I'm a bit torn at the moment. This year has been a pretty eventful one when it comes to releases- with each month showcasing at least one drop that feels like some niche's goty, and in a much more explosive way than years past. I don't know if this is just how critical discourse has evolved- if gaming development as a whole is more on the pulse with general audiences- some mixture of both or some other memetic, sociological or plain weird state of being we're in. Gaming HAS been pretty good this year and we still have some big stuff in the next few months. What irks me is that I've played a bit of what this year had- only barely scraping the surface, but had quite a plateful each week, yet I can't really think of piece that has kinda... gotten me. Generally going from year to year I can usually point out a release from that year that ranks among my favorites of all time, as I just tend to grab releases I feel like I'd enjoy most. Here that just happened way too often so I decided to diversify my usual safe bets, still haven't gotten Pikmin or Armored Core or Resident Evil 4, etc. For a while it just felt kinda weird that despite this, nothing really stuck into my skull like some leech- draining my head of precious grey matter and leaving only useless gaming tchotchkes and a longing for more after I conclude whatever game I had finished. Until last week.
What I come to struggle with is Rain Code, the newest game headed by Kazutaka Kodaka. Many love his stuff, many hate it, most just have to tolerate the fallout that Danganronpa has left over the last decade plus. Personally, I still love much of what Danganronpa meant from when I first discovered it in high school to what it left for me as I finished it's saga freshman year of college. Five years after finishing it (jesus christ), I've looked back at the franchise through other lens and opinions but have generally stayed the same and I'm glad that my opinion really hasn't waned- I'm STILL glad that I look back at V3 and remember how fun some of those cases and characters are, leading into that finale. I can count on my hand the amount of games I've gone through with as pure, unspoiled eyes as I did with V3 and felt like I absolutely needed that. I'm so glad I didn't engage with an ounce of reddit or twitter discourse before finishing a game I came out genuinely loving. No 'Oh- that game is divisive' or "That ending, man!" even.
Nowadays, I'm jaded! Twitter keeps spoiling me on anything and everything, so I can't really get mad anymore because people are just going to be annoying forever regardless of what I could ever do or say, besides becoming a Tibetan monk. I've given up! Spoil everything for me!
Anyway... with Rain Code here I'm conflicted. Not particularly of its own quality but to how to accurately place it within my heart and of my critical eye. It's great, at points by the end its fantastic. Kodaka has a grip on my brain like no other, but as the times flow and the seasons change, we've arrived at a new avenue- one that I had to consider through my playthrough. Now that I am older and my tastes have changed somewhat, have I come to recognize many of the juvenile and messy flaws to the general Kodaka vibe? Yeah, however by the end of the game I reached the conclusion I trusted in myself since beginning the game.
I am Kodaka’s greatest soldier.
I think this was a wonderful departure from the Danganronpa series while still utilizing many of the structural bones of those games. This has its advantages and disadvantages, but it was certainly refreshing having a somewhat more constant and developing cast compared to the DRs games, as well as mysteries that are well done enough that you can figure out most of what’s going on through logically figuring it out yourself. I think most of the Yakou detective agency is splendid, even my least favorite of the bunch ended up with way more hits than the usual least favorite of a DR game. Although I will say I think the Peacekeepers can be really hit or miss- some of them get enough screen time to make an impression while others feel like hoaky 3rd rate pokemon villains. I wouldn’t mind so much but you meet a different one usually each chapter until 4 and they usually fuck off afterward. I’m glad Yomi’s just a complete dirtbag, although by the end it was clear he wasn’t the big bad so I was just kinda booing and yelling at him to exit the stage. The ACTUAL big bad though I think is quite strong, making for a really fun final confrontation.
I do really like the hub world of Kanai Ward- I really would have liked this on something that wasn’t the Switch but I’ll take it. The cyperpunk noir vibe works really well with the Danganronpa art crew style, and after some adjusting I really liked a lot of the world building that went into how Kanai Ward works. It was really cool that it incorporates a lot of how it works into its mysteries. There’s certain worldbuilding notes that irk but I get why they say certain stuff like “this is the [Church], its the only one in Kanai Ward”, although part of me wished that locations like this were maybe a bit more fleshed out just as some flavoring.
I still don’t quite know why certain characters just have dog ears though. Two characters have dog ears and I get one of them because of their talent, the other one…? Iunno.
The sidequests are a bit basic, but it does remind me of the Yakuza-type side missions we all know and love. You walk up to a fortune teller, get given an extraordinary telling for free, that telling comes true and then the fortune teller scams with extraordinary prices if you fall for his ruse. A lot of these have their own Rain Code flavoring to them but there’s not too many so they’re easy to chew along the way of beating other main story things.
My main complaint is that I do think it takes a while after its strong prologue to regain its footing. Chapter 1 isn’t really bad, I mostly just didn’t find its cases as interesting as I’d hope, although Halara as your partner for this section was certainly a treat. Inversely, I really liked the moment to moment mystery for Chapter 2, but Desuhiko is by and far the hardest of the bunch to grapple with his perverse nature (he’s still running laps around Teruteru, somehow). I will say I appreciate how often Shinigami back talks Desuhiko by saying she legitimately hates him- I feel like you don’t get that kinda treatment against these usual horndog archetypes in anime (again, shoutout to AITSF). Chapter 3 feels like the weakest case, and Fubuki (bless her) isn’t the sharpest of the bunch- but I did like the set up and how large-scale the mystery turned out to be.
Also- WOW, shoutout to one-time boat mechanics that feel like I’m right back in Mario Sunshine.
I am… Kodaka’s greatest soldier.
I do wish Shinigami was a bit less talkative overall, some of her barks come off as just kinda filling in empty space in the soundscape when that’s really unnecessary. I enjoyed her presence overall but she does have moments where it feels like her joking nature is out of place- I did appreciate when, by the end of the game, even Yuma’s begins getting vocally frustrated at some of the comments made by Shinigami and she recognizes she probably overstepped a few too many times. I would have liked some of this a bit earlier but I’ll take what I can get. Kurumi also feels like the strangest addition to the cast- she’s considered one of the only informants in Kanai Ward which is helpful to our detectives but she just kinda tags along and is completely normal. It’s bizarre because Kodaka doesn’t write normal characters- she’s scary.
I will note I think this game runs fine on switch and I never ran into too many hiccups but I do crave a version of this game that was on the PS5 or at least PC. There's quite a lot of loading that you gotta deal with. Switch is just getting up there, man. If you're interested in getting this game but can wait, see if a PC version gets announced. Also I don’t think I’ll be checking out those DLCs, they don’t seem to be worth the price at the moment or all that content-filled. I
I'm reminded a lot of when Uchikoshi decided to turn to the AI games once his Nonary saga was finished, which felt not only like a general improvement in several aspects but a natural evolution on the ideas he had when first starting with 999. While I was somewhat mid on the Nonary saga as a whole I really appreciated that the AI games breathed new life and utilized Uchikoshi’s strengths as a writer to make a narrative that felt a lot more focused and down to earth, and by the time he leaned more into the strange meta-narrative, was able to better convey his style through a game with what i felt was stronger direction and consideration that his prior works. With Rain Code, I think it leans a lot into the Danganronpa formula which does feel a bit distracting at times, and I’d be lying if I didn’t want Kodaka to break off from the usual templates you find in these kinds of games. I think about Yuma and Date having similar archetypes as amnesiac detectives with identity crises while being berated by overly neurodivergent neuro-demonic female partners. While I did love Yuma (he’s about as par for me as Hajime was in 2, maybe more) and Shinigami, I’d be lying if I didn’t appreciate AITSF’s choice to set its events 6 years after Date was found without memories by the Boss. It was fun to have a game with that trope but with a character that had already lived a chunk of their life filling his shell with relationships and memories. Here, the time scale is a lot more by the numbers, being right as Yuma lost his memories- which for the purpose of what story its trying to tell- is fine. But I kinda wanna see if Kodaka can tackle something that is out of his usual ballpark, maybe an older protagonist or a different gender. Yuma’s still great although he does feel like a mix between Naegi and Hajime.
I really enjoyed my time here, although I think much of the first half is trying to spin its wheel while trying to balance the usual format for these kinds of games. By the end it hits its stride, and I was struck with the same kind of energy that comes up whenever I had gotten to the end of the other games, probably making my game of the year thus far. As much as I liked other games this year, there’s few guys that are wiretapped into my heart and my brain like Kodaka. While V3 remains one of my favorite works still, I see this as a couple of steps back- and not a few steps forward per se, but a lot more steps toward a new direction. I’m always welcome to whatever Kodaka and his crew have in mind, I’m looking forward to whatever might come next.
What I come to struggle with is Rain Code, the newest game headed by Kazutaka Kodaka. Many love his stuff, many hate it, most just have to tolerate the fallout that Danganronpa has left over the last decade plus. Personally, I still love much of what Danganronpa meant from when I first discovered it in high school to what it left for me as I finished it's saga freshman year of college. Five years after finishing it (jesus christ), I've looked back at the franchise through other lens and opinions but have generally stayed the same and I'm glad that my opinion really hasn't waned- I'm STILL glad that I look back at V3 and remember how fun some of those cases and characters are, leading into that finale. I can count on my hand the amount of games I've gone through with as pure, unspoiled eyes as I did with V3 and felt like I absolutely needed that. I'm so glad I didn't engage with an ounce of reddit or twitter discourse before finishing a game I came out genuinely loving. No 'Oh- that game is divisive' or "That ending, man!" even.
Nowadays, I'm jaded! Twitter keeps spoiling me on anything and everything, so I can't really get mad anymore because people are just going to be annoying forever regardless of what I could ever do or say, besides becoming a Tibetan monk. I've given up! Spoil everything for me!
Anyway... with Rain Code here I'm conflicted. Not particularly of its own quality but to how to accurately place it within my heart and of my critical eye. It's great, at points by the end its fantastic. Kodaka has a grip on my brain like no other, but as the times flow and the seasons change, we've arrived at a new avenue- one that I had to consider through my playthrough. Now that I am older and my tastes have changed somewhat, have I come to recognize many of the juvenile and messy flaws to the general Kodaka vibe? Yeah, however by the end of the game I reached the conclusion I trusted in myself since beginning the game.
I am Kodaka’s greatest soldier.
I think this was a wonderful departure from the Danganronpa series while still utilizing many of the structural bones of those games. This has its advantages and disadvantages, but it was certainly refreshing having a somewhat more constant and developing cast compared to the DRs games, as well as mysteries that are well done enough that you can figure out most of what’s going on through logically figuring it out yourself. I think most of the Yakou detective agency is splendid, even my least favorite of the bunch ended up with way more hits than the usual least favorite of a DR game. Although I will say I think the Peacekeepers can be really hit or miss- some of them get enough screen time to make an impression while others feel like hoaky 3rd rate pokemon villains. I wouldn’t mind so much but you meet a different one usually each chapter until 4 and they usually fuck off afterward. I’m glad Yomi’s just a complete dirtbag, although by the end it was clear he wasn’t the big bad so I was just kinda booing and yelling at him to exit the stage. The ACTUAL big bad though I think is quite strong, making for a really fun final confrontation.
I do really like the hub world of Kanai Ward- I really would have liked this on something that wasn’t the Switch but I’ll take it. The cyperpunk noir vibe works really well with the Danganronpa art crew style, and after some adjusting I really liked a lot of the world building that went into how Kanai Ward works. It was really cool that it incorporates a lot of how it works into its mysteries. There’s certain worldbuilding notes that irk but I get why they say certain stuff like “this is the [Church], its the only one in Kanai Ward”, although part of me wished that locations like this were maybe a bit more fleshed out just as some flavoring.
I still don’t quite know why certain characters just have dog ears though. Two characters have dog ears and I get one of them because of their talent, the other one…? Iunno.
The sidequests are a bit basic, but it does remind me of the Yakuza-type side missions we all know and love. You walk up to a fortune teller, get given an extraordinary telling for free, that telling comes true and then the fortune teller scams with extraordinary prices if you fall for his ruse. A lot of these have their own Rain Code flavoring to them but there’s not too many so they’re easy to chew along the way of beating other main story things.
My main complaint is that I do think it takes a while after its strong prologue to regain its footing. Chapter 1 isn’t really bad, I mostly just didn’t find its cases as interesting as I’d hope, although Halara as your partner for this section was certainly a treat. Inversely, I really liked the moment to moment mystery for Chapter 2, but Desuhiko is by and far the hardest of the bunch to grapple with his perverse nature (he’s still running laps around Teruteru, somehow). I will say I appreciate how often Shinigami back talks Desuhiko by saying she legitimately hates him- I feel like you don’t get that kinda treatment against these usual horndog archetypes in anime (again, shoutout to AITSF). Chapter 3 feels like the weakest case, and Fubuki (bless her) isn’t the sharpest of the bunch- but I did like the set up and how large-scale the mystery turned out to be.
Also- WOW, shoutout to one-time boat mechanics that feel like I’m right back in Mario Sunshine.
I am… Kodaka’s greatest soldier.
I do wish Shinigami was a bit less talkative overall, some of her barks come off as just kinda filling in empty space in the soundscape when that’s really unnecessary. I enjoyed her presence overall but she does have moments where it feels like her joking nature is out of place- I did appreciate when, by the end of the game, even Yuma’s begins getting vocally frustrated at some of the comments made by Shinigami and she recognizes she probably overstepped a few too many times. I would have liked some of this a bit earlier but I’ll take what I can get. Kurumi also feels like the strangest addition to the cast- she’s considered one of the only informants in Kanai Ward which is helpful to our detectives but she just kinda tags along and is completely normal. It’s bizarre because Kodaka doesn’t write normal characters- she’s scary.
I will note I think this game runs fine on switch and I never ran into too many hiccups but I do crave a version of this game that was on the PS5 or at least PC. There's quite a lot of loading that you gotta deal with. Switch is just getting up there, man. If you're interested in getting this game but can wait, see if a PC version gets announced. Also I don’t think I’ll be checking out those DLCs, they don’t seem to be worth the price at the moment or all that content-filled. I
I'm reminded a lot of when Uchikoshi decided to turn to the AI games once his Nonary saga was finished, which felt not only like a general improvement in several aspects but a natural evolution on the ideas he had when first starting with 999. While I was somewhat mid on the Nonary saga as a whole I really appreciated that the AI games breathed new life and utilized Uchikoshi’s strengths as a writer to make a narrative that felt a lot more focused and down to earth, and by the time he leaned more into the strange meta-narrative, was able to better convey his style through a game with what i felt was stronger direction and consideration that his prior works. With Rain Code, I think it leans a lot into the Danganronpa formula which does feel a bit distracting at times, and I’d be lying if I didn’t want Kodaka to break off from the usual templates you find in these kinds of games. I think about Yuma and Date having similar archetypes as amnesiac detectives with identity crises while being berated by overly neurodivergent neuro-demonic female partners. While I did love Yuma (he’s about as par for me as Hajime was in 2, maybe more) and Shinigami, I’d be lying if I didn’t appreciate AITSF’s choice to set its events 6 years after Date was found without memories by the Boss. It was fun to have a game with that trope but with a character that had already lived a chunk of their life filling his shell with relationships and memories. Here, the time scale is a lot more by the numbers, being right as Yuma lost his memories- which for the purpose of what story its trying to tell- is fine. But I kinda wanna see if Kodaka can tackle something that is out of his usual ballpark, maybe an older protagonist or a different gender. Yuma’s still great although he does feel like a mix between Naegi and Hajime.
I really enjoyed my time here, although I think much of the first half is trying to spin its wheel while trying to balance the usual format for these kinds of games. By the end it hits its stride, and I was struck with the same kind of energy that comes up whenever I had gotten to the end of the other games, probably making my game of the year thus far. As much as I liked other games this year, there’s few guys that are wiretapped into my heart and my brain like Kodaka. While V3 remains one of my favorite works still, I see this as a couple of steps back- and not a few steps forward per se, but a lot more steps toward a new direction. I’m always welcome to whatever Kodaka and his crew have in mind, I’m looking forward to whatever might come next.