Master Detective Archives: Rain Code review 

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code is a strange game. I don’t necessarily mean that in a “wow so wacky” sense, even though it kinda fits the bill there too. I mean it feels like a game that has had absolutely zero editing. As a mystery game, it’s a hell of a lot of fun, but as a game, it’s in such a weird place that I don’t even know how to approach it when reviewing. 

So let’s start at the beginning. Rain Code has you living the life of Yuma Kokohead (yes, that’s his actual name), an amnesiac detective who made a pact with a death god to help him solve mysteries. Fair enough, y’know? I can’t say that’s any more of an absurd setup than something like Xenoblade Chronicles or basically any Zelda game. 

Yuma, waking up with zero memories, rushes to hop on a train, where he meets 5 other detectives from the World Detective Organisation (WDO). As the name suggests, they’re an elite group of master detectives who excel at solving unsolved mysteries. Most of them have special powers, though they’re hilariously limited in ways that always made me laugh. 

For example, one master detective you meet early on can commune with the dead by wearing their clothes. Seems pretty useful for solving a murder! Except she can only use clothes that are roughly her size, and only if they’re not ugly clothes. Another can imprint images from his brain into electronic devices, which also seems pretty useful, but he’s an old man, and as his memories fade (very quickly, because again, he’s old), so does the picture on the device. 

I’ve strayed off the path of the story I was telling here, but it’s important to set the scene for what’s to come. You need to know that this game is deeply funny, deeply strange, and utterly unhinged in the best ways. 

So Yuma, he’s on this train, chatting up these detectives. Maybe they’ll know who he is, right? Since they’re all part of the WDO. Nope — most detectives work alone, so they don’t know each other. Some on-train shenanigans happen, there’s a murder to solve – don’t worry, I’ll be avoiding most major spoilers in this review – and then we get into the investigation aspect of the game. 

There will be a huge amount of people who bounce off Rain Code during the first investigation. It’s supposed to be a tutorial, but as I mentioned in the intro, there’s been no editing here. You get bombarded with mechanic after mechanic, and while there is some tutorialising in place, for the most part you’re thrown right into a trial by fire. It’s exhausting. I’ve had the game for a couple of weeks, and the entire first week of this game was me playing the first case in small chunks because trying to mainline it all at once was far too overwhelming for my tired brain. 

It doesn’t help that the first case is as complex and messy as every case that follows it. Unlike something like Ace Attorney, which will ease you into complexity, Rain Code prepares you for the kind of thinking you’ll need to be successful right from the get go. It’s a compelling case, don’t get me wrong, but the twists and turns in that first case alone would be over-the-top for a full game, let alone a tutorial. 

The gameplay itself is broken up into two aspects, very similarly to Ace Attorney. The first phase is the investigation, where you’ll take a look through the scene of the crime or mystery, collecting as much information as you can. These come in the form of solution keys, which are bite-sized pieces of information that make up the facts of the case. There’s not really any way to miss solution keys, so investigations aren’t all that difficult to figure out — that’s very good, because the next phase is a convoluted mess.

Once you’re finished with your investigations, it’s time to head into the Mystery Labyrinth. Here, Shinigami, your death god pal, turns into a very busty woman, because of course she does, and you have to piece together the mystery through a series of action sequences, minigames, and ridiculous logic. 

The Labyrinth sections go as follows: you’ll wander down a hallway for a bit, have some conversations, then enter a Reasoning Death Match, Rain Code’s form of combat. The phantom you’re up against will throw phrases at you, and you’ll need to dodge irrelevant statements and refute others with your solution keys. You do this a few times, going between hallway wandering and combat scenes, occasionally dipping back into the crime scene to gather some more clues.

I’ve mentioned Ace Attorney a lot in this review, and I’m going to do it again: Reasoning Death Matches are simply a dressed up version of Ace Attorney’s courtroom sections. It actually might be a little better, since you don’t have to scroll through mountains of evidence to find the right piece — instead, each refutable statement gives you three different solution keys to choose from. It’s still plenty challenging though, especially in the heat of the moment as you’re dodging statements and working your brain to try and figure it out. 

There are other minigames, like one where you have to throw swords at a barrel to spell out words. Naturally, Shinigami is in a bikini in the barrel, and fires out once you solve the puzzle. 

Oh yeah, I should probably mention that Shinigami is horny all the time. Like, every other sentence out of her mouth is about her boobs, or about how turned on she is, or how much she loves mysteries. That last one doesn’t sound so bad, but it’s less about what she says, and more about how she says it. 

Other characters fare far better, and are actually one of the strongest points of the game. Rain Code’s characters are phenomenally well-realised, well-performed, and for the most part, well-written. There are a few moments here and there where it’s clear the localisation isn’t quite right, but I cannot sing enough praises for the characters in this game. 

The story itself is pretty compelling too. You’re teaming up with a bunch of cool detectives to uncover the secrets of a global mystery, while trapped in a corporate-controlled city in which it’s always raining. Solving mysteries around town helps edge you closer to finding out what the big picture is, and it comes together competently well — with only one twist, at the back end of the game, feeling particularly out of place. You’ll know it when you get there, and it’s not super great.

I mentioned in my intro that it feels like there’s been next to no editing done here, and I want to reiterate that in the strongest terms. Each mystery has like eight twists to it, often feeling convoluted and ridiculous, and there are far too many gameplay mechanics for a game like this. Some sections go on for way too long, some characters talk far too much, and Shinigami won’t shut the hell up about her boobs. It’s a game that takes extremes to extremes, in just about every aspect, and while that is exhausting, it’s also kind of endearing in a way. 

There will be a lot of comparisons to Danganronpa, given the director, lead artist, and composer all made that series what it is. Honestly though, after having played Rain Code, there’s not a great deal of connective tissue. While Danganronpa asks you to focus heavily on the characters, Rain Code is all about the world you’re in, the mysteries yet unsolved. It pulls the focus back and asks you to think about the state of the world — not just in-game, but our own world too. 

That in-game world sure is beautiful though. It’s dark, grim, and beautiful, a rain-soaked city filled with neon signs and people trying to make the most of their time on this planet. The art direction is flawless, the character design is phenomenal, and it’s all held together by a soundtrack that pulls absolutely zero punches. 

It’s all contrasted by Mystery Labyrinths, where instead of dark and dire, we see a bombastic, colour-filled wonderland, complete with magical girl transformations and glam rock-inspired enemies. Rain Code’s thoughtful use of colour in any scenario is almost unmatched in any game that comes to mind, and it almost offsets any of the blurriness that comes when playing handheld. Still, the frame rate is mostly solid, the game looks good more often than not, and it manages to pull off two entirely disparate art directions without dropping the ball. That’s an achievement. 

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code doesn’t shy away from being deeply strange. It’s a delightful mystery game in the vein of Ace Attorney with every dial turned up to 11. Its art direction, music, world design, and gameplay are all solid, even if there’s far too much of everything, and despite some suspect writing with certain characters, it’s hard to look at it too harshly. My only wish is that, if there’s to be a sequel someday, somebody brings in an editor and trims down some of the fat. 

Rating: 4/5