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. The game, created by several members who worked on the Danganronpa series including lead designer Kazutaka Kodaka, character designer Rui Komatsuzaki, and composer Masafumi Takada, was first released for the Nintendo Switch on June 30, 2023. An enhanced version is scheduled for release for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on July 18, 2024 in Japan, and October 1, 2024 worldwide.

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 solves a 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 formed from the mysteries surrounding a case.

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

Once 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 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 dodges and destroys obstacles laid out by the culprit. Finally, the Deduction Denouement requires the player to fill in panels of a comic summarizing the case. The player has stamina, which decreases if they make mistakes or are hit by obstacles, with the game ending if it is diminished or if the player runs out of time. 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 awakens in a train station with amnesia; after reading a letter left to him, he deduces his name is Yuma Kokohead, a detective in training from the World Detective Organization (WDO), an agency of detectives who use unique supernatural powers to solve mysteries. Boarding a train he meets five other Master Detectives who are heading to the city of Kanai Ward, isolated from the outside world and subjected to an endless rainstorm that blocks out the sun, to investigate the Amaterasu Corporation. But as there is one extra passenger, they suspect one of them is an impostor Amaterasu hired to sabotage their trip. 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 as the sole survivor and obvious culprit. Amaterasu's private and corrupt police force, the Peacekeepers, corner him, but Shinigami intervenes and takes him into a Mystery Labyrinth.

She explains that the Mystery Labyrinth is a supernatural realm that can help Yuma solve mysteries if he can navigate their associated Mystery Labyrinths. Yuma solves the Labyrinth and discovers one of the detectives, Zilch Alexander, was 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 Yakou Furio, intervenes and convinces the Peacekeepers to drop their charges against Yuma.

Yuma enters Kanai Ward and is introduced to the other WDO detectives who made it into the city, Halara Nightmare, Desuhiko Thunderbolt, Fubuki Clockford, and Vivia Twilight. The leader and top detective of the WDO, Number One, contacts them and instructs them to uncover "Kanai Ward's Ultimate Secret", which can help them solve the "Great Global Mystery". To find the Ultimate Secret, they solve cases around Kanai Ward to uncover Amaterasu Corporation's coverups, from serial killings based on the "Nail Man" urban legend, to an apparent suicide at the all girls school Aetheria Academy, to serial bombings pinned on the Resistance Group led by Shachi, who is later murdered. Yuma receives assitance from the other detectives as well as informant Kurumi Wendy and Shinigami, who reaps the culprits' souls. During their investigations, they link the Ultimate Secret to Amaterasu's secret research on the creation of immortal monsters called homunculi. The director of the Peacekeepers, Yomi Hellsmile, opposes them, and the masked CEO of Amaterasu Corporation, Makoto Kagutsuchi, aids them, wanting to disband the Peacekeepers due to their tyrannical rule.

Upon learning the Ultimate Secret may be in a secret lab under the Amaterasu Corporation, Makoto helps Yuma and the agency enter the lab. However, a hitman known as Fink the Slaughter Artist apparently assassinates the lab's head researcher, Dr. Huesca, and mortally wounds Yakou. Yuma and Vivia, the only other person who can see Shinigami, investigate the lab before entering a Mystery Labyrinth. Vivia explains he learned the WDO kept a book called the "Book of Death", which can summon Shinigami, but it had recently gone missing. Yuma discovers Yomi manipulated Yakou into murdering Dr. Huesca by revealing he was responsible for his wife's death, despite the plan resulting in Yakou's 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.

Number One reveals the Great Global Mystery is a mass kidnapping case, in which many people are being taken to Kanai Ward. However, Number One is supposedly killed in a terrorist bombing at the WDO headquarters and gas incapacitates the detectives. Yuma and Kurumi awaken in the city's restricted zone, which they find infested with zombie-like homunculi, among them the deceased victims and culprits from past cases. Yuma eventually confronts Makoto in a Mystery Labyrinth and discovers the truth.

The Amaterasu Corporation was competing with the Unified Government (UG) to research and develop homunculi. The UG's facility was able to develop one perfect homunculi, a copy of Number One, revealed to be Makoto. Amaterasu Corporation developed numerous homunculi, cloned from the population of Kanai Ward through blood tests. However, they were defective, as they required human flesh to survive, revived as flesh-hungry zombies after death, and would go berserk if exposed to sunlight. 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 the original humans. Makoto 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 food source for the homunculi.

With the truth about Kanai Ward and the Great Global Mystery exposed, Makoto reveals that Yuma is the real Number One, with the Number One seen earlier being his body double. 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 choices. 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; taking it would break 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, humanity accepts the homunculi into society. With their job finished, the detectives return to the WDO to vote on Number One's replacement. Kurumi leaves Kanai Ward with the Book of Death in her possession to find Yuma, who resigned from the WDO to travel the world and solve mysteries.

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 released on June 30, 2023 for 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 consisting of four substories revolving around Yuma's fellow detectives was released monthly between July and 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.

On May 7, 2024, Spike Chunsoft announced that an enhanced version of the game, titled Master Detective Archives: Rain Code +, is scheduled for release on PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X/S, and Windows via Steam on July 18, 2024 in Japan and on October 1, 2024 worldwide. The game will support resolutions up to 4K and will include all the downloadable content from the Switch version, as well as additional content such as a gallery.

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.