Spike Chunsoft didn't waste time in releasing the much-awaited follow-up to Danganronpa, with Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair launching only two years after. In this second game, you jump into the shoes of another protagonist with an ahoge, Hajime Hinata, and join a new batch of students from Hope’s Peak who are also out to murder one another.
Class 77-B are brought to a tropical island paradise that’s quickly overtaken by Monokuma, and what was meant to be an idyllic trip with your friends once again turns into a killing game. Makoto Naegi and friends assumed they unraveled the school’s mysteries during the events of the first game, but we learn that the worst is yet to come.
Throughout the course of the story, there were a handful of things we caught ourselves doing, and we’re positive you’ve done some of these as well. From romance to traitors to outright fanservice, here’s a look back at a few things we all did in Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair.
10 Not Fall Into Monomi's False Sense Of Security
We meet Monomi at the very beginning of the game, when she tells us she’s our teacher and chaperone for the duration of our class trip. And for the first section of the introduction, meeting your classmates and seeing the tropical paradise where you’ll be staying, it was almost tempting to believe her.
But anyone who played the first Danganronpa knows better, and it was no surprise when Monokuma showed up. Not only did Monokuma corrupt the trip itself, forcing the students to begin killing one another, but he made sure to humiliate Monomi as often as possible along the way. Fun can wait until the Island Mode after the game — there are murders to solve first.
9 Assume Incorrectly About Gundham's Talent
When we first begin, Hajime takes stock of his classmates as the group is standing in a classroom, waiting for their teacher to arrive. Some of them, their talents are easy enough to guess — who’d have thought the girl carrying a sword is the Ultimate Swordswoman? — but not everyone is so cut and dry.
Admittedly, when we first saw Gundham Tanaka, drenched in darkness from head to toe and glowering at us from across the room, we were ready for his talent to be something creepy. So when he produced a collection of hamsters from his scarf and told us he’s the Ultimate Breeder, suffice to say, we were a little surprised.
8 Assume Something's Happening Between Akane And Nekomaru
Naturally, as the game progresses, the characters come to know one another as you’re getting to know them, too. Friendships build among the group, and it doesn’t take long for Akane and Nekomaru to gravitate toward one another as kids with athletics-based talents.
But the game strongly suggests that there might be something more than just casual training going on. Nekomaru tells Akane she'd better be good, or he won’t do “that thing” to her. Maybe it’s more innocent than it sounded, since we know Nekomaru is said to give a good massage, but we shipped it.
7 Embrace The Arrival Of Mechamaru
In the same vein as our last point, Nekomaru was willing to sacrifice his own life to save Akane’s by diving in front of a bazooka that Monokuma launched at her. He’s massively injured, and sits the third trial out because of it, but will return afterwards – as a robot.
When we found out we were getting Nekomaru back, nobody expected exactly how he’d be returned. However, Monokuma says the robo-body was the only possible way to save Nekomaru from his injuries. He comes fully equipped with some sweet bonus features, too, like a clock/radio in his chest, and tea/cola dispensers in his eyeballs.
6 Get Tired Of Kazuichi Simping For Sonia
Though nowhere near as crass about it as classmate Teruteru, our Ultimate Mechanic, Kazuichi Soda, sure does have his eye on the girls in your class – Sonia, specifically. And he's not subtle about it, either.
While Kazuichi did have a lot of redeeming qualities, his relentless pursuit of the very disinterested Sonia was grating, to say the least. She begins spending time with Gundham, and Kazuichi is outspoken in his jealousy on the matter. He’s focused on her outward appearance as a pretty blonde girl, despite verbally expressing a distaste for a lot of things about her as a person, too.
5 Giggle At How Mean Hiyoko Can Be
When we first saw cute little Hiyoko Saionji, with her tiny stature and girlish pigtails, we expected her to be human sunshine. So it was rather shocking to introduce ourselves to her while she was squishing ants for fun, and we only see her grow to be more callous from there.
She drops such gems as, “Shut the hell up, pig barf. I hope you get a hang nail and die.”, “What are you even saying, you nasty, toilet-clogging bitch?”, “Let’s hurry up and vote, so we can freaking kill this weird, crazy bitch.” And these examples are just from a single trial.
4 Feel A Way About Mikan's Compromising Positions
Although everyone’s tended to be different, it’s tough not to have an opinion on Mikan when it feels like you've seen her panties more than certain characters.
She's described as being incredibly clumsy, which explains why she’s always tripping and falling in the most suggestive manners, legs splayed every which way in a skirt. Hajime’s hair even stands at full attention when Mikan crawls into bed with him and falls asleep with her knee over his stomach and her chest pressed to his face. Still, these moments were what led some to call her their favorite character, so to each their own.
3 Question If Nagito Is Makoto
This is an easter egg that has to have been added on purpose, because there are way too many coincidences that would lead fans to the same conclusion — that oddball Nagito might just be Makoto Naegi from the first game in disguise. It took us a long time to stop believing it, too.
But there are far too many ways you could come to this conclusion to ignore it. Both characters are voiced by Bryce Papenbrook in the English releases, both share the same talent of being the Ultimate Lucky Student, and eagle-eyed fans noticed that their whole names — Makoto Naegi and Nagito Komaeda — are almost perfect anagrams of one another. The remaining letters are the “da” at the end of Nagito's surname, but "da" is one way to say “is” in Japanese, further lending to the notion.
2 React To Byakuya's Drastic Change
With Byakuya Togami surviving to the end of the first Danganronpa game, it felt only natural to zero in on him when we’re introduced to Class 78 during the prologue of Danganronpa 2. Although, he looks quite a bit different from how he did in the last game, having easily doubled in size since the end of Trigger Happy Havoc.
Though, we don’t get much time to get to know this “new” version of Byakuya, as he’s the victim in the very first murder case. You find out later on that it wasn’t the real Byakuya Togami at all — that Byakuya actually shows up at the end of the game — but rather a person with the talent of “Ultimate Imposter.”
1 Screw Up "Meat On The Bone"
Okay, what the hell, Teruteru? “On the meat bone?” “The meat on bone?” "The on-bone meat?" What combination of these words will finally make you confess?
Panic Talk Action can be tough enough as it is, but Teruteru ramped up the difficulty with how specifically you need to accuse him of hiding his murder weapon on the bone in the cartoonishly oversized piece of meat he served at the party in Chapter One. The correct answer is “meat on the bone,” but we’d be lying if we said we didn’t just start selecting jibberish after a few tries — because whatever, who cares, maybe “bone the meat on” is what this weirdo wants us to say after all.