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

Yuma Kokohead, an amnesiac detective trainee, is invited to the Nocturnal Detective Agency in Kanai Ward, by travel of a securely-built self-driving passenger train by the name of the Amaterasu Express. When he boards the train, he meets five other detectives, who suspect he might be an imposter due to not being among the count and confirm the number of people on the train afterwards. Yuma suddenly feels ill and one of the detectives, Zilch Alexander, encourages him to rest in a separate room.

After falling unconscious, he awakens again to find a shinigami named Shinigami, who tells him he agreed to be possessed by her in exchange for his memories, then leaves the bathroom to check on the detectives again. He finds all of the detectives dead and is framed by the Amaterasu Corporation Peacekeepers for the murder, but Yuma manages to prove his innocence in the Mystery Labyrinth by killing the true culprit, a hitman pretending to be Zilch. His attempt doesn't work and Yakou Furio, the agency's chief, has to intervene at the last second to save Yuma from the Peacekeepers through negotiation. Yuma is informed that Kanai Ward is a permanently rainy city completely isolated from the outside world and remains under the control of Amaterasu Corporation.

With Yuma freed from incrimination, Yakou takes him to the detective agency, which is located in a submarine thanks to a prior eviction from the previous location, where he finds the other Master Detectives working alongside him for the case: Halara Nightmare, Desuhiko Thunderbolt, Fubuki Clockford and Vivia Twilight. After being told about the World Detective Organization and its purpose in the world, the top detective, Number One, calls in and tells the detectives to search for Kanai Ward's Ultimate Secret in order to solve the Great Global Mystery.

The detectives follow this order, with Yuma, Shinigami, and each of the other detectives investigating other cases around the city such as: a case about a serial killer based on an urban legend called the Nail Man, committed by a church's priest to avenge people wronged by the victims and a worshipper who did a copycat crime out of admiration; a school murder related to a play where a student is killed by three of her peers as revenge for killing their friend; and a traitorous resistance movement member framing Yuma for bombings as a distraction so he could rob the city's banks as part of a scheme to escape Kanai Ward for his own selfish reasons, all while Yomi Hellsmile, director of the Peacekeepers, opposes him in his goal to find the truth. Each case ends with Shinigami reaping the culprits' souls, and the detectives who join Yuma in the Mystery Labyrinth losing their memories of the events. Yuma meets Kurumi Wendy, Kanai Ward's informant, during the school case, who joins him in his investigation afterwards, and Makoto Kagutsuchi, CEO of Amaterasu Corporation, during his investigation of the city, who tells him that Amaterasu Corporation has a power imbalance that allowed Yomi to take charge of the company.

After investigating Amaterasu Corporation HQ for a homunculus research lab and Yakou Furio's murder of head researcher Dr. Huesca for the death of his wife, leading to Shinigami's reluctant reaping of the chief's soul, comes up with no results on the truth of Kanai Ward, the WDO headquarters is threatened with a terrorist attack and Makoto suddenly knocks the detectives out, allowing him the opportunity to take Yuma and Kurumi to the restricted area in the city where they discover the previous cases' victims and killers have been revived as zombies. This is where Yuma, Shinigami, and Kurumi uncover the shocking truth.

Ten years ago, Amaterasu Corporation was hired by the Unified Government for homunculus research in an attempt to create an immortal army while the UG set up their own facility as opposition. Three years ago, the UG created the first homunculus out of Number One's DNA, who turned out to be Makoto Kagutsuchi. Number One was actually Yuma's true identity and the initial Number One was a body double he hired during his investigation. Makoto's existence drove Amaterasu Corporation and Dr. Huesca to rush their research in creating homunculi, leading to them becoming defective and killing the originals they were cloned from, but forgetting this ever happened immediately after. Makoto entered Kanai Ward and blocked out the sunlight with his rain cloud generator per the weakness of the defects, then blackmailed the UG with their homunculus research in order to isolate Kanai Ward and become the CEO so he could freeze the company's homunculus research, surpassing Yomi who was originally going to be offered the position. As the culprit of the Great Global Mystery, he also masterminded the mass kidnapping of death row inmates with the WDO's help and brought them to his factory in Kanai Ward where they were turned into meat buns for the homunculi to feed on, with no one but Makoto ever knowing this was happening.

With Makoto's position as the ultimate authority in Kanai Ward secured, he lured Number One to Kanai Ward in order to oust Yomi Hellsmile from power to keep Kanai Ward secret from the world, then kill his original counterpart and take his place so he could make this permanent. However, Makoto is encouraged by Yuma to tell the truth and solve the mystery of Kanai Ward by himself by allowing the citizens and the UG to make their choice on what to do rather than being responsible for everything on his own. 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