Danganronpa – Every Trial Minigame Ranked

Danganronpa is known for its bombastic Class Trials, but they wouldn’t be nearly as engaging if not for the minigames.

Some of them made me actively look forward to the Trials, whilst other made me groan in pain when their names flashed up. I’ll be ranking all fourteen Danganronpa minigames from worst to best – credit to the YouTube channel “Barbieronpa” for spurring this idea!

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

Painful

14 – Mind Mine

There’s an argument to be made in favour of every other minigame, but the one Trial distraction with absolutely no merits at all was “Mind Mine” from V3.

You click on coloured boxes until the right background object appears, and it’s an infuriating waste of time. I genuinely questioned what the developers were thinking whenever I played this.

Groan-Inducing

13 – Hangman’s Gambit: Version 1.0

All of the “Hangman’s Gambit” minigames get a bad rap from Danganronpa fans, and for the most part I think it’s deserved criticism.

The first game’s edition was the worst – I do love a game of hangman, which is why this isn’t dead last, but the clicking-on-letters aspect is incredibly tedious and pointless.

12 – Hangman’s Gambit: Version 3.0

V3’s “Hangman’s Gambit” returned to a more classic style of clicking on the letters, except they’re all darkened and a ray of light wafts through every now and again. I guess that makes it more mentally engaging?

11 – Hangman’s Gambit: Version 2.0

The second game – Goodbye Despair – had the best “Hangman’s Gambit” in my books. It still underwhelmed me.

The colliding and combining letters adds a lot more urgency to the minigame this time around … but I still wanted to pull my hair out each time.

10 – Psyche Taxi

I was hyped when I saw that V3 had its own version of “Logic Dive”, but I couldn’t have been more disappointed in the final product.

The straight-line taxi driving has nowhere near the same appeal as the gnarly snowboarding, but at least the multiple choice format still kept my brain engaged.

Fun Minigame

9 – Bullet Time Battle

Danganronpa doesn’t exactly have “boss battles”, per se, but the closest thing to it would be the frantic rhythm games at the end of each Class Trial.

The first game’s version “Bullet Time Battle” is my least favourite, but that’s mainly because the two sequels improved upon this solid foundation.

8 – Panic Talk Action

“Panic Talk Action” is Goodbye Despair’s version of the boss battle rhythm game. It’s very similar to “Bullet Time Battle” except ever so slightly more polished.

The biggest upgrade came in the Final Strike, which has been changed from a single button push to a mini-minigame where you construct a lethal sentence out of four words.

7 – Rebuttal Showdown

“Rebuttal Showdown”, a.k.a. “that sword minigame”, came as quite a shock when it first popped up on screen – I wasn’t expecting my classmates to provide a counter-argument!

Slicing at words makes for a decent game, especially when you get limited slices later on, and it can get quite frantic picking the right contradictory evidence in the final slash.

6 – Debate Scrum

I’ve seen a lot of people praising “Debate Scrum” and putting it in the top 3 or higher, but at the end of the day it’s just a “match the two similar sentences” minigame.

It has cool visuals and a banging soundtrack, though, and it’s fun to see the classmates all so split on an issue.

5 – Closing Argument

Like with “Debate Scrum”, “Closing Argument” is just a glorified sticker book … but Danganronpa Trials wouldn’t be the same without it.

Each iteration of the minigame got better across the trilogy, and I like how it tests your full understanding of the case (even if it’s a little tedious re-hashing what we already knew).

4 – Argument Armament

By far the best of the final battle / boss fight / rhythm games came in V3 with “Argument Armament”.

The visuals have been improved tenfold with the deteriorating armour gimmick, the rhythm aspect looks and plays so much better, and the Final Blow ending (similar to the climax in Goodbye Despair) is the cherry on the icing on the cake.

Monokuma Approved

3 – Nonstop Debate

When I started playing the Danganronpa series I was a little worried that it would be derivative of the Ace Attorney franchise – especially when I saw there’d be Class Trials and contradictions to spot within testimonies.

The “Nonstop Debate” mechanic manages to be extra-stylised and more intense on account of timing playing a major role, and despite the fact the developers hardly changed it across the trilogy it still played like a dream.

2 – Logic Dive

Even though “Logic Dive” is effectively a glorified Subway Surfers with a bit of multiple choice at the end, everyone who’s played the trilogy knows how awesome this minigame is.

It can be genuinely thrilling to snowboard down this strange mental obstacle course – especially in the trickier later levels – and it’s the only time a Danganronpa minigame verged on all-out action.

1 – Mass Panic Debate

“Nonstop Debates” are the bread and butter of the Danganronpa franchise, and the developers pretty much nailed it on the first attempt. I said before that they hardly made any changes to the formula … That is until V3 perfected the format with “Mass Panic Debates”.

It’s the only time in the series that the Class Trials have felt like a genuine, anxiety-inducing debate between panicked teenagers, and the overlapping sentences and shut-outs made the whole thing incredibly overwhelming in the best way. I wouldn’t have complained if every Class Trial in the series had a few of these sprinkled in.

Aaaand that’s my list! You can check out some of my latest blog posts below: