Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus PS5 review – I love the Danganronpa franchise. Its unique storytelling and characters were always a joy to experience, so when I found out that Kazutaka Kodaka was taking his masterful storytelling talents to Spike Chunsoft for a murder mystery, I was thrilled. Thankfully, it was a title that kept me on the edge of my seat from start to finish.
Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus PS5 Review
An Excellent Story Full Of Colorful Characters
You take on the role of Yuma Kokohead, who wakes up in a janitor’s closet without any memories. With a few simple clues, he figures out he’s a Master Detective Traniee and needs to jump on a train to reach Kanai Ward, A city plagued with unending rain.
The game’s story is excellent. It follows Yuma through Kanai Ward as he solves multiple murders and mysteries in this rain-soaked city. There are plenty of twists and turns, and though the cases seem like isolated incidences, you quickly start to find out how each murder is connected throughout the game’s multiple chapters.
Yuma is accompanied by a death god named Shinigami, who constantly nags him while trying to push him to solve the cases he’s presented. Though Yuma is the main character you control, Shinigami steals the spotlight with her energetic personality and quick-witted humor. She’s the devil on Yuma’s shoulder who always nudges him to do the worst things to solve the cases.
Solving Murder Has Never Been This Fun And Chaotic
You spend most of your time searching crime scenes and looking for clues or points of interest. You gain Detective Points (DP) whenever you find something that acts like an experience points bar. When you’ve acquired enough DP, you level up and earn points to use in a skill tree.
Crime scene investigations are straightforward forward. As long as you walk around the room, pop-up points indicate something to examine. It’s worth investigating everything to gain the DP points, even though not everything concerns the case.
In this world, Master Detectives have a unique ability called a “Forte” that gives them an advantage during investigations. As you investigate the various crimes, Yuma’s colleagues in Kanai Ward help him in his investigations, and each chapter focuses on one of these colleagues as they help you.
In one instance, Yuma must question some students, but they refuse to talk to him. One of his companions, Forte, can create the perfect disguise that lets you go in and question the students. Each chapter focuses on one of these companions and their Forte, providing a unique gameplay experience.
The Mystery Labyrinth Is A Trippy Ride
Once all the clues have been gathered, Shinigami will transport you to another dimension called the Mystery Labyrinth. She will transform from the floating gas demon into a human goth girl wielding a scythe.
The Mystery Labyrinth has you running through corridors that break away and transform before your eyes until you are attacked by Phantom, which takes the shape of a demonic version of the character key to the case.
You then enter a turn-based combat sequence, but instead of attacking and defending, you’re dodging rebuttals of your accusations. The Phantom begins to try to deceive you and tell you why your accusations are wrong, and you have to dodge the incorrect statements from left to right and duck and jump over them.
A Fun And Unique Take On Combat
While this is happening, you can equip the correct accusation using Solution Keys that you acquire if you have enough evidence to prove your point and wait for the Phantom to send out the correct lie so you can cut it down with your sword equipped with the proper key. This damages the Phantom and forces it to run away. It’s a fun mini-game battle that makes you think about what the Phantom is saying to counter it with the correct evidence.
The other major mini-game requires you to fill in the blanks in a sentence by shooting the correct letters on a rotating barrel. It’s not a challenging mini-game but another welcome change of pace.
The skills you can upgrade for Yuma with your Detective Points allow you to breathe more easily during game sections. They can increase your stamina so you can take more damage from the accusations battle in case you select the wrong clues or allow you more breathing room when dodging.
Though you can unlock many skills, you can only equip a certain amount at a time, so it’s important to pay attention to what’s happening in the case and the Labyrinth and switch up your skills to help you in that particular situation.
A Geourgous Town To Explore Full Of Mystery And Intrigue
Kanai Ward is an excellent city to explore. Plenty of its residents walk around the city to talk too, and the overabundance of neon lights complements the constant rain falling in the city. It creates a unique noir-style look for Kanai Ward.
The game has improved since its original Nintendo Switch release last year. The Plus in the title indicates this by providing complete 4K upscaled visuals, and while the visuals haven’t improved much, the game still looks very solid.
It also provides five new mysteries to solve where you take control of the five other Detectives in their mysteries to solve. You can take on these missions whenever you want from the main menu, but if you haven’t finished the core game, I would recommend doing so before jumping into these extra quests.
There is also a full gallery now where you can listen to the game’s music and watch all the cutscenes to relive some of the best moments or catch up on events if you have taken a long break from the game and forgotten what happened. Meanwhile, sound design in Master Detective Archives RAIN CODE Plus is outstanding, with top-notch voice work and fantastic writing. The soundtrack is also great, carrying a jazz and blues theme while rocking some guitar when necessary.
Easily One Of The Best Mystery Titles On The Market
Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus is a fantastic achievement and a can’t-miss title for those looking for a great mystery detective game with a unique twist. Filled with excellent writing and exceptional voice work, each mystery comes to life with oozing style. I loved every mystery I had to solve and kept coming back for more. When I was finished, all I could think about was how much I wanted it to keep going.
Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus releases for PS5 on October 1, 2024.
Review code kindly provided by PR.