Danganronpa 2×2 is set to launch in 2026, marking the first new release in the franchise in a long time. The game remakes the main story of 2012’s Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, while also adding an entirely new storyline. AUTOMATON was fortunate enough to try out the game’s special trial version, and here we share our impressions from the roughly 15-minute demo. (The build we tried is the same one shown at the Danganronpa 15th Anniversary Festival.)
Enter Nagito Komaeda
The demo begins with Nagito Komaeda leaning over Hajime Hinata and asking, “Hey… are you okay?”, mirroring the opening of the original game. Komaeda’s gentle yet smooth, alluring delivery immediately stands out.
While the composition remains the same, with Komaeda looking down at Hajime, it’s interesting to note that the design of Komaeda’s T-shirt has been changed from the original. With Komaeda and Hajime being iconic characters of Goodbye Despair, seeing their first exchange right away feels nostalgic.
The demo is packed with things meant for the discerning eyes of longtime fans. Although the story differs from the main game, the victim this time being Yasuhiro Hagakure from the first Danganronpa came as a shock. Hagakure has previously ended up as the victim in both the original game’s demo and the demo for Danganronpa V3, so seeing him once again cast in that role is surprising.
Because Hagakure often serves as comic relief, being chosen as the victim again is a surprisingly good gig for him. To begin with, Hagakure doesn’t appear in the original Goodbye Despair, so it’s funny how no one even knows who he is. Gundham Tanaka laments him as “a pitiful corpse whose name no one knows.”
New investigation area
The characters, students of Hope’s Peak Academy, an elite school for those with exceptional talents, are thrown into confusion when they discover the unfamiliar body. Then Monokuma and Monomi, the stuffed-animal-like mascots, appear. Monokuma announces that the killer is hiding among the students and declares that a class trial will be held to uncover the truth, while Monomi protests in distress that something like this “can’t possibly be happening.”
A murder has occurred, the victim is unknown, and there are strange, non-human figures in the room. Multiple mysteries are presented almost simultaneously, building tension and an unpredictable atmosphere, and the demo wastes no time getting to the point. After Monokuma’s declaration, the game shifts into the investigation phase, where you gather evidence for the coming trial.
Played from Hajime’s first-person perspective, you examine the body and talk with other characters to collect Truth Bullets that can be used later in debate. The body is found inside a boathouse, a location that didn’t exist in the original game, where Hagakure lies slumped against a wooden crate.
With characters like Mikan Tsumiki and Chiaki Nanami helping search the area, you determine that the cause of death was a stabbing, an important clue that will clearly factor into the trial. After finishing the boathouse, you head outside to check anything else that looks suspicious.
Revamped visuals sell the original game’s “resort” vibes
Stepping out of the gloomy boathouse, you’re greeted by bright resort scenery. Jabberwock Island, the setting of Goodbye Despair, was originally developed as a luxury getaway, and the updated visuals for modern-gen consoles work in its favor. You can see much farther into the scenery now, which gives a stronger sense of the island’s scale, and the dazzling sunlight immediately conveys how much richer the presentation has become. The music has also been refreshed, with the investigation theme “Ikoroshia” rearranged for 2×2.
Outside, Peko Pekoyama provides a lead: the group had planned to meet up at the beach past the boathouse. While that alone isn’t enough to identify the culprit, as Byakuya Togami points out, whoever first discovered the body may hold the key.
Monokuma provides additional information, prompted by Togami’s question. According to Monokuma, a body discovery announcement is triggered depending on how many people find the corpse, meaning the order in which people encountered it could be crucial. With that, the investigation ends, and the class trial begins.
The chaotic Class Trial
During the trial, each character gives their account of events. As Hajime, you listen for contradictions between their statements and the evidence you gathered. Those clues appear as Truth Bullets, which you literally fire at conflicting remarks to refute them.
Because everyone talks over each other and emotions run high, the trial feels chaotic. A classmate has been murdered, and you yourself might be suspected, so it’s about as far from everyday life as you can get. Some characters, like Mikan, can only desperately insist on their innocence, while even basic questions like the killer’s motive remain unclear.
What was entertaining about the class trial section of the demo was how sometimes, “not knowing” itself can be a powerful tool in solving the case. When someone mentions information that should only be known to the culprit, it raises immediate suspicion, the good old, “Why would they know that?”
With statements unfolding in real time and a time limit ticking down (even with assist features to slow things), things get pretty nerve-wracking. Identifying the culprit from among your own companions is tense and unsettling, yet matching testimony with hard evidence and watching the truth unravel feels just as satisfying as it should.
The demo didn’t go as far as revealing the culprit, but it fully delivered the core thrill of the Danganronpa series – scrutinizing statements and dismantling contradictions one by one.
A short experience that condenses everything Danganronpa is loved for
Being able to play one of the series’ most beloved entries on modern hardware is exciting enough, and getting an entirely new story on top of that feels like a real treat for fans. Even in just 15 minutes, the demo tightly condensed everything that makes Danganronpa’s investigation and class trial gameplay so addictive, making for a short but pretty dense experience.
Danganronpa 2×2 is set to launch in 2026 for PC (Steam), Nintendo Switch 2, Nintendo Switch, PS5 and Xbox Series X|S.
