This review contains spoilers
While I was never a fan of Danganronpa, I was itching for a mystery game and Rain Code satisfied my craving. It's a great start of a new IP by Kodaka, but a few stumbles towards the end prevent it from being a true classic.
NOTE: This review will contain vague spoilers for the final chapter, but only at the end. There'll be another warning beforehand.
The presentation is all-around excellent. Unlike most Visual Novels, Rain Code is a mystery game in a fully 3D environment, and Kanai Ward is one of the prettiest neon cyberpunk dystopias I've ever seen. The voice acting is also excellent and the character designs are mostly memorable.
The Mystery Labyrinth mechanic is enjoyable, but for those who saw the trailers, do NOT expect a detective JRPG dungeon crawl. It's really just a Danganronpa trial with a flashy coat of paint. There's no exploration, only questions-and-answers, evidence presents, quicktime events and minigames linked by linear hallways where the characters talk. Reasoning Death Matches are Non-Stop Debates with a different name. This isn't necessarily bad, I just wanted to get expectations straight.
I will say that the movement controls in RDMs can be finicky, often requiring you to input a dodge seconds in advance.
But what you're really here for is the mysteries. And the game starts off strong: Chapter 0 is an incredible first case. But it's a little TOO strong, as no other mystery quite reaches its lofty heights until Chapter 4.
Chapters 1-3 are still decent, but each have their issues. Chapter 1 fails to give its pool of suspects much screentime, or even give them NAMES, making the reveal of the culprit hard to be invested in. Chapter 2 suffers from a bad comic relief partner who provides even more tonal whiplash than Shinigami. I enjoyed Chapter 3 more than most people, but it's not as complex as it could have been.
Chapter 5 is a whole other issue, but we'll get there.
Speaking of Shinigami, the central characters are for the most part well-written and memorable. Yuma is a fairly generic protagonist but a well-handled one. The detective partners besides Chapter 2's are great and hunting down Gumshoe Gabs feels rewarding as a result. The Peacekeepers are mostly one-note villains but are fun opponents in the Mystery Labyrinth.
Shinigami is... okay. She's not as annoying as trailers made her seem, and she doesn't create tonal whiplash as often as you'd expect, but on the whole she feels like a fanservice character who only truly develops at the VERY end of the story. I found her inoffensive, but not a standout.
My biggest issue with the game, however, is Chapter 5.
It suffers from the typical Kodaka finale issue: it's more focused on expositing shocking truths about the setting than offering a mystery to solve. More detailed thoughts below, while I won't directly spoil anything I still recommend you stop reading now if you haven't played the game. In conclusion, I had a lot of fun with Rain Code for Chapters 0-4, and that alone makes it a good mystery game that deserves a sequel.
Now, Chapter 5.
The last Mystery Labyrinth consists almost entirely of questions you already know the answer to. (As-in, things literally spelled-out to you during the investigation) And while the small parts of its reveal WERE well-foreshadowed, as a whole Kanai Ward's Ultimate Secret has little to do with the preceding plotlines, the focus on the Peacekeepers' corruption being mostly dropped after Chapter 4. Dismantling their system may have made for a more satisfying finale. The final culprit was a good concept, but flips between "well-intentioned extremist" and "cartoon supervillain" on a dime.
To quote Trope Talk, the finale verges into "if you tell your audience there's a bomb under the table and then one of the characters gets stabbed by a clown" territory.
At one point Shinigami lampshades: "this NEVER happens in murder mysteries!" but if one of your characters is saying that... maybe you shouldn't put that plotline in a story advertised as a murder mystery?
NOTE: This review will contain vague spoilers for the final chapter, but only at the end. There'll be another warning beforehand.
The presentation is all-around excellent. Unlike most Visual Novels, Rain Code is a mystery game in a fully 3D environment, and Kanai Ward is one of the prettiest neon cyberpunk dystopias I've ever seen. The voice acting is also excellent and the character designs are mostly memorable.
The Mystery Labyrinth mechanic is enjoyable, but for those who saw the trailers, do NOT expect a detective JRPG dungeon crawl. It's really just a Danganronpa trial with a flashy coat of paint. There's no exploration, only questions-and-answers, evidence presents, quicktime events and minigames linked by linear hallways where the characters talk. Reasoning Death Matches are Non-Stop Debates with a different name. This isn't necessarily bad, I just wanted to get expectations straight.
I will say that the movement controls in RDMs can be finicky, often requiring you to input a dodge seconds in advance.
But what you're really here for is the mysteries. And the game starts off strong: Chapter 0 is an incredible first case. But it's a little TOO strong, as no other mystery quite reaches its lofty heights until Chapter 4.
Chapters 1-3 are still decent, but each have their issues. Chapter 1 fails to give its pool of suspects much screentime, or even give them NAMES, making the reveal of the culprit hard to be invested in. Chapter 2 suffers from a bad comic relief partner who provides even more tonal whiplash than Shinigami. I enjoyed Chapter 3 more than most people, but it's not as complex as it could have been.
Chapter 5 is a whole other issue, but we'll get there.
Speaking of Shinigami, the central characters are for the most part well-written and memorable. Yuma is a fairly generic protagonist but a well-handled one. The detective partners besides Chapter 2's are great and hunting down Gumshoe Gabs feels rewarding as a result. The Peacekeepers are mostly one-note villains but are fun opponents in the Mystery Labyrinth.
Shinigami is... okay. She's not as annoying as trailers made her seem, and she doesn't create tonal whiplash as often as you'd expect, but on the whole she feels like a fanservice character who only truly develops at the VERY end of the story. I found her inoffensive, but not a standout.
My biggest issue with the game, however, is Chapter 5.
It suffers from the typical Kodaka finale issue: it's more focused on expositing shocking truths about the setting than offering a mystery to solve. More detailed thoughts below, while I won't directly spoil anything I still recommend you stop reading now if you haven't played the game. In conclusion, I had a lot of fun with Rain Code for Chapters 0-4, and that alone makes it a good mystery game that deserves a sequel.
Now, Chapter 5.
The last Mystery Labyrinth consists almost entirely of questions you already know the answer to. (As-in, things literally spelled-out to you during the investigation) And while the small parts of its reveal WERE well-foreshadowed, as a whole Kanai Ward's Ultimate Secret has little to do with the preceding plotlines, the focus on the Peacekeepers' corruption being mostly dropped after Chapter 4. Dismantling their system may have made for a more satisfying finale. The final culprit was a good concept, but flips between "well-intentioned extremist" and "cartoon supervillain" on a dime.
To quote Trope Talk, the finale verges into "if you tell your audience there's a bomb under the table and then one of the characters gets stabbed by a clown" territory.
At one point Shinigami lampshades: "this NEVER happens in murder mysteries!" but if one of your characters is saying that... maybe you shouldn't put that plotline in a story advertised as a murder mystery?