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hopeymchope · 10 months

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Thoughts on MDA: Rain Code so far as I approach the end of Chapter 2

(...which is the game's third full-length chapter...)

I'll start with SPOILER-FREE thoughts before shifting into SPOILER MODE after the cut.

Yuma is so spineless and unable to stand up for himself or his own sense of what's right/wrong that he gives me some "Early Part of V3" Shuichi vibes. The poor bitch... I feel like this might come to bite him in the ass before he'll manage to toughen up.

However, it's really other characters I've met who remind me the MOST of specific Danganronpa characters. Of course the game is still in its early going, so there's plenty of time for most characters to get more development/focus. But right now, THE EXAMPLES: Take Sonia Nevermind, but imagine a woman from a powerful noble family who is even MORE clueless about reality because she lives in even MORE of her own insular bubble, and that's Fubuki Clockford. She's Sonia²,if you will. Zilch Alexander? He's reminiscient of Byakuya "Twogami" — he starts off giving you the snobby egotism of real Togami before swiftly displaying that surprisingly kind undercurrent of the Imposter's version. And one particularly weird example is Vivia Twilight, who is giving me strong echoes of a Danganronpa spinoff character. To be specific, Vivia strongly resembles the, er, "public face" of Takumi Hijirihara from Danganronpa Gaiden: Killer Killer. Y'know... the super-lowkey almost-sleepy guy who is constantly cramming himself into tight spaces that he finds comforting?

Panels such as this could easily be describing Vivia Twilight. They're even both detectives!

3. As has been pointed out by others, Rui Komatsuzaki really just straight-up gave Halara Nightmare the same face and hairstyle as Chiaki Nanami. At least Halara has a different hair color, I guess? And I suppose a lot of Komatsuzaki's characters share similar faces, which isn't uncommon among Japanese manga/anime-style artists. But it's still pretty striking to see Tall, Stern Nanami stroll up if you're familiar enough with the DR characters.

Beyond this cut, there will be spoilers for Master Detective Archives: Rain Code Chapters 0 through Chapter 2.

But nothing beyond that.

4. At the risk of stating the obvious: Yuma totally entered his pact with Shinigami because he wanted a "Forte" power, right? That's where that part of the backstory is obviously going.

5. We're still a long way from understanding Yuma's backstory and/or how he got into this contract with Shinigami, but we have a few hints at least. We know Yuma found a book in the WDO headquarters taht contained Shinigami, and it's been implied that maybe she's contracted with detectives in the past. But despite how their pact is core to the gameplay loop of Rain Code, I don't think it's going to turn out being a good thing for Yuma. Lil' Cocoa-Head keeps getting himself cornered in situations where he or someone else will die unless he can solve a mystery right fucking now, which means he keeps relying on Shinigami to save his ass, which means we KEEP KILLING THE CULPRITS by the end of each chapter, which is a really fucking bad trend that is going to eventually bite us in the ass for sure. The natural, obvious result of this is that Yuma will become the prime suspect for the extremely sudden deaths of all these killers. But I think it might go even harder than that... because what if, by the game's end (or maybe in a future sequel), we have to direct Shinigami (or some other spirit if we play as a different character later on/in a later game) to reap Yuma's own soul for his crimes? I feel like that's the obvious endgame here — Yuma is so incredibly complicit in these killings that he could be argued to be their murderer, and that's going to come full circle on him. But I guess we'll need a lot more time to tell on that front.

6. The loss of the Chapter 0 characters still kinda hurts, because so many of them were fascinating. Pucci Lavmin in particular was unlike any other character we've ever seen in Kodaka's ouvre, and it sucks that she was taken out of the mix without us getting any chance to develop or explore her further. My hope is that eventually we'll see some kind of AU side-story DLC or game that lets us dive deeper into even the deceased characters... I mean, Danganronpa always did that, and Rain Code DOES have its own Season Pass after all :P

7. I really thought for a while there that Chapter 2 would end with us having to accept that the real culprit was the very person we were attempting to exonerate and free from the Peacekeepers' sinister clutches. It doesn't go that route, but I feel like that's a twist that could (and SHOULD) come up in the future. Before this game is over, I expect to see a chapter where the real culprit is the very person we're trying to prove innocent. Can't wait to see how wrong I am! :P

#dr2 spoilers #danganronpa #rain code #master detective archives #mdarc #rain code spoilers #master detective archives: rain code #master detective archives: rain code spoilers

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lunas-otome-blog · 6 months

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Luna's Review: Collar x Malice

Official Summary:

A dangerous shadow organization launches a campaign of fear and violence in the city of Shinjuku, pushing society to the brink of chaos. As a young police officer tasked with restoring order, you become the target of an attack, and have a poisonous collar attached to your neck. With the situation spiraling out of control and time running out, five mysterious strangers appear to aid you in your quest for the truth.

(Spoiler Free) Luna's Thoughts:

This was the otome game that got me into otome games for the switch. Before CxM, I was pretty much exclusively playing indie vns on itch.io. Which are lovely and often well-written, but usually smaller productions and thus much shorter and done on a smaller budget. CxM was the first full-length otome I played and it made me think, incorrectly it turns out, that all professionally made otomes were as good as this one. As you'll note by my other review (and future ones to come), CxM imposed extremely high standards and it's perhaps unfair to compare other games to it.

It's tightly plotted, has an interesting cast of characters and features beautiful art. The limited color palettes and washed-out backgrounds and coloring style give the game an ominous feel that works very well with its dark murder mystery premise.

This game also does something I really enjoy, which is that it makes the "routes" make sense. Often in otome games, things happen in routes that should, by all means, happen whether you're on the character's route or not. For example, in Mystic Messenger, Zen sprains his ankle in three of the routes, but not in Jumin's route or 707's route. This doesn't really make sense, because why would you cozying up to those characters prevent Zen from spraining his ankle?

But in CxM, you choose the character you want to investigate with, providing a realistic explanation for why you are only dealing with that particular character. This is a small detail but I really appreciated it.

I did think it was a little silly to have numerous random dead ends, but I suppose that sort of thing isn't uncommon in these types of games. I did like that it gives you a chance to see the stars of other routes before you get to properly meet them. It adds to the intrigue.

While it has its flaws, including several editing errors, I ultimately really liked this game. It felt satisfying to solve the mystery and the game actually gives you an opportunity to guess the culprit, letter by letter, which felt nerve-wracking and awesome. The characters were fun and the darkness felt congruent with what I was expecting going in.

I'm looking forward to doing some art of these characters soon.

Please find below my thoughts on each route, in the order I played them.

(SPOILERS)

Takeru Sasazuka Route

Allow me to start by saying this is not my favorite character archetype. I just don't love characters who are openly hostile toward others and continue to be mean even after the MC has earned their affection.

That said, Sasazuka's love for donuts was the gap moe I needed to get on board, if only because he reminded me of L from Death Note.

Sasazuka's route kicks off a trend of largely reasonable decisions in this game. He has a simple but understandable motivation for wanting to solve the X Day incidents, simultaneously jabbing at American gun laws. (We deserve it.)

This route also sees Ichika getting drunk — cute!

I'd rate this route my second favorite out of the game.

(SPOILERS)

Kageyuki Shiraishi Route

This is another character archetype I don't love — the overconfident flirt. That's why I played him second, though I was recommended against it. Technically you should play him fourth, right before the true end route, but I didn't particularly mind the order because I didn't love this route.

I admit he's kind of a fun character, because he's hella suspicious right at the beginning, and kind of suggests he's the traitor, to the point where when he's revealed to, in fact, be the traitor, I was kinda surprised. He also has a cat theme going on, which is very cute.

His backstory is pretty straightforward, but relies on mind manipulation tropes, so it wasn't as convincing as some of the others. I would have been more satisfied with a split personality sort of thing, or even if he was a traitor by his own will. Instead, he seems fully aware of everything that's going on, including his own brainwashing, but doesn't act like he has any internal conflict except at strategic moments in the plot.

It would have been a lot more interesting have him either unaware of his own transgressions until later, or have him willingly be a member of Adonis who becomes conflicted as he grows closer to Ichika.

Maybe this is just a weird, roundabout way of saying I wanted him to suffer more lol.

Shiraishi does get the short end of the stick, as his good ending has him losing his memories. But you know our girl Ichika will set him straight again.

(SPOILERS)

Mineo Enomoto Route

I love me a tsundere, so it's no surprise this was my favorite route in the game. It was fairly lighthearted compared to the others because Mineo is such a goof, but it was a nice break in the darkness and I'm glad I played his route right in the middle.

This character is so cute, and a total idiot with no idea how to talk to girls. He's picked on so much by the other characters in the game and I just wanted to show him some love.

He sucks at thinking, but the best scenes are the ones in which he springs into action, showing his prowess in the field. Typically these meathead athletic characters are not my favorite, but Mineo was undeniably cool jumping off rooftops and such.

I love love love Mineo's relationship with Ichika's little brother. Their friendship was honestly so refreshing and adorable.

There is some silliness at the end where they set up a fake talk show, but ultimately it was done in good spirits with the idea of forgiveness. To top it off, this idiot actually proposes at the end of his route. It was a silly but sweet ending for a sweet character.

(SPOILERS)

Kei Okazaki Route

This was probably my least favorite route in the game, but only because I didn't think they went far enough with the theme.

Okazaki is a listless man who has witnessed tragedy and desires nothing more than a riteous way to die. Which is a horrifying premise, but I was never fully convinced by it. I didn't feel like his relationship with Ichika progressed naturally and I didn't come to care for him in the way I wanted to.

I think this route would have been more impactful if there was more of a disconnect between his goals and his personality. He was a little too bland to make his death wish truly a shock. I felt like he should have been more cheerful to create cognitive dissonance between his persona and his goals. He kind of feels like the outline of a character rather than a character itself.

Not to mention the game lacks a genki character archetype. Wouldn't it be more interesting to have a cheerful character who turns out to be utterly empty and suicidal?

I guess what I'm saying is I wish there was more to Okazaki. To me, he was the least developed character and the least interesting.

(SPOILERS)

Aiji Yanagi Route

I remember something telling me before I played Yanagi's route that it was boring, and they were kinda right lol.

Like, it was fine. There wasn't anything technically wrong with it. He just doesn't have the most interesting backstory. When he was a teen, he protected young Ichika by beating up her kidnapper, and he felt bad for it for the rest of his life and now spends his time trying to atone for it.

My least favorite part of this route was discovering that Ichika had a traumatic event in her past that was not even mentioned in the common or other routes. So it made Yanagi's connection to her seem really sudden.

Yanagi is a reasonable guy. But he lacks that wow factor that you hope for in a main character. There isn't any way to describe him that makes him sound interesting. He could have easily been improved any number of ways. The easiest would have been giving him some sort of anger management issues. Or at least a more extreme personality.

I did like his chats with Ichika on the roof of the police station, and I like that he has doubts about their age gap and gets embarassed calling her by her first name. He's a sweet guy. Just maybe not true end material.

Overall kind of a weak way to end the game, but I didn't hate it. I think he would have been better as a regular route. Shiraishi or Okazaki would have probably been the best choices for true end characters.

#collar x malice #otome game #otome review #review

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