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This article contains spoilers for Danganronpa: Lapse, proceed at your own risk.
Danganronpa: Lapse is a completely released English fangame created by the American developer Mythridate. The game has four playable chapters, a prologue and an epilogue.
The definitive edition of the game was released on April 14th, 2022.
"10 students find themselves trapped in a luxurious mansion and soon discover there is only one requirement for escape- to kill each other.
Follow the story through Echo Pine’s eyes, unraveling the secrets of their enclosure and the secrets of their fellow students." - Official Synopsis[1]
Plot Summary[]
Prologue: What's In The Middle?[]
This plot summary contains major spoilers for Danganronpa:Lapse!
A group of 10 high school students wake up in various rooms of a luxurious mansion with all their possessions taken away and no memory of how they arrived there. They learned that the mansion was a safe house, built as part of the government's Preservation Project, a project that had allowed students to volunteer to stay at the safe house as protection against a series of Earth-shattering earthquakes that had been tearing through the planet. Each student present had volunteered for the project and had an Ultimate talent—an extraordinary skill that put them at the top of their chosen field—with the exception of Echo, who doesn't appear to have an identifiable talent and has no knowledge about the quakes or the Preservation Project.
The students each receive a special ID bracelet, which they can use to interact with digital kiosks around the building. The digital kiosks contain a map of the current floor, and when a bracelet is scanned, the kiosks provide many functions, such as unlocking areas, dispensing food in the kitchen, displaying a list of books in the library, or acting as a terminal to send text messages to students who accessed other kiosks in the safe house.
After spending some time trying to get used to their new surroundings, Echo has a panic attack as a result of the anxiety they feel about not belonging within a group of Ultimate Students and, in fear, grabs the main door handle to try and flee the mansion, only to be electrocuted and knocked unconscious. Shocked that the mansion wasn't the safehouse they thought it was, the students learn from an announcement that by volunteering for the Preservation Project, they had, in fact, volunteered to participate in a killing game. The killing game is scheduled to last seven days, with the goal being to kill a fellow student and not get caught in order to win an unspecified "Ultimate Prize". The announcement also specifies that the students are sealed within the mansion, and anyone trying to escape will be punished, corroborated by Echo's electrocution.
Chapter 1: Je N'Peux Réussir[]
This plot summary contains major spoilers for Danganronpa:Lapse!
On their third day of captivity, the students were given the Forced Motive question, "Are your talents a true representation of who you are? Who are you beyond your talent?", and reminded that if nobody died by the end of the day, they would all be killed. After hearing all the students' thoughts on the Forced Motive Question, Lyle led Echo and Art to the foyer. Lyle showed them that he had managed to deactivate the electrocution mechanism on the front door; however, they found that behind the deactivated door was a barricade still preventing them from escaping. Additionally, Echo learned that Lyle, Sei, and Pandora had each found a note seeming to imply that someone in the group was a spy, and, based on the note, Lyle speculated that everyone in the group was meant to recognize someone else. There seemed to be merit to this idea, as Echo and Ashley were friends before the killing game, and Lyle remembered that he knew Art previously because Lyle and Art's high schools had merged together.
After 4pm passed without any murder, the announcer played a loud, annoying song on repeat over every speaker in the mansion as an incentive for the students to stop living so peacefully. Trying to get away from the music, Echo went into the foyer where they saw a shadow move upstairs, which they followed, leading them to find Pandora's corpse in a lounge chair in the spa. After a period of investigation, the group proceeded to enact their first Class Trial. In the court room, they were introduced to Zero, one of the voices that delivered the announcements over the loud speaker, who appeared in hologram form as the Class Trial judge. Although Lyle was the initial suspect in the killing, after some careful discussion of the evidence, the group deduced that Art was Pandora's murderer. Pandora, relaxing in the spa room, could not hear the "motivational music" because the room was soundproof. Pandora had shown Art the secret note, and he suspected that she was the gamemaster. The pair had a small chat about Ultimate talents; Pandora believed them to be a blessing, but Art felt that his Ultimate was a curse - he had been used as a pawn for important peoples' business deals, which had caused him to hate golf, something he used to love. As the Forced Motive Question had implied, due to being forced to perform Art did not know who he was beyond the scope of his talent because he had never been allowed to explore other possibilities. With his suspicions of Pandora being the gamemaster having combined with the buried feelings of resentment towards his talent being brought forward by their conversation, Art snapped and strangled Pandora to death with a towel. The group were unable to accept that Art could have killed Pandora, but Kanon presented definitive proof - a timestamped photo taken in the atrium featuring Art fleeing the spa, proving that Art was the shadow that Echo had seen. Art was found guilty of murdering Pandora, and promptly executed - his head was beaten in by a golf club-wielding giant bear obstacle on a mini golf course, and his cause of death deemed "death by Extreme Hazard".
After the trial, Zero revealed that the mansion was safe from the earthquakes outside because it resided in something called the "Monokuma Superstructure", funded by the business deals forged on the golf course where Art had been forced to play. Zero, reveling in the group's despair at seeing their friend executed in front of them, was interrupted by the "silvery voice" of the other announcer - whom Zero called "Eve". Eve appeared to be trying to work against Zero, and revealed that Echo had been given the Ultimate title of "Ultimate Memory". In retaliation, Zero revealed that Cyrus was "someone to be wary of" because the title he claimed to have - Ultimate Charisma - was not his real talent. In the aftermath of the revelations, Echo passed out.
Chapter 2: Every Fire is a Lesson Learned[]
This plot summary contains major spoilers for Danganronpa:Lapse!
After Zero sowed the seeds of suspicion about Cyrus, Cyrus' demeanor changed and he began acting strangely, revealing he was in fact the Ultimate Thief. He revealed that the reason none of the group remembered how they got to the mansion - other than the vague memory of being knocked out - is because the location of the mansion is supposed to be top secret. Lyle suggested that him knowing this information must mean he is involved in the killing game. Cyrus did not respond, only laughed, and left the group with the revelation that "you were all doomed from the moment you set foot here. I know for a fact... Nothing you do will save you from this game."
After Cyrus left the group, each student left the courtroom to their personal rooms to process all they had just witnessed. Missy and Ashley helped Echo, who was still passed out, back to Ashley's room. Waking up to find themselves in Ashley's room, Echo spotted a racing helmet, and was confused because they were under the impression that none of the students were allowed to keep any of their personal belongings when they were taken. Ashley told Echo and Missy the story of her former friend - Silva Prower, the Ultimate Racecar Driver. Their friendship had splintered because of the Preservation Project; while Ashley was eager to join the project in order to take advantage of the safety it would bring them from the earthquakes, Silva was suspicious that the organization behind it was incredibly secretive, and did not trust it. Their differing opinions led to a rift that meant they stopped talking to one another, but Ashley signed herself and Silva up to the Preservation Project anyway. She felt foolish for not having listened to Silva's gut feeling, since she was now stuck in the killing game. She apologized deeply to Echo for distancing herself from them, because she had thought that "the killing game would go away if I removed Echo from being involved with my troubles". After meeting with Forte in the Dining Hall, where they had a brief chat about Art, Missy suggested the group should stick together from then on because of Cyrus' suspicious behavior. Ashley, Echo, and Missy went together to investigate the newly opened third floor, and escorted Forte to his personal room.
On the third floor, the trio found four new activity amenities that were currently locked, and two personal rooms for students not in their group. One of the door symbols matched the symbol that was on the front of Silva Prower's racecar helmet, and Missy recognized the symbol on the other door. Before they could open the doors, Cyrus interrupted them, revealing that he knew the two other students' names - Silva and Darling. He revealed that as the Ultimate Thief, someone monumentally successful at stealing priceless goods and working in the shadows, he was uniquely able to take the next step in thievery to include snatching people from their homes - he was the person responsible for knocking the students out and bringing them to the mansion. Before Cyrus could reveal anything more, the group was interrupted by the 10pm nighttime announcement, and had to go back to their respective living quarters. After a brief chat with a seemingly dissociative and upset Kanon, the group all went to bed.
On Day 4, Missy woke all the students and encouraged them to join her in the foyer so she could make a personal announcement. Missy, Echo, Ashley, Kanon, and Forte were all in attendance, but Lyle, Cyrus, and Sei were not. She revealed to the group that when she arrived at the mansion, she had found a revolver in her room with a note attached, imploring her to play a game of "Reverse Russian Roulette" - load five bullets into the gun, spin the chamber and fire it at her head. She insisted she had not attempted the game, but wanted to reveal the existence of the gun to the others to prove that she wanted nothing to do with it, and that she had no intention to harm anyone. The group thanked Missy for trusting them with information that could have easily made them suspicious of her if the gun had been discovered in other circumstances. The gun was left in the foyer.
After stumbling onto Lyle trashing the dining hall, the group were presented with the second Forced Motive Question: "Do you believe your talent can benefit the world?", and then returned to the foyer once more. Missy stalked off to try and reason with Cyrus, and the rest of the group left to investigate the third floor again. They found nothing of note in the art gallery, smokehouse, or casino, but upon entering the car garage, Ashley was horrified to find Silva's race car. Ashley, realizing that this was likely confirmation that Silva had also been trapped in the Preservation Project killing game and was possibly dead, panicked. Echo tried to comfort her, suggesting that it could simply be the puzzlemaster trying to get a rise out of her by exploiting the knowledge that her friendship with Silva was troubled. Missy returned to the group, having attempted to interrogate Cyrus, and told them that she suspected that Cyrus' facade of being the Ultimate Thief was not genuine. With all this in mind, Ashley and Missy immediately decided to tie Cyrus up for the foreseeable future to keep him from hurting anyone.
Ashley and Echo went to retrieve rope from the climbing wall room, but were interrupted by the sound of gun shots. They rushed towards the noise, which came from the smokehouse, though before they could enter, Ashley pushed Echo into the Art Gallery to keep them safe, and entered alone. After hearing shouting and another shot, Echo scrambled to get out of the Art Gallery, but found themselves locked in - Ashley had sealed the door with rope from outside. Inside the smokehouse, Ashley confronted Cyrus, who threatened to kill her with the gun he had retrieved from the foyer. The pair fought, and Cyrus revealed to Ashley that Silva was dead - he had killed the six other students who should have attended the killing game before it began. Cyrus attempted to incapacitate Ashley with an alcohol soaked rag, utilizing prior knowledge of Ashley's alcohol allergy to induce anaphylactic shock. Ashley decided that it would be worth it to die herself if she could eliminate a threat to the others and Echo, and continued to fight Cyrus, causing him to hit the nearby kiosk and activate the voice-to-text function with his bracelet just as she swore that "I won't let you kill Echo". This transmitted a message throughout the safehouse which read: "Cyrus says, Kill Echo, from the Smokehouse Lounge". Cyrus began to reach for the gun, which had fallen to the floor, but Ashley reached it first. In her anaphylactic daze, she accidentally fired it, hitting Cyrus fatally in the chest. With his dying breaths, Cyrus revealed he was not in fact the Ultimate Charisma or the Ultimate Thief, but was in fact the Ultimate Confidential Informant, working as an informant for the Preservation Project. He also admitted that he was the reason Echo was added to the killing game, despite not being an Ultimate at the time. His friend Elara, the Ultimate Paramedic, was meant to participate in the game as well, and Cyrus was unable to tell her the truth or risk retaliation. However, on the night his group was meant to capture Ashley, Echo crashed into a tree and was knocked unconscious. Elara rushed to his aid, and to protect her, Cyrus abused his position as an informant on the inside to swap her out of the game and put Echo in instead - someone with no talent, but that coincidentally attended the same school as his friend, and so would arouse no suspicions. As Cyrus lay dying, Ashley tried to apply pressure to stop the bleeding wound to no avail. Though regretting that he had left the group without a source of information and doomed Ashley to death, Cyrus expressed relief over finally having the same freedom from the killing game that he felt he gave Silva and the other 5 dead students before he ultimately died from blood loss, and Ashley succumbed to the effects of the anaphylaxis and fell unconscious. Meanwhile, in the Art Gallery, Echo was freed from the Art Room by Sei. They entered the Smokehouse together, where they found Cyrus' corpse, and Ashley unconscious in the adjoining Casino. After investigating the crime scene, Forte carried Ashley to the infirmary, only accessible via the Court Room.
The rest of the group began the necessary Class Trial. During the course of the trial, Missy was initially the prime suspect due to her refusal to reveal her alibi, and some suggested that she was working with an accomplice because she was spotted accessing the room of the absent student known as Darling. Zero shot this idea down, however, by revealing that rather than accomplices, there were instead six dead students who should have been participating in the killing game with them - among them was Darling, as well as Ashley's friend Silva. After some further discussion, with the students trying to make Echo see the truth they refused to accept, it eventually became obvious that the only culprit possible was Ashley. She was found guilty, and ultimately confessed, revealing to the group Cyrus' dying confession. Ashley was summarily executed, pummeled to death by horseshoes until one snapped her neck.
The surviving students exited the court room, with Echo absolutely devastated by their friend's death. Kanon stopped Echo on their way back to their room, and gave them a group photo she had taken of the students on the first day, before they knew they would have to kill each other. Echo snapped at her, not wanting a reminder of what they had lost, and Kanon ripped the photo in half. Missy picked up the pieces and scolded Echo for being so cold to Kanon, who had been trying to comfort them. Missy told Echo that despite her well-meaning intentions when revealing the gun, even as an Ultimate Tactician she had failed to take into account Ashley's unwavering affection for her friends.
The chapter ends with who is presumably Echo thinking to themselves, questioning whether Art and Ashley were justified in killing, saying "In a game like this, you have to be selfish and act in self-preservation". Eventually, they repeat to themselves they must be number one. The o in one turns to 0, and the one turns to a digit, and then turns to binary. The binary reads out "despairdespairdespairdespairdespairdespair", implying that Echo has fallen into despair after losing Ashley.
Chapter 3: Dignity, Diligence[]
This plot summary contains major spoilers for Danganronpa:Lapse!
Echo wakes on the afternoon of the fourth day, leaving their room and heading to the second floor, where they find Sei. They console her before going to the atrium, where they find Forte. The pair talk before Echo leaves for the third floor, finding Missy with a dagger and the revolver. The pair would ruminate about the game, and Missy would leave. Echo would then reminisce about spending time with Ashley before the killing game, then going to their room.
Early the morning of the fifth day, Echo would find Lyle and Kanon arguing. Once their fight is broken up, Lyle shows the group a chessbaord with two crosses over the corner white squares, explaining its an example of the mutilated chessboard problem. The problem states that if two corner squares are removed from a 64 square board, it is impossible to line 31 dominoes over the remaining 62 squares. They would all discuss the killing game at large until Zero hands them the Forced Motive Question.
The question is: “Do you believe in strength in numbers?”. They all shrug the question off, and resume discussing the game. A rumbling noise from the foyer would end their conversation, and they would find the doors in the foyer open, revealing a staircase leading to a basement floor. The elevator to the courtroom would also be opened. Missy resolves to search Cyrus’ room, Lyle opts to search the basement floor. Kanon would join Lyle, Forte with Missy, and Sei joins whichever group Echo doesn’t.
Going with Lyle and Kanon first allows Echo down to the basement floor, met with a floor of a similar styling to the main wing. Zero then provides Kanon and Missy with presents given at the kiosks. Kanon pockets it without looking at it, then they split up to search the floor. There were two multipurpose halls on either side of the stair, then two rooms further up. One was a trophy room, the other redacted. The trio go to the redacted room only to be unable to enter it without a six-digit passcode. Locked out, they head to the trophy room, filled with various taxidermy animals. After searching the drop, Zero drops the gifts for Forte and Sei. For Forte, an opera tune named Der Salomonsong, but Zero doesn’t give a present to Sei, claiming her too insignificant to bother. Lyle and Kanon get into an argument when the lights go out and Lyle screams. While Echo runs around trying to find him, they’re split in two from head to toe. This is a bad ending, called “Kanon Ota lost”.
Going with Missy and Forte prompts discussion about Echo’s uneasiness about splitting up, then Missy and Kanon are given their gifts. Missy looks at hers, a photograph covered in blood of her past lover, Darling. The trio then go to Cyrus’ room. Once inside, they find a stack of folders. Sifting through them, Echo finds blueprints for the layout of the facility they’re in, but any information about the basement floor had been ripped out. In the final page, Echo finds an indent of six numbers; “251110”. Forte finds profiles on all the students and nothing on Echo, but finds that all Ultimate students were sorted into pairs that were significantly involved in some way. The profiles of the students Cyrus killed were crossed out, and the trio find Sei’s partner, Akihiko Quartz, the Ultimate Radio Host, bore an almost exact resemblance to Zero. Another unknown student was paired with Pandora, Gaea Espere, the Ultimate Cartographer. Missy deduces that Akihiko Quartz is Zero’s true identity, and Eve’s identity is Gaea Espere. Sei, as Akihiko’s partner, is concluded to be a mole.
Missy stays behind and rifles through the rest of the notes while Forte and Echo search Art and Pandora’s rooms. Finding nothing of note in both, they return to Missy. Missy tells them there had been as many as fifty killing games beforehand, and that they were used to determine the best Ultimate students among the best. Full of rage, Missy leads Forte and Echo to the trial grounds, but Zero is nowhere to be seen. A while passes before a body discovery announcement sounds directing them to the trophy room, and Missy, Forte and Echo run to the elevator to check it out. When they get to the foyer, they find Kanon’s body, which meant the announcement was for Lyle. Upon figuring out the revelation, the chandelier in the foyer falls and crushes Missy and Forte, and Echo is soon impaled.
They hear Sei talking to Zero before their surroundings shift, and they find themselves back in the foyer at the point of choosing which group to go with. Echo goes with Lyle and Kanon, still remembering what happens if they go with Missy and Forte. The trio ventures down to the basement floor, and Kanon receives her gift, not looking at it. Upon going to the redacted room, Echo realises the passcode is the six-digit number they saw in Cyrus’ files. When Echo types in the code, Zero gives Forte’s and Sei’s gifts, and Echo, Lyle and Kanon enter the room. Inside is a hexagonal chamber with six capsules attached to corresponding workstations. Echo sees Gaea in one of the capsules, and Lyle unlocks her capsule.
Gaea soon explains that she is only an overseer of the game, unlike Zero, who controls it. She points them to Zero’s capsule, and they find Akihiko in it in a much worse condition. Gaea advises them not to release him as he’d been merged with a program that induces despair to act as Zero, telling them that was the Ultimate Prize. The lights suddenly cut out, Zero’s gift to Lyle, as he has a fear of the dark. After Gaea provides a flashlight for them to see, they find Kanon had left, and a body discovery soon sounds, directing them to the trial grounds. Lyle and Echo leave Gaea.
While all this was happening, Missy, Forte and Sei investigate Cyrus’ room, finding the blueprints, student profiles and history of the killing games. Missy finds Sei’s connection to Zero, but keeps quiet until they’d reached the trial grounds and they were all out of leads. When Missy asks Sei about her connection to Zero, Sei slashes her, and then threatens to hurt herself. Kanon, who had wandered off, tailed Sei as she'd been suspicious of her from the beginning, and upon going to the trial grounds to find the others, Missy was thrown into the elevator alongside her, and Kanon sees Forte and Sei in a struggle, with Forte holding the dagger. Kanon grabbed the revolver from Missy and fired it, but the blackout occurred just as she shot, so she didn't see where the bullet went. Forte pointed the dagger at Sei's throat in the dark, but he then fell. The lights came on, and Sei saw a satisfied hologram of Zero, who had killed Forte and planned to pin it on Kanon. Sei then stabbed Forte to lead the trial in the wrong direction and get everyone executed.
Lyle and Echo race up the stairs to find Missy slumped against the elevator with a slash in her chest. She was still alive, so she wakes up and joins them in the elevator up to the trial grounds. Once there, they find Forte with a dagger in his stomach, and Sei sitting while staring at him. Missy would leave for the infirmary to patch herself up, and Echo investigates with Lyle. Once they’re finished investigating, Missy would come out of the infirmary. Missy would clean Sei up of blood while Lyle and Echo run down to the foyer to get the victim report, the only information found being the time of death and the victim.
Talking to Sei grants no further information, and talking to Missy grants them what had happened on her end. Zero then directs them all to the trial grounds.
Chapter 4: Endless and Unfamiliar[]
This plot summary contains major spoilers for Danganronpa:Lapse!
The five remaining students go to their respective podiums, a hologram of Gaea appearing before them as well as Zero. The obvious suspect is Sei, and she makes no effort to rebuke their claims. When Echo brings up that Forte was stabbed, Kanon is surprised, and says that she shot Forte. She then explains her point of view of what had happened, Sei doing the same but lying, and Echo resolves to believe their confessions despite not entirely believing them, thinking they have to pursue a dead end to get the true information. The class trial ends, and Kanon walks to her execution, Echo running in behind her. Kanon’s execution was her getting shot at with needles and ripped apart while bright flashes of light illuminated her momentarily. Echo ran towards her, only to be shot with needles.
As Echo chokes on their own blood, their surroundings change once again, finding themselves at the time right before they all vote Kanon as the culprit. After discussion and some thinking, Echo arrives at the possibility that due to the darkness, none of them could have killed Forte, saying Zero could have interfered. When Zero questions Echo’s reasoning, Echo realises Zero must’ve been acting because he had something to keep, being Sei, his partner as Akihiko. When Echo asks Sei’s motivation for her actions, she responds that she wanted everyone to get executed to end their pain.
Echo and Sei argue between their warring mindsets, Echo eventually consoling her into telling them what had actually happened in the trial grounds. Zero then sows distrust about Gaea, slipping up in calling the facility a ship. He then explains that he won the killing game prior to the current one, and wishing to right his wrongs, attempted to protect Sei by killing Forte. Zero then glitches, spurting random numbers until he takes back control, stating that he’ll execute himself and bring them all with them. He then overloads the systems, but Gaea and the five remaining participants survive.
Epilogue: Burden on our Shoulders[]
This plot summary contains major spoilers for Danganronpa:Lapse!
Prior to the killing game occurring, an unknown voice congratulates Akihiko for winning his game, telling him he’s won the Ultimate Prize. It tells him he’s “become one of them” and will join Gaea in being a prized Ultimate Student. This is implied to be Gaea recalling an event of her past, the time she met Akihiko after his game.
Echo meets Gaea in the testing chambers, and she explains the nature of the killing games is to test bonds between friends until they self-implode. She also explains Echo’s talent was a fabrication designed to challenge the preconceived notions Zero has about the participants. Gaea apologises for her actions within the game, and Echo joins the others upstairs. The five of them then join Gaea in the chambers, and they are then shown they’re at the bottom of the sea. Gaea explains the Preservation Project fabricated the earthquakes to attract Ultimate Students to their safehouses in a bid to create the Ultimate Student among them.
Gaea resolves to leave, taking the others with her. The other side of the elevator cab doors opened to reveal a dark hallway. Echo and Gaea ruminate the losses of the people they cared for before the hallway ended, the six students climbing into an escape pod.
Once 44 minutes pass within the escape pod, Missy suddenly began to shake and breathe weirdly. Soon everyone else besides Echo and Gaea reacts the same way, and they fall still. They’re all still alive, and Gaea tells them it's the work of the Ultimate Psionic, who had previously induced stress in them when the earthquakes broke out. The Preservation Project was pursuing the ship, and their only choice was to confront whoever found them when they resurfaced. Echo then recalls the night they were captured.
They drop Ashley off at her home, signalling she's okay by turning on her light. It then cuts to Echo and Ashley’s father talking over the phone, discussing a prestigious opportunity she’s signed up for, being the Preservation Project.
Killing Game[]
Rules[]
Killing Game Rules
The students will enjoy an idyllic lifestyle within the provided walls for the duration of 7 days.
At the end of 7 days, whoever survives is awarded the Ultimate Prize.
Activity amenities, such as the second floor, are open from 9am to 7pm.
Breaking major assets (kitchen refrigerator, theatre lights, etc.) is strictly prohibited.
To expedite the process toward the Ultimate Prize, one must kill a fellow student without getting caught.
Danganronpa: Lapse was created, developed, coded, and illustrated by one creator - Mythridate, who considers themself primarily an illustrator by vocation. Their first experiments with game development came from participating in the game jam "MFGJ Winter 2017," where they produced their first game, A Room for Thought. A Room For Thought was developed using the Unity engine, which they struggled with learning because they felt it was, "not a particularly friendly engine for someone starting out with no knowledge of programming." The game was intended to be a first-person narrative experience, but they wrestled so much with the 'first-person' aspect that they feel the narrative itself fell short. After completing the project and contributing artwork to the dating simulator game Love on the Peacock Express, they took a step back from game development for two years to work on their illustrative work. They returned to game development in the summer of 2019, where they participated in two more game jams, "Friendship Jam" and, "My First Game Jam Summer 2019", where they produced the games Comfort Food and A Shade of Blue[2].
Mythridate has been a longtime fan of Danganronpa since the Something Awful era of the fandom (approximately 2011). They were inspired to create their own Danganronpa fangame after returning to the series to play Danganronpa V3 in 2019, having gained confidence participating in the previous game jams. They began work on the project on July 4th, 2019[1]. The artstyle is a mix of Mythridate's own style with aspects of the canon Danganronpa. The story was inspired by mystery games like Ghost Trick, Hotel Dusk, the Ace Attorney series, and the works of Kotaro Uchikoshi (Ever17, 999, Virtue's Last Reward) and from this inspiration they formed the idea that they wanted the atmosphere of Lapse to be unnerving for the player[2]. Unlike the canon Danganronpa games, which have a cast of 16 main characters, Mythridate chose to limit themself to 10 characters out of resource necessity - they were not confident in their ability to control 16 characters' arcs or draw, "a million character sprites".[3].
Danganronpa: Lapse is programmed in the Ren'Py game engine and has a standard 2D visual novel gameplay style. Mythridate defines Lapse as being a kinetic novel rather than a game; a kinetic novel is a type of visual novel where there is a linear storyline and little to no player choice. Mythridate defines it as a kinetic novel because Lapse has a lack of, "stakes for the reader when clicking something wrong in the trial, and because the other options are meant to make the reader think rather than punish", meaning there is little player choice beyond advancing the story correctly[4]. Although there are no consequences for selecting incorrect answers, Mythridate has said that they strongly encourage players to select all the possible discussion points to get the most of the trial, as they, "trickle some additional info about the trial and the characters"[2].
Release[]
Mythridate posted the first image for Danganronpa: Lapse on August 13th, 2019, which featured silhouettes for the full cast[5], and an early prototype build of the Prologue was released later that same month on August 21st[6]. The first build of the prologue was released to the public on September 1st[7], followed by two updated versions released several weeks later in order to update and standardize character sprites and artwork.
Development on Chapter 1 began soon after the Prologue's first release. The Chapter 1 script was fully written and coded by October 7th, 2019 pending completed artwork[8]. While coding Chapter 1, Mythridate chose to add the option to skip executions at the player's discretion, since they felt, "like (the executions) are kinda jarring and scary"[9]. Version 1.0 of Chapter 1 was publically released on October 16th, 2019[10], followed by Chapter 2 on December 31st, 2019[11].
All of Danganronpa Lapse's chapter titles are derived from songs.
The Prologue, "What's In The Middle," is named for a song of the same name by The Bird and the Bee.
The title of Chapter 1, "Je N'Peux Réussir," is French for "I cannot succeed" and is derived from the lyrics of the song "Le Festin" by Camille, while the former title of Chapter 1 was a direct reference to the song's title.
The title of Chapter 2, "Every Fire is a Lesson Learned," is derived from the lyrics of the song "Guns and Horses" by Ellie Goulding, while the former title of Chapter 2 was a direct reference to the song's title.
The title of Chapter 3, "Dignity, Diligence," is derived from the lyrics of the song "Pirouette" by Made in Heights.
The title of Chapter 4, "Endless and Unfamiliar," is derived from the lyrics of the song "Solar/Lunar" by Universal Hall Press.
The title of the Epilogue, "Burden on our Shoulders," is derived from the lyrics of the song "Good Measure" by Late Night Alumni.
In the Prologue, there is a scene where some of the students are discussing an abstract image, trying to identify what it is an image of. The image in question is the Funyarinpa image from the game Zero Escape: Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors, itself a life-or-death escape game and one of Mythridate's inspirations for Lapse.
