Danganronpa games have become a cult classic over time. The first Danganronpa was first released in November 2010, making it turn fifteen this year, as of the writing of this article. Often seen as Ace Attorney’s younger sibling, the game is a horror take on the investigation genre that was popular.
While more games came out, they also released a Danganronpa anime in July 2013, with a dub released in November 2015. While the anime continued to get more seasons following the games, many ask which is better and which to avoid.
Danganronpa Games’ Greatness
The Danganronpa games have been a staple of mysteries and visual novels for years now, with five games and three spinoffs. Most of them are good, with both providing either great gameplay, stories, or both when it comes to it!
While you can play the games in whatever order you want, many prefer to play them in order. Thankfully, the game order is pretty simple, which is the following;
- Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc
- Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair
- Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls
- Danganronpa v3: Killing Harmony
- Kirigiri Sou
This is the order everyone seems to agree on for playing Danganronpa games only, with spin-offs not providing much story. Thankfully, that means that spin-offs can be played in any order, but preferably after those five games listed above.
Each entry from the Danganronpa games holds new characters, new areas, and new stories to go off of, so none copy the others. This makes most of the important five games great, with little to no complaints about all but one of them.
I’ll take this time to talk about the elephant in the room, that being Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, for reasons. Most people for play the games seem to hate Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, mostly due to character deaths and the ending.
I won’t talk about any of that here, due to the importance of allowing people to form their own opinions. I will state that when it comes to the comparison, many say the anime does this part better.
Pushing away from those five are the three spin-offs, all made to be played after you at least know the characters. This means that they can be picked up and enjoyed at any time, which is great to see.
While the spin-offs aren’t very loved by the community, I still think they are worth a try during sales. That way, if you don’t like them, you didn’t spend too much on them, and can refund them on Steam.
After all that, I think it’s time to finally move on to the anime side of things.
Danganronpa’s Anime Advantage
Danganronpa’s anime tends to be a bit confusing; thankfully for you, painfully for me, I’ve seen it all. Most people seem to enjoy dubbed, so I’ll be talking about the dub here, and a tiny bit of sub.
The anime seems to change on what’s happening sometimes, but thankfully, the first game can be directly compared to the anime. This is great, as having control over whose stories you want to learn, or go the route the writers wanted.
The anime order is a little simple at first, but quickly gets lost depending on how deep you go. To sum it up quickly, the order is as follows;
- Danganronpa The Animation
- Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak High School
- Danganronpa 2.5: Nagito Komaeda and the World Vanquisher
Yes, it seems that simple, sadly, the second one isn’t as simple as it may look right now. Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak High School has two seasons, with the Future Arc and Despair Arc as labeled.
For the best watch experience, you’ll need to watch in order of release, not how they are laid out. The start is Future Arc Episode One, and after that is Despair Arc Episode One, then keep watching like that.
Having to hop between seasons makes Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak High School confusing, which scares people away. Thankfully, after understanding that watching the episodes in order of release makes it easier to enjoy the anime.
With the order out of the way, the anime is great, letting us know how the main character thinks. The judgment of it is that it’s great to watch solo or with friends, if not a little confusing at times.
There’s a reason I haven’t talked much about the anime, as there’s one final list to talk about.
Danganronpa’s True Lore List
Yes, after all this talk, there’s one way to understand the anime and games fully, at the cost of time. If you want to get into the lore and story of the series, follow this list exactly.
- Danganronpa 1 (Game) or Danganronpa: The Animation
- Danganronpa Zero (Optional Light Novel)
- Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (Game)
- Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls (Game)
- Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope’s Peak High School (Anime)
- Danganronpa v3: Killing Harmony (Game)
This is the full list of the correct order to fully enjoy the story that Danganronpa has laid out. This is very time-consuming, as I have finally completed all of this after four months, finally finished it recently.
Finally, to answer the question of which is better, games overall seem to be better if you want an easy experience. Thanks for reading, and remember to have Hope for us all.
