Released by Spike Chunsoft in the year 2017
on the Playstation 4 and Vita, Danganronpa V3 continues the series with a sequel that
culminates all of the games, light novels, and anime so far. Directed by Shun Sasaki, and written by series
creator Kazutaka Kodaka, the focus was on expanding upon the horror visual novel franchise
from a new perspective for the fans. For characters, an entirely new cast of heroes
and antagonists are featured, and like before, social bonds can be built with characters
during free time to add to collectibles and skills, while hidden items can again be hunted
and collected. For gameplay, the game still utilizes the
same Visual Novel style and paces itself with daily life, deadly life and class trial segments,
though a few gameplay additions have been added. The player can now perform perjury and lie
as a tactic to coerce the truth from others. Debate Scrums now occur when opinions split
the group evenly in half, and arguments can be matched to counter-arguments in order to
determine a proper order of events and persuade a group of opponents. Argument Armaments now involve timing keywords
to disarm the final arguments of the accused in a rhythm game. New logic minigames called Psyche Taxi and
Mind Mine are introduced while Rebuttal Showdowns and Hangman's Gambit return. Otherwise, more side modes, including the
return of the dating sim alternate story, are available though not needed for the story. The story only gets larger from here so lets
cut it down to size with a RECAPitation. The game begins with a student named Kaede
stepping out of a locker with no knowledge of who she is and why she's there. At the same time, another student named Shuichi
emerges from another locker, also dazed and confused. They both have a foggy memory of being kidnapped
and brought here, but when they attempt to leave they are suddenly confronted by a mech
suit that gives pursuit. Their path leads them to a room full of 14
other students, all equally confused about their surroundings. The mechs now enter and surround the students,
introducing the mechs as powerful weapons called Exisals, though the pilots soon leave
their respective mechs and introduce themselves with a dynamic entry. Monotaro, Monosuke, Monophanie, Monodam, and
Monokid, reveal themselves, calling themselves the Monokubs, and explaining they each lost
their memories and have become different people because of and event called the Ultimate Hunt. They then state the first step from here is
for them to regain their memory of who they are and what Ultimate skill they possess before
they begin the killing game. Magically changing them out of their normal
clothes into their original Ultimate clothes, they are all flashed with a light that sends
their sealed memories flooding back to them. The game begins again with a student named
Kaede stepping out of a locker with no memory of why she's there. At the same time, another student named Shuichi
emerges from another locker, also dazed and confused. Suddenly, the Monokubs assemble into the room,
see their first memories are restored, and welcome them to the Ultimate Academy for Gifted
Juveniles. There are 16 Ultimate students, including
them in this school, each scouted by the government per the Ultimate Initiative, for their unique
prodigous talent. After they leave without any other explanation,
Shuichi reintroduces himself as the Ultimate Detective and Kaede as the Ultimate Pianist. They discover unqiue tablets on their persons
already assigned to them, and continue exploring around the school, encountering the 14 other
students: Keebo the Robot, Kirumi the Maid, Rantaro who forgot his talent, Tsumugi the
Cosplayer, Gonta the Entomologist, Tenko the Aikido Master, Kokichi the Supreme Leader,
Maki the Child Caregiver, Korekiyo the Anthropologist, Himiko the Magician, Angie the Artist, Ryoma
the Tennis Pro, Miu the Inventor, and Kaito the Astronaut. Finding the front door unlocked, they open
it to find themselves outside but trapped inside a massive cage and wall with no way
out. All of the students are then called back to
the gym for the opening ceremony, wherein the Monokubs announce that the 16 students
are to play a killing game, and a strange asymmetrical bear named Monokuma introduces
himself as the father to the Monokubs, god of this new world, and headmaster of the school. He explains that in order to leave the academy,
one must kill someone and make it through a class trial. After the trial, the students vote and if
they vote correctly, only the culprit is punished. However, if they vote incorrectly, the culprit
gets off free and everyone else is punished. Naturally, punishment means execution. The students are shocked to be presented with
such a scenario, as they have nothing to do with each other and have no intention to kill,
that the entire scenario feels unreal, though they may be powerless against Monokuma. As they are sent the rules for the killing
game, it's revealed the game will continue until there are only two students left, but
Kaede persuades everyone to not participate in the game at all and focus on escaping together. Investigating yields no results, straining
the remaining hope of everyone. The next day, Monokuma makes the announcement
of presenting motivation to begin killing, calling it the First Blood Perk in which there
will be no trial for the first murder, so the first person to kill gets to leave scot-free. Enraged at his attempt to turn them against
each other, Kaito lunges for Monokuma, but the Monokubs interrupt him with the intent
to punish him as an example. Summoning their Exisal, the mech smashes through
the wall, unexecpectedly crushing Monokuma underfoot and embarassing the Monokubs into
leaving again. Bewildered at the turnabout, the students
go their separate ways, though Shuichi shows Kaede a secret door he noticed earlier. The nature of the door has him suspect that
someone else is cooperating with Monokuma, and he sets a small trap to test his hypothesis. The next day, Monokuma comes back, explaining
yokai is why, and reveals an additional motive to keep the killing game going, in which there
is now a 2-day deadline for a murder, and if no one is killed by then, then everyone
dies. Tension fills the room, as everyone goes their
own way to reflect on the situation, though before leaving, Rantaro asks if anyone else
has heard of the term Ultimate Hunt, though no one else recalls. Shuichi then reveals someone triggered his
trap on the hidden door during the night, so someone is definitely a mole and likely
the mastermind behind this killing game. They think to set up a motion-activated camera
to catch the mastermind, and wait until their trap triggers. When there is an hour left until the deadline,
half of the students think to have a meeting to figure out how to combat Monokuma when
the deadline hits. Suddenly, their hidden camera sensor goes
off, and as they check the hidden door, they are shocked to find Rantaro dead on the floor. Monokuma and the Monokids come in to confirm
the kill, and award a free release of whoever did it trial-free, yet no one raises their
hand. Amused by this, Monokuma decides to hold a
trial after all, starting with allowing them to investigate his murder before the trial. They also take a look at the pictures, but
they fail to reveal the mastermind as they had hoped. After the clues have been collected, Monokuma
leads them to the shrine of judgement, the location beyond which they will hold the class
trial. As they descend down, Kaede is focused on
exposing the mastermind, though she encourages Shuichi to seek out the truth, no matter how
painful it may be. As the trial progresses, there is an unsucessful
attempt at uncovering the true mastermind, and Kaede does her best to push Shuichi into
breaking out of his shell and deduce the truth. As it turns out, when they were setting up
the cameras to catch the mastermind, the killer identified a potential murder weapon as a
heavy shot put ball. When staging the cameras, the killer modified
one of the cameras so the flash would attract the attention of the victim, and with a Rube
Goldberg device, the killer was able to know where the victim would be when they rolled
a heavy shot put ball into the system that had it land on Rantaro's head, killing him
instantly. Shocking to everyone there, the culprit behind
the rhythmically timed murder was Kaede herself. However, Shuichi points out the motive was
not to escape the death game or take Monokuma's offer, but to kill the mastermind and end
the entire game, saving everyone. Grateful to be outed, Kaede thanks Shuichi
for being more assertive like she wanted him to be, and wanted to give hope to everyone
else, but regardless, she is guilty of this murder. As punishment, she is strung along to a final
piano piece, and as her lifeles body hangs, Monodam shoves Monokid into the iron maiden
cover, definitively crushing and impaling them both to the despair of everyone. They demand to know Monokuma's aim, but the
bear dodges the questions, pointing out Rantaro was the only one with the right hunch to the
truth, but now they'll have to work harder to find out, before leaving. Bitterly swallowing the recent events, the
students leave, and as Shuichi mourns for Kaede his own way, he accepts her wishes to
seek the truth and removes his cap as a means to keep looking forward. The next day, Gonta finds an unusual rock
outside, and the Monokubs give the group a batch of familiar items to open new paths
around the academy. They discover more research labs keyed to
each of their talents, and a curious flashlight, which they examine together. Monokuma chimes in its a Flashback Light which
can treat memory loss, and in this case, restore some of their lost memory. Instantly, Shuichi recalls memories of him
fleeing the Ultimate Hunt, and to escape being captured, agreed to volunteer to have his
Ultimate Talent suppressed so he could be a normal high school student. Oddly enough, so did everyone else, but they
cannot recall exactly what the Ultimate Hunt was, and Monokuma reveals they will need to
uncover more of their memories as they play the game. After investigating the sights of the academy
and enjoying the academy pool, everyone is surprised to find a unique tablet called the
Kubpad that plays a personal motive for someone else in the group. They consider swapping tablets so people have
their personal motive, but the group is increasingly divided on working together. To brighten the mood, Himiko declares she
will put on a magic show tomorrow and invites everyone, though Kokichi makes a failed attempt
to trick everyone into a public motive screening with all of the Kubpads. He succeeds in tricking Gonta into rounding
almost everyone up for an insect meet and greet, while Kokichi declares he will collect
the Kubpads from everyone's room. Fortunately, Keebo's robot recording function
thwarts Kokichi's sabotage attempt. The next day, Himiko is nervous about a trick
she is performing for the first time, which is an underwater escape trick, with live pirahnas
that will be released if not performed by a certain time. The crowd gets nervous about the stakes, as
when the timer runs out, the pirahnas are let loose and the curtain is pulled back. To everyone's shock, its a bound Ryoma in
the tank now, and he is devoured right before their eyes, though Himiko reappears after
a successful trick, unaware of what just happened. The chime goes off now, indicated a body has
been discovered, and Monokuma confirms this is a murder to be investigated. Maki distances herself from the investigation
this time and Himiko refuses to reveal the magician's trick, not to mention the forensic
report only indicates the cause of death as drowning, with no other information, so the
investigation is trickier. As they learn more, it comes out that not
only was Ryoma the Ultimate Tennis Pro, but he was also the Ultimate Prisoner too, as
he was guilty of killing someone else before, which ended his tennis career. As it turns out, the culprit first knocked
out Ryoma, bound him, and drowned him in his own lab. Using tools from the lab and the pool, they
moved the drowned body to the magic stage, separated the pirahnas with a glass partition,
and placed Ryoma's body in the empty partition. After that, the magic trick would take care
of the rest as the body would be gruesomely killed during Himiko's show, implicating her. The only one who could have served up such
a meticulous and considerate plan, was Kirumi. As they correctly deduce and vote for the
cultprit, they ask her for her motive to understand why she went so far as to murder. She reveals she ended up receiving her own
motive video correctly from the start, and within, it's revealed that with her exceptional
servitude and competance, she was asked to serve her country as the prime minister and
improve the country while pretending to only be the secretary. With the prosperity of the country resting
on her capable shoulders, the threat of a unprecedented crisis loomed overhead but remains
unamed by Monokuma until she escaped. With the needs of the many weighed against
the needs of the few, she made the obvious choice, though for why picking Ryoma as a
victim, it was simply because he was the easiest target. She actually revealed to Ryoma, who had given
up on life itself and volunteered to die before, her motive video, and he again volunteered
to be sacrificed to save the nation. However, Kokichi accutely reveals that Ryoma
gave on on life after seeing his motive video from Maki, as it turned out to be blank and
there was no one important in his life anymore. Everyone feels a pang of guilt for what was
essentially an assisted suicide to help the future of the nation that they just now prevented. They consider sacrificing themselves to allow
her to live, but Kaito reminds them all the purpose of life is to live and no one's life
is arbitrarily more valuable than another's. Kokichi then shrewdly points out Kirumi revealed
all that she did in order to guilt them into that response, again to try to live, and he
turns out to be correct. Dropping all dignity and declaring an intent
to live, Kirumi makes a run for it, and as her punishment, she is given a rope of thorns
to climb to escape which she takes, through a gauntlet of sawblades that try to cleave
her, which she evades, only to find a false exit at the end of her struggles. At the literal end of her rope, it snaps,
and as she plunges, Monodam pushes Monosuke into her path, as she slams into the floor,
crushing Monosuke and dying upon impact. Kokichi and Shuichi both note Kirumi said
something strange before she died, and that is that she remembered the truth of her past
only after seeing her video, as if it acted as a Flashback Light. As they leave the courtroom, its already night
time and the stars are out, though Gonta points out he often stargazes, and somehow, the stars
in the sky are all wrong. The conniving Kokichi states one final observation,
and that is the worst liar in the group isn't him, though he is a compulsive liar, and its
Maki about her true identity. He deduces correctly that Ryoma found out
her true identity and leveraged that into forcing her to reveal his motive video to
him. Maki moves to grab him by the throat, and
Kokichi chuckles out that she won't kill him in front of everyone, dropping her real talent,
as the Ultimate Assassin. The next day, they all visit Maki's research
lab to verify she actually the Ultimate Asssassin, and within, Monokuma appears with the Monokubs
to give them more keys to access more parts of the academy. One is the research lab for Korekiyo, containing
countless authentic anthropological relics, including a document he notes that will allow
him to perform a seance that will allow him to talk to the dead. The tech-savvy Miu services Keebo for his
robot needs, and they soon find a room that can create realistic virtual environments
as well as houses another Flashback light. They assemble to use it again, though Maki
declines, stating people who learn of her talent always end of fearing, hating, and
eventually trying to kill her. Shuichi then sees a scene in which all 16
of them are dead, after attempting to flee from a particular group. Curiously, everyone else has the same memory
return to them, and the next day, there is an emergency assembly in the gym though some
people now seem curiously in line with Angie's beliefs and worship. There the Monokubs present a resurrection
ritual from the Necronomicon capable of bringing back only one of the 4 fallen students and
have them rejoin the game. They are split on their belief of this being
real, and at this time Gonta brings up he took another look at the rock with writing
outside, and now there's more mysterious writing. Angie takes this as sign from the dead to
resurrect them, and takes the Necronomicon and invites Gonta to join the new Student
council. When asked, they explain that Angie gathered
Himiko, Keebo, Tenko, and Tsumugi together to form a new Student Council body with Angie
as the president, who seek to end the killing game, though to the others it seems like Angie
is bringing more people to worship her god Atua. After Shuichi spies on the student council
in the locker room for research purposes, Kaito invites Maki to join Shuichi and himself
for nighttime training pushups, though the next day he feels too sick to continue and
Shuichi spends some time getting to know Maki a little better, seeing she isn't so bad. The following day, Angie's student council
causes a rift among the survivors, as she begins making new rules and regulations for
the sake of peace, at the cost of everyone else's freedoms and choice. The monokubs interject, presenting another
Flashback Light, but Angie then seizes and destroys it, claiming no one needs any new
memories because no one will be leaving for the outside world anymore. They leave, intent to use the resurrection
ritual to bring back Rantaro, and as they leave, Shuichi notes Kaito looks even worse
for wear. That night, Tenko approaches Shuichi and Maki,
stating she's only playing along with Angie, and joined the council to help Himiko, but
pleads for them to stop Angie from performing the ritual. Shuichi does agree its dangerous to go along
with Monokuma's motive, so they enter Angie's Artist lab to find she already completed convincing
wax effigies of the dead already. She sends them away and locks the door behind
them, but when they return the next day, they are shocked to find Angie dead in her lab
among the effigies. There's speculation that perhaps one of the
effigies killed her, though the arrival of the Monokubs verfies this is still a murder. As they review the Monokuma file, the cause
of death was a stab in the back of the neck, and Korekiyo points out his recent research
into seances may reveal a way to speak to the dead, namely Angie. In order to rule out the occult possibility
they agree to utilize an occult solution. As they prepare, Maki assists Shuichi in investigating
until the time of the ritual. Tenko volunteers to be the medium that the
spirit will enter for the ritual, as she wants what's best for Himiko and encourages her
to be more honest with her feelings, be optimistic, and survive. For the ritual, Tenko is placed inside an
iron cage and covered with a sheet, but during the part of the ritual when there its pitch
black, they hear an odd sound, and when the ritual fails, they pull back the sheet to
discover Tenko dead within. The Monokubs enter to confirm this as another
murder, and it turns out the cause of death is again a stab wound in the back of the neck. Monokuma rules that since this happened during
the investigation of another murder, then this murder doesn't count and doesn't get
its own trial, so whoever did it wasted their time. They don't have much time to investigate Tenko
either before the trial time begins, and they head to the trial room. During the trial, the final words of Tenko
resonate with the normally lazy Himiko, and she boldy begins to assert herself going forward. Debating further, it turns out the culprit
was planning to commit the murder during the seance all along and was preparing the room
for it by loosening floor boards to form a seesaw. While nearby on the same floor, Angie came
by to retrieve a candle from the same room for her ritual, and reacting, the culprit
knocked her out with a floorboard, carried her back to her lab and stabbed her in the
back of the neck to actually kill her. They set up an occult situation as a red herring,
and made it seem like a locked-room murder to further complicate it. They then coerced the group into the seance
and when Tenko volunteered, she had no idea she would be the victim. Stagging a sickle above a crouched Tenko for
the ritual, the culprit had everything set so when they stepped on a particular floorboard,
the other end would swing up like a seesaw, thrusting Tenko into the sickle, killing her
in the darkness of the ritual where no one could witness and had a seemingly perfect
alibi. The only one with the intelligence and cool-head
needed to pull off both seemingly supernaturnal murders from beyond the grave, was Korekiyo. At a loss, the mask slips from Korekiyos face
and a feminine personality comes out, telling him its over. Korekiyo declares his only regret was not
creating 100 friends, and explaining further, he reveals he never killed in order to leave
this place, rather, he did it all for his lover, revealing his incestuous relationship
with his sister. His sister was unfortunately sickly and didn't
really have friends, so after she died, he promised to find friends for his dead sister,
and has thus killed almost 100 people to join her in the afterlife. He slips into his lipsticked alter identity
of his sister, which he explains is the soul of his sister that entered him during a seance
and has remained ever since. He also mentions he only kills girls he feels
are worthy of being his sister's friend, would have eventually killed more of the girls here,
and actually looks forward to joining his sister in death now. With that, he is taken by Monokuma and boiled
alive, during which Monodam throws himself into the fire, creating such fuel for the
fire that Korekiyo literally melts from the heat. From this, Korekiyo's spirit is released,
and is about to be blissfully reunited with his sister, until Monokuma comes in to banish
his spirit, denying him alongside his sister. As they leave the classroom, Himiko openly
mourns for her lost friends, crying herself to sleep, while to the side, Kaito conceals
the fact that his illness is getting worse to the point of coughing up blood. The next day, Gonta alerts them to more mysterious
letters attempting to spell out a message, and the Monokubs arrive to give them more
items to progress them through the Academy, including a keycard said to be their next
motive. He also gives them a Flashback Light, through
which they now cumulatively remember meteorites and something called the Gofer Project. That night, Kaito and Maki continue to bond
as Maki even opens up and shares her past growing up in an orpahage, taking care of
the kids there, and training as an assassin to provide for them. The next day, Miu invites them all to the
computer lab where she repaired the computer within that is able to create a virtual world
they can link their consciousness to, and in a way, escape Monokuma's world. She points out she didn't make this machine,
and Monokuma springs out to take the credit. He reveals he used a template of a virtual
Killing game to make the world, but Miu insists she removed everything dangerous within it. Monokuma then mentions he hid a secret in
the virtual world, which speaks to the secret of the outside world, and with that, the group
reluctantly agrees to investigate the virtual world. Within, they find a mansion where chibi avaters
of themselves can be controlled. While searching they don't find anything,
but instead hear a loud noise and suddenly Miu's avatar freezes. Hurrying to log out, they are immediately
shocked to discover Miu in her chair, dead. Even worse, the Monokuma file does not reveal
too much outside of the time of death being while they were all in the simulation. After they check the computer logs and code
changes, they quickly leave for the trial with few clues. As the trial progresses, Kokichi gets annoyed
at Shuichi using deception to uncover the truth like he does and resolves to end the
trial by simply revealing everything so no detective work can be done. He explains that he not only figured out Miu
was planning on killing in the simulator, he also worked together with Monokuma to place
a killing motive in the simulator as well, and finally, exposes Gonta as the killer. The debate picks up from there, as the group
is forced to contest belief and emotions against logic. As it turns out, the culprit messed up logging
into the Virtual World to begin with, switching the cables that would control his memory and
consciousness, which ended up causing the culprit to forget everything that happened
in the virtual world and interfere with their personality. Afterwards, Miu set up things to kill Kokichi
in the virtual world and cover it up. She intentionally fed true and false information
to everyone inside, but only the perpetual liar Kokichi saw through the lies, and decided
to use her plot against her to plot her murder instead and use a patsy to the be the culprit. Miu used the altered virtual rules she made
for herself to split everyone up and log Kaito out, and when she moved to corner Kokichi,
the culprit appeared behind her to strangle her. Since senses are transferred to the Virtual
world, the shock killed Miu in the real world. They tossed her body aside to cover up the
scene of the crime, and Kokichi would get away without dirtying his hands. The only person simple enough to have been
set up to take such a mighty fall, was Gonta. Gonta is confused and upset because the memory
loss means he not only does not remember committing the crime, he also does not know why he would
have anyway with no defense for himself, yet he does beleive in the group when they conclude
it is him. The group tragically votes for Gonta, the
kind-hearted giant in their group who never wished ill of anyone there. Monokuma pulls up Alter Ego Gonta from the
Virtual World to explain, since those memories never left the simulation. AI Gonta reveals he wanted to save everyone,
and inside, Kokichi found the secret Monokuma placed that revealed a memory of the outside
world, and showed it to Gonta since he already knew what it was. Earlier, Kokichi learned the secret of the
outside world, and then made a deal with Monokuma to use it as a killing motive inside the simulation. Once Gonta saw, Kokichi rationalized the best
way Gonta could save everyone was by mercy killing all of them, as it would be a better
fate. Falling into despair, Gonta resolved to be
the one to bear the burden to saving everyone while they still didn't know. Kokichi then presents that everyone is wrong
in this case for wanting to pursue the truth and suffer longer for what they believe, rather
than face despair and end things quickly. As his punishment, Monokuma begin rapid firing
robotic wasps into a stalwart and bound Gonta, while Monophanie suddenly gives birth to a
monstroues insect that kills both her and Monotaro, and impales both Gonta and Alter
Ego. Ending it, Monokuma finishes them all off
with a stream of cleansing fire. Kokichi then howls with laughter, revealing
he was lying about his intent to spare pain on everyone as he is the Ultimate Supreme
Leader, and his malice and evil means the more others suffer the more he enjoys it,
hence why he wants the game to keep going and will see it through to the end as its
winner laughing all the way. Also, Kaito's health looks visibly worse as
he coughs up an alarming amount of blood. Finally, Kokichi reveals his intent to finally
end the game, while also revealing he was the one to write down the mysterious message
on the stone outside. The next day, a smaller group tries to put
the events of yesterday behind them, as Monokuma presents them 2 keys, the last real key and
the real last key. With one, they uncover Kaito's research lab,
wherein they find a report on the Gofer project, in which in response to the meteorites falling,
humanity placed its hope on boys and girls of exceptional talent. Maki points out the name reminds her of Noah's
Ark, as the ark was built from gofer wood. The second goes to a lab that does not open,
and as Monokuma points out, that's because the related student, Rantaro, is dead. They also find the hangar where the Exisals
are stored, which also contains a hydraulic press and an advanced security system. Later, Kaito suggests now is the time to fight
Monokuma directly, as the Monokubs and the Exisals are all gone now. Everyone else is tired of the killing game
and agrees, and they set tonight as the night. Kokichi crashes the party, claiming he was
planning on ending the killing game tonight too, presenting anti-electronic anti-machine
weapons that can either fight Monokuma, defeat the Exisals, or even clear the underground
tunnel of its traps. Choosing to use the weapons he brought against
the tunnel, they clear the death road, and find the door outside before them. Rejoicing, they open the door to freedom,
and are soon shocked to find a post-apocalyptic world undeniably before them. Kokichi now laughs at their reactions, and
begins revealling what he found out earlier with Gonta. Some time ago, the leaders of the world saw
the extinction of the human race in the meteorites carrying a deadly virus that were coming,
and so made the Gofer Project to salvage the human race. 16 boys and girls were chosen, but all initially
refused to leave their families and lives behind, and chose to wipe their memories out
in order to hide being ultimates. At the same time, another cult organization
who embraced the end of days learned of the Gofer project and sought to sabotage it by
searching out the 16 students in what was called the Ultimate Hunt. In response, the Gofer project faked the death
of all 16 to protect them, and continued the project as they loaded the students into an
ark to escape death. In truth, the Ultimate Academy is actually
a giant spaceship colony. Unfortunately, the leader of the cult organization
trying to end the Gofer Project was one of the 16 students and they prepared Monokuma
on this ship to sabotage it into landing back on the ruined earth instead of a new planet. The students were in cryosleep to wake up
on a new planet, but instead wake up here, on a dead Earth, hundreds of years afterwards. Finally, he reveals the hidden mole the entire
time, to be himself. To prove this, he summons the exisals to his
side, which were originally designed to protect the students from unknown threats. With this, he declares the killing game over,
but beats down Kaito, stating someone as hot-blooded as him might be a problem. With that, everyone, even Shuihchi sinks into
despair, not caring about living anymore. After a few days, Maki rouses them all to
show them a Flashback Light presented in plain sight. Everyone is contemplating suicide at this
point, but decide to use it to wrap up any loose ends. After more memories flood back, the way this
all connects finally comes to light. Makoto with the rest of Future Foundation
started the Gofer Project at Hope's Peak Academy, and selected the 16 students from within the
rebuilt school. More to the point, they were the only ones
left, as the mysterious virus brought by the meteorites devastated the world, and because
they were immune is why they were selected. Kokichi was leading the Remnants of Despair
out to crush all hope for humanity, and thus why he modeled a killing game after their
former leader Junko Enoshima. Revitalized in their purpose, they refuse
to give in to despair as the symbols of hope, and Maki declares a charge on rescuing Kaito
from Kokichi. Making preparations, they move into the hangar
where Kaito is being kept, only to stop before the horror of seeing Kaito's jacket hanging
out of a bloody hydraulic press. Monokuma makes the annoucement that a body
has been discovered and so the killing game continues, yet, even Monokuma cannot identify
or confirm the identity of the body. The investigation continues, and as they enter
the class trial, its unclear whether Kaito or Kokichi is the victim in the first place. In fact, during the trial, an exisal presents
itself at the trial as the suspect, but its also unclear as to whether Kokichi or Kaito
is within, as the person within switches between both personalities. As they work through what facts they know,
this crime seems impossible to solve at first on purpose as if to stump even Monokuma. It all began when Kaito was imprisoned in
the Exisal hanger after Kokichi declared himself the mastermind. Keebo then noticed Himiko smuggle a crossbow
from Maki's lab over to the culprit. After some time, Maki made her way to the
lab, intent to kill Kokichi and save Kaito herself, and took over an Exisal in order
to enter the barrier to the hangar. The culprit then fired at Kokichi's arm to
disable him in a non-lethal way, and while they were fighting, Maki approached in an
Exisal, exited, and fired into Kokichi's back with a poison-tipped crossbow bolt. Maki then prepared to fire again to kill Kokichi,
but to her surprise, the culprit jumped in to shield Kokichi taking the poison bolt too. Not intending to kill the culprit, Maki ran
to fetch the antidote, and while she was gone, Kokichi devised a way to defeat Monokuma,
since he was only pretending to be the mastermind this whole time and started by locking Maki
out. When Maki returned, she gave the culprit the
antidote, but Kokichi snatched it from him and pretended to drink it down. Defeated, she ran away, and Kokichi then proceeded
with his plans. He used an electrobomb to disable Monokuma's
cameras, and gave the antidote to the Culprit, ensuring the culprit would now aide him with
his plan. They staged the culprit getting crushed by
the hydraulic press, when it was clever camera work to swap out Kokichi and the culprit. Switching roles now, Kokichi was now the victim,
and was crushed by the press and killed by the culprit before Maki's poison got to him,
thus aiming to win the killing game, even if he had to die to do so. Sabotaging the press now, it ensured the victim
could not be identified, even by Monokuma, and hid in an Exisal, where they remain even
now. Clashing with his friends with honest bravado,
the culprit is actually Kaito. The culprit refuses to exit the exisal before
the polling, pointing out that however the group votes, Monokuma cannot punish anyone
if he gets it wrong, and thus the killing game will be defeated. Everyone, even Monokuma, chooses to have faith
in Shuichi's deduction, and defeated, Kaito now exits the Exisal to end the game. Once the class votes for Kaito, it turns out
to be correct due to Kaito's confession. When asked why, Kaito reveals Kokichi planned
to pretend to be the mastermind and show them the outside world this whole time, that way
the killing game would end, but the true mastermind still instigated events that spurred Maki
to shoot a poison dart into him. Thinking back, Maki got the motive after they
used the Flashback light, and thus it was likely left by the true mastermind. The scheme then started for Kaito to kill
Kokichi and then pretend to be dead, so if the group voted for Maki or Kokichi, Kaito
would reveal himself, thus invalidating the entire trial since he was wasn't a victim. Kokichi knew that Monokuma would not change
the rules suddenly to be unfair in a mistrial, since he knew this whole game is being watched,
and thus the rules needed to be followed. He also admits his health has taken a turn
for terminally worse, and the group thinks this is the deadly virus that afflicted the
rest of the population before. He also points out that just because they
didn't trick Monokuma after all, they still succeeded in rooting out the true mastermind. Coughing up more blood, Kaito knows the end
is near, and Monokuma agrees, revealing a new set of Monokubs here, and pointing out
its useless to try and stop this killing game, because they're all more replaceable than
they know, which strikes Shuichi as awfully suspicious. Maki confesses her love for Kaito as she is
prepared to fight Monokuma even now, but the cheerful Kaito talks her down and urges them
all to stay positive even without him now. In an oddly familiar execution, Kaito is strapped
inside a shuttle and shooting off into space. However, Kaito's illness claims him right
as he realizes his dream of reaching space as the Ultimate Astronaut, and the execution
is declared a failure, though the group still receives his dead body, keebo is struck by
some debris and Monokuma is furious at the denial. Mentioning it means nothing since the killing
game will keep going on, he takes out another Flashback light and uses it immediately, claiming
this one has a special effect and there is only despair from here. That night, the group gathers near Kaito's
training spot to mourn their own way together, though elsewhere, Keebo is in his lab, using
the high-tech upgrades to overhaul himself into a deadly killing machine. Launching off, Keebo launches an all-out assault
on the school, pausing to explain that destroying the academy is his solution for ending the
killing games. Monokuma comes out, annoyed at Keebo, but
pointing out his actions could never end the killing game, because it is eternal. Thus, both robots clash with each other outside
while everyone else flees from the battle inside. Thinking of what to do next, the idea of finding
the mastermind comes up, as its what Kaito and Kokichi died to try and expose. With Keebo distracting the Exisals, they think
to keep exploring places they haven't tried before to find hope for themselves and the
lurking Remnant of despair. They find Kokichi's lab, though the battle
has broken the door open, and within discover a book detailing the history of Hope's peak
academy, namely the events from the first game, but Shuichi notes something within that
contradicts all of their memories. The delayed effects of Monokuma's special
flashback light now triggers, and Shuichi now recalls a conversation with a child during
the preparation of the Gofer project. They investigate Kokichi's room now, finding
he was onto something bigger, and leaving a trail of clues to another message like the
one on the rock he wrote. Suddenly, another memory comes flooding back
to Shuichi, and its him discussing being part of the Gofer Project. Keebo now helps them open Rantaro's lab, wherein
they find a mysterious vault, where they use the clues from Kokichi to enter, and learn
he didn't write them originally, only modified them to make it seem like he did. Within they find a video by Rantaro, but its
recorded in this room, but that's impossible since he died before they found this room. The video speaks of a previous killing game
and reveals that because he won, is why he earned the title Ultimate Survivor, and that
he wanted this next killing game to happen. Another Flashback hits Shuichi detailing how
he was encouraged to go on by his friends, and again when all 16 of then were about to
enter cold sleep. After searching more, they finally confront
the curious door in the library again, and after Keebo opens it, beyond they find a room
fit for a remnant of despair and a giant Monokuma head, claiming the killing game is as unkillable
as despair itself. This head, calling itself Motherkuma, is the
source creating new Monokumas, and as they check the room, they find evidence from the
first trial, and another monopad belonging to Rantaro as his prize for winning the last
game containing a map of the entire academy as well as a clue from his past self on how
to end the killing game. Unfortunately, they don't find any major clues
to the mastermind, and instead have another memory of when they woke from deep freeze
and Monokuma greeted them and wiped out their memories in order to create a new killing
game. Later, when they search more classrooms, they
find one with a curious Computer able to not only manufacture Flashback lights, but also
the memories within them, but from the optional memories to select, most are outright contradictory. Himiko then reveals a hidden room in the bathroom,
just like the first killing game, that leads back to the library hidden room. With the clues in place, Shuichi is confident
he has cracked the mastermind mystery and ceases the fighting outside in order to call
upon one last class trial. Monokuma agrees only the on the terms that
if Shuichi fails to reach his truth, then everyone will be punished. Before they begin, they bring along a strange
device Kokichi devised and Miu built that was made to suck up tiny bugs, and as Keebo's
enhanced vision reveals, its full of tiny flying Monokumas with cameras collectively
calling themselves Nanokuma, the sixth Monokub. Once the class trial begins, Shuichi announces
this is to be a re-trial for the murder of Rantaro, as they've found new evidence relevent
to the case. If Monokuma's judgement was wrong, then the
entire killing game can be considered invalid, and Monokuma accepts the challenge. As they re-examine the new evidence, they
learn that when Kaede set up the trap to kill Rantaro, it actually failed. The mastermind, who was getting impatient
that no murders happened yet, was willing to give Kaede a hand, and used their own shot
put to kill Rantaro and plant it at the scene. They then took Rantaro's custom monopad, and
left the scene through the hidden door to meet up with the rest of the survivors to
later twist the truth in the class trial. The only person who could hide in plain sight
like that and be the true mastermind, was Tsumugi. Tsumugi refutes its not her but Junko Enoshima,
controlling things from outside again, just like all the other killing games. Not satisfied with that answer, Tsumugi then
reveals herself to be Junko Enoshima the 53rd, claiming to be a perfect reproduction of her. She claims when she heard of the Gofer project,
she thought that sabotaging it would be the perfect despair for humanity. Digging in, they uncover inconsistencies in
the evidence found and their own memories, and conclude the Flashback lights implant
false memories. Monokuma confirms this, and Tsumugi reveals
all of their memories from the flashback lights have been fake, even them being students at
hope's peak academy. Tsumugi reveals she can cosplay as any of
the Hope's Peak students perfectly, but Shuichi remembers Tsumugi can only cosplay as fictional
characters, which leads him to the shocking revelation that everything Hope's Peak is
actually fictional. Tsumugi confirms this, restating that the
Great Tragedy, Hope's peak, the killing games, everything that took place was just in a fictional
world called Danganronpa. As overwhelming as it is, Danganronpa is just
a fictional setting in this world they were made to think was real and they lived in it. The killings are real though, so in a way,
its all the Ultimate Real Fiction. The real world outside is perfectly fine and
what they thought they saw was just an elaborate set piece. At this time, Monokuma reveals the faces and
social media of the real world outside, as this killing game has simply been a show for
people to watch. As they are all shocked and confused, Tsumugi
explains that because the outside world is so peaceful is why they need a killing game,
as the bored populus craves such stimulating media. This killing game is watched and beloved the
world over, as the very logo of this game is revealed to be the title for the 53rd season
(V3 = 5 3 = 53). Originally, Danganronpa started as a few games,
but then gained it own anime, and eventually became its own real fiction like what they're
in. In a way, the real mastermind is really the
outside world, as Tsumugi is part of Team Danganronpa, the crew producing this show. All of them are just fictional characters
too within this universe, as their names, personalities, backstories and even Talents
are all manufactured. Their Talents are loosely matched to their
real identities, but its mostly a placebo effect. As further proof, she shows them their application
videos, in which they were just normal high schoolers and hardcore fans begging to be
selected for the next season of the show for mainly selfish and vain reasons. Everything they thought they knew or felt,
even sacrifice or love, was all pre-scripted by Tsumugi herself. In one fell swoop, the whole group is defeated,
unable to deny the truth, and fight for the lie they are and live in. Stepping up, Keebo points out that the audience
doesn't just want despair but hope as well, and since they're part real and part fictional,
they can still fight for real hope. However, Tsumugi points out Keebo has the
unique function of being a surrogate for the audience, and whatever popular choice the
audience makes is what he does. He's also the cameraman for the game, allowing
the audience to view things from his perspective, and his role is to take the despair present
in this fictional world and bring it to the real world. Refusing, Keebo points out that because the
voice in his head tells him to believe in hope, then he will bring hope from this fictional
world to the real world instead. Tsumugi then puts them up to a new vote, either
herself or Keebo, to be punished and determine if hope or despair wins. If Despair wins, the killing game ends because
they know the truth, and they can continue living their lives in this fictional world
as their fictional characters. However, if Hope wins, then the killing game
continues, and will end only until two students remain. Keebo then offers to sacrifice himself, and
Maki volunteers as well, provided she gets to kill Tsumugi herself. Shuichi then clashes with Keebo, rejecting
this idea and pointing out that forcing Hope to overcome Despair in the end is exactly
what the audience expects and wants, and why the killing games continue. He then reveals this was Rantaro's secret,
in that something like this likely happened before, Rantaro sacrificed himself and the
punishment for him was participating in the next killing game. Tsumugi will just produce the next season,
Keebo will continue to be the cameraman, and Maki will be the Ultimate Survivor next time. Even if they're fictional people, the pain
and sadness they feel now is real, so he opts to reject the world and its consumption of
suffering as entertainment, meaning he abstains from voting and rejects both the hope or despair
endings the audience craves. Persuading Keebo to reject the hope the audience
wants, he then asks Himiko and Maki to join him in abstaining and ruining the ending for
everyone, even though they're threatened with death for not voting. Monokuma then attempts to reject their refusal
to vote and tries to force the group to keep playing the truth minigames instead, but Shuichi
is steadfast in nonparticipating and ruining the entertainment factor of the game. The audience then attempts to erase Keebo's
personality in their internet rioting, but he attempts to hold on, telling the group
to fight on before he's erased. Believing that fiction can change the world,
they use Keebo as an outlet to fight the internet and overcome the rabid fandom demanding more
killing games and convenient closure for existing plotlines. Tsumugi laughs, saying she'll also not vote,
and claiming that if they're giving their lives to end the game, then she'll give hers
to continue it, and since Keebo will be the only one that votes, Hope will win after all. As the polling begins and ends, it turns out
that no sides voted in the end, and Shuichi explains this proves the outside world chose
not to vote as well, and as the audience begins to leave, its proof that fiction has changed
reality. In this game with no survivors, they think
to just end themselves on their own terms, and as mass punishment, Keebo re-arms himself,
and begins blowing up the school with everyone in it, as the Ultimate Cosplayer plays her
role to the gruesome end and is crushed by the wreckage of her own creation. Satisfied with this, Keebo then chooses to
self-destruct as he flies into the wall of the academy, shattering it with his explosion
and revealing the outside real world. As the game ends, and after the credits play
out and the audience leaves, Shuichi, Himiko and Maki all emerge from the wreckage, somehow
still alive, and Shuichi believes Keebo spared them because this lie becomming truth is what
the audience wanted to happen. He also points out that even if they were
fiction, Tsumugi mentioned they were all copies, so its possible things like Hope's Peak, the
remnants of despair, and Ultimates are actual things in the outside world she based them
off of. Not sure what's truth or fiction, as it doesn't
really matter anymore, they venture out into the real world to see the results of their
choice. Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony has enjoyed
the success of selling almost 400 thousand copies worldwide.
