I’ve always been a fan of Kazutaka Kodaka’s Danganronpa series since I was 18 years old. Ever since then, I’ve been heavily involved in any title Kodaka has his name attached to. So understandably, I was excited to get my hands on Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus. Throughout my time playing I gotta say it was a major whiplash back to the Danganronpa games. Very similar mechanics are in effect as you solve a variety of different murders. That tied in with the art style, unique characters, and me spending hours trying to understand certain puzzles, it made me feel right at home.
Of course with this being a narrative-heavy game, there are a lot of things I can’t mention when it comes to the story. That being said I’ll give you a general synopsis; Yuma Kokohead is the main protagonist in RAIN CODE (yes that’s his name), who’s a young up-and-coming detective who wakes up in a storage closet with no memory of who he is. With the help of context clues, he ends up boarding a train filled with a group of detectives who work for the World Detective Organization. While their gathering brings about some confusion, all the group knows is that they were contacted to solve one of the biggest unsolved cases in Kanai Ward. That’s all I can say for now. However, I will say that if you know how the first murder cases start off in Danganronpa, you might have an idea of what happens next.
As I mentioned before, RAIN CODE is a very story-driven game meaning you’ll be spending your time behind walls of text for the majority of your playthrough. If visual novels aren’t for you then I’ll give you some time to click off the review, or maybe I can convince you to give this one a shot. Whichever comes first. With that being known, the characters you meet along the way play an important part in what makes a visual novel amazing and I must say I wasn’t surprised. My Danganronpa vibes were going off the charts and the characters delivered on their roles. I can understand if people get annoyed or irritated by Shinigami’s personality and lewd demeanor, but I loved every second she was on screen. The chemistry that she and Yuma have just go perfectly with each other.
Previously I stated that the gameplay has massive Danganronpa mechanics. Firstly, Yuma will need to solve a series of murders that take place on his journey (each chapter) and he needs to investigate the crime scene. Each piece of evidence found turns into “Solution Keys”. These are important as these will be your go to method in solving every case laid out before Yuma. Once that’s done, Yuma travels to the “Mystery Labyrinth”. This area reminds me of how Persona 5 does Palaces. It’s a manifestation of your case, which features corrupted versions of culprits that you meet in the real world. Finally, you then have to use the Solution Keys to solve the game. The best part is it doesn’t feel repetitive due to the fact that every single case keeps you on your toes. Same minigames, but different mind-boggling cases.
Conclusion
Overall, I loved my time with Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus. I never got the time to play it when RAIN CODE first dropped on the Nintendo Switch and now it got me craving for more. One thing to note is that the Xbox Series S version was giving me performance trouble with frames constantly dropping. I’ve played the Steam version as well and didn’t encounter it at all so keep that in mind. All in all at the end of the day, I felt like a master detective.
This game was reviewed based on Xbox S|X review code, using an Xbox S|X console. All of the opinions and insights here are subject to that version. Game provided by publisher.
