Master Detective Archives: Rain Code review

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code review: Are you interested in detective stories? What about supernatural events, superhuman beings, and mysteries to be solved in companies controlled cities? Master Detective Archives: Rain Code brings it all together and leaves our main character at the center of the event with his memory lost.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code review

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code review

Kazutaka Kodaka, the author of the Danganronpa series known for its popular visual novel and anime, reunites with Spike Chunsoft to present Master Detective Archives: Rain Code (we’ll just call it Rain Code from now on) to Nintendo Switch users. Let’s examine together how well the adventure game, which is obvious at first glance, can meet the expectations of the Danganronpa team, will the Nintendo Switch performance surpass Pokemon Scarlet/Voilet, how well it can present the story.

Let the Closed Room Murders Begin

In the game, we control a master detective named Yuma Kokohead who has lost his memory. Yuma, a member of the World Detective Organization (WDO), wakes up in a train station with amnesia. Yuma, who has no clue except the ID in his pocket and the invitation sent by WDO, gets on the train at the last moment and our adventure begins.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code review

As we learned at the very beginning of the game, master detectives from WDO are not only good at solving cases, each of them has their own special abilities and can use them while solving cases. For example, one detective can videotape what he sees to a smart device, while another detective has the ability to communicate with the dead for a while by wearing their clothes. We don’t know Yuma’s ability because she has lost her memory. The tension caused by this and the fact that there is 1 more person expected on the train, peaks with the murders that started in a short time.

I won’t talk much about the story to avoid spoilers, but we are not alone during our detective adventure. We have a sidekick named Shinigami-chan, who is truly an angel of death and has special skills in solving cases. Shinigami-chan, who usually wanders around in a ghost-like form, takes his true form in the other dimension we pass through to solve the events and examines the events with us.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code review

The story of the game is not at the level of what I can call an “extremely beautiful, an adventure you will never forget”, but it manages to keep your attention until the end. In some moments, there are situations such as telling the story from beginning to end, and the characters stubbornly not perceiving some things that we have already solved, which can get a little boring. It would be better if we could pass the story that I had already played and solved from the beginning, to retell the story as “now it happened like this”.

Despite everything, the story is beautiful, especially since it belongs to a genre that stands out with its story, which is the most important case. Amaterasu Corp. Kanai Ward, where the rain never stops, is a “noir” city with a dark atmosphere, suitable for detective stories. A more lively but haunted area than I expected. The atmosphere of the rainy city under neon lights is great, especially when playing in dock mode.

While the city itself, the side characters and the cases are pretty good, the real highlight of the game is the dialogues between Shinigami-chan and Yuma. The reactions, comments and thoughts of Shinigami-chan, who was always having fun with Yuma but helping on the other hand, caused me to involuntarily laugh and get glares while playing the game outside.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code review

While solving cases, we learn the true nature of people we think we know, and as we get closer to the conclusion of some cases, we may fall into dilemmas. I said we can predict some things in the game, but there were a couple of twists that surprised both the character and me. Again, for reasons that can be considered spoilers, I can’t go into much detail here, but I’m happy with the main character’s handling.

Gameplay

You can approach the game like a “Visual Novel” at first glance, after all, the Danganronpa series is also referred to as a visual novel, although it is not exactly within those limits. Rain Code is an adventure game that contains mini-games.

We talk a lot, travel around and interact to collect clues, and try to solve the events based on the clues we collect. We are in the investigation phase, which is the first part of the case. Here, our other detective friends can help us with their powers, like talking to people in disguise or turning back time. While not all the powers in the Research section were used as well as I expected, overall it’s well-executed. In fact, if you’re done in a department, thanks to Yuma, who says “I have nothing to do here,” you don’t have the trouble of wandering around the same places pointlessly. By the way, as a result of our actions, we can gain experience points and improve some of Yuma’s features.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code review

Then the events progress and we pass to the other world and begin to break the mysteries, this is the part where we progress with various mini-games. The clues we collect in the other world called Mystery Labyrinth “interestingly” turn into keys and open the door to the truth. Of course, we have obstacles called Phantom who are trying to prevent the case from being resolved. Aside from the obstacles they put in front of us, we have to struggle with them as well.

I found the episodes called Reasoning Death Match very entertaining. In this part, which we can call the war of logic, the opponent who wants to prevent us from reaching a solution makes an accusation, and we refute his argument by using the right one from the keys we have. Of course, not every argument can be disproved, we try to avoid the ones we can’t answer, while also trying to collect bonus points. There was a similar episode in Danganronpa, the gameplay is pretty similar and fun.

There are also various games that are both absurdly funny and entertaining, in which we pick the right letters in the barrel that Shinigami-chan is in and fill in some missing spots, or dodge the opponent’s attacks to conquer the castle with a huge Shinigami-chan.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code review

I talked about developing the character, let me expand on that a little bit. We earn points called Detective Points when we explore the environment, collect clues, and do side quests and various small activities. It’s important to collect these points, as there are improvements that speed up our movements during Deathmatch, allow us to have more life points, or reduce the number of fake letters on the barrel. Since the side quests aren’t too bad and the interactions are usually hilarious, it doesn’t get boring to do them for points. Of course, if you don’t mind the loading times while playing handheld.

Graphics – Performance – Sounds

Rain Code performs very well visually. Players who have already played Danganronpa will immediately warm to the character designs, after all, there are brand new and eccentric characters from the hands of old designers. I talked a little about the atmosphere of the city and the beauty of the places, in general, we are faced with a very nice view. I wish it was a little smoother.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code review

The game is a bit problematic in the performance part, but it never causes too much trouble to disturb the player. You can easily see the difference between playing on the dock with the handheld mode, especially while walking around the Kanai Ward. In large areas, the rendering process can be delayed a little, the loading times of the game can be a little long. Another part that draws attention to the loading times is Reasoning Deathmatch, these episodes can take up to 45 seconds to load in handheld mode. There were times when I passed the loading screen but couldn’t move my character, I guess it’s an issue I had because the loading screen disappeared earlier than expected.

The music of the game is both suitable for the genre and well prepared to complement the atmosphere. While in darker places, music that we wouldn’t mind playing in old detective movies is playing, things fall apart when Shinigami-chan takes the strings. I listened without getting bored. I will suggest Japanese voice over again, it’s annoying to hear some characters speak in a “let’s read it” mood in English voiceovers.

Conclusion

Mastery Detective Archives: Rain Code, which was released on the Nintendo Switch console, was a nice adventure game that lasted an average of 27 hours. The storytelling that almost never gets boring, the twisty surprises, the fun mini-games, and the interesting characters are reasons enough to recommend the game. However, people who want to beat their opponents using various abilities, who want less dialogue and more action, and who do not like anime-style content, will not like this game. Also, don’t keep your console out for all to see, especially during Shinigami-chan’s transformation cutscenes, you can’t explain to people what’s going on.

Mastery Detective Archives: Rain Code, currently exclusive to the Nintendo Switch console, is $60 on My Nintendo Store on sale with price tag. If you like adventure games in the style of Danganronpa and Ace Attorney, where the visual novel side is dominant and you try to solve the cases together with the character, I suggest you give it a chance.