The spiritual successor of the Danganronpa games, making their comparisons inevitable.
I will be blunt and say right away that Danganronpa was better. In Danganronpa, there were plenty of cases where I wasn't sure at all who was the culprit, let alone how they went about their killings. As a fan of solving murder mysteries I greatly enjoyed the cases.
But in Rain Code, the first 4 cases (about 20 hours) felt weak to me. They were too simple and easy as detective mysteries. I was able to figure out all of the culprits and big portions of their method of murder before even entering the mystery labyrinth (the part where you actually start solving the mystery). I was expecting the difficulty to keep rising with each case, but I felt it remained constant.
Having said that, I have to admit in the last 2 chapters the game gets a lot better. It has a great plot twist tying everything together, making this game's final chapter quite possibly better than any of Danganronpa's final chapters.
I will be blunt and say right away that Danganronpa was better. In Danganronpa, there were plenty of cases where I wasn't sure at all who was the culprit, let alone how they went about their killings. As a fan of solving murder mysteries I greatly enjoyed the cases.
But in Rain Code, the first 4 cases (about 20 hours) felt weak to me. They were too simple and easy as detective mysteries. I was able to figure out all of the culprits and big portions of their method of murder before even entering the mystery labyrinth (the part where you actually start solving the mystery). I was expecting the difficulty to keep rising with each case, but I felt it remained constant.
Having said that, I have to admit in the last 2 chapters the game gets a lot better. It has a great plot twist tying everything together, making this game's final chapter quite possibly better than any of Danganronpa's final chapters.
An excellent VN with a few flaws.
The story is deep with great writing as one would expect from a Type-moon VN. But the first few hours of the game give you little to look forward to, as you are greeted with a relatively slow slice of life story with seemingly tropey characters with no real stakes or objectives. If you manage to get through the initial slog then you are in for a treat, because the story really starts picking up and once it gets going it doesn't stop until you reach the finish line.
In the archive you can find various little adventures and stories that occur in-between chapters, none of which are mandatory for the completion of the main story. A good decision, as the player now has a choice whether they would like a more laid-back, low-stakes story, or witness the next exciting, heart-pounding main story chapter.
My only complaint here is that chapter 1.5 SHOULD have been mandatory. It would have provided a good idea early on about what type of story this VN would eventually unravel to, and essentially would have made the pacing better as it provides an action scene that takes place much earlier than the first main story fight.
I would also recommend playing the final bonus chapter as a very entertaining murder-mystery story, despite not having any significance in the main story.
There are a few typos that can be a bit immersion breaking from time to time, but nothing worth getting worked up about.
Finally, I would like to comment that both the visuals & soundtrack for this game are superb. May it be a calm piano theme playing over the sunset from atop a snowy hill, or character fighting for their lives with some spectacular choir in the background, this game will definitely amaze you at some points.
TL;DR
Starts slow but is definitely worth reading by the end.
The story is deep with great writing as one would expect from a Type-moon VN. But the first few hours of the game give you little to look forward to, as you are greeted with a relatively slow slice of life story with seemingly tropey characters with no real stakes or objectives. If you manage to get through the initial slog then you are in for a treat, because the story really starts picking up and once it gets going it doesn't stop until you reach the finish line.
In the archive you can find various little adventures and stories that occur in-between chapters, none of which are mandatory for the completion of the main story. A good decision, as the player now has a choice whether they would like a more laid-back, low-stakes story, or witness the next exciting, heart-pounding main story chapter.
My only complaint here is that chapter 1.5 SHOULD have been mandatory. It would have provided a good idea early on about what type of story this VN would eventually unravel to, and essentially would have made the pacing better as it provides an action scene that takes place much earlier than the first main story fight.
I would also recommend playing the final bonus chapter as a very entertaining murder-mystery story, despite not having any significance in the main story.
There are a few typos that can be a bit immersion breaking from time to time, but nothing worth getting worked up about.
Finally, I would like to comment that both the visuals & soundtrack for this game are superb. May it be a calm piano theme playing over the sunset from atop a snowy hill, or character fighting for their lives with some spectacular choir in the background, this game will definitely amaze you at some points.
TL;DR
Starts slow but is definitely worth reading by the end.