Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus - PS5 Review

 

Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus by developer and publisher Spike Chunsoft—Sony PlayStation 5 review written by Pierre-Yves with a copy provided by the publisher.

Estimated Reading Time: 6 minutes

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Potential trigger warning(s)

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code Plus has multiple themes that could be upsetting to some.

Please research beforehand to ensure the safety of your mental health before playing.

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Waking up in a lost and found, our protagonist finds himself unable to remember anything. Finding a piece of paper with his name on it, Yuma Kokohead, Yuma also finds a train ticket for the Amaterasu Express which is currently leaving the station. Boarding it by jumping on with no leads, Yuma is about to have a haunting adventure as he heads towards a place known as Kanai Ward.

Full disclosure, Richard has been hounding me for… checks initial release date… roughly one year to dive into this adventure. He's mentioned next to nothing other than I should REALLY open my Nintendo Switch Collector’s Edition. Spoiler alert, it's still sealed. So when the opportunity came up to visit the Plus version of Master Detective Archives: Rain Code? I threw on my trusty detective’s hat and jumped into the mystery.

And in all seriousness, what the hell did I sign up for!? Bonkers is what probably comes to mind. To be fair, I should have also expected this when a lot of the talent behind Danganronpa was along for the ride. What a ride it's been. 

At its core, Rain Code is a murder mystery adventure through both the real world and the paranormal in a giant city known as Kanai Ward. Locked away from most of the world, this mysterious location has plenty of mysteries to uncover including why it’s raining all of the time. This constant somber atmosphere really helps set the tone for the adventure. With the help of the Death God named Shinigami (Japanese for Death God, yes this is the joke), Yuma will need to investigate and analyze the real world murder scenes before diving into the paranormal to truly solve the case.

Some of these scenes are grisly, so I'll leave those visual details to your imagination to also avoid potential spoilers. You'll need to experience it all first hand. When you come across these scenes however, that's where you're going to want to inspect every little detail. Each of these clues, red herrings or otherwise will be important for your final verdict as to who did it.

What I really enjoyed with Rain Code over Danganronpa is that while they share the same formula, murders and investigations, Rain Code uses full 3D environments. Yuma can walk through the scene and then choose to further inspect certain areas either solo or with an ally. It definitely helps to sell the atmosphere because it's not just a still 2D landscape, it's an interactive environment with plenty to see. Not to say the other style doesn't work, far from it, but this felt more engaging for the task at hand.

If Rain Code had just been this formula, it would have been a good, if not great, title. The pacing is smooth. The voice acting is great and the timing of the auto feature makes it all feel natural to listen to. But that isn't the end of it. Unlike the Danganronpa series, not everything you need is available in the real world. Some of it is hidden within a paranormal world known as the Mystery Labyrinth and Shinigami will take you there.

My biggest concern with the mystery labyrinth was going to be repetition. Yes, me, of all people who love Soulslikes and Musou titles, I know. But in all seriousness, exploring a crime scene is one thing, but the more action oriented Mystery Labyrinth is another. Needing to basically conquer a gauntlet of challenges to find the truth, there was a risk that each subsequent visit could just be a chore if it followed the same pattern. 

Thankfully that's not quite the case. From just the first to second trips to the mystery dungeons, there are enough differences to keep you on your toes. Starting with what each has in common are the labyrinth corridors. These were perhaps my least favorite feature until I realized that as long as I let all of the dialog go by, I wouldn't be running forward endlessly wondering why I wasn't making it anywhere. If all these were necessary to listen to dialog? These should have been made into automated sequences.

What these corridors will lead to however is at all times anyone’s guess. Deathmatches with the rendered psyche of those in the real world that stand against you will be the most common. In these fights, Yuma will need to dodge, jump and duck under the flying words of the enemy until the time is right to strike back with the truth. Other events will contain the human form of Shinigami in a barrel waiting for you to clue in to the key work in question. For these, you’ll be on a time limit to strike at the proper letters rotating on the barrel. You’ll have to be careful though as each wrong guess will take away from your precious time.

These are perhaps the more common ones compared to other surprises that may be dungeon specific. It’s very hands-on which helps to change the tempo of the otherwise very heavy narrative experience. Very, heavy, narrative experience. This is not a complaint, far from it as I spent a few amazing evenings simply watching the “movie” go by before control was handed over to investigate or essentially dungeon crawl. The point that I want to make is that Rain Code is a giant time investment. You can’t simply play five or ten minutes here, five or ten minutes there. You’ll need to block off some serious time as you may not know when the next time you can save is.

Because there is so much, I was also very happy to have a constantly updating journal to keep track of everyone and everything. Persons of interest, key words, key locations, everything can be accessed at almost any time to look things up. Stayed up too late playing the night before and can’t quite remember where you left off? Not a problem.

So as mentioned above, while I can’t comment on Nintendo Switch to Sony PlayStation 5 performance differences, I can say that the PS5 version is very smooth. What I also appreciated is that the size of the text is also of decent size so if you wanted to simply take your PlayStation Portal to go, that’s not a problem. As a final bonus to these, is that Rain Code on the PS5 also contains the Switch DLC ready to go from the main menu. Thankfully there is a disclaimer that it’s better to finish the main story first in order to avoid potential spoilers.

Overall I loved my time with Master Detective Archives: Rain Code Plus. While it could be a lot to handle at times, either because of the nature of the murder mysteries or the reserve over the topness that the creative minds behind the Danganronpa series are known for, it was worth it.

Score: 9 / 10