The time has come once more – the killing game has begun again. What will you do? Will you give into despair, or will you become hope for your friends?
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is the newest game in the Danganronpa series. This time around you take control of the Ultimate Pianist, Kaede Akamatsu, who is one of the ultimates forced into this new killing game. What twists and turns await you as you try to survive?
The story of Danganronpa V3 follows a lot of the same formula as the previous two, and at some points becomes pretty predictable. I had a lot harder of a time ever getting into V3, and even now I still don’t think it’s nearly as good at 1 or 2. Without trying to spoil it, there was a particular gimmick in Chapter 6 that, if you failed, forced you to repeat some content again. Of course, it was easy to accidentally fail yourself if you clicked on the wrong thing. That gimmick could have easily been done differently without forcing you to repeat content because you clicked the wrong thing.
One of the biggest things to note about Danganronpa V3 is just how long everything takes to happen. The trials in this game are by far the longest seen in the series, and considering I’d figured out most of the “twists” they were going to do in the trial (sometimes figuring them out before the trial even started), I was easily done with those trials about an hour or two before they were actually done.
Danganronpa V3 features a host of new and altered in-trial mini-games. These mini-games add to the “everything takes too long to happen” feeling that is prevalent throughout the game. For instance, Psyche Taxi is an “updated” take on Logic Dive from Danganronpa 2. However, instead of needing to simply make your way through an area avoiding holes, you need to pick up letter cubes. These letter cubes will fill out your question, and after it is fully complete you’ll have to hit the correct “person” to get the answer. The thing is? I don’t recall a single Psyche Taxi that didn’t go over anything that hadn’t just been covered. All they did was repeat information, something that happened a lot during trials in general.
Another mini-game that got extremely annoying, mainly due to length, was the “Argument Armament” – essentially the Bullet Time Battle/Panic Talk Action of V3. Argument Armament was an attempt at a rhythm game but is far too dragged out and annoying and just… not… a rhythm game. You have to press the buttons at the right time, occasionally having that timing covered by something as you continued on. It gets more difficult as you go through the different “phases” of it, but it’s just another element that takes far too long to get through.
Throughout the game I never really got attached to too many of the characters. Some of the few characters I did get attached to ended up just being killed, leaving being the annoying people. For some of those killed I was more relieved than sad that they were gone since it meant I didn’t have to hear their annoyances anymore.
Speaking of character development, this is some of the places the game really dropped the ball. Some characters get almost no development, and some get a bit too much. In fact, some characters get developed as extremely vulgar, and V3 is probably the most vulgar the series has ever been. There were points where I just had to stop reading because it was getting so bad.
Another thing I noticed a lot during my time playing was the amount of spelling errors, despite a day one patch to fix them. It was a major worry that I would miss some vital information simply due to some messed up grammar or spelling. Luckily I didn’t, but when you easily spot things such as “rootop” and “praparations” then… well, you have a problem.
As a whole, Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony feels no where near being on the same level as 1 and 2. The story is extremely predictable, everything is far too drawn out, there are some extremely irritating gimmicks throughout the game, and I just couldn’t stand most of the cast. All I could do at most of the reveals was just roll my eyes and sarcastically say, “Wow, I didn’t see that coming.” Also, there are some annoying loading times present, especially during Chapter 4. I know I’m not playing on a PS4 Pro or anything, but they were still annoying with how much that particular loading section had to be loaded.
Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is just an “okay” game – an “okay” game that I have a hard time trying to justify a strong recommendation on it. I just have a hard time recommending games I get bored over like I did with V3. If you’re looking for better games (not that they’re perfect either), then I recommend picking up Danganronpa 1+2 Reload (or them separately) instead.
I was provided with a PS4 review code by NIS America for free for the purposes of this review.
