Danganronpa PlayStation Vita PS Vita Interview 1

Interviews are something that we're trying to do more of here on Push Square. Hearing directly from the personalities behind our favourite games is always going to make for an interesting read, but unfortunately, we don't always get a lot of time. In this instance, we managed to pin down Danganronpa producer Yoshinori Terasawa just long enough to pry a few answers from him regarding the brutal murder mystery titles, but being such a busy man, we couldn't possibly demand that we continue the interrogation back at headquarters. As a result, here's what will probably become known as our quickest ever interview.

Push Square: Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc and Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair were both very well received by Western critics and players. Did you anticipate such positive feedback? How important is it to maintain a Western fanbase?

Yoshinori Terasawa: [Laughs] Totally not! In the first place, I didn't even know it would be releasable for the Western audience. It was developed for a Japanese audience.

Danganronpa PlayStation Vita PS Vita Interview 2

Danganronpa's characters are some of the craziest that we've seen in a long time. Was there difficulty in creating such dynamic characters?

Because this is a closed-circle mystery game, we didn't want to have too many characters. The characters are very limited, so we wanted to incorporate a very typical personality for everyone.

Danganronpa's plot has countless twists and turns. Can you tell us anything about the process of creating each game's story? Were you anticipating sequels?

Not at all! [Laughs]

Danganronpa PlayStation Vita PS Vita Interview 3

Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair introduced a number of new gameplay elements during courtroom battles. How did you come up with so many strange courtroom interpretations?

We figured that having the same gameplay as the first Danganronpa game, it wouldn't entertain the users as much. We tried our best to create something new that the users would definitely enjoy.

Despite being a series about brutal murder, Danganronpa can often be quite humorous. How important was it to include some comedy in otherwise serious games?

[Laughs] If we did keep it as a serious game, it would only appease a certain group of people and be very niche. So, in order to have the attention of a more general audience, we wanted to add some elements of pop art and make it more casual to relate to everyone. We're not hiding the fact that it's serious, but we wanted to catch the attention of a wider audience.

Can you tell us anything about the future of Danganronpa? Are there any new games on the horizon?

We're trying! Please look forward to it!

And there you have it. Are you a Danganronpa fan? Do you hope to see a fully fledged sequel to Goodbye Despair at some point in the future? Scream bloody murder in the comments section below.

[ Special thanks to Ron DelVillano ]