I was a fan of the Danganronpa series in high school and went back and platinumed the entire series (1, 2, v3, UDG) recently. Now when it comes to Danganronpa S, it's really hit or miss. I don't think this was a game that was meant to be taken super seriously, and I don't think the devs actually expected that a majority of people would actually beat the game. That being said, I did and got all achievements, so here are my thoughts.

The development mode itself is a solid board game, but it can get old pretty quickly. Once you get to a point where you can beat all the bosses on the map, the only other thing you can do is try and get the story ending. This involved clearing the mode with literally every single character there is. Getting a copy of the characters isn't actually that bad. You just have to play through the despair tower to get coins and eventually, you'll get them all. That being said, the process of doing putting every character through the game mode is absolutely mind numbing. I didn't even attempt this until after I beat floor 200 of the tower, and only finished a character once I got the ultimate card for them (some events are locked behind ultimate cards). I also want to warn people, YOU CAN GET SOFTLOCKED!!!!!!! If you go into the graduation story section without having a good team, you will not be able to reroll characters and you can get stuck. From what i've heard, if you can get past floor 100, you should be good, but this was also why I waited until after floor 200.

The tower mode itself is pretty okay. The RPG mechanics are pretty basic and you do actually have to strategize what moves you want on certain characters. It actually incentivizes you to go back and redevelop characters depending on the situation, which I really like. The mode is also decently challenging at points, so you can't just auto through every level.

My favorite part of the game is easily the character events. I just like seeing characters from different games interact in a fun social setting. Not all of these are good (I'm sorry Tenko fans, she was pretty out of character), but a majority are fun to read through.


If you do the platinum, be warned. This game is a massive grind, and easily takes the longest out of the full series (as of now) to 100% complete. Thank god it does not require you to do all Usagi challenges, or that's another 50 hours in the hole.

Now my final verdict on recommending comes down to this. I only recommend the game IF ALL OF THESE ARE TRUE:

- The game is on sale
- You are a hardcore Danganronpa fan
- You actually enjoyed the v3 Talent development mode

I'm a danganronpa superfan, and even I wasn't totally onboard with Danganronpa S.