Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony Review (Spoilers)

Stories must end, one way or another. Irregardless of the quality, emotional resonance, or pathos they may contain, like human life itself, it cannot exist in perpetuity, lingering in stasis for the benefit of the unknowable. We have become so conditioned through long running epics, persistent worlds of art, fiction that exists beyond its medium, all supporting one another. They have a right to exist, and they should. But in so much excess we prolong stagnation of a creative muse, enduring in a protective shell of safe and constant static. 

In a flicker of agony, joy, pain, and catharsis, one day my story will conclude too. As will yours. Whether it is heard or silent, we deserve to have the chance to write its final sentences, taking solace in that at least something human was able to conceive of it. Its ability to endure is beyond our control, in the hands of those who love us and we have to be okay with that.

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is the culmination of writer Kazutaka Kodaka, character artist Rui Komatsuzaki, composer Masafumi Takada, and the entire development team’s years of austere, sinister, quirky, and inspired creativity. With that comes their most polarizing effort to date. The quality of what they conceived and how it expressed itself in doing so is a source of debate even to this day. There is no doubt that Team Danganronpa made the game they wanted to make and regardless of what is thought of it, deserves to be commended not just as a piece of meta-commentary fiction, but as the conclusion to an extremely popular series.

You know the drill. It’s another killing game. 16 students. Murder another without getting discovered, you win. Overseen by maniacal mechanical stuffed bear Monokuma. Only this time he is a dad! And my goodness you’ll wish he wasn’t. As has been the case with future installments in Danganronpa, the barbaric bear just isn’t good enough by himself apparently. So this time instead of a pink rabbit sister, he has five “Monokubs” who have even less to do during story sequences and are frankly even more obtrusive and undermine any genuine drama V3 looks to inject into its sizable narrative. Monokuma has fully completed his transformation from sneering, sinister, dominating mastermind to full on MC comedian mascot. Who once inspired genuine fear has been reduced to overseeing his obnoxious “children” who add even less than Monomi did in Danganronpa 2.

And this feeds into another problem that Danganronpa V3 inherits from its predecessor: its pacing leaves a lot to be desired. Granted no Danganronpa game has ever been paced particularly well, V3 continues with the “law of sequels” design of story sequences far too many video games employ in numerous other areas. Make it bigger, make it more, without an understanding of why the bigger pieces you’ve created fit so much better together when they were smaller. Each unnecessary extra line during a long class trial grating on the investment in its outcome.

The Ultimate Academy, the school where this killing game takes place is in defiance of the aforementioned philosophy. The sprawling multi-island, occasional side scrolling approach of Danganronpa 2 does not return. Instead a return closer to the genius of Trigger Happy Havoc’s emotional direction of having a singular location, explored only in first person, does wonders for Danganronpa V3. Inspiring prediction, confusion, and even a little unsettling presence that was desperately missed in the previous go-around.

A brand new musical score and soundscape conceived by series composer Masafumi Takada is another welcome return after its predecessor largely borrowed its music from the original Trigger Happy Havoc. Evoking a sense of intelligent mystery, cockeyed confusion, creeping emptiness, and wacky maximalism when appropriate, its musical direction and track choices emphasizing certain narrative moments does its job to enhance the sense of place. Revisited areas are more common giving a more complete picture of what the school might have been like to inhabit before it was used for the killing game. While it never quite reaches the grounded, lived-in, and cold isolation of Hope’s Peak Academy and it’s first-in-class emotional direction, it does what it can with what it has to intrigue and suggest beyond what we see.

The true spine of the game, and what I believe to be its strongest element are its cast of characters. The way they are written, how they are developed, how they react, and no matter how much more eccentric of a tone V3 takes on, how they maintain their believability as human beings, shines as brightly as any cast in the series. They have narrativized consistency of routines, meeting places, cliques and bonds they form over time, how they clash and who specifically clashes with who and why. I came to believe the survivors working together to overthrow the killing game because I felt them grow to understand each other as their time at the Ultimate Academy went on and their experiences intersected, not because it was convenient for the storyteller. The cases and class trials themselves are a mixed bag of how they are told and ultimately conclude, but there is enough misdirection an intrigue to keep you wanting to dive further into it, even at his least convincing, something Kazutaka Kodaka has always excelled at. Ironically when there is no killing, V3 is all killer.

(I will speak in broad terms so as to avoid major spoilers but it is impossible to talk about V3 without at least discussing the ending. You have been warned.)

“The killing game must continue.”

Danganronpa V3 has no trepidation about what it wants to say, how it wants to end, and how little it matters what you think of them for doing so. It’s a courageousness that I believe it has earned and has the right to try to do, frankly regardless of whether it has been earned. When we finally discover it’s truth it would make sense if we were taken aback. As it makes itself known, transgressively tearing the walls down between its artifice as a game and the player, it hurts itself while constantly pointing at the torn scraps left in its wake saying “remember this?!” It wields its themes like a cudgel, battering the player over the head. A little too often veering into “subtext is for cowards” territory. And I suppose dragging you to absolute despair is kind of the whole point.

When it finally gets there, what it arrives at is remarkably powerful. How it realizes that arrival is equal parts a slog, a mixture of nihilistic heavy handed valleys, and clear headed self aware peaks. It’s eclectic wrapping of smug insistence and steady defiance is given in such intensity and extreme detail that leave little room, if any, for further extrapolation.

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is a rejection of the idea that stories must be eternal, must continue for eternity to satisfy…someone…somewhere. Anyone who needs it for whatever reason they could justify in their pursuit of entropic meaninglessness. Gluttonously consuming without thought and without reason. Only to once again fail to satisfy a bottomless stomach without heart, and a potential growth of self and soul. The ending of the story and the lessons we take from it can only come about in its finality. But it is our responsibility to allow that to happen.

“If fiction has the power to touch people’s hearts, then that power can change the world.”