Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc is a visual novel adventure game developed and published by Spike as the first game in the Danganronpa series. The game was originally released in Japan for the PlayStation Portable in November 2010 and was ported to Android and iOS in August 2012. Danganronpa was localized and published in English regions by NIS America for multiple platforms.
| Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc | |
|---|---|
Cover art featuring Monokuma and Hope's Peak Academy | |
| Developer(s) | Spike |
| Publisher(s) | Spike |
| Director(s) | Tatsuya Marutani |
| Producer(s) |
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| Designer(s) |
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| Programmer(s) | Kengo Ito |
| Artist(s) | Rui Komatsuzaki |
| Writer(s) | Kazutaka Kodaka |
| Composer(s) | Masafumi Takada |
| Series | Danganronpa |
| Engine | Unity (Anniversary) |
| Platform(s) | |
| Release | November 25, 2010
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| Genre(s) | Adventure, visual novel |
| Mode(s) | Single-player |
The player controls a high school student named Makoto Naegi who finds himself involved in a battle royale in Hope's Peak Academy, where the robot bear Monokuma gives the 15 students the chance to escape from the establishment if they murder another student and are not voted as the killer in a trial. Combining elements from dating simulations and third-person shooters, Makoto interacts with other students to solve "class trials" by shooting at arguments displayed on the screen.
The game originated from writer Kazutaka Kodaka's idea to generate a new type of game, as he believed the original adventure games were no longer popular. As a result, he created a dark scenario that generated controversy within Spike due to the amount of violence displayed among students. Nevertheless, the company decided to develop it alongside the unique gameplay system which they thought was less derivative from other games. The cast was designed by Rui Komatsuzaki.
Danganronpa was a commercial success and earned positive reviews for the handling of the cast and story. It won awards, though critics were divided on the lack of challenging difficulty in solving class trials and its mini games. A sequel, Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, was released in 2012. A compilation of both games, titled Danganronpa 1・2 Reload, was released for PlayStation Vita in Japan in October 2013, and worldwide in March 2017. The game produced several adaptions and spin-offs: an anime television series, a stage show, two mangas and two novels.