Not explicitly shown but throughout the game byakuya hints that he was made to survive his family, it is confirmed that he grew up in an abusive household
Yes. One of the characters, though I won't mention their name (I'm looking at you, other comment), is revealed to have killed their own sibling.
There is also another instance in which a character was revealed to have killed their sibling, though it was not intentional.
People, obviously including women, do get brutalized (or at least, it's implied they do on account of the player usually only stumbling across the aftermath) on account of this being a murder mystery but the only time it really happens on-screen for spectacle is during the series trademark executions that happen to the culprits at the end of a case. In terms of this specific game, only the one for the first case is really particularly brutal though as it's a left over from when the game was set to have a much darker tone. The rest of the executions in game tend to lean more towards focusing on style with some light dark comedy elements over being particularly brutal. However, the third game, V3, does revert to the brutal tone of the first execution for the whole game, as a heads up. V3, the Danganronpa 3 anime that wraps up the plot of the first two games, and the spin off Another Episode all tend to lean towards the darker side of things, so if you decide to play the rest of the series after this one just keep that in mind.
For some of the violent/abusive characters, it is confirmed in-game (or assumed/up for speculation overall) that they were neglected/abused/traumatized before the events of the Killing Game.
Technically, yes.
The entire game takes place in a school in which they believe they have been trapped in and are being mentally manipulated into killing one another.
No, but one character does offer to buy the protagonist a 'brewski' in the opening sequence. Due to the closed-circle nature of the situation they're soon shown to be in, this offer cannot be redeemed in-game.
YES. One of the characters is drugged for a plot of murder. Also, the beginning of the game has ambiguous implications of the main character(s) getting drugged before they are presented in the Killing Game. One of the murders also involves lethal poison.
There’s no explicit intercourse but there are several sexual comments and sexual harassment made towards (allegedly) underage characters. However as already mentioned in other sections above, one of the ending plot twists reveals the fact that the characters have had the past two years of their lives erased from their memory, meaning they are actually 18/19, instead of 16/17 like both the characters and the player thought they were prior, so it’s up to you whether this no longer qualifies in hindsight, or the fact that the characters at the time believe themselves to be underage to be enough to still constitute as such.
A female character makes a false rape claim in order to manipulate someone into killing the supposed rapist, going as far as to say the rapist took pictures of the act and is trying to blackmail her with them. She herself admits this was a complete lie later on when she is found out and has zero remorse over making this false claim and the death that befalls the accused because of this.
There’s an optional scene where three of the boys, protagonist included, peek into the bathhouse. A female character ends up calling another female character a s**t and another insults a girl on her chest size. One character lies about being sexually harassed.
One of the characters is shown to cut their leg to keep track of how many people they've killed, but the cutting itself never happens onscreen or during the events of the game.
In addition to the wrist snapping, another character takes off their gloves to reveal burn scars on their hands. The circumstances that led to these scars are briefly discussed.
There is one character who is grabbed by a chain around their neck. They reach for the chain, either trying to get it off or because they cannot breath.
One execution ends with the victom being literally liquified. We mever see the liquification on screen, but if you really wanna count that as body horror, then by all means.
Technically...in a way. In chapter 2, of the character's bodies gets tampered with by a certain other character, and it makes it sort of look like a hanging.
Several characters are intentionally knocked unconscious. Two of the characters with DID frequently switch. A character is also drugged in order to knock them out.
Sorta? In the first scene of the game, a man is launched into space. His rocket ship goes up, plummets back down, and opens to reveal that he has become a skeleton during the process.
no but one of the characters’ eyes appear to be on fire throughout most of chapter 3, though it does not seem to be painful. also probably worth mentioning: one of the characters has a split personality and when they switch, their eyes change (one has round, grey irises, and the other has wavy, red irises)
Some might argue technically no, but for the sake of trigger warning, yes. (Major story spoilers) Most of the characters are revealed to be approximately 18 years old near the end of the story, but that doesn't mean much when throughout the entire game they themselves and the player believe they're 16 or so years old.
Technically the cast is retconned as 18-19 via the twist that two years have passed without them realized but are still framed as if they were high schoolers and a few characters are still sexualized to varying degrees
A robotic bear who is being used as a proxy for the main antagonist. An A.I clone of a main character is also seemingly destroyed but they are revealed later to have just uploaded themselves elsewhere.
Mondo’s brother’s death is shown onscreen in a flashback. He is hit by a truck on the highway while driving a motorbike. It’s mentioned at the end of the game that Byakuya’s entire family lineage has been murdered. Makoto is shown footage that heavily implies his family has been murdered. His sister is revealed in later games to be ok but it’s left vague if his parents died or not.
(Major story spoilers) The first scene of the game is a man being killed in a space ship. Near the end of the game, it is revealed that this man was the father of one of the central characters.
There are no ghosts, however there is extensive talk about them (mostly in the context of "this character thinks there is a ghost, we have to explain to them why there isn't")
Yes, technically all body discoveries are jumpscares. However, before you find one it always says something along the lines of "There was something waiting for me that I would never forget" then shows the dead body
There is also an Easter egg scene featuring all the girls in the communal bath. It is possible to play through the game without ever seeing the scene if you don't have the right item.
One character believes he has been possessed by his dead classmate's spirit, and he looks and acts differently throughout chapter 3 (original comment by user leofbadger, changed to save spoilers)
Not live, but it is mentioned that the protagonist used to wet the bed until he was well into elementary school. This is presented as his most embarrassing secret. While it's far less dire than the secrets of certain others, it might still bring back bad memories.
Monokuma claims that a giant plant in the greenhouse is a maneating plant but it’s never made clear if he’s telling the truth or just screwing with Makoto. The plant never eats anyone or anything at any point.
No copaganda present in this game; quite the opposite, actually. The main villain insults one of the main characters for threatening to call the police. In the same scene, he also calls the police "a group of losers".
transphobic slurs are never used, but there is some transphobia concerning one of the characters. this character is cis, but the way they are handled within the story is trans phobic.
As mentioned above, Toko has DID. Bizarrely, the game mislabels it as “schizo” as in schizophrenia In one of the puzzle solutions but this is incorrect.
A character is revealed to have a serial killer alter, who is brought out whenever they sneeze, faint from seeing blood, or electrocute themself with a taser. A mini-game from the trial in which they are revealed has the player spell out "schizo" in the NISA translation.
It’s revealed in the ending that the apocalypse occurred outside without the characters knowing, and they are left questioning whether this is true or whether the villain is just lying to them or exaggerating the truth and while the ending never explain this, the sequels do confirm this to be true.
It's about a killing game, so almost everyone has at least a little bit of a one at some point
The culprits usually have a really bad one when they get found out, since they're about to be killed
Toko Fukawa deals with body dysphoria and is very vocal about her insecurities about her own body. She sometimes takes them out on other students by body-shaming or sl*t-shaming them/other body types.
Though not an eating disorder, I mention this as it might be triggering: one character grows close to a blackened, and after their execution the character doesn't eat for a few days.
Plenty of stingers used for emphasis or horror can be jarring, especially the stinger that’s used when a body is discovered by the player. Other loud sound effects are used, such as during executions.
Characters frequently swear and make sexual references throughout the game. Monokuma is the most frequent violator of this, often insulting others and making inappropriate jokes and comments.
The characters are aware that they are constantly being watched by Monokuma and the Mastermind via the numerous cameras around the school, but they don’t know that the cameras are being broadcast worldwide and are being watched by the general public of the entire world.
[SPOILERS] Technically, none of the characters are underaged while having children. They were forced to forget three years of their lives, so while they think they are late teens (around sixteen or seventeen), they are actually closer to early twenties.
One character, unfortunately a victim, is found postmortem to be AMAB, which surprises many characters seeing as they presented as female. While this is very important to the plot and even ties into the motive for why they were murdered (without necessarily implying that their killer did so for transphobic reasons, at least not consciously), the presentation leans on certain tropes (ex. the character realizing this putting the fact quite crudely while panicking, one character initially acting calm while recounting the situation before suddenly unleashing a long "WHAT?", and a third party who was recently revealed as a serial killer of only men regretting not being the one to kill them), and a character who refers to something resembling this character later as feminine is treated as strange. On top of this, one female character (coincidentally the person investigating the body of previous) is also very muscular and broadly built, and catches a LOT of shit for it, even by the protagonist's thoughts.
There's a character who is AMAB, and presented as female to the group. The group discovers they were AMAB after their death, and immediately switch pronouns, without questioning if that's what they wanted to be called.
Racism, transphobia, fatphobia, and especially ableism are written into the game.
One of the students is revealed to have a mental disorder which is tastelessly portrayed, and plenty of ableist insults are used in the game overall.
Hiro and Sakura get the brunt of the anti-blackness; Hifumi is the embodiment of the "fat geek" stereotype, which is mostly played at his expense; and the major twist in one of the trials may trigger trauma in trans individuals as a result of bioessentialist stereotypes.
Well...not in the game itself. If you play the optional, non-canon demo, the singular black(-coded? at least? either that or we REALLY need to talk to him) character is the victim. However, in the game itself, while the writing certainly doesn't do him any favors, he successfully survives past the epilogue without any major injuries. I guess that's one way to trick a universe biased against you.
in her introduction, its mentioned that Sakura is called the "missing link" between humans and apes online. while the game only explicitly connects it to her physical size/strength, she's the darkest-skinned character in the game, so its also pretty racist.
I don't believe it's discussed in this game, but Leon's cousin Kanon has romantic feelings for him, which he does not reciprocate. Kanon is not featured in this game, but there is an incestuous relationship in a different game in the series (V3).
While it isn't a direct result of Alzheimer's or dementia, memory loss is a major plot device in the story. Additionally, two characters experience significant amnesia as a result of a mental disorder they both share.
There is a “bad ending” that could be interpreted as sad, but it’s more humorous considering it’s not really an ending, and after getting it the games takes you back so you can see the real ending
Yes, the game has a lot of blood and gore due to its premise of a killing game. All the blood is bright pink instead of red, which for some people may be enough to not trigger them.