For the sake of my play a bunch of ecchi game genre things, I’m counting this as multi game, aka a game with a bunch of different genre’s mashed up in it. In reality, I played this as an excuse to talk about Danganronpa since I feel I had to bring up the franchise eventually.

As for Rain Code itself, it’s a detective story with the hot, puffy Shinigami-chan who jiggles around as you solve murders.

Danganronpa-

So I’ve always felt I should talk about this series in terms of ecchi content as least once, as it is known as being a horny franchise. And in terms of writing, it can be at times. In terms of art though, it never really is.

Going through the series, 1 has Aoi as it’s only sexually designed character and maybe Junko. Monokuma(and I think Tohko does as well) makes constant sex references, but that’s about it. There’s two technically fanservice cgs, a bathing one and a swimsuit one. The swimsuit one has the guys in the shot and really isn’t focused on any of the girls, while the bathing one has Sakura, the muscle wall, being the closest character. Really the most sexual thing in the bath shot is Kirigiri’s towel clad butt, which is front and center in the shot. That’s it.

2 has Akane, who is Aoi but bigger and wilder. In terms of pervy characters, the princess makes some references and you have the horny cook and of course clumsy Mikan. She gets two attempted panty shots, which are covered up. You get a beach shot with all the guys and girls. The most sexual imagery is probably the girls coming out in bikinis, where Akane is covered in blood. The rest kind of work, but are weak shots. The shot with the most skin is Mahiru and Hiyoko showering, both on the petite side of build.

3 the biggest perv is the mechanic, but she’s never really lewded. Green haired girl is, in both cgs the game has that are lewdish. One is actually a decent lewd cg, the other is okay with guys in the background.

Summer Camp has 1 cg, and I guess all the girls get bikini’s. It’s just a single standing shot of them, no posing.

Generally when I’m picking games, I prioritize new things that need some attention, then amount of content. Games with 1 hot spring shot or 2 or 3 single lewd images out of an entire game and nothing else are generally not worth playing, I consider those games as games with ecchi moments, not ecchi games. I also try to play a few recognizable games so that the blog can get found at all, this is part of why anime games and low lewd content show up.

So I decided really early on I was going to skip Danganronpa because it actually doesn’t have much if any content worth the time I’d put in. I also read all three games years ago + each game has had minigame content added that makes 100% an honest pain.

Story-6

Protag wakes up in a room with no memories, but does have a train ticket with the name Yuma Kokohead on it. He runs out and catches the train. He finds 5 other people on the train, all members of the WDO or World Detective Organization. Then a bunch of other things are thrown at you like Fortes, a detective’s basically magic/psychic tier personal skill, Amaterasu the big business that is kind of the main enemy of the game, and some info about each of these people. Oh, and only 5 people are suppose to be on the train.

Yuma faints in the bathroom and wakes up with a spirit haunting him. This is Shinigami-chan, a spirit he contracted that erased him memories. Then Yuma finds everyone else on the train dead, burned to death. The train arrives without Yuma figuring out what’s going on.

Eventually Shinigami-chan unveils her true form and power, the Mystery Labyrinth and her curvy, puffy body. The Labyrinth is the gameplay core of the game, you solve puzzles to logic out the crime of the chapter. According to Shinigami-chan, these exist for all unsolved mysteries and tend to make more mysteries if left unsolved. This isn’t really ever elaborated on, which was kind of disappointing, I figured at one point these were the power source for the never ending rain…

So in Kanai Ward, where the game takes place, Yuma meets up with the actual core cast of the game and has to figure out Kanai Ward’s Ultimate Mystery to solve the Ultimate Greatest Mystery. I’m getting those names wrong, but the in game ones are just silly. Kanai Ward has never ending rain and a police force that doesn’t really care about the truth. So the story moves fairly fast as the core cast really isn’t in a powerful position and each step is a really dangerous one. It does a good job hiding that each chapter is just a new character focus chapter until the end of the game. Where little of the previous chapters really matter.

Gameplay-4

The game is split into two main modes. Real world and Mystery Labyrinth. Real world is basically just walk around and talk, you get some side quests which at most have multiple choice answers, you have some collectibles to pick up, and of course investigations where you walk around and interact with things. It’s all very simple. You do get xp for basically every new unique interaction though so you do want to do some of the random interacts or talk to random NPC A for that hot xp. Leveling only affects labyrinth stuff, so on to that.

The real game is in the labyrinths. There is a total of 6 of them and each goes through that chapter’s case step by step using a mix of minigames. The most common is Reasoning Death Match. In RDM, you dodge the argumeents of the enemy until you see the correct statement you can argue against with your logic/solution bullets and swing your sword at it. You can also time dodges and cut red dialogue for a better score at the end, use your assist which makes you invincible for a bit, and speed the whole thing but with a turbo mode. It’s basically a complicated rhythm game.

Then you have Shinigami Puzzle, where you play a type of Hangman with Shinigami-chan in a barrel. You shoot swords at the letters and can have her eat clues to help you guess the word. Shinigami-chan ends this minigame with gravure poses in her bikini for some reason.

Then you just have multiple choice stuff(with a bunch of different visual themes) and sometimes need to order events. You have a full on rhythm game at the end where Shinigami-chan grows huge and you need to hit buttons to get through obstacles as she sprints through a valley. After that you do Deduction Denouement where you put the case in order with the clues you have. It’s super simple and honestly feels pointless after you just spent an hour or two going through the labyrinth about the exact events you put together.

So the actual gameplay is a mix of logic puzzles, rhythm games, and multiple choice questions. It really doesn’t ask much of you to beat the game, though you do need to play perfect for the best rank in each labyrinth which gets you an achievement I didn’t care to get. You can also save between almost every minigame bit.

Lewdness-3

Only 3 girls in the entire game jiggle, one of which dies about 5 minutes later. Fubuki, the only detective with it, wears an outfit that mostly covers up her jiggle and outside of the one scene where she wears a waitress outfit isn’t really fanservicey, despite being the air headed goof. She does call herself dummy thicc at one point, not that she knows what that means.

Shinigami-chan is the star of the show for any sexual energy. Usually she’s this little cute ghost thing, but when the mysteries get going and you have to solve it, she turns into the girl at the top of this post, via magical girl transformation.

Her body is on a different level from the rest of the cast. She jiggles a lot, is generally flirty when she’s not being serious or annoyed at our protag, and outright tells the lead to stare at her boobs for comfort. She also does gravure poses after one of the minigames, that’s where the picture at the top comes from, which is the only one that focuses on her ass. That’s also the only other outfit she wears aside from her black dress.

I didn’t play the game until her skirt shadow in particular was removed via mod, as she floats to move. The void to cover her up is basically always on screen during the gameplay bits which leads me to believe originally you were suppose to see her butt all the time.

While Shinigami-chan is probably the most obvious pandering sexual character of the Spike Chunsoft’s career, she’s also the only outright sexual element in the game. There’s some banter stuff, and I guess one of the villains has a whole sexual energy thing with his lover but that’s a total of about two scenes in the game and both of them are just standing there when it happens. This isn’t really a ecchi game at heart, it just has some.

Final Thoughts

It was okay. I was surprised at how little connecting tissue there was between the plot overall as the final case kind of doesn’t give a shit about the rest of the cases. So the game goes from introducing new detectives and writing mysteries around their powers to a final confrontation boss fight style thing where our hero’s only ally is Shinigami-chan.

The name makes it sound like this should be a series of games, but this is the only entry and it doesn’t really need more. It wraps up the core story while letting more stories be possible in the world.

Ecchi wise it’s weak, gameplay is weirdly cinematic for logic puzzles, and the story is what really carries the game. The Danganronpa’s are better really.

Save for Master Detective Archives: Rain Code+

The + version adds an animation gallery, and you have chapter select. All the unlockable talk bits have been unlocked and each sidequest done for the notebook notes about them, and that’s everything a save can do.

Gameplay: 4/10 Eroticness: 3/10 Story: 6/10

Completion: Beat the game, grab the Shinigami-chan statues. I guess go through 4 of the 5 gabs for each character so all 5 of them are playable at will?