Master Detective Archives: Rain Code Review – Outmatching Monokuma

Danganronpa has been one of the most unexpected success stories of the past few years. They’re weird, they’re morbid, they’re the kind of thing that has traditionally been very niche outside of Japan, and yet, the Danganronpa games have sold over 5 million copies worldwide. You’d think Danganronpa creator Kazutaka Kodaka would latch onto the series for life, but after producing a couple sequels, he instead opted to branch out with the new studio Too Kyo Games. After putting out a couple smaller experiments, Kodaka has delivered his first major Danganronpa successor, Master Detective Archives: Rain Code.

Does Master Detective Archives prove Kodaka and company are still master mystery writers? Or does the game not manage to escape Monokuma’s cuddly shadow? Grab an umbrella, it’s time to wade in…

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code begins with protagonist Yuma Kokohead (this game has a real flair for names) awakening in a train station with no memory of his past. Yes, it’s an amnesia story, but don’t worry, the rest of the game doesn’t go too heavy on the cliches. Yuma soon finds himself on a train with a number of card-carrying members of the World Detective Organization — Master Detectives who use special powers that help them solve mysteries. Unfortunately, these powers don’t end up being much use as all the detectives end up dead and Yuma is fingered as the murderer. Ain’t that always the way?

Thankfully, it turns out Yuma made a pact with a chipper Death God named Shinigami in exchange for his memories. Usually, Shinigami appears as a purple Pac-Man-esque specter that only Yuma can see, but she transforms into a much more… robust… form while in a Mystery Labyrinth. But what’s a Mystery Labyrinth you ask? These trippy manifestations of Yuma’s current case lead you step-by-step you to the true culprit, who ultimately faces punishment from Shinigami. Punishment that causes them to die in the real world.

Thanks to Shinigami and the Mystery Labyrinth, Yuma solves the train murders and finds himself in Kanai Ward, a perpetually rain-soaked neon dystopia cut off from the outside world and lorded over by the Amaterasu Corporation. Yuma soon hooks up with another group of World Detective Organization members, known as the Nocturnal Detective Agency, and discovers he’s a trainee Master Detective himself. The WDO has sent all the sleuths to uncover “Kanai Ward’s Ultimate Secret” which is somehow connected to the wider “Great Global Mystery,” but in the meantime, Yuma and friends get down to solving some smaller-scale murder mysteries while dodging Amaterasu Corp’s Peacekeeper security force.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code’s premise isn’t as elegant and snappy as “high school kids try to survive a killing game” and setting the table takes a while. The game’s early hours are a bit slow, but you should start to feel at home in Kanai Ward before too long. While the world of Danganronpa certainly left an impression, it was also rather abstract. The state of the wider world outside of the classroom killing grounds was always vague and the goals of Monokuma and the games’ other antagonists were nebulous. By comparison, Rain Code offers a much more fleshed-out, believable, and, in some ways, grounded world. Don’t get me wrong, the game still serves up some wild twists and the gallows humor, horniness, and general weirdness is still here, but this time it’s served up with a surprisingly-hearty side order of world-building. Everything fits together and makes sense. Heck, we even get a rather brilliant in-universe explanation for why everyone in Kodaka-produced games bleed pink blood.

You get a sense Kodaka cares about the characters in Rain Code in a way he never really did with Danganronpa’s deranged students. Sure, Danganronpa characters were often memorable, sometimes even likable, but the games tended to treat them in rather callous ways and you rarely felt truly involved in their dramas. Not so in Rain Code. All the bizarre twists and silliness ultimately builds to a surprisingly heartfelt, character-driven ending. I’ll admit, there were some moments that legitimately hit me in the feels, which shows real growth in Kodaka’s writing skills.

Mater Detective Archive: Rain Code’s more fleshed-out world is bolstered by much-improved presentation. Unlike the simple, largely-static visuals of the Danganronpa games, Rain Code offers up an intricate fully-explorable overworld. This isn’t Cyberpunk 2077, but Kanai Ward offers up a surprising level of detail and some flourishes you don’t often see on the Switch, including some rather eye-catching reflections. Meanwhile, Mystery Dungeons deliver plenty of mind-bending imagery, with the landscape bending and reforming around you as you proceed. These impressive visuals do sometimes come at a cost to performance, but the occasional framerate hitches aren’t that severe or distracting. Audio is a slightly mixed bad, as the game’s soundtrack that’s perhaps a bit too similar to Danganronpa, but that’s largely made up for by uniformly excellent voice acting.

Of course, good world-building wouldn’t mean much if Rain Code didn’t serve up quality mysteries. Thankfully, it does. This is probably the best, most consistent set of cases Kodaka has delivered to date. There are no duds here, as each mystery is clever, tightly plotted, and feels unique. Most of the cases are plays on classic mystery tropes – death on a train, a series of locked-room murders, a theatrically-themed case full of backstage drama, and so on. Kodaka takes on the mystery paperback classics and spins them in fun and unexpected ways.

Rain Code’s well-wrought mysteries are served well by gameplay that feels similar to Danganronpa, but has been polished to a much greater degree. Each chapter begins with an investigation phase, where players explore the overworld and examine crime scenes to collect clues (or “Solution Keys”) that will later be used in the Mystery Dungeon. Sometimes these sections of the game can be a bit drawn out, but Rain Code keeps the player engaged with some unusual scenarios. From chapter to chapter you’ll find yourself doing some slightly awkward undercover work at an all-girls school, exploring a secret lab as a disembodied spirit, and more.

Mystery Dungeons are essentially an updated take on Danganronpa’s class trials, with players presenting clues and countering arguments in a series of minigames. The most common challenge you’ll face are Reasoning Death Matches, a refined version of the Nonstop Debates from Danganronpa that task you with literally dodging an opponent’s statements and countering lies with the right Solution Key. Other reoccurring minigames include Shinigami Puzzles which task you with spelling out a key word, God Shinigami Rush where you bash through the culprit’s final defenses, and the Deduction Denouement where you have to lay out the specifics of a case in the pages of a graphic novel.

While it’s not really possible to get lost in a Mystery Labyrinth, the presentation is more engaging than Danganronpa’s class trials, which weren’t that visually-exciting and could feel repetitive. The Mystery Dungeon format also allows for more innovation, with each one usually having a unique twist. In one chapter you’ll have to recreate locked-room mysteries step-by-step, in another you’ll have to battle against your own doubts, ect. In general, the writing and construction of the Mystery Labyrinths is just tighter than the class trials of old. There are fewer moments where the logic doesn’t make sense or you’re forced to make questionable stretches.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code’s twists and turns aren’t quite as wild as Danganronpa’s, but they make more sense, and are, ultimately, more satisfying. And don’t get me wrong, Rain Code goes to some very dark and surprising places. Kodaka has built the world of Rain Code brick-by-brick in a very careful way, and it’s hard not to admire the craft. And a lot of crafting has be done! The game is at least 30 hours long and those who aim to clean up ever sidequest and collectible could spend closer to 40 hours. Expect to spend a lot of time combing through these archives, mystery fans.

This review was based on a copy of Master Detective Archives: Rain Code provided by Nintendo and publisher Spike Chunsoft.  

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code may tame Danganronpa’s anarchic spirit slightly, but it also greatly expands and improves on its formula with a more developed world, bold visuals, refined gameplay, and the best collection of whodunnits writer Kazutaka Kodaka has delivered to date. This is, simply put, one of the best, most ambitious visual novels in recent years. Get in on the ground floor, because Master Detective Archives has all the makings of a killer franchise.

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