I think this game gets an unfair wrap.
When asking about it I was told "it's literally a port of the minigame from V3." That's not quite true.
It is truly a sequel. It's pretty interesting that this game exists at all.

V3's development minigame can be described as "play 3 rounds of a generic board game where all you do is roll high, or roll low." The challenge came from getting as many stat improvement squares as possible while still making it back to the starting space before you run out of dice rolls. Then, using the characters you level-up during the board game, go dungeon crawling. The presentation is akin to Mystery Dungeon or classic Dragon Quest with treasure chests and random encounters as you make your way to the stairs. You'd unlock shortcuts via an elevator every 5 or so floors and can return to base at any time. Base heals you to full health so you can leave at any time, heal up, and get back in with no real downside. As long as one of your characters can instantly demolish the competition, it really boiled down to brute force.

Danganronpa S changes quite a few things about the process. We now have a proper setting and story. The development boardgame takes place on Danganronpa 2's Jabberwock island. This results in familiar sights and sounds as you navigate the game board. The board is additionally now fully 3D and way more expansive. It looks pretty decent!

The "dungeon crawling" has been reduced to a linear menu list of fights. No more navigation or exploration. You pick the fight in the list and do combat. Auto, speed 3, aaaaaand the game plays its self. This is a less interesting direction but it does make the "meat" of the game more front-and-center, I suppose.

It's not perfect. Insanely repetitive. You'll see the same scenes and island unlock cutscenes over and over with no option to skip them. (no, fast forwarding dialogue is not the same as skipping.)
Plenty of softlocks and visual glitches.
The story is nothing to write home about.
The microtransactions amount to 1 dollar per item you want. (Weirdly fair price?) Still, the unlock system is a GRIND. It's truly a mindless game after you start unlocking shortcuts.

There is some "skill" involved when it comes to optimal board movement and battle party optimization.
For example, I'll buy a "1 Move" card before tackling a dungeon boss, securing me the treasure that appears right next to the boss space. Otherwise you have a 1/6th chance to roll directly onto it. Missing that chest means wasting a bunch of turns getting OUT of the dungeon. Time is precious, after all. You only get 51 dice rolls. After that, you're done. That character cannot gain more XP or learn new skills.

At the end of the day, anyone can reach the finish line if you are willing to put the time in. If you have an auto-clicker, you'll get far in no time! Grinding materials for battle equipment is the least interactive part of this game, and that makes it the worst part. You really are encouraged to do the same battle over and over till you get the drops you need.

Is that a bad thing? I don't think so. Idler-adjacent games deserve to exist.
I've played my fair share of "idle games" and the danganronpa characters and music really add a lot.

I'm at a spot where I wish this got a sequel just to see them expand on this idea further.

The transition into 3D was mostly successful although I think it's at its best with more focused & linear level design within that 3D space. Weak soundtrack apart from a few standout tracks that are really good. More level themes would have been nice but the ones that are there are fun & fleshed out. Playing with the camera set to manual was good enough to fix the annoying automatic movement but as someone who is constantly adjusting the camera the constant error sounds were annoying throughout the whole playthrough. I'm a big fan of how funny Gex looks while climbing & the final boss was badass.