Dangan Ronpa's game is significantly better, yeah--as everyone's been saying. The anime was rushed and didn't give a proper insight to important bullet points in the trials, or the give full explanations or any characterizations. It's more of a buffer--like, an extra, for those who already played the games and knew everything that went down. If you don't have that behind-the-scenes information, it's really easy to miss a lot of important things and see the characters as two-dimensional.
I hope SDR2 turns out better as an anime--I think that 20~26 episodes would be a lot better, since the game is much more involved and a bit longer, with a lot more outright, upfront characterization amongst the characters and much more thorough character development. Otherwise, the characters may come off as two-faced due to too-rapid development, or totally flat if they don't get it in the first place.
My favorite DR characters are Junko, Chihiro, Sakura, and Kirigiri.
My favorite SDR2 characters are obviously [SPOILER REDACTED], Gundam, and Tsumiki.