Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair

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Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is a 2012 videogame, developed by Spike Chunsoft and directed by Takayuki Sugawara.

Hajime Hinata is a student who is about to join Hope's Peak Academy, a school for elite students. However, he has difficulty to remember why he was able to enter this kind of school. In his first day, he and his other freshmen are gathered on a classroom and meets their supposed teacher, a small rabbit-like mascot named Usami, who suddenly reveals the room was placed on a tropical island, and that they're on a school trip.

The students are obviously confused and shocked by all of this, including Hinata, but the lack of any apparent danger makes them soon decide to relax. That is, until the self-proclaimed Headmaster Monokuma arrives at the island, and determines that instead of befriending themselves like Usami wanted them to, the students have to kill each other if they want to escape the island. Each murder will be submitted to a trial between the students and if the killer manages to get away, the remaining students will be executed. Before Usami's resistance, Monokuma activates giant machine-weapons called Monobeasts and uses one of them to tear her to pieces.

The fear begin to dominate these young men and women. Fear of Monokuma, and fear of each other...

Tropes used in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair include:
  • 2½D: The player can pan around the environment, but the characters and props are all paper cutouts. It is even possible to pan around said paper cutouts.
  • Absolute Cleavage: Akane's top isn't able to fully contain her large breasts, resulting in this.
  • Amnesiac Hero: Hajime suffers with constant memory lapses and doesn't remember his Ultimate Talent.
  • Ascended Meme: The "misspelling Danganronpa" meme is referenced to in "Monokuma's Cute Meaty Diary" in the Monokuma Archive on the third floor of Grape House in Chapter 4.
  • Bi The Way: Teruteru seems to be a straight pervert at first, but says his tastes are pretty open when he gets the chance of putting sun lotion on a muscular man.
  • Black Blood: Or pink blood, in this case, as a form of censorship due to the Japanese game-rating systems. Dialog indicates that it's actually red in-universe.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Monokuma begins to call Usami "Monomi", saying he have renamed her along changing her appearance. She complains about it and then realizes he changed her name on the game's interface.
  • Cloudcuckoolander: Chiaki's mind always seems to be kinda out there, coming up with slow responses and thinking of the world like a game.
  • Closed Circle: The main cast is on a archipelago on the middle of the Pacific Ocean with no plane, boats or way of communicating with the rest of the world.
  • Comically Missing the Point: Kazuichi somehow manages to comically miss one of his own points during Trial #4.

Kazuichi: It appears it's just as Miss Sonia said...I'm just a pest...no, I'm not just a pest...I'm a total fucking pig...
Kazuichi: ISN'T THAT RIGHT, MISS SONIA?! IF I'M A FUCKING PIG, YOU CAN SAY SO!
Sonia: No, I believe you gave your all.
Kazuichi: HEY! WHY AREN'T YOU TEASING ME ANYMORE?!
Fuyuhiko: This guy...HE GETS OFF ON THIS!

  • Gilded Cage: The tropical island isn't half-bad. Unfortunately, nobody's allowed to leave unless they commit murder and get away with it.
  • Humongous Mecha: The Monobeasts, giant animal-like robots that obey Monokuma and serve as his enforcers.
  • Large Ham: Nekomaru is imprisoned in a constante state of shooting words out of his mouth.
  • Red Herring: Considering the grim-dark nature of the series, thinking that Usami was the villain was a natural conclusion because of her excessively sweet personality contrasted with putting the students of a Closed Circle situation where they were forced to cooperate. Then Monokuma appears and tears these theories apart.
  • You Wake Up in a Room: Happens to the protagonist, that has no memory of how exactly he arrived the classroom in the beginning.