Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus an upgraded version of the 2023 Switch title now in 4k with all the Switch DLC included has made its way to PS5 and Xbox, is this a mystery you want to solve or something destined to be a cold case?
Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus is co developed by Too Kyo Games and Spike Chunsoft, those of you familiar with the Danganronpa series will know what to expect but I was going in blind. All I knew when Spike Chunsoft proved the review code was that there were mysteries to be solved, at that is normally enough to bring out my inner Sherlock Holmes.
It’s immediately apparent that Kanai Ward (the games central setting) is no place for a distinguished Victorian gentleman, in fact Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus is about as far away form the drab stuffy tweed bound traditional detective motif as it’s possible to get, and I was all in!
Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus is a fantasy-mystery adventure game, which like most genre titles nowadays doesn’t tell you all that much. Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus is essentially a game of two halves, one half interactive light novel which makes up the majority of the game as you investigate the cases under your charge, the other half, absolutely wonderfully batshit crazy mini games which makes up the summing or “reveal’ part of the investigation when you’ll confront the culprit in the “Mystery Labyrinth”.
You’ll be taking on the role of Yuma Kokohead, a detective in training who just so happens to have lost his memory, why did this happen? Oh thats because Yuma made a pact with a death god, in particular a death god named Shinigami. Without getting ahead of myself, Shinigami alone is reason enough to play this game, Do the duo fall into a bit of an anime protagonist trope (looking at you Shinji Ikari) most certainly, is that a bad thing, defiantly not. It’s this dynamic that kept me playing Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus despite its one glaring issue.
Pacing! Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus crawls forwards, especially at the start, the games tutorial is framed within the first case you have two tackle, think murder on the orient express but packed with a ludicrous amount of charming convolution. Seemed like a clever way of teaching me the ropes, but the Amaterasu Express is somewhat poorly named as this tutorial case is the same length as the games other cases. Essentially, you have a three hour tutorial before you’re let loose in Kanai ward, and thats before you get into your first Mystery Labyrinth.
Mystery Labyrinths are essentially dungeons in a pocket dimension created when you’re close to the truth but someone in the real world is trying to obstruct the course of justice. As you investigate the case in the real world you’ll earn “solution keys”, these keys you’ll use in the Labyrinth to cut your way to the truth by putting them into a sword and destroying your foes arguments during reasoning death matches. Yep, it’s a bonkers as it sounds. “Reasoning Death matches’ aren’t the only thing to do in the Mystery Labyrinths, sometimes you’ll need more solution keys than are available in the real world and this is where Shinigami steps up. Shinigami has her own special mini game. These take place on a beach, why? So Shinigami can be in swimwear I assume, and she’s in a rotating barrel (that reminded me of the “Pop up Pirate” board game), said barrel has letters on it, you have to throw your sword at these letters to spell out a clue, simple.
As much as I’ve focused on Shinigami she’s not the only other character in Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus. Yuma isn’t alone in his fight for the truth, in fact theres a whole organisation of detectives, the WDO (World Detective Organisation) as sent a team of sleuths to Kanai Ward to uncover “Kanai Ward’s Ultimate Secret”. You see, Kanai ward is entirely controlled by the dastardly Amaterasu Corporation (think Shinra) and they enforce their will via their “Peacekeepers” (think the Turks but by way of flamboyant disco drag). The team have bonkers surnames, Thunderbolt, Nightmare and Twilight to name a few. Each have their own distinct personality and you’ll no doubt have a favourite, mine was Fubuki Clockford, she’s so dim it’s adorable. Each of the detectives has a “Forte” as special power that sets them apart from normal folk, something they can use to uncover the truth. Yuma doesn’t seem to remember or even have a “forte” but he can experience others, you’ll use these in turn as each character assists you in cases. Leading the team is Yakou Furio, he also lacks a “forte”, and well any actual desire to do his job, he’s a bit of a wet blanket and just wants to get by finding lost pets and busting unfaithful lovers and stay firmly out of Amaterasu Corporation’s sights.
Overall Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE doesn’t have much of what I would traditionally call “gameplay”, investigations are fairly linear, involving a tonne of back tracking, but the investigations themselves pretty much consist of LONG conversations and just pressing the action button on every single interaction point in an area, you can’t miss clues either so it’s not like you can get stuck. Investigation is essentially watching an anime (thank the Great Global Mystery for the Auto button to keep conversation moving), an entraining, wacky and surprisingly grim anime (although this wont surprise anyone who’s played Danganronpa) but it’s still a relatively passive experience. The Mystery Labyrinths are much more engaging and you’ll have to put everything together, it’s not difficult but the games does give you a handy note book that will summarise things just in case. There’s a variety of mini games contained in the Mystery Labyrinths and the joy of seeing Shinigami in the ludicrous “god mode” sections made the slower paced investigations worth the time invested.
