Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc

 PlayStation Vita
User Score
8.8

Generally favorable reviews- based on 340 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 293 out of 340
  2. Mixed: 33 out of 340
  3. Negative: 14 out of 340
Buy Now
Buy on

Review this game

  1. Your Score
    0 out of 10
    Rate this:
    • 10
    • 9
    • 8
    • 7
    • 6
    • 5
    • 4
    • 3
    • 2
    • 1
    • 0
    • 0
  1. Submit
  2. Check Spelling
view
per page
  1. foboat
    Apr 13, 2014
    7
    An entertaining VN, not worth the price of admission. The premise of the story is a group of high school students trapped in a school, desperate for escape. There are two components to the story mode, class trial, and daily life/investigation. Essentially, kids are getting murdered by each other and you have to find out "whodunit" or else you will be executed. This game is certainly fun toAn entertaining VN, not worth the price of admission. The premise of the story is a group of high school students trapped in a school, desperate for escape. There are two components to the story mode, class trial, and daily life/investigation. Essentially, kids are getting murdered by each other and you have to find out "whodunit" or else you will be executed. This game is certainly fun to play through, once. I love the story but it's certainly one of those games I will never play again. After completing the 22 hour story, you will unlock a new game mode which is tedious. Destroying your classmates statements in the class trial feels rewarding, and the daily life gives you a chance to build relationships, which is awesome. However, you can only build your relationships a few times during the story and the rest will have to be done after you beat the game. This is quite frustrating as the other characters offer valuable skills for the class trial. Outside of that I didn't have many problems with the game. It has a gripping story and I almost cried at the ending. Without too much spoilers, if you like murder mystery, watch some gameplay to get a feel for the game. It has it's moments, but it does not deserve 9.1 user score.… Expand
  2. Saikron
    Feb 19, 2014
    6
    The mystery-solving aspect of this game is way overhyped. This is an interactive novel first, a carnival game second, and is just barely a logic puzzle game at all. I played on "Kind", or the middle difficulty, and found that the characters would more or less rub evidence in your face. I gave that a pass and continued to play, curious about the story and how it would play out, but twoThe mystery-solving aspect of this game is way overhyped. This is an interactive novel first, a carnival game second, and is just barely a logic puzzle game at all. I played on "Kind", or the middle difficulty, and found that the characters would more or less rub evidence in your face. I gave that a pass and continued to play, curious about the story and how it would play out, but two major problems stuck out for me.

    First, the titular "refutation bullets" that you use to refute false statements aren't used consistently. In some parts of the game, you are meant to use refutation bullets to support true statements. This could have been avoided with some simple rewording so that refutation bullets actually refute things. The way the system is currently designed turns the trials into word association games or "guess the best match" games instead of actually using logic to find contradictions as they relate to the case.

    Second, the timeline segments of trials is not fun and pointless. Basically, once the game has told you for the 1,000th time what happened because you are an idiot, it asks you to put these little pictures in the correct frames in a manga to show for the 1,0001st time what happened. Most of the time that wasn't so bad, but there was at least one timeline where two of the pictures had no discernible order. Like in the trial segment of the game, you are reduced to guessing.

    If you can't trust the system in a logical puzzle game, it's not a logical puzzle game.

    I'm sure people who have played the game are reading this and thinking "yeah well you should have play it on hard, casual1!!1" This only changes the amount of hints you get and increases the difficulty of the carnival minigames. It doesn't change the fact that refutation bullets are illogical (1/4 of the time you use them to support things, not refute things) or that putting clipart in order is lame after you have already reached the conclusion of the trial.    … Expand
  3. Lancerguy
    Apr 29, 2014
    6
    Spoiler FREE Review: This is my first visual novel game. It started out kind of slow, but picked up after the prologue and first chapter. I found about half of the twists / whodunnits to be predictable, and I had already called them before the trial. The actual trials were very tedious and boring. In the "objection" rounds, some are extremely simple while others will not make sense atSpoiler FREE Review: This is my first visual novel game. It started out kind of slow, but picked up after the prologue and first chapter. I found about half of the twists / whodunnits to be predictable, and I had already called them before the trial. The actual trials were very tedious and boring. In the "objection" rounds, some are extremely simple while others will not make sense at all and you'll find yourself just guessing to move the trial forward. In the "Hangman's Gambit", you pick letters like wheel of fortune, it's like a 1st graders game. Then they have a rhythm part, where you punch buttons in rhythm to the beat, and finally you have a picture ending where you have to match the pictures with the order of events that happened. It was a pain to get through these portions of the game. The characters are very flat in the personality department also. 1 dimensional you might say. More than anything, I was interested to see what happened at the end, and when I finally trudged through this game I was sorely disappointed in the wildly imaginative ending they put together....… Expand
  4. VidyaBum
    Aug 28, 2015
    6
    Half DanganRonpa is a linear-progressing murder mystery. Since it's linear, you know you're not going to make a mistake and die, you just go along with the story. And since its a murder mystery and everyone around you dies one after the other, you don't really want to get attached to any of them because you know they're all gonna be offed at some point.

    Well that was broken with the    Half DanganRonpa is a linear-progressing murder mystery. Since it's linear, you know you're not going to make a mistake and die, you just go along with the story. And since its a murder mystery and everyone around you dies one after the other, you don't really want to get attached to any of them because you know they're all gonna be offed at some point.

    Well that was broken with the second half/last third of the game when it went from murder mystery to actually chasing the culprit who barred everyone in the school of death, but even that part wasn't very good too.

    To keep it short DR didn't really make me want to like its characters, except Kirigiri and Asahina. I barely ever felt anything for any of them.

    The gameplay is both better than Ace attorney and a lot worse. Every day you have to do a ton of walking around an empty school, which sucks. But the real difference is with the class trials. For some unfathomable reason you don't argue with others, you shoot down their statements once you found a contradiction. And by shoot I mean shoot, you have a cursor and you shoot it down like an FPS. It's...stupid. And not very pleasant to play. Other things include veeeery simple letter association and more shooting, and then a big, annoying rhythm minigame. It's a whole lot of useless fluff for something that essentially should just be about a bunch of people talking, but it is original at the very least, and the shooting down is ok once you get the bonus from Togami which makes the cursor less floaty.

    But I guess the 6 comes not because of gameplay or characters(although those are MILES below ace attorney, some are almost on L.A. Noire levels), but general story design.

    As I said I never really latched on to any characters except Kirigiri and Asahina.

    And in general the whole "socialise with people who are about to get gutted" just...didn't make any sense.

    The ultimate theme of Danganronpa is hope and despair, and honestly, I think it's a VERY poorly treated subject. Despair especially is a rather complex issue which is kind of hammered in throughout the whole game. It's pretty much "DESPAIR, BECAUSE I KEEP RAINING ON YOUR PARADE!" and instead of intricate psychological attacks on the player, it's more "well here's your daily dose of senseless murder and more wierd ****

    At the final showdown I ended up skipping angrily through the text because the "I will not yield to Despair!" stuff had just grown extremely old extremely fast.

    So yeah, it's definitely worth trying and it has an intricate plot with some very good twists, but the general themes, a lot of gameplay and characters are badly designed and it sort of fell flat too many times for me to be positive about Danganronpa.    … Expand
  5. Nataraja
    Jun 2, 2018
    6
    I was really enjoying the game until it spoiled itself by imposing a rhythm game into the class trials and it is a do or die MUST do part of the game. I personally HATE rhythm games and refused to play it once it was introduced (and I tried playing it and hated it instantly). Similar to QTE events in games, rhythm games are nothing more than QTE on steroids. I HATE QTE games and theyI was really enjoying the game until it spoiled itself by imposing a rhythm game into the class trials and it is a do or die MUST do part of the game. I personally HATE rhythm games and refused to play it once it was introduced (and I tried playing it and hated it instantly). Similar to QTE events in games, rhythm games are nothing more than QTE on steroids. I HATE QTE games and they are the WORST and CHEAPEST form of game design. It relies not on skill but twitch reflexes and key memorization. If I could disable that aspect of the game I would enjoy it far more and could appreciate it as a whole. If you are into rhythm games I am sure that it's great fun and will have a blast with it. For me, it ruined the game and I completely lost interest. So if you do not like QTE or rhythm games, stay away from this title.… Expand
  6. AndreRLZ
    Sep 12, 2015
    7
    Tiene attaccati allo schermo. Su quello non ci piove, lo dicono tutti ed è vero. Tanti, troppi forse, però, si fermano qui. Tiene attacci allo schermo = capolavoro. Per me c'è da fare qualche precisazione. La storia e soprattutto il contesto sono molto interessanti, l'idea abbastanza originale. Nel gioco sei uno studente intrappolato in un istituto , vittima di un gioco diabolicoTiene attaccati allo schermo. Su quello non ci piove, lo dicono tutti ed è vero. Tanti, troppi forse, però, si fermano qui. Tiene attacci allo schermo = capolavoro. Per me c'è da fare qualche precisazione. La storia e soprattutto il contesto sono molto interessanti, l'idea abbastanza originale. Nel gioco sei uno studente intrappolato in un istituto , vittima di un gioco diabolico escogitato da una specie di mostro-orsetto (cerco di evitare spoiler). Prende da subito, la storia è estremamente accattivante e i dialoghi ben scritti. I personaggi sono caratterizzati divinamente, forse anche un po' troppo estremizzati. Capolavoro assoluto ed indiscusso per circa 3 o 4 ore, nessun dubbio. Poi inizia a diventare, secondo me, un po' " vittima di se stesso". Mi spiego meglio. SPOILER. Le idee, o meglio le scuse, per i vari decessi iniziano a diventare un po' ridicole o comunque decisamente troppo complicate e fantasiose per poter risultare verosimili o comunque interessanti e credibili, intriganti. Gente che si finge altra gente per mascherare un delitto in maniera diversa per poter vedere se io (il personaggio) son capace di risolvere comunque il caso? Eh? Gente che si mette in armadi per spiare e poi per puro caso avviene un omicidio da parte di un terzo e quello dall'armadio ne approfitta e poi interviene un quarto.. ecc ecc.. ?!?! Esagerato. Decisamente esagerati gli ultimi casi, anche se geniali e sempre originali, decisamente over-the-top, a un certo punto mi sono sentito "saturo" di colpi di scena. Ogni 5 minuti un enorme colpo di scena super Cliffhanger , stanca. E' troppo da sopportare , a un certo punto non ti stupisci più e sai cosa aspettarti: l'inaspettabile. Avrei preferito che i casi fossero un po' meno strambi e super-elaborati e un po' più semplicemente geniali. Infine alcune sezioni di interrogatorio erano TEDIOSE, mi riferisco a quelle in cui devi mirare e sparare la frase per "rompere" la frase del nemico. Ottimo titolo comunque, storia intrigante e personaggi strepitosi, sarebbe però potuto essere molto di più, peccato.… Expand
  7. Ogie
    May 14, 2016
    7
    Danganronpa is more or less good detective VN with decent gameplay. The story was quite good, but could be a bit deeper instead of so long investigation / trial parts. Art style and graphic could be better as well, especially if the game allow you free move so looking on 2D characters wasn't best way how to make it. I like dubbing in VNs and here were really many not dubbed scenes which isDanganronpa is more or less good detective VN with decent gameplay. The story was quite good, but could be a bit deeper instead of so long investigation / trial parts. Art style and graphic could be better as well, especially if the game allow you free move so looking on 2D characters wasn't best way how to make it. I like dubbing in VNs and here were really many not dubbed scenes which is quite sad too. Danganronpa is trying to be visual novel and also graphic adventure game. As a result it is pretty decent mix, but it is not excellent in anything. This game is probably not for everyone, but still Danganronpa is quite good and worthy to play / read.

    GRAPHIC - 7
    GAMEPLAY - 8
    LASTING APPEAL - 6
    EXECUTION - 7

    OVERALL - 7    … Expand
  8. tukumalu
    Jun 6, 2020
    7
    Couldn't bring myself to finish the game. The characters are abit one note and the mystery by the end is too devoid of logic.
  9. Throughawindow
    May 3, 2020
    7
    While the plot and characters are great, many of the puzzles are word puzzles that didn’t translate well from Japanese.

Awards & Rankings

16
#16 Best PS Vita Game of 2014
4
#4 Most Discussed PS Vita Game of 2014
13
#13 Most Shared PS Vita Game of 2014

Critic Reviews

All reviews »
Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 55 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 48 out of 55
  2. Mixed: 6 out of 55
  3. Negative: 1 out of 55
  1. Playstation Official Magazine UK
    May 23, 2014
    80
    This is a very dark story, but it's told with colourful verve and a keen wit. [June 2014, p.85]
  2. Everyeye.it
    Apr 15, 2014
    85
    Danganronpa is not a proper game: is an interactive novel. Still, its captivating atmosphere won't let you go until you'll reach the end.
    Read full review
  3. Hyper Magazine
    Apr 9, 2014
    80
    It has enough depth and twisted charisma to make it worth your time. [May 2014, p.70]
See all critic reviews »