☾⋆⁺ Early Thoughts on Master Detective Archives: Rain Code ☾⋆⁺

7/3/2023

Hey everyone! It's July - that means it's my birthday month! Because of this, I've kind of noticed that I've felt a connection to July... I'm sure I wouldn't be swayed to feel any particular way about it if I wasn't born in this month - perhaps I'd even hate it - but at least this year, its brought me the joy that is Master Detective Archives: Rain Code.

As of this moment, I'm currently making my way through the mystery labyrinth of the 2nd chapter.

Potential spoilers for anything before this point below!

┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ┊ ˚★⋆｡˚ ⋆ ┊ ┊ ┊ ⋆ ┊ ┊ ★⋆ ┊ ◦ ★⋆ ┊ . ˚ ˚★

You know, given that the original writers, artists and composers of Dangan Ronpa came together to work on Rain Code, it's a little difficult not to compare this game to my beloved Dangan Ronpa. There are even a lot of Dangan Ronpa references scattered throughout, along with other amusing callbacks to various other famous mystery games/visual novels.

I'm not sure if it's just because I played the Dangan Ronpa games when I was much younger, but Rain Code has seemed significantly less scary so far. I've found even the creep factor gets lessened when we see the corpses in 3D environments. I'm not sure how, but the 2D illustrations and paper cut-out animation of the Dangan Ronpa series really added to its creepiness. The special effects and even the music seemed to create a scarier atmosphere too. Not to mention the scenario itself - I always felt like I could be murdered at any moment while playing Dangan Ronpa - despite the fact that it was a linear visual novel (lol).

Furthermore, Shinigami kind of has a terrible tendency to ruin the mood whenever we're investigating the crime scenes. Maybe they really wanted it to be a more lighthearted game. Maybe they wanted Shinigami to be more creepy in an ironic way, and so far its kind of fallen flat? Admittedly, there are a lot of times when I had wished she would just be quiet for a while. So, I was grateful when she let Yuma do his thing "alone" for a while during the second chapter.

BTW, did anyone notice the sprites for the theatre girls looked as if they had been drawn by a different artist? ;

I am genuinely enjoying my time playing, though.

My favorite character so far is probably actually Yuma! Typically, the protagonists aren't my absolutely favorite characters, but I think he might stay my favorite. I like his sincere personality and closet-perverted-ness.

And his Skechers Light Up shoes ! 

Though the mysteries I've been solving as Yuma have yet to really tie into anything too crazy involving the overarching plot, I have a feeling that this game has more hiding up its sleeve. I know they've got to take the story somewhere pretty wild - and soon. After all, what in the world could be Amaterasu Corporation's motive for sealing off Kanai Ward from the rest of the world? Is there some leader that somehow gained the respect of all of the peacekeepers - and what are they gaining from this level of isolation?

On a silly side-note, I have been reminded of how slow my brain is while playing this game. My boyfriend has been watching me play it the entire time for the past few days, and he seems to be able to piece together what happened and how the culprit did it so fast! It's so impressive... He's so smart and big-brained.

He doesn't like to admit that he's enjoying it, but sometimes he asks me not to stop playing when we're halfway through a deduction or tense moment. He's so cute like that ! ♡

I wonder if this game will catch on with the youth? Will we see rain code memes popping up on youtube like they did back in the day for Dangan Ronpa?

If you haven't even heard of this game, I highly recommend it! Please check it out! ^^