<listens attentively for cardigan recommendations too>
Celeste and Kyoko are my favourites in DR1, which I only just finished. Celeste's a lil psycho and I love her ^__^ I'm doing school mode now. Toko is surprisingly interesting but very gross lol.
Celeste <3 I usually gravitate more to the upbeat characters in this kind of game, but she was hilarious and I found myself looking forward to free time just so I could finish her report card.
I just completed DGR2 recently and hoo boy. They crammed so much stuff in there with extra modes and unlockables, V3 is probably gonna be like 65hrs for 100% fml.
Is it better than Ace Attorney?
I've played AA 1-4 and DGR1+2, imo Danganronpa (as a series) tends to suffer with repetitive chapter structures and being a few hours too long, even more so than AA lol. 2 in particular has an utterly pointless levelling system and wastes a little too much time on a story macguffin that goes nowhere, it also has more gratuitous 'fanservice' if that detracts but ymmv. Its setting is cooler to explore, and it has a stronger ending, though it only really pays off if you played DGR1 first. They're both fun, with 2 having more dynamic setting and characters, and 1 being a little more grounded with a tighter structure and less padding.
I think the only areas Danganronpa really excels at over Ace Attorney is the trial gameplay (much more varied), and giving you more time with characters to really get a sense of them (though they're mostly still one-dimensional anime archetypes by the end of the game).