Rain Code

''Master Detective Archives: Rain Code'' is a 2023 adventure video game developed by Too Kyo Games and Spike Chunsoft, and published by Spike Chunsoft. The game, created by several members who worked on the ''Danganronpa'' series, including scenario writer Kazutaka Kodaka, character designer Rui Komatsuzaki, and composer Masafumi Takada, was first released for the Nintendo Switch on June 30, 2023. An enhanced version was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on July 18, 2024, in Japan and October 1 worldwide.

The story centers around Yuma Kokohead, a detective trainee with amnesia, and his ''shinigami'' ally Shinigami investigating an isolated, rainy city called Kanai Ward controlled by a corporation known as the Amaterasu Corporation, where the primary enforcers are the Peacekeepers led by director Yomi Hellsmile. His mission in the city is to solve Kanai Ward's Ultimate Secret alongside other Master Detectives who also oppose Amaterasu Corporation, which will help the detectives solve the Great Global Mystery. Finding the truth is made difficult when Yomi Hellsmile constantly sends out his Peacekeepers who interfere with the cases he investigates for their own malevolent reasons, requiring Yuma to use the Mystery Labyrinth summoned by the ''shinigami'' and solve the cases there by gathering the evidence needed to prove the culprit's identity.

Gameplay

''Master Detective Archives: Rain Code'' is a fantasy-mystery adventure game taking place across six chapters. Players control Yuma Kokohead, an amnesiac detective trainee who solves incidents with the help of a ''shinigami'' named Shinigami. Gameplay alternates between Kanai Ward in the real world, where the story unfolds, and the Mystery Labyrinth, a dungeon formed from the mysteries surrounding a case.

During each chapter, the player explores the Kanai Ward area, where they can either progress the main story or partake in optional side quests known as Requests. By interacting with objects, speaking with characters, and completing various tasks, players earn Detective Points that increase Yuma's skill level and rewards Skill Points. Skill Points can be used to unlock various abilities that can be used in the Mystery Labyrinth. Additionally, the player can find statues of Shinigami, which can unlock optional dialogues with side characters. When an incident occurs, players search for information and clues, which are converted into Solution Keys for use in the Mystery Labyrinth. Players may also be required to take part in quick time events or minigames, some of which involve the abilities of Yuma's fellow detectives.

Once enough Solution Keys are gathered, the game moves into the Mystery Labyrinth, the spiritual manifestation of each case. Here, the player must use their wits and Solution Keys to solve the various mysteries behind a case. These involve choosing the correct route, answering questions with the correct Solution Key, and reacting to quickfire questions. Occasionally, players will face off against Mystery Phantoms, manifestations of characters trying to hide the truth, in Reasoning Death Match sections. Similar to the ''Danganronpa'' series' Nonstop Debate sections, the player must dodge statements shot out by the Mystery Phantom before striking a contradictory statement with the correct corresponding Solution Key. Players are also able to repel certain statements without evidence and call upon an ally's help to shield them from damage. The Shinigami Puzzle segments require the player to spell out the answer to a question by hitting letters on a rotating barrel within a time limit. Clues can be offered by feeding Shinigami a Solution Key, but irrelevant ones will result in less time. When the true culprit is cornered, the player takes part in the God Shinigami section, in which the player controls a giant Shinigami as she dodges and destroys obstacles laid out by the culprit. Finally, the Deduction Denouement requires the player to fill in panels of a comic summarizing the case. The player has stamina, which decreases if they make mistakes or are hit by obstacles, with the game ending if it is diminished or if the player runs out of time. Abilities unlocked by Skill Points can be equipped to give the player benefits, such as more health or fewer incorrect Solution Keys. At the end of each chapter, players are ranked on their performance in the Mystery Labyrinth, earning Detective Points based on how well they did.

Plot

Amnesiac detective trainee Yuma Kokohead is suspected as an impostor among the other detectives riding with him to Kanai Ward's Nocturnal Detective Agency via the Amaterasu Express, a self-driving passenger train made by the Amaterasu Corporation. Zilch Alexander, one of the detectives, encourages Yuma to rest when he starts feeling ill. Upon reawakening after being knocked out in the bathroom, Yuma finds a ''shinigami'' before him named Shinigami, of whom is only visible to him due to an agreement they made in exchange for his memories. Returning back, Yuma ends up being framed by the corporation's Peacekeepers for the murder of the detectives upon finding all of them but himself dead on the train. Yuma fails to prove his innocence by killing the true culprit, a hitman pretending to be Zilch, via the Mystery Labyrinth as he is unable to accuse the culprit if they are already dead. Arriving in time, Yakou Furio, the agency’s chief, tells Yuma that Kanai Ward is an isolated city of eternal rain under control of the Amaterasu Corporation when he acquits him of the murder.

Yakou takes Yuma to his assigned agency, now stationed in a submarine due to eviction from the previous location thanks to Amaterasu, where he meets the four other Master Detectives working alongside him: Halara Nightmare, Desuhiko Thunderbolt, Fubuki Clockford, and Vivia Twilight. The detectives inform him of the World Detective Organization’s goal of solving global-scale mysteries using Forensic Fortes they are trained to develop into useful assets for their investigations before Number One, the leader, calls in and tells them to solve Kanai Ward’s Ultimate Secret, which will help them solve the Great Global Mystery, providing no information on what either of these cases entail.

The detectives search around Kanai Ward for this secret, investigating several cases involving a serial killer priest avenging the victims of the people he targets who inspires a churchgoer to commit a copycat crime out of admiration, with both men pretending to be the legendary Nail Man killer; theatre club student Karen being killed by three of her peers, Yoshiko, Waruna, and Kurane, during a school play rehearsal in a plot to avenge the murder of their friend Aiko; and traitorous resistance movement member Icardi killing the group's leader Shachi and framing Yuma for a terrorist attack on the city so he can fund his escape from Kanai Ward by stealing enough money from the city's bank, all while Yomi Hellsmile, director of the Peacekeepers, interferes with the detectives. Shinigami reaps the culprits' souls and the detectives lose their memories every time they enter the Mystery Labyrinth to solve each case. During Yuma's investigation, he meets Kurumi Wendy, the city's informant, and the habitually masked Makoto Kagutsuchi, CEO of Amaterasu Corporation.

When no results come up from their previous investigations, Yuma and the detectives investigate Amaterasu Corporation HQ for a decade-old homunculus research lab, only to receive no information on the old lab as a result of Yakou killing Dr. Huesca, the head researcher, as part of a plot to avenge his deceased wife, leading to his reaping by the reluctant Shinigami. Once they return from the lab, the detectives receive a report on the WDO being bombed after being informed that they are searching for a global-scale kidnapper. Makoto then knocks them out using a gift he gave Yuma and takes him and Kurumi to the restricted area of Kanai Ward where the truth behind the city and Amaterasu Corporation's success is finally revealed.

Yuma finds out from his investigation in the restricted area that Amaterasu Corporation was hired by the Unified Government to create an immortal army of homunculi. The UG set up their own facility ten years ago and created the first homunculus, Makoto Kagutsuchi, out of Number One’s DNA three years ago. Makoto is revealed to be a clone of Yuma as Number One is actually Yuma's true identity. In response to Makoto's creation, Amaterasu desperately made homunculi out of all of Kanai Ward’s residents only for defective homunculi to awake en masse and be forced to kill their original counterparts upon exposure to sunlight, forgetting about their massacre when Makoto returned them to their senses by blocking out the sun in Kanai Ward using his rain cloud generator. Makoto then blackmailed the UG with their homunculus research in order for Kanai Ward to become isolated and had the former CEO delegate his position to him, which was initially meant to be given to Yomi. As the CEO, Makoto froze Dr. Huesca’s homunculus research, masterminded the mass kidnapping of death row inmates using his identity as Number One's clone so he could turn them into meat buns for the homunculi to feed on, and concealed the fact that the homunculi revive as zombies upon death by having the Peacekeepers take them to the restricted area. As an act of desperation, he used the detectives to sabotage Yomi's plans to leak homunculus information to the world with Dr. Huesca by ousting him from his position and to take Number One's place via killing him in the Mystery Labyrinth so he could permanently keep Kanai Ward isolated.

Yuma convinces Makoto to tell the citizens the truth of their identities as homunculi in order to solve Kanai Ward’s issues and Makoto follows through by doing so, even freeing them from their isolation and providing for their needs as citizens. With Kanai Ward's Ultimate Secret and the Great Global Mystery solved, Yuma resigns as Number One and travels the world to solve mysteries, leaving the Book of Death housing Shinigami in Kurumi's care. While the other detectives return to the WDO, Kurumi leaves Kanai Ward in search of Yuma.

Development and release

''Rain Code'' was co-developed by Spike Chunsoft and Too Kyo Games, a company formed in 2017 by ex-employees of Spike Chunsoft. It was written by Kazutaka Kodaka and Takekuni Kitayama, and features music by Masafumi Takada, and character designs by Rui Komatsuzaki and Shimadoriru; several key staff members previously worked on Spike Chunsoft's ''Danganronpa'' series.

Kodaka began the planning for the game in 2016 while he was still working at Spike Chunsoft. It was designed to be different from ''Danganronpa'', with a dark fantasy setting influenced by the work of filmmaker Tim Burton, and uses 3D models throughout as opposed to ''Danganronpa'' blend of 3D environments and 2D characters, although still features a similar psycho-pop aesthetic with neon colors. It was developed using the Unreal Engine.

The game was first teased by Too Kyo Games in 2018 with a piece of concept art showing a rainy city and a ghost, and was officially announced in November 2021 as ''Enigma Archives: Rain Code''. It was later retitled ''Master Detective Archives: Rain Code'' and released on June 30, 2023, for the Nintendo Switch by Spike Chunsoft. The physical and limited editions of the game include a digital novel prequel, ''How To Be a Master Detective: A Yakou Furio Case'', which was written by Yoichiro Koizumi with supervision by Kodaka. A series of downloadable content consisting of four substories revolving around Yuma's fellow detectives was released monthly between July and October 2023, with chapters available individually or as part of a season pass, which is also included with the digital deluxe edition of the game.

On May 7, 2024, Spike Chunsoft announced that an enhanced version of the game, titled ''Master Detective Archives: Rain Code +'', was scheduled for release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows via Steam on July 18, 2024, in Japan and on October 1, 2024, worldwide. The game supports resolutions up to 4K and includes all the downloadable content from the Switch version, as well as additional content such as a gallery.

Reception

''Master Detective Archives: Rain Code'' was the bestselling retail game during its first week of release in Japan, with 55,339 copies being physical. By the end of July, the game had sold over 300,000 copies worldwide.

''Master Detective Archives: Rain Code'' received "generally favorable" reviews from critics, according to the review aggregation website Metacritic.

Notes

References

External links

* {{Official website, https://www.spike-chunsoft.co.jp/raincode/en/

2023 video games
Adventure games
Cyberpunk video games
Dark fantasy video games
Detective video games
Fiction about assassinations
Fiction about murder
Fiction about police brutality
Fiction about police corruption
Fiction about wrongful convictions
Mass murder in fiction
Murder mystery video games
Mystery adventure games
Nintendo Switch games
PlayStation 5 games
Science fiction video games
Spike Chunsoft video games
Too Kyo Games games
Unreal Engine 4 games
Video games about amnesia
Video games about cloning
Video games about crime
Video games about personifications of death
Video games developed in Japan
Video games scored by Masafumi Takada
Windows games
Works about assassinations
Works about corruption
Works about police brutality
Xbox Series X and Series S games