Master Detective Archives: Rain Code
Master Detective Archives: Rain Code is a 2023 adventure video game developed by Too Kyo Games and co-developed and published by Spike Chunsoft for the Nintendo Switch. The game was created by several members who worked on the Danganronpa series, such as lead designer Kazutaka Kodaka, character designer Rui Komatsuzaki, and composer Masafumi Takada.

Gameplay
Master Detective Archives: Rain Code is a fantasy-mystery adventure game taking place across six chapters. Players control Yuma Kokohead, an amnesiac detective-in-training who must solve a series of incidents with the help of the god of death, Shinigami. Gameplay alternates between Kanai Ward in the real world, where the story unfolds, and the Mystery Labyrinth, a dungeon that is formed out of the mysteries surrounding a case.

During each chapter, the player explores the Kanai Ward area, where they can either progress the main story or take part 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 must 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.

When 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 sometimes 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 kicks, smashes and dodges obstacles laid out by the culprit. Finally, the Deduction Denouement requires the player to fill in panels of a comic summarising the case. The player has a stamina that decreases if the player makes mistakes or is hit by obstacles, with the game ending if it is diminished, or the player runs out of time in Shinigami Puzzle. 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

A young boy wakes up in a train station's lost-and-found room suffering from amnesia, with no memory of who he is or how he got in the room. Reading a letter left to him, he deduces his name is Yuma Kokohead. Per the letter's instructions, he boards a train to meet the other passengers, who are Master Detectives from the World Detective Organization (WDO), an agency of special detectives who use unique supernatural powers to solve mysteries. They explain they are heading to the city of Kanai Ward to investigate the Amaterasu Corporation, but including Yuma, there is one extra passenger, and they suspect one of them is an impostor hired by Amaterasu to sabotage their organization. Yuma also meets the death god Shinigami, who explains that Yuma traded his memories to her in return for her cooperation. Immediately after, Yuma discovers that the other WDO detectives have been murdered, leaving him the sole survivor and obvious culprit. He is subsequently cornered by Amaterasu's private and corrupt police force, the Peacekeepers, but Shinigami assists him by taking him into a Mystery Labyrinth. 

She explains that the Mystery Labyrinth is a supernatural realm that can help Yuma solve mysteries if he can successfully navigate their associated Mystery Labyrinths. Yuma is able to solve the Labyrinth and discovers one of the detectives, Zilch Alexander, was actually a hitman that killed the real Zilch and the other detectives then faked his own death. Shinigami then reaps Zilch's soul, killing him in the real world. WDO detective and leader of the local Nocturnal Detective Agency, Yakou Furio, then intervenes and convinces the Peacekeepers to drop their charges against Yuma.

Yuma enters Kanai Ward and discovers the entire city is completely isolated from the outside world and subjected to an endless rainstorm that blocks out the sun. Yakou takes him to the agency and introduces him to the other WDO detectives who made it into the city: Halara Nightmare, Desuhiko Thunderbolt, Fubuki Clockford, and Vivia Twilight. Yuma also learns that he isn't actually a Master Detective, but a detective in training. They are then contacted by the leader and top detective of the WDO, Number One, who instructs them to find out "Kanai Ward's Ultimate Secret", which can help them solve the "Great Global Mystery". In order to find the Ultimate Secret, the detectives decide to solve unsolved cases around Kanai Ward in order to uncover Amaterasu Corpration's coverups, doing so with help from informant Kurumi Wendy and with Shinigami reaping the souls of the culprits. During their investigations, they link the Ultimate Secret to Amaterasu's secret research on the creation of immortal monsters called homunculi. The detectives face opposition from the director of the Peacekeepers, Yomi Hellsmile, who tries to eliminate them numerous times. They also receive assistance from the masked CEO of Amaterasu Corporation, Makoto Kagutsuchi, who wants to disband the Peacekeepers due to their tyrannical rule.

Upon receiving information that the Ultimate Secret may lie in a secret lab hidden under the Amaterasu Corporation, Yuma asks Makoto for assistance, and he is able to help Yuma and the agency enter the lab. However, the lab's head researcher, Dr. Huesca, is assassinated by a hitman who also mortally wounds Yakou. Yuma and Vivia, the only other person who can see Shinigami, investigate the lab before entering a Mystery Labyrinth. Vivia also explains that he learned that the WDO kept a book called the "Book of Death", which can summon Shinigami, in secure storage, but it had recently gone missing. Yuma discovers that Yomi manipulated Yakou into murdering Dr. Huesca by revealing he was responsible for his wife's death, even though the plan would result in Yakou's own death. Shinigami reluctantly kills Yakou, but in the real world, Yomi prepares to kill Yuma. Makoto then intervenes again, revealing he managed to obtain evidence of Yomi and Dr. Huesca's illegal dealings of selling Amaterasu secrets, resulting in Yomi's arrest.

The detectives are contacted again by the WDO, reminding them to find the Ultimate Secret. Number One reveals that the Great Global Mystery is a mass kidnapping case, where people are being taken to Kanai Ward in large numbers. The detectives decide to investigate the city's restricted zone, which is where corpses are supposedly disposed of. However, Number One is suddenly killed in terrorist bombing on the WDO headquarters and the detectives are knocked out by gas. Yuma and Kurumi then wake up in the restricted zone, which they find infested with zombie-like homunculi, among them the deceased victims and culprits from past cases. Yuma eventually confronts Makoto himself in a Mystery Labyrinth and discovers the whole truth.

The Amaterasu Corporation was in competition with the Unified Government (UG) to research and develop homunculi, to serve as an immortal army. The UG's facility was able to develop one perfect homunculi, a copy of Number One. Amaterasu Corporation developed numerous homunculi, cloned from the population of Kanai Ward through blood tests, but they proved to be defective. The defective homunculi require human flesh to survive, reviving as flesh-hungry zombies with no intelligence after death, and if exposed to sunlight, would go berserk. The defective homunculi devoured the original population of Kanai Ward when they were first exposed to sunlight. When Makoto developed the cloud generator to block the sun, the homunculi regained their senses and believed they were still the original humans. Makoto, who is actually Number One's perfect homunculus, negotiated with the UG to keep Kanai Ward protected and isolated, in exchange for covering up and ending the homunculi research, and made a deal with the WDO to use death row inmates as a homunculi food source.

With the truth about Kanai Ward and the Great Global Mystery exposed, Makoto reveals two more secrets: Yuma is Number One, with the Number One seen earlier being his body double. Also, in order to avoid exposing his true identity, Number One switched places with the real Yuma Kokohead, who quit his job as a detective in training and opened up a ramen stand in Kanai Ward. Makoto maintains that everything he has done is to protect the homunculi, but he knows his methods are not sustainable. Yuma suggests that Makoto tell the truth to the homunculi of Kanai Ward and allow them to make their own choice on what to do. Yuma allows Makoto to leave the Mystery Labyrinth in his place, though doing so would result in Yuma's death. However, Shinigami reveals the existence of an emergency exit, though taking it would mean breaking their pact, meaning Yuma would regain his memories but would no longer remember her. Yuma and Shinigami say their farewells before parting ways.

Some time later, Kanai Ward's secret is made public, and thanks to Makoto's leadership, homunculi are accepted by humanity. With their job done, the detectives decide to return to the WDO to vote on Number One's replacement. Kurumi decides to leave Kanai Ward with the Book of Death in her possession to find Yuma, who resigned from the WDO so he can travel the world and solve mysteries in his own way.

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 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 was released on June 30, 2023, on 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, which consists of four substories revolving around Yuma's fellow detectives, will be released monthly from July to 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.

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.

Notes

References

External links
 

2023 video games
Adventure games
Dark fantasy video games
Detective video games
Mystery video games
Nintendo Switch games
Nintendo Switch-only games
Spike Chunsoft video games
Unreal Engine games
Video games developed in Japan
Video games scored by Masafumi Takada
Too Kyo Games games
Video games about amnesia