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E
- Earn Your Happy Ending: If you manage to beat the punishingly difficult "Death Road to Despair" minigame in Chapter 1, Monokuma honors his word and opens the exit, allowing all of the students to escape before the killing game even starts. However, much like the escape button-based scene from the first game, the ambiguity of the ending (and the story reveals in the main plot later in the game) put to question whether this is really a happy ending or not.
- Embarrassing Alibi: In Chapter 2, Miu Iruma's alibi for Ryoma's murder is that Gonta saw her in her underwear while trying to kidnap her for the Insect Meet and Greet. She herself is thoroughly embarrassed by this, which is why she refrains from saying it until the cast infer it from Kokichi's alibi.
- Empty Chair Memorial: The class trial portraits of the deceased students. Just like Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, the X crosses that go on the face of the deceased are customized, but this time, every single student has their cross personalized in some way to suit their character. Notable examples include:
- Kaede Akamatsu, whose cross is drawn with a thin line and a thick line as if it was some kind of sheet music note.
- Ryoma Hoshi, whose cross is a perfectly printed X that makes his portrait look like part of a scoreboard.
- Angie Yonaga, whose "cross" is replaced with a red halo and wings.
- Tenko Chabashira's cross is shaped to look like a pinwheel, mirroring her hair ribbon.
- Korekiyo Shinguji, whose portrait is covered with red fire, referencing him being boiled to death.
- Miu Iruma, who has three X's side by side on her face, in reference to her lewd personality and the skill you get for completing her Free Time Events.
- Kokichi Oma, whose cross is lopsided so that it looks more like a checkmark. In chapter five, his and Kaito's (who wasn't actually dead yet) crosses were instead question marks due to the uncertainty of the murder victim at the time.
- Enemy Mine: Kokichi Oma and Kaito Momota absolutely hate each other's very being by the time of Chapter 5, especially when Kokichi kidnaps him to convince the other cast members he's the mastermind of the Killing School Semester. However, when Maki makes the stupid decision of trying to kill him out of revenge, he makes an agreement for Kaito to kill Kokichi and to pretend to be one another during the trial to trick Monokuma into mistaking the culprit as Kokichi, by falsifying Kaito as the victim. They go through with this plan only for Shuichi to sabotage it at the last minute during the trial.
- The Ending Changes Everything: The ending not only fundamentally changes everything about V3, but, depending on how the player interprets canon in a fictional setting, the entire franchise as well.
- Everybody Cries: At the end of the third trial, Himiko takes Kokichi's advice to let all her feelings out. She falls to the floor and sobs, causing everyone else to cry as well.
- "Everybody Dies" Ending: Subverted. The only way to stop the killing game contest is to have all the remaining students, including the mastermind, refuse to vote in the final trial, resulting in them being executed for not voting and a disappointing ending. Everyone abstains from voting, at which point Keebo self-destructs, destroying the school and getting the mastermind crushed under a pile of rubble. The three remaining students survive, though.
- Everyone Went to School Together: Averted this time around. It's established that those accepted by the Gifted Program are scattered throughout the country and have never met each other in person. Tsumugi later overwrote this with a setting where everyone went to Hope's Peak Academy to end Kokichi's stalemate.
- Exposition Beam: The Flashback Lights Monokuma offers the students are originally presented as a tool for slowly curing their amnesia, giving them a glimpse at how they ended up at the killing game. Near the end of the story, it's revealed it was created to implant Fake Memories into its participants to create an exciting story for the Killing Game.
F
- Fake Memories: All the students in the killing game this time around are actually normal students who willingly auditioned to be on the latest season of the popular reality TV show based on the Danganronpa games and anime. Their memories and personalities were replaced with fake "Ultimate Student" personalities and backstories, and every chapter has them recovering new fake memories designed to progress the scripted plot of the season. When they find out, they are appropriately horrified, especially after watching videos of their old selves auditioning, happily boasting that if they get picked they will surely provide some gory kills for everyone's entertainment... assuming that these aren't fabrications or lies themselves, considering that it's coming from Tsumugi, who is trying to persuade them to give up.
- Fanservice: Like in the previous games, some of the hidden bonus scenes are gratuitous fanservice.
- The second hidden bonus scene "Faux Celebrity"
triggered by the "Everywhere Parasol" present is a Pool Scene with Himiko, Angie and Tenko lounging in their swimsuits at the poolside, with them all also having removed their defining accessories to leave them wearing only swimwear and Tenko laying on her stomach with her top off as she gets an oil massage from Kirumi, displaying her in a state of Toplessness from the Back and Sideboob right after she says "You're welcome to peep!" - The fourth hidden bonus scene "A Man's Passion, Space Edition" triggered by the "Gun of Man's Passion" present, has Shuichi peeping into the female locker room present with Himiko, Tenko, Angie and Tsumugi all naked covered only by Hand-or-Object Underwear or Scenery Censor, with the exception of Tenko who's facing the other way, showing Toplessness from the Back and Sideboob once again. There's also Angie attempting to grope Tsumugi and Himiko lamenting her size compared to Tenko's.
- The second hidden bonus scene "Faux Celebrity"
- Fantastic Caste System: Back from the franchise, this installment includes a backstory in which the government created a "Gifted System", that grants privileges to some. This is an advancement as the entire world is subjected to this system, instead of just Hope's Peak. This setting was replaced in chapter 5 for the usual Hope's Peak Academy one.
- Fantastic Racism: Kokichi, Himiko, and Tenko don't consider robots people. K1-B0 also threatens legal action against Kaede should she make any discriminatory comments.
- Failure Is the Only Option: The final class trial. Shuichi Saihara refuses to continue with the class trial, and the mastermind forces mini-games onto the player which you all have to deliberately fail by letting the timer run out, to frustrate the mastermind and proceed with the story.
- First-Episode Twist: Kaede is set up as the protagonist for the game in promotional materials, but is then revealed as the first killer, resulting in her being executed at the end of the first chapter and Shuichi taking over as the protagonist afterwards. Still, the final trial reveals that Kaede wasn't the culprit.
- Fission Mailed: This happens when Shuichi succumbs to the Despair Event Horizon and triggers a Bad Ending. The player has to press the Don't Save option when prompted, then press the Remedy option. This unlocks the True Ending and begins K1-B0's playable segment.
- Forced Euthanasia: Kokichi and Gonta see a flashback light revealing Earth has become an apocalyptic wasteland. Kokichi then convinces the other boy to help make a Trial where everyone will fail to find the killer, allowing them to Mercy Kill the students so no one will have to learn the Awful Truth. Unfortunately, the students refuse to die and Gonta is executed for killing Miu. However, Kokichi later reveals he wasn't invested in the Mercy Kill plan and actually has a larger scheme to end the Killing Game.
- Forgotten First Meeting: The students were given Identity Amnesia and Laser-Guided Amnesia when the Flashback Lights replaced their average personalities with the personality of an Ultimate, causing them all to forget they had already met.
- Four Is Death: The fourth floor of the academy has a spooky atmosphere reminiscent of a haunted house, complete with spooky music.
- This same floor includes the two most sadistic murder plans in the game (compared to Kirumi's value-based murder of Ryoma the trial prior).
- Korekiyo stabs Angie in her research lab with a katana after she's knocked unconscious, which is then transformed into a Locked Room Mystery that only Kokichi is able to access, by the floorboard used in the seesaw effect trap used to kill Tenko in complete darkness in the middle empty room.
- Kokichi attempts a mercy kill, taking advantage of Miu's plan to secretly kill him in the Neo World Program and frame Kaito for committing it in the real world, and hires Gonta to execute the murder phase as Miu set his avatar to be paralyzed when touched. On both Miu and Kokichi's ends, this is the closest the black and white of a murder case has succeeded in getting everyone but the culprit executed, which is well evidenced in the fact that this is also the last straightforward victim identification in the series, and the fact that the motive this time is labelled as "the secret of the outside world", which is what ALL series motives can be technically portrayed as.
- Appropriately, the trope is turned up to eleven for the above as it is also the fourth murder case.
- This same floor includes the two most sadistic murder plans in the game (compared to Kirumi's value-based murder of Ryoma the trial prior).
- Frame-Up: Kaede's shot put ball trap actually missed Rantaro entirely, and he was killed by Tsumugi, who hit him over the head with an identical shot put ball immediately afterwards.
- Franchise Zombie: The game has as an in-universe as a major late-game reveal: within the world of V3, the previous installments in the Danganronpa franchise were the first of a very long series which transitioned from completely fictional to using real people with their memories manipulated. It turns out that V3 is a stylistic way of writing "53", with the current installment being the fifty-third in the franchise. The endgame boils down to stopping this from going on any longer than it already has.
- Funny Background Event: In Chapter 6, basically all of the audience comments count as this, but special notice goes to one particular commenter who's apparently really horny for Shuichi, and the only thing they comment on is how nice his body looks.
G
- Gameplay and Story Integration:
- When Kaede mentally urges Shuichi to out her as the first culprit and hands the player's control over to him, the UI, highlighted in purple, slowly shuts off, then slowly comes back on highlighted in blue a second later when Shuichi steps into the protagonist role. This occurs again during the last trial, as the interface slowly dims out to demonstrate Shuichi crossing the Despair Event Horizon before K1-B0 takes over the conversation.
- Shuichi has to deal with loud assertions drowning out the rest of the conversation in a Mass Panic Debate, since his hearing isn't as good as Kaede's.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation: The game will not acknowledge if the player votes for someone who isn't the culprit. For example, if Shuichi votes for Kokichi in the first case, Monokuma will still act as if all the students voted correctly.
- Gaslighting: Basically what happens to everyone in the cast in Chapter 1, with Tsumugi altering the result of Kaede's trap to trick everyone including herself into believing she killed Rantaro, when she actually failed. Note that this works so well that Kaede actually gives into the belief that she's a criminal, and none of the students even notice until Chapter 5 after Kokichi and Kaito die.
- Go Out with a Smile:
- Kaito dies in the middle of his execution thanks to his illness. His body has a smile when we see it, fulfilling his dream of visiting space and saving Maki from dying herself.
- Justified later in Chapter 6. After Shuichi lets out a hell-bent persuasion to the audience as revenge, he just stands there in silence with a smile. Even after Tsumugi abstained from voting in hopes of keeping the Killing Game going, Shuichi just still stands there with a smile and with his eyes closed, because he somehow has confidence in the literal impossibility he just pulled off. And miraculously, it wasn't in vain. The audience also abstains from voting, ending Danganronpa for good.
- Gratuitous English:
- Monokuma Files have their information written in Japanese and English, with the English texts looking like something out of Google Translate.
- The Monokubs' theme, "Rise and Shine, Ursine!" has the lyrics "He is all that remains of a once-powerful nation. SHOWTIME." and "Right now, you're on the threshold of amazing adventure." The fourth execution music also has English lyrics sampled from the song "Bottom of the Sea" by Dhruva Aliman.
- Greater-Scope Villain: While the person controlling Monokuma in a Junko-esque fashion and the "ringleader" of this killing game turns out to be Tsumugi, she's really just another person playing the role she was assigned for. The real masterminds are actually the executives of the Danganronpa TV series and anyone else involved in its creation or work, and we never get to see them in the main game, as they reside outside the setting of the school.
- Guide Dang It!:
- Angie's second Free Time Event is only available once Kaede's lab opens up. The game never gives any hints as to this.
- One part of the second class trial hinges on you figuring out that the killer used a ropeway to get to the crime scene. If you've never heard the term "ropeway", good luck.
H
- Hammy Villain, Serious Hero: Shuichi is the stoic hero to Kokichi's
Magnificent Bastard Card-Carrying Villain persona. Shuichi is fully committed to ending the killing game, as very serious and analytical as the Ultimate Detective, coupled with his self-deprecating nature. However, his attempts to solve the various cases are often thwarted by Kokichi just for fun, as he wants to avoid 'boring' things and finds the killing game rather exciting. He often annoys all the other characters with his antics, such as his compulsive lying and insensitive jokes. However, his hammy persona is subverted towards the end, as his last words demonstrate that he truly wants to end the killing game as well, and this, significantly, is not a lie. Tsumugi immediately hams it up after being outed as the true mastermind of the Killing Game. - Hanging Around: The first execution in the game has Kaede hanged with a noose around her neck. This is made even more humiliating and drawn out by having the noose raised and lowered to play a giant piano.
- Happy-Ending Massage: During Chapter 2, Tenko Chabashira requests for a "celebrity-like vacation" to be initiated for her with the assistance of Shuichi, who has a parasol in his possession at the time (if the gift is somehow given to you before Chapter 2 starts). Both Tenko and Kirumi gather a few other people (Himiko, Angie, Keebo) to join Tenko in this event, something Shuichi was unsuspecting the possibility of, for other people to join her and "become a celebrity" too... She also provides swimsuits for the girls involved, something Shuichi (and not the player themselves as shown by the CG) is told not to stare at as the girls are actually casually clad in them. What this event ends on is a CG of Tenko getting a massage from Kirumi; in the process of this massage, though, Tenko gets very innuendo-prone with her happiness as her muscles are being thoroughly kneaded by the maid, making Shuichi in the background visibly show a rather... uncomfortable expression, both because he has to force himself not to stare by Tenko's orders, and because the very one who told him not to do that is doing something that would instinctively cause him to do it anyway.
- Heroism Motive Speech: Shuichi gives a massive one in the final trial of Chapter 6:Shuichi: When Maki said she was going to sacrifice herself just now, I thought...Why? So many of our friends have sacrificed their lives. Why Maki? Why now? Why do we have to go through it again? The sadness of losing Kaede..and Kaito... Why do we have to feel that sadness over and over and over again? Why do we have to bear that burden...? Well, I don't care how much the audience wants it, I'm not gonna feel that way anymore! I don't want anyone to feel that way anymore! Even if this is fiction, even if we're all fictional... The pain in my heart is real! The sadness I feel when I lose the people I love is real! I won't forgive this game that treats us like toys. And if this is what the world wants...then I reject that world! I'll fight the world that inflicts suffering for entertainment!
- Hijacked by Ganon: Discussed and played with, but ultimately subverted. The possibility is raised by the end of Chapter 5 that it's Junko again, culminating in the real mastermind pretending to be her. She justifies how impossible it is for Junko to be back by saying that even if it's repetitive or nobody wanted it by this point, she's always been behind everything in the franchise, so it must be the case. In the end, though, this is a lie, and Junko is not actually related to the events at all.
- Hope Is Scary: The usual climax of picking which side the characters would choose gets harder in this game, because both sides don't have a good resolution when they picked one of them. If they pick Despair, K1-B0 would get executed and the game will continue. If they pick Hope, then Tsumugi will get executed but Shuichi, Maki, Himiko and K1-B0 will have to pick two people on who will join for the next game. This is the reason why they pick neither of them.
- Hope Spot:
- Near the end of the Chapter 4 trial, when it looks all but certain that Gonta is going to be convicted as the killer, Kaito suddenly interjects that he has proof that Gonta must be innocent. He points out that Shuichi and Tsumugi met Gonta outside the entrance of the mansion in the Virtual World, meaning he couldn't have been on the roof, where the murder happened. Shuichi is forced to crush everyone's hopes by pointing out that the killer could have used the roll of indestructible toilet paper found nearby to rappel off the roof.
- After everyone is driven to despair in the Chapter 6 trial, Ki-bo's inner voice tells him that he must push on, and he boldly declares that he will never give up hope. Unfortunately, this prompts Tsumugi to drop another bombshell, revealing that Ki-bo is actually a first-person camera for the audience and that the inner voice which has been guiding him is nothing more than an audience survey.
- Kirumi's execution has her climbing a thorny vine while dodging saws. While she gets cut up quite a bit, she spots a light at the top and eventually reaches it.... only to find that it's simply a crude drawing and she never had any chance of escape. The vine gives out under her weight and she falls to her death.
- Hotter and Sexier: Given the new love hotel feature, this game is certainly more "suggestive" than the previous entries in both the main story and the dating sim mode. Buying the "Key of Love" allows the main character to play out one of their classmate's most desired fantasy, with the player character being seen as that student's "ideal partner". Depending on who happens to show up when the player visits the love hotel, there could be a heavy implication that the characters end up sleeping with each other. More of the characters here are also more open about their sexual interests than those of previous games, like the two BDSM enthusiasts (Miu and Korekiyo) have this appear in just their character designs.
- Hypocritical Humor: Keebo is introduced accusing everyone and everything of being robophobic, even threatening legal action against anyone he feels is discriminating against him. When Kaede tries to be more sensitive with him to avoid getting yelled at/charged with a hate crime, he assures her that she doesn't need to be so politically correct around him.
