My Idea For A “Fangan” (Danganronpa Fan Game)

Let’s try something completely different to my usual blog post – Danganronpa is one of my favourite videogame series of all time, and many years ago when I first played them I wrote a “Fangan” that never saw the light of day … until now!

I found an old plan for my story – “Danganronpa – The Survivors” – while clearing out old files, and I was pleasantly surprised by some of the ideas my past self came up with. I’ll try to explain my (needlessly complicated) story. Hope you like it!

Before we begin, you can check out some of my related blog posts below:

Overview / Prologue – “Welcome To Despair Hotel”

As the title suggests, “Danganronpa – The Survivors” would focus on those who surpassed the trials of their killing games. There will be MAJOR SPOILERS for those who haven’t finished the trilogy for themselves, but the survivors in question are:

TRIGGER HAPPY HAVOC – Makoto Naegi, Kyoko Kirigiri, Byakuya Togami, Aoi Asahina, Yasuhiro Hagakure and Toko Fukawa / Genocide Jill.

GOODBYE DESPAIR – Hajime Hinata, Akane Owari, Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu, Sonia Nevermind and Kazuichi Soda.

V3: KILLING HARMONY – Shuichi Saihara, Maki Harukawa and Himiko Yumeno.

Which takes us to 14 survivors total. Not bad, but an even 16 would be much better … so I decided to add two more wildcards to the mix.

Komaru Naegi, the main character of the spin-off game “Ultra Despair Girls”, seemed an obvious candidate because of her relation to Makoto. Having a character’s sister be present throughout the killing game is bound to create new kinds of tension (hint hint nudge nudge). But that’s far from the most shocking character addition …

Monokuma, the loveable yet sadistic teddy bear mascot of the franchise, will be the sixteenth and final contestant. Three important questions arise – Why is the murderous bear taking part? Will the other characters immediately hate him for what he did to them in past games? And who’s the new mastermind in his place?

The story would take place in “Despair Hotel“, and each chapter would open up a new floor full of rooms for the main cast to explore. There would be multiple POVs, and the gameplay beats would be largely the same.

As for the basic plot, an unknown mastermind (who talks to the main cast via the announcement system with a masked, robotic voice, and perhaps they appear on overhead screens as a 2D animation) has trapped all of the survivors of the previous killing games in Despair Hotel to take part in one final killing game. Worse still, the mastermind has wiped everyone’s memories – so nobody knows friend from foe, or comrade from killer bear.

The Prologue has everyone waking up in the hotel basement and the normal Danganronpa Blackened rules are explained by the mastermind, and we follow Makoto’s POV as he “meets” all of these new people – he can’t even remember his own sister, Komaru. A cliff-hanger ending sees Monokuma join the group, where it’s revealed that he’s not the mastermind, instead taking on the role of contestant in the killing game.

Chapter 1 – “Shattered Memories”

• Motive: Kill to remember your past (valid whole game)
• Victim: Hajime Hinata
• Blackened: Sonia Nevermind
• POVs: Hajime / Makoto (Daily Life), Kyoko (Deadly Life)

Picking up where the Prologue’s cliff-hanger left off, the cast emerge from the basement to explore the Ground Floor of Despair Hotel. They find Dorm Rooms, a Trial Room and a dedicated room to each of the three previous games’ locations full of fanservice and memorabilia. Since the cast have their memories wiped, they don’t understand its significance to them personally just yet. They also find a second area of the basement with a Janitor’s Closet, full of all sorts of tools that could be murder weapons.

Daily Life would flip between Hajime and Makoto – I’d especially like to see Hajime befriending as many people as he could, like Sonia, and Makoto would spread the word of hope.

The murder motive is revealed – kill to remember your past (which will be valid for the whole game). For the sake of this chapter, the memories return immediately. That’ll be important later.

Then the bombshell reveal – Hajime is found dead in the Janitor’s Closet, cause of death unknown. We switch to Kyoko’s POV for the remainder of the chapter’s investigation and trial (but she doesn’t remember that she’s the Ultimate Detective). There’s no obvious cause of death, and nobody has any idea who the culprit is.

Eventually the cast will figure out that someone laid an electrical trap (using water and a faulty electric tool, idk), and Sonia will let slip something from her past. Only the Blackened would remember something from their past. Before she’s executed, she refuses to elaborate on the trap, instead remorseful that Hajime accidentally walked into it.

The mastermind decides to reinstate Blackened’s memories after the trials to avoid a blunder like that down the line, and reinstates two people’s memories at random – Kyoko and Genocide Jill. The mastermind makes it clear that if they divulge their new memories, or even that they have them, to the others, they’ll be killed. The mastermind is always watching.

And now Genocide Jill has come out to play.

Chapter 2 – “Days When My Friend Was There”

• Motive: Kill to revive an old classmate (valid whole game)
• Victim: Toko Fukawa / Genocide Jill
• Blackened: Himiko Yumeno
• POVs: Maki (Daily Life), Himiko (Deadly Life)

The Second Floor of Despair Hotel opens up, and the cast find various Talent Rooms like in V3 as well as a large Main Hall. The optimistic among the cast convince the others to hold a talent fair to boost moral, but before people can get their practice in a new motive is unveiled – kill to revive an old classmate (which will be valid for the whole game). This means the cast will have some memories reinstated, but only the painful emotions of past loved ones perishing.

Unless I’ve forgotten some, here are the major previous friendships (or more) that I could remember:

• Aoi and Sakura
• Himiko and Tenko
• Akane and Nekomaru
• Fuyuhiko and Peko
• Shuichi and Kaede
• Maki and Kaito
• Kazuichi and Sonia (more for a joke)

As you can imagine, everyone has past friends that they want to see again. Apart from Byakuya. That guy only looks out for numero uno, and announces that he wants no part in the upcoming talent fair … so Genocide Jill follows him to an unknown location.

We follow Maki’s POV through the talent fair and actually get to see some talents in action for the first time in the series, and the show-stopping finale is Himiko’s magic trick.

Genocide Jill turns up dead, so suspicions fall on Himiko and Byakuya. Himiko has an alibi, however, and it seems as if she’s being framed like in V3 … and wasn’t Genocide Jill following Byakuya religiously?

We then follow Himiko’s POV for the investigation and trial, and slowly learn how she rigged the magic trick to kill (a bit like how Kaede set up a kill in 3-1 even though we were following her POV). Before she’s executed, Himiko reveals how she did it to get Tenko back, and demands that she’s revived. The mastermind doesn’t listen.

Two more people have memories reinstated, but this time the player has no idea who they are. For the sake of this story, I’ll tell you – Makoto and Yasuhiro.

Chapter 3 – “I Can’t Forgive, But Can I Forget?”

• Motive: Kill and choose someone to escape with (valid whole game)
• Victims: Komaru Naegi & Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu
• Blackeneds: Fuyuhiko Kuzuryu (deceased) & Makoto Naegi
• POV: Kyoko

Bear with me, ‘cos things are about to get nuts. I won’t go into details about new rooms or POVs from now, partly because I haven’t fleshed it out but also because I don’t want to clutter this story summary with unnecessary details.

The motive this time is that the blackened can choose someone to escape with (valid for the whole game), which encourages accomplices and more mistrust within the group.

Komaru turns up dead (Makoto doesn’t react … but we know he secretly has access to his memories), and it’s revealed that Fuyuhiko killed her. He refuses to give up his accomplice, but before he can be executed something unexpected happens – he dies mid-trial due to a delayed poison. Curiously, Yasuhiro doesn’t turn up to the trial at all, so everyone assumes he was the unnamed accomplice for now and has done a runner.

A new investigation and trial segment begins, this time for Fuyuhiko’s death instead. Since the poison was delayed, the culprit could be anyone … even Komaru. We find out that Makoto did it to avenge his sister (not the craziest twist, but bear in mind the player doesn’t know that Makoto has his memories back).

Byakuya seems particularly troubled by this turn of events for unknown reasons, and leaves to do some investigating of his own. The two characters that regain memories are Maki (who remembers she’s an assassin) and Monokuma. Oh no …

Chapter 4 – “Bullet Proof … I Wish I Was”

• Motive: Everyone’s identity is masked – they’re knocked unconscious, and when they awake they’re forced to wear a mask / voice-box to sound and look exactly like someone else
• Victim: Akane Owari (and Yasuhiro Hagakure’s body is found)
• Blackened: Byakuya Togami
• POV: Shuichi

Bit of a weird motive this time, but Chapter 4’s always have something bizarre going on. Everyone is knocked out and wakes up with a voice-box and mask, effectively assuming someone else’s identity. Most people fess up who they are underneath, but some choose to remain quiet in fear that they’d be an easy target. Monokuma in particular is back to his manipulative ways.

In a break from Danganronpa tradition, two bodies are discovered – Aoi (actually Akane, who revealed her identity to the group before her death) and Yasuhiro, who has been missing for over a chapter. Since everyone has been body-swapped, the cast assume that Yasuhiro is actually alive and hiding among the group, and that this body is really someone else.

Over the course of the trial, it’s revealed that Yasuhiro died in Chapter 3 and therefore hadn’t been body-swapped yet. He was found by Akane in Chapter 4, who was killed for her troubles. The killer of both? Byakuya Togami.

Byakuya is furious with the mastermind, as he announces that he got away with killing Yasuhiro in Chapter 3 and yet wasn’t released as the successful Blackened. But the mastermind catches him out on a loophole – Yasuhiro’s body hadn’t been discovered yet, so it only became his trial in Chapter 4. Byakuya shrugs off his fate – he wasn’t friends with any of these people, and he would’ve abandoned his accomplice – Fuyuhiko – anyway to eliminate loose ends.

As a parting gift (after everyone’s masks and voice-boxes are removed), the mastermind gives Byakuya’s memories back. Byakuya realises that he actually was friends with these people, despite thinking that he was a lone wolf to the core. He teases that everyone became close with each other before this killing game began, and goes to his execution saddened that he betrayed his only true friends in the world.

Everyone who hadn’t already gets their memories back, and they mourn the losses of their close friends.

Chapter 5 – “Goodbye, Trigger Happy Harmony”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfOIuzS31g4&pp=ygUYZGFuZ2Fucm9ucGEgbmFnaXRvIGRlYXRo

• Motive: Every student is given a secret assassination target + a time limit to do it before everyone is killed (a bit like the mass panic in V3’s first case)
• Victim: Monokuma
• Blackeneds: Shuichi Saihara & Kyoko Kirigiri
• POV: Maki

I’m not exactly sure how this motive even works, so I’ll try to explain it as best I can. Everyone is given a specific target to kill, and they’re only allowed to kill either their target or the person hunting them. Break this rule and get executed. To make matters worse, there’s an imposed time limit in play – a bit like the start of V3.

You’re allowed to reveal your target, but that would obviously make you yourself a target to that person. Maybe there’s a risky game you can play to find out who’s hunting you, like the Final Dead Room in 2-4, but I haven’t decided on that just yet.

Surprisingly, it’s Monokuma who ends up dead. The challenge now becomes figuring out who his target was and who was targeting him, as only either of those two could have done it.

The cast work out that Shuichi was hunting Monokuma and Kyoko was Monokuma’s target (a sort of “target triangle”), and that both of them did the Final Dead Room to work that out. They also find out that Shuichi lured Monokuma to a spot, and that Monokuma agreed since he assumed Shuichi didn’t have the guts to kill.

As it turns out, Shuichi and Kyoko worked together to create an impossible murder. Either they tricked the mastermind into delivering the killing blow, or they both killed Monokuma at the exact same time (I haven’t worked that bit out yet), but either way they demand that the game be over since no Blackened can be selected. Interestingly, neither Kyoko nor Shuichi were in Goodbye Despair when Nagito pulled off his own “impossible” murder with the fire extinguishers, so that could be a fun aspect to mention.

In a shock twist, the mastermind executes Shuichi and Kyoko regardless, seemingly ignoring his own rules. The surviving cast have never felt such despair.

Chapter 6 – “Five Star Survivor”

The three survivors – Maki, Kazuichi and Aoi – make their way to the Terrace for a final showdown with the mastermind (maybe they demand a retrial, idk). They get fed some revealing information, such as:

• The Remnants of Despair are no more, so they’re not behind this.
• The mastermind is one of the 16 participants of the killing game.
• The survivors all joined the Future Foundation and became good friends, and collectively adopted the symbolism of “Ultimate Hopes” to the recovering world.
• The Future Foundation repressed Izuru Kamukura’s personality inside Hajime … or so they thought.

They discover that the mastermind has been Alter Ego all along – specifically, an AI version of Izuru. As it turns out, Izuru had been secretly posing as Hajime all along, and set up the killing game to bring balance to the world. If the Remnants of Despair are no more, why should the Ultimate Hopes be allowed to live?

Alter Ego (taking on both Izuru’s appearance as well as other dead classmates) explains how he would’ve used AI to “revive” dead classmates in Chapter 2 (a bit like when “Mondo” spoke to Taka in THH), and that Hajime’s death in Chapter 1 was even more poignant than we first thought.

Sonia had set a trap for the mastermind after finding Alter Ego’s servers in the Janitor’s Closet (or maybe Hajime’s body ended up blocking a trapdoor, idk), and correctly killed Hajime. Izuru knew his death was a possibility, but wasn’t expecting to go so early – so Alter Ego had to step up to run things in his place. Since Sonia assumed that she killed the wrong person by accident, as Hajime was one of her best friends and Izuru should’ve been repressed, she chose to stay quiet about it in Chapter 1.

Maki, Aoi and Kazuichi manage to beat Alter Ego and escape Despair Hotel, probably in some really badass and clever way … but I haven’t thought that far ahead. Maybe it’ll be revealed to all be a dream or a simulation, but I’d rather have my story suffer the consequences of the character’s actions (and “it was all a dream” would be such a cop-out). THE END.

So, that’s the gist of my story. I can’t imagine I’ll ever get round to writing it (since I have no skills to code a game), so feel free to pick apart aspects of it for your own Fangan if needed. Or if you can code the game but need someone to write it, you know who to call!

You can check out some of my latest blog posts below: