So after playing the first Daganronpa game I immediately moved onto the second. I honestly couldn’t put the first one down so I was hoping the second would be the same, but I also really had no idea where they could even go with it after the first one given how it ended. Turns out they went to an island. The second game stars another student of Hope Peak Academy named Hajime Hinata who got into the academy through unknown means. He and 15 other students who all have ultimate traits being the best in their respective fields all find themselves transported to a location called Jabberwock Island.

The island is led by a mysterious I think rabbit, I honestly don’t know what it is, named Usami. Apparently the goal is to actually not harm anyone until a familiar face Monokuma appears and takes over changing the peaceful island to the next location for their infamous killing game where to escape someone has to kill and not get caught.

The gameplay for the most part is exactly like the first. It’s a visual novel that requires exploration and interact with the other characters. Through that you trigger various events as well as getting to know the other characters in the game. You’ll have free time where you explore and interact as you wish till you trigger the next event in the game. After someone dies you then go into a mode called investigation. You’ll look around and gather clues about the murder by talking to people and interacting with various items.

Once you gather all of the clues a class trial happens and this is where you’ll play a series of games to find out who did it. The game features all of the same games as the first game with some tweaks to make some of them different, but it also features several all new games. This time the other students can argue back and trigger a one on one game where you have to literally slash their arguments with the joystick. These new games were interesting and while I loved them all I also at times found there to be too many different games that I would have to refresh my memory on the controls often making me stop and check stuff to make sure I don’t hit the wrong button. It’s a minor issue though. At the end of the trail, like the first game, you then add images to a comic book like retelling of the events of the murder to reveal what happened and who did it.

So the story is where I was really shocked at. With the first game you had very unique mysteries that were revealed at the end so going into this I was wondering if we would get the same mysteries but with new characters or something different. The story wasted no time making it clear that this was an all new mystery as it revealed all of the mysterious from the first game almost immediately. I was not expecting that at all and the new mysteries were just as amazing and mind boggling as the ones in the first game, maybe even more so as it not only reveals big secrets about the characters but expands upon the lore brought up in the first game like how the world ended.

The characters were also more interesting this time around. Don’t get me wrong I loved the characters in the first game, but the ones here had more story behind them which made me more invested in who they were. Who these characters were prior to the events of the game actually play a much bigger role in the big mystery in a way that I won’t elaborate on due to spoilers. Plus unlike the first game you had a character that flat out antagonizes the group and adds a layer of tension that made this game surpass the first one. An impressive feat without a doubt.

Overall Danganronpa two manages to take everything great about the first game and expand upon them. The lore is more fleshed out, the characters add a new element of tension to the story and are more memorable as their backgrounds play a heavy role towards the end. The game literally throws out the mysteries of the first game almost immediately to make way for entirely new mysteries that are equally if not more exciting than the first game. It’s clear to me that anyone who enjoyed the first game is bound to like this one even more.

Also as a side note just like in the first game I want to put a trigger warning in this review. The story does talk about very gruesome murders and is overall a very dark game. I want to make sure my readers understand that going in because can easily be too much for some people due to the nature of the story and I believe it’s important to respect those who might benefit from the heads up.