The Crazy Concepts of Zanki Zero

If you’re like me and have played the killing game visual novel that is Danganronpa, you could be forgiven for expecting the same kind of death-filled thriller from Zanki Zero. While Zanki Zero does carries similar ideas in its own way, it also brings in its own set of outlandish ideas that set itself apart from the Danganronpa team’s previous work as a unique game of its own. In a post-apocalyptic world that touches on immortality and cloning tied together with characters representing the seven deadly sins and a new duo of quirky mascots, the concepts introduced in its Japanese demo got me very excited for when it comes out thanks to how it took the concepts I loved from Danganronpa and turned them upside-down to make what looks like a new story like nothing I’ve played before.

Review: Despair Dungeon: Monokuma's Test (Danganronpa as a JRPG!)

Spoiler Warning: This is a video related to content in Danganronpa V3. It will contain no story spoilers, however it is related to end-game content unlocked after completing V3’s story. If you want to keep these features a surprise, you honestly probably shouldn’t watch this video. But these features and mini-experiences don’t tie in with the story, so it’s up to you if you want to proceed at your own risk!

Review: Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (PS Vita)

When the first game in a series is incredible, it sets very high expectations for the next one. Thankfully, Danganronpa 2 takes all expectations brought from it's predecessor and hits them with the hard-hitting visual novel mystery that it does best, with added new features partnered with the best ones from the first one. Delivering the epic battle between hope and despair back once again with just as many passionate and colourful characters as last time, Danganronpa 2 is definitely special in it's own right and is worthy of being part 2 of Danganronpa's thrilling mystery.

Giving a new layer to the classic 'stranded on an island' dilemma, 16 students of Hope's Peak Academy find themselves trapped on Jabberwock Island alone with a strange magical rabbit. To begin their school trip gone wrong, the rabbit insists that they must travel the island to collect the Hope Fragments and become friends with one another...that is until Danganronpa's original evil bear Monokuma arrives and takes over, turning it into a tropical killing trip where the students are expected to kill one someone without getting caught. If successful, they can 'graduate', have their classmates punished (killed) and leave the island. If unsuccessful, the killer (known as the blackened) is punished and the rest of the class stays on the island.

The story runs over six twist-filled chapters, all compelling enough to have me glued to my PS Vita for about a week straight. The new cast is just as funny and zany as the last, to be expected when the talented cast of characters includes such titles as the Ultimate Team Manager, the Ultimate Yakuza and even the Ultimate Gamer. The characters aren't just amusing though, they're all complex personalities with different backgrounds, therefore reacting in very different ways. Throw in Monokuma and Monomi and you have a cast that perfectly compliments the deep, but cheeky storytelling of the Danganronpa series.

The consistent flow established in the first game continues in Danganronpa 2. Each chapter is divided into two parts, Daily Life and Deadly Life. During Daily Life, the story progresses and you are also given a chance to collect Hope Fragments with your fellow students. Once the story progresses to a climax (when a character has been killed), Deadly Life begins and it's time to Investigate and do a Class Trial to choose who is the blackened. Making friends with characters during Daily Life is encouraged to add more depth to the story, although it can be bittersweet, as you never know if they might be killed by the time it hits Deadly Life.

During the Class Trial, the group discusses at length the murder case in an attempt to weed out the blackened. The protagonist must use his Truth Bullets - facts uncovered during the Investigation - to shoot down or support his classmate's arguments. Supporting character arguments during the Non-Stop Debates hasn't been the only thing added to the Class Trial, in fact for better or worse the whole experience has undergone a revamp, along with some new additions. My favourite new additions were Logic Dive, a cool snowboarding mini-game that utilities ramps as choices when thinking out an argument, and Spot Selection, a simple new feature which presents a photo and you must choose the area being discussed or that is a contradiction.

On the other hand, the revamped Hangman's Gambit seemed much more complicated than it's original form and Rebuttal Showdown was cool, although my Vita sometimes couldn't handle some of the button mashing required of it. Initially when playing, I found the sheer amount of mechanics needed for the Class Trial overwhelming, but the way they are used add for a nice variation during the trial. Another small, but nice addition is that each trial is split into two parts, meaning it's possible to save partway through, which is appreciated when the length of each Class Trial is considered.

Outside of the main story is enough content to put most DLC to shame. There's Island Mode, an item collection cross social/dating game much like the original Danganronpa's School Mode, Magical Miracle Girl Monomi, a mini-battle game where you can fight small island enemies and Monobeasts, a digital novel called Danganronpa IF covering an alternative story line to the first game, unlockable art and movies and even your own Tamagochi like pet to raise during and after the main story is over. I was overjoyed when these features where unlocked at the end of Chapter 6, as the game had not only left me wanting more, but had willingly given me it. There's also a Japanese voiceover option and in-story collectibles that are also an excuse to playthrough the thrilling story a second time, making Danganronpa 2 highly re-playable even after the 40 hour story.

If you loved the first game, Danganronpa 2 does nothing but add to the thrilling story and world from the first game. With many more activities and a gripping story that ties in perfectly to the first one, Dangranronpa 2's mystery kept me coming back for more - and then kept giving me more. If more thrills, chills and kills is what you're looking for in a story, letting yourself become absorbed by Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair's many mysteries is completely worth it.

Score: 9.7/10

A gripping tale and new game mechanics and modes make this game beary, beary good.

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair is available now at Play-Asia,net.

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Did you play Danganronpa 2? Are you itching for V3 as much as I am?
Leave a comment below and let's talk!

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The Platinum Trophy Journey: Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa

Following my time playing and reviewing Danganronpa, I quickly made the decision that seems to only happen with my favourite PS Vita game stories - I didn't want to leave that world yet and a good excuse to continue play was getting the Platinum Trophy.

About a year ago I did Platinum Trophy info posts for Persona 4 Golden and Gravity Rush that lightly touched the surface of my platinum trophy experience. Without entering 'trophy guide territory' (PlaystationTrophies and it's contributors already do a brilliant job at this), I still wanted to give a little guide to people going for this platinum because I made a lot of uneducated mistakes in my experience so I'd like to help you avoid doing the same.

How long it took to Platinum (according to psnprofiles): 1 week, 5 days and 12 hours. If you're looking for an hour count estimate, I was silly and didn't realise clicking the info button on my save file would display how many hours I had done until my post-platinum playthrough. As an estimate based on that, I would say I spent around 50 hours between my first playthrough and tying up loose ends specially for the Platinum trophy.

My Trophy Advice

The trophies I've categorized below are all the different trophies you need to receive the 'Despair's Last Reward' Platinum Trophy.

Story Trophies

You don't need to do anything that special for these. Just playthrough each chapter, complete the trials and enjoy the game!

From Zero to Hero - Finished the Prologue
One is the Loneliest Number - Finished Chapter 1
Two of a Kind - Finished Chapter 2
Three's A Crowd - Finished Chapter 3
Four by Gore - Finished Chapter 4
Five Alive - Finished Chapter 5
All's Well That Ends...Umm... - Finished every chapter

While these trophies are pretty self-explanatory, I did refer to this very spoiler-free guide if I was low on health during the class trials.

Report Card Trophies

Report Card trophies are achieved by hanging out with each classmate in any of the Story Chapters or School Mode until you finish their friendship arc and finish their Report Card (which you can access in the menu). Each Report Card is a different length, with the longest one at 9 pages long.

Psychic - Filled in every page of Sayaka's report card
Hope Peak's Confidential - Filled in every page of Kyoko's report card
Memoirs of a Fashionista - Filled in every page of Junko's report card
The Devil Wears A High School Uniform - Filled in every page of Kiyotaka's report card
The Game Hungers - Filled in every page of Byakuya's report card
Rebel Without A High School Degree - Filled in every page of Mondo's report card
Almost Almost Famous - Filled in every page of Leon's report card
Lost in Scanslation - Filled in every page of Hifumi's report card
The Sixth Nonsense - Filled in every page of Yasuhiro's report card
GoodFellows - Filled in every page of Chihiro's report card.
Mystic Donut - Filled in every page of Aoi's report card
Stranger's In A Brain - Filled in every page of Toko's report card
Lovesport - Filled in every page of Sakura's report card
The French Disconnection - Filled in every page of Celeste's report card
Mr Know-It-All - Filled in every page of every character's report card

It is impossible to complete all the Report Cards in one playthrough of the main story, so there's not much need to worry about this in your first playthrough. You can replay the story to complete them, but an easier way is to do this is while playing and leveling up your characters in School Mode.

To speed up completing the report cards it is possible to give each character presents. However, if you haven't received the 'Ooh, For Me?' trophy or 'Seriously, You Shouldn't Have' trophies (listed in the Monocoin Related Trophies in this post), I would advise saving your Monocoins as it makes those two trophies more time consuming. The presents are not an essential part of completing the Report Cards, so it's up to you if you want to use them or not.

SP Trophies

I put these near the Report Card Trophies, because you will probably achieve these as a result of filling in the report cards. You earn SP most times you spend time with a classmate (unless you receive an trial ability), so expect these to come naturally.

Skilling 'Em Softly - Cleared the 10 SP threshold
Skilled or Be Skilled - Cleared the 20 SP threshold
Ghostface Skillah - Cleared the 30 SP threshold

Trial Trophies - Standard

These are earned by playing through each trial particularly well. A quick note - despite descriptions, multiple sites (PSNProfiles and PlaystationTrophies) have stated it only takes fulfilling the trophies requirements in one trial rather than all trials. I can vouch as well that I only needed to fulfill the trophy requirement in one trial rather than all of them, so these are easier to achieve than they sound.

What's A Mistrial - Cleared every class trial without having to retry
You Must Acquit - Cleared every class trial without taking any damage
Not From Concentrate - Cleared every class trial without using your concentration skill a single time
The Color of Television - Destroyed 100 white noise lines across all class trials
Tuned to a Dead Channel - Destroyed 500 white noise lines across all class trials

If you need help with any of the trials, I again recommend referring to this guide. These trophies are mostly self explanatory, but are time consuming because of the average length of the trials, even while fast-forwarding though everything. I did most of these by replaying the first trial, as it is by far the most straight forward case.

School Mode

School Mode trophies can only be achieved after finishing the main story once. After finishing the main story, this School Mode mini-game will unlock. The trophies for School Mode do require a little more effort, but because your stats do carry over each playthrough, the mini-game gradually gets easier.

School's Out for Summer - Cleared School Mode once
School's Out Forever - Saw every possible School Mode ending

Completing School Mode requires a little more strategical planning than the other trophies. The mini-game is based around resource collection and management, along with keeping up with cleaning and making sure you keep your characters energised to avoid them entering rest mode. A strategy that seemed to work for me was constantly having 2-3 cleaners on every day that I also gave all cleaning buffs to. On top of this, after completing each of the Monokuma Spares, I would spend time gathering resources and creating 10 of each of the Processed Goods (and then 10 more if I finished that). This allowed me to be ready to easily make any Monokuma Spare and kept a good amount of materials in my inventory. Put simply, I recommend having an assigned cleaning team and stocking up on Processed Goods after completing your assigned tasks. It makes every other task a lot easier to gather resources for, because you already have a good amount of them.

As for the School Mode endings, these are obtained by taking the classmates on Trips around the school in a Dating Sim style. Each interaction involves conversation options that help determine how much a classmate likes you. For the trophy, you need to achieve each character's ending by having positive date experiences with them until they have 10 hearts on Monokuma's friendship chart. The great thing about this is it's possible to get more than one classmate's ending in one playthrough, so go on as many trips as possible in each playthrough until you get 10 hearts and then repeat the process until you've dated and done that with all still students cause you're super monogamous like that.

Upon finishing each ending, you will receive a special present (heh) from each of the students that will be worth holding on for when going for the Seriously, You Shouldn't Have trophy.

Monocoin Related Trophies

I put together all the Monocoin, present and gallery-related trophies here together because they're all essentially connected by the spending and receiving of Monocoins, which you receive in game by investigating certain areas, completing trials and School Mode as many times as you like.

Nine Coins, Nine Purses, Nine Bears - Collected 999 Monocoins
Ooh, For Me? - Collected 50 unique presents
Hey, Big Spender - Enjoyed the excitement of the Mono Mono Machine 100 times
Seriously, You Shouldn't Have - Collected every possible present
Rogue's Gallery - Unlocked all gallery items

This set of trophies isn't hard, although they're all time consuming and perhaps a little tedious, so I'll describe this set in more detail.

Nine Coins, Nine Purses, Nine Bears may pop after trying to get the School Mode trophies because School Mode gives you 200 Monocoins upon completion, so I would recommend getting as many Monocoins as possible while trophy-hunting in School Mode. A big tip is to not spend any Monocoins until this trophy pops as your coin count is not accumulative and will only pop the moment you have 999 Monocoins in your inventory at one time.

Ooh, For Me?, Hey, Big Spender and Seriously, You Shouldn't Have all tie in together, because you'll probably pop the first two while working towards Seriously, You Shouldn't Have. This trophy revolves around the Mono Mono Machine, which makes this a difficult trophy to write about because it is based around chance. While the more coins you put in the Mono Mono Machine, the more chance you get of not doubling up on presents, I would recommend putting your coins in one Monocoin at a time until you have all of the presents you can gain from the Mono Mono Machine as you won't waste as many coins this way. You'll know you have all the presents you need as you'll see the odds of getting a double of a present go to 100%, which means you're done. The rest of the presents are received by completing all of the classmates endings in School Mode and getting their special present when you talk to each of them one last time before leaving the school.

I left the Rogue's Gallery trophy for last as it includes a sneaky locked Easter Egg gallery photo for those who have the 'Man's Fantasy' present, which can be gained while playing the Mono Mono Machine. Once you own the Man's Fantasy present, to unlock the secret item you need to replay chapter 3 up to the scene where the girls go to the bath house without the boys. With the 'Man's Fantasy' present, Makoto will decide to take a peek at the girls in the bathroom, which unlocks a hidden artwork for the item gallery. Once you've unlocked that, it's as simple as spending your Monocoins on each gallery item until you have them all. If you run out of coins, you can replay School Mode or one of the trials to get more.

Finally, after all that you will receive 'Despair's Last Reward', the Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa Platinum trophy! w00t!

The platinum is by no means easy, but compared to a lot of other platinum trophies, it's pretty easy as long as you know what to do. I hope this helped someone! Good luck and happy platinum hunting!

Don't have the game yet? You can purchase Trigger Happy Havoc: Danganronpa at Play-Asia.

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What's the last game you platinumed?

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First Impressions/Demo Review: Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars

When you look at Atlus' and Spike Chunsoft's Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars as a story, I understand if it might inspire some raised eyebrows and a dash of cynicism. The story of Conception II follows the game's protagonist who receives a mark on his hand from the Star God. This mark means he has to go to special school and fight monsters that are plaguing the world. Standard J-RPG material thus far. But at this special school, he finds out he has a ridiculous amount of Ether flowing through his veins, allowing him fight inside the Dusk Circles where the monsters are coming from. Oh, this Ether also means he has a 100% chance of making Star Children during Classmating (which is exactly what it sounds like) with the top ranked females of the school. This crazy amount of ether also has an added bonus - it allows him to the fit the title of 'God's Gift'.

Oh, there's that too.

Sound crazy? I thought so. In fact, this crazy concept nearly scared me away. But the free demo got me in and I'm glad I didn't miss out on a taste of this fun and unique game.

Immediately noticeable from the second you open the demo is the slick style. Much like in Persona (another Atlus game), what Conception II games lack in ridiculously high def characters and cities is replaced by an overall consistent flare throughout cities, dungeons, music and menus and decent character models with their own unique touches (stars in the eyes, etc). I would much rather this approach and a huge, good running game than stellar graphics and a subpar experience. The game also boasts amazing anime cutscenes that are worth being excited for, complete with Sailor Moon-esque transformation scenes. It is also noticeable that the 3D character models are a step above previous Atlus games and we are treated with regular close-up face scenes as opposed to the usual 'text and anime drawing' presentation of modern JRPGs.

Insert 'God's Gift To Women' joke here.

Social interactions with the characters are required in order to play this game well - after all, you need bond points in order to classmate and without classmating, you won't have the maximum star children to battle with! I didn't personally find myself emotionally engaged with any of the characters, but I hope the characters further in the game have a little more depth. In the demo they seemed like your stereotypical characters - the smart one, the shy one etc. This isn't to say these conversations aren't fun: I did have fun employing the different choices given to me in these interactions to impress the girls, particularly with Chloe as she seemed to appreciate it the most while not being annoying about it. There is a certain type of fun to be had running around and knowing how to make all the girls love you and seeing the results. I hope this is just my inner kind person trying to make people happy and not my inner harem fiend. :)

My lady of choice in skimpy dungeon mode.

Speaking of harems, if you like harem anime or beautiful women, you'll enjoy the game's upskirt references, potential for 'touch' action, skimpy clothing, girls constantly falling in love with you and before, during and after classmating events. I found them rather humourous above all. Classmating is a funny concept in general and I couldn't take it seriously with the singing of 'Touch my heart' in the background. The classmating element gives the game a flirty flavour which is seen in the occasionally risque humour that I'm sure future cutscenes will push further.

The dungeon gameplay was very enjoyable and easy to learn. I found it somewhat similar to the dungeons in Persona due to certain dungeon elements like monsters that can chase you, sneaking up behind the for a preemptive strike, secret treasure etc.. But again, Conception II improves on this with little added bonuses such as healing fountains hidden in the dungeon and the improved maps. Due to the demo's dungeon being a low level dungeon, I wasn't blown away by the in-battle combat. You can position your characters in different spots to avoid attacks and hit weak points which was cool, but the dungeon was already easy, so using these techniques didn't make a huge different. I'm sure in higher level dungeons the positing will be more vital but for now I won't be gushing about it.

What I feel is most important to note is at the end of my playthrough of the Conception II demo, I was highly impressed by how long I had been playing for. If that was just chapter one, then this game must be huge which I LOVE in my portable games. During my 3-5 hours playing the demo, I was introduced to a lot of different gameplay functions and concepts so by the end of the demo, I had a good judgement on whether or not this would be a game I would purchase. Which is exactly what a demo should be!

I never realised how sad this screen would make me until I saw it.

While this was such a big demo filled with many gameplay elements, the story has a lot of room for growth and if I hadn't played this demo, I probably wouldn't have cared to find out. Conception II's fun social interactions, interesting concept and easy to learn battle system will satisfy dungeon crawler, dating sim and harem fans alike so I recommend trying the demo out and if you enjoy it, definitely try the full game (which I'm currently stashing my pennies for.)

Screenshots!

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Conception II: Children of the Seven Stars is available now on 3DS and PS Vita from Play-Asia, Amazon and the PSN Store. For this post, I played the PS Vita version.