September 25th marks the 12th anniversary of Spike Chunsoft’s Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls. The game, which hit shelves in 2014, serves as an action-adventure third-person shooter spin-off of the original Danganronpa series. Players follow Komaru Naegi, the younger sister of Makoto Naegi from the first game, alongside Toko Fukawa, another key character from the franchise’s debut title.
To celebrate this milestone, series creator Kazutaka Kodaka shared his thoughts on the development of Ultra Despair Girls via X, offering insights into the challenges and triumphs of bringing the project to life.
Kodaka revealed that he views Ultra Despair Girls as a career highlight, stating that he believes he’ll “never be able to write another scenario that surpasses it.”
The development journey was fraught with difficulties, particularly when it came to crafting the game’s event cutscenes. Kodaka explained that he and his team often worked through the night to complete these scenes, only to have their progress erased when the software they used would crash, wiping hours of labor. Kodaka wasn’t a fan of staying overnight at the office (a practice that was common in the industry, especially during the late 90s and early 00s), so he’d typically take a taxi home at his own expense after midnight (when public transport in Japan ceased operations) for a brief rest before returning to work.
Despite the hardships, Kodaka’s goal was to ensure players “absolutely cry” by experiencing the bond between Komaru and Fukawa, which may explain his unwavering dedication to the project.
In a past interview, Kodaka noted that he doesn’t deem his emotional scenes finished unless they move him to tears. “When I test play the game and a tear falls down my cheek, that’s when I consider it complete. This is non-negotiable for me. […] If I can’t cry, I switch back to the creator’s mindset and figure out what’s missing,” he explained.
Danganronpa Another Episode: Ultra Despair Girls is currently available on PC (Steam) and PlayStation 4.
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