(Apologies for the lack of posting last week – I’ve recently undergone an exciting change in my life, so things have been a little busy. That’s why this week, I am ecstatic to be covering not one, but TWO of my favorite franchises. Get ready!)

To all my fellow fans of quirky, messed up Japanese murder mystery games: What a time to rejoice! If you follow me on twitter, then you know it’s no secret that I’m a huge fan of game developers Kotaro Uchikoshi and Kazutaka Kodaka, the creative minds behind the Zero Escape and Danganronpa franchises. With this knowledge, I bet you can imagine my excitement when I heard that these two creators have announced that they’re starting their own Tokyo-based company, Too Kyo Games. They have already released information about several new projects in development, including an anime, and a few different games. Along with Uchikoshi and Kodaka, several other creators from Team Danganronpa are on board with the company, so we can expect a lot of top quality content in the coming years.

Zero Escape and Danganronpa are major influences in my screenwriting work; I admire their unique approach to crafting strange, but amicable characters as well as meticulously convoluted plot twists. These games are downright sick, leaving no character safe from their malevolent “death game” narratives, no matter how lovable they are. What is a “death game,” though, and why is it such an ingenious method of horror storytelling? I’m not talking about Hollywood torture-porn gore fests like SAW (although those movies are a lot of fun after a few cocktails) but games that test the mental endurance of their players, and just how far they are willing to go for their survival. Since Zero Escape and Danganronpa are often associated with each other, I thought I would use them both as my examples for why “death games,” are so great.Read More »