The Value of Truth

Being an avid fan of the Danganronpa series, I was surprised to hear that the creator of the cult classic series left Spike ChunSoft to create his own company, Tookyo Games.

Regardless, I was very curious as to the kinds of games that they would make and eagerly anticipated the release of the title, “World’s End Club”. Unfortunately, despite giving it a fair shot, I ended up not liking it at all. While the world building and story managed to pique my interest, every other element like character designs, gameplay mechanics and more all failed to live up to expectations.

Despite the disappointment, after seeing the promising initial trailer for “Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE”, I began to hope that this would be a return to form for the director and his studio.

Surely no one will die and everyone will be happy!

MSRP: $59.99
Platform: NSW
Voice Acting: JPN/ENG
Length: 35~ hours

Waking up without his memories in a supply closet of a train station, Yuma’s only lead to his true identity is a letter of invitation to ride the Amaterasu Express, where he would take a train to a isolated zone steeped in mystery called the “Kanai Ward”. Desperate to find out who he is, he boards the train and is hit with the reality that he himself had made a pact with a god of death to wield otherworldly powers that would assist him in solving mysteries at the cost of his memories. With the god of death, “Shinigami” by his side, Yuma strikes out to uncover the dark secrets of Kanai Ward by working side to side with Detectives with their own unique abilities.

The world presented in Rain Code is intriguing as individuals with powerful abilities, known as “Forte” become Master Detectives tasked with solving crimes that would pose impossible through normal means. For example, Halara Nightmare, a detective of keen intellect and fearsome physical abilities, had the forte to recreate crime scenes from the past in a form of psychometry. Yuma’s ability to use and share another detective’s forte allowed him to use her powers to gather evidence that would otherwise have been impossible to gather.

Throughout each of the cases Yuma faces, he ends up working with a different detective with their own unique forte which makes for a great opportunity to interact with the other characters while also varying up the gameplay elements. While there were some logical contrivances and jumping to conclusions in some spots, I found the overall story to be quite interesting. Outside of the typical who-dun-it aspects, there was an overarching theme of what it really means to uncover the truth and whether or not if that is always a good thing.

The story and dramatic reveals are helped along by excellent voice over work all across the board and the chemistry between the characters felt natural and fun. Shinigami and Yuma who spend the most time interacting with each other were standouts with their fun interactions with plenty of dark humor thrown in for good measure.

As the main appeal of this genre of games is in its story so I won’t go into further details but I’ll say that while not every story beat landed for me, I found it to be quite enjoyable overall and I was very much looking forward to each new development throughout its lengthy 35~ hours play time.

She’s trying her best.

In terms of gameplay, the flow of each chapter usually revolves around finding a corpse and investigating the crime and ultimately diving into the Mystery Labyrinth and finding the true culprit. First, there’s the segment when Yuma goes around gathering evidence and then it’s off to the Mystery Labyrinth, which are unsolved mysteries given physical form accessed with the help of Shinigami. The various creative elements that represent different sides of the mystery were handled with stylish flair and were quite the treat to uncover. Unfortunately, the visual fidelity on the Switch felt lacking with muddy visuals, frequent graphical glitches and constant pop-ins for NPCs. It’s a shame as the 2D character design and portraits are done so well that by comparison, the 3D models look decidedly rough.

As a Switch exclusive, the visuals and overall performance on display leave much to be desired.

There were various mechanics tied to exploring the labyrinth but many of them felt as though they were lifted from Danganronpa and rebranded. For example, there is a “Shinigami Puzzle” which was another version of “Hangman’s Gambit” as I was just filling the blank by choosing various letters.

I KNOW WHAT YOU ARE.

Another was “Deduction Denouement” which had comic panels detailing the full events of the crime and I had to fill in the gaps with the correct comic which was exactly what I had to do at the end of each trial in Danganronpa.

Battling Mystery Phantoms by slicing their arguments with the correct bit of evidence to show contradictions was called “Reasoning Death Match” where it was previously called “Non-Stop Debate”. Now, I am not saying that rebranding familiar mechanics is a bad thing as they all serve their purpose well and it makes sense in the context of the game’s world. It just gave an overwhelming sense that Master Detective Archives is most definitely a spiritual successor to Danganronpa. So in that way, if you enjoyed that series, there’s a very good likelihood that you will enjoy this one as well.

Pick your Truth Bullet! I mean, Solution Key!

While not quite reaching the heights of the Danganronpa series, Master Detective Archives: Rain Code is great spiritual successor to the cult classic and whether this is the beginning of a new franchise or if it will be a stand-alone title, it marks a return to form for Tookyo Games.

Fun Tidbit– Some of the tunes felt like remixes of old favorites but in reality, they were brand new tunes, it just had a similar vibe. The entire OST does a great job of building the right mood for every situation.

Review copy of game provided by publisher.