This is overall a pretty solid mystery VN game, and people who liked Danganronpa may or may not like it. Personally, I think that it was a good time. A couple of these chapters are stinkers but overall the story is solid and there's a good and quirky cast of characters. Ending was great and easily the highlight of the experience, which is to be expected from a Danganronpa-adjacent game.
While I had a great time, I have to say that it was hard NOT to compare this to Danganronpa, because even though the gameplay and window dressing makes it distinct, the similarities are plentiful and obvious to fans.
The biggest flaw of Rain Code is just that the big twists and mysteries in general don't really hit the same highs and emotional punchiness and weight that I was expecting from a DR type game. While I understand that Kodaka didn't want to do death games and class trials again, it was absolutely the perfect setting for the type of angst and insanity that Danganronpa was always written with. Rain Code takes on a more fantastical tone, which is okay, but the Mystery Labyrinths where you'll spend most of your time are basically walking simulators. They aren't bad, and each one has enough visual distinctions to make them feel new, but I can't help but feel disappointed when I compare the dynamic, frenetic nature of Nonstop Debates to the more meandering gameplay of Mystery Labyrinths. The approach of walking-and-talking interspersed with minigames and one-on-one debates functions just fine but they feel disjointed and stilted at times in comparison.
In addition to this, the buildup and resolutions of some of the mysteries just felt a bit... hollow? And again, this goes back to me comparing things to Danganronpa (which is probably unfair to Rain Code), but having a set cast of 15 or so characters made the stakes of the mysteries feel so much higher and gave each story this super intimate feeling. The small lists of suspects we are given in a couple of the earlier chapters of Rain Code are characters we don't really have that much exposure to beforehand, and as a result the urgency of the resolution feels kinda... meh. There isn't that time to flesh out who they are and why they could be doing the things they are, and the lack of contact between the rest of the cast and these suspects makes the stakes feel low. Again, this is really only an issue for maybe a couple of chapters in the early goings, but still.
I think when it is most important, Rain Code sticks the landing. There are some technical issues that got a bit distracting, but it wasn't anything horrific (although I'm sure this would be ameliorated if this game got a release on a console other than Switch). I like the characters, the setting is cool, there is a great overarching mystery with plenty of intrigue, Masafumi Takada's soundtrack is magnificent as always, and the ending is terrific. I just feel like there was a lot more meat on the bone for improvement here in terms of really investing the player. I do hope that Kodaka continues to experiment with new styles of mystery VNs in this vein (but another Danganronpa someday wouldn't hurt).
While I had a great time, I have to say that it was hard NOT to compare this to Danganronpa, because even though the gameplay and window dressing makes it distinct, the similarities are plentiful and obvious to fans.
The biggest flaw of Rain Code is just that the big twists and mysteries in general don't really hit the same highs and emotional punchiness and weight that I was expecting from a DR type game. While I understand that Kodaka didn't want to do death games and class trials again, it was absolutely the perfect setting for the type of angst and insanity that Danganronpa was always written with. Rain Code takes on a more fantastical tone, which is okay, but the Mystery Labyrinths where you'll spend most of your time are basically walking simulators. They aren't bad, and each one has enough visual distinctions to make them feel new, but I can't help but feel disappointed when I compare the dynamic, frenetic nature of Nonstop Debates to the more meandering gameplay of Mystery Labyrinths. The approach of walking-and-talking interspersed with minigames and one-on-one debates functions just fine but they feel disjointed and stilted at times in comparison.
In addition to this, the buildup and resolutions of some of the mysteries just felt a bit... hollow? And again, this goes back to me comparing things to Danganronpa (which is probably unfair to Rain Code), but having a set cast of 15 or so characters made the stakes of the mysteries feel so much higher and gave each story this super intimate feeling. The small lists of suspects we are given in a couple of the earlier chapters of Rain Code are characters we don't really have that much exposure to beforehand, and as a result the urgency of the resolution feels kinda... meh. There isn't that time to flesh out who they are and why they could be doing the things they are, and the lack of contact between the rest of the cast and these suspects makes the stakes feel low. Again, this is really only an issue for maybe a couple of chapters in the early goings, but still.
I think when it is most important, Rain Code sticks the landing. There are some technical issues that got a bit distracting, but it wasn't anything horrific (although I'm sure this would be ameliorated if this game got a release on a console other than Switch). I like the characters, the setting is cool, there is a great overarching mystery with plenty of intrigue, Masafumi Takada's soundtrack is magnificent as always, and the ending is terrific. I just feel like there was a lot more meat on the bone for improvement here in terms of really investing the player. I do hope that Kodaka continues to experiment with new styles of mystery VNs in this vein (but another Danganronpa someday wouldn't hurt).