DISTRUST/Beta Danganronpa Topic (Major Spoilers)

So I'm surprised there was never a topic on this, from what I've seen, so I thought I might as well make a post covering some of the most basic stuff about DISTRUST. Also, just a warning that there is some minor gore in this post as Danganronpa was originally meant to be a lot more graphic than it turned out to be.

http://i.imgur.com/TjTDPPK.jpg

It's probably best to just start this topic off by talking about the name. Danganronpa was originally under the working title 'DISTRUST'. In the picture above you can see some early promotional material for DISTRUST. Like the box above, most of the promotional material has the phrases '15 Students' and '7 Days' plastered all over them. This leads me to believe that there would be a 7 day time limit in the original game, rather than a more indefinite one presented. It can also be noted that there are a lot of Trust vs. Distrust motifs in the promotional material, which means that the game was probably more focused on that rather than Hope Vs. Despair like the Danganronpa we all know today does.

Next lets take a look at the characters...

http://i.imgur.com/fXq1Th6.jpg
From left to right
(Top) Byakuya Togami, Sakura Oogami, Leon Kuwata, Aoi Asahina, Hifumi Yamada, Kyouko Kirigiri, Chihiro Fujisaki
(Bottom) Makoto Naegi, Touko Fukawa, Yasuhiro Hagakure, Celestia Ludenburg, Mondo Oowada, Sayaka Maizono, Kiyotaka Ishimaru, Junko Enoshima

These are all VERY early beta designs. And before you ask, no I did not mislabel Fukawa, that was legitimately her original design. The only two I'm not entirely unsure of are Maizono and Kirigiri, those two might be flipped, as the only 2 I had troubles putting names to faces were those two, since those two are much different than any previous beta artwork I've seen before. Needles to say, lot of them had several revisions that closer to the characters you would recognize.

For some more clearer beta designs, here are all of the characters compared to a few of their beta designs.
http://24.media.tumblr.com/d29271d5292f391948521caa77af2fe0/tumblr_mr53b1ATbr1sp8isko1_1280.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/52b4a9c48c9e389646a9e4819fcc1e27/tumblr_mr53b1ATbr1sp8isko2_1280.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/285ce32b2aa7bb20801a8d3c3add9ebf/tumblr_mr53b1ATbr1sp8isko3_1280.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/3be884acbede7e407e01e27ba99119c2/tumblr_mr53b1ATbr1sp8isko4_1280.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/06c097f5303f907d2b528b6162b24e33/tumblr_mr53b1ATbr1sp8isko5_1280.jpg
http://25.media.tumblr.com/d5e34c7614abdb4a4fb00aa0a729d162/tumblr_mr53b1ATbr1sp8isko6_1280.jpg
http://24.media.tumblr.com/d1a49ab5cb5da8ce08432e7ff09f8a97/tumblr_mr53b1ATbr1sp8isko7_1280.jpg
http://24.media.tumblr.com/8e6f61c1fdde5617b7f91cdb7645506f/tumblr_mr53b1ATbr1sp8isko8_1280.jpg

Next let's move on to some gameplay mechanics.

http://i.imgur.com/69vzNlD.jpg

Above is a picture detailing some sort of trust level system. Apparently, the actions you chose during the game were supposed to determine how much other character Trusted or Distrusted you, splitting into 5 different levels.

http://i.imgur.com/lX2L4mR.jpg

In this screenshot it appears as if the weak points in the trial would be displayed in text boxes rather than floating in front of people as they talked. Also, because of the 'Next' button, it seems like the debates wouldn't have been active time. So they probably would have been close to things like the cross examinations in Ace Attorney.

In another section of this article, it talks about how the game has branching paths. As far as I understand it, the killer and possibly the victim would be determined by choices you make throughout the game. It also talks about the concept that there would be a Student A and a Student B, and one of these two would be the killer while the other would help you figure out who the killer is.

Finally, let's go over the executions.

http://i.imgur.com/DlLKof2.jpg

Here is concept art for what appears to be Beta!Enoshima being executed. She is decapitated, which is a lot gorier and more direct than the executions in the actual game. Potentially the executions were originally meant to be more like actual executions.

http://www.SwigView.com/E1e9b8K
(This is a youtube video rehosted to another website for viewing videos simultaneously. It's just one video, but I'm doing this because the related video section is littered with SDR2 spoilers and it's really disgusting)

Probably the coolest part of the beta material is an early execution of Kuwata, also known as Kazuo Matsuzaki. From this video we can see a little bit more of what the original game might have been like. Probably the most obvious thing is that the blood is red and the executions is just a tad bit more violent. Also, we get a better glimpse at our setting, which is in a grim warehouse rather than a fancy high school. The trials seem a lot less organized and a lot more like a witch hunt because of the lack of the whole courtroom thing. It is also worth noting that in this trial we see that the first victim is the beta version of Kyouko Kirigiri, the character who essentially serves as the heroine in the final version of the game. Some of the promotional material, and the way she appears so close to Naegi, suggests that Enoshima might have originally been the heroine, although there isn't anything to confirm that. There also isn't any information on the original intent behind the mutual killing game, if Enoshima is still the mastermind, or anything like that.

I've known most of this info already but its nice to see all this posted here. This just clearly shows that Dangan Ronpa was originally going to be very similar to the Zero's escape series, which is why Spike probably changed the game and made the tone lighter and not as brutal.

So in regards to Enoshima possibly being the heroine in the beta version well, I had purchased the DR 1.2 Reload art book when it came out early this year and it shows even more beta designs then the ones posted here and with Enoshima, most of her beta designs, she had Monokuma hairclips, so presumably Enoshima had been planned to be the mastermind for quite some time, if not from the beginning. And considering in Kuwata's execution, Enoshima is standing where Kirigiri does in the final version that does imply she was going to be the heroine. Then consider which other series has done the "heroine was the mastermind" route. Although we don't know for sure if beta DR was going to take this route.

I remember seeing a bunch of these designs from before, and they really did change. I won't say for better or for worse, as I liked both styles, but evidently them changing the style to the current one likely contributed to its popularity in Japan today. Monokuma showing human innards sure was uh... something else.

However I didn't know about the Distrust title/Trust meter system, which is new to me. Thanks for that.

Another list of the beta design scans with Komatsuzaki's descriptions from the artbook. These ones seem to differ a fair bit from the first ones you posted.
http://lparchive.org/Dangan-Ronpa/Update%20146/


On Sakura

Komatsuzaki: I designed her based on the concept of a warrior high-school girl. Actually, it's a design I have been drawing since my school days, and I always thought I'd like to use it in a game sometime. In order to distinguish ourselves from other adventure games, I designed many characters intentionally as if they belonged in a different game genre, and her example shows this pattern the most.

Touko changes a lot.
http://lparchive.org/Dangan-Ronpa/Update%20146/14-fukawa1.jpg
http://lparchive.org/Dangan-Ronpa/Update%20146/15-fukawa2.jpg

Enoshima_Junko posted...

I've known most of this info already but its nice to see all this posted here. This just clearly shows that Dangan Ronpa was originally going to be very similar to the Zero's escape series, which is why Spike probably changed the game and made the tone lighter and not as brutal.

So in regards to Enoshima possibly being the heroine in the beta version well, I had purchased the DR 1.2 Reload art book when it came out early this year and it shows even more beta designs then the ones posted here and with Enoshima, most of her beta designs, she had Monokuma hairclips, so presumably Enoshima had been planned to be the mastermind for quite some time, if not from the beginning. And considering in Kuwata's execution, Enoshima is standing where Kirigiri does in the final version that does imply she was going to be the heroine. Then consider which other series has done the "heroine was the mastermind" route. Although we don't know for sure if beta DR was going to take this route.

The change has literally nothing to do with 999. 999 got very little promotion and didn't even sell well, so competing with them or being too similar to them wouldn't really have mattered. But it's because darker, gorier games just aren't very popular outside of a smaller niche. They changed to a more appealing style for their audience, and got a lot more recognition.

HiddenDoorway posted...

http://i.imgur.com/DlLKof2.jpg

Here is concept art for what appears to be Beta!Enoshima being executed. She is decapitated, which is a lot gorier and more direct than the executions in the actual game. Potentially the executions were originally meant to be more like actual executions.

Actually, that's her getting murdered, if I remember correctly. And then you would only be able to catch one of her killers.

baseball7000 posted...

HiddenDoorway posted...

http://i.imgur.com/DlLKof2.jpg

Here is concept art for what appears to be Beta!Enoshima being executed. She is decapitated, which is a lot gorier and more direct than the executions in the actual game. Potentially the executions were originally meant to be more like actual executions.

Actually, that's her getting murdered, if I remember correctly. And then you would only be able to catch one of her killers.

No, that's her getting executed. For one, that looks a lot more like execution than murder. There is also a little sign with all of the characters faces on it saying Congratulations! like a precursor to the Monokuma lottery. But above all else, the text on this page is talking about her getting executed. See those two character in glowing red at the bottom? Those mean Execution, so it was pretty clear at first glance for me that she was getting executed in that picture. The page describes how the group votes on who gets executed, but it's possible that you could vote the wrong person. Strangely enough, I don't see anything specifically saying that everyone would get executed if you picked the wrong person, though.

This looks great im glad they changed Byakuya alot and that pre-Toko(the one that still looks like her now) looks better than the one they have now. But most of the people look better now than their betas except Hagukure (who looks way worse than before).

Its funny to see that Sayaka is the only one who looks exactly like her beta throughout the whole making.

Beta Ashahina is so much cuter~

HiddenDoorway posted...

baseball7000 posted...

HiddenDoorway posted...

http://i.imgur.com/DlLKof2.jpg

Here is concept art for what appears to be Beta!Enoshima being executed. She is decapitated, which is a lot gorier and more direct than the executions in the actual game. Potentially the executions were originally meant to be more like actual executions.

Actually, that's her getting murdered, if I remember correctly. And then you would only be able to catch one of her killers.

No, that's her getting executed. For one, that looks a lot more like execution than murder. There is also a little sign with all of the characters faces on it saying Congratulations! like a precursor to the Monokuma lottery. But above all else, the text on this page is talking about her getting executed. See those two character in glowing red at the bottom? Those mean Execution, so it was pretty clear at first glance for me that she was getting executed in that picture. The page describes how the group votes on who gets executed, but it's possible that you could vote the wrong person. Strangely enough, I don't see anything specifically saying that everyone would get executed if you picked the wrong person, though.

Just a thought, but could this be an early version for the climax inference/closing argument? The image looks like it mimics the comic book style that they eventually use. Following that idea, maybe a past execution could be used as part of the inference? Like the body swap used in the final game.

Also, given the beta material it seems like Leon was doomed to die from the very beginning, which personally I think is kind of sad.