A brand new mystery game from the minds that brought us Danganronpa. While the game obviously takes heavy notes from and even at points feels like it expects you to be familiar with Danganronpa, This will be the only paragraph to mention it, as I want to measure Rain Code on its own merits.
You play as Yuma Kokohead, a Master Detective in training who lost his memories after making a pact with Shinigami, death god and obligatory mascot character. If Yuma solves a mystery, the culprit dies, really putting the Shi in Shinjitsu. You will meet a bunch of other Master Detectives, who almost all have superpowers called Fortes. These range from Hyper Hearing to Crime Scene recreation to even controlling Time itself. These characters while fun can sometimes have their exxagerated traits get a little on the annoying side but never enough to become hatable, and their powers get used in creative ways throughout the plot that keep me engaged with them.
Naturally for the genre, all mysteries are murder mysteries and whodunnits. Usually you piece together most of the case before you enter the Mystery Labyrinth and then spend your time in there mostly reconfirming your info with none or two new truths dropping, but I'm getting ahead of myself. While yes most cases can be predictable I feel people tend to forget there's more to a murder mystery than just the whodunnit, as everyone's reactions and execution of the discovery are also key, which this game does really well about half the time. There's a mixture of "the player knows so they gotta slog through to get to the end" and "there should still be some elements of surprise for the player to keep them entertained" in my criticism of that though.
Wait, I said a Mystery Labyrinth earlier, what's that? Why, it's where you go to solve all the mysteries! Labyrinth is a bit of a misleading name though as you're mostly walking straight to the next set piece with characters talking, but at least there are nice trippy visuals as you walk. There are three minigames: Reasoning Deathmatch where you dodge your opponent's statements and counter it with evidence, Shinigami Puzzle which is a combination of Hangman and the Pop Up Pirate Game with fanservice, and a Castle Rush which has you push away an enemy's line of defense. The rest is either multiple choice or multiple choice but it's a QTE. Reasoning Death Match seems deathly afraid (heh) of you being stumped, as after one mistake you will be all but given the answer, and Shinigami Puzzles are also pretty easy, several letters also being combined as a result of translation into English but ultimately being very strong hints. You can also power Yuma up to make all of these aspects even easier. The only one I discourage using is the one that slows down the barrel in Shinigami Puzzles as it slows the barrel to a crawl and you have no way to change the speed. There really just needs to be more variety in what you do here, as three games (one of them only used about 4 times so really 2) and a bunch of multiple choice with little consequence for mistakes makes them feel less like Mystery Labyrinths and more like Mystery Restaurant Menu Mazes. They are a nice idea, but there really needs to be more variety in things you can do here.
The other place you can walk around is Kanai Ward, the main city of the game. The cyberpunk dystopia mood here is pretty cool actually, I really enjoyed exploring for the first couple of chapters until I inevitably resorted to just fast traveling everywhere once I've seen it all to save time. There are some rewards for exploring, like sidequests that can power up Yuma and these Shinigami trophies that unlock Detective Gabs, little side stories with the other cast members. These pull a Super Mario Sunshine though in that you can't do them at any given time and have to be found/done in specific chapters. While there is a Point of No Return warning for the individual chapters, there is none for when you explored for the very last time. It discouraged me from doing them since the rewards were paltry and I'm sure the Gabs are good I didn't feel like searching every nook and cranny each and every chapter.
Rain Code is definitely a concept they put a lot of work into, but they need to do more in the main gameplay segments and make the mysteries a bit less immediately solvable in the future if the Master Detective Archives gets another game, which I certainly hope they do as I enjoyed my time here.
You play as Yuma Kokohead, a Master Detective in training who lost his memories after making a pact with Shinigami, death god and obligatory mascot character. If Yuma solves a mystery, the culprit dies, really putting the Shi in Shinjitsu. You will meet a bunch of other Master Detectives, who almost all have superpowers called Fortes. These range from Hyper Hearing to Crime Scene recreation to even controlling Time itself. These characters while fun can sometimes have their exxagerated traits get a little on the annoying side but never enough to become hatable, and their powers get used in creative ways throughout the plot that keep me engaged with them.
Naturally for the genre, all mysteries are murder mysteries and whodunnits. Usually you piece together most of the case before you enter the Mystery Labyrinth and then spend your time in there mostly reconfirming your info with none or two new truths dropping, but I'm getting ahead of myself. While yes most cases can be predictable I feel people tend to forget there's more to a murder mystery than just the whodunnit, as everyone's reactions and execution of the discovery are also key, which this game does really well about half the time. There's a mixture of "the player knows so they gotta slog through to get to the end" and "there should still be some elements of surprise for the player to keep them entertained" in my criticism of that though.
Wait, I said a Mystery Labyrinth earlier, what's that? Why, it's where you go to solve all the mysteries! Labyrinth is a bit of a misleading name though as you're mostly walking straight to the next set piece with characters talking, but at least there are nice trippy visuals as you walk. There are three minigames: Reasoning Deathmatch where you dodge your opponent's statements and counter it with evidence, Shinigami Puzzle which is a combination of Hangman and the Pop Up Pirate Game with fanservice, and a Castle Rush which has you push away an enemy's line of defense. The rest is either multiple choice or multiple choice but it's a QTE. Reasoning Death Match seems deathly afraid (heh) of you being stumped, as after one mistake you will be all but given the answer, and Shinigami Puzzles are also pretty easy, several letters also being combined as a result of translation into English but ultimately being very strong hints. You can also power Yuma up to make all of these aspects even easier. The only one I discourage using is the one that slows down the barrel in Shinigami Puzzles as it slows the barrel to a crawl and you have no way to change the speed. There really just needs to be more variety in what you do here, as three games (one of them only used about 4 times so really 2) and a bunch of multiple choice with little consequence for mistakes makes them feel less like Mystery Labyrinths and more like Mystery Restaurant Menu Mazes. They are a nice idea, but there really needs to be more variety in things you can do here.
The other place you can walk around is Kanai Ward, the main city of the game. The cyberpunk dystopia mood here is pretty cool actually, I really enjoyed exploring for the first couple of chapters until I inevitably resorted to just fast traveling everywhere once I've seen it all to save time. There are some rewards for exploring, like sidequests that can power up Yuma and these Shinigami trophies that unlock Detective Gabs, little side stories with the other cast members. These pull a Super Mario Sunshine though in that you can't do them at any given time and have to be found/done in specific chapters. While there is a Point of No Return warning for the individual chapters, there is none for when you explored for the very last time. It discouraged me from doing them since the rewards were paltry and I'm sure the Gabs are good I didn't feel like searching every nook and cranny each and every chapter.
Rain Code is definitely a concept they put a lot of work into, but they need to do more in the main gameplay segments and make the mysteries a bit less immediately solvable in the future if the Master Detective Archives gets another game, which I certainly hope they do as I enjoyed my time here.