Master Detective Archives: Rain Code

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code
Promotional art
Developer(s)	Too Kyo Games Spike Chunsoft
Publisher(s)	Spike Chunsoft
Director(s)	Takahiro Suzuki
Producer(s)	Shohei Sakakibara
Designer(s)	Kazutaka Kodaka
Programmer(s)	Kiyoshi Nagata
Artist(s)	Rui Komatsuzaki Shimadoriru
Writer(s)	Kazutaka Kodaka Takekuni Kitayama
Composer(s)	Masafumi Takada
Engine	Unreal Engine 4
Platform(s)	Nintendo Switch PlayStation 5 Windows Xbox Series X/S
Release	Nintendo Switch WW: June 30, 2023 PS5, Windows, Xbox Series X/S JP: July 18, 2024 WW: October 1, 2024
Genre(s)	Adventure
Mode(s)	Single-player

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code is a 2023 adventure video game developed by Too Kyo Games and co-developed and published by Spike Chunsoft. The game, created by several members who worked on the Danganronpa series including lead designer 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 summoned to Kanai Ward's Nocturnal Detective Agency via the Amaterasu Express, a self-driving passenger train, and is suspected as an imposter among the other detectives riding with him. When he feels ill, he is encouraged by Zilch Alexander, one of the detectives, to take a rest. Upon reawakening, he finds a shinigami before him named Shinigami, of whom he agreed to let her possess him in exchange for his memories and is only visible to him. Returning back from the bathroom, he finds the other detectives dead and is framed by the Amaterasu Corporation Peacekeepers for the murder. Yuma attempts to prove his innocence by killing the true culprit, a hitman pretending to be Zilch, via the Mystery Labyrinth, but fails. The agency’s chief, Yakou Furio, acquits him of the murder and tells him that Kanai Ward is an isolated city of eternal rain under control of Amaterasu Corporation.

Yakou takes Yuma to his assigned agency, now stationed in a submarine due to eviction from the previous location, 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 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.

The detectives search around Kanai Ward for this secret, investigating a case involving a legendary serial killer called the Nail Man with the true culprits being a church's priest who wished to avenge people wronged by the victims and a churchgoer who committed a copycat crime out of admiration; a murder revolving around a school play where a student is killed by three of her peers in revenge for killing their friend; and a traitorous resistance movement member framing Yuma for a terrorist attack as part of a scheme to steal enough money to escape Kanai Ward, all while Yomi Hellsmile, director of the Peacekeepers, interferes with them. 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 Makoto Kagutsuchi, CEO of Amaterasu Corporation.

Yuma and the detectives investigate Amaterasu Corporation HQ for a homunculus research lab, but receive no information on the truth and Yakou kills Dr. Huesca, the head researcher, as part of a revenge plot for his deceased wife, leading to his reaping by the reluctant Shinigami. When the detectives return, they receive a report on the WDO being attacked and Makoto knocks them out with a smoke trap so he can bring Yuma and Kurumi to the restricted area where the truth is revealed and all of the dead culprits and victims make a return as a zombie horde.

The truth behind Kanai Ward is that Amaterasu Corporation was hired by the Unified Government to create an immortal army of homunculi while the UG set up their own facility ten years ago, and the UG created the first homunculus out of Number One’s DNA three years ago, the homunculus being Makoto Kagutsuchi and Number One’s true identity being Yuma Kokohead. The corporation desperately made homunculi out of all of Kanai Ward’s residents, but the experiment failed and the defective homunculi killed their original counterparts, then forgot about their massacre when Makoto returned them to their senses by blocking out the sunlight in Kanai Ward using his rain cloud generator. Then he blackmailed the UG with their homunculus research and had Kanai Ward isolated. The former CEO delegated his position to him, initially intending to give it to Yomi, and Makoto froze Dr. Huesca’s homunculus research. Makoto then masterminded the mass kidnapping of death row inmates and turned them into meat buns for the homunculi to feed on. He also lured the detectives to Kanai Ward with fake mysteries to oust Yomi and take Number One’s place to permanently isolate the city via killing him in the Mystery Labyrinth.

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 back to the WDO, Kurumi leaves Kanai Ward in search of Yuma.

Development and release

Rain Code is co-developed by Spike Chunsoft and Too Kyo Games, a company formed in 2017 by ex-employees of Spike Chunsoft. It is 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 is 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's blend of 3D environments and 2D characters, although still features a similar psycho-pop aesthetic with neon colors. It is 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.

External links

• Official website