insane.
• Slightly confirmed. He is actually a group of pranksters and not a dictator. However, he isn't actually insane as he was more or less pretending to be insane.

Saihara is a female

His voice sounds too feminine and soft.

• Not to mention his eyes and eyelashes, which have been noted as the most feminine in the entire cast.
• Jossed.

Saihara is an expy/reference to Naoto Shirogane of Persona 4

• Related to the above theory but this has been circulating on Tumblr for a while. Both look similar in appearance and are both detectives. In a similar respect to Naoto, he might be hiding that he's a girl.

Hoshi is a reference to the MC of Prince of Tennis

• Though they look nothing and probably act nothing alike, they same first name and both tennis players. Interestingly enough, the nickname for Echizen is chibisuke/ochibi (due to his height compared to his teammates) whereas Hoshi is actually small tennis player.

Rantaro genuinely isn't suspicious, but an actual nice guy

The fanbase has been suspicious of him for ages now, between his ??? talent, his uncanny resemblance to Komaeda, and (most recently) him saying he's not a suspicious guy in the trailer. Kodaka's been deliberately dropping all these sledgehammer-subtle hints about him being evil to keep the fandom's eyes on him—and away from whoever the real traitor/mastermind/suspicious one is. Because if Rantarou is as shady as he seems, no one's going to be surprised, and this is a series which loves twisting your expectations.

• It's worth noting they did this before with Nagito—they played him up as a Makoto Expy, then pulled the rug from under the fandom by revealing him to be very different. So they might similarly be setting up Rantarou up for part of another bait-and-switch.
• Confirmed. Despite the similarities to Komaeda, Rantarou is genuinely benevolent.

Rantarou's (The Ultimate ???) talent has something to do with luck

It's the only talent we're missing from the line-up. In keeping with this being a change-over to a prison rather than a school, however, Rantarou's talent will be that he's the "Ultimate Unlucky Student."

• Jossed. He's the ultimate survivor.

Himiko Yumeno will be sawed in half.

Extremely likely if she is a murderer and thus get executed.

• Personally may as well as go the whole shebang — you know, flame, sword to barrel, etc, etc.
• Jossed. Himiko survived.

Amami is a Red Herring

He will be the Sayaka/Twogami of the game, be built up as important and then die first. What his talent was would resurface towards the end of the game as a plot point.

• Confirmed. He is built as important, but dies in the first chapter, but his title of SHSL Survivor and his death is what used to discover the mastermind.

Kibou is a Synth from Fallout 4.

• He may be a Ridiculously Human Robots like a Synth, but he's not literally one from Fallout 4.

Miu is a Genius , hence her title as Ultimate Inventor

Come on, I can't be the only one who thought this, it just makes so much sense.

• Specifically, she is a Neid (possibly Staunen) Artificer. And Kokichi is also a Genius (he handles her inventions without causing Havoc, so he has to be)- in his case, he's a Hoffnung Director. Gonta is his Beholden, and the "evil organization" he claims to lead is the Peerage.

Ouma holds a bottle of Panta because

It is a reference to Jonestown, hinting that in his "secret society" as well as how he gains followers is he lures people in with a sense of hope while escalating to extreme measures that he himself will believe.

• If this is true, he could be one of the final culprits, and after spending several chapters trying to gain followers he will try to convince everyone that voting incorrectly is the right thing to do.
  • Jossed. He is the final victim, not culprit.

The role of the three originally released characters

So, Red Kirigiri, Purple Komaeda and Robo-Naegi are not the protagonist, confirmed with the reveal of Kaede, based on the Danganronpa standards created so far, here's possible ideas for what happen to then.

• Twin-tail girl will become the Deuteragonist, she is also probably the one who will be behind the lying system the game promised and teach Kaede to lie properly during class trials. She probably lies a lot herself and Kaede becomes her Only Friend.
  • Alternatively, she is the Token Evil Teammate, who pushes Kaede on making the harsher decisions and is a bit like Togami in the first game. She and Robo-naegi would often butt heads on how Kaede should deal with the situation at hand.
• The Ikemen is the irrelevant one. He was played up as important and his resemblance to Komaeda made a lot of people think he will be a protagonist, but I think he'll be offed in the first chapter. Not as the victim though, he would be the first killer.
  • Alternatively, he is either the first victim, or the last one. Frankly, I can't guess a lot from him.
• Robo-Naegi will be the one to take up the role of Token Evil Teammate. I believe he will go full Knight Templar and is withholding information about the others and their situation, and even turn against Kaede and twin tail for lying. He would also be on the frontline of accusing anyone, including Kaede in every case, again, similar to Komaeda, but also like Munakata, he is trying to get rid of any source of evil, ultimately, becoming an antagonist.
  • Alternatively, he is the Deuteragonist, and plays Token Good Teammate, not going full Knight Templar, but tries to make Kaede believe in her friends and makes big speeches about the Power of Friendship.
    • Depending on how you view it after Kaede's death, Ki-Bo is the SHSL Hope and became the final main character to play.
  • Alternatively, he is the first victim.
    • Jossed for the victim part.

There will be two power trios this time around.

The first will consist of Kaede, Rantarou, and Shuuchi, and the second will have Maki, Kiibo, and Kaito. Kaede's trio will be a more crafty one, using lies to catch the killers, whereas Maki and her gang will go the more traditional route of exposing lies and presenting evidence to catch these killers. Kiibo being a robot will probably help, as he has audio recording functions and can probably replay voice clips to expose lies.

• Jossed. The Power Trio were Kaede, Shuichi, and Ki-Bo as the three "main" characters.

The Monokumars as a group

They're obviously a team of 5, that much is clear. But as for their roles, other than Monotaro, we know nothing. My personal guess at their roles are as follows:

• Big Bad: Monotaro, forming a Big Bad Duumvirate with Monokuma. Either this, or he's The Dragon to Monokuma. I believe this because his bio indicates he's The Leader, however he also shares a lot of traits with Masaru Daimon, so it's possible that this will end up being subverted.
• Evil Genius: Monosuke's wearing glasses, and holding what seems to be a calculator. This leads me to believe he's the smart one in the group.
• The Dark Chick: Monophanie. Do I really need to elaborate on this?
• The Brute: Monodam is shown on all fours in the official art, leading me to believe he may act like a Beast Monokuma from Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls.
• This leaves Monokid as The Dragon to Monotaro... which I can't really support at all, other than it's where he fits.

I can't wait to see how wrong my guesses were when an English translation for the game is released!

The new Monokumas will serve as the jury.

• Jossed. They serve no special role or purpose during the trials.

The Ultimate Lucky will be Saihara

He mentions having solved crimes by chance. Meaning that he, by luck, crossed paths with evidence or a witness so he could solve a crime. So his luck was working with something that he wanted. He wanted to solve cases, so he got lucky and solved them.

• Jossed. There's no such thing as Ultimate Lucky Student.

Guesses for the Deuteragonist

Kaede has been confirmed as the protagonist, but due to that, it's really hard to point the importance of the other characters that had an early introduction. So far, the 4 most likely to help Kaede solve murders are:

• Ki-bo: He has been played as an important character, as he appears in the cover of the special edition. This does not necessarily means he is the deuteragonist, though, as Komaeda, who played the Token Evil Teammate / Tritagonist was in the cover of the OST. It might mean that Ki-bo is important, but not necessarily on your side, but for me, at least, he is the most likely one.
• Maki: She was thought to be the original Deuteragonist, and some even think that Kaede will die so Maki can be the real protagonist. It sounds plausible that she would help out Kaede, considering the Official Art that implies them to be rather close, but considering that, it's just about as likely that she will be the Sacrificial Lamb of this game.
• Shuichi: He is the Ultimate Detective, meaning that he might follow Kyoko's footsteps in helping Kaede. One of the preview images has him showing support to Kaede and telling that she is the only that can do it during a class trial, similar to what Kyoko used to do to Makoto on the first game.
• Amami: He is portrayed close to Kaede a lot. He is the second character introduced on the first Character Trailer, following Kaede, he was just in her front on the preview showing all characters and there are a lot of screenshots of them interacting. Although it's impossible to trust danganronpa previews, there is the fact that, in the Scrum Debate, he was on the opposite team than Kaede. He is my guess to Tritagonist, though.
• Kaito: Completely out of the left field, but it could happen. I think that the lack of focus on Kaito might be even proposital exactly for this. There's a theory that V3 might actually be a prequel or some sort of time-traveling related and Kaito is really Jin Kirigiri. Another small detail that might even be completely coincidental, but the deuteragonists Kyouko and Chiaki both had purple as their Color Motif, something shared with Kaito. Besides, Kaito is implied to be kind of funny and a bit of a dork, it would match the Contrasting Sequel Protagonist thing that Danganronpa is doing with Kaede.

Well, Shuichi is out, except he took up the spot of Protagonist after Kaede got executed.And Ki-Bo was a temporary Protagonist in the finale.

Angie is Hawaiian

Given her Ambiguously Brown appearance, the seashells used in her design, her worship of the "god of the island," and her official artwork showing her sculpting what looks like a tiki head, it's possibly all (somewhat stereotypical) references to her being Hawaiian.

• Jossed. She does appear to be a Pacific Islander, but her island is a fictional one.

Every student has a Dark and Troubled Past, on a similar scale to the cast of Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

During the intro sequence in the demo, every character's shadow has glowing magenta eyes, similar to the color of blood in the previous games. The first game's plot twist involved memory suppression being used used to trick a group of True Companions to kill each other for a goal that didn't exist. The second game uses the same trick as the first, and also reveals to the cast that each and every one of them was a group of demented terrorists that are guilty of bringing about The End of the World as We Know It. Following Serial Escalation further, the twist this time will be that each of them is guilty of crimes on the scale of terrorism (and were Not Brainwashed, as opposed to what Danganronpa 3 revealed) and they were given amnesia and put into the Gifted Inmates academy as a form of capital punishment.

• Though, if this is the case, I wonder why Ryoma's crime was the only one revealed(he's a vigilante that took down a mafia organization). Unless he did something even worse in prison.
• Or perhaps that's the default level; the Reveal will be that they're all Sympathetic Murderers:
  • Kaede used Magic Music on someone who was threatening her, driven them to suicide,
  • Miu discovered one of her clients was a horrible person who planned to use her invention for evil, and sabotaged it to blow in their face,
  • Ouma killed someone he actually liked to protect his organization,
  • Ki-Bo was forced to be an assassin by Iidabashi,
  • Gonta had to kill someone during his ten-year exile for food,
  • Suichi went full Vigilante Man on someone he couldn't convict
  • Tsumugi discovered one of her favorite authors raped a friend of hers and killed them in a rage,
  • Korekiyo silenced someone who was exploiting a native tribe,
    • Jossed; his is worse. He's a Serial Killer.
  • Tenko killed the reason why she's so prickly,
  • Kirumi was ordered to kill someone by a corrupt employer,
  • Maki is a serial killer of Abusive Parents,
    • Well, actually she's an assassin, but pretty much confirmed.
  • Ryoma you already know,
  • Kaito...I dunno,
  • Himiko and Angie are both schizophrenic, and they killed someone who was blackmailing them both to protect their medical histories and avoid being thrown in asylum.
    • This will all be a good red herring for the truly major reveal...

None of the Gifted Inmates are the Mastermind.

Monokuma is being controlled by Iidabashi as part of some mad scheme to warp Kii-Bo's personality.

• Jossed. The mastermind is a participant: Tsumugi.

Ouma will be a Rival character to Kaede as well as a Foil

I feel like Ouma will be a Rival character in a similar manner to Byakuya and Nagito. One of the biggest themes of the games are truths and lies and with him outright stating he is a liar, he seems to be a character with importance. In addition, with Kaede being a Consummate Liar as well (if the player chooses so), then Kaede could be a foil to Ouma with Kaede being more of a Nice Girl while Ouma is a bit of Jerkass. In addition, Kaede decides to take the position to lead others making her a Leader of possibly a group of good people while Ouma claims to be a supreme leader making him a Leader of a group of "bad" people.

• Confirmed but to Shuuichi Saihara, not to Kaede because she is not the protagonist.

Kaede is The Dragon to the real Mastermind...and her sweet personality isn't an act.

It will turn out she lied to herself well enough that she doesn't consciously know she's the second-in-command. She was sent into the Gifted Inmates as a personal agent of Monokuma to ensure they never tried to escape or to ensure only people the Mastermind wanted to survive did. However, the best lies contain an element of truth, and so fake Kaede is how Kaede actually wants to be; she's such a good actor because she isn't really acting, he evil face is the act. It will be revealed she loathes herself, which is the basis for Multiple Endings: in the Good Ending path, after her true persona awakes, she realizes she likes her friends and decides that she doesn't want to go back to the backstabbing spy she was and helps with uncovering the Mastermind (because you just know they're paranoid enough to not actually tell her who they are) before moving on from her past. Bad ending, though, she just isn't close enough to the other Inmates to feel brave enough to go on her own, killing them and slinking back into her old role as Monokuma's spy, now with even more self-hate,] and miserable forever.

• Jossed.

The Mastermind is an Anti-Villain Knight Templar

As a full Contrasting Sequel Antagonist to Junko, the Mastermind will turn out to be obsessed with creating the "perfect vessel for Hope", with the prison system being supposed to be there for "rehabilitation"-transforming the surviving student(s) into a warped version of The Paragon (if the above WMG is true, Kaede was chosen beforehand as the favorite). Perhaps they suffered greatly in the Tragedy, and have ended up losing faith in humanity, so afraid of another Junko that they've decided to create an anti-Junko. The Gifted Inmates, as it turns out, all were Well Intentioned Extremists of some type or another, hence why the Mastermind chose them to nurture that seed into a full Dark Messiah. This will lead to both a better and worse mode of interactions with the the Inmates; better, because the Mastermind wants them to be better people and won't try to pin the murders on innocents-they want the Inmates to stay until one is the perfect vessel. Worse, because they aren't doing this to entertain themselves, and thus No Challenge Equals No Satisfaction does not apply; the Mastermind cheats.

Oma's crime was killing most of his own organization to stop an evil scheme of theirs

He actually was in charge, or at least very important, in the order...but he's actually an Affably Evil Noble Demon who discovered they were planning something that horrified him. So he manipulated part of his organization into a civil war to stop them, killing many of their members. His Card-Carrying Villain habits are the result of him going mad with guilt; he tries to insinuate he's not trustworthy, because he doesn't think he is, and he wants people to stay safe from vengeful survivors.

• Jossed.

Shuichi Saihara is Obfuscating Stupidity

As the SHSL Detective, Shuichi Saihara knows that his talent makes him a threat to anyone that becomes the blackened. To make himself less likely to be targeted, he pretends that he is incompetent and only got his title through circumstance.

KI-BO's name will be localized as H0-P3

While most of the Japanese names are left intact, this feels like one of the cases where they might deem a change necessary, as players without knowledge of Japanese wouldn't get the Meaningful Name (Kibou means hope). Plus, H0-P3 sounds like a robot name.

• Jossed, but close. It's K1-B0.

Tsumugi Shirogane is NOT the Mastermind

While she might believe and be able to make a reasonable case for it, she's just as brainwashed into believing that as everyone else is brainwashed into believing their respective stories.

Kokichi's real talent is Ultimate Analyst

And he's lying about being the Ultimate Supreme Leader (or if he does have an organization, it's just as a cover like Junko had Ultimate Fashionista). He talks a lot about how he doesn't want to be bored; he's incredibly smart and cunning, to the point he can correctly predict Kaede's Fatal Flaw, Tenko's death, and everything about the Fifth Trial, in a short amount of time; and he tells Shuichi he finds him the most interesting person there because he doesn't know what to make of him. In short, he hates being bored, can almost perfectly foresee events around him, and takes an interest in something or someone he can't predict. Sounds an awful lot like Junko and Izuru.

Shuichi's Idiot Hair is a tribute to Kaede

Shuichi never takes off his hat before chapter 2, and he only does that because of Kaede's wish. It's possible he styled his hair similarly to hers for the same reason.

The characters' personalities before the killing game (Barring Tsumugi)

Assuming that Tsumugi told truth in that the students were completely different people before the killing game, this is what they might have been like:

• Shuichi was a psychopath who took glee in watching others suffer.
• Kaede was an uncaring teenager who was tone-deaf.
• Kaito liked tearing other people down by telling people how worthless they are and thought that space travel is a waste of tax dollars.
• Kokichi always told the truth and hated disorderly conduct.
• Rantaro hated traveling and was an only child.
• Ryoma was very unathletic and had never been to prison.
• Kirumi was a selfish and lazy woman who refused to do anything for anyone else.
• Angie was a stanch Atheist who couldn't even draw a stick figure.
• Tenko was a boy-crazy pacifist.
• Himiko was a hard-working realist and thought of magic as childish.
• Korekiyo was a xenophobe but was otherwise a normal person who wasn't a crazy, incest-practicing, seesaw-loving serial murderer.
• Miu was a prude who couldn't even solder two wires together.
• Gonta grew up in the city and hated bugs.
• Maki hated children.
• Keebo was a combat robot and lacked the mundane features he had during the killing game.
  • Kiibo was made by Team Danganronpa for the killing game, and Tsumugi implies that at least some the students actually did have some proficiency in their Ultimate talent (also implied by Kaede saying in the prologue that she has an interest she devotes herself to, presumably piano). Here are my guesses:
    • Kirumi worked part-time as a maid to support her family and was the leader of her school's cooking club.
    • Kokichi was a Shrinking Violet and a proficient chess player.
    • Gonta was a delinquent who secretly had a soft spot for bugs.

The Characters' Personalities Before the Killing Game- Assuming Tsumugi is Lying

Shuichi theorizes that the Flashback Lights are incapable of making talents out of nothing or completely altering personalities (though they can to some extent as seen with Kaede), which is supported how the characters act similarly in the prologue and do mention having talents, just not applying the 'Ultimate' label to them. So, some guesses:

• Shuichi was... pretty much the same, as Team Danganronpa got lazy with his backstory. He really is a Shrinking Violet assistant detective, but the story about the murder he solved before the police was made up to nerf him with a fear of discovering the truth, much like Kyoko was nerfed by having her memories of her talent removed.
• Kaede was a Jerk with a Heart of Gold Ordinary High-School Student who liked to play piano. Her Flashback Light pushed her nice side to the forefront and emphasized the role piano had in her life.
• Kaito always wanted to be an astronaut, but he didn't bluff his way into Japan's space program.
• Kokichi's compulsive lying and trust issues were played up, because if he could have properly communicated and coordinated with the others, he'd have broken the game to bits.
• Rantaro was a Nice Guy who selflessly sacrificed himself and wishes to end the killing game from the inside.
• Ryoma was a normal tennis player with a rough past, and Team Danganronpa overloaded him with negative fake memories to make him a Death Seeker and potential murder victim.
• Kirumi was an adult maid, but Team Danganronpa saw so much potential in her abilities that they fudged memories to make her seem to be a high schooler.
• Angie was half-Japanese-half-Hawaiian, and Team Danganronpa used that as an excuse to drop in the 'Atua' subplot. Of course, they never expected that Atua might exist.
• Tenko was still a gullible Aikido practicioner, but the goofy man-hating was implanted by Team Danganronpa to cause drama.
• Korekiyo was still a crazy serial killer with a 'Sister' tulpa (note he's still wearing his mask in the prologue), but the Anthropologist talent was implanted and the incest bit was some Author Appeal from Tsumugi.
• Miu was a socially awkward girl with a love of engineering, but her non-game inventions are faked.
• Gonta grew up in a remote forest, but his parents were humans who just happened to live isolated lives. Team Danganronpa just replaced them with wolves/dinosaurmen because Rule of Cool.
• Miu was a quiet girl who did take care of kids in her orphanage... but she also killed some robbers in self-defense once, and Team Danganronpa thought it would be cooler to make her an assassin.

Angie is an in-universe case of Fake Nationality

Inspired by this, considering Angie has a Japanese surname and wore a Japanese school uniform before the killing game, it's likely she was a dark-skinned Japanese girl (possibly hāfu [biracial]) cast as an Ambiguously Brown foreign cultist because she "looked the part".

Relation to other Installments

Maki was placed here because she was framed by Chisa Yukizome

This is a prison school, and thanks to Danganronpa 3, we know that there's a group of small children who were killed by Chisa Yukizome. Obviously, Chisa was never arrested for it, so she must have pinned the blame on someone. Who better than the class's teacher, and Ultimate Nursery School teacher, Maki Harukawa?

• But it was made clear that they didn't know who did it.

The Maid Girl is Togami's descendant

Just a wild mass guess, but she looks similar to him (tall and thin, with the same shade of hair).

Incidentally, if this theory is true, and Munakata doesn't survive the end of DR3, this person would be a good candidate for a potential mastermind. While Despair probably isn't hereditary, it's possible the despair-ified Chisa left behind something that would make her child think that Naegi had killed her parents to take over the Future Foundation, and thus manipulates her into becoming the next mastermind.

The New Monokumas are inspired by the Warriors Of Hope

From left to right:

• Robokuma is Monaca, due to the whole robotics theme.
• Glasseskuma is Nagisa, due to the intellectual look.
• Monotarou is Masaru, due to the whole leaderly look and color scheme.
• Flowerkuma is Kotoko, due to the color scheme.
• Rockkuma is Jataro, due to being the last one out.

At least one of the new students is the child or descendant of a character from the previous games

So far, for a game that is supposed to come out late in 2016, we've gotten very little information on the cast other than pictures of three of the characters(and we don't even know their names yet). By contrast, we have plenty of information on the cast of the DR3 anime. I'm thinking there might be a reason for this.

It might be because one (or more) of the new characters in V3 is the child of a previous character. They might not want to reveal this before the anime comes out because the presence of a character's descendant would spoil that their parent will survive the events of the anime.

Nearly all the new characters are the descendants, or maybe even children, of the surviving characters of the Hope's Peak Saga

This is one of the more popular theories going around. Although descendants seems more likely due to the characters' last names. This is list of who you think in a descendant/children of a particular pairing:

• Shuichi Saihara: Well he is the new Ultimate Detective who happens to have an ahoge, so he is a good candidate for the possible child/descendant of Naegi and Kirigiri.
• Miu Iruma: Likely the child/descendant of Kazuichi and Sonia, her talent is Ultimate Inventor, she wear flashy clothing like Kazuichi, and her appearance is pretty similar to Sonia.
• Korekiyo Shinguji: Possibly one of Gundham's and Sonia's. His appearance is a bit similar to Gundam's, like the bandages around his arms. Plus what better way to have someone interested in folklore than being the son/descendant of a princess? Although this could make Korekiyo the half-brother/cousin of Miu.
• Himiko Yumeno: The Token Mini-Moe with red hair, possible Mahiru's or Hiyoko's descendant.
• Kaede Akamatsu: Bringing up a fairly popular theory here: Kaede being a descendant of both Makoto and Kyoko, and Byakuya.
  • Alternately, she's a descendant of Junko. Would explain the voice actress.
    • Or she's a clone, like another WMG on this page suggests.
• Kiibo: His similarity with Makoto may be done in purpose, as he is a continuation of Izuru Kamukura project, but done using an AI/Robot and based upon Makoto who is the face of the Ultimate Hope. (Similar to Star Trek's Soong-type Android is derived from the Augment project in concept)
• Gonta Gokuhara: Possible descendant of Nekomaru and Akane? His wild haircut looks similar to Akane's, and he has a massive build similar to Nekomaru.
• Rantaro Amami: Descendant of Nagito and an unknown woman. His laughing portrait is exactly like Nagito's, his hair is similarly messy, and they both have green color schemes.
• Maki Harukawa: Maki's background says that she was raised at an orphanage. This makes her ripe for a twist where she turns out to be related to a past character. Hajime, perhaps? The black hair and red eyes seem a bit reminiscent of Izuru.
  • Another possibility is Takumi Hijirihara, who is also a protagonist with black hair and red eyes. It'd be a good way of tying a gaiden manga into the main games, too.
• Kokichi Oma: His purple hair and eyes are practically the same shade as Mikan's, he wears all white like her, and he seems to have an... interesting mental state, also like her. Could be a descendant.
• Angie Yonaga: Possible descendant of Hina/Hiro? She seems a bit loopy like Hiro, and has a similar skin tone and beach theme to Hina.
• Kirumi Tojo: Her character seems to be reminiscent to Peko, though in an opposite direction (a servant type who's secretly badass, in contrast to a badass who's secretly the bodyguard of another character). Maybe she's a descendant of Fuyuhiko and Peko.
  • Earlier entries have also suggested a descent from Togami or Munakata.
• Ryouma Hoshi: Descendant of Teruteru? Can't really think of anyone else for him.
• Kaito Momota: It's possible he's another Makoto/Kyoko descendant, since people seem to be seeing a resemblance to Jin Kirigiri in him. Hagakure is another possibility.
• Tsumugi Shirogane: Possible descendant of Toko?
• Tenko Chabashira: Not really sure who she'd be descended from. Maybe Ibuki, but that could be a bit of a stretch.

Though I'm not expecting that everyone will be descended from a past character. Maybe one or two of them.

Munakata will make a cameo of some sort in this game

He sorta just walked off at the end of Danganronpa 3, and if this game doesn't take place in the distant future, I think it would be cool to see him show up somehow. There's no real reason for this other than I kinda want to see him again after Side: Hope

• The biggest problem with this is that Kodaka said that it wouldn't have anything to do with the Hope's Peak saga, which Munakata was a part of. But he is the only one without a happy ending......
• Jossed

The game is related to the cover up of Final Killing Game

At the end of the first V3 trailer, there is a phrase with two possible translation: one is "The world can be changed by a lie"; the other is "A world that lies can change". At that time, we assume it was merely referencing to the lying bullet mechanism. Now, however, we know that the the entire Hope's Peak Arc (and The Tragedy apparently) is ended by the Class 77B taking the blame for Tengan's Final Killing Game in order to prevent the fall of Future Foundation — in short, a lie that ended the Tragedy. What if the phrase refer to that? And the mastermind actually want to expose and/or punish either Class 77B (for starting the cover up) or the Future Foundation (for accepting the cover up)? Do keep in mind that Nagito's Special episode is suppose to bundle with NDRV3.

• Jossed.

The mastermind is still Junko

Kodaka said no old characters would be returning but since Tsumugi is a cosplayer, what if she at some point cosplayed Junko and created the new killing game just to stay in character. So in a way, Junko would still be the mastermind without having her actually come back.

• Confirmed. She's the 53rd Junko.

Monaka is the mastermind.

In DR3, all she said was that she was done with hope and despair. She's still evil and sadistic, so nothing's stopping her from engineering a killing game for other reasons. She knows how to make Monokumas, and the new Monokuma units do kind of resemble the Warriors of Hope. The whole space NEET thing could have been meant to throw us off.

• Jossed.

Kodaka has been known to mess with fans, so I don't trust him when he says no old characters will be returning.

• Adding onto this, the 5 Monokumas have a similar color scheme to the Warriors of Hope.

The first one to be executed will be Makoto Naegi.

Just like in the first game V3 will start with the execution of Hope Peak's headmaster. This would also mark the official end of the Hope Peak arc and beginning of the Gifted Inmates arc by killing of the main character of the first arc.

• Jossed. NDRV3 doesn't even happen in the same universe/timeline as DR and SDR2's.

The Hope's Peak saga really did happen.

The main reason everyone realizes something's off about their memories related to Hope's Peak is that they don't match up with a book on the subject. But if Hope's Peak never existed to begin with, why would those inconsistencies exist? Combine that with the contradiction of Tsumugi's cospox triggering when dressed as the "fictional" Kaede and it seems likely that Hope's Peak happened after all. Team Danganronpa was simply attempting to cover up the real events by turning them into fiction, thereby taking full control of the battle between hope and despair.

The game takes place after a "bad ending" to Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School.

So the outside world is apparently a world with no despair, right? Who was trying to make a world like that? Kazuo Tengan. The world of V3 is a world where Makoto and his allies were unable to stop Ryota Mitarai from broadcasting his hope video, ridding the world of despair. However, Mitarai eventually came to regret his actions and decided to reintroduce despair to the world, but in a controlled form. He created Team Danganronpa and started to create video games and anime based on the real events surrounding Hope's Peak, but convinced the world that they were entirely fictional (rewriting the ending of DR3 to one in which his plan didn't work), before converting it into reality TV afterwards.

Nearly Everything Said At The End Of This Game Was a Lie

This contains spoilers for the ending, so read at your own risk...

The Mastermind was lying about the cast being fake Ultimates, Danganronpa being a fictional series and even being the Mastermind. This thread I started on Reddit goes into detail, but I'd like to add onto it here because the trope pages for the character profiles seem to agree that the Mastermind was telling the truth, while there's actually a few glaring things to indicate that's not the case. Note, some of what I say here is somewhat different from the Reddit thread, as I've been replaying through the game again and re-watching things, so this version is more updated than the thread. This is a long read, but if you believe that Tsumugi was telling the truth, I have things that I think might persuade you that that isn't the case; Tl;dr at the bottom.
The level of technology in V3 matches up with the level of technology from the previous games. The Flashback Lights seem to replicate the ability to alter memories that were seen in 1 and 2 (along with being able to give people talents like the Izuru Kamukura Project). Keebo is confirmed to be a sentient AI while the Monokubs, Motherkuma and Monokuma are all heavily implied to be sentient AI like Alter Ego, Alter Ego Junko, Shirokuma and Kurokuma. This seems to indicate that the level of technology in V3 is on a similar level (and possibly more advanced with the inclusion of Nanokuma, the Monokubs being so easily recreated and being able to mass produce possibly sentient Monokuma through Motherkuma) as the ones from the "fictional universe."
The beginning Prologue of V3 heavily implies Ultimate Talents are a real thing in the "real world". When asked if the characters have an Ultimate Talent when the characters are their "real, talentless selves", the characters say, "I don't have an Ultimate Talent." Strange that the characters don't say, "Ultimate Talents don't exist" or "Those are just fiction", instead they make it seem as if Ultimate Talents are a real thing, they just lack them in particular. This is a very odd choice of words to use if Danganronpa is a fictional story in the real world...

The first part of the Prologue wasn't them being accepted into the Killing Game. The Monokubs more or less outright say, "This isn't in the script." The students were supposed to have their Ultimate Talents, the Exisals weren't supposed to show up at that point in time, an this directly contradicts the flashback in the final trial where it was all just revealed to be them being shown they got into the show. So which was it? Were the students happy to get onto the show, or were the Monokubs lying for no reason in particular to people that were about to get their memories erased? That happy reaction we see is being told to us by a psychopath who has been lying the entire game. And speaking of Tsumugi, if this were them being accepted into the show like she claimed, there was no reasoning behind her putting on a scared front (she has noticeably different screams before and after getting her Ultimate Clothes when seeing the Exisals for the first time), not being in her Ultimate Clothes (the rest were contestants, so why wouldn't the employee just show up dressed for the part? This makes no sense...) and not bothering to tell the Monokubs, "You're way off script! The Exisals aren't supposed to show up yet!" The Monokubs outright say, "You guys weren't supposed to be like this by the time you woke up." Based on all of this, the "you got into the show" part wasn't them being accepted into the show, as the Monokubs were clearly already "on script" and reading their lines before the show even started, and then turn around and basically say, "Just kidding! We knew you weren't in your roles yet! Ignore everything else we said to signal we thought you were in your roles! That was a joke? You could tell?" Even Tsumugi was asking questions, almost as though she were genuinely confused as well when this was all part of a "You got into the show!" bit. Whatever was going on in that part, it wasn't meant to be what Tsumugi claimed it was.

The flashback about being accepted into the killing game also directly contradicts what happened in the Prologue. Tsumugi tells the survivors, "You were so happy to get accepted in!" This makes no sense and honestly comes across as pointlessly contrived, as though this "fictional" set up makes no sense. For one, the V3 characters we see in the beginning of the Prologue are their "true selves" but Tsumugi says the Flashback Lights also helped them remember their "true selves", so which one of these two (or three, since apparently Tsumugi can't count... Another clue that what she's saying isn't adding up, as apparently the ones we see in the Prologue are their true selves but the ones that "suddenly remembered they were contestants" are also their true selves, but the ones we see before they get their "talents unsealed" are also their true selves but also not their true selves because the ones after getting hit with a flashback light is...? Which one is it Tsumugi?) are their true personalities? Even then, it's unclear (if we take Tsumugi's words as truth) if the "bloodthirsty" Shuichi is his true personality, the meek, talentless Shuichi we see is the true personality, or the Ultimate Shuichia we play as in the majority of the game is the one that's the true self (I'd have to lean towards the Ultimate version being the true one, as I've explained above and will below). This seems needlessly convoluted, and almost like it's something being made up on the spot. Note, Tsumugi's saying this AFTER the characters just got hit with brain altering flashlights that can change someone's personality. That casts serious doubt on how genuine the happy reactions were to them getting into their favorite show was (especially with how the Monokubs outright say that everything before the Flashback Lights appear wasn't supposed to happen to begin with).

Coming off of the last one... What Tsumugi claims happened in the Prologue and what we see in the Prologue... There's a huge contradiction there that heavily implicates that what she's saying is a lie. In the Playable Prologue, the order of events go: Characters get Ultimate Clothes > Seem confused when they're told they look like Ultimates > Get hit Flashback Lights. In the Prologue as Tsumugi tells it, the order of events go: Characters get Ultimate Clothes > Characters seem confused then happy they got into the game > then get hit by the Flashback Lights. These two things directly contradict each other, like the "Happy we got in" part was just ungracefully shoved into the events of what actually happened, not to mention that Tsumugi is conveniently leaving out, "Yeah, you guys only started acting like that after getting hit with the Flashback Lights... Except, no, I literally just said the Flashback Lights are what helped you remember you were in the Killing Game... Except, no, you didn't need them to remember... And what you remembered was fake all along." Yeah, which one is it Tsumugi? Because these statements directly contradict each other. Either the characters were given their ultimate clothes then immediately hit with the Flashback Lights (as we see in the actual Prologue) or they got their clothes, THEN got happy they got into the game THEN got hit with the Flashback Lights... Either they got hit twice with the Flashback Lights in short succession for some reason (and Tsumugi conveniently left this out and made it seem like the Flashback Lights weren't used at that point yet), which also means they got their "first memory" twice (somehow?????) or Tsumugi's lying about when they got hit with the Flashback Lights (has to be one or the other, and I think I'll trust the portion we play as over the recollections of a liar who has plenty of holes in her story). Even more, the way she's phrasing it makes it very uncertain if the "Ultimate Talents" part is what she meant by remembering or "You got into the game" part is what she's referring to, and this whole segment becomes an incomprehensible mess, almost like it's being hastily thrown together at the last possible moment and makes no sense when placed under scrutiny...

The Monokubs more or less state, "You WERE Ultimates." Even before they get their false memories. Keep in mind, this is before anyone gets hit with the Flashback Lights:

• Monosuke: Youse all forgotten your talents and become generic high school students.
• Monotaro: The first thing we need you guys to do is remember your true selves.
• Monophanie: Yeah! You guys need to reclaim your sealed talents by regaining your memories!
• Monotaro: Now then, after the Flashback Lights help you remember your amazing talents.

Now... This part right here is really intriguing. The Monokubs are outright saying that the characters had Ultimate Talents before the Prologue. The Monokubs have no reason to lie at this point, and I'm failing to see how they could become "generic high schoolers" when Ultimate Students apparently don't exist, how they could forget their true selves and reclaim talents they supposedly never had to begin with and unsealing something that was apparently never there to begin with... Notably, Monotaro says that the Flashback Lights will help them "remember your amazing talents" which more or less confirms they had Ultimate Talents at some point before the game started. The Monokubs have no reason to lie here, as the characters will have their memories tampered with shortly after, and they genuinely seem to be probing to figure out what went wrong (and frustrated that they didn't have their talents yet because Monophanie didn't restore them like she was supposed to). Keep in mind that Tsumugi seems genuinely confused here as well, which she has no reason to be doing if she's the Mastermind. My take? The cast of V3 are really Ultimates (the Monokubs outright saying they weren't always generic high school students, that they had their amazing talents at some point before the game started and remembering their amazing talents/true selves), they just had their memories erased to keep them safe from the people in the Prologue that abducted the (memory wiped) Ultimates... It didn't work, and it looks like they got dragged into a Killing Game run by crazy people/homicidal AI.

Were the character's personalities all fictional? No, not really. If you pay attention to the Prologue (before their memories were altered by the Flashback Lights), you'll notice... Shuichi acts the same as he does in the game (even keeping on his hat), Kaede acts the same (if slightly more cynical), Rantaro (from what little we see) acts the same, Maki is still as cool as a normal person as when she's the Ultimate Assasin, Miu's still rude and swears in the brief moments we see her, Tenko still has her panicking sprites, and notably Korekiyo is wearing his mask BEFORE seeing the Flashback Light and pretty much everyone else (except Tsumugi) seem to act the same (or not wildly different compared to) the ones we see in the game. I'd say the depictions we see in the game are how they naturally behave (sans maybe Tsumugi, which I'll cover down below... But I suspect her personality (minus the mastermind bit) is how she naturally acts as well).
Were the characters given fake names? No, they did not have fake names. Shuichi and Kaede both have the same names in the Prologue, and the Japanese audio of the final trial strongly sounds like the "real" Shuichi in the audition tape is saying his name is "S-(Static) S-(Static)", making me believe Shuichi Saihara is his true name. For more evidence that they have the same names as the "fictional characters" they're playing... Rantaro Amami is supposedly a fictional character with a fake name, yet the "real one" we see in the beginning of the Prologue is also named Rantaro Amami...? With all this in mind... Kaede, Shuichi and Rantaro are all using their real names, not the names of fictional characters they were given. With the audio from the Japanese version, I'd even say it's likely the Shuichi we see there is using the name Shuichi Saihara as well.

Were the characters' backstories all fictional? Well... There's a lot of things pointing to the characters we see in the game being their true selves (in addition to what the Monokubs state), besides the planet being uninhabitable part of course. Gonta claims he's from a respectable family... The visual dictionary◊ for V3 states that the clothes we see him in in the Prologue before they get their Ultimate Clothes looks like something from a "respectable family." Shuichi (the Ultimate Detective) heard of Ryoma killing mafia with a steel ball, which makes sense for a detective to have heard of a criminal organization being destroyed. Shuichi also has a thing about not removing his hat in the Prologue as well... Which doesn't make sense if that was just something added to the character. Kaede mentions that her friends used Miu's eye drop contact lenses invention, but never heard of Miu herself (the product can be well known, but the inventor might be unknown). These little details make me think that the characters we see in V3 are their "true selves" and their backstories are really what happened.
Building off of the last one, but deserving its own paragraph. Of special note is Keebo and if he was just created to be a character on Danganronpa... There's a lot of evidence that he wasn't created to be the Audience Surrogate. For one, he's first seen wearing regular clothing, instead of just showing up in his Ultimate Robot attire (why bother putting him in regular clothing, then changing his clothes, then erasing his memories instead of just having him come with those clothes from the beginning?). Two, his antenna; it's usually pointing up or at a 45 degree angle, but in the Prologue, he's wearing a hat that would be flattening it (and likely affecting reception for the audience). Three, the visual dictionary◊ confirms he was trying to hide his metal body with the "normal" clothing we see in the beginning of the game (implying he had a life before the Killing Game started, which also makes no sense if he were created to just be the Audience Surrogate). Based on all of this, I'd have to say he really is the Ultimate Robot and trying to blend in as a regular human being after having his memories tampered with, but was repurposed into being the Audience Surrogate (the antenna was likely placed on his body when everyone got their Ultimate Clothes).
Rantaro almost certainly wasn't in any previous Killing Games. Yes, that video was compelling, but there's a slight issue there. The Ultimate Clothes we see reflect the talents of the Ultimate wearing them (Shuichi looks like a detective, Kaede's musical notes related clothing, Himiko looking like a witch/magician), but the Rantaro we see in the video is wearing the exact same Ultimate Clothes that we see him in in the game. So Rantaro was the Ultimate Survivor twice in a row? Because of his attire, I believe this is genuinely his first Killing Game, and being exposed to the Flashback Light gave him false memories and he made that video while being brainwashed. There's also the fact that if this were the truth, and Danganronpa is a fictional series, none of the huge fans didn't recognize Rantaro immediately as being a previous character on the show. There's also the implication that the audition tapes we see were recorded inside the school (Tsumugi's Ultimate Lab has a floor panel that pretty closely resembles the floor of what we see from the audition tapes), and going with this and the above: they were tapes the characters recorded while brainwashed into thinking they got into their favorite show, which doesn't exist.
The big one... The Mastermind probably isn't who she thinks she is. Yes, Tsumugi is supposedly the Mastermind; except, no, there's actually a lot of clues hinting that she's not aware of everything that happened in the Prologue as well. First, the Normal!Tsumugi we see in the Prologue screams much more genuinely ("AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!") while Ultimate!Tsumugi's screams seem less genuine ("Kyaaaaa!") when they both see the Exisals for the first time. If this were an act, why would she choose to scream differently? During the Prologue, she at no point tells the Monokubs, "You're off script! The Exisals aren't supposed to come in yet!" when she supposedly wrote the script? Why wasn't she already dressed for her part as the Ultimate Cosplayer, and instead came to work dressed as a regular student and chose to act the part of one for no reason? Why was she asking questions like the other students when there was supposedly no reason for her to hide her true self at that point in time? And if she's such a huge fan of Danganronpa and wrote out everything, why did she make such basic mistakes in regards to the lore of the series...? Her being the Mastermind at that point in time makes no sense, especially the issues with her pretending to be a regular high school student one minute then going all Team Danganronpa the next to tell everyone, "Yeah, you got into the show." With this in mind, and factoring in that she only began acting as a Team Danganronpa employee AFTER getting hit with the Flashback Lights (note: she herself doesn't mention or recall the first time the Flashback Lights were used earlier than that when she said they were, so either she's deliberately lying about this or unintentionally lying...), her role as the Mastermind was something fabricated as well. She probably really is the Ultimate Cosplayer (much like Shuichi is the Ultimate Detective, Kaede is the Ultimate Piantist, etc.), but she's just been brainwashed into thinking she's a member of a team that isn't real and to be part of a TV Show that doesn't exist. But Tsumugi wrote out all of the plotlines! Keep in mind that it's heavily implied Tsumugi was looking into the (memory altering) Flashback Lights too throughout the game with the rest of the cast, so her writing out the plots could very well be her just being brainwashed into thinking that's what actually happened.
With all of this in mind, The reveals from the final trial don't make too much sense, and it almost seems like things that were revealed don't make much sense, and I strongly believe it was because Tsumugi was grasping at straws (and failing) to make a comprehensible narrative out of what was going on (not to mention, she herself probably wasn't entirely sure of what was real at the time either, as she might not even be the true Mastermind).
TL;DR: There's tons of evidence that V3 takes place in the same continuity as the rest of the series, the characters are all really Ultimates, Keebo, the Monokubs and V3!Monokuma are likely AI like Shirokuma, Kurokuma and Alter Ego Junko (which fits with the technology being the same as the supposedly "fictional universe's" technology) and Tsumugi is almost certainly brainwashed into believing she's the Mastermind when she isn't based on how she acts in the beginning of the game.

• So, the million-dollar question... who is the true mastermind, and why did they feel the need to recreate Danganronpa?

Gameplay

There will be a party mechanic.

Students who are on your 'Party' may help find evidence in the Crime Scene and have special talents during the Trials. Also, the player will have to convict a party member some time during the trials.

• Jossed.

The player character will rotate

There are no less than 3 people with Idiot Hair. Since I don't think there's ever been a time where a character with an ahoge has not been playable in Dangan Ronpa, it stands to reason that they're all playable

• Are we forgetting Hifumi? He had an ahoge. And Akane has one as well.
• Confirmed. Shuichi become the new protagonist after Kaede was executed. Kibo become playable in Chapter 6.

The Game will be more forward with LGBT themes

• This is more of a hope than anything else. But Super Dangan Ronpa really enticed the fans with the increased LGBT tease. The series has been pretty open so far, having Nagito, Junko, Mikan and Teruteru as bisexual(or at the very least Ambiguously Bi) characters, so maybe on a Dangan Prison mode they'll be more straight forward in case a same-sex relationship is possible.
  • Then again, it's a Japanese game, and I can't remember this ever happening so it might not happen at all.
  • In addition, maybe one or more of the kids will be unambiguously transgender.
  • Considering that the protagonist this time around will be a girl, even if it's not possible to outright date, I predict a good amount of Les Yay between her and the twin tail girl. Maybe enough to even leave an Ambiguous Ending on their relationship and both being possibly Ambiguously Bi / Ambiguously Gay.
  • Considering that they make Juzo Sakakura, one of the important characters in Danganronpa 3, into a homosexual in a non-stereotypical way, more LGBT themes may not be out of the blue.
  • Jossed. There is no confirmed same sex couple in the game.
  • Actually, I'd say that was confirmed. Many Love Hotel scenes strongly imply the existence of homosexual romance between the characters, and some of them directly delve into sexual elements. If that's not considered forward enough with LGBT themes, I do not know what would be considered as such.
    • There is also the fact that Tenko has a very obvious crush on Himiko.
  • Kokichi also implies that he's in love with Shuichi.

There are multiple playable characters

Specifically: Kaede, Shuuichi, KEEBO, and Miu, because all of them have ahoges. Every character with an ahoge in this series has been playable (Makoto, Hajime, Nagito, Toko, Komaru). It wouldn't be a surprise if this was the same.

• This WMG has already theorized and it has been pointed out that Akane has an ahoge, but wasn't playable. I know this doesn't actually Joss your theory, multiple player characters could be possible for a variety of other reasons, I'm just bringing it up.
• This is helped by the fourth trailer showing Kaede in the field.
• Confirmed except for Miu. Kaede is playable in chapter 1, Shuuichi is playable from then till he has a Heroic BSoD, during which KI-BO takes over.

The main character either is still not revealed, or will be switching around (post Kaede reveal)

I got this from Omega Valwin's video, who referenced to Bing Bong — that Pink represent lies, and many famitsu scans use pink for Kaede, not because she is a girl, but it's a lie that she is the main character. What fuelled this is the special edition box, which features Ki-Bo instead of Kaede. Of course, this can merely be hints that he is likely to be the Kirigiri/Chiaki character.

• Confirmed. Shuichi became the new protagonist once Kaede is revealed to be the first killer.

The game will have several possible murderers and outcomes

With the new lie bullets and "scrum debates," it's possible the old proposed system from the Distrust beta will be implemented. V3 could have multiple possible characters who could be murderers, which might be determined by which side you take and who you decide to lie to during the previous trials. These might be tied to a similar trust/distrust system, which could influence who might die in the following chapters of the game. As a result, the game's story could change drastically and have Multiple Endings.

• May also explain why there are quite a lot of characters with Ahoges.
• Jossed

The Game Will Use Unused Elements from the Prototype, 'Distrust'

Particularly, a character's survival being dependent on how you interact with them. Since the game will be on the PS4 and Vita (where as the first two games were merely ported to the latter from the PSP), it may have the disc space for it.

Plot and Twists

The game will make a reference to Part 6 of Jojos Bizarre Adventure

The series has been known to drop references from JJBA (Mondo's "Crazy Diamonds" gang, Junko posing like DIO, Teruteru talking about licking sweat to tell if someone is lying, among many others). Since the characters are implied to be prisoners this time, what better Jojo arc to make gags out of than the one about escaping prison?

The Gifted Inmates academy is a reform school created to avoid a repeat of the Despairing Incident.

Like the name suggests, the new academy is designed to house those students whose talents are dangerous to society, or who have histories of criminal behavior, mental instability, or general delinquency. The founders of the new school may have recognized the inherent danger in letting these kinds of students mingle with the sane, law-abiding ones, and quarantined them out of fear that they might be susceptible to falling under the influence of another Ultimate Despair.

• Jossed. The Tragedy never took place in the universe of Danganronpa V3. Some characters have done terrible things, though. Like murdering or defraud...
  • but all these terrible things are fake memories implanted in their mind.

There might be a sister school referenced somewhere for the talented students who aren't considered dangerous.

• Building on this, may be this explain why Makoto is the headmaster of Hope's Peak instead of Munakata. Munakata himself started the Gifted Inmates instead, as his talent is better suited for "troublesome SHSL"
• An update to the official website almost makes it seem like the Academy was built for the purpose of the murder game, as the school isn't specifically mentioned in relation to the Gifted Program. It only mentions the Monokuma-enforced rules we're all familiar with. However, this doesn't quite gel with the overgrowth, which implies that the building was abandoned and re-purposed by Monokuma. On the other hand, there's a research room for each of the cast's talents, presumably taking the place of the dorms and cottages, which had to have been individually made for each of the students, and it doesn't make sense why Monokuma would make a research room rather than just provide basic housing for the participants, which implies that the facility was prepared for the students by someone who didn't have murder in mind for them, and my brain hurts.

Kaede will commit a successful murder and win the Killing Game in V3's final class trial, though it won't be obvious to the player initially

Considering that lies and deception are now an important theme and mechanic in the game, it'd be plausible that Kaede could commit a complex murder and then spend the entire class trial misleading the remaining students (and the player) into believing that another student is the killer. To preserve the dramatic impact of such a reveal, the player would be kept in the dark until either the end of the trial or after the votes have been tallied.

• This would be a good way of showing what would ever happen if any characters ever did lose, and if they're all executed at once or separately, but it's not the most likely of theories. Now if it was an alternate ending...
• Maybe as a possible Bad End that the player goes if he uses too much lies or something. We don't know exactly how the morality of the game is going to be. In the two firsts, the groups were pretty much all friends until something forced them to kill.
  • Jossed. Kaede faked being a culprit, failed to defend herself, and was executed.
    • Double jossed. Kaede didn't fake being a culprit but it turns out she wasn't the real culprit to begin with and was framed by the mastermind/the real killer of the first trial.

Kaede Akamatsu is related to Junko or a Remnant of Despair in someway

Dangan Ronpa frequently pick voice actors for specific reasons: they picked Nobuyo Ōyama to voice Monokuma as a "dark Doraemon", and picked Kanata Hongō, the Stage!Makoto, for Mitarai, who we found out to worship Makoto and is similar in many outlooks. So why did they pick Sayaka Kanda, who played Junko in the stage plays?

• The official English subtitle "Killing Harmony" does not look good for the only musician of the game either.
• Jossed.

Kaede is a clone of Junko Enoshima

Going off the above WMG, perhaps the big twist is that someone cloned Junko in the attempt to create another Ultimate Despair. If the theory that Kaede is an (supposedly) innocent student who got accidentally stuck in the Gifted Inmates Academy is true, perhaps the true reason why she's there is due to being Junko's clone. No one would take the chance that she wouldn't end up following in her "mother"'s footsteps.

However, despite the mastermind's best attempts to make her embrace despair, she will reject it in favor of hope, refusing to become another Junko.

To support this, usually these characters with similar thing with their actor/seiyuu would usually be the antithesis of the role they're famous for. Doraemon is a good-natured cat, while Monokuma is a sadistic evil bear, Makoto has two: Nagito who is batshit insane in terms of hope (both are voiced by Megumi Ogata AND Bryce Papenbrook after all), and Ryota who attempts to spread hope by brainwashing the entire world. If the 'reverse' will happen in this, Kaede actually has a chance to turn out not like Junko, accepting hope instead of being a despair/suffering-inducing evil girl.

• Jossed. Junko does not physically exist in the universe V3 takes place in.

Possible Motives Set by Monokuma

• The Blackened Will Live, Even When Proven Guilty: For one trial only, Monokuma will allow it. When the killer gets caught, the rest of the students will turn against for the rest of the game (or until they die).
  • Jossed.
• Monokuma Will Tell Them That a Fellow Student Wronged Them in Some Form: That's if these students will have their memories erased like in the first two games, Monokuma will use revenge as a motive.
  • Jossed.
• Monokuma will reveal personal details, lies, or something sinister about all the students background. (assuming it's another Laser-Guided Amnesia moment)
  • Confirmed, but there's a twist: the videos with the personal details on them are shuffled around so that every student gets the video of someone else. Except Kirumi, that is.

The central motive of the Gifted Inmates' Saga is going to be Truth vs Lies

Like the motive of the Hope's Peak academy saga is Hope vs Despair, the motive of the newest saga is going to be truth vs lies. The first game might reveal a 'harsh truth' about the world they're living in/about themselves and the students might react in various ways (e.g. "It's a lie" or "This has to be true"). And all the games in that saga will show the positive and negative aspects of both truth and lies. Badly worded, I know, but the reason I'm thinking it is because of the new lying mechanic.

• Confirmed.

Guesses about the Traitor

The traitor angle hasn't been mentioned yet, but it's likely that there will be another one. To wit, our last two (not counting Gekkougahara) were female, lovable, were "benevolent" traitors who had everyone's best interests in mind, and who were only outed as the traitor shortly before their death. Some guesses:

• The traitor will be male this time, and he will not be a "benevolent" traitor. As for whether he's likable or a complete jackass, I'm willing to guess either way.
• He will be one of the first to die and will be revealed as traitor much later on.
• When they find out the traitor's identity, they will also learn of something that he was able to accomplish before he died that royally screws them over (and preventing it from getting them all killed will be the end goal of that chapter). Alternatively, they find out his identity because of whatever he did.
  • A lot of this WMG works well with previous ones about Amami, specifically the ones about him having Ultimate Luck, and dying first since we always expect the ??? character to survive.
• Jossed, there's no traitor this time around.
  • Double Jossed, there is a traitor but not the one as people sees. It's Ki-Bo.

Kaede is not the real Kaede Akamatsu

The previews have suggested that the game will open with a surprising twist. Perhaps the twist is that the protagonist is not actually Kaede Akamatsu, but another girl impersonating her. You find the real Kaede's dead body at the very beginning of the game, and the protagonist is forced to assume her identity (perhaps she's lost her memory, like Rantaro claims is the case for himself).This would tie in well with the thematic of lies, since it gives "Kaede" something she's forced to conceal from the start. If this twist happens, I'm also guessing that the real Kaede will be discovered in the endgame, and you'll be forced to find her murderer in a class trial. But is it possible the protagonist herself is the blackened?

• Technically confirmed. All of the students were given fake memories and personalities.

One of the Monokuma Cubs will pull a Heel–Face Turn

Most likely Monodam due to his constant bullying by Monokid, or Monofunny, who's actually rather gentle by nature and bad with gore and cruelty.

• Confirmed. Monodam pushes Monokid into the area of Akamatsu Kaede's execution, crushing him to bits.
  • That's not really a Heel–Face Turn...
• Monotaro also briefly joins the students' side in the Chapter 4 investigation due to his amnesia.

The Final Trial will include a scrum debate of the survivors against Monokuma and the Monokubs

• Jossed. No Scrum Debate happens in the final trial.

Rantaro will end up being just a red herring.

The demo makes him out to be a bad guy, but he truly will not be a bad guy in the main full release.

• Confirmed.

The mastermind is Professor Iidabashi and he's using Kibo as The Mole

Iidabashi being the mastermind isn't a brand new theory, but still think it could be possible.

• Jossed. It's Tsumugi, but she does use KI-BO as a mole. Specifically he's the TV Camera.

Kaede Akamatsu will be a Decoy Protagonist, Shuichi Saihara will be the true protagonist for most of the game

As per Danganronpa tradition, the one of the most heavily advertised characters among the cast is killed off early in the game. Kaede is easily the biggest contender for this. Going with the theme of lies, Kaede is actually lying about her status as a protagonist. At some point Kaede is killed and Shuichi takes her place. Evidence to support the theory:

• Shuichi Saihara fit the description of a typical Dangan Ronpa protagonist, a prominent ahoge and a lack of confidence in themselves.
• During the trial in the demo, Shuichi's stand has him facing Monokuma, a stand normally reserved for the protagonist.
• On one leak sound clip, Angie ask Shuichi to be her husband, a request normally given at the end of a free time event.
  • Interestingly, the trophies for the game have Saihara in there with his hat off instead of Kaede anywhere at all, and the award showing the survivors at the final Trial has Saihara, Tsumugi, Himiko, Maki, and Kibo in the elevator. So it's more than likely that Saihara is the true protagonist.
• Confirmed. He took over from Chapter 2.
• While Kiibo temporarily took over Shuichi's role in Chapter 6.

Kaede Akamatsu will be a subverted Decoy Protagonist

Continuing from the theory above, Kaede will be technically be the "playable protagonist" but will be control one of the other students or disguising as one of them after she is "killed". Like Junko

Every murder in the game was planned by Tsumugi, except Kokichi's.

So I was thinking a bit about how in Chapter One, nobody guessed that there might be another way to sneak into the library besides the secret entrance and the group conclude it must have been Kaede's trap. However, I noticed something interesting and have a theory that Tsumugi actually manipulated each victim's death because they were posing a huge problem for her in-game. Let's break it down:

• Rantaro was the Ultimate Survivor and he already understood the rules of the Killing Game and could have ended it very early had he lived longer. Tsumugi took advantage of the fact he was alone in the library (and the death trap planted by Kaede earlier) and killed him, thus eliminating the one person who understood the situation fully and, as an added bonus, killing Kaede not only put the spotlight on the far more weak-willed Shuichi, but it shattered the previous unity of the group. In short, Kaede was being too competant as a leader to be allowed to live. If she had continued to rally the students, they might have been unlikely to want to kill.
• Hoshi was the only person who pointed out that Tsumugi had an opportunity to kill Rantaro, but his line of questioning is shot down because nobody knew about the passageway in the girl's bathroom. However, this is the only time in the trials Tsumugi is ever put in the hot seat and she couldn't allow the participants to notice her too closely or they might start to get suspicious. So, it's likely that Tsumugi specifically made Hoshi's motive video blank in order to push his depression into a Despair Event Horizon, making him too apathetic to fight back. Like with Kaede, killing Team Mom Kirumi was also a bonus because Kirumi was another person the other students trusted and relied upon, so adding enough pressure to make her snap turned another seemingly-trustworthy person into a killer, thus driving everyone closer to despair.
• Angie was trying to revive Rantaro, and while it would have been impossible, it proved a problem because everyone was obsessed with the séances and finding out the truth. Not to mention, Angie's cult was adding extra rules to prevent murder and Tsumugi couldn't have that. Also, Tenko was an extra addition from Korekiyo, but Tenko showed Shuichi and Himiko she could read people's emotions by throwing them. Supposing Tsumugi was afraid of Tenko doing the same to her and discovering her emotions were fake?
• Miu was the one who always fixed Kiibo, the camera into the Killing Game and she improved him several times over the course of the story. There was an increasing likeliness that either Miu would realise what Kiibo was really in the killing game for, or she might have ended up tampering with Kiibo's Restraining Bolt antenna. Plus, her know-how with computers and ability to have total control over her surroundings in the Killing Game's virtual simulator mean that had Miu not decided to target Kokichi, she could have killed Tsumugi effortlessly and end the game.
• Kokichi is the only victim who chose to die and browbeat Kaito into helping him, with his explicit intention to throw the Mastermind off and make an unsolvable murder. And even this worked to Tsumugi's advantage as Kokichi was the last remaining person, besides Shuichi, who could have exposed her as the Mastermind.

Kaede and her twin sister are the same person

Post-Release

Kokichi's death was also a lie.

What actually happened is that, predicting that Maki may try to poison him, he snatched one of each antidote from Shuichi's lab and kept them in the hangar just in case. He legitimately did drink the antidote that Maki attempted to give Kaito, but then gave Kaito the one he already had. Rather than having himself killed, he used a spare Monokub that was hidden in the Hangar or already in an Exisal as the body, then just hid in the Exisal washer while everything rid itself out. He perhaps intended to reveal himself after Kaito's execution, but never got the chance due to Keebo going ballistic, and just never got around to joining the final trial since by the time he figured it was safe to come out, it had already begun.

Korekiyo's Sister doesn't exist

Notice that despite being obsessively in love with her, Kiyo never refers to her by name—he just calls her "Sister". That may be because Team Danganronpa didn't even bother to give her a name when they made her up for Kiyo's fabricated backstory.

• Also, it's fairly clear that Tsumugi has an incest fetish, as seen by Monophanie and her love hotel event (though in this case they're Not Blood Siblings). Maybe that was just Author Appeal for her.

Puzzling Out the Prologue (SPOILERS!)

So, by the end of the game, basically everything we know about the plot is from liars or people who don't know the whole story, but we do have one freebie: the Prologue, where there's a period of time before any flashback lights were used. So here's what is established and what it could potentially mean for the reveals at the end:

• Participants were kidnapped into the game, as both Kaede and Shuichi mention it.
• Personality traits seem largely the same (though Kaede is harsher and Kokichi nicer), but the students have less 'talent emphasis'- note that the first time Kaede meets Shuichi, she doesn't mention the piano piece, but after the flashback light, she does.
• 'Super High School Level/Ultimate Talents' are not seen as all that important, as Kaede is confused about why they're mentioned.
• That being said, the students do seem to have some talent- Kaede mentions a skill that she's dedicated to (presumably piano), she just doesn't think that it counts as an Ultimate Talent.
• Rantaro seems to have previous knowledge of Danganronpa, as he recognizes the Monokubs. Others seem to have no knowledge of Danganronpa or Rantaro.

So, what this presumably means:

• Flashback Lights are probably less powerful than Tsumugi wants us to think; they can't overwrite personalities or install talents, but they can change one's attitude towards talents already possessed. Kaede already was a good piano player, but without the 'ultimate' structure, she wouldn't consider it that central to her character. She's just a high schooler who happens to love playing piano.
• Ultimate Talents aren't that important to society, though they do exist and are widely known about.
• The audition tapes are completely false.
• Ultimate Hunt is likely, but not definitely, fictional.
• There were previous killing games, though it's unknown whether they were previous v3 style 'real fictional' games or the killing games of previous installments.

Tsumugi's cospox is a lie.

Who's to say she couldn't have faked all those rashes in Chapter 1? By opening up this possibility, Tsumugi could've lied about anything or everything in the outside world; in particular, faking everyone's audition tapes. As the mastermind, she merely fabricated "cospox" to benefit the thrill of the killing game, as it would get rather boring/tedious for the outside world if every suspect could say "It wasn't me! It was Tsumugi pretending to be me!"

At least one killing game between the 10th and 53rd took place in a space station.

During the ending, we can briefly see the titles of some other fictional Danganronpa installments, which appear to all be homages to other works. One could've eventually been a Space Episode as a homage to Star Wars. The title? "Danganronpa: A New Hope"

---