Released by Spike Chunsoft in the year 2012
on the Playstation Portable, Director Takayuki Sugawara and Writer Kazutaka Kodaka work together
to create the sequel to the murder mystery visual novel of the same name. The game expands the events of the first game,
revealing circumstances before and after, while maintaining mostly the same pace and
format. For gameplay, while this uses an entirely
new class and cast of characters, the daily life and deadly life aspects are mainly the
exact same as the first game, with the addition of a few minigames and enhanced visuals for
the exploration. The Class Trial segment has received a few
adjustments to the same format, though there are a few new additions. Now, the truth bullets obtained can be used
not only to shoot down arguments, but also reinforce suggestions by other characters
that the player agrees with. A new truth sword element is introduced for
use during rebuttal showdowns in which a clashing wordplay duel must be won by slashing at opposing
weak points. Finally, the Logic Dive has the player snowboarding
down logical routes in order to arrive to a decisive conclusion. The story only gets larger from here so lets
cut it down to size with a RECAPitation. The game begins with a curious loading screen
similiar to an old-school PC game, and we are introduced to our new protagonist standing
before Hope's Peak academy, still the pinnacle of hope for society's future. Normally, the only way to get in is to be
scouted by the school itself, insomuch by being the Ultimate at whatever you do, but
our protagonist, the ordinary Hajime Hinata, admits his circumstances are a little different. During his recount of his first day at school,
his memory is suddenly fuzzy, and he finds himself in a classroom with 15 other students,
none of whom remember how they came to be here either. They are all soon introduced to a pink, magical
girl rabbit named Usami who claims to be their new teacher, and chaperone of their school
trip. As it turns out, the classroom they're in,
is a prop in the middle of a scenic tropical island. To the startled students, usami tries to calm
them down and explain this trip is to help everyone build hope in their hearts. In order to build bonds of friendship, they're
actually assigned to relax, have fun, and generally enjoy themselves on this happy heart-throbbing
school trip on Dangan Island. Though Hajime doesn't remember what he is
Ultimate at, he meets the others: Nagito the Luckster, Hiyoko the Traditional Dancer, Akane
the Gymnast, Nekomaru the Team Manager, Mahiru the Photographer, Fuyuhiko the Yakuza, Mikan
the Nurse, Ibuki the Musician, Kazuichi the Mechanic, Gundham the Animal Breeder, Byakuya
the Affluent Prodigy, Peko the Swordmaster, Chiaki the Gamer, Teruteru the Cook, and Sonia
the Princess. As Usami gathers everyone by the beach, Byakuya
theorizes this island is a real place in the pacific called Jabberwock island, given its
distinctive geography, but something seems amiss. While hanging out at the beach and having
fun, the sky suddenly darkens with unnatural clouds. Even Usami is confused, as a silhouette of
a bear suddenly appears on a nearby TV, and invites them all to Jabberwock Park. As they gather before the giant statues of
this islands mythical guardian beasts, the strange, asymmetrical bear named Monokuma
makes his entrance, once again proclaiming himself the headmaster of this school. He immediately expresses his displeasure at
the boring lack of death and despair here, and Usami steps in to try and stop him. However, after their scuffle, Monokuma breaks
Usami's magic stick, stripping her of her magical girl powers. As punishment, he then changes her appearance
to a dual-tone like his, declares her a little sister, and even changes her name to Monomi. Monomi still intends to oppose Monokuma, but
the bear is still too strong for her. Now in control, Monokuma changes the rules
of the game to a killing school trip, shocking everyone with news that if they want to leave
this island, then they must kill someone else and make it through a class trial without
getting caught. Again, after a trial examining the murder,
the survivors vote on who they think is the blackened killer. If they are correct, then only the killer
gets punished. Incorrect, and everyone but the killer gets
punished. Naturally, everyone is in disbelief and Monomi
stills stands to defy Monokuma, so Monokuma not only unveils an array of giant robots
called the Monobeasts, but also uses one of them to make an example of Monomi. Deploying a massive minigun from the aerial
Monobeast, Monokuma has it gun down Monomi in a rain of bullets, leaving nothing behind,
much less any doubt that Monokuma is very serious about this arrrangement. He leaves a horrified group behind, and Byakuya
believes there must be someone controlling all of these machines as well as Monokuma. Not to mention, there is still the lingering
suspicion of betrayal now amongst them all. They convene the next day to assess the situation,
and Byakuya nominates himself leader of the group to ensure no one falls victim to the
death game. However, they discover a mysterious bomb where
the statue used to be, with a countdown clock. Incidently, it also turns out Monomi is still
alive, somehow, adding to their already growing list of mysteries. Monokuma gathers everyone to the park, with
himself appearing all dressed up in order to do a two-man comedy show with Monomi. However, the real joke is on everyone, as
he reveals Monomi is responsible for erasing all of their memories of the years they spent
at Hope's Peak Academy till this point when they arrived on the island. He proves this by knowing they all blacked
out at the same time when they entered the academy. However, he says he can restore their memory,
if, of course, they commit a murder sucessfully. To spread further paranoia, he drops there
is a mystery traitor among the students right now, and now with a motive they have a convenient
excuse to kill someone. Both Monokuma and Monomi retreat before any
questions can be asked, and the students are now left uneasy. The next morning, Byakuya unexpectedly declares
the need to throw an all-night party in an enclosed space though his reason for doing
so seems unclear. In fact, when the party starts, Byakuya himself
conducts body checks for security, and confiscates anything that may be easily used as a weapon. The festivities begin and everything seems
to be going well, but all of a sudden, the lights are cut off, and after the blackout,
Byakuya himself is found stabbed and underneath a table. Not long after initial panic of the discovery,
Monokuma appears to confirm one of the other students committed the murder, and an investigation
will commence immediatlely before a class trial. He leaves them a forensic file to get started,
and they begin their investigation by looking at Mahiru's photos that she took of the party
so far. After gathering all of the clues they could
find, Monokuma gathers them before a new spectacle, Monokuma Rock, where an escalator shoots out
before them and takes them down to the Class Trial field. The trial for the first murder begins, and
as they sort out this blackout murder where nearly everyone has an alibi, they find a
rather clever execution. As it turns out, Byakuya received a letter
threatening a murder that night, hence why he threw a party with everyone there and security
set extra high. At the same time, someone plugged in just
enough irons to almost overload the power usage of the cabin they were partying in,
and set the air conditioner on a timer that would overload it at a precise time. When the lights went out, Byakuya happened
to come prepared with night vision goggles, and witness Nagito when he was moving strangely
in the dark to try and retrieve his hidden knife, as it was actually him who was set
all this up to try and kill someone. At the same time, someone else who knew of
Nagito's plan was also preparing an act of their own under the same cover in the kitchen,
Using a long iron skewer used in the prepared meat, a portable stove as a light source,
and a spare tablecloth as cover, they moved under the cabin to where they knew Nagito
would be. Meanwhile, Byakuya halted Nagito from getting
to the knife, and in doing so, took the skewer intended for Nagito, and was killed in the
act of trying to prevent a killing. The only person who could have half-baked
such a culinary execution, was Teruteru. Incidently, while preparing food for the party,
Teruteru saw Nagito prepare the murder while cleaning the party area prior, and actually
confronted him about it. But, Nagito explained openly that he wanted
to start the killing not because he wanted to leave the island, but in order to prove
that hope will win against despair, he'll gladly be the villain in order to make heroes
of the Ultimates he so idolizes. Nagito admits this, and reinforces that as
a fanboy for Ultimate students he feels he's unworthy of them all, and would rather die
to make them look better than survive longer than any of them. Still, despite Teruteru's best intention and
Byakuya's sacrifice, Nagito has an unhealthy obsession with finding an Ultimate Hope student,
and sought to create a greater despair to uncover one. Granted, Teruteru wasn't wholly innocent either,
as while he did want to save the others from Nagito the madman, he actually wanted to use
this as a way to get back home anyway. As his punishment execution, Teruteru is bound
in chains, hit with a barrage of battter, and cooked alive as he is deep fried in a
sea of fire, much to the horror of everyone. The remaining 14 students are still shocked
the next day, but Monomi comes with the good news she's defeated one of the giant Monobeasts
guarding an island, but they are all still unable to leave. Exploring the new island themselves, the group
is still set to find not only a way to escape but also unwind from the earlier tragedy. However, all they find is more clues to reveal
that while the Jabberwock Island they're on matches the geography of the real Jabberwock
Island, none of the architecture does, leading them to suspect this is all artificial, and
surprisingly Monokuma confirms this to a degree. Later, they find what seems to be a giant
ruined, yet modern building, that says 'future' on its door, and stands as a mystery to even
both stuffed animals. Instead, Monokuma talks about an organization
called World Ender, whom is responsible for literally ending all current society, has
a mole here hidden among the students, waiting to betray them all. The next day, Nekomaru and Kazuichi take the
initiative to tie up Nagito, the suspected traitor, in case he tries to murder someone
else in the name of hope, and Monokuma presents a video game he claims will be their new motive
for murder anyway. Later, Hajime takes a look at the game, and
while it seems a cryptic adventure game retelling a murder of a school girl, it holds no influence
to Hajime. The next day, as Mahiru seems strangely absent
from their usual group breakfast, Kazuichi, who has a crush on Sonia, overhears she and
the other girls were planning on hitting the beach, and asks Hajime to run wingman as he
makes his move. As they wait for the girls to come by, they
do indeed arrive in their swimsuits, with Akane having just fought coach Nekomaru and
Peko arriving to say she was just swimming and couldn't find a nearby island to swim
to for possible escape. Sonia finally arrives, and right when they're
ready to go, they discover Mahiru dead in the beachhouse, killed in a manner eerily
identical to how the girl died in the videogame. As they investigate, even Nagito is let free
to help, and they check out the game once more for its connection to the murder. While the murder and people within are based
on true events, its also during the school time that got wiped from their memories, so
the girls that happen to share the same name as those in the game can't verify. Solving the murder mystery videogame is only
the first step as its revealed Fuyuhiko's sister was killed, and Mahiru helped cover
up the identity of the true killer. As the class trial proceeds, it turns out
Mahiru went to talk with Hiyoko about them being characters in the murder videogame and
they agreed to meet later, and the killer overheard them, planning to use the meeting
to stage a particular and specific murder. The killer forged letters to both recipients
to meet at the beach house at two different times, so when Hiyoko arrived first, she was
knocked out and put away to be framed later. Next, Mahiru was deliberately killed instantly
by a similiar metal bat as the same murder in videogame. Using the water bottles in the beach house
to wash off, and then hid. As Hiyoko woke up, she saw the body and fled,
adding more suspicion to her, and the real killer used their bamboo sword to escape through
a tall window, and pretended to just meet up with the others. Despite the seeming lack of connection to
the victim, the real killer was Peko. Before the final vote, Peko rushes them all
to a vote, and after they vote for her, she reveals she was only a proxy for the real
killer, Fuyuhiko, who really planned, prepared, and intended to kill Mahiru as revenge for
his sister. She is actually Fuyuhiko's retainer as part
of the same Yakuza clan, and suddenly the question of what defines the real killer comes
out. Monokuma admits its a gray area, but since
Peko is the one to definitely do it, even though the motive and order came from Fuyuhiko,
only she will get punished. For her execution, Monokuma controls Peko
like the tool she was, and pits her against an army of samurai. She's doing well, but Fuyuhiko rushes in to
try and save her, and accidently gets slashed in the eye by her instead. She stops and comforts her master, as the
army surrounds them and brutally stabs them both. Though Peko is certainly killed, Fuyuhiko
is still barely alive, and Monokuma is forced to save his life, as per the rules, only the
blackened is permitted to be executed. After the trial, Monomi beseeches a mysterious
audience to resolve the issue not only before the countdown on the bomb occurs, but also
before more students die. She then defeats another Monobeast and opens
the way to a new island for the students to explore. Within, they find a computer with a stange
file on it, revealing even more about the calamity that happened to mankind. At first, there was a revolt within the school
by the reserve department against the primary department, but by the hand of a powerful
authority, social rioting began to spread across the world to an uncontrollable yet
deliberate degree. Afterwards, survivors of the academy that
caused this riot were even forced to kill each other as a lesson in despair. Hajime questions Monokuma about the Reserve
Department as well as the surviving students, but gets no answers. Later, they find the hospital Fuyuhiko was
sent to, and it turns out he survived his attacks after all. As they cheer up, Fuyuhiko returns with a
new eyepatch and a friendlier attitude, though Hiyoko isn't ready to forgive him for killing
Mahiru and Peko. As part of his apology, he bows to them all
and slits his own stomach, which convinces the others of his sincerity as he's carried
again to the hospital. As they spend more time enjoying another party,
they note Akane is missing, and as they look for her, they find her losing in a duel against
Monokuma. As he prepares to kill her for insubordination
with a bazooka, Nekomaru jumps in and takes the blast, saving Akane, and just barely surviving
himself. Calling this sacrifice even, Monokuma agrees
to sake Nekomaru, but its still a strong reminder of the situation they're in. The next day, Hajime notes Akane, Ibuki, and
Nagito are all actingly very strangely all of a sudden, and Mikan reveals they are all
under some strange fever. Monokuma enthusiatically agrees and clarifies
this fever is not only their new motive, but also something called the Despair Disease. As the name suggests, the victim experiences
a fever and suffers under varying expressions of despair. For now, Nagito is now a constant Liar, Akane
is now a coward, and Ibuki is completely gullible. This personality altering disease is also
highly contagious, so its now very likely the bonds of friendship they've been building
will reverse into murderous intent. Mikan takes them under her care in the hospital,
and the rest of the group wonders how to handle this disease. Hiyoko pushes for complete quarantine for
the 3 as well as Mikan who might get contaminated taking care of them, however, Fuyuhiko suspects
this is actually a trap by Monokuma to separate the group and stir up paranoia. Hajime and Fuyuhiko volunteer to stay behind
with Mikan and the infected, while the others intend to keep their distance at a nearby
motel. The next morning, Hajime is energetically
woken up, as Fuyuhiko shows Hajime a video chat device Kazuichi rigged up. Unfortuantely, Monokuma forces all but Mikan
to leave the hospital for the night, and as he dreams, Hajime recalls something from the
past suggesting he got into Hope's Peak Academy not though talent, but by paying his way in. The next day he's roused and aroused awake
by Mikan again, and as he checks their video-chat device, he sees a creepy video of a person
in hospital robes and a bag over their head ascend a step ladder and into a noose. The video cuts off, and as Hajime hurries
to the transmission source in the music venue, he sees Ibuki's hanging dead body. He hurries out to get help, and as soon he
returns, he is shocked to see Hiyoko's dead body has suddenly been added to the crime
scene. As they investigate, it seems this is meant
to imitate a theater movie Monokuma made that Hajima has not yet seen. Watching the murderous parody of the Wizard
of Oz, Hajime now sees a context for the murders as the class trial begins. He unravels this mystery starting with the
transmission only he saw, and quite deliberately, as the killer wanted Hajime to think they
were seeing a live hanging in the music venue, when it was actually them staging it in another
room in the hospital. Truth is, Ibuki and Hiyoko were already dead,
and they worked to lay red herrings towards making the scene look like a closed room murder-suicide. The surgical precision of this murder was
actually composed by the meek and mild Mikan. When confronted, Mikan falls into the embrace
of Despair, and Nagito reveals he noted Mikan caught the Despair disease while she was caring
for the infected, further reinforced by how feverish and daring she's been recently. Apparantly, her symptom was Remembering things,
and as such Mikan claims she did it for the sake of her beloved, but doesn't reveal who
it is. She proves she remembers by revealing that
the organization World Ender that did as its name says, is also the organization called
the Future Foundation, and that they brought them to this island as part of taking over
the world. She also knows who the traitor among them
is, but refuses to say. Right before her execution, she reminds them
that her regaining her memories allowed her to regain her personality, as the person she
was before was only her past person, not her real, current one, and that's true for all
of them. As part of her punishment, she is launched
into space atop a giant, syringe-fueled, arm-shaped rocket. Conversely, Monokuma cheers them up by bringing
back a restored Nekomaru, though unexpectedly, he's been brought back in a machine body. Meanwhile, as the strange device continues
to countdown, the surviving 9 students try to focus on thier current mysteries adding
up. Hajime seems the most likely to be the traitor
as he's always been the only one with no declared Ultimate Talent, but that's all interrupted
as Monomi comes in to reveal they have new access to another island. The students dont't feel encouraged to explore
as it may lead to more murder, but Monokuma sweetens the opportunity by saying they can
find information on the Future Foundation, parts to make a boat, and even their student
profiles from the school, on that island. The island has an amusement park theme, and
as Robo-Nekomaru test his new functions like dispensing soda, housing a clock, and having
a sleep mode button, the group checks out the attractions and recieve a file with information
on the Future Foundation. It details the events of the first game, as
well as the survivors, and they can't help notice Byakuka is among them, as well as they
all have no memory of this killing game occuring inside the school. As they investigate further, Monokuma gasses
them all, and brings them to a place called the Strawberry House, a section of the Funhouse,
wherein they are placed in a situation like in the Hope's Peak killing game. They are all sealed in the Funhouse and can
only only get out when the killings begin again. Exploring their surroundings, they find a
portrait of Hope's Peak Academy founder, Izuru Kamukura, as well an elevator to another section
of the funhouse called the Grape House. Within, Monokuma drops the news there is no
food in these fruit-themed towers, so they should hurry up and kill someone before they
all starve to death. They find a curious statue named Ogre, and
decide to go to sleep early to save energy. However, Monokuma won't let them rest, forcing
them to participate in 7 am Tai Chi and make them desperate enough to engage in another
attraction here, the Life-Threatening Death Game, wherein he claims a weapon can be obtained. That night, Hajime beleives he hears a loud
crash, and the next day, Nekomaru is discovered thoroughly dead and dismantled. Despite being a cyborg, his murder is real
and a Class Trial ensues after a weary investigation. After playing the Life-threatening Death game
in order to see what happened, Nagito wins the russian roulette and wins the student
profiles of everyone during their time at the Academy. It also details information about the previous
killing game, and Nagito notes that the sequence of murders this time is strangely identical
to the file. The first murder was an unexpected person
in an unexpected place, the second revealed a serial killer mark, and the third was a
double killing. With Monokuma driving the motives very specifically
this time, its strange since that would suggest this fourth murder would be ruled a suicide
like before. Furthermore, he reveals Hajime was actually
not ever an Ultimate student, but in fact a Reserve student from the reserve department. It turns out there are two tiers of students
at Hope's Peak academy, in which the Primary course is for the custom picked Ultimates,
and the Reserve course for regular students who paid an exorbitant tuition and passed
an extrance exam. Bascially, the reserve students were used
as stepladders to support the advancement of Ultimate students, and in return got to
claim the prestige of attending the school. Nagito immediately changes his tone to a more
dismissive and condescending one to not only Hajime but everyone else as well. The Trial room erupts from below the room,
and during the trial, Nagito reveals the Ultimate Weapon is knowledge of the funhouse's tricky
building structure, which plays into the way the murder occured. First, the killer sabotaged the elevator,
cutting off access between the Strawberry and Grape houses, and turned back all the
clocks back by 2 hours in order to fool everyone except for Nekomaru who had an internal clock. Having already obtained the proper tools from
the funhouse death game, they were ready, and with everyone except for Nekomaru displaced
by 2 hours, they knew Nekomaru would be in the Tai Chi room at 7 am. There, the killer used hamsters to activate
Nekomaru's sleep mode and tied him up, and placed the weapons in such a way to prevent
the others from learning the tricky architecture of the Funhouse, in which the two houses are
actually atop each other as a 6 story building rather than 2 adjacent 3 story buildings. When Nekomaru woke from sleep mode, he struggled
against his bonds, but fell 4 stories onto a pillar below, decapitating himself and dying
instantly. This tricky, overly complicated murder in
the trickhouse was performed by none other than the overtly complicated Gundham. Gundham plays off the verdict, and its suspected
he's actually sacrificing himself for their sake, as he faces an execution of being gored
by a wild stampede, but not before ensuring the safety of his animal friends. Meanwhile, Nagito reflects to himself the
information gained from winning the Funhouse death game, and how no one saw through his
lie. He approaches Monokuma with the offer to help
root out the traitor and help with despair in an attempt to give everyone hope and become
the Ultimate Hope himself. He actually deduces Monokuma not only knows
who the traitor is, but he's also waiting for someone in order to make things more interesting. As the remaining 7 students convene the next
day, Monomi defeats the last Monobeast, and Hajime confesses his secret of being a reserve
student, though everyone seems not to mind and still consider him a trusted friend. On the final island, the setting seems to
be a future metropolis, and within they find a literal Monokuma factory manufacturing Monokuma
plushies, and other merchandise. They also see a military base and find a book
detailing Future Foundation's plans to turns this island into their home base. Later, they find a research lab for Sea King
Industries, where the Monobeasts are being created, as well as a new, strange robot. As they regroup, Nagito is obsessed with becomming
the Ultimate Hope, and declares there is no need for another motive as he'll root out
the traitor with the info he has, even if it costs him his life. The next day, Kazuichi enables a plan to tie
up Nagito again, but the situation reverses as Nagito set up multiple bombs around the
island, and declares an intention to save everyone by blowing up Jabberwock Island. He adds that the bombs will all go if in two
days if the traitor does not reveal themselves. The next day, the remaining students opt to
search for the bombs hidden around the island, and within the large castle on the theme park
island, they find a clue to the password to the Future Foundation building ruins, but
make no progress to the bombs. The next day, Akane loses patience and attempts
to strangle the answers out Nagito, but fortunately Chiaki stops her before she kills him. Nagito leaves clues as to where he hid the
bombs and they opt to spit up and search each island seaprately. They find the explosives in the Monokuma plushie
factory, but its rigged with no concievable way to quickly disarm it. A nearby laptop taunts that only the keycard
of the traitor he discovered will disarm it. Chiaki tries her ID but nothing happens, and
Sonia learns during her search that its not bombs but fireworks in the truck. The fireworks go off, and Nagito taunts them
again for believing his trick. He invites them to the warehouse nextdoor
where he wants them to share who the traitor is, if they outed themselves. Breaking down the jammed door, they are greeted
by strange music and a sudden combustion of the warehouse. After throwing some nearby flame retarding
grenades that are strangely ineffective, the sprinklers turn on, and after the smoke clears,
they see an area sectioned off in the warehouse, wherein they are all shocked to find Nagito,
bound, stabbed, gagged, stretched, and impaled. The need for a Class Trial afterwards means
one of them actually committed the brutal murder, and as they investigate, Hajime finds
a jounral by Monomi, and an unusally thick file in Nagito's room, which was the student
profiles Nagito won earlier. They discover of the 16 students , they note
Byakuya's file isn't actually there. Rather, there is a profile covering an unknown
new student, titled the Ultimate Imposter, proving the one they thought was Byakuya here,
was a fake pretending to be the Byakuya who survived the previous killing school game. Incidently this then models again the first
set of trials in which the first person killed was a case of mistaken identity. Before the trial begins, the students are
reminded this will be the last trial per Monokuma, and Monomi warns he's planning something worse
after the trial. As they break down this bizarre setup, they
gradually come to the conclusion Nagito set up his own death in such a manner they have
no way of solving it through logic like they have been, and have to rely on luck. Namely, Nagito saved a killer poison he also
won in the Funhouse death game, and with gear from the military base, he filled one of the
fire grenades with the posion. He then sent everyone away with his bomb threat
while he set up an elaborate self-execution, starting with self-mutilation. The fire was rigged to start when the others
burst into the warehouse, and the tainted grenade set up to be used so once thrown,
the poison would evaporate and Nagito would die, forcing the spear he held in place to
fall and impale him. All this would make it look like someone killed
him deliberately, when it really made one of them an incidental killer by random chance. Because the real killer was unaware of the
trap and there no way for them to solve for it, Nagito's trap ensnared them all. Chiaki points out Nagito may not have wanted
the killer to be left to chance as it appears, as he was always adamant about outing the
traitor despite the deep despair, and actually used his Ultimate Lucky talent to have the
traitor be the one to throw the poison even though it seemed completely random. Even more, to have the group guess, Nagito
also believed in his luck that the real traitor would be revealed. Chiaki begins to speak strangely about not
being allowed to think or act out of line as a traitor, and compels Hajime to point
reluctantly at her. In addition, Monomi's journal is not her own,
but rather one written and sent to her as a report, as proven by a note within that
only Chiaki and Hajime himself would know. Urging everyone to vote for her, the group
dishearteningly votes Chiaki as the killer, and it turns out to be true, if even by the
long odds of the Ultimate Lucky Student. As a result, Monomi volunteers to be killed
with Chiaki, the Ultimate Gamer. For their execution, Monokuma sets up an elaborate
game of Space Invaders with a real tank, though Chiaki sees a way out. Running towards the supposed secret escape,
she instead finds herself trapped in a closed room set up like a Tetris game where she is
crushed by a high score. Despite the unpopular conclusion to the last
trial, as it resembled the first wave of trials in which it was more a witch hunt killing
than a murder trial, Monokuma declares no more obstacles and the end of the killing
school trip. However, Hajime catches that there are still
2 days on the giant Monokuma bomb in the park, yet he seems strangely fine with allowing
specifically five of them leave early. The next day, Hajime wakes up, but suddenly
everything seems bizzarely disoriented. Outside, Hajime runs into Chiaki as if nothing
is wrong, and they chat about the leftover message by Nagito, with Gundham randomly there. Apparantly, he wanted to kill everyone except
for the traitor, though Byakuya urges them to listen more. Nagito reveals more, including his same rhetoric
about wanted to be the Ultimate Hope, but reality itself seems to be crumbling and jarbling
on itself. With the password in hand, everyone, literally
everyone, goes inside, and Hajime becomes self-aware there is something very wrong with
the world. Meanwhile, the Monokuma bomb detonates, destroying
certainly everything, but possibly nothing. As things rewind to the inside of a boat,
Nagito is seen talking to someone who reveals they have something left behind by the Ultimate
Despair, to do something about the mundane masses who bend the world instead of those
with real talent. Nagito also reveals that despite his hatred
of the Ultimate Despair, he has had his hand replaced by her severed one as a means to
claiming her power, though he finds himself questioning his hate of her as they approach
Jabberwock Island. Back with Hajime, he finds himself in a classroom,
and later the gymnasium of Hope's peak Academy, wherein Monokuma tells them to research the
outside world and decide whether to stay on the island or leave for the outside world. Monokuma leaves them a manga retelling of
the history of the academy, which delved deeper and reveals that the recruiters of the school
are also its educators and researchers, as the school is also researching center for
talent. However, researching is expensive, and so
to supplement their funds, they created the Reserve Department, wherein normal students
can pass an entrance exam for entry and be taught by normal teachers. However, in exchange for the status of going
to this school, the reserve students would have to pay very high fees and tuition. Still, despite the thin veil that the Reserve
Department was only made to collect money, it became very popular. However, the goal of all the research was
to create a true genius who would become mankind's greatest hope. Unfortunately, an unexpected Tragedy crippled
the school and forced it to shut down. In another manga volume, the central figure
to the Tragedy was a student named Izuru Kamukura. He was the genius and symbol of hope developed
by the academy's research program, and was a genius possessing many talents. Armed with superior Talents, he was referred
to as the Ultimate Hope. To protect their investment, the academy erased
Izuru past and identity, so even most students in the academy didn't know of him. However, he was responsible for the Tragedy,
in which he brutally murdered the 13 members of the student council, the leaders of the
already great Talent in the school. Not only that, the school actually covered
for Izuru and pretended the incident never happened. However, another student investigated and
brought to public knowledge the murder and cover-up, and stirred up a riot within the
already-exploited Reserve students. This incident would then escalate worldwide
in the biggest, most awful, most tragic event in human history, as detailed in the actual
sidestory to the game, Danganronpa/Zero. In yet another manga volume covering the global
tragedy, it continues that the social riot in the school spread to the internet and other
countries and cultures, and prejudices were taken to violent extremes. A mentality of despair grew throughout the
world, and eventually people were simply warring for war's sake. Granted, this movement was facilitated by
a large and powerful group devoted to the student to started the tragedy, a group called
the Ultimate Despair. The group then used their own and others'
Talents to create and influence even more despair. Later, Monokuma expains that while there was
a group called Ultimate Despair, they are named after the title of the high school girl
with the same talent, Junko Enoshima, aka the Ultimate Despair. Junko recruited everyone in the group and
used their own positive and negative biases against them to create depsair and an obsession
with her. She manipulated people in such subtle yet
direct ways, that, for example, by changing their motivations, she compelled the 2,357
students of the reserve department to voluntarily commit mass suicide. Only one reserve student remained, Hajime
himself. Fuyuhiko adds that in another manga volume,
it recaps the killing school game and events of the first game, ending with 6 students
surviving and Junko dying. Later, they learn those same students formed
up with others to create the Future Foundation, and that Jabberwock island has become the
site of a Neo-World program, involving 15 more found students of the academy. Later, they find a list with all of their
names as test subjects on it, but also a newspaper with Hiyoko's picture on it, but she's much
older and mature than the impish child they knew. In addition, they find yet another portrait
of the Academy's founder, Izuru Kamukura, yet this seems contradictory to the information
they already gathered. In another room, they learn of the Hope Cultivation
project, the name given to the effort made by the academy to create what they viewed
as the one True Hope, and a report saying the 15 captured students were to be left in
the care of the survivors of the killing school life. A later report addressed to Makoto Naegi expresses
alarm at his act to keep the captured Remnants of Despair alive as opposed to terminating
them. In another room, they find a tablet detailing
the Neo World Program, which is a psychotherapy program meant to place its subjects in an
artificial virtual world, and replace memories with synthetic ones with the purpose of undoing
trauma, reversing brainwashing, and rehabilitating the subject. Later, Hajime encounters the AI Alter Ego,
which currently administrates the Neo World Program, who informs him a virus has infected
it and caused all sorts of peculiarities, such as this very school. It confirms Monomi and Chiaki were sent into
the virtual world along with the other 15 students like Hajime in order to help them
recover, but someone on the outside uploaded a virus to turn their world into a killing
one. Monokuma interrupts before more can be revealed,
but as the world begins bugging out, a new silhouette brings Hajime out to inform him
help is there and will arrive during the perverted graduation exam Monokuma has prepared soon,
and they will bring a forced shutdown sequence that so far has been blocked by the virus
and the necessity of needing 8 people present. As the world resumes, Monokuma brings them
to a final trial spot, where he begins stalling for time until some people he's waiting on
arrive. In the meanwhile, he reveals this whole world
is virtual, hence all the absurdly over the top and inconsistent details in the island. All of them are actually in pods in the real
world, with their minds being synchronized to a computer program. They themselves are just avatars made from
their memories from before the academy. At first, they are reluctant to believe this,
but when considering the evidence they find of their real bodies being much older, it
makes sense their minds constructed these high school bodies. Unfortunately, despite this being a virtual
world, those that have been killed, thier minds, with this hyper-reality, would likely
have stopped functioning too, with their bodies technically alive but brain dead. Next, the guest Monokuma was waiting for arrives
and its none other than Makoto, from the original game, who appears and informs them all that
before he rescues them, he needs them to accept some truth. Firstly, the Neo World Program, also called
the Hope Restoration Program, was meant to rehabilitate them, the 15 rescued students
from Hope's Peak, that were also the Remanants of Despair . They were the group Ultimate
Despair that killed their friends and family, commited self-torture, and ushered in the
end of society and order worldwide. In fact, when Nagito learned the truth as
his prize for the death game, its why he tried to kill them all in the name of Hope. However, in a latent vision, Hajime recalls
Nagito even once severed his own arm and attached the late Junko's arm in hopes of keeping her
alive within himself. The Ultimate Despair were so twisted and obsessed
with Junko, they sacrificed their families for her experiments, enabled mass suicides,
and after she died, implanted parts of her into herself, and commited necrophilia with
her corpse. Makoto urges them to choose graduation, so
their avatar persona will be uploaded to thier real body, thus overwriting their past Despair
selves. However, something seems off as Monokuma and
Makoto both seem to want to same thing. Hajime catches that this Makoto is actually
a fake conjured this fake Makoto, and in response, Monokuma powers up and unveils a giant virtual
Junko. She admits that while she's really dead, she
adapted the Alter Ego AI and her own version when she was still alive. Someone infiltrated Future Foundation and
uploaded her to this program, wherein she began modifying the gradutaion program to
where they now can not only return to the real world, but those that died can come back
as well. Despite the lack of reason to trust her, the
group almost presses graduate, when just in time, the real Makoto interrupts to expose
her lie. In truth, Junko was working to modify the
graduation system in which her avatar and mind would be uploaded to everyone's mind
who died in the program. Eventually, she intends to clone herself to
every mind across the world to create an Ultimate Despair Utopia. Fortunately, Makoto had a hidden command in
this program that can shut down the world and stop Junko totally, but they need at least
8 people versus the 6 they have now. Just then, virtual avatars of Kyoko and Byakuya
appear to lend their aid to Makoto, though it comes out that the shutdown deletes all
avatars within, including all of them, meaning they would wake up as their original Despair
selves with no overwriting. However, Junko is confident the students won't
agree to the shutdown and go back to despairs, so she believes she's effectively trapped
them all here. As a final trump card, Junko calls upon Izuru
Kamukura, the original Ultimate Hope, starter of the great tragedy, and also Hajime's true
identity. As it turns out, part of Academy was researching
the talents of Ultimates in order to create the ultimate true hope for humanity in the
Hope Cultivation Project, also called the Izuru Kamukura project in honor of the Academy's
founder. Hajime was the Reserve student used as a lab
rat in thier project to manufacture an artificial Ultimate, resulting in a trasformational operation
that granted him the specialty of Talent itself. Later, Junko would break his spirit to turn
him into an Ultimate Despair, and he not only has another flash to what he really looks
like, but also the realization that he was the saboteur that uploaded the Junko virus
AI into the system in the first place. Hajime cannot find himself choosing a clear
option, as every choice before him has a bad outsome for a main party. If he chooses Graduate, then their avatars
will live but the future foundation will be stuck and Junko will escape. Repeating means no one leaves forever, and
a shutdown means Junko will be stopped and the future foundation lives, but Hajime and
the other avatars will be erased. Junko takes the initiative and resets the
game, and Hajime finds himself floating in a subspace, consulting Chiaki, who turns out
was just an NPC like Monomi that only existed within the game, and she encourages him to
believe in himself and create a new choice. Confronting his own nihilistic presence and
the despairing choice laid before him, Hajime chooses to create his own future and break
out of his own mental prison. Erupting with awakened ultimate talent and
confidence in the future, Hajime breaks the others out of a deadlock of hope and despair,
and definitively cuts down the series of bad choices before them. With the students bouncing back with belief
of control of their own lives, they press both the graduate and repeat buttons at the
same time, while also triggering the shutdown. Suddenly, Usami comes back, and single handedly
uses her magical girl powers to defeat the giant viral AI Junko, both programs ending
once and for all. As the game concludes, the original students
are impressed at the unexpected solution Hajime presented, and all the students finally leave
the simulation and killing school trip. Back in the real world. Hajime and the others opt to stay with the
Future Foundation on the real Jabberwock island and find a help to their sleeping friends,
while Makoto and others see this as a sign those students succeeded in not reverting
to the Remnants of Despair with a future they made. With the great Tragedy still a reality, the
agents turn to create their own future too. Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair has enjoyed
the success of selling over 300k copies worldwide. BIG THANKS to Chris Pollard for your donation!
