Teddy bears are strange things. Furry, cute and generally given to kids, you kind of forget that they're modelled after a rather vicious animal that could probably eat you alive if it wanted to. But what's perhaps even stranger is that these unassuming stuffed toys kill more people than your average grizzly every year. While it's mostly a case of choking on missing eyes or tripping over an abandoned cuddly toy, sometimes you wonder if there's something a bit more sinister hiding behind those glass eyes. Like... some kind of murderous intent. The kind of thing that makes someone round up a load of teenagers, trap them in a school and make them murder each other to escape. Such is the story of one of our favouritest visual novels of recent years, Danganronpa - a game about a similar maniacal teddy bear with murderous intent - which will be seeing a third game and shooter-esque spin off, Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls this September.
See? We told you bears were evil.
A spin-off of sorts, Ultra Despair Girls isn't quite as slow paced as it's predecessors. While they focused on combing through rooms for clues, looking for inaccuracies in suspects' statements and figuring out whodunnit in the many murder cases, Ultra Despair Girls kicks things up a notch, striking out into a whole new genre beyond the familiar visual novel. With more in common with a third-person shooter, you - playing as a combo of Komaru Naegi and Toko Fukawa - are racing through the streets of a despair filled, dystopian city looking both answers and an exit.
Armed with a megaphone that shoots different kinds of truth bullets, each with different effects on the bloodthirsty mechanoid Monokumas that patrol the streets, you'll need a mixture of quick-thinking and fast reactions to escape. Backed into an alley with an army of Monokumas advancing a little too quickly? Fire a Dance bullet, and create a disco-like distraction so you can slip by unharmed. Prefer something a tad more chaotic? Try using a combination of Paralyse to freeze the demonic bears in place, followed by a Burn bullet to torch them where they stand.
And then there's Toko Fukawa [SPOILERS AHEAD FOR ANYONE WHO HASN'T PLAYED THE FIRST GAME] - a split personality with a rather murderous secret, whose method of clearing out Monokumas is... crazy, to say the least. With the help of her stun gun, she can bring out her darker, more homicidal personality, Genocide Jack. With her preferred weapon of scissors, the nigh-on invincible whirling dervish of scissor-fuelled mass murdering is likely to scare the bear-jesus out of anyone, as she tears the robotic teddies to pieces where they stand. [/SPOILERS]
Crazy? Moi?
But it's not all running and gunning - this is a Danganronpa game, after all, and as such the story is just as important. Promising a pace that balances both action and storytelling, puzzle solving and "expertly written exposition sequences", the game promises to help immerse you in Towa city's struggle between hope and despair, a theme central to the series so far, and one which existing fans are sure to be familiar with. And, much like before, well-written and believable characters will tug on your heartstrings along the way, with a mix of characters that are both hate-able, likeable and everything in between - even if a fair few of them are completely off their rockers.
Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls will hit the PS Vita on the 4th September this year, promising more of the amazing storytelling that made the first two games so amazing - this time with a side of bear-beating action. We don't know about you, but we can't wait!
