Dangan Ronpa V3: Killing Harmony

From Fanlore
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Video game fandom
NameDangan Ronpa V3: Killing Harmony
Japanese nameニューダンガンロンパV3 みんなのコロシアイ新学期, lit. New Danganronpa V3: Everyone's New Semester of Mutual Killing
Abbreviation(s)NDRV3, DRV3
Developer(s)Spike Chunsoft
Publisher(s)Spike Chunsoft
Release date12 Jaunary 2017 (JPN)
26 September 2017 (NA)
Platform(s)PlayStation 4 and PS Vita before coming to various platforms.
Genre(s)Visual Novel
External link(s)https://danganronpa.fandom.com/wiki/Danganronpa_V3:_Killing_Harmony
See alsoDangan Ronpa
Related articles on Fanlore.


Dangan Ronpa V3: Killing Harmony is the third entry of Dangan Ronpa. It starts 16 students, who must get away with murder if they wish to escape the Ultimate Academy for Gifted Juveniles.

Listed alphabetically, the students are Angie Yonaga, Gonta Gokuhara, Himiko Yumeno, Kaede Akamatsu, Kaito Momota, Kiibo, Kirumi Tojo, Kokichi Ouma, Korekiyo Shinguji, Maki Harukawa, Miu Iruma, Rantaro Amami, Ryoma Hoshi, Shuichi Saihara, Tenko Chabashira and Tsumugi Shirogane. Monokuma hosts along with the Monocubs.

Shipping

The most popular pairing for Killing Harmony is Ouma x Saihara. Other popular ships include Akamatsu x Saihara, Harukawa x Momota and Momota x Saihara.

Remaining common pairings include Iruma x Kiibo, Gokuhara x Ouma, Chabashira x Yumeno, Akamatsu x Iruma and Momota x Ouma. Shinguji x Yumeno is also shipped.

Fan Reception

Spoiler Warning: This article or section may contain spoilers. If this bothers you, proceed with caution.


Controversies and ties to antis

DRV3 is one of the most controversial entries of the franchise. While some things like the art style and the soundtrack are unanimously praised, the writing and plot are constantly discussed and have had a considerable impact on the fanbase.

Controversial topics include:

  • Generally: The Monocubs are mostly seen as abrasive, useless and just utter time-waster, in a game that is already twice as long as the other entries and doesn't necessarily justify it. The quality of the writing itself is also contentious, as well as the abrasiveness of some characters.
  • Chapter 1: The first female protagonist of a mainline DR game (with a much different characterization at that) is replaced by yet another male protagonist who doesn't bring much to the table. The twist ruined the game for a lot of people and is a frequent topic of discussion (so much that one of the most popular fics switches both characters).
  • Chapter 3: Aside from general predictability, as by this point, every chapter 3 has featured a double kill, the killer reveal involves incest, which put off many people, especially as the DR fanbase includes a lot of teenagers and antis.
  • Chapter 6 and the epilogue: DRV3 gets the most meta out of the whole franchise, but the writing is so ambiguous that it's unclear what the author really meant with this game. It is "revealed" that the killing game participants are actually in a TV game, with actual viewers from "the outside world" egging them on. Their comments are very reflective of what DR fans actually say (at least, at the time the game came out) and the game clearly plays with how it seems to accuse the audience (both fake and real) of being responsible for upholding the killing games in the first place. It's also "revealed" that the previous installments are fictional in DRV3's setting. At the end, the remaining characters all sacrifice themselves to stop Danganronpa, the franchise. However, the epilogue reveals that some of them survived, and the protagonist thinks that the mastermind could have lied about anything and everything. Such an ending effectively split the fanbase: with the game not committing to any actual truth, it was not only hard to make up your mind about the game, but also to discuss it with other fans. Was the writer tired of Danganronpa? How many lies had the mastermind told both the audience and itself, if any? With such a confusing world building, contradictions within the text itself, and a lack of decisive evidence for anything the game revealed, half of the players felt insulted for having played through the whole franchise, while the other half enjoyed the many twists and didn't feel personally attacked. The writer, meanwhile, denied the game having any such meaning in interviews and declared that "the outside world" didn't represent the actual real world players, which can't necessarily be taken at face value, as even before he commented on anything, a considerate part of the fanbase was angry at him. With the game exploring the relationship between art and its audience (similarly to Undertale), it's not surprising that the fanbase has a lot of antis. Taken at face value, the game might be thought to indicate that players of Danganronpa are cruel, sadistic and that by buying DRV3, they're supporting the same kind of massacres. The game came out in 2017, when antis (in their current, 2023 incarnation) gained prominence, notably through the VLD fandom. It made discussing many parts of the Danganronpa franchise dangerous, when it wasn't the case before then.

Localization, ports and Danganronpa S

Surprising everybody, Killing Harmony received not only an English official translation, but also a French one. The French localization was noted to be of better quality, although complaints include graphic typos, an overly formal language register and a consequent mistake in one of the post-main story minigames. It notably didn't alter Gonta Gokuhara's speech to make him a Tarzan copy (which contradicts the essence of the character, as he tries to be a gentleman) like the English localization, nor did it insert memes.

Other languages didn't get the same luck, however, and French speakers were disappointed to discover that not only would the French TL not be present on the Nintendo Switch port of the trilogy, but the new party game, Danganronpa S, would only be available in English. The French fan translation team, which was at the time translating the second main game, quickly declared that they wouldn't translate the new installment, as they considered that DR S didn't add anything to the story, its script files were messy, and the overall game wasn't particularly interesting in itself. Unsurprisingly, the DRS's rating on Metacritic and Steam is barely average, whereas the other games were received more favorably.

Fan Opinions

TBA

Example/Notable Fanac

Fan Communties/Fan Events

Fan Fic

  • I'd Trade My Life For Yours by grayimperia, a rewrite that takes place in an AU where the outcome of the first chapter's trial is different.
  • Candy (Russian Конфета, Romanized Konfeta) by надеждасексуал (Romanized nadezhdasexual) - A SaiOuma fic that is currently deleted, but caused a huge controversy in Russian-speaking fandom back in 2020, when the author posted it with PG-13 rating and the "Fluff" tag, but the work actually contained explicit gore.

Other Main-Series Dangan Ronpa Games on Fanlore

References/Further Reading

Retrieved from "https://fanlore.org/w/index.php?title=Dangan_Ronpa_V3:_Killing_Harmony&oldid=2587528"