Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls | R3DPlaystation Review

By: Nate

Despair returns again in this third person shooter version of Danganronpa. Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls introduces a brand new and original story that continues in the Danganronpa Universe. For fans of the series, this is one new episode that has to be endured. This is a game that bridges the gap between Danganronpa 1 and 2.

Despite it being a third-person shooter, Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls tells a cruel and sadistic story. Makoto Naegi’s little sister, Komaru Naegi has spent over a year of her life imprisoned inside an apartment. Randomly, Monokuma’s ambush the apartment and she is rescued by Byakuya Togami from Future Foundation. Before Byakuya leaves, he gives Komaru an incredibly awesome, megaphone-like gun.

Early on, Komaru discovers that the city has been taken over by a group of children who label themselves as the “Warriors of Hope.” The leader of the group, Monaca, states that the city will be the site of a Children’s Paradise. In order for this “Paradise” to exist, all of the adults must be destroyed.

In order to prevent this and save the adults, Komaru teams up with Toko Fukawa to try to survive the malicious Monokumas. The two must endure the children’s attacks and figure out the mysteries of the city.

At first I was annoyed by some of the children, but the game eventually murders the most annoying ones in Danganronpa Another Episode. Friendships are formed and alliances are made. The big surprise here was how much I saw a change in Toko. At first she was filled with so much hatred and then she turned into this friendly girl that has a heart. I enjoyed this progression of her character’s soul.

The story is the best part about Danganronpa Another Episode and I believe it to still have the roots of a true Danganronpa story within it. The game has lots of twists and turns to make you want to keep watching and playing it. There is also a huge cast of returning and new characters. One final note about the story is if you haven’t finished the first Danganronpa game, then you will not want to complete this game. It contains complete game-breaking spoilers.

Gameplay is going to be something that fans will either like or dislike. When Byakuya gives Makoto the Future Foundation hacking gun, she becomes a slim, mean, Monokuma killing machine. The game’s style is similar to the same shooting mechanics that are in Resident Evil 4. Even while climbing, it looks like the same type of climbing motions.

There is also a great amount of different types of Truth Bullets and Bling Bullet modifiers. The game contains 8 various Truth types, from a fire-type bullet to electric shock. This adds a good amount of variety and Danganronpa Another Episode requires you to use certain bullets in distinct situations.

Variety in bullets is not the only type of gameplay element in this game. There are several different Monokuma types and I enjoyed vast majority of them. The leveling-up system also adds an RPG element to the game too.

Danganronpa Another Episode also offers mini-games such as riddles to solve and Monuku-mon machines that you must complete in order to progress further through the game. These elements are unique to the Danganronpa franchise.

Japanese is not an option in Danganronpa Another Episode. Some people may be disgruntled by this because some of the voice actors can be annoying, but, overall, the cast sounded great. There is also a huge problem that one may get while killing Ball Monokumas. When these monsters spin, they’ll make a noise. Well, after killing one there was no save points afterwards and the game continued to have the noise. So throughout playing some dialogue moments and gameplay, I had to endure this annoying background noise until I got to a save point, saved and reloaded the game.

The graphics in Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls are quite terrible compared to a lot of other Playstation Vita games on the marketplace. During cutscenes, the graphics are similar to games like Hatsune Miku: Miku Hatsune Project Diva f. The background environments are usually pretty bland and effects such as fire and water look like something out of a generic comic book.

Even though I did not like the graphical fidelity of the game, I did appreciate the awesome looking character designs. From the kids to Toko, they all looked unique.

There are going to be a lot of haters of this game for it not staying close to the first 2 games, but I’d like to say to them, “Give it a chance.” The game does a great job at telling a ludicrous and despairing story. Even though it lacks in the graphics department and gameplay is rapidly changed from the original Danganronpa, it stands on its own because of its uniqueness. I would recommend this to hardcore fans of the anime series or Danganronpa games, mainly because the story is really good. If you are a fan of Resident Evil 4 gameplay and Danganronpa games, then you’ll really enjoy this game.

7/10 – Lacks the same identity and formula as the past Danganronpa games, but tells a great story within the universe.