In a recent interview with Siliconera, writer Kodaka Kazutaka spoke in-depth about the villains of the series as well as the plot twists littered throughout Danganronpa 2: Goodbye Despair as well as the rest of the series.
In the interview Kazutaka shared his thoughts on the function of the protagonist as a vessel for the player to portray themselves in the world. He also talked about the difficulty in crafting villains that were worthy of Danganronpa and explains the reasoning behind the ending to Danganronpa 2.
WARNING: If you haven’t caught up on the series then do not read the interview. It contains massive spoilers!
Is it important to have a Tabula Rosa protagonist for a visual novel since a player is projecting themselves onto the protagonist?
Kodaka Kazutaka, Writer at Spike Chunsoft: Originally, it wasn’t planned that way. I didn’t think about having people project themselves on to Makoto. What I wanted to do was to show the difference between how unique the other characters were compared to Makoto. As I was writing, bit by bit Makoto started to grow through the story and forced him to eventually act. Makoto went from not acting to action.The big twist at the end of Danganronpa 2 was Junko being alive. Why did you bring her back? Did you feel you need an overarching villain for the series?
The ending is open to interpretation. In Japan, there is a pretty big debate among fans. Is she alive? Is she not? Should she be? In America it’s different. There is an idea of un-killable villains that have to stay alive like the Joker from Batman and Magneto in X-Men. I don’t feel that Junko needs to be a nemesis that cannot be killed. At the same time, I don’t know what will happen either way. I’m still deciding her ultimate fate.
I also don’t feel that I can create a character that will top Junko. It would be great if I could make an even stronger villain character, but if not what would I do then?
To read the rest of this interview, visit www.siliconera.com