The main plot was okay, but each case felt like an incredible slog, lasting 7–8 hours, and most weren't even interesting. The gameplay is definitely a unique experience, but it gets boring fast. It almost requires a guide just to avoid frustration while playing through it.

I think it's an okay game overall.

Let me start this review off by saying that I don't regret purchasing RAIN CODE Plus. But it's also not worth full price at all. A Danganronpa, this is not, even though it tries so very hard to be.

It's definitely a Spike Chunsoft game. That's for sure. You have your murders, your mysteries, and your trademark annoyingly lewd character.

So let's talk about the characters. They're poor. They just don't feel inventive enough. Danganronpa's characters might not always have been groundbreaking, but at least they were enjoyable in their clichés. The problem is, you just don't really get to spend any time with these characters whatsoever. Danganronpa works because it's the same cast all throughout, a cast that gets thinner and thinner, so you get to know the characters better and better. That's not the case in RAINCODE Plus. You get your one companion character per chapter, and they are only ever their one gimmick in that chapter, and nothing outside that gimmick.

That could work if the gimmicks were enjoyable. While I might not have loved characters like Kyoko, Himiko or Hiyoko in the Danganronpa games, some like Nagito, Kokichi, Gundam, and Hajime were smash hits for me. There is no such smash hit character in this game. The best it gets is "meh, I guess it's okay," and the worst it gets is by far Perv Boy, whose name I've entirely forgotten.

Spike Chunsoft always has lewd characters and humour. It doesn't always hit, but it's something I usually tolerate decently well. Not this guy. This guy is by far the worst. At the very least, other pervy characters usually kept it to their own age group. Not this guy. And you have to spend an entire chapter at an all girls school with him, so I think you can get where this is going. Even ignoring any moral concerns, he's just really grating.

The other characters aren't that bad, but they're just kind of there. They range from annoying to mildly likeable.

So, if not for the characters, you'd play this game for the mysteries, right? And I'm afraid I don't have the greatest news there either, including one of the genuinely worst mysteries I've ever seen. Embarrassingly bad.

The Danganronpa trials are replaced by a Mystery Labyrinth, which is decently enjoyable, but really hammers home the lack of character interaction in this game, since it's just you, your main companion, and your sidekick for that chapter. And while your main companion is fiiiine - though heavily leaning on the "lewd Spike Chunsoft character. I genuinely laughed at how obviously hornybait a lot of her animations are - 2 out of the 5 sidekicks are rather annoying, and the other 3 aren't anything to write home about.

Let's start off with Chapter 1 - or Chapter 0 as it's called in this game.

It's a fairly decent start, and it's actually the only chapter in the entire game that surprised me with the direction of the case. While some other chapters might have had some surprising details, this was the only one to really catch me off guard with where it went. And the mystery in it feels the most like a standard elaborate Danganronpa style mystery that you'll get in this game, taking advantage of the new setting in a fairly interesting way. Plus, you don't have to deal with any annoying characters here.

Chapter 2 is then possibly the single worst murder mystery I've ever seen. It's definitely fighting for that title with the second case of The Great Ace Attorney. It's not nearly as aggravating as that one, but it's almost worse: It's boring. So incredibly boring. The mystery is split up into 4 different mini-mysteries, but this just causes each of them to be so simplistic as to be dull. And spoiler warning here, but it really doesn't matter since you will NOT care about this case the murderer, or should that be murdererS, is/are an unnamed character. Not a character you don't know, but a character that never gets given a name. Same with all the victims, and even the 'defendant'. Even if you want to care about what happens, which I do, it's impossible. I care less about these characters then I do about someone halfway across the world sneezing. If this case didn't exist, nothing about the game would change. Hell, it would probably be better.

Chapter 3 starts a weird trend this game has. Before we enter the mystery labyrinth/trial part, I'd have some idea of where the case is going to go, and I'd think to myself "Oh, it would be really cool if the game did X!" And then the game goes out of the way to say "Nope, it's not X," despite X being an infinitely more entertaining way for the case to go. In this chapter, that was suicide. I had hoped that the victim in this case was actually also the culprit, taking a 50/50 chance at killing her hated rival, or succumbing herself. That would have been really cool, but the game goes out of its way to tell me it's not that, as if realising that there was a chance for something more interesting, but taking it away. Instead, it's just the generic and predictable path. It's not bad, but it's very mid.

Chapter 4 is decent enough. I have nothing bad to say about it, except that, once again, the game realises that there's a more interesting way for the case to go, and refuses to take it.

Chapter 5 is where the game starts actually justifying its existence past the first chapter, and yet, it's really not all that great. It's fine, but compared to the Danganronpa Chapter 5s? It doesn't hold a candle. Maybe it's better than Danganronpa 1's Chapter 5, but considering how this came AFTER the excellent Danganronpa 2 & V3's chapter 5s, this really has no excuse to be as 'okay' as it is. I am happy that we finally get a case where the murderer is someone who's willing to die for their murder.

Chapter 6 is then completely ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ insane. Sure, Danganronpa's Chapter 6s usually are like that, but this goes beyond that. The Danganronpa games have some kind of foreshadowing for their insanity, but not RAINCODE Plus. Technically, it's there, but I don't think I could have ever expected the exact way that RAINCODE Plus was going to implement that insanity. I'd say it's good, even if the investigation is a little too obvious on the details - they had to cram way too much explanation into it, since the foreshadowing is lacking. It also has one really cool part where it actually uses the player's previous understanding of Danganronpa against them, and that was by far the best part of the game.

What else do I have to say? The minigames weren't awful. No Hangman's gambit ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ in here.

Get it if it's on sale for like €20 or less. It's not worth more.

Super pretty, great world, legitimately one of the best settings in a game.
Why do all of these characters have nothing. Why do they never get to interact with one another outside idling in boxes together with like 2 exceptions.
Why must the mystery labyrinths legitimately serve such little purpose to the story if that is where all the gameplay is stored???