Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls Review PS4

I've played and finished this game before for the PS VITA. It's still there in my list of collection that I might be playing again in the future. Danganronpa series is one of the best games you can play for the PS VITA and Lately, Spike Chunsoft has been pushing these titles to PS4. One of the games that got pushed to the platform is Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls. This is the attempt of the developer to push something fresh from the series while adding more details to the story. This game is set in the Middle of Danganronpa 1 and 2 follows the story of Makoto Naegi's sister Komaro.

After Danganronpa 1, there's this big question mark as to what really happened with the outside world (I'll try to review this game without any spoilers) and the families of those students that got stuck to the Killing school life Game. But in the start of Danganronpa Another episode, we now have the idea that their families are being held hostage and playing a bigger game inside Towa City Island. The Future Foundation organization has been searching for these people that got hostage and their goal for this episode is to rescue the family members of the Ultimate students as well as free the city from the followers of Junko and Monokuma.

The Graphics is almost similar as the PS Vita version but the constant 60fps is noticeable. Could've been better though, the other thing that I've noticed is that the developers should've improved the controls for the PS4 version. There should be a way to modify the controls else you'll end up using the claw style. Circle button is used for running which is good for some games but for Danganronpa: Another Episode it's a different story as you'll get dizzy on how the camera works for this game.

Gameplay wise, I think the game copied its concept with Resident Evil games where Monokuma's are like the Zombies for this game. I see notes and files around ala Resident Evil where the people of Towa City recounts the horror they have experienced on the hands of deadly Monokuma's. There are intelligent puzzles wherein you have a choice to finish it intelligently of course, which is killing all Monokuma's by performing some steps or just kill all the Monokuma's one by one to move to the next room. The choice of killing the Monokuma's intelligently will give you a better rating and prize for each chapter. The puzzles are fun but the retry button is limited and will affect your rating even when if you've just made a single mistake.

Aside from the puzzles, you shoot around Monokuma's with your Megaphone-Shaped Hacking gun. Komaro's Hacking gun can be loaded with various truth bullets which you can use for puzzles, killing Monokuma's, looking for invisible hints, pushing Monokumas around etc. These Monokuma dolls has its eyes as its weakness so shooting them there could kill them in just few shots rather than shooting their bodies. There are various kinds of Monokuma's in game and you need to figure out how to kill them strategically so that you won't waste that precious bullets. There are also boss battles that are not that difficult and design seems not relevant with the design and feel of the game. Well maybe its just me but I don't like the boss designs. Lol

Komaro is accompanied by Toko Fukawa, one of the members of the previous Danganronpa game, she can turn into Genocide Jack and slash Monokuma like crazy with her scissors. Great to use if you are in a tight situation with fast moving and hard Monokuma dolls as Toko is fast and powerful. She can kill all enemies at once but her powers has its limits and you need batteries to charge her shocking tool(which he uses to turn to Genocide Jack) which balances the game so you won't abuse here powers. There's an easy mode that lets you play Genocide jack with no limit if you just want to enjoy the story.

Killing Monokuma's will reward you with coins which can be used to purchase power ups for you hacking gun and upgrade Genocide jacks power. Shooting them in the eye will get you better rewards. There are comic books out there that you can collect which gives some background with the likes and dislikes of the girls in game. But it's not really connected to the story, just some way of knowing their character more. But sometimes these extra dialogues can get boring specially if the two are just talking about the comic books that doesn't really have a connect to the story. Tip: you can skip the dialogues with options button.

There's not much to love in this game. It's an action game with some horror twist but nothing here that's surprising and interesting or new, IF YOUR NOT a Danganronpa fan. The plot is not as good as Danganronpa 1 and 2, this is somewhat a refreshing way to tell the story for Danganronpa 1.5 but Danganronpa 1 and 2 can live without this game. This game is just for the Danganronpa fans to satisfy their Danganronpa needs.