Uhhh so I finished reading Dangan Ronpa 0. I know it's not kosher to say much of anything when most people can't read it to the end themselves at the moment, but I will say that… It was kind of a miserable read. After I finished it I just kind of went "well shit." After sitting on it more, I think I like it more than I had when I finished it. Or rather, I like the central character of it in a way. The novel definitely gets better in its second volume by miles compared to its first volume, but hm...
A lot of prequel stuff that takes place before "bad events" tends to be almost universally (i.e. Fate/Zero in relation to Fate/stay night, etc) kinda miserable so it's not like I wasn't expecting it.
But Dangan Ronpa 0 was kind of a bit more so than usual due to it having very little in the way of the humor and charm of the games. When it is there it's not really the same.
I really liked the main character though, the book making me feel miserable aside.
One part of it was really upsetting for a lack of a better word and it was unnecessary which kind of added insult to injury. When Oren started the DR0 translation, he mentioned there was a part that really got to him and I think it's the same one that made me feel pretty bad. It wasn't unrelated but it was thoroughly pointless (I debated just spoiler tagging and talking about it here since it's basically not news to anybody but ehhhh) and it churned my stomach.
There is some interesting world building though.
Also one character is so stupid that every time they showed up I just audibly groaned and went UGH. Stupid SHSL power, stupid character, stupid art, stupid everything. He's already showed up in the oren translation so you probably know who his stupid ass is. He sucks.
! OROCHIMARU REALLY SUCKS JESUS