The game was released in Japan on October 13, 2016, and worldwide in March 2017. The game is a tech demo where the player aims to uncover who was behind a murder in a "class trial" from the first game in the series, Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc. It was well received by critics, who enjoyed its visuals.
Gameplay
The player partakes in a class trial, and turns their head to aim the camera at characters whose testimony they want to refute.
Cyber Danganronpa VR is a virtual reality tech demo in which the player plays through the fourth "class trial" from the adventure gameDanganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc, where the player aims to uncover who was behind the murder of Sakura Ogami;[1] unlike the original game, which uses 2D cutouts for characters, Cyber Danganronpa VR uses 3D models.[2] The player character's classmates give testimonies, which appear as words; if the player notices something in the testimony that seems suspicious, they can refute the words by shooting them with "truth bullets".[3] To do this, the player needs to turn their head toward the character who testified, and press a button on the DualShock 4 controller.[1][2] The game takes around ten minutes to play through,[4] and ends with a first-person sequence where the character Monokuma executes the player.[2]
The tech demo was released digitally for the PlayStation 4 on October 13, 2016 in Japan and Hong Kong; it was made available freely for PlayStation Plus subscribers, with no release announced for players without a subscription.[3][7] The Hong Kong release was made available in English, with English voice overs; Spike Chunsoft announced in October 2016 that they were working towards releasing that version in the West.[7] It was released in North America on March 7, 2017, and in Europe on March 10.[8]
Reception
Hardcore Gamer's Edward Dang was positive to the tech demo, and hoped that it would lead to virtual reality releases of complete Danganronpa games.[5] Jordan Devore at Destructoid thought that the game did not look exciting based on off-screen footage, but noted that this often is the case for virtual reality games, and thought that it "could be the start of something neat".[6] Chris Carter, also writing for Destructoid, enjoyed the tech demo and called it worth playing, but not something to get excited over due to its short length.[7] Aki Otsuki at 4Gamer.net recommended the game, and said that experiencing the punishment sequence in virtual reality was horrifying.[1]Famitsu liked the immersion given by the virtual reality and the 360-degree movements.[9] Hiroaki Mabuchi at IGN Japan said that the new environment graphics were a great reproduction of their Trigger Happy Havoc counterparts, and that the mysterious atmosphere suited Danganronpa well.[10]
