I've played every Danganronpa game, and read every story and relevant side plot.
Starting from the first moments of this anime you'll notice a surprising lack of budget. The art is barely passable for a series of this size, the sound direction is forgettable at best, and the writing is awful. The character's are where danganronpa has always shined, but don't expect them to save the story this time. They are completely unlikable, and have no real set motivations or goals. The only time you'll learn anything new, interesting, or plot relevant about a character is in flashbacks seconds before they die.
Skipping the art and sound, which are both merely low budget, we'll talk about the writing and story. As mentioned, the new characters have no real set motivations or personalities. They exist merely to bump heads with characters you know from DR1, and have no lives beyond that. You never get the feeling one of these characters will be missed by someone, you never get the feeling that they were someones loved one or partner, these characters ONLY exist in the vacuum of this anime plot to chase Naegi and Aoi around for 20 minutes an episode. This may lead you to believe that Naegi and Aoi are central figures to the plot, that they are relevantly unraveling the mysteries and being developed as characters. You'd be wrong though. They have nearly no plot relevance, they are only there along with the rest of the living Dr1 cast to pretend to die at the end of episodes so viewers will watch the next episode. It never sticks though, and some of the fakeouts get pretty insulting by the end of it. Episode seven in particular is just filler, and can be completely skipped. Episode 9 is when the anime really hits it's lowest points however. Everything after episode 9 will leave you scratching your head, wondering why this anime was made in the first place. The anime ends where it starts, a status quo were nearly nothing new has been introduced to the DR canon, and the UTMOST "Care" was taken to make sure that NOTHING about the old characters has changed in any way.
On pure enjoyment factor alone, I'd recommend fans of the games, and fans of anime in any form to avoid this series. Scenes will drive you crazy with constant continuity errors, animation errors, and forgotten plot threads. The premise is stupid, and is never justified. Unlikable characters are made up on the spot just to die. Deathflags are so obvious that you'll never be surprised or caught off guard. Characters walk on screen and announce their time to die, then die, and none of the other characters really seem to care. Several times characters are found dead, or murdered directly in front of everyone, and nobody bats an eye or cares. Ends on Status Quo restoration, the entire anime can be removed without losing anything from the series.
I'll finish this review on a somewhat positive note. The characters Ruruka and Seiko have their own subplot that spans for almost the entire series filling up whatever time isn't taken by Naegi and Aoi doing basically nothing. The sub plot has some obvious flaws but is interesting and keeps the episodes moving, and these two characters actually end up being developed because of it, you may accidentally end up even caring for them. However just as their character arcs come to a close the story reminds you how stupid you were for liking any of the new characters. Then replaces them with even more Aoi and naegi, just running around and not really accomplishing anything.
