Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Plus (PS5) Review

Aside from being a mouthful to say, Master Detective Archives: Rain Code Plus is what happens when you mix Persona and Phoenix Wright.  The art style and pacing are akin to that of the newest Persona title, and the gameplay is all about finding clues to mysteries and putting them together to solve a crime.  While this may work on paper, it is more complicated while playing the game itself.

The first section of the investigation feels interesting and well thought out.  The mechanics are well placed, as most things that can be interacted with have an icon appear over it when you are even passing close to it.  Clicking and investigating rewards you with experience points which can be used to level up abilities that can be used for various things.

The second section, though, isn’t amazingly wonderful.  When the entire investigation is done you are put into a mystery dungeon to try and figure out how the clues fit together to solve the case, sort of how Persona series throws out new dungeons for every chapter.  This sounds interesting, but it isn’t.  There are no random encounters in the dungeon and they boil down to a mini-game collection where you use the information you have gathered complete the games.  All are not equal, though.

The boss fights are refreshing and use the investigation clues to counter attacks.  A certain clue is selected from a menu, and the player “attacks” with it by swinging a sword at the words flying at the player to damage them.  There is an interesting twist where incorrect prompts will be thrown out, and there is no correct answer, they can only be dodged and then the player must wait for the correct one to be presented.

Then you have the mini-games, which are either bland at best and annoying at worst.  The fill in the blank word puzzle can be grating as all the letters to spell the missing word are on a barrel that is spinning around that the player must shoot.  If, like me, you aren’t very good at either spelling or figuring out missing words in a sentence; this game is not going to be a fun time.  Others are rhythm based challenges that are fine, as well as multiple choice questions on the case itself.  Those are also fine, but when it is an A or B choice, and I accidentally pressed a button for neither choice, that was taken as an incorrect input—my fault but still less than ideal.  Some of the questions can be worded a little vaguely, leaving room for either choice to be correct given how you read the question.

The mysteries themselves are normally pretty interesting as well.  As with most detective type video games, nothing is as straight forward as it seems, and the bad guys typically take it to 11 with over thinking on the plot.  It resembles Danganronpa is this instance, as what happened is pretty well thought out, and investigating is perfectly fine, but putting everything together at the end has various roadblocks.

For anyone who is a fan of investigation type games, or just really likes the art that is on display, you should probably check out this game.  If anyone of the titles that were referenced in this review are listed in your favorites, Danganronpa, Persona, or Pheonix Wright, you will enjoy this game. This is truly one of those games that is well made enough that anyone can truly understand the appeal of the title, but it also might be a niche enough series of mechanics that it would be best to skip over if it doesn’t sound up your alley.