As I can easily do an entire TED Talk on the subject (and as I have to think about it A Lot for my own interactive projects) and I’m sure others might find this interesting, I’ve decided to start a series of posts on interactive fiction. Specifically, the unique things a story does to achieve a certain effect that can only be done in this medium.

Images are either from the Danganronpa Out of Context Twitter or the Danganronpa Fan wiki.

[spoiler warning] This post will have spoilers for all 3 mainline Danganronpa games (1, 2, and v3), but especially so for v3, as I’ll be going over one case in detail.

Before we get into the specifics of v3 and how the user interface (UI) is used to uniquely tell the story, we have to go over how it’s different from the others. With each game, the UI is updated, both to clarify and to add new features. Danganronpa has always been a heavily-stylized game, but especially so in v3, as you can see in the health and focus bars/gauges during the trials. Same information, same mechanics, different presentation.