Danganronpa 2x2 looks neat, but our Tokyo Game Show demo told us almost nothing we didn't already know

One of the games I was most excited to check out during this year's Tokyo Game Show was Danganronpa 2x2 - while I haven't consistently been the biggest fan of the franchise, I liked Danganronpa 2 well enough back on the Vita, and the idea of getting a full-blown remake alongside a brand new version of the story that completely diverges from the original, set to be even longer than the original? Well, that's essentially Danganronpa 4 by any other name, and the name of the package rather cheekily seems to know it.

Unfortunately, our hands-on with the game was rather limited - about 15 minutes during the original scenario's first Class Trial, and 15 minutes of very heavily railroaded exploration within the new Slayhem mode. It gave us an idea of how the remake looks, and the fact that our demo was on a rather unassuming looking laptop suggests that those PC recommended specs don't tell the whole story - Spike Chunsoft PR mentioned that they plan to clarify the PC requirements in the near future - but as for the nitty gritty of the new scenario? Yeah, we know just a bit more than you, and most of what we learned that is new we're strictly forbidden from sharing.

So, what can we talk about? Visually, the remake looks stunning; the new isometric world map is a nice change of pace, even if it would've been hilarious to see the sidescrolling segments upgraded to the new visuals. The new portraits, similarly, are quite nice. They don't have the Live2D-esque animation all the time, only really showing up for especially emotive moments, which is good - I was worried they might've been overused in practice. 

As for the new story, we got to see the very opening moments as things begin to diverge; we learn about the Slayhem items, and it's clear that things only really start diverging a bit later after they're introduced. Most of the core narrative elements leading up to the first class trial at least seem to remain similar to the original story - though, of course, we're missing a lot of that crucial context as to how and why things ultimately change. I don't envy Spike Chunsoft here, honestly - it must be a herculean task to try and balance showing what's new about this new narrative without actively spoiling what happens.

As for the Class Trial segment from the original narrative - well, I suppose it was part of our demo to give us a taste for how things feel in HD, but it's not like anything stood out as particularly new. It's got a nice glow up, but yet again we'll have to wait until January to get a better idea for how exactly the remake and its additional narrative stacks up. I'm excited to see what Spike Chunsoft has in store for us, it's just a shame that it was a tough break trying to get a feel for those changes within the scope of our preview session.

Danganronpa 2x2 launches on January 14, 2027 for PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, PC, Nintendo Switch and Nintendo Switch 2. Stay tuned for our further impressions as we approach the game's release date.