The PlayStation 4 offer continues to be enriched with productions destined to titillate the palates of lovers of the Land of the Rising Sun: after the porting of the first two episodes of Danganronpa, the flagship Sony sets up its hardware resources to accommodate the binary translation of Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls. Originally published on PS Vita a couple of years ago, the title shyly winks at the three-dimensional third-person shooters, not drawing pleasant digressions into the variegated world of role-playing novels, decidedly more congenial and integrated into the DNA of Spike Chunsoft.
As perfectly outlined in the review dedicated to the PS Vita version of the game, the history of the video game, taking place halfway between Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair, narrates the unfortunate epic of Komaru Naegi (sister of the main char for the series, Makoto), who remained mysteriously recluse for a year, unaware of the drama that was unfolding outside. In fact, the world is in disarray.
In spite of an interesting history filled with many nods to oriental culture, however, the gameplay quality of Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair is not what one would expect, especially considering the tenor of the canonical episodes of the series. It is a pity that the production retains all the limits manifested by its own portable iteration.
Rather than focusing on the mystery and the need to investigate, the title distributed by NIS America focuses its attention on the playful possibilities that can potentially be expressed through a formula, that of Japanese-style third-person shooter, only partially touched by the other production companies. Bad luck wants them shootings are characterized by a slow pace, scourged by a certain underlying repetitiveness that certainly does not help to hide another big problem: the control system, characterized by a negatively perceptible rigidity in every playful (video) situation.
And it's a shame to find yourself barking at the pad, when as a substratum of the experience there is an at least enjoyable plot and a playful canvas rich in dozens of nuances, unfortunately exploited in a very unconvincing way. A touch of freshness and relative frivolity is given by the introduction of an additional controllable character, Toko Fukawa, introducing button mashing mechanics to the title. Considering the endemic problems related to the management of the virtual camera, the ability to smash through the air simply by hammering Dual Shock 4 is somewhat cathartic and liberating.
Also on a graphic level (and we refer to textures and amount of polygons on video, in particular) there are no noticeable improvementson the contrary: the small screen of Vita was able to mask all the imperfections which, on screens of very different dimensions, emerge instead overbearing.
Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls breaks away from the “usual” mood of the series, transforming itself, with courage and little success, into a third person shooter of dubious quality, woody and somewhat repetitive. While the story is enjoyable and full of internal and external references to the franchise, Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls for PlayStation 4 is a port that needed to be treated with more love, considering how little or nothing has changed since the original PS Vita edition. .
