4.5/5 ★ – DarrensTrashBag's review of Danganronpa V3: Killing Harmony.

The final game in the franchise so far, and it definitely lives up to it when it comes to style and score. Each class trial is blocked very well with certain text in debates having unique animations and graphics. Unfortunately, what really collapses in this game is the writing. It just seems like Kodaka was just unmotivated to keep on going, which makes sense with the ending. When it comes to the characters, the other two games did it better when it comes to the chemistry between all of the characters. This game just has several cliques that interact with each other. This is not too much of a bad thing, it just blocks potential scenes with characters that could develop them. The best characters are Maki, Kaito, Shuichi, Kokichi, Himiko, Kiyo, and Gonta. The worst in my opinion is Angie. Oh, and I forgot about the monokubs, they were basically useless. They had some good bits but they very much overstayed their welcome. Thoughts on each case: Chapter 1: I really like how they revealed the culprit. Though it does feel cheap when the game is purposefully being vague when it came to those action lines. I like the whole Rube Goldberg machine murder method. I just don't like how long it takes to get to the first murder. The motive to get people to kill each other was also pretty bad, even though that was the point given chapter 6. Chapter 2: The motive for the killing was quite out of nowhere despite it being Danganronpa. It would be better for the player to at least have a chance to guess why they would kill. I think that Himiko not telling everyone the secret to her trick despite the fact that she will kill everyone if stays quiet is the worst part of her character. This is made worse by Tenko defending her so much, even though they barely know each other and she just has a crush on her. The first half of the class trial is pretty bad. However, the rest of it is quite good because of how complex and smart the plan was. Chapter 3: Underrated. I actually love Kiyo in this case, his motivations for what he doing make total sense for the character. Even if what he is doing is completely immoral, that does not make him a bad character. Himiko has her character arc in this case and I think it is well written. Angie starts the cult, which makes me wonder why Keebo joined it, but I am fine with the cult. I just hate Angie for her entire personality being a crazed religious person and nothing else. Her schtick gets old very fast. What this case fails at is the amount of potential it had. One person could have killed the first victim and then another person kills another. This will keep a murderer with the group and that will cause interesting conflict. SPOILERS: If it were up to me, I would have wanted Tenko to kill Angie to protect Himiko and then Kiyo kills Tenko for the reasons he has in the game. This way we can have Kokichi say that Tenko deserves it for killing someone and that it was better than killing Himiko and then having to kill Tenko later. Chapter 4: The virtual world was a cool idea, but it was a bit bland gameplay-wise. I think this is where Kokichi is at his best and the culprit is heartbreaking. I think that this is probably the saddest moment in the series, it could be tied with DR2's chapter 4 and 5. Overall, I think this chapter would have been the best if it wasn't for the amount of explaining on how the virtual world works. Chapter 5: This is the best chapter in the game. I really like the idea of the killer and the victim being either person and you bounce back and forth between who you think it is. Kokichi's plan is insanely smart and clever. Everything with Maki is well done. Finally, the execution is very well done. Chapter 6: Firstly, I hate who the mastermind ended up being. There was no point to their character other than being the mastermind. Secondly, if Kodaka is trying to tell us at the end that everything that the mastermind said was a lie, then I like the ending. If it is not the case, then I am 50/50 about the ending. I think it is very lazy to be honest. The audience wants some sort of conclusion to a story and just saying "there isn't one" just ruins the whole experience for them. I would have preferred if they just half-assed one than just saying there isn't one. Shuichi is at his best in the case though. TL;DR: Fun mystery solving game with style and a couple of likable characters. I played all three games again on the switch version. DO NOT PLAY THESE GAMES ON THE SWITCH. They run horribly, control terribly, tons of frame drops, and numerous crashes that made me lose hours of progress. Just play the pc version. 88/100