Danganronpa is a video game franchise developed by Spike Chunsoft. It takes the form of a highly stylized 2.5D visual novel with different modes of play and a variety of mini-games. The plot is that a class of ‘Ultimate’ school children, who are all extremely talented in their own field are put together and given ultimatums to kill their peers. This culminates to a ‘Class Trial’ where the remaining students must figure out who the killer is, lest they all die.
The key themes of Dangaronpa are ‘Hope’ and ‘Despair’, highlighting ‘Hope’ as the protagonist and ‘Despair’ as the antagonist the characters must come together to fight against. These themes highlight how easy it is to switch from one state of being to another and the devastating consequences it leads to, usually murder.
This franchise is well known for its unique pop-art inspired stylization and incorporation of 2D art in a controlled 3D environment, resulting in 2.5D. It stands out in the field of visual novels as one of the most interactive and engaging games that can go head to head with more AAA type games.
Ace Attorney
Ace Attorney is a series of visual novel format, legal drama, adventure games developed by Capcom. It follows the story of Phoenix Wright who is a novice defense attorney struggling to get his clients to a ‘Not Guilty’ through presenting evidence and witness testimony and other game mechanics.
As a legal series, ‘Truth’ and ‘Justice’ prevail as the major themes, with the player having to go through various hoops to reach the final ‘Not Guilty’ verdict. It emphasizes that not everything is as it seems and one must look at a situation from different angles in order to get to the bottom of things.
This game has made a singular notable contribution to modern pop culture; ‘OBJECTION!’ has been referenced and quoted widely across many different forms of media and still remains a staple. (A unique point to note is that Danganronpa, the game summarized above also uses an animation and mechanic directly inspired by Ace Attorney’s infamous ‘OBJECTION!’)