Danganronpa, or its full name Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc (ダンガンロンパ 希望の学園と絶望の高校生), is a Japanese murder mystery visual novel developed by Spike exclusively for Japan. The game is available on PSP, iOS and Android OS devices. The game has a sequel called Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair (スーパーダンガンロンパ2 さよなら絶望学園) and a light novel calledDanganronpa/Zero. An anime adaptation has been airing in Japan since July 4th 2013. Another game that takes place in-between Danganronpa and Danganronpa 2 is called Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls.
The Hope's Peak Academy Saga come to an end in the anime Danganronpa 3: The End of Hope's Peak Academy, which splits into two arcs. The first arc, Side: Future (airing in Japan July 11, 2016) takes place after Danganronpa 2 and tells the end of Makoto's adventure. The second arc,Side: Despair (airing in Japan July 14, 2016) takes place before Danganronpa 2 and Danganronpa AE with the story revolves around the Tragedy and the corrupt of Remnants of Despair.
The game-play is similar to the Ace Attorney series but with an emphasis on faster game-play. Each chapter of game-play takes place in three distinct stages: exposition, investigation, and school trial. In the exposition stage, the main plot progresses and the player can build relationships by spending time with the other characters, in a system similar to Social Links in the Shin Megami Tensei: Persona series. This section typically ends with the discovery of a crime scene, which leads to the investigation stage. Investigation parallels that found in the Ace Attorney series, as its basic purpose is to gather points of evidence to use in the school trial. The school trial stage includes several different mini games, all of which require high speed action and critical thinking to complete.)
The story takes place at Hope's Peak Academy, an illustrious private school that only accepts "super" students: the best of the best of the best. The criteria extends to any niche, so in addition to super-geniuses and super-athletes, they take super-idols, gang leaders, and geeks. Makoto Naegi, the protagonist, is still baffled as to how he got in, as his only outstanding trait seems to be his super "good" luck - and that's only because he was randomly chosen to be accepted by the school. In fact, he hasn't even started his first day of school when he suddenly loses consciousness and wakes up in a creepy alternate version of the academy.
It's soon revealed that Makoto and fourteen other new students have all been abducted by a sadistic teddy bear named Monokuma, who refuses to let them leave. The only way out of the locked-down dark school is to graduate...by killing another student. Once a murder is committed, Monokuma holds a trial so that the class can try to figure out which one of them is the culprit, culminating in a vote. If they make the right choice, the murderer will be messily executed. Make the wrong choice, and not only does the murderer escape, but the rest of them will take the punishment in their place...