Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus

I think I've decided to call it quits in ever finishing this game, and I think that's disappointing for me considering that I really enjoy the Danganronpa series as a whole; I understand that some of its greatest moments happened near the end of each game. For context of this interview, I stopped playing partway through Case 4 during the investigation. This game fails me for some reasons: - Most characters tend not to get much development past the cases that they're featured in. Your fellow detective partners are weirdos and/or mean to you. There's not much interest in garnering sympathy for the culprits of each case either when they're irredeemably evil ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ or just idiots who murder for bad reasons. - The characters that DO get featured in multiple cases (i.e. Yuma or Shinigami) are pretty insufferable to be around and really don't develop past that. You play an amnesiac who hates being a detective and continues to question why they're a detective even though you're given ample character-building opportunities in each case to harden that resolve. - The Mystery Labyrinth just sucks. It blows that some of these cases were practically solvable before even starting the Mystery Labyrinth segments, but the minigames suck about as much as most do in Danganronpa. You're practically bogged down going case details multiple times because [spoiler]your detective partners lose their memories in the Mystery Labyrinth, creating a perfect reason to re-explain every minute detail of the case to them as you progress.[/spoiler] You don't even get to interact with the culprits, only their alternate-universe counterparts that look like their DeviantArt OC's. - The overarching villain of a massive megacorporation who is apparently able to isolate themselves from the rest of the world powers AND govern their own megacity aren't able to snuff out a few teenage detectives who are actively getting in the way of their agenda. They're conveniently powerful and weak when the writing wants them to be. - The transition to 3D art was not appealing. This matters less to me objectively, but I really did feel different playing the first Danganronpa out of the trilogy, thinking that a game that was made 15 years ago was able to impress me for how unique it was, both with the characters and the high school you walked around. Here, the environments don't feel very unique, and there are clear signs that the intended art direction was lost when you see half-baked 3D animations and generic cityscapes. - The fanservice is probably even worse than Danganronpa, and it's for two reasons: one, it happens pretty much constantly and interrupts good dramatic story beats. Two, it happens pretty much with just Shinigami, and it isn't really enjoyable when you hate Shinigami. - The music does not really hit as much as Danganronpa did. Part of me feels bad that I'm submitting a review for a game I haven't completed, but as you can see, I've put in almost 25 hours in this, and I personally think that's a lot of time to put into a game before it gets to the "good parts."

I started playing this hoping it would be like a fourth Danganronpa... but it's even better! What a game! I love you, Spike Chunsoft!

During my playthrough, my opinion about this game fluctuated heavily. Now that I have read through the whole main game and the substories, I have ultimately settled on an overall 4/10. I am keeping this mostly spoiler-free, so I will avoid anything specifics. The reason I absolutely cannot recommend this game is because its supposed strength is its worst part. The story is very poorly written. As the spiritual successor to Danganronpa, the arguments and logic in each case should have been the bread and butter, but they are generally weak, sometimes outright unsound even by the game’s own rules. Several cases rely on conclusions that feel under-supported by the available evidence, while the protagonist jumps to answers that the player has not been allowed to properly test. Besides, the actions of the supposedly “Master Detectives” and oppressive villains are often self-sabotaging. Characters frequently have enough power, information, or common sense to prevent things from going wrong, but they simply do not because the plot needs to move. Another weird writing choice is that solving the case does not really do anything except off the culprit, because you do not solve it in real life, but in a different reality, like a Persona 5 Palace. The problem with this is that it does not help progress the story at all. Only the MC remembers what happened, and he cannot fking argue irl. Out of 6 cases, only in 2 cases does solving the case actually matter, thanks to Shinigami-chan doing something with the culprit’s corpse in front of the villain or messing with the Palace itself. For the rest, the case resolution feels strangely detached from the actual conflict happening outside. The MC does NOT grow at all throughout the game and is simply an incohesive character overall. The game repeatedly frames him as if he is learning from the moral cost of his actions, but later scenes either reset that development or contradict it. When confronted with something he mentally tortured himself for doing because of morals and guilt ([spoiler]culprit killings[/spoiler]), he DENIED it and claimed it was morally correct (???). And as explained, the power he uses to solve cases only helps him see who the culprit is and kill them. That power does not actually help with the situation when he uses it. It is always other external factors that get him out of trouble, and yet every single time, he insists on using it. At the very end, when the biggest plot point, a weighty moral dilemma, is introduced, he kicks the ball elsewhere and refuses to act, even though in every case prior, he tried to be mature and solve things on his own. Even worse, some MAJOR problems that introduced that dilemma in the first place are magically solved by the end or just conveniently not mentioned anymore. The ending wants the weight of a serious moral dilemma without fully confronting the consequences that made the dilemma serious. Sure, this game has its smart moments and some good writing here and there, but it is nowhere near enough to make up for the rest. Parading as something heavy and serious, this game does not take itself seriously, so it comes off as disingenuous and pretentious. One thing where this game really shines is the theatrics and the fanservice, but no perfume is able to cover the rot underneath. Oh, and the gameplay is horribly slow, with dragging cutscenes. Movement in-game, especially in the reasoning death match minigame, is slow and sometimes unresponsive. I tried not to spoil anything, but this game is simply not worth it. Worse than Danganronpa and not even close to PWAA.

中だるみはひどいが終盤になるにつれておもしろさを取り返してくれる作品。 まずこの作品をダンガンロンパシリーズだとおもってやると期待外れの肩透かしをくらいます。 はっきりと別ゲーです。 大人数でワイワイガヤガヤする議論パートはありませんし、謎解きは退屈に感じられるかもしれません。 しかしキャラクターの造形や台詞回し、謎解きのシステムなど随所にダンガンロンパみを感じるエッセンスは残っています。 これダンロンの◯◯じゃねーか。と内心ツッコミがとまらない部分はおもしろかったです。 また、往年のダンガンロンパファンだからこそ驚かされるような仕掛けもあるので、ダンロンファンにはオススメです。逆にダンロンやらずにレインコードから入るとちょっともったいような気すらします。 ネタバレなしで特に評価したい部分としては、 世界観の作り込みやストーリーの整合性がダンガンロンパシリーズを凌ぐ出来であることです。 なのでこのゲームの評価を下すなら、世界の謎やキャラクターたちの真の目的が見えてくる中盤の終わり～終盤あたりまで進める必要があります。 どちらかというと、小説のように最後にくるっと伏線や謎を回収するタイプの作品です。 1章２章あたりで投げるのはもったいないです。 良くなかった点としては、序盤～中盤の退屈さ。 雨の降り続けるネオンの街の神秘的な雰囲気に酔えるのは最初のほうだけで、以降はとくになにも感じません。 複雑でおぼえるのが面倒な構造をした街をサブクエのために徘徊するのは至極面倒でした。 ファストトラベルはありますが、メインストーリー中は定期的に封印されて徒歩移動を強要されます。 せっかくつくりこんだMAPだからじっくり歩いてね！と開発に言われてる気がしてたまりませんでした。 ストーリー面に関しては、各章ごとに相棒となってくれるキャラクターを好きになれるかどうかで事件に臨むテンションが変わってきます。 推しと一緒に行動してるときは楽しいです。 章ごとに発生する事件の内容は正直つまらないです。とくに１～３章あたり。 ドパガキなのでつらかったです。

This is Danganronpa 4, in the most positive way possible! + oh people love Junko, so why not make her a protagonist so she can stick around the entire game? I was so surprised at how much I am loving this game. If you like murder mysteries, this one is definitely up there as fun, vibrant and of a higher quality (because we know that murder mystery games quality can be in the ground sometimes this one is definitely really good!). In everything but name, it is it. The aesthetic. The casting. The fun wacky murders. The humor. The art. It truly feels like Danganronpa coming fully on 3D while polishing the best parts of it. It's so refreshing to play a game about being a detective agency and the entirety of the police forces are incompetent and corrupted. Usually, having good and honest cops and bad apple (aka the system is good, there is just one two corrupt people to stop) is an unfortunate thing you have to swallow when loving murder mysteries. I like that this is so absurd but so realistic at the same time lmao: every case is solved by the police in a manner where it will do as little paperwork as possible and appear good on record and characters make deals to make reports look better for a greater assignment. And it is all relatively lighthearted and humorous in the classic Danganronpa way with really fun over-the-top massacres. Also it looks GOOD the city looks good and is not too small not too big. They really balanced the designs between the more "attractive type" characters and cartoonish ones. And overall the art is much better in proportions while retaining the style. Having 2D sprites while characters are talking is a much needed detail that a lot of 3D games with lower quality models should have. Being unable to look at AI Somnium's file 3D made me expect Rain Code+ to look like ♥♥♥♥ and play like ♥♥♥♥, frankly, but although it is rough around the edges, the style and small bits of polish here and there makes for a surprisingly pleasant game: the neon bits and vibrant colors help round everything together, while the subtle lining shading help smooth out the 3D models imperfections. At first, I was not sure about having such quality shadows on the anime models, but realized that it works best for crime scenes, which is the most important part of murder mysteries. Danganronpa has always been somewhat uncomfortably horny. While I don't mind sexy humor (having come from Leisure Suit Larry games before..), the way was... pretty creepy. I'm happy to see that Rain Code+ delivers it much more tastefully in my opinion, similarly to how V3 handled it with Miu: having a token character be pretty sexually outwards while having more dimension to her characters than just that and have other characters react to it in a straight man comedy way makes for sexy humor to be much well shown. The rest of the female cast is surprisingly imo not objectified as much as uncomfortable anime games could, with their design telling more about their character before showing off if they are pretty and sexy or not. I do think that choosing for the protagonist to be younger kid essentially being surrounded by older siblings type makes also for a much more comfortable viewing. Talking about the protagonist, he is a good kid, and more likeable than Makoto and Hinata simply out of the fact that he does not feel as much like a self-fulfilling fantasy teen. I think having him younger (or just shorter? He strikes me as middle schooler/junior grade while everyone else is older as they comment on his midgetness and youthfulness) helps a lot with selling that this is a good kid to cheer for. I feel obligatorily the need to mention the killer enby rep the games has. It features a non-binary character which is their own character with their own wacky schemes. The fact that they are non-binary is never an issue or hammered, in fact there is humor about it being a recurrent joke that the protagonists cannot tell which gender they are, and they don't care to specify to them as they are a very no-nonsense character. It's fantastic and refreshing. There *is* humor in queerness that does not have to be derogatory, or overly sanitized, and this is it. I love how ambitious this game is overall and how well it lands. The gameplay is reminiscent to Danganronpa bullet truths while changing up its formats, but it is still the same: it is an absurd spectacle to make deduction more entertaining. The difficulty is harder than Danganronpa, but still easy (as you know, Dangan is pretty piss easy), not as hard as Ace Attorney. There's very fun polish here and there, my favorite being our companion commenting on items on the map like trying to box a statue or acting like she is eating something with many unique props models, commenting if you go the wrong way or pointing in the right one. It's small things like this that makes her feel actually your companion in crime (solving), and makes the entire thing feel alive. As for the map and quests, I feel like if you enjoy Persona's not-in-the-dungeon part, you'd have fun with this, which I did. Just being immerse in a beautiful Cyberpunk city and its inhabitants, and reading up dialogues. I love dialogues, I love visual novels, that's what I am here for.

Amazing murder mystery game, very recommended if you like the Danganronpa series as has the same kinds of characters and humour

фансервис с элементами игры

All of the cases were extremely obvious from the beginning, when in the labyrinth solving the "mystery", I did not feel suspense or excitement at new piece of evidence that changed the outlook of the entire case, it was mostly annoyance at the stretched-out, oddly action-based process to get to the answers I already knew. And I found all characters, including Yuuma and Shinigami-chan, insufferable and extremely dislikable. Yes, the rainy neon city is a wonderful aesthetic, but the way they applied it onto the actual 3d map made it look a bit ugly. I feel like some players may be looking at this game through the rose-tinted glass that is the danganronpa series, but I just felt like this was simply a bad game, nothing more or less.

Can't believe they made Danganronpa 4

劇情麻麻哋