Playstation VR is only two weeks away. If that causes you minor alarm, I get it. That’s like, really soon. Sooner than I’ve even accounted for. As the commercial launch date for Playstation VR quickly approaches before our very eyes, as does a constant trickle of announcements about what’s coming to the platform first. The latest comes from a familiar name for owners of Playstation’s portable platforms: Cyber Danganronpa VR: Class Trial, of the frenetic visual novel series Danganronpa. But there’s a catch—not everyone’s getting it.
Watch the chaos of accusations unravel all around you
The newest tease in the Danganronpa universe is set to launch alongside the Playstation VR on October 13th in Japan, but for Playstation Plus subscribers only. It’ll be free for those lucky subscribers, but, as of now, there’s no set date or price for release outside of that. Given that the experience is only a sliver of the Danganronpa series and hardly a game, perhaps the free for subscribers price is the right course of action.
For the few unawares, the Danganronpa series is a popular visual novel and Ace Attorney trial-ish enduring series from Spike Chunsoft. The games follow a group of talented students who are trapped in a place—like a school or an island—and baited to kill one another by an ominous teddy bear for a chance at freedom. Except, there’s always a trial to piece together clues to find the murderer. If the right person among them is convicted, everyone lives and the murderer is executed. If the wrong person is convicted, then it’s game over and everyone dies, the murderer now free to escape. The killer revealed in a trial is nearly always a complete surprise, and trials where emotions run high is part of what makes Danganronpa work so well as a series with such a morbid, absurd concept.
To be honest, I never expected to hear more about Cyber Danganronpa VR: Class Trial. It was initially broadcasted as a mere tech demo at Ani-Com and Games Hong Kong back in July 2015. And after that, it was crickets. The tech demo plopped you into a trial from the first Danganronpa game—Danganronpa: Trigger Happy Havoc—as you watched the chaos of accusations and connecting dots unravel all around you. The demo had another notable difference from the game it spawned from, as it was in 3D, not the atypical 2D cutouts we’re used to from its predecessors. Luckily, the characters still appear just as colorful and borderline psychotic as they do in their flat counterparts.
Cyber Danganronpa VR: Class Trial will launch on Playstation VR on October 13th for Playstation Plus subscribers in Japan only. Luckily it’s free, but news of it releasing westward or outside of Playstation Plus remain to be a mystery. Also unrelated, but the long-awaited third, main entry in the series New Danganronpa V3 will be released in Japan for Playstation 4 and Playstation Vita in January.
