Main installments: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc | Danganronpa Zero | Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair | Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak High School | Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony
Spin-offs: Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls | Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp | Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc IF | Danganronpa Kirigiri | Danganronpa Togami | Killer Killer
Warning! All spoilers below are unmarked.
It's virtually impossible to list tropes for this game without spoiling everything or creating Self-Fulfilling Spoilers because of the large amount of twists and Murder Mystery-related tropes it contains.
General examples:
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A-G
- Accidental Innuendo:
- During Chapter 2's Closing Argument, Hajime says "I can imagine how badly Hiyoko must have panicked when she came out of the closet" and saw Mahiru's body. As if Hiyoko's "affections" for Mahiru didn't read enough like Les Yay already...
- If one considers the slang meaning of "breeder"
, Gundham's title of Ultimate Breeder is this.
- Adorkable:
- Gundham Tanaka is widely beloved by fans because, gothic aesthetic aside, he's just a colossal dork. He pretends to be an all-powerful dark wizard and insists on keeping up the act despite nobody buying it; he genuinely loves animals — especially his hamsters (or "Dark Devas of Destruction" as he calls them); and he gets easily flustered (complete with Luminescent Blush) whenever Sonia compliments him.
- Sonia too, being a Fish out of Water who doesn't really understand the culture of her classmates but still very much tries, which leads to some endearingly awkward situations on her part. She also has a few nerdy interests and always puts on a proper, yet approachable image, even when swearing.
- Alas, Poor Scrappy:
- The motives behind Teruteru's murder of Byakuya made readers who were previously disgusted by his horndog personality feel sorry for him. The execution didn't really help matters. It's helped by Todd Haberkorn's very sympathetic performance as Teruteru breaks down in front of the class both out of remorse over Togami and fear of his own death.
- Hiyoko might have been The Bully and a very unpleasant nuisance, but her being killed is often seen as going too far. After Mahiru's death, she was giving an effort of trying to change for the better, and although still rash, was often giving reasonable advice for most of Chapter 3. Unlike a lot of Asshole Victims, Hiyoko's death was a result of being at the wrong place and the wrong time for trying to honour her dead friend, and not as a result of her continuing to belittle the rest of the survivors. While some in the fanbase consider her death to be karma because she was killed by her main target of bullying, most consider her death to be undeserved because she ultimately had redeeming qualities and would have rather she completed her character development.
- Americans Hate Tingle:
- Hiyoko Saionji was the 4th most popular character in an official Japanese poll◊ (only below Chiaki, Nagito and Ibuki), making her an Ensemble Dark Horse and an Unpopular Popular Character there. However, many western fans hate her for being a self-centered Fake Cutie who spends her time bullying other characters and use Crocodile Tears to her advantage. Unsurprisingly, she is often placed at the bottom of popularity polls or she comes second last to Teruteru.
- There are far less fans of Akane Owari in the west than there is over in Japan, with her even placing dead last alongside the Ultimate Imposter (of whom nothing is really learned about in the story proper) in a poll on the Danganronpa wiki. Her detractors claim her to be a Static Character whose Hot-Blooded stupidity is more obnoxious than charming.
- Hiyoko Saionji was the 4th most popular character in an official Japanese poll
- Ass Pull:
- The Despair Disease is often seen as the worst reason for murder due to this. While a pandemic situation sounds interesting on paper, the execution is a disease that essentially overwrites one's personality in different ways and that seeemingly was only made for the uncharacteristic Mikan Tsumiki to be the murderer of the case. note Although it does serve for Foreshadowing to one of the game's big plot twists, it still felt rather too convinient for her to be the only one to remember and the only one to retain the effects of the disease, especially when Monokuma is shown to be able to just make the disease disappear on a whim.
- A common complaint about the final trial is that the stuff with Izuru and the Reserve students comes straight out of nowhere. In actuality, the twist is set up...in Danganronpa Zero, meaning that this only applies if you never read the book. It doesn't help that Zero hasn't been localized yet.
- Base-Breaking Character: Nagito, Mahiru, Kazuichi, Sonia, Mikan, Hiyoko and Akane. More information can be found here.
- Best Level Ever:
- Chapter 1 is considered by many to be the best tutorial level in the series (as Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc's is criticized for being too easy and DanganronpaV3: Killing Harmony's has a case of a Broken Base due to pulling off a Decoy Protagonist that some fans see as Ass Pull). It is highly praised for its complex, but not too convoluted mystery, clever usage of most character's talents and traits to contribute to the investigation and the story, as well as Nagito's Villainous Breakdown. Teruteru is also praised as a surprisingly good blackened despite not being liked by many, with sympathetic and realistic motive, entertaining performance and unexpected Hidden Depths with him confronting his Implausible Deniability approach to the Killing Game and showing genuine regret for what he did to Byakuya. In addition Byakuya was a very interesting first victim because of his very selfless actions and unexpected death.
- Chapter 4 is widely praised as, in spite of its difficulty, it's based in a very unique situation and doing things like getting past the Final Dead Room and solving the secret of the funhouse's structure are highly rewarding experiences.
- Chapter 5. Nagito orchestrates his own murder while making it look like a suicide, and once the survivors see through that, he also ensures that it's virtually impossible to figure out the culprit. When you do figure out who did it, it results in one of the most heartbreaking outcomes to a trial in the entire series.
- Character Perception Evolution: Hiyoko was unilaterally The Scrappy when the game first out, specifically in the West, with many pointing towards how much of a Jerkass she was to justify their hatred. However, the more fans analyzed the game's plot and characters, the more many of them noticed that Hiyoko had a lot more positive qualities than she was initially given credit for. She raises a lot of good points, her Freudian Excuse was given more attention, and she was one of the few students that actually seemed to give a crap about Fuyuhiko's role in Mahiru's death, which led many to realize that Hiyoko was one of the more rational students in the class. Nowadays, there's a lot more appreciation for how complex a character Hiyoko really is, though saying that she's completely shaken her negative reputation in the fanbase is pushing it.
- Complete Monster: Junko Enoshima returns; see the franchise page for details.
- Continuity Lockout: Despite the new cast, the game is very much a direct sequel to Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, with several plot points, events, and characters being referenced, and some of the in-jokes referencing that game won't really make that much sense without having played it. It also references the Reserve Course and expands on the Izuru Kamakura plotline from Danganronpa Zero (to the point of coming out of nowhere for people unfamiliar with the novel), which still hasn't been officially localized in the West.
- Crazy Is Cool: Nagito Komaeda, the Ultimate Lucky Student of the second game, is severely insane from his luck cycle and is obsessed with hope to ridiculous degrees, and is willing to spread despair to create it; but at the same time, detests full despair and untalented people. He is also one of the most iconic characters in the franchise.
- Crosses the Line Twice: All over the place during Chapter 5's trial.
- Akane's repeated mention of Nagito's "front tail".
- At one point Akane offers to let Hajime cop a feel. Sonia admonishes her to not give it up for free, so Akane reasons that she just needs to get a "benjamin" ($100) from him before letting him touch her. Then when Fuyuhiko and Soda disprove one of her assumptions, she gets mad at Hajime for tricking her and demands her money back.
- While discussing how the victim was stabbed by a spear, Sonia comments on them being "penetrated by something so big and thick". Soda asks her to repeat it twice, so that he can record it for...reasons. Fuyuhiko shuts him down.
- Crossover Ship:
- Nagito with N Harmonia.
- Nagito with Sans (though this is mostly ironic).
- A Tumblr user coined the term "sharkcest" for Kazuichi/Rin Matsuoka, since they look quite similar.
- Demonic Spiders: The buff "armored" enemies in Magical Girl Miracle Monomi. Unlike all the other enemies in the minigame, the armored enemies need to be repeatedly jumped on to knock off their armor before they can be destroyed if you don't want to bother with (at times difficult) task of catching them in her magic trails. Now, these enemies often dash around, dealing damage whenever they touch Monomi and often getting the out of said loops and they require lots of successful jumps to lose their armor, particularly on higher difficulties. Not to mention how jumping on top of them causes Monomi to bounce in a semi-random direction and her hit-detection sucks, making repeated bounces very difficult. Plus, Usami loses all collision detection while jumping, meaning that all you can do against them is essentially do a combat version of herding cats hoping you can "trick" them into dashing into the loops you make to damage them. Which as said is a task that, while obviously effective since it bypasses the armor completely, can still be an annoying pain of a tactic to get a hang of.
- Ending Fatigue: Chapter 6's "trial" is incredibly long. "Trial" is in quotation marks because, while the graduation exam is presented as a classroom trial in terms of gameplay and UI, there's very little actual gameplay involved—the first half of the trial has a reasonable mix of Nonstop Arguments, Logic Dives, and Hangman's Gambits, but the second half is almost nothing but talking and the occasional multiple-choice question. You get the impression that this is only being done as a trial so the chapter's boatload of dramatic reveals feature full voice acting instead of Voice Grunting... which is totally fair, but time really starts adding up if you wait for line readings to finish instead of just reading at your own pace. At one point in particular you're handed a Nonstop Argument where all 16 students have lines, so if you don't quickly figure out the puzzle you're going to wasting a ton of time.
- Even Better Sequel: By virtue of making many upgrades to content and presentation without losing any of what made the first one so popular (namely the large cast of interesting characters who each have some Hidden Depths and creative murders/executions) many fans view the game as one of these, which is what made them so anxious for the English localization in the run-up to its release as well as a potential anime adaption (based on the animated Dangan Ronpa's Sequel Hook of Usami at the end of the series). Even the staff seems to believe this trope applies, since according to producer Yoshinori Terasawa, there was a deliberate effort to make the game as such; in response to people telling the staff pre-release that they were looking forward to the new game but that "it probably won't be as good as the first", they strove to make the game better than its predecessor in every possible way.
- Fanon: The Ultimate Imposter being nonbinary is a popular one, likely due to the fact that their real gender is unknown and their "true voice" at the end of their free time events is rather androgynous sounding (though said voice is significantly more "masculine" sounding in the anime).
- Foe Yay Shipping:
- While it's hard to tell if she's being a Troll or not, the AI Junko is shown to have a blatant Villainous Crush on Makoto Naegi, right down to experiencing The Immodest Orgasm during his Big Damn Hero arrival during Trial 6. She (as Monokuma) even calls him a cutie patootie.
- Towards the end of chapter 4, Nagito begins to antagonize the remaining students. It is also during this time that he tells Hajime that, even after he discovered after clearing the Final Dead Room, Nagito stills holds a soft spot for Hajime. However, it doesn't stop his plans of killing the remaining Ultimate Despair members, which includes Hajime as well. It gets worse from the start of chapter 5, all the way up until Nagito's death.
- Akane Owari makes it very clear that she doesn't like Nagito, and on two occasions in Chapter 5, she gets very close to him by tackling him to restraint him. One time has her sitting on his hips to get him to tell them where he hid the bombs, while choking him and the other time, she's grabbing him from behind with her breasts pressed against him to restrain him. Nagito even taunts her for her efforts.
- It's unknown (again) if she was serious or not, but the very first thing AI Junko does when she reveals herself in trial Six, was offer a Marshmallow Hell to Hajime (indirectly could be extended out to Izuru as well, given that she knows who he is very well and personally), Kazuichi, Fuyuhiko, Akane, and Sonia.
- Chapter 0 showed that Nagito absolutes hates Junko Enoshima, wishing the chance to kill given be. However, there is also the fact that Nagito joined the Ultimate Despair group, a group that goes completely against his ideals of hope. He also replaced his left hand with one of Junko's, though it is not functioning.
- Fountain of Memes: Nagito's personality is... interesting, in which his obsession towards hope ended up causing many memes within the fandom.
- Game-Breaker: The Delusion skill causes your Influence (health) to regenerate when using focus mode during a trial. Since focus regenerates over time this effectively gives you infinite health and means you can make incorrect choices with impunity during Trials and offset the damage you take from Improved Hangman's Gambit. While this skill is also present in the other two games, Delusion is highly accessible here, since you can buy it from the skill shop for just 6 Hope Shards, and it only costs 7 SP to equip. In contrast, Delusion in the first game is unlocked from Hifumi's fifth Free Time Event, and V3 cranks up its cost to 16 Friendship Fragments to buy from the skill shop and 16 SP to equip.
H-R
- Harsher in Hindsight: During the tribute concert for Mahiru, Hajime says he hopes they can all be together like this in the future. The performers are Ibuki, Hiyoko, and Chiaki, and all of them will be dead before the end of the game.
- He's Just Hiding: Many are clamoring for the possibility that Chiaki could still be around with a backup file. Also, since Mikan's execution involved her being launched into space and we don't see her body, along with her Despair Disease reverting her back to her Ultimate Despair personality, some people thought that she was either the mastermind or an accomplice, and that she would return in Chapter 6.
- Idiosyncratic Ship Naming:
- Ibuki/Byakuya has two different ones depending on the language of the fandom shipping it: "K-Ton" for the Japanese fanbase, a pun on Byakuya's pig ("Ton" in Japanese) based nickname from Hiyoko and the direct translation of Ibuki's talent, and "Heir Guitar" for the English speaking fans, combining a common translation for Byakuya's talent (The Ultimate/Super High School Level Heir) and a reference to Ibuki's music based talent to create a pun on "Air Guitar".
- Soapies also gets used to refer to Hiyoko/Mahiru, based on Oren's specific translation of Hiyoko wanting to drag Mahiru into the shower with her.
- "Soul Friends" tends to get used for Hajime/Kazuichi, whether in shipping or just them interacting platonically. It was coined from the term of endearment Kazuichi uses towards Hajime in his Free-Time Events.
- "BandAid" has been used for Ibuki/Mikan, as a pun on their talents.
- "Babyshark" is slowly catching on with Kazuichi/Fuyuhiko shippers, though it's mostly used ironically. It refers to Fuyuhiko's "baby face" and Kazuichi's sharp teeth, which resemble those of a shark. It's also a reference to the viral Pinkfong song "Baby Shark".
- Jerks Are Worse Than Villains:
- Hiyoko is an unpleasant jerk who likes to mock her classmates (with the exception of Mahiru), especially Mikan, but she doesn't really do anything more than throw childish insults, is disgusted by people who choose to murder, and actively tries to change herself for the better. That doesn't stop many people from claiming that she's morally lower than most of the actual murderers or even Monokuma.
- Weird example of this trope being applied to one character at different points of time is Nagito. The fandom seems to tolerate it way more when he orchestrates a murder while remaining polite and affable than when he starts acting rude towards Hajime upon discovering he's a Reserve Course student.
- Launcher of a Thousand Ships:
- Hajime, our protagonist, has been paired with ALL the characters in the game because many of them*are shown to be attracted to him at one point or another. It leads to the fan joke that Hajime actually has a talent: being a pimp.
- It would be easier to name those who haven't been paired up with Kazuichi, and they aren't just limited to this game either.
- Magnificent Bastard:
- Nagito Komaeda is the "Ultimate Lucky Student", and a very cunning young man who believes all bad luck is destined to be offset by good luck. Nagito's plans begin in Goodbye Despair by setting up a clever murder plot, and abets the true killer Teruteru Hanamura, so he can see whose hope shines brightest. Throughout the game, Nagito becomes a great ally to Hajime Hinata, who, although wary of him, can't help but respect his intellect, with him having solved the murders long before Hajime manages to. After finding out his friends are members of the Ultimate Despair, Nagito starts to distrust, despite telling Hajime he likes and respects him as a friend. Setting up his own murder in Chapter 5 of Goodbye Despair so only the traitor can survive, Nagito successfully weeds out the Future Foundation traitor amongst the class, and they are subsequently executed. In the end, while Hajime doesn't quite understand Nagito, he accepts him as a useful ally and Nagito's eventual death genuinely resounds with everyone.
- Gundham Tanaka is the "Ultimate Breeder" and an overdramatic chuunibyou who hides a devious mind behind his theatrics, performing one of the most complex murders in the Killing Game as the blackened of Chapter 4. Trapped in the Funhouse with the threat of starvation, Gundham is against the group's choice to starve and begins plotting his own murder, uncovering and taking advantage the secret of the Funhouse to set a death trap difficult to trace back to him. Targeting Nekomaru, Gundham sets up the clocks to isolate him so he can battle him to the death, immobilizing him by using his hamsters before putting him in the death trap to fall to his death while he sets-up an alibi for himself, only being figured out due to circumstances out of his control. When proven guilty, Gundham respectfully confesses his side and uses his last words to encourage the group to not give up on life and comforting Sonia, finally heading to his execution where he saves his hamsters one last time before dying with a smile.
- Mandela Effect: A minor application of it in Peko's Chekhov's Gag Fanservice moment during Chapter 2 when she arrives at the diner◊, which is used against her in the trial. Due her awkward posing, many assume the narrative that she is "tying her hair up" since the bow being held is right next to her hair. In reality, Peko is actually holding her sword bag behind her with the sword still stored inside of it, in the exact same diagonal angle she has it when wearing it normally, without wearing it via the strap, which would be a burdensome task for anyone besides herself, likely to keep the fabric on said bag from absorbing the water on her body.
- Misaimed Fandom:
- While Hiyoko wasn't the most sympathetic victim and it's understandable why many weren't unhappy to see her go, some fans outright argue that her past behavior meant that her death wasn't supposed to be seen as tragic. The game itself never portrays her death as a good thing, but rather as a Jerk with a Heart of Gold getting unceremoniously killed for being in the wrong place at the wrong time, both in the middle of coming to terms with the trauma of losing her only friend and being framed for it, and trying to become a better person. Hiyoko's bullying, while understandably frustrating to see occur without consequence, is still not remotely close to the same level as Mikan slitting her throat. The game repeatedly makes a point that none of the students really deserved what happened to them, as they all are trapped in a horrible situation for Junko's amusement, and yet many people consider Hiyoko to be an exception from it over characters who actually committed murder. In addition, if Mikan wasn't Brainwashed and Crazy there's no way she would have wanted to kill Hiyoko, as she does seem to genuinely care about her despite Hiyoko's vicious treatment.
- Mahiru is blamed for what Fuyuhiko and Peko did to her, with some justifying Fuyuhiko's actions as reasonable based on Mahiru potentially covering up for Fuyuhiko's sister's murderer. Some see Mahiru calling Fuyuhiko out for murdering Sato as a perfectly justifiable reason for Fuyuhiko to lose his temper enough to try and kill her and that it was her fault as a result, ignoring that a) Fuyuhiko was planning on killing her already (that's why he wanted to meet her alone in the beach house) even if Mahiru inadvertently ruined any chance of the situation de-escalating, b) Fuyuhiko and Mahiru were in the same boat of being blamed for actions that they essentially hadn't done yet due to their memory loss, and c) post-trial, both Fuyuhiko and Peko later admit that they were completely in the wrong and Mahiru didn't deserve to die.
- Fans sometimes use Hiyoko's treatment of Fuyuhiko after Mahiru's murder as an example of her being a horrible person, completely ignoring the fact that Fuyuhiko was basically responsible for the death of her Only Friend; even if Peko did the actual deed, the plan was Fuyuhiko's to start with and Peko only intervened to spare Fuyuhiko from being executed as the Blackened if it was exposed. Fuyuhiko himself says she's completely right to hate him for what happened.
- The scene at the end of Chapter 3, where Mikan chews out Nagito, leaving him hurt and at the loss of words, is often portrayed as a satisfying and well-deserved Shut Up, Hannibal! moment against a character who is usually at the offending end of Breaking Them By Talking and otherwise seems completely unaffected by anyone's attempts to call him out. The problem with it? Mikan never even tried to address Nagito's harmful beliefs or dangerous actions (and since she had reverted to her Remnants of Despair personality, she wouldn't care about those anyway), instead aiming the blow at his loneliness and desire to be loved and accepted. And Mikan's own way to deal with the same loneliness she accused Nagito of? Getting into relationships with an unrepentant Sociopath (implied and later confirmed by Danganronpa 3 to be Junko Enoshima herself) who never cared about her and mistreated her in horrific ways, all because her past trauma (and, as the anime reveals, outright brainwashing) made her think this was better than being ignored. Yet, the disturbing context of Mikan's words is largely ignored because it's just so satisfying to see Nagito shut up for once.
- While Teruteru was not a nice person, many outright claim his death was earned because they didn't like him and were happy he won't stick around for long. Meanwhile, the game goes out of its way to show that Teruteru's death was not deserved, as he shows genuine regret of what he did to Byakuya and desperately cries for his mom, only for Monokuma to deny his final request to know what happened to her before deep frying him alive in a volcano.
- Some of the fanbase miss the point of Fuyuhiko's arc that nothing he did in the game could absolve him of his past crimes and instead he was atoning, knowing full well that even seppuku and massively improving his personality wasn't going to bring back Mahiru or Peko nor was it going to fix the hole in Hiyoko's heart. This leads to Fuyuhiko being a case of Draco in Leather Pants as his past actions are often excused with his arc even though Fuyuhiko himself knows that his changes won't make up for what he did but is still trying his best to atone to the extent of holding a funeral for Mahiru.
- Moe:
- Chiaki fits this to a T. She's a short, busty, sleepy-headed Gamer Chick who is voiced by Christine Marie Cabanos in the English dub.
- Mikan too, at least before The Reveal and even then, people still tend to feel bad for her. Then, after you see an even bigger reveal, that everybody (except Chiaki) was Ultimate Despair, she remains Moe.
- Ibuki is pretty cute as well, especially with her energetic nature and hilarious dialogue.
- Sonia is an energetic and very adorable princess with plenty of cute nerdy tendencies
- Hiyoko is mostly a subversion of this as she's got a very cute design complete with Blush Stickers and a kimono with cats and birds on it but a very bitchy personality. However she can be genuinely adorable at times, particularly when she's with Mahiru and in free time, her eccentric vocal tics are also very cute and Kira Buckland manages to make Hiyoko sound snarky and bitchy yet very adorable at the same time certainly helps.
- Once you get to know her, Peko is actually pretty adorable. Between her love of cute animals (and dismay over how fearful they are of her), very clear feelings for Fuyuhiko and her very sweet smile, she can be a full Bespectacled Cutie when in the right circumstances.
- Although she's very strict, Mahiru is an enthusiastic and adorable young woman with a very spirited and friendly personality, during Free Time she has a hinted crush on Hajime and is very passionate about photography and making others smile. She also acts adorably, almost stereotypically tsundere during some of her Free Time and Island Mode events.
- Fuyuhiko after his Heel–Face Turn, while like with Mahiru he's a bit of a hardass at first when he opens up in Free Time he's actually a rather cute if badass and ill-tempered young man with a unique passion for cookies and hatred for milk, like Peko his smile is rare but very sweet. At one point Akane calls him "baby gangsta". Of course don't say he's cute to his face if you want to live.
- Most Wonderful Sound:
- There are many who consider Nagito's version of 'Sore wa chigau yo' to be this.
- In addition to the above, Hajime now adds "Allow me to cut through those words!" and "I can prove it with this!"
- Many fans fell in love with Fuyuhiko's laugh the moment they heard it.
- One-Scene Wonder:
- Izuru Kamukura only appears in one scene, not counting Hajime's hallucinations in the final trial, and yet is very popular in the fandom.
- The fake Makoto created by Junko also gets tons of fanart and is almost always included in spoiler-heavy fanvideos despite having even less screen time than Izuru Kamakura.
- One True Threesome:
- Sonia/Kazuichi/Gundham are shipped as this.
- Chiaki/Hajime/Nagito is also rather popular, primarily among the Japanese fandom.
- Sondhime, the Sonia/Gundham/Hajime ship due to the close connection Hajime forms with Sonia and Gundham during Free Time and Sonia and Gundham's attraction in game.
- Fuyuhiko/Peko/Hajime due to Fuyuhiko and Peko's heavily implied attraction to one another and the fact that Hajime becomes blood brothers with Fuyuhiko in Free Time and he falls in love with Peko also in Free Time.
- Padding: The first part of the second trial, which is about Mahiru's death, can come off as this, especially the part in which Monokuma forces the students to figure out that the victim of Twilight Syndrome: Murder Case was murdered using a swimsuit full of gravel, something that doesn't add anything important to the mystery of the game (which is the motive for the murder committed) nor does it have any relevance to Mahiru's murder.
- Player Punch: As if the circumstances behind the end of the Chapter 5 trial weren't bad enough, the game forces you to manually choose Chiaki as the culprit. Sonia begging Hajime to stop doesn't help matters.
- Replacement Scrappy:
- The (Improved) Hangman's Gambit is ironically seen as a downgrade by most players, due to the first half being spent just waiting for the right letter to come by, and the second half consisting of frantically trying to direct the traffic of the letters flying every which way, with only a small window in which the letters come at a reasonable speed and volume.
- Panic Talk Action is generally seen as inferior to Bullet Time Battle from the first game, due to the odd timing of the button presses and not being able to tell at a simple glance how close you are to finishing it.
S-Z
- Self-Fanservice: A minor example with Ibuki. She has a stitch tattoo running down most of her left thigh, which fan art tends to omit, although likely because it's an easy detail to miss in the first place.
- Sequel Difficulty Spike:
- The first (and easiest, by virtue of being partly a tutorial mode) trial of the second game is more complex than the first three trials of the first game and runs much longer than a simple tutorial. In a somewhat rare case of this trope, the difficulty jump was well-received for the most part, as the trials (and some changes to trial mechanics) allowed for more ambiguity and nuance, while relying far less on the main character making Captain Obvious rebuttals (the Improved Hangman's Gambit and other trial minigames unfortunately added a fair amount of Fake Difficulty). This trope also hits outside of trials: report cards now have the same length and each character's unique skill is unlocked only after completing all of their Free Time events, meaning it takes more time to acquire a given skill (let alone all of them).
- Island Mode, of all things, suffers from this for players who played School Mode first. In School Mode, it was entirely possible to complete all of Monokuma's backups in one's first playthrough with proper planning and strategizing. In Island Mode, completing all of Usami's tasks on your first go is practically impossible, since your goals require significantly more resources than you're physically capable of gathering at the low levels you start with (to give a prime example; in the task that requires you to make 10 Flower Pins, most players can count themselves lucky if they reach half that amount before running out of time). It gets much easier on subsequent playthroughs in which your levels carry over, but the Early Game Hell that characterizes an initial run cannot be understated.
- Interestingly enough, the "dating sim" portion of Island Mode actually inverts this trope, in that it's much easier to unlock all of the character endings due to every character having at least one location that guarantees a chance to raise the relationship meter by a full heart on each visit. School Mode, in contrast, had quite a few characters - Leon and Mondo in particular - who had so few opportunities to raise the meter by a full heart that achieving their endings typically required copious amounts of Save Scumming to be even remotely possible in a decent time frame.
- Ship-to-Ship Combat: While it's not that large, there is a noticeable shipping war between Hinanami (Hajime/Chiaki) and Komahina (Nagito/Hajime).
- Special Effect Failure: Hajime's roaming sprite is clearly on the front layer despite being placed in the middle ground. In certain spots on the map, he'll walk right over objects that are in the foreground.
- Squick: During the final trial, it is indicated that some members of Ultimate Despair had sex with Junko's corpse in a desperate effort to fertilize her eggs. It is even worse if you remember the ending of the first game; Junko was crushed to death so yeah... Commence Brain Bleach.
- Take That, Scrappy!:
- For large parts of the west at least, Hiyoko abruptly getting her throat sliced in Chapter 3. Even if the method was rather cruel, many fans react with either cheering or an "Oh no.. anyways" response. In-Universe, not many of the survivors react with grief about her death, which probably speaks about whether or not they truly liked her character that much, although Hajime is genuinely heartbroken over it and no one is remotely happy about it. And as it turns out, Mikan was the one to kill her, which would've meant more catharsis if it wasn't for the fact that she didn't kill her because of her bullying and that Hiyoko died as a result of her nicer features. With her recent increase in popularity turning her into more of a Base-Breaking Character as well as even many haters realising that it would have been better had she gotten an arc and that her death was undeserved, she's more of an Alas, Poor Scrappy than she was during the earlier days of the fandom.
- Teruteru can also fall under this, even though his death is portrayed as tragic and unjust, many players weren't exactly unhappy to see Teruteru leave the game as early as he did as most of his screentime was dedicated to sexually harassing everyone around him, in particular Sonia and Peko because of their non-confrontial nature. For some the attempts at making Teruteru sympathetic in the trial can fall flat considering his prior mixture of malice and creepiness as well as the fact that he did ultimately betray the class and get Togami killed, though admittedly he did have an understandable reason and was aiming for Nagito.
- That One Boss: The "horse" Monobeast in the Magical Girl Miracle ★ Monomi minigame. It needs to be stunned or baited to be hit, or it will trample its hooves and auto-hit Monomi, but if the player hits the sharpened "mane" blade on the jump (which is frequently with the mode's shoddy hit detection) then Monomi will instead take damage and fall right into its attack zone, so baiting is the most frequent method. But it also sometimes fires off boomerang blades that seem programmed to hit Monomi mid-attack and knock her out of the line if it doesn't charge after her into the damage field. It is far and away the most difficult boss in the minigame, handily eclipsing both the later Monobeasts and Monokuma himself.
- That One Level: The Chapter 4 class trial can become this on the first time, as it's very difficult understand most of the case without being confused, thanks to the secret about the structure of the Funhouse. And then there's Gundham's Rebuttal Showdown, in which he makes a nonsensical Chewbacca Defense with words flying everywhere around the screen and at high speed. Failing to advance past it even gets Hajime remarking on how exhausting it is.
- That One Puzzle:
- Chapter 2's Class Trial has an infamous one: What was the murder weapon used to kill the first victim?note For some players, the Nonstop Debate on the topic is firmly this trope; for others... well, not so much. Bringing up the topic tends to lead to a heated disagreement between those who felt the question was poorly written (and the answer a stretch) and those who saw the solution immediately.
- The first Panic Talk Action falls into this for some, as the Final Strike needs to be worded in a specific way that might not be immediately obvious, and unlike many other Final Strikes, its components make sense in several different orders. This wouldn't be so bad if you didn't have to put the solution together in a matter of seconds.
- Final Dead Room, during Chapter 4, is essentially That One Puzzle within That One Level (rather fitting, as Monokuma describes the Funhouse as a "closed circle within a closed circle"). That being said, fans of this game's sister series will likely breeze through this part in no time flat, and for those who are truly stuck, there's an option to bypass the whole thing if you so choose.
- Too Cool to Live:
- Gundham Tanaka, with his hilarious and epic hammy speeches, sympathetic backstory, sexy voice and his Evil Overlord persona. He's Chapter 4's culprit, which obviously means he's a dead man from the word "go".
- Nekomaru Nidai is a barrel of laughs, has a personality straight out of a Shonen anime, and serves as a mentor figure to Akane. After Taking the Bullet for Akane after she gets too worked up and attacks Monokuma despite being told in no uncertain terms that she will be killed for it, he cheats death and gets a brand new, awesome robot body... which only lasts until he ends up being the victim in the chapter following his return.
- Peko Pekoyama's outwardly hardened, stoic demeanor belies an earnestly, kind, warm soul with a soft spot for fuzzy animals and a sense of regret and frank acceptance for her crimes. Enjoy it while it lasts before her sheer devotion to Fuyuhiko's will proves to be her (and Mahiru's) undoing.
- Byakuya Togami aka the Ultimate Impostor is a cool Team Dad who instantly took the group under his wing and ensured that none of them would be harmed, sadly he is the first student to die in the game in an attempt to save Nagito from Teru even in spite of the former attempting to kill someone in the cast, Togami still never wanted anyone to die on his watch even Nagito.
- Chiaki Nanami is a friendly, cute and likable girl who is consistently very useful during investigations and class trials, is very determined to prevent killings and help everyone and develops a close, almost romantic, bond with the protagonist Hajime. As a result, she unintentionally becomes the 5th trial's culprit thanks to Nagito's complicated plot to weed out the traitor, which happens to be her. To add insult to the injury, she was never real, being an AI that only exists within the Neo World Program.
- Tough Act to Follow: Danganronpa 2 is usually seen as the best title in the franchise, and nothing released afterwards (be it a game, anime or light novel) was as consistently well received as this.
- Ugly Cute: Teruteru a stout Gonk, but some fans find him kinda adorable. His hairstyle certainly helps.
- Unpopular Popular Character:
- Usami/Monomi is treated very badly by almost the entire cast. She gets abused by Monokuma for most of the time, and almost all students are suspicious of her and are very annoyed by her constant appearances. Because all this hatred she receives in-universe, she's The Woobie to the fandom, with many players being able to sympathize with her, especially since she is constantly shown to be on her students side no matter how much they hate her. It also helps that she is sometimes useful to the class, such as saving Kuzuryuu and Nidai's lives or her role in the Grand Finale.
- Mikan was bullied relentlessly throughout her life by both her peers and family, repeatedly insulted by Hiyoko and Fuyuhiko outright threatens her with death/sending her to a brothel (at least prior to his Heel–Face Turn when he becomes much nicer after dropping his status as a Hate Sink), while the rest of the cast range from being annoyed or indifferent to being nicer but mildly condescending towards her, with the possible exception of Ibuki, Mahiru, Sonia, Chiaki and Hajime(in free time). She's very well-liked by the fandom because of her Nice Girl personality, as well as her very helpful talent, and many people express a desire to give the poor girl a hug.
- Gundham isn't exactly the most popular character among his classmates except Sonia because of his eccentric Jerk Ass With A Heart Of Gold tendencies but he's easily one of the most popular characters in the fanbase for those exact tendencies as he's both a very funny and a very complex character.
- Nagito is utterly despised by his classmates except Chiaki as a result of his insane actions and personality yet is arguably the face of the second game for those exact reasons, though he is a Base-Breaking Character.
- Monokuma is understandably hated by the cast but he's the near-universally loved murder mascot of the series.
- The Un-Twist:
- Junko Enoshima, the previous antagonist who mentioned that she destroyed the world and oversaw the killing game through the guise of Monokuma, is the main antagonist of this game as well. A more legitimate twist is that she did so with the Villain Protagonist, Hajime Hinata/Izuru Kamukura.
- There were also a good many people who knew from the beginning that the Byakuya from the start of the game was actually the Ultimate Imposter and not the real Byakuya, with his excessive body weight and uncharacteristic selflessness (even more so than what one would expect after Byakuya's Character Development in the first game) being major tip-offs.
