LTTP! Overall, I enjoyed my time with Danganronpa. It felt enough like playing a demented Professor Layton/Phoenix Wright game, with enough wrinkles in the formula to propel me to its conclusion. I do have a lot of minor complaints that start to add up over time but simply getting to the end of a story gets a game high marks in my books nowadays.
The first couple of cases are straightforward and the climactic trial sections generally feel too straightforward. I played the game on a middle difficulty so I suppose they could have placed more red herring choices in the “bullet time battles,” but I usually knew exactly what I wanted to choose before the choices appeared. The only time that I was ever stumped was when the obvious choice was obfuscated by poor wording. Ultimately the trials felt more like going through the motions than a climax in the story.
Luckily, the setup for the story is interesting enough to get you through the first few, less intriguing cases. As the story starts to wind down, the skill and effectiveness of the twists get better. Times where I found myself unable to predict who was and wasn’t trustworthy were some of the best parts of the story. If that feeling of discomfort was extended to the entire game, I would be more positive on the whole.
Overall the interesting premise and occasionally brilliant execution mask the more boring moments and gameplay failures. If you have a Vita, you really don’t have an excuse for missing out on this bit of unconventional thinking.
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