Chapter 4:
Victim: Sakura Oogami
Couple of addition information were added before the incentive was given in this chapter, which was pretty important as a plot driving device. After Celes's execution, Kirigiri shouted at Monokuma, asking what they had done to her body which left the others in confusion and as expected, Monokuma doesn't entertain her and just leaves her with her own question in mind. Afterwards, Naegi went to find Kirigiri to ask where she was during the previous incident, where she had mysteriously disappeared, she whispered to Naegi that she had found a hidden room behind a toilet storeroom and asks Naegi to check it out. To Naegi's surprise, the hidden room really exists and there he spots lots of files in the cabinets and a note saying that "You must not leave this place". Right after that, Naegi got mysteriously attacked by a stranger in a mask and falls unconscious. The next moment when Naegi opens his eyes, the room seemed to have been rummaged through and almost all the documents in the room was gone. Picking himself up, Naegi heads to the gym where at there, he spots Sakura confronting Monokuma, telling him that he had enough and wanted to quit. That made Naegi think that the mole of the headmaster that everyone was afraid about could be Sakura herself. Not wanting the tension in the academy to be tensed up once again, Naegi decides to keep what he saw to himself and made further investigation of the 4th floor of the academy that opened up after the class trial. In the staff office, he discovers another photograph, similar to the one he had found before, but this time it consists of Maizono, Celes and Yamada having fun in the classroom. This made Naegi all confused again since in this case wouldn't it meant that everyone knew each other from the beginning? Monokuma later confirms that the photograph wasn't edited and was a 100% real photograph that was taken. A while later, Naegi was confronted by Kirigiri who believes he was hiding something but Naegi doesn't leak the information about Sakura as he still firmly believes that it should be kept by himself at the moment. After recovering Alter Ego from the previous incident, Alter Ego managed to decipher some data that belonged on the computer regarding the Academy itself. But the only thing that could be found and learnt, was that the Academy was supposed to be closed down after an incident called the Mankind's Most Despairingly Maleficent and Monstrous Malefaction. (ok, at this point I'm not sure if the incident was supposed to be this since I played the patched version) Unfortunately, Alter Ego wasn't able to know what exactly happened in that incident that forced the Academy to shut it doors, but one other thing it knew was that the school was run by a headmaster, a man in his thirties, and he is inside this academy. It was later in the chapter when Alter Ego requested to be plugged into the school system, so that at least he can help to solve more mysteries of the academy itself.
And thus, the next incentive was given by Monokuma, by revealing that Sakura was indeed the mole of the puppetmaster. It wasn't actually an incentive that drive people to kill each other, but rather an incentive to drive people to kill Sakura instead. By revealing his identity, Monokuma created this atmosphere of uneasiness and suspicion since no once had suspected Sakura of anything, up to this date. As Sakura's best friend, Asahina tried to protect Sakura from all the accusations that were thrown at her, until a point where she was actually hurt by Genocider Shou after she tried to reason with Fukawa. Ultimately, Sakura falls victim in the recreation room, where she was found slumped onto a chair, motionless in the locked room, where at that time, the Corpse Discovery Announcment was made. Sakura was dead.
It was pretty obvious that Sakura was going to be the victim this time round after the "incentive" that Monokuma had given, but in this chapter, what captured my attention the most was actually the photograph that Naegi had found. With all the photograph showing some of them having a happy normal high school life, and the fact that Monokuma said that the photo was real, the first thing that came into my mind was that do the people that were executed actually die? Or do they just disappear from the academy and return to their high school. At that point in time, that was what concluded, since the photographs were always showing people who were already "dead" from the class trials, so it could be a possibility that that could happen.
Moving on to Sakura's murder, this case was pretty much easy after looking at all the clues that were given, and finally we are given our 1st closed door murder.
1. Monokuma bottles
What came to be a murder weapon, or thought to be, was this bottle with a Monokuma chess piece in it. There were 4 on the rack, and 1 being presumably shattered on the floor. At first glance, it seemed like the murder weapon itself since the bits and pieces were near Sakura's final sitting position but further investigation made it seem that it might not be the reason for her death. After Kirigiri and Naegi decided to weigh the broken pieces on the floor with one of the Monokuma bottles, it was discovered that it was not one, but two bottles were broken in the room. Thus it was then discovered that there were 6 bottles in total, each containing a chess piece, king, queen, bishop, rook, knight and pawn.
2. Invitation notes
Sakura had sent 3 people a note asking them to come to the recreation room to meet her at different timings, where Fukawa arrived first but decided to hide in the locker when no one was around yet. Hagakure arrived shortly after since his note had a different time written on it. This makes the suspect being both Fukawa and Hagakure who had responded to the note and went to meet Sakura just before she died.
3. Footprints in lab
While investigating the chem lab, Naegi and Togami realises a mix of the bottle in the cabinet itself, where a poison filled protein bottle was placed in the protein section and was replaced with another in the poison shelf. Below the cabinet were spilled liquid and foorprints were seen that resembled sports shoes. Since there were only 2 people who wears sports shoes, Asahina and Naegi, and since we know that Naegi wasn't the culprit, I shifted my suspicion over to Asahina. But things didn't quite make sense since I believed that she would be the last to actually murder someone? Let alone her best friend?
4. Glass pieces below bottle
As the recreation room's door was locked, the only way to enter the room was to break the door glass panels and open the lock to enter. By doing so, the pieces of glass would fall to the ground. Among the pieces there was a bottle of the protein bottle that was on top of the glass pieces that shouldn't be the case since if the bottle was already there when the door was broken, then the glass pieces shouldn't end up below the bottle, which it did. This meant that the bottle was placed there after the door was broken, and the only person who could do that was Asahina.
5. Magazine rack
There was a magazine being placed upside down in the magazine rack, where one of the pages had a blood message that wrote "Fukawa" on it, which seems all like an attempt to frame Fukawa for the murder of Sakura. Nonetheless this only helps to re-picture the murder and not pinpoint the suspect of the murder.
By this time, I would have already assumed that it was Asahina that had murdered Sakura but based on their relationship, that was highly impossible, which leaves only 1 possibility left, which the game immediately gave the option to pinpoint the suspect without further discussion. And the one that I picked, and was correct, was Sakura herself. She had committed suicide.
And so the course of the murder was like this: Sakura had sent notes to ask people to meet her in the recreation room at different timings and Fukawa was the first to arrive but had hidden herself in the locker when Sakura arrived. Later on when Hagakure arrived, he was so freaked out by Sakura that he panicked and used a Monokuma bottle to smash on Sakura's head, leaving her unconscious. Thinking that he had killed her, he decides to frame Fukawa by writing her name in a magazine open on the table before running away. Fukawa, who had saw everything, tried to hide the magazine in the rack, just at the same time when Sakura woke up. Seeing her full of blood, she faints and Genocider Shou takes over her and similar to Hagakura, she grabs another Monokuma bottle and smash it again on Sakura before running out. However, Sakura didn't die from this and yet she created this locked room and consumed the poison in the protein bottle to kill herself. Asahina knew that Sakura had killed herself and wanted to stir the truth away by making her ownself suspicious, like leaving her footprints in the chem lab and placing the bottle on the glass pieces, to show that she was the one that had poisoned Sakura. It was Asahina's intention to have everyone killed as she believed that Sakura was driven to a corner after being revealed as the mole and under everyone's suspicion, she had no choice but to kill herself to preserve the peace of the academy for as long as she could. and protect the rest who were still alive. It was revealed in Sakura's suicide note that she was supposed to be the 1st murderer, until Maizono surprised them and tried to be the first but backfired in the end. However with no living human to execute, Monokuma decided that this class trial's execution will be including Alter Ego, who when linked to the school system, was tracked by Monokuma. Well, at least she had tried but tapping into the system was really a dead giveaway. After the end of the class trial, Kirigiri woke Naegi up in the middle of Nighttime to ask him to go to the Data Processing room and meet her there. However it was Monokuma that found Naegi and when Kirigiri linked up with Naegi, the both of them were reprimanded by Monokuma to return to their own rooms. On the way back to their rooms, Kirigiri whispers into Naegi ears, telling him that there is a "sixteenth student" among them by the name of Mukuro Ikusaba, which finally explains why there are 16 seats in the class trial itself. Leaving Naegi clueless, the 4th chapter comes to a close and the final climax of Danganronpa begins.
End of Chapter 4
1. Makoto Naegi
2. Sayaka Maizono
3. Leon Kuwata
4. Kyouko Kirigiri
5. Byakuya Togami
6. Aoi Asahina
7. Kiyotaka Ishimaru
8. Touko Fukawa/Genocider Shou
9. Mondo Oowada
10. Sakura Oogami
11. Hifumi Yamada
12. Celestia Ludenberck
13. Yasuhiro Hagakure
14. Junko Enoshima
15. Chihiro Fujisaki
Chapter 5:
Victim: ???
After the 5th and final floor of the Academy opens for investigation, the remaining students too their time to fully comb the area to find more clues. In a classroom, there were bloodstains almost everywhere, damaged tables and chairs, which makes the rest believe that this must be the Mankind's Most Despairingly Maleficent and Monstrous Malefaction incident that they were referring about. In the same classroom, Fukawa spots a survival knife and decides to keep it with Naegi since he was like the "safest" person among the rest. There was a garden as well, where there were chickens being kept, 5 to be exact, sprinklers that go off at 7.30am every morning and a garden shed to house gardening tools. After discussing their findings with each other, Monokuma appears and was extremely angry as some things were stolen from him. Later Naegi realised that the moment he had went to the data processing room, he lured Monokuma away, allowing Kirigiri to break into the headmaster's office and steal a master key that can open any locks in the academy. Kirigiri also believes that the Puppetmaster and Monokuma cannot both function at the same time. In the middle of the night when Naegi was sleeping, he felt himself burning and woke up, just to see a masked man in front of him, holding a knife, preparing to kill him. Naegi blacked out and after he regained his senses, he sees Kirigiri in front of him this time. The next morning when Naegi wakes up, he believes that it was a dream and headed to the cafeteria as usual before being led to the gymnasium where apparently Hagakure and the rest are dismantling a Monokuma robot that stopped moving. The only dangerous thing they find on the robot itself was a sphere bomb that has a shock sensor. This time round, before any incentives were given, a corpse was discovered by Fukawa in the botanic garden. Lying on the ground was a body whose face was covered by the same strange mask that Naegi was familiar with and a knife wound stabbed into the chest.
In an attempt to examine the corpse, the corpse suddenly detonates itself and Naegi puts out the fire by dumping water over the top half of the body. As a result, the corpse's identity cannot be identified anymore and what they only know is that the victim is a girl and in Naegi's shock, he thought that the victim might just be Kirigiri herself. On the victim, Naegi discovers a key to the data processing room and enters it, to everyone's surprise, it was a room filled with multiple screens that receive feeds from all the security cameras all around the academy. Naegi then remembers what Kirigiri had told him, to check her room if something was to happen to her and as Togami has the key to her room, which he took to prevent suspicions on Kirigiri, he discover's Mukuro Ikusaba's profile under the bed, which names her as the Super High School Mercenary. Before any more investigation was done, the class trial has arrived and on the way to the venue, Naegi sees Kirigiri all alive and well which now creates another mystery. The corpse wasn't Kirigiri's so was it Ikusaba's? Or?
1. Hand of the victim
After examining the corpse, it was found that the victim was without gloves, unlike Kirigiri, and had tattoo on her hands. Not forgetting the victim had fake nails as well which makes Kirigiri the victim not possible. The tattoo on the victim's hands thus suggest that it was indeed Ikusaba's corpse as it was written in the files that the mercenary group that she belongs in have similar tattoos. Thus the victim's identity was found and confirmed by Monokuma to be Mukuro Ikusaba.
2. Lower half of body is dry
Due to the fire on the body, Naegi had poured water to put out the fire only on the top half of the body, making the lower part of the body dry. This also defines the time the corpse was placed in the garden as due to the sprinkler system in the garden, it wouldn't be possible for the corpse to be dry on the bottom only if it was placed in the same duration as the sprinklers.
3. Vinyl sheet
Those sheets were suggested to have been placed onto the victim to prevent it from becoming wet from the sprinklers but it wasn't possible as the blood wasn't dry from the moment they discovered the corpse and the vinyl sheets should have blood stains which they didn't found any.
4. Knife
The knife that was found stabbed into the victim was the exact same knife that Naegi was thought to be keeping and this pinpoints the suspect of this murder, Naegi himself.
5. Fake blood
Kirigiri refutes Naegi's claim and said that the blood was fake and was from one of the chickens in the coop, reinforcing the fact that Naegi's possibly the culprit as he has no alibi.
6. Dojo key
As it was later discovered that the murder weapon could be a few arrows bundled together and left in the dojo lockers, the key to that locker was found to be in Kirigiri's room and this now shifts the suspect back to Kirigiri after her efforts to pinpoint it to Naegi.
7. Kirigiri room key
Kirigiri then rejects Naegi's claims that it was her as her room key was passed to Togami and only Togami has access to her room. However Naegi knows that she still can access her own room as she holds the master key that can open any room in the building. Yet she was clearly lying which makes Naegi even more confused on whether she was the real murderer or not.
Naegi remembers what Kirigiri had told him at the beginning of the class trial, that this was all a trap by the puppetmaster and she cannot be defeated here, at least not now, no matter what.
Finally Monokuma decides to end the class trial early and the murderer was voted to be Naegi and he was lead to execution. Unfortunately for the execution, Alter Ego's possible system that remains in the school network intervenes and saves Naegi, resulting in him being spared from being crushed and was thrown into a rubbish dump where Naegi survives. Kirigiri jumps after him together into the rubbish dump and reunites with Naegi once again. Through their conversation, more secrets are revealed about her hidden abilities and her motive in this academy. She believes that the puppetmaster is one of the Super High School Despairs that had caused the Mankind's Most Despairingly Maleficent and Monstrous Malefaction incident and there could be one more of the Super High School Despair right here in the academy. Kirigiri's title is the Super High School Detective and her purpose at this academy was to meet the headmaster who was her father that left her behind when she was still young. With that, Kirigiri believes that the truth about the academy is almost out and the actions taken by the puppetmaster in the class trial clearly shows that the person wanted to remove Kirigiri or Naegi out of the game. Thus, now begins the final chapter and a closure to the whole mystery about Hope Peak's Academy.
At this point in time, there is a possbility of choosing the bad ending for the game, where you, as Naegi, decides to stop believing Kirigiri and she gets executed instead, according to the puppetmaster's plans. It is only if you choose Naegi to be executed to be permitted to go over to the next chapter and achieve the final ending.
End of Chapter 5
1. Makoto Naegi
2. Sayaka Maizono
3. Leon Kuwata
4. Kyouko Kirigiri
5. Byakuya Togami
6. Aoi Asahina
7. Kiyotaka Ishimaru
8. Touko Fukawa/Genocider Shou
9. Mondo Oowada
10. Sakura Oogami
11. Hifumi Yamada
12. Celestia Ludenberck
13. Yasuhiro Hagakure
14. Junko Enoshima
15. Chihiro Fujisaki
16. Mukuro Ikusaba
Chapter 6:
Finally, we are down to the final chapter of the whole game itself. To make a long story short for the start of the chapter, both Naegi and Kirigiri escaped from the rubbish dump using Kirigiri's master key and from there, they meet Monokuma where they make a bet, if they were able to reveal all the truth behind this academy, then the puppetmaster will lose and be executed. However if they fail, the remaining students will experience the worst despair and will all be executed. Monokuma accepts the bet and unlocks all rooms in the academy, allowing for the final investigation to be made.
From here on, almost every clue would be vital to disclosing the truth and so here begins:
1. Group photo
Like the one above, everyone of the remaining students received a photograph where they show everyone living a normal high school life, except that the one who receives the photo is not in the photo that they were given.
2. Headmaster's living quarters
With the access to the 2nd floor of the dorms open, Naegi and Kirigiri enter the room and with a seal room being locked with a password, the duo seemed to be unable to further investigate the area. It was then Naegi who suggested using Kirigiri's name as the password and it worked, bringing them into another small room where a box containing the headmaster's bones were left inside. At the exact same room, Naegi finds a universal ElectroID and takes it with him
3. Lockers on the 2nd floor
In the locker room on the 2nd floor, there were a couple of lockers that were locked by ElectroID which Naegi then uses the universal ID to open those lockers. To his surprise, he discovers a notebook that presumely belongs to Kirigiri. It was written in the notebook that the academy was to be made a shelter to house the various super high school students. Not only that, there were some notes left behind as well: "Despair is among us... That's why we were left alive. There are 2 of them..." Not only did Naegi find Kirigiri's notebook, but he finds fortune telling things belonging to Hagakure's as well.
4. Vinyl Sheet
The exact same vinyl sheet that Kirigiri had suspected Naegi in using during Ikusaba's class trial had a print at the corner, saying that it was from the bio lab on the fifth floor.
5. Bio lab
The true identity of the bio lab was actually a morgue used to preserve dead bodies. And in the different containers, only 9 containers were lit, representing that there are 9 dead bodies stored inside where in actual fact, there should be 10 bodies inside, not 9.
6. Data processing room.
In a room in the data processing room, Naegi enters this cockpit type of control room, where he realises it was the control room for Monokuma itself. He is able to speak, control and navigate Monokuma through the use of the room. This means that the puppetmaster is right inside this academy and since there are only 16 students in this academy, it would mean that the puppetmaster is one of the 16 students here.
7. Ikusaba's body.
It was stated in the profile of Ikusaba that she didn't suffer any wounds before entering the academy which means that the multiple stab wounds that were found on the body was caused in the academy and not caused in the time she was being a mercenary. It was stated in the monokuma file that there were old wounds but were not the cause of her death but for Kirigiri, she suspects that what if the murder itself didn't occur in the last few days?
8. DVD
Kirigiri handed Naegi a DVD that she had found, consisting of Emergency Interviews, which shows each and everyone of them, speaking to the headmaster, that they are willing to stay in this academy even if it meant that they will stay there for the rest of their lives. Everyone's interview was in it, including Maizono's, Kirigiri, and even Naegi himself. However before the DVD could play finish all the videos, Monokuma takes away the DVD.
And thus, let's begin the final class trial:
The body that was found in the botanic gardens was actually moved using the vinyl sheets that belonged to the bio lab. With the bio lab identity being a morgue, it was entirely possible for the victim who was found in the botanic garden, to be already dead before the body was moved. This would mean that the victim had not died from the stab wound in the chest but instead from other forms of injuries. In the bio lab, only 9 out of the 16 containers were lit, which meant that only 9 people were dead, which wasn't the case. Including Ikusaba as the 16th student, there should only be 10 who are dead and not 9. This would mean that the puppetmaster could be someone who had already "died" but wasn't. The one behind the attack on Naegi one night wasn't Ikusaba as well. Naegi knew that it wasn't as he did not spot any tattoo on the attacker's hands that night. Other than that, there was only Kirigiri left as the attacker but by revealing her hands under her gloves, it is shown that she had burnt scars over her hands as a result of detective work in the past and that clarifies that it wasn't Kirigiri as well who had attacked Naegi, thus it must have been the puppetmaster.
It was said that Ikusaba's body had multiple stab wounds that were considered as "old wounds". The only one that could have received such wounds during the course in the academy was only one person: Junko Enoshima. She was the only one that been stabbed by multiple "spears" during her first confrontation on Monokuma. What made Naegi confused was that everyone at that time had checked the body and confirmed that Enoshima was dead. the only possibility left was that the one that was killed by being impaled wasn't Junko Enoshima, or rather, wasn't the
real Junko Enoshima, it was Mukuro Ikusaba all along. Both Ikusaba and Enoshima had switched places from the very start to confuse the rest about the duo's identity. This makes sense after reviewing the class photos that each of them had received. They contained faces of everyone but Enoshima's face was always blocked out, just like an attempt to prevent people from recognising that the Junko Enoshima they had met wasn't the real Enoshima at all. Same thing with the DVD, Monokuma took it away to prevent Naegi from seeing the real Junko Enoshima as well, who would've appeared inside as well. From then on, the real Junko Enoshima reveals herself as the true puppetmaster, the Super High School Despair.
Enoshima explains the reason behind using the various incentives to incite the murders, from the 1st incentive onwards, they were representing: Interpersonal relationships, memories, greed and betrayal. She continues to explain about the academy, and the reason they were all kept inside the school was because the world outside has already ended. Due to Mankind's Most Despairingly Maleficent and Monstrous Malefaction, there were riots all around the world and the world that everyone had seemed to know had disappeared. As their memories were altered, no one could remember what happened outside other than Genocider Shou, who shares different memories as Fukawa and she could vouch for the truth about the outside world. The final truth was that the world had already ended more than a year ago. What Naegi and the rest remember from the moment they step into the academy was already something that happened more than 1 year into the past. Everyone had been living together as normal students until the Mankind's Most Despairingly Maleficent and Monstrous Malefaction incident occurred, resulting in the school having to close to protect everyone, but little did the headmaster know that while trying to protect everyone, some of the people who were responsible for the despair had already entered the school, such as Junko Enoshima. This thus makes sense of the photographs that Naegi had seen they were all photos taken in this exact school when it was still functioning. The lockers in the 2nd floor were also previously used by them, that was why Hagakure and Kirigiri's things were found inside the locker as well. The whole academy was built as the shelter to prevent the outside world from interfering the peaceful world of the inside of the academy. Enoshima explains that if she died, the air circulation system will stop functioning and this will no longer become a shelter for anyone. Nonetheless, Naegi and the rest did not give up hope and desire to keep on living even if they were forced to experience despair in the outside world. Finally, no one would succumb to any despair any longer with Naegi as the new Super High School Hope of Hope Peak's Academy.
With Enoshima's execution, the switch to the entrance hall was now in Naegi's possession and with the 6 of them remaining in this life and death game filled with hope and despair, hope triumphs and the rest move on into the future, filled with hope.
The End
With that, this concludes the entire Danganronpa series, or only the 1st of the 2 games of Danganronpa to be exact. Quite challenging gameplay, many many game mechanics that changes as the game progresses and it's really a fantastic murder mystery game. With the main bulk of the murders occurring in chapter 1-4, the final 2 chapters really gave the whole plot a major twist. So the photos were actually based on their time in the academy, in the past, and not in some future where they had all escaped. That, I thought, was a brilliant twist and at the same time, tied up all those loose ends that were scattered throughout the game itself. A really amazing game and shouldn't be missed. For the animation of this game, I wouldn't mind watching it all over again to see if there were parts of the game that I might have overlooked. Truely an awesome series. :)
