Or at least, that's the original idea: the fifteen students are knocked out when they first enter the school and wake to suddenly find themselves in Despair Academy, a school with no classes, bolted windows, constant surveillance and perhaps the most terrifying character ever written in a videogame, Monokuma. By gathering the best and brightest Japanese youths, the school board aims to revitalise hope in the next generation. The premise is that fifteen schoolchildren, each the absolute "ultimate" in their field, are invited to attend a prestigious Japanese boarding school known as Hope's Peak.
Related reading: For a second take on this game, check out Matt's review of the original on PlayStation Vita. That last detail probably describes Danganronpa's tone better than any other sentence I've written so far. It's darkly humorous, compelling and often times offputting, with a rapid pace that keeps players feverishly advancing text until the truth is revealed. Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, a visual novel by Spike Chunsoft, embodies this method of storytelling to a T, focusing on the opposition between hope and despair and charging the player character to defend optimism in the face of an ever mounting gauntlet of fear and distrust. We see this in games about war, games about revenge, games about politics and even games about relationships - whether through mechanics or cutscene philosophising, the conflict is always perceivable to the player. If the essence of drama is conflict, then the most dramatic of games will always revolve around the diametric opposition of two key ideals, and the supporters of those ideals rallied together on each side.