I would rather not liken Master Detective Archives: Rain Code <\/em>to the games its creative team is best known for, but I can\u2019t help it when Spike Chunsoft and Too Kyo Games\u2019 latest murder mystery sure does invite the comparison. Like Danganronpa <\/em>before it, Rain Code <\/em>is a murder mystery from the mind of Kazutaka Kodaka, adorned in the distinct art style of Rui Komatsuzaki, all to the backdrop of Masafumi Takada\u2019s techno jazz score. Nearly every mechanic has a near 1:1 equivalent to Danganronpa<\/em><\/span>, to the point where I play through and wonder if everyone involved would rather be making another one of those titles but can\u2019t because of Danganronpa V3<\/em>\u2019s<\/span> damning meta-commentary<\/span> about running a series into the ground until it\u2019s beyond recognition. <\/p>\n Whatever the motivation, Rain Code <\/em>still has a lot of Danganronpa<\/em>\u2019s pink blood running through its veins, and while it takes some time to start living up to its predecessor, it had me wrapped around its finger by its final cases and hopeful that Kodaka may have found a new outlet to indulge his fascination with mysteries without returning to a story that\u2019s long finished.<\/p>\n <\/span><\/p>\n <\/figure>\n Rain Code <\/em>follows a detective-in-training Yuma Kokohead in a world where detectives are superpowered figures respected around the world. He\u2019s an amnesiac who\u2019s made a deal with a death god named Shinigami who takes the form of a purple puffball ghost with a love of carnage and death, all while basking in it with lighthearted whimsy. Much like Kodaka\u2019s previous work, the game uses the two characters\u2019 contrasting views of the world to constantly oscillate between dire stakes and absurdist humor but uses its supernatural framing to crank the team\u2019s usual antics up to an inevitable over-the-top conclusion. Much of Rain Code <\/em>feels like Kodaka\u2019s writing style at his most unhinged, no longer bound by the limitations of a (relatively) grounded setting and free to use magic, superpowers, and god-like entities to justify some wild imagery, for better or worse.<\/p>\n For the first few chapters, I was put off by Rain Code<\/em>\u2019s supernatural elements and how they framed the mystery-solving. As Yuma and Shinigami stumble into solving crimes around the city of Kanai Ward, Shinigami opens up a pocket dimension to a Mystery Labyrinth. These are pretty comparable to a Palace in Persona 5<\/em> in that they are physical manifestations of the mystery itself. Every question there is about a case is given a literal form, whether that be doors to walk through to answer a multiple-choice question or an enemy that Yuma must fight with a truth-bearing blade to literally cut through their arguments<\/span> as they appear in text on the screen. <\/p>\n Danganronpa <\/em>represented these same concepts through mini-games that were more symbolic, such as imagining yourself snowboarding down a slope and choosing paths representing answers as you made deductions. Rain Code <\/em>uses the Mystery Labyrinth to give everything a diegetic place in its world. I admire the commitment to the bit, but the framing initially felt like it was the game bending over backward to bring Danganronpa<\/em> mechanics into a legally distinct format in a way that justified every moment of deduction and reasoning in a tangible way, rather than a conceptual one.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t until later chapters where Rain Code <\/em>started to really reckon with the reality of using the Mystery Labyrinth that I started to buy in. Shinigami is a ghost when she and Yuma are in the real world, but once they enter the Labyrinth, she sheds her mascot character design for her true form: which is a tall, gothic woman who reaps upon the souls of the culprit at the end of each case. Once Yuma is confronted with the truth, he is also confronted with the cost of finding it. Unlike Danganronpa<\/em>, this method and outcome aren\u2019t forced on Yuma, he just continually falls on it as he\u2019s put on his back foot. At its core, Rain Code <\/em>is about the pursuit of the truth and its consequences, but while Shinigami leaves bodies in her wake, the game posits that the truth isn\u2019t meant to be morally right or wrong. In exposing it, people can build from the truth rather than tear themselves down further.<\/p>\n![\"Shinigami](\"https:\/\/i.kinja-img.com\/gawker-media\/image\/upload\/c_fit,f_auto,g_center,q_60,w_645\/0f76d9064b9a67774044babbc5149d9b.jpg\"\/)
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