Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony - Anniversary Edition

It's difficult to get across exactly why Danganronpa V3 is so good without spoiling vast swathes of it, so we'll keep it simple. You'll come into the game baffled as to what the writers were thinking with some of these characters, and walk away loving each and every one of them. There isn't a single moment of slack throughout the whole 40-hour playtime, it has the most extensive post-game of any title in the series, and one of the best endings to any game ever made. Go in blind and we promise you'll be in for the ride of your life.

The only thing holding this particular edition of V3 back are the crashes and occasional lag; otherwise, Danganronpa V3 is the absolute peak of the Danganronpa series and should not be missed.

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is the definitive proof of the consistency Spike Chunsoft has shown during the main trilogy of the franchise. The quality leap from Goodbye Despair isn't as high as the one there was in the first two entries — in fact, I felt GD was the best of the three —, but it's a conclusion that hangs onto the Danganronpa identity while having its own personality. The recurrent issues of the Switch port and small barriers of the pacing don't hold back the quality enough for this final chapter to be subpar to its predecessors. A strong metanarrative, with frequent references and fourth-wall breaking, can make Danganronpa's humor maybe a little too bold, but it's undeniably done a great job at ending Monokuma's foolishness — if it'll be the actual ending remains to be seen.

Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony is almost indisputably the pinnacle of the Danganronpa franchise. Even so, its self-critical approach may alienate some fans; I myself found this approach strange on my first playthrough. That said, when it comes to minigames and narrative pacing, its dominance is undoubtedly unquestionable. The additional minigames offered in this game's menu are far superior to the additional content of the previous games. However, a drawback of this game is that, much more than the second, you need to have played the previous two. Since its focus isn't exactly expanding the lore but rather commenting on the fandom to some extent, it doesn't exactly explain and connect events, leaving that part for the player with previous experiences in the franchise.