Danganronpa has arrived on Xbox for the first time, thanks to the surprise release of Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc Anniversary Edition on Game Pass.
Trigger Happy Havoc is the first game in the series, and sees a group of gifted teenagers locked inside a school and forced to either murder a classmate and escape, or investigate the deaths and identify the culprit in a trial.
The Anniversary Edition was originally released for mobile devices in 2020, and includes an exclusive gallery mode that lets you rewatch scenes and listen to character voice lines. The Anniversary Edition was then released for the Switch last year as part of the Danganronpa Decadence collection, which also included Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony, and Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp.
Like Monokuma at a murder scene, it just arrived out of nowhere. We had no idea Danganronpa was coming to Xbox at all, let alone to Game Pass. Neither Spike Chunsoft nor Microsoft announced that they were on the way, and it wasn't on the coming soon list that can be found on the main Game Pass page. The first time either company acknowledged the launch was when Spike Chunsoft released a tweet at the same time as the game hit the subscription service.
Spike Chunsoft and Microsoft have yet to announce if this means the other games in the Decadence collection are on their way as well, though it would be nice to see – especially for Danganronpa S: Ultimate Summer Camp, which so far has only been available on the Switch. Danganronpa is a series that gets better with each instalment; while Trigger Happy Havoc is great, Goodbye Despair and Killing Harmony are absolute masterpieces. It would only be right to let people enjoy the entire franchise.
If you've not played Danganronpa, they're some of the best visual novel games available and well worth your time. Full of memorable characters, plenty of plot twists, gruesome murders, and some unique Class Trial mechanics that see you call out your fellow captives on their lies, they're definitely something to try out if you like games like Phoenix Wright or The Nonary Games.