Danganronpa S: Famitsu (July 21st 2021)
A summer camp is starting in Jabberwock Island
Danganronpa S, the latest entry on the series, is a board game based on the Talent Cultivation Program bonus mode in V3. Take a look at how your tropical island camp will flow and what you should expect to see in it.
The students go on a training camp to improve their talents
The training camp dice game is set in Jabberwock Island. We have over 60 playable characters trying to improve their talents through leveling and battling. Aside from the expected Super High School Level students from all numbered games, major characters from the spin-off Ultra Despair Girls are also in the game.
Step 1: Leveling up on the board game
Danganronpa S is composed of three aspects: the level-up board game, the battles, and the shop. The main part is the board game. There you spend 50 days (50 turns) raising your character in a Jabberwock Island camp. A character can evolve by landing on a growth space or experience a variety of events and interactions with other characters. They can also get stronger by learning Skills and obtaining equipment.
Step 2: Taking your party to the Tower of Despair
Your goal in raising your characters is to make them clear all 200 floors of the Tower of Despair, which has been plagued with Monokuma monsters. In the tower, you build a party of up to 4 characters and challenge waves of enemies. Clearing the missions established in each battle earns you Monocoins for you to exchange for rewards in the school shop.
Step 3: Recruiting new allies in the school shop
You can use the Monocoins earned in battle on the Monomono Machine. Use a Monocoin to get the machine rolling and gain new characters and items you can use to further power them up. Jabberwock Island is composed of one main island and 5 others connected by bridges, but it'd be difficult to explore all of them from the get-go. The rarer characters you can recruit in the shop will evolve faster and move more efficiently, allowing you to go through all islands.
Filled with must-see scenes for the fans
The main appeal of Danganronpa S is the interactions between characters spread out across the series. Aside from CGs illustrating the major events like the beach scene or the summer festival, all characters also gained swimsuit sprites. All fans of the series must see the various interactions and the dazzling swimsuits!
14 questions of hope and despair
Danganronpa S's director, Shun Sasaki from Spike Chunsoft, did an e-mail interview with us. We asked all we wanted to know: the stories of how the Danganronpa series got ported to the Switch, how this game was born, why is Hifumi Yamada drawn on the cover, and more.
Q1: Tell us how you got the Danganronpa series ported to the Switch.
The first Danganronpa game became 10 years old in November 2020. To celebrate this anniversary, we decided to port the game to the Switch, making it more accessible to both old and new players.
Q2: Do the Switch ports have any new features?
They come with the character sheet and Free Time Event galleries added for the Anniversary Edition.
Q3: Some fans are expecting a port of Ultra Despair Girls. Is that a possibility?
Ultra Despair Girls was made for the Playstation Vita, which is highly compatible with the Switch's style thanks to the handheld mode, but we have zero plans at the moment (laughs). UDG is a game with quite delicate themes so we worry we won't be allowed for a Switch release, but everything is possible with fan support, so we're counting on you!
Makoto: "Yeah, I know. Because you're part of this... you were officially invited to join the Talent Development Camp.
Q4: Why did you decide to include a new board game along with the three numbered games?
It all started with our wish to release some kind of new Danganronpa game in time for the 10th anniversary. We considered many different ways to capture the festive feeling of this milestone, and decided that evolving V3's bonus mode would be a great way to let the whole all-star cast of characters in Danganronpa's history share the spotlight. That's what lead to the creation of Danganronpa S.
Q5: How were the characters in the box art chosen?
Since this was a trilogy pack, we selected the protagonists of each game. As for all other characters in the picture, we requested Komatsuzaki to choose anyone he thought fit the composition best.
Q6: Hifumi Yamada's placement in the box art feels remarkably significant. Does Yamada play any major role in Danganronpa S?
Yes, Hifumi Yamada is the mastermind of Danganronpa S... or at least I wish he was. Sorry, that has nothing to do with anything. It's just Komatsuzaki doing whatever he likes (laughs).
Q7: Other entries in the series had secrets in their titles. Does Danganronpa S also have any hidden meaning?
This is a special episode to the series, so the S stands for Special. It has some other meanings but I'll have to save that for another date.
Q8: What was the hardest part of developing this game.
We were trying to improve the Talent Development Plan in ALL aspects, but upgrading some of the graphical elements was particularly difficult. At first, we were handling everything in 2D but got stumped because we didn't know how to adjust that in a way that would surpass the original... After evaluating our options, we decided that by showing the map chips in 3D, the artstyle would fit better with the 8-bit sprites and the board game. I believe we achieved the level of quality we were imagining. The designers did everything possible to reproduce the positioning of the buildings and objects exactly as they were in DR2's Jabberwock Island, so I hope you can appreciate our game at least on a visual level.
Q9: Who is writing the interaction scenes here?
We hired the writers who did the Free Time Events and Night Events in V3 to make all brand new scenes. This is a "what if Kibougamine never had any killing games" alternate universe, but our writers value the characters' relationships in the main story and are keeping their backgrounds unchanged, resulting in many enjoyable original scenes.
Q10: Tell us your favorite interaction or one you think deserves our attention.
Call me basic, but the scenes co-starring Togami and the Imposter never fail to make me laugh. Aside from them, the game has loads of other series crossover combinations you couldn't see in their original games, so make sure to look for your favorite character's scenes.
Q11: All characters gained new swimsuit sprites. Is there any swimsuit design that deserves special attention? Or any who was particularly complicated to design?
Personally, my special attention goes to Sonia finally being freed from her wetsuit (laughs). Not even a basic swimsuit can really hinder her royal gravitas... One complicated to design was Hifumi Yamada, I guess. Wearing less diminished his natural cuteness, so we had to adjust his physique to compensate for that and it took a lot of time to find the sweet spot (laughs).
Q12: Who came up with the swimsuit designs?
The in-game swimsuits were devised by our developers and designers. The Danganronpa S key visual also has characters in swimsuits, but those are Komatsuzaki originals. I hope you enjoy the multiple ways to interpret the swimsuit designs. I can imagine the fun conversations like "Makes sense that Nanami would go with something completely white... Would Enoshima really pick this...?".
Q13: Some fans are expecting a new numbered game in the Danganronpa series. Is that a possibility?
Q14: A message to our fans and readers, please!
Danganronpa was loved by a lot of people in its 10 year lifetime and it's thanks to those fans being always with us that we were able to deliver you these Switch ports. Danganronpa S is made half of our gratitude for all these years and half of our development team's selfish wish to have more fun with the Danganronpa cast. I'll be happy to see you all take this opportunity to immerse yourselves in the Dangan world one more time. Thank you very much for everything. Look forward to more Danganronpa in the future.
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