Danganronpa Another Episode Review: Ultra Despair Girls

We never thought we’ll get on the way to an action adventure anime horror game made by Spunk Chunsoft. Luckily, one of the gamers came out to have a knowledge about this game and decided to write this Danganronpa another episode review. Thanks to him, we bring you this awesome article. It’s time for a little bit of horror :).

My favorite thing about this game is the murder mystery plot, the unique gameplay, and the in-depth writing. So I gave the sequel a try too, as well the spinoff. My intent for this post is the cover that I will do, based on the video game spinoff that came later. Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls. The content of the Ultra Despair Girls takes place right after events of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc.

Danganronpa Another Episode Review

You will be doing a favor to yourself if you play this game before looking at the other one. Your role in this game is Komaru Naegi, the younger sister of the previous game’s protagonist Makoto Naegi. Just like her brother, Komaru is an ordinary girl, who no one understands. She loves manga and is pretty optimistic, but she actually has pretty low self-esteem and is emotionally very sensitive. In the tragedy mentioned previously, Komaru is forced to live in an isolated apartment and try to deal with her lonely existence. But eventually, a huge pressure gets to her and she snaps right when someone attempts to break into her apartment. Komaru runs from the apartment and awakens in Towa City.

A modern city previously ruled by Towa Corporation. The city is flooded with Monokuma robots, which are killers and slaughter adult civilians everywhere. She is granted a Hacking Gun from Byakuya Togami, a key member of Future Foundation and survivor of the Killing game.

Then she arranges a meeting with Toko Fukawa, another survivor of the Killing Game an unsocialized girl with an obsessive crush on Byakuya. A partnership is formed between  Komaru and Toko in order to attempt to escape Towa City and stop the evil rulers behind its blockage. This will be stopped since there is a lot of stories to take in. You need to have a stretched suspension of disbelief to enjoy the story, as there is a lot of nonsense plot choice and stupid moments in an otherwise mature setting.

Be aware, huge spoilers incoming

If you dislike these types of plots, then this definitely is not the right game for you. In the opposite of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, Ultra Despair Girls is a third-person shooter in a similar way to the Resident Evil series. It contains RPG elements which give you the opportunity to customize your weapon with different effects. In each part, you play as a guide for Komaro, leading her way to various goals in Towa City in order to advance the plot. Along the way, you must fight off Monokuma army just to survive.

Monokumas

The Monokumas are not that huge of a threat, but in a large group they can be dangerous. The ordinary Monokuma must run up to you in order to perform an attack, but there are different Monokumas, with different abilities. The Hacking Gun is a megaphone-shaped weapon and has the ability to shoot eight different truth bullets. Your default Truth Bullets are “Break” and “Move“. Break is the fundamental projectile attack used in battles, while Move is used to activate machinery.

You can shoot the Monokumas at the red eyes using the Break bullet to kill them off instantly. The rest of the bullets are unlockable through the story. Each one is a utility or a strategic attack that give you permission to kill as many Monokumas as you can with as little bullets as possible. This makes Ultra Despair Girls a tactical shooter game more than something you can go crazy in.

Toko Fukawa has the ability to immediately use her taser to switch over to her Genocide Jack persona, using powerful attack against the Monokuma army. The player can use her as long as he has enough battery for the teaser. After running out, the player immediately goes back to using Komaru.

As a piece of advice, it is better to use Genocide Jack as little as possible in order to increase the score as well as saving her for the messier battles. She can be a true lifesaver.

While you explore Towa City, you can find items that give special skills to Komaru and Toko. These skills somehow imply to the abilities in the other Danganronpa games and require skill points in order to equip. And you can collect Monocoins to buy upgrades for Komaru’s Hacking Gun or Genocide Jack’s scissors.

Main Exploration and Combat Sections

On one side from the main exploration and combat sections, there are also smaller areas with an arcade machine. The usual point is to destroy all the Monokumas with a single attack and using particular Truth Bullets, possible with puzzle-solving. The player needs to be hidden the entire time without provoking a Monokuma to attack.

There is an option, to force the way through these rooms, but I personally do not recommend it. It just misspends the Truth Bullets and also lowers the score for the whole chapter. It is indulging to find the right solution to defeat every single Monokuma and complete the challenge flawlessly, which gives a higher score by the end of the chapter.

In general, the game is passable. It includes elements of survival horror, third-person shooter, puzzles and RPG games. Even though it is a lot to bare and it sometimes feels like something is missing, there is not any error in it. I will not discuss everything, I will leave the rest to the players’ imagination. But in general, I was pleased with Ultra Despair Girls.

This game is undeniably not for newcomers to the series. There is mostly wars between adults and children in Towa City. The bigger population of kids wear Monokuma helmers in order to show that they are on Monokuma’s side. However, there are five children that go by the name of Warriors of Hope.

Masaru – Li’l Ultimate P.E.

Jataro – Li’l Ultimate Art

Kotoko – Li’l Ultimate Drama

Nagisa – Li’l Ultimate Social Studies

Monaca – Li’l Ultimate Homeroom

A little bit of Danganronpa history

Accordingly, the story is following the quests Komaru does to survive while Toko is searching for her love, Byakuya. Mainly, the story is predictable but there are some valid moments that focus on the plain morality.

And as you know, there are connections in the story to Danganronpa 2 : Goodbye despair

You may think the story of Ultra Despair Girls connects to the main Danganronpa storyline, but it really does not.

Generally, Ultra Despair Girls portraits what happened to the world after the events of the previous game. But the story is negligible. It it somewhat like a “gaiden”, a side story. But once you accept it, it is not bad that much.

I am really curious what compelled Spike Chunsoft to make this kind of a game. The two cardinal series games were visual novels with similarities to the Ace Attorney series.

Nonetheless, I incidate the fact that this game is preposterous. And I really mean that. Nobody can take this drama seriously. From Toko Fukawa’s 50 Shades of Grey fantasies with Byakuya to about 80% of the moments with the Warriors of Hope, this game is just full will foolishness.

Even throughout the game’s serious moments, silly stuff like this happens. It really gets you off that dark tone that the series was known in the first place. Here in this game, this is odd.

But what I like, it is the troublesome relationship between Komaru Naegi and Toko Fukawa.

The two big personalities

Anyone who is familiar with the first Danganronpa game knows that Toko has problems with getting close to anyone, which makes her a paranoid character. Her side serial killer personality, Genocide Jack, is intimidating figure with a hint of unpredictable personality – however, I find her dark humor priceless. Ultra Despair Girls attempts to get Toko out of her comfort zone in order to function as a responsible big sister and a mentor figure to Komaru.

I really enjoy seeing these two talk. Komaru thinks that she is average, but is very timid under the surface. Toko is not the kind of person to try to encourage others, so when she tries to cheer up Komaru when she is feeling down is pleasant to the eyes.

All in all, it is a silly game. But the enjoyable kind of silly. For the fans of the series, it is entertainment. I did enjoy the game, but no, it is not for everyone. If you like the stupidly Japanese kind of games, then you just might like it.

We hope you like this nicely written review. Maybe we changed your opinions when it comes down to this game? Do not forget to leave your thoughts in the comment section below! It’s gonna be a h*** of a horror.