Experiencing Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE (Switch): Seriously untapped.

It's frustrating.  A game that clearly had a lot of love put into it that isn't able to keep the momentum it started with.  Either staff shifted at some point or they simply couldn't decide on how they wanted to wrap things up.  Either way, the title is my summary takeaway: it started really strong, and then just...fell off.

I know the modern era has been conditioned to treat anything lower than B as crap - but I implore you to alter your thinking.  Especially with this game.

But to put something up first: this game is an acquired taste.  It's not going to appeal to the current "mainstream gaming" fans who just like a bunch of action.  It's also not going to appeal to people who don't like the occasional fanservice-y quips and remarks.

I do think that anyone who's into Ace Attorney should get a reasonable amount of enjoyment out of it...at least until Chapter 4-ish.

What I Liked

✅ Graphics.  Obviously the game is held back by the Switch, and yes, framerate suffers at points inexplicably.  I'm talking about the general art direction.  It's got a grungy, neon noir type of deal going on that is visually appealing to the eye and makes you really feel what's going on (at least until Chapter 5).

✅ Music.  It's not going to win any awards, but it fits the theme of the game, and some of the tunes are moderately catchy.

✅ Characters.  With only a few exceptions, the characters are generally well defined and stand out.  The vast majority of them served their purposes well (see negatives below though).

✅Cutscenes.  Mind you, some people are annoyed by them, but I love them, and they're fully voiced.  They're LONG too, so just fair warning.

✅The First Case.  I was completely enthralled with this.  (unfortunately...it was the only case that really "hooked" me).

✅Shinigami.  She's basically a sexy version of Navi The Fairy (Zelda: Ocarina of Time), although the writing seemed to slip as the game went on.

What I DIDN'T Like

👎 Cases Other Than The First (Chapter 0).  I know this is weird.

Here's the thing.  The first case's characters were extremely interesting to me.  Each and every one of them had a compelling story, and it made the whodunit more interesting to actually solve. The other cases felt like they were trying too hard to be confusing - kind of like Catherine (Full Body) or something, I can't explain it.  The second and third cases weren't abominable, but Chapter 4 felt like they just rushed past it and Chapter 5 was good except for....

👎 The Final Boss (Chapter 5).  Oh dear, this was arguably the worst final boss in any game I think I've ever played.  I won't spoil, but it was really hampered by the game mechanic, and it's obvious what they were trying to do, but it came off tedious and boring.  If the payoff were good, I could forgive it...but...

👎 The Ending Sequence.  It wouldn't be fair to say it was the worst ending possible (Arc Rise Fantasia still wins that), but it's pretty bad.  Given how much time and energy is spent throughout the game, more was expected of the ending than what I got.  It almost felt like they planned to do multiple endings and ran out of money or something, it's that abrupt and you're left dissatisfied.

👎 Inconsistent Script.  I get it, you're wondering what the hell I mean.  Well, take a character like Shinigami.  Chapters 0 and 1, she's basically 50% innuendo.  Chapters 2 and 3 she's basically the Overly Attached Girlfriend.  Chapter 4 she's basically rude and makes you feel like you want her to go away, and Chapter 5 she's standoffish and barely contributes to what's going on, then suddenly...well, I won't spoil it, but basically, it's a sudden shift out of nowhere.  It's jarring and not fun, like they couldn't make up their minds about how to evolve her as a character while still keeping her endearing.

Fubuki is initially written like a complete airhead, but then all of a sudden is more brilliant than the rest of them.  Vivia is barely worth mentioning early on, then later even breaks the 4th wall saying, "I know I didn't get much screen time".  Desuhiko and Halara are consistent, but Halara, despite clearly appearing, sounding and at points acting female, was scripted to be nonbinary.

👎 Inconsistent Cases.  By which I mean, you'll have a case - not to spoil - where nothing of what you're told clearly implicates the person that the game wants you to choose OR you're asked to choose answers to questions where you choose an answer that's clearly correct, but not the one the game expects you to choose, thus you get it wrong.  Ace Attorney had this same issue at times; it's likely unavoidable in these kinds of games, but it's even worse when you're dealing with completely implausable scenarios and even mystical powers (Fortes) that somehow make something possible yet the scenario lacks other environmental details that would normally be there given the scenario.  (I left that ambiguous so as not to spoil things...but I'm specifically referring to Chapter 4 if you've gotten that far.)

👎 Battle Engine/Confrontations.  If you're confused by "battle engine", there is one in the game, but it's not what you think.  You're attacking statements with a sword (representation of "attacking statements" in court), dodging other statements, and eventually getting to the bottom of what really happened in a Labyrinth structure.  The Labyrinth itself is tedious in navigation, and while I didn't have too much issue with the basic encounters, there are the occasional QTE-type responses where you have 2 seconds at most to hit the right button on the controller.  Those are annoying and not fun.  It also has the same issue I mentioned before, where what you're supposed to attack has very little to do with the actual clues (called Solution Keys) that you need to present to rebut them.  This only happened in Chapter 3, if I recall, where the leap of logic necessary to pass was never revealed and was a guess at best.

Summary

I want to stress that this is not a bad game, but it's definitely an acquired taste, and for whatever reason, it just starts out amazing and declines as the game goes on.  A lot of it feels like excess padding and some of it requires significant suspension of basic common sense.

However, I generally had a great time with the game.  It was way more enjoyable than Trails into Reverie (which is sad), and I wouldn't mind a sequel that did a better job of focusing the cases a bit more.  I also would like less of the gimmicks associated with solving the cases; definitely get rid of the QTE at the very least.