Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE+

Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus is an absolute blast. Each mystery kept me on the edge of my seat as I franticly tried to solve the case with my team of colorful, though sometimes insane, fellow detectives. There is a lot to love about Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus, and fans of mysteries and the Danganronpa franchise will fall in love with it.

If you are buying Master Detective Archives: Rain Code Plus for the first time you will find a great compelling story full of mystery, intrigue and superb characters. Great visuals, beautiful art style and stunning voice acting make this game a truly must play game. However, gameplay remains a true mixed bag, making it a shame for returning players that there is not enough new content or quality of life improvements to really warrant returning to this game.

Rain Code Plus, despite dragging on a bit too long, is probably my favorite Spike Chunsoft game to date. It has stellar writing that maybe leans too hard into exposition dumps but more often comes together to create a world that is full of depth, populated with interesting characters and lore that flesh the world of Rain Code Plus out in a way that the genre rarely seems capable of. For visual novel fans who may have missed out on the initial switch release, the re-release of Rain Code Plus should not be missed.

Much like Danganronpa before it, despite its problems my time with Master Detective Archives: Rain Code Plus will be hard to forget. I’m thankful I waited until this updated version to give it a whirl; with a silky smooth frame rate and high resolution, the visual elements really get to sing. Even when I wasn’t fully on board with where the story was going, Rain Code made me think, which is high praise for a game about a deadly goth girlfriend puking rainbows and shooting heart-shaped laser beams from her face as a means of exposing criminal conspiracies.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code+ is a neat approach at taking Danganronpa's core concept and taking it outside of the Battle Royal Death Game world. There are a lot of extremely strong concepts, and when they come together well, it's easy to see how this could've eclipsed even its ancestor. Unfortunately, things are a tad too muddled, too simple, and too divorced from one another to be a cohesive whole. If you're a fan of the Danganronpa titles, then it's worth a shot. Otherwise, I'd recommend starting with one of those before Rain Code.

Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus delivers a reasonable collection of mysteries, but not on the level that such a competent team could've delivered after so many years developing a new franchise.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code Plus delivers a fun mystery-filled visual novel experience, perfect for anyone who is a fan of Danganronpa or similar titles. There are a few frustrating elements here and there, but the whole package is a mostly solid narrative-focused adventure.