Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE is the newest mystery adventure title from the minds behind Danganronpa and AI: The Somnium Files. You play as Yuma Kokohead, recently afflicted amnesiac who is being haunted by a cute little puff cloud called Shinigami. Waking up in the lost property cabinet at a Train Station, you remember nothing of your past. You find a letter from the World Detective Agency declaring that you are to be sent to Kanai Ward to meet with the Nocturnal Detective Agency for an undefined period of time.

Master Detective Archives is in essence a puzzle adventure game, that is filled with detectives with special abilities called Forensic Fortes. Fortes are psychic powers that are unique to each detective, and is requisite to become a Master Detective. These range from powers like Life Detection, which involves a radar like ability to detect life. To more elaborate abilities like Post Cognition which allows the detective to see the scene of the crime as it existed when the first witness discovered it. For the most part, these Fortes take a somewhat assisting role. In that, they are predominantly used to assist in your investigation phase of gameplay, with a carefully curated story to amplify the exceptional power.

Master Detective Archives is an incredibly anime inspired game, that actually follows a far more logical and grounded vein of logic for the most part, than other Spikesoft titles. The WDO has sent operatives to the completely isolated city of eternal rain, Kanai Ward. Amaterasu Corporation is a global juggernaut who own Kanai Ward, having cut it off from the rest of the world. As a result, Amaterasu doesn’t take kindly to the WDO sending Master Detectives to Kanai Ward to expose all of the mysteries that exist there, and in turn unravel the Global Mystery and Kanai Ward’s Ultimate Secret. The game follows a traditional archetype in terms of murder mystery stories. A Neo Japan style environment: a bizarre environmental feature, in this case the never ending rain, and a hyper sexualised invisible partner that leads your character towards their end goal.

The traditional stereotype characters are all in play throughout Master Detective; but they are done in a way that is enjoyable to experience. The money obsessed, straight laced detective is Halara Nightmare. Chief Yakuo Furio is the bumbling leader of the group, who is more focused on avoiding trouble and eating food, than really doing his job. Vivia Twilight is the lazy, but bizarrely creepy without wanting to be, depressed one. Desuhiko Thunderbolt is the young and girl obsessed, over-confident stooge who is overly creepy with his stalking. Fubaki Clockford is the heiress of a powerful family fortune, who has been sheltered her whole life. Aloof, dumb and completely air-headed.

Whilst the characters themselves are picture perfect stereotypical characters, the way they are written and included into the story breaks the prejudice that the initial interactions with the characters create. There is a smart subversion of expectation, and Yuma’s seeming inability is a perfect foil to the far better detectives. Each character gets their time to shine, Yuma working one on one with each of the characters (except Chief Yakuo) across the chapters. A deeper understand of what governs and directs the detectives is revealed in these chapters. In turn you get to see beyond the surface level stereotype. There is far more to each character than it appears, and as you progress each character becomes far more endearing. It is a slow burn, that despite the incredibly anime like story, the character’s themselves feel far more grounded.

The character connection comes in the first part of the chapter gameplay. The game is split into two decisive gameplay sections. The first half of a chapter is spent gathering clues, learning about the particular crime of that chapter, exploring the world and doing side quests. Which; for the most part. Are nothing much beyond ‘Go and talk to X, then go and talk to Y’. Which is mildly disappointing, considering the possibilities that could have been done with the pseudo rhythm game combat portions. Once you’ve progressed the story, and acquired enough solution keys, the second part of the gameplay happens. Shinigami reveals her true form, a very busty woman, and takes you into a portal. This takes you to the Mystery Labyrinth. A world that is formed from the mystery of the crime, that can only be solved by using the solution keys to progress through the labyrinth and uncover the truth behind the mystery.

In the investigation part, you will generally get to team up with one of the other Master Detectives to approach the mystery of the chapter. Due to Yuma’s very special and unique Forte, Coalescence, if he holds hands with another person he is able to share and use their ability. Unfortunately, beyond the first chapter, most of these abilities are more a story element than a gameplay element. Halara’s Post Cognition however allows you explore the prior crime scenes of a Serial Killer, and see the crime scene as it was when it was first discovered by a witness. You are able to turn Post Cognition on and off whilst exploring. This sets up an expectation that is unfortunately unfounded. As the following chapter’s see you engaging in disguise use, spectral projection (which has a minor dodging minigame), and a ‘turn back time because you failed a QTE’ ability. These are fun, but for the most part, a vehicle for progressing a crime that is very specifically tailored to suit the particular ability being used.

The Mystery Labyrinth section is where the game truly opens up a bit, and it is a shame it does not get more time in the spotlight. Using the solution blade, you fight Mystery Phantoms in Reasoning Death Matches. These act almost like combat, but more so a rhythm-esque dodging minigame with a mild puzzle solving element. The Mystery Phantom will throw out statements, which you then have to dodge or if there is a contradiction use a solution key to rebut the statement and ‘damage’ the phantom. For the most part, the answer tends to be rather obvious. Not all statements are possible to be rebut, and not all statements that you can rebut are contradictory. There is a small element of strategy, but for the most part, you’ll be dodging and looking for the perfect statement. Whilst not hugely difficult, the jump dodge is a little flakey. I tended to fail it more often than not because of the depth perception and travel speed being inconsistent at the best of times.

At some points you’ll have to choose the correct branching path in a Labyrinth, most of which is pretty obvious. Wrong answers will damage your stamina, but there was never a major threat of death. In fact the only times I received a game over, where during the ‘Lay it out’ minigames. Which involve throwing a dagger at the correct letter(s) to spell out a world to finish a particular statement. For the most part these are pretty obvious, but there was a couple towards the end of the game which were somewhat unclear and by the time I worked it out, I had ran out of time by throwing too many incorrect daggers.

The Mystery Labyrinths have an array of mechanics that they develop across the range of them, but never really stick around long enough, or push the limits enough to be truly challenging. Master Detective is fundamentally a mystery adventure narrative, with light gameplay elements. In this, it is incredibly similar to Danganronpa. Where there is moments of gameplay, but for the most part, everything takes a backseat to the story. Which in the case of Master Detective Archives is wildly frustrating. As there are enough gameplay elements at play that there should be a much deeper focus on longer Mystery Labyrinth sections, as well as side content that have their own mystery labyrinth sections.

Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE is an interesting murder mystery action adventure. An extreme focus on a straight forward story, that isn’t too wildly outlandish compared to other titles in the same vein. The characters are the stand out for the title, as they subvert their obvious stereotypes, to become quite endearing and persons that you care about the overall well-being of. The Investigation sections are somewhat too on-rails with a lack of gameplay focus on the Fortes. The Mystery Labyrinths are an amazing cool concept, with a fantastic visual design, but don’t go far enough. A solid twenty odd hour experience, Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE is a fun, if not somewhat lacking at times, experience.