Master Detective Archive: Raincode is a detective visual novel game, split into two parts: an investigation, where you question witnesses, find clues, and begin to piece it together, and the mystery-solving part, where you dive head first into another dimension and solve a labyrinth made up of the mysteries around the case — all with the help of a purple ghost who’s actually a god of death stylised into a cute anime girl. Yep, it’s a game from Japan all right.
You play as Yuma, a detective who has lost their memories who leaps aboard a train to take a trip to Kanai Ward, an isolationist city ruled by a megacorporation and their ruthless police force. You are also seemingly haunted by Shinigami, a ghostly god of death who speaks her mind like no-one can hear her. You’re tasked with solving the unsolved mysteries around Kanai Ward with your own wits and the ghost helping you out from time to time.
Players of the Danganronpa series will notice similar themes and gameplay elements. Chapters are split into investigation and mystery, and minigames are used to solve aspects of the overall case. It’s a tried and true method and I do very much like it. Between story sections you can also wander the streets, finding collectables and doing small side jobs, which come with their own small contained stories. However, there’s not much to do besides the main story. This isn’t an open world game — just a bit of walking and talking before the next visual novel cutscene.
Investigating is pretty standard fare. You look around the crime scene, talk to witnesses and view evidence to learn facts. Once you head into the mystery labyrinth though, the game explodes with craziness. The world there is large, colourful, and insane. Exaggerated monsters roam the halls and the labyrinth itself takes the form of the mystery with strange and striking imagery.
The minigames in the labyrinth vary quite a bit, with some minigames only appearing a couple of times throughout the game. The main one is Reasoning Deathmatch, where you dodge out of the way of statements before finding the correct evidence to slash through the correct one. Some of the mini-games require quick thinking as they are timed as well, leading to either a exhilarating thrill as you solve it instantly or you falling on your face a few times in a row as you struggle to spell the right world quickly enough.
A visual novel like this is only as good as the mysteries it presents. Don’t worry though — these stories are fantastic. Nothing silly seems to be pulled out of nowhere, and all the mysteries could probably be solved if you were extremely vigilant and noticed things an average player might miss. Some of the later mysteries are also unexpectedly heartfelt and emotional.
The world of Raincode is also worth noting. Kanai Ward is a dense city where it always rains, so umbrellas and raincoats are common sights, as well as large piping to direct the water, hydro-electric dams to generate power and flooded slums. The detectives themselves also have unique, extremely powerful ESP-like abilities, like the ability to detect living things or speak with the dead. It’s a cool, noir-like setting which comes with its own mysteries.
There are down sides, though. While the strength of the mysteries is obvious, the strength of the characters is lacking. Yuma and Shinigami are the most fleshed-out by virtue of being the point of view characters, but most of the others feel a little one-note; caricatures rather than characters. Even the killers you chase don’t feel like they have much to them. One of them is referred to by their job title alone.
When the Switch is undocked, the game gets a graphical downgrade too, with all but the character portraits at the bottom getting a very blurry finish and looking decidedly low resolution. This leads to graphical bugs, especially when the camera pans around, and performance issues, where it does dip quite significantly during cutscenes. All of these issues disappear when docked to a TV, so consider if you can deal with this before you buy this for a Switch Lite.
Overall, I highly recommend this to those who were fans of Danganronpa and/or love a good detective game. The story and world are the biggest draws, and while there were drawbacks in the form of the weak characterisation and significant graphics issues, the strength of the mysteries alone was enough to off-set them for me.
By Michael Robertson
