.jpg?width=1200&height=630&fit=crop&enable=upscale&auto=webp&w=1024&resize=1024,1024&ssl=1 "Great Detective Archives: The Rain Code – A Murder Mystery That Needs a Conviction")
The Danganronpa series is led by creator Kazutaka Kodaka as a PSP murder investigation and school life simulator run by a crazy two-tone bear with an afterlife far beyond its humble beginnings birth. It shows what good writing and character design can get you. These days, characters like Junko Enoshima are more recognizable for their stature in TikTok cosplay circles and Tumblr discussions than for the games they come from.
The power of online fandom is intertwined with Danganronpa’s legacy, and even small characters are loved and memorable because their personalities and motivations are so clear just visually. As a result, a devoted group of fans has seized on the game’s unique psychological-philosophical clash of hope and despair. Even now, he’s left the series to found Too Kyo Games with his good friend and fellow cult founder Kotaro Uchigoshi, experiencing games like Death Come True and World’s End Club, though the quality It’s uneven, but still retains Xiao Gao’s trademark violent ruminations on justice.
Still, since these are smaller experiences, it’s hard not to see Master Detective: The Rain Code as Gao’s return, his first since the end of the Danganronpa trilogy in 2017. major works. – In a controlled environment, where their only way of escape is to successfully murder their friends, we embark on a fantastic mystery adventure. The game is a blend of Ace Attorney’s investigative intrigue and Persona-style mystical mazes, all filtered through the style of the creator’s signature hit series.
Sounds great, right? Well, mostly.
Everything, be it the scenes or the characters, is executed to near perfection. We’re suddenly thrust into this world as amnesiac detective Yuma Kokohead, and soon board a train for the rain-soaked, neon-lit dystopian Kanai district. It’s an autonomous region free from government interference, run by the shadowy Amaterasu Corporation. Yuma is one of many so-called Master Detectives sent by the World Detective Organization to uncover the ultimate secret of the Kanai district, taking it apart from the inside in hopes of uncovering the city and freeing it from oligarchic control.
When you board the Amaterasu Express bound for the Kanei district, Gao’s intense character work instantly bursts across the screen. It felt like a glimpse into the halls of MCM Comic-Con for at least the next 12 months. Each character stands out both for their signature look (created by returning character designer Rui Komatsuzaki), but also for their bizarre, literal qualities tied to their personality or strength (a detective’s ability to aid in the investigation). name.
The leader of the evil peacekeeping team in Jinjing District? Yumi Hell smiled. A quick-tempered rogue and master of disguise? Thunder came out. A money-driven, results-focused investigator who can awaken memories of the moment a murder was discovered? Harala nightmare. you understood.
Even the head of your organization is only called number one. However, despite the sheer number of characters you meet in your adventures, each one has a distinct and memorable look and feel, whether they’ve had a chapter or moment in the spotlight or been relegated to sideshow . Even small characters are still popular with fans years after Danganronpa’s release, and it’s hard not to feel the same when every character is imbued with such personalities, whether they’re alive, now… or dead. Things happen too.
Because yes, Rain Code is a murder mystery game that will inevitably put your detective skills to the test as you unravel the truth about the secrets of the Kanai district. This is where Reaper comes in, as your sidekick and powerhouse. Much of the game’s story follows Yuma solving various murders and investigating crime scenes until you gain the knowledge you need to uncover the truth about the mysterious maze. These are mind palaces of deceit and illusion, and the clues uncovered here hold the key to finding the culprit. In exchange for the beautiful Reaper’s support in discovering the truth, the price is the life of the convicted murderer.
With the Golden Well free to explore and many of the cases relying on historical events and unsolved cases, the structure of many of the stories is more reminiscent of Phoenix Wright’s investigations in Ace Attorney, Rather than Xiao Gao’s previous works. You interrogate witnesses, search for clues, all in order to lead them to a trial in the ornate maze, where the truth will serve as judge. These sequences are more complicated than simply poking holes in the testimony (although you have to) as Grim Reaper slices your neck to reveal the solution’s main problem, plays pop-up pirate hidden word games in a bikini, and throws up the solution key.
It all comes together as a gorgeous and exciting event, elevated by the characters who lead it. An early case finds Yuma working with Harala, and their outspokenly desperate dynamic, combined with the wrath Harala receives from the Grim Reaper, leads to more than a few laughs.
As we move beyond these characters, the story and interactions, fun as they may be, start to fall apart. Much larger than any closed school or desert island, the city is free to explore, but sadly there isn’t much to do inside. You can accept requests from other denizens, but they’re nothing more than running aimlessly around the map to get quests. The rewards come in the form of detective points, which theoretically increase your health and support for mysterious mazes, but the points feel so unnecessary that I haven’t once used them for support.
It’s an experience that’s never willing to step out of its comfort zone to fully explore its central thesis before touching on reality. The game repeatedly speaks of the meaning of justice in the context of Amaterasu’s corruption, and the ruthlessness with which Reaper’s gift/curse imposes the death penalty on the guilty. However the theme never really developed.
‘Justice is a matter of opinion. Yuma denounces in the face of the peacekeepers that “anything can be seen as justice given enough faith,” while another character abandons LE Modesitt Jr.’s pioneering Famous quote: “Justice is an ideal, but the law is a tool.” We see the struggles of ordinary people throughout the game through the imagery and language used in the game: a world where money and power are the ultimate deciders, a world that has been condemned many times for its cover-ups, and Peacekeeper and Amaterasu Willing to create greater evil in order to achieve this goal. Reserve their seat at the negotiating table. Elsewhere, the game also presents images of workers raising their fists in solidarity against the ruling class, echoing Amaterasu’s exploitation of the Kinner District.
Set in the neon aesthetic of a cyberpunk dystopia, the game offers a broader discussion of the relationship between justice and the rule of law and how the two can be abused or co-opted. Again, it never really came to fruition.
For most of our adventures, this is a game of uncertainty about what justice should be, and ideas are thrown out not for the reader to consider what it means to seek and secure a just outcome, but only as a passing commentary. There are some obvious criticisms of the death penalty in Reaper’s enforced execution of the guilty, but the game isn’t interested in the place of punishment in a system of justice and how that justice can be sustained and achieved. That’s not to say the game never considered these ideas: they’re all here. But without exploring them beyond the name, it makes events feel distant and cold beyond the flashy exterior.
That’s when other niggles start to seep in: investigations take a little too long, and often feel like cumbersome tasks at the end to find the last clue. What happens to the Vaseline smudges on the viewfinder into the world when we remove the Nintendo Switch from its dock to move the game?
I can’t help but wish the game would have done more with the richness of the setting and put it in front of us, especially since Gao has proven himself capable of doing so in the past. Given the popularity of the director and his work, as well as the memorable characters and sets, I can almost guarantee that this won’t be the last we see of the world–even ignoring the DLC planned for release in the coming months. Perhaps the next attempt will help fix some of these flaws.
Fans of Danganronpa will enjoy their time spent with Rain Code. I’m a fan and I have a lot of fun in this world. How could I not enjoy such a rich set of characters and such a unique scene in Jinjing District? It might not bring a new audience to the director’s work, but depending on which circles you like to hang out with, this will be the only game you’ll hear about for the rest of the summer.
Cosplay TikTok, satisfy your newest obsession.
iGamesNews
