Search
1000 results for “tooky”
-
A director calls a number of artists to a meeting. No one knows anything about the next project they’ll be working on. After coffee is served and everyone has gotten their share of cake, a commission is laid out along these lines — create a cyberpunk setting in the form of a city isolated from the outside world; a bit less cyber and a bit more punk. Insert stylish anime characters in it, sporting urban and comfortable clothing, wearing artsy makeup and piercings. With everything else, please go absolutely wild. No limits to the imagination, especially inside a dimension called the Mystery Labyrinth. If you want to defy space, time and gravity, you can. If you want to insert random elements in space disconnected from each other, you can. If you want to play with colors, textures, structures and use those assets you didn’t know what to do with, you also can. This game will be your canvas and we will be here to bring those ideas into fruition. In the city, where the story takes place, neon lights must be everywhere, except in shady areas. The color palette must be pink, pink, yellow, pink, purple, blue and pink. In this city it will rain constantly, which is a great opportunity to make the colors blend into the shimmering water covering the ground.
Kunai Ward, the neon cityInside the Mystery LabyrinthThis is pretty much how I imagined a meeting taking place inside the developer’s headquarters. Since I live in a city where it rains at least once every day of the year, I’d give anything for those neon lights. The urban reality of Rain Code is very similar to my own, except we don’t have a shady mega-corporation responsible for the infrastructure, power supply and secret experiments… or do we? This requires a thorough investigation from the World Detective Organization! I will get in touch and will let you know about any further developments! I’ll try to steer clear from Halara Nightmare to avoid more debt. Even though she’s one of the best detectives, very efficient and insightful, her work is extremely expensive to contract.
Ok, let’s not digress any further. Master Detective Archives: Rain Code is a new series (or I hope it will be) developed by Spike Chunsoft and Too Kyo Games. The CEO of Too Kyo Games is Kazutaka Kodaka, the creator of the Danganronpa series, and the designer of Rain Code. Masafumi Takada, also having worked in the Danganronpa series, composed the beautiful soundtrack of Rain Code in his unique atmospheric jazzy style. The game was released last year (2023) and only for Nintendo Switch. Why the game is an exclusive, considering that many Spike Chunsoft games are also available on PC, beats my understanding. It is, however, a jewel on the Switch that risks being forgotten among the thousands of extraordinary games on the platform. In all its uniqueness, I think Rain Code is a niche game, and even on PC it would remain so. I don’t know why that is, or even why such a beautiful piece of art can be so fleeting. There’s not much people in the community talking about Rain Code, at least in the West (you know, that big country that The West is) but I believe it has a strong fanbase, spanning from East to West, with strength in dedication, although not in numbers.
Rain Code tells the story of Yuma Kokohead, a young man who wakes up in the lost-and-found section of a train station. Wouldn’t you know, he doesn’t remember who he is! Where did I hear this before? Ah, Utawarerumono and pretty much every other Japanese visual novel I could think of. As any other amnesia story, everything just goes a bit crazy from here, maybe a bit crazier than we’re used to. The thing is that Yuma has, within himself, something or someone who perfectly remembers who he is. A shinigami, or as we say in The West, a god of death! A goddess, to be more exact, and a beautiful one at it, who takes the form of a cute little ghost when she travels the real world with Yuma. Of course, this realization was very confusing to him. It seems like sometime in the past, he made a contract with this shinigami a la Death Note, and now he’s stuck with it, not entirely aware, if at all, of its consequences. Within his belongings, he also finds a letter with a contract to investigate something undisclosed at Kanai Ward, a city detached from the outside world and run by the Amaterasu Corporation, an all-powerful company with its fair share of secrets. He’s supposed to take the train and meet with the other Master Detectives, hoping that someone would remember who he is. That he did, but things didn’t go as expected.
Shinigami with YumaYuma and Shinigami dancingFrom the time Yuma enters the train, we initiate our first investigation. At the end of the trip to Kanai Ward, Yuma is pretty much in panic. He doesn’t find the most welcoming party when he arrives either. He’s actually going to get arrested for a string of grisly murders that happened on the train. He is surrounded by the Peacekeepers, a special force dedicated to keeping peace, enforcing law and administering punishment (usually the latter). The good part is that we had time to gather a lot of evidence during the trip, and in the nick of time the shinigami halted time and opened a portal. Yuma was most likely kicked or punched into it by the shinigami and ended up in a place called the Mystery Labyrinth. The purpose of the labyrinth is, with the help of Shinigami, finding the truth about a murder case by solving a variety of puzzles and battles. Our weapon, the Solution Blade, suggestively taken out from inside Shinigami’s throat, holds the Solution Keys used to solve puzzles, answer questions, and battle with bosses.
Inside a Mystery Labyrinth. I love the random elements floating there!Don’t expect the Labyrinth to be like the castles in Persona 5 convoluted with rooms, backtracking and hidden paths. The Mystery Labyrinth is very linear, despite being an alternate area called labyrinth, no backtracking and no exploration is necessary. The path is straightforward and in order to unlock a room you need to solve the mystery within it, which is always related to the case itself. It can be Crime Scene Recreations, Reasoning Death Matches (RDMs), Shinigami Puzzles, questions that pop up during chase/platforming sequences, and God Shinigami QTE/questions. There’s some variation to this depending on which chapter we’re in. It is, actually, my favorite part of the game, where I can test my deduction skills with the information I’ve learned during the investigation in the real world. No, my skills don’t work that well (heh), but even the failure is funny and it doesn’t bring any punishment apart from stamina loss. I never experienced what happens when we run out of stamina for constantly failing at challenges but I presume we have to restart the Labyrinth from the beginning.
Navigating inside a Mystery LabyrinthThere’s always a challenge at the endThe RDMs are interesting because it’s where we fight the phantom of a person from the real world. They try to trick us and deviate us away from the truth. We use Solution Keys to refute statements thrown at us, like attacks. We can get damage if we fail the exact match between a statement and a refute, but the shinigami helps us get there by giving hints. So be careful and read her dialogues when you refute a statement with the wrong Solution Key. These statements are sentences and comments literally thrown at you. You have to dodge the white ones, refute the red ones and repel the blue ones. I experienced a bit of jank while moving my character and not only in battle. Since this is not a game with real combat I can’t see any negatives apart from it being a bit annoying. Our character can either run outdoors or walk indoors but we can’t control how fast the running goes. So crossing the districts to find Gumshoe Gabs (memory shards to unlock dialogues with the other detectives) will require a bit of time and legwork. Fortunately, fast travel is available between areas, and each area, apart from the Kamazaki District, is not very big.
A Mystery Phantom is a reflection of a person from the real worldSo, after beating the Mystery Labyrinth, we finally enter Kanai Ward, the neon city as I described above. It’s so pretty, with all the reflections of neon lights against the rain water. Yuma meets his boss, Yakou Furio, the one who kept trying to recruit new Master Detectives but kept getting notices of their deaths. It seems like no one wants them there, but why? Yakou needs help finding the Kanai Ward’s ultimate secret. It can’t be more vague than this! Another group of Master Detectives also arrived at the destination apparently unscathed. I wonder how Fubuki pulled that out… They’re the best of the best, and each one will be Yuma’s companions for the next four chapters, being the fifth the final one. There’s one criminal investigation per chapter without counting the five DLC episodes which focus on investigations from the perspective of the other Master Detectives.
A rainbow Shinigami!So, if Rain Code doesn’t have traditional combat, and it isn’t a visual novel, what kind of game is it? I’d say it’s part visual novel, because there are many sequences that resemble one, albeit with more action and a faster pace. It has a leveling system, skill trees and side quests but it isn’t exactly an rpg. It’s a detective sim, with the deduction puzzles and the Labyrinth sections. It’s overall a big mystery adventure that shouldn’t be overlooked by any fan of Japanese games. Shinigami sent me a memo later today. It reads like this: I’ll curse you if you don’t play this mysteriful game and find the ultimate truth through perfect deduction.
https://swordofseiros.wordpress.com/2024/01/31/master-detective-archives-rain-code/
#adventureGames #Danganronpa #detectiveSim #gaming #investigation #japanese #JRPG #jrpgs #mystery #nintendoSwitch #rainCode #shinigami #spikeChunsoft #storyRich #TooKyoGames #videoGames #videogames #visualNovels
-
A director calls a number of artists to a meeting. No one knows anything about the next project they’ll be working on. After coffee is served and everyone has gotten their share of cake, a commission is laid out along these lines — create a cyberpunk setting in the form of a city isolated from the outside world; a bit less cyber and a bit more punk. Insert stylish anime characters in it, sporting urban and comfortable clothing, wearing artsy makeup and piercings. With everything else, please go absolutely wild. No limits to the imagination, especially inside a dimension called the Mystery Labyrinth. If you want to defy space, time and gravity, you can. If you want to insert random elements in space disconnected from each other, you can. If you want to play with colors, textures, structures and use those assets you didn’t know what to do with, you also can. This game will be your canvas and we will be here to bring those ideas into fruition. In the city, where the story takes place, neon lights must be everywhere, except in shady areas. The color palette must be pink, pink, yellow, pink, purple, blue and pink. In this city it will rain constantly, which is a great opportunity to make the colors blend into the shimmering water covering the ground.
Kunai Ward, the neon cityInside the Mystery LabyrinthThis is pretty much how I imagined a meeting taking place inside the developer’s headquarters. Since I live in a city where it rains at least once every day of the year, I’d give anything for those neon lights. The urban reality of Rain Code is very similar to my own, except we don’t have a shady mega-corporation responsible for the infrastructure, power supply and secret experiments… or do we? This requires a thorough investigation from the World Detective Organization! I will get in touch and will let you know about any further developments! I’ll try to steer clear from Halara Nightmare to avoid more debt. Even though she’s one of the best detectives, very efficient and insightful, her work is extremely expensive to contract.
Ok, let’s not digress any further. Master Detective Archives: Rain Code is a new series (or I hope it will be) developed by Spike Chunsoft and Too Kyo Games. The CEO of Too Kyo Games is Kazutaka Kodaka, the creator of the Danganronpa series, and the designer of Rain Code. Masafumi Takada, also having worked in the Danganronpa series, composed the beautiful soundtrack of Rain Code in his unique atmospheric jazzy style. The game was released last year (2023) and only for Nintendo Switch. Why the game is an exclusive, considering that many Spike Chunsoft games are also available on PC, beats my understanding. It is, however, a jewel on the Switch that risks being forgotten among the thousands of extraordinary games on the platform. In all its uniqueness, I think Rain Code is a niche game, and even on PC it would remain so. I don’t know why that is, or even why such a beautiful piece of art can be so fleeting. There’s not much people in the community talking about Rain Code, at least in the West (you know, that big country that The West is) but I believe it has a strong fanbase, spanning from East to West, with strength in dedication, although not in numbers.
Rain Code tells the story of Yuma Kokohead, a young man who wakes up in the lost-and-found section of a train station. Wouldn’t you know, he doesn’t remember who he is! Where did I hear this before? Ah, Utawarerumono and pretty much every other Japanese visual novel I could think of. As any other amnesia story, everything just goes a bit crazy from here, maybe a bit crazier than we’re used to. The thing is that Yuma has, within himself, something or someone who perfectly remembers who he is. A shinigami, or as we say in The West, a god of death! A goddess, to be more exact, and a beautiful one at it, who takes the form of a cute little ghost when she travels the real world with Yuma. Of course, this realization was very confusing to him. It seems like sometime in the past, he made a contract with this shinigami a la Death Note, and now he’s stuck with it, not entirely aware, if at all, of its consequences. Within his belongings, he also finds a letter with a contract to investigate something undisclosed at Kanai Ward, a city detached from the outside world and run by the Amaterasu Corporation, an all-powerful company with its fair share of secrets. He’s supposed to take the train and meet with the other Master Detectives, hoping that someone would remember who he is. That he did, but things didn’t go as expected.
Shinigami with YumaYuma and Shinigami dancingFrom the time Yuma enters the train, we initiate our first investigation. At the end of the trip to Kanai Ward, Yuma is pretty much in panic. He doesn’t find the most welcoming party when he arrives either. He’s actually going to get arrested for a string of grisly murders that happened on the train. He is surrounded by the Peacekeepers, a special force dedicated to keeping peace, enforcing law and administering punishment (usually the latter). The good part is that we had time to gather a lot of evidence during the trip, and in the nick of time the shinigami halted time and opened a portal. Yuma was most likely kicked or punched into it by the shinigami and ended up in a place called the Mystery Labyrinth. The purpose of the labyrinth is, with the help of Shinigami, finding the truth about a murder case by solving a variety of puzzles and battles. Our weapon, the Solution Blade, suggestively taken out from inside Shinigami’s throat, holds the Solution Keys used to solve puzzles, answer questions, and battle with bosses.
Inside a Mystery Labyrinth. I love the random elements floating there!Don’t expect the Labyrinth to be like the castles in Persona 5 convoluted with rooms, backtracking and hidden paths. The Mystery Labyrinth is very linear, despite being an alternate area called labyrinth, no backtracking and no exploration is necessary. The path is straightforward and in order to unlock a room you need to solve the mystery within it, which is always related to the case itself. It can be Crime Scene Recreations, Reasoning Death Matches (RDMs), Shinigami Puzzles, questions that pop up during chase/platforming sequences, and God Shinigami QTE/questions. There’s some variation to this depending on which chapter we’re in. It is, actually, my favorite part of the game, where I can test my deduction skills with the information I’ve learned during the investigation in the real world. No, my skills don’t work that well (heh), but even the failure is funny and it doesn’t bring any punishment apart from stamina loss. I never experienced what happens when we run out of stamina for constantly failing at challenges but I presume we have to restart the Labyrinth from the beginning.
Navigating inside a Mystery LabyrinthThere’s always a challenge at the endThe RDMs are interesting because it’s where we fight the phantom of a person from the real world. They try to trick us and deviate us away from the truth. We use Solution Keys to refute statements thrown at us, like attacks. We can get damage if we fail the exact match between a statement and a refute, but the shinigami helps us get there by giving hints. So be careful and read her dialogues when you refute a statement with the wrong Solution Key. These statements are sentences and comments literally thrown at you. You have to dodge the white ones, refute the red ones and repel the blue ones. I experienced a bit of jank while moving my character and not only in battle. Since this is not a game with real combat I can’t see any negatives apart from it being a bit annoying. Our character can either run outdoors or walk indoors but we can’t control how fast the running goes. So crossing the districts to find Gumshoe Gabs (memory shards to unlock dialogues with the other detectives) will require a bit of time and legwork. Fortunately, fast travel is available between areas, and each area, apart from the Kamazaki District, is not very big.
A Mystery Phantom is a reflection of a person from the real worldSo, after beating the Mystery Labyrinth, we finally enter Kanai Ward, the neon city as I described above. It’s so pretty, with all the reflections of neon lights against the rain water. Yuma meets his boss, Yakou Furio, the one who kept trying to recruit new Master Detectives but kept getting notices of their deaths. It seems like no one wants them there, but why? Yakou needs help finding the Kanai Ward’s ultimate secret. It can’t be more vague than this! Another group of Master Detectives also arrived at the destination apparently unscathed. I wonder how Fubuki pulled that out… They’re the best of the best, and each one will be Yuma’s companions for the next four chapters, being the fifth the final one. There’s one criminal investigation per chapter without counting the five DLC episodes which focus on investigations from the perspective of the other Master Detectives.
A rainbow Shinigami!So, if Rain Code doesn’t have traditional combat, and it isn’t a visual novel, what kind of game is it? I’d say it’s part visual novel, because there are many sequences that resemble one, albeit with more action and a faster pace. It has a leveling system, skill trees and side quests but it isn’t exactly an rpg. It’s a detective sim, with the deduction puzzles and the Labyrinth sections. It’s overall a big mystery adventure that shouldn’t be overlooked by any fan of Japanese games. Shinigami sent me a memo later today. It reads like this: I’ll curse you if you don’t play this mysteriful game and find the ultimate truth through perfect deduction.
https://swordofseiros.wordpress.com/2024/01/31/master-detective-archives-rain-code/
#adventureGames #Danganronpa #detectiveSim #gaming #investigation #japanese #JRPG #jrpgs #mystery #nintendoSwitch #rainCode #shinigami #spikeChunsoft #storyRich #TooKyoGames #videoGames #videogames #visualNovels
-
A director calls a number of artists to a meeting. No one knows anything about the next project they’ll be working on. After coffee is served and everyone has gotten their share of cake, a commission is laid out along these lines — create a cyberpunk setting in the form of a city isolated from the outside world; a bit less cyber and a bit more punk. Insert stylish anime characters in it, sporting urban and comfortable clothing, wearing artsy makeup and piercings. With everything else, please go absolutely wild. No limits to the imagination, especially inside a dimension called the Mystery Labyrinth. If you want to defy space, time and gravity, you can. If you want to insert random elements in space disconnected from each other, you can. If you want to play with colors, textures, structures and use those assets you didn’t know what to do with, you also can. This game will be your canvas and we will be here to bring those ideas into fruition. In the city, where the story takes place, neon lights must be everywhere, except in shady areas. The color palette must be pink, pink, yellow, pink, purple, blue and pink. In this city it will rain constantly, which is a great opportunity to make the colors blend into the shimmering water covering the ground.
Kunai Ward, the neon cityInside the Mystery LabyrinthThis is pretty much how I imagined a meeting taking place inside the developer’s headquarters. Since I live in a city where it rains at least once every day of the year, I’d give anything for those neon lights. The urban reality of Rain Code is very similar to my own, except we don’t have a shady mega-corporation responsible for the infrastructure, power supply and secret experiments… or do we? This requires a thorough investigation from the World Detective Organization! I will get in touch and will let you know about any further developments! I’ll try to steer clear from Halara Nightmare to avoid more debt. Even though she’s one of the best detectives, very efficient and insightful, her work is extremely expensive to contract.
Ok, let’s not digress any further. Master Detective Archives: Rain Code is a new series (or I hope it will be) developed by Spike Chunsoft and Too Kyo Games. The CEO of Too Kyo Games is Kazutaka Kodaka, the creator of the Danganronpa series, and the designer of Rain Code. Masafumi Takada, also having worked in the Danganronpa series, composed the beautiful soundtrack of Rain Code in his unique atmospheric jazzy style. The game was released last year (2023) and only for Nintendo Switch. Why the game is an exclusive, considering that many Spike Chunsoft games are also available on PC, beats my understanding. It is, however, a jewel on the Switch that risks being forgotten among the thousands of extraordinary games on the platform. In all its uniqueness, I think Rain Code is a niche game, and even on PC it would remain so. I don’t know why that is, or even why such a beautiful piece of art can be so fleeting. There’s not much people in the community talking about Rain Code, at least in the West (you know, that big country that The West is) but I believe it has a strong fanbase, spanning from East to West, with strength in dedication, although not in numbers.
Rain Code tells the story of Yuma Kokohead, a young man who wakes up in the lost-and-found section of a train station. Wouldn’t you know, he doesn’t remember who he is! Where did I hear this before? Ah, Utawarerumono and pretty much every other Japanese visual novel I could think of. As any other amnesia story, everything just goes a bit crazy from here, maybe a bit crazier than we’re used to. The thing is that Yuma has, within himself, something or someone who perfectly remembers who he is. A shinigami, or as we say in The West, a god of death! A goddess, to be more exact, and a beautiful one at it, who takes the form of a cute little ghost when she travels the real world with Yuma. Of course, this realization was very confusing to him. It seems like sometime in the past, he made a contract with this shinigami a la Death Note, and now he’s stuck with it, not entirely aware, if at all, of its consequences. Within his belongings, he also finds a letter with a contract to investigate something undisclosed at Kanai Ward, a city detached from the outside world and run by the Amaterasu Corporation, an all-powerful company with its fair share of secrets. He’s supposed to take the train and meet with the other Master Detectives, hoping that someone would remember who he is. That he did, but things didn’t go as expected.
Shinigami with YumaYuma and Shinigami dancingFrom the time Yuma enters the train, we initiate our first investigation. At the end of the trip to Kanai Ward, Yuma is pretty much in panic. He doesn’t find the most welcoming party when he arrives either. He’s actually going to get arrested for a string of grisly murders that happened on the train. He is surrounded by the Peacekeepers, a special force dedicated to keeping peace, enforcing law and administering punishment (usually the latter). The good part is that we had time to gather a lot of evidence during the trip, and in the nick of time the shinigami halted time and opened a portal. Yuma was most likely kicked or punched into it by the shinigami and ended up in a place called the Mystery Labyrinth. The purpose of the labyrinth is, with the help of Shinigami, finding the truth about a murder case by solving a variety of puzzles and battles. Our weapon, the Solution Blade, suggestively taken out from inside Shinigami’s throat, holds the Solution Keys used to solve puzzles, answer questions, and battle with bosses.
Inside a Mystery Labyrinth. I love the random elements floating there!Don’t expect the Labyrinth to be like the castles in Persona 5 convoluted with rooms, backtracking and hidden paths. The Mystery Labyrinth is very linear, despite being an alternate area called labyrinth, no backtracking and no exploration is necessary. The path is straightforward and in order to unlock a room you need to solve the mystery within it, which is always related to the case itself. It can be Crime Scene Recreations, Reasoning Death Matches (RDMs), Shinigami Puzzles, questions that pop up during chase/platforming sequences, and God Shinigami QTE/questions. There’s some variation to this depending on which chapter we’re in. It is, actually, my favorite part of the game, where I can test my deduction skills with the information I’ve learned during the investigation in the real world. No, my skills don’t work that well (heh), but even the failure is funny and it doesn’t bring any punishment apart from stamina loss. I never experienced what happens when we run out of stamina for constantly failing at challenges but I presume we have to restart the Labyrinth from the beginning.
Navigating inside a Mystery LabyrinthThere’s always a challenge at the endThe RDMs are interesting because it’s where we fight the phantom of a person from the real world. They try to trick us and deviate us away from the truth. We use Solution Keys to refute statements thrown at us, like attacks. We can get damage if we fail the exact match between a statement and a refute, but the shinigami helps us get there by giving hints. So be careful and read her dialogues when you refute a statement with the wrong Solution Key. These statements are sentences and comments literally thrown at you. You have to dodge the white ones, refute the red ones and repel the blue ones. I experienced a bit of jank while moving my character and not only in battle. Since this is not a game with real combat I can’t see any negatives apart from it being a bit annoying. Our character can either run outdoors or walk indoors but we can’t control how fast the running goes. So crossing the districts to find Gumshoe Gabs (memory shards to unlock dialogues with the other detectives) will require a bit of time and legwork. Fortunately, fast travel is available between areas, and each area, apart from the Kamazaki District, is not very big.
A Mystery Phantom is a reflection of a person from the real worldSo, after beating the Mystery Labyrinth, we finally enter Kanai Ward, the neon city as I described above. It’s so pretty, with all the reflections of neon lights against the rain water. Yuma meets his boss, Yakou Furio, the one who kept trying to recruit new Master Detectives but kept getting notices of their deaths. It seems like no one wants them there, but why? Yakou needs help finding the Kanai Ward’s ultimate secret. It can’t be more vague than this! Another group of Master Detectives also arrived at the destination apparently unscathed. I wonder how Fubuki pulled that out… They’re the best of the best, and each one will be Yuma’s companions for the next four chapters, being the fifth the final one. There’s one criminal investigation per chapter without counting the five DLC episodes which focus on investigations from the perspective of the other Master Detectives.
A rainbow Shinigami!So, if Rain Code doesn’t have traditional combat, and it isn’t a visual novel, what kind of game is it? I’d say it’s part visual novel, because there are many sequences that resemble one, albeit with more action and a faster pace. It has a leveling system, skill trees and side quests but it isn’t exactly an rpg. It’s a detective sim, with the deduction puzzles and the Labyrinth sections. It’s overall a big mystery adventure that shouldn’t be overlooked by any fan of Japanese games. Shinigami sent me a memo later today. It reads like this: I’ll curse you if you don’t play this mysteriful game and find the ultimate truth through perfect deduction.
https://swordofseiros.wordpress.com/2024/01/31/master-detective-archives-rain-code/
#adventureGames #Danganronpa #detectiveSim #gaming #investigation #japanese #JRPG #jrpgs #mystery #nintendoSwitch #rainCode #shinigami #spikeChunsoft #storyRich #TooKyoGames #videoGames #videogames #visualNovels
-
A director calls a number of artists to a meeting. No one knows anything about the next project they’ll be working on. After coffee is served and everyone has gotten their share of cake, a commission is laid out along these lines — create a cyberpunk setting in the form of a city isolated from the outside world; a bit less cyber and a bit more punk. Insert stylish anime characters in it, sporting urban and comfortable clothing, wearing artsy makeup and piercings. With everything else, please go absolutely wild. No limits to the imagination, especially inside a dimension called the Mystery Labyrinth. If you want to defy space, time and gravity, you can. If you want to insert random elements in space disconnected from each other, you can. If you want to play with colors, textures, structures and use those assets you didn’t know what to do with, you also can. This game will be your canvas and we will be here to bring those ideas into fruition. In the city, where the story takes place, neon lights must be everywhere, except in shady areas. The color palette must be pink, pink, yellow, pink, purple, blue and pink. In this city it will rain constantly, which is a great opportunity to make the colors blend into the shimmering water covering the ground.
Kunai Ward, the neon cityInside the Mystery LabyrinthThis is pretty much how I imagined a meeting taking place inside the developer’s headquarters. Since I live in a city where it rains at least once every day of the year, I’d give anything for those neon lights. The urban reality of Rain Code is very similar to my own, except we don’t have a shady mega-corporation responsible for the infrastructure, power supply and secret experiments… or do we? This requires a thorough investigation from the World Detective Organization! I will get in touch and will let you know about any further developments! I’ll try to steer clear from Halara Nightmare to avoid more debt. Even though she’s one of the best detectives, very efficient and insightful, her work is extremely expensive to contract.
Ok, let’s not digress any further. Master Detective Archives: Rain Code is a new series (or I hope it will be) developed by Spike Chunsoft and Too Kyo Games. The CEO of Too Kyo Games is Kazutaka Kodaka, the creator of the Danganronpa series, and the designer of Rain Code. Masafumi Takada, also having worked in the Danganronpa series, composed the beautiful soundtrack of Rain Code in his unique atmospheric jazzy style. The game was released last year (2023) and only for Nintendo Switch. Why the game is an exclusive, considering that many Spike Chunsoft games are also available on PC, beats my understanding. It is, however, a jewel on the Switch that risks being forgotten among the thousands of extraordinary games on the platform. In all its uniqueness, I think Rain Code is a niche game, and even on PC it would remain so. I don’t know why that is, or even why such a beautiful piece of art can be so fleeting. There’s not much people in the community talking about Rain Code, at least in the West (you know, that big country that The West is) but I believe it has a strong fanbase, spanning from East to West, with strength in dedication, although not in numbers.
Rain Code tells the story of Yuma Kokohead, a young man who wakes up in the lost-and-found section of a train station. Wouldn’t you know, he doesn’t remember who he is! Where did I hear this before? Ah, Utawarerumono and pretty much every other Japanese visual novel I could think of. As any other amnesia story, everything just goes a bit crazy from here, maybe a bit crazier than we’re used to. The thing is that Yuma has, within himself, something or someone who perfectly remembers who he is. A shinigami, or as we say in The West, a god of death! A goddess, to be more exact, and a beautiful one at it, who takes the form of a cute little ghost when she travels the real world with Yuma. Of course, this realization was very confusing to him. It seems like sometime in the past, he made a contract with this shinigami a la Death Note, and now he’s stuck with it, not entirely aware, if at all, of its consequences. Within his belongings, he also finds a letter with a contract to investigate something undisclosed at Kanai Ward, a city detached from the outside world and run by the Amaterasu Corporation, an all-powerful company with its fair share of secrets. He’s supposed to take the train and meet with the other Master Detectives, hoping that someone would remember who he is. That he did, but things didn’t go as expected.
Shinigami with YumaYuma and Shinigami dancingFrom the time Yuma enters the train, we initiate our first investigation. At the end of the trip to Kanai Ward, Yuma is pretty much in panic. He doesn’t find the most welcoming party when he arrives either. He’s actually going to get arrested for a string of grisly murders that happened on the train. He is surrounded by the Peacekeepers, a special force dedicated to keeping peace, enforcing law and administering punishment (usually the latter). The good part is that we had time to gather a lot of evidence during the trip, and in the nick of time the shinigami halted time and opened a portal. Yuma was most likely kicked or punched into it by the shinigami and ended up in a place called the Mystery Labyrinth. The purpose of the labyrinth is, with the help of Shinigami, finding the truth about a murder case by solving a variety of puzzles and battles. Our weapon, the Solution Blade, suggestively taken out from inside Shinigami’s throat, holds the Solution Keys used to solve puzzles, answer questions, and battle with bosses.
Inside a Mystery Labyrinth. I love the random elements floating there!Don’t expect the Labyrinth to be like the castles in Persona 5 convoluted with rooms, backtracking and hidden paths. The Mystery Labyrinth is very linear, despite being an alternate area called labyrinth, no backtracking and no exploration is necessary. The path is straightforward and in order to unlock a room you need to solve the mystery within it, which is always related to the case itself. It can be Crime Scene Recreations, Reasoning Death Matches (RDMs), Shinigami Puzzles, questions that pop up during chase/platforming sequences, and God Shinigami QTE/questions. There’s some variation to this depending on which chapter we’re in. It is, actually, my favorite part of the game, where I can test my deduction skills with the information I’ve learned during the investigation in the real world. No, my skills don’t work that well (heh), but even the failure is funny and it doesn’t bring any punishment apart from stamina loss. I never experienced what happens when we run out of stamina for constantly failing at challenges but I presume we have to restart the Labyrinth from the beginning.
Navigating inside a Mystery LabyrinthThere’s always a challenge at the endThe RDMs are interesting because it’s where we fight the phantom of a person from the real world. They try to trick us and deviate us away from the truth. We use Solution Keys to refute statements thrown at us, like attacks. We can get damage if we fail the exact match between a statement and a refute, but the shinigami helps us get there by giving hints. So be careful and read her dialogues when you refute a statement with the wrong Solution Key. These statements are sentences and comments literally thrown at you. You have to dodge the white ones, refute the red ones and repel the blue ones. I experienced a bit of jank while moving my character and not only in battle. Since this is not a game with real combat I can’t see any negatives apart from it being a bit annoying. Our character can either run outdoors or walk indoors but we can’t control how fast the running goes. So crossing the districts to find Gumshoe Gabs (memory shards to unlock dialogues with the other detectives) will require a bit of time and legwork. Fortunately, fast travel is available between areas, and each area, apart from the Kamazaki District, is not very big.
A Mystery Phantom is a reflection of a person from the real worldSo, after beating the Mystery Labyrinth, we finally enter Kanai Ward, the neon city as I described above. It’s so pretty, with all the reflections of neon lights against the rain water. Yuma meets his boss, Yakou Furio, the one who kept trying to recruit new Master Detectives but kept getting notices of their deaths. It seems like no one wants them there, but why? Yakou needs help finding the Kanai Ward’s ultimate secret. It can’t be more vague than this! Another group of Master Detectives also arrived at the destination apparently unscathed. I wonder how Fubuki pulled that out… They’re the best of the best, and each one will be Yuma’s companions for the next four chapters, being the fifth the final one. There’s one criminal investigation per chapter without counting the five DLC episodes which focus on investigations from the perspective of the other Master Detectives.
A rainbow Shinigami!So, if Rain Code doesn’t have traditional combat, and it isn’t a visual novel, what kind of game is it? I’d say it’s part visual novel, because there are many sequences that resemble one, albeit with more action and a faster pace. It has a leveling system, skill trees and side quests but it isn’t exactly an rpg. It’s a detective sim, with the deduction puzzles and the Labyrinth sections. It’s overall a big mystery adventure that shouldn’t be overlooked by any fan of Japanese games. Shinigami sent me a memo later today. It reads like this: I’ll curse you if you don’t play this mysteriful game and find the ultimate truth through perfect deduction.
https://swordofseiros.wordpress.com/2024/01/31/master-detective-archives-rain-code/
#adventureGames #Danganronpa #detectiveSim #gaming #investigation #japanese #JRPG #jrpgs #mystery #nintendoSwitch #rainCode #shinigami #spikeChunsoft #storyRich #TooKyoGames #videoGames #videogames #visualNovels
-
Revisiting Shuten Order and Its Strange Brilliance – One Month Later
https://web.brid.gy/r/https://noisypixel.net/shuten-order-review-one-month-later/
-
The Hundred Line Last Defense Academy x GiGO Collaboration Announced
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://noisypixel.net/hundred-line-last-defense-academy-gigo-collaboration/
-
The Hundred Line Last Defense Academy Update 1.2.0 Adds Korean, Color Blind Support, Skippable Enemy Animations, and More
-
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy 1st Anniversary Event Announced for April
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://noisypixel.net/hundred-line-last-defense-academy-anniversary-event/
-
The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy Now Being Marketed as Two-in-One Narrative; Soundtrack Launch Incoming
-
Danganronpa and The Hundred Line: Last Defense Academy creator blames an insult from a co-worker on getting him back into game development
-
"Is it okay for video games to be this good?" - developers tell us their favourite games of the year
-
"Is it okay for video games to be this good?" - developers tell us their favourite games of the year
-
"Is it okay for video games to be this good?" - developers tell us their favourite games of the year
-
"Is it okay for video games to be this good?" - developers tell us their favourite games of the year
-
Revisiting Shuten Order and Its Strange Brilliance – One Month Later
https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://noisypixel.net/shuten-order-review-one-month-later/
-
Revisiting Shuten Order and Its Strange Brilliance – One Month Later
https://web.brid.gy/r/https://noisypixel.net/shuten-order-review-one-month-later/
-
"Is it okay for video games to be this good?" - developers tell us their favourite games of the year
-
Tokyo Chromatics 📷️Nikon Zf 📸Carl Zeiss Distagon T* 35mm F1.4 ZF.2 #photography #fotografía #Nikon #Zf #ClassicMono #Scape
-
TOKYO FMとJI BLUEが強力タッグ！日本サッカーを全力応援！特別番組放送決定！『TOKYO FM Friday Special Cheer Up Blue 2026』
TOKYO FMでは、6月5日（金）13：00～14：30、特別番組『TOKYO FM Friday Special Cheer Up Blue 2026』を放送します。サッカー日本代表「最高の景色を2026」オフィシ [...]
#MAGMOE #JP #JAPAN #EntertainmentNews #entertainment #EntertainmentTopics #MUSIC #PRTIMES #TOKYOFMとJIBLUEが強力タッグ！日本サッカーを全力応援！特別番組放送決定！『TOKYOFMFridaySpecialCheerUpBlue2026』 #エンタメ #エンタメトピック #サービス #サイト #ニュースリリース #プレスリリース #代行 #方法 #配信 #音楽
https://www.magmoe.com/2996893/entertainment-news/2026-05-27/ -
Apollo Architects & Associates prioritises privacy for Tokyo home
An austere exterior of stacked concrete volumes conceals a double-height courtyard and plant-filled terrace at the heart of this home in Tokyo, designed b…
#Japan #JP #Tokyo #apolloarchitects&associates #concrete #concretehouses #courtyards #houses #japanesehouses #news #section:all #section:architecture #terraces #tokyonews #東京 #東京都
https://www.alojapan.com/1491349/apollo-architects-associates-prioritises-privacy-for-tokyo-home/ -
Apollo Architects & Associates prioritises privacy for Tokyo home
An austere exterior of stacked concrete volumes conceals a double-height courtyard and plant-filled terrace at the heart of this home in Tokyo, designed b…
#Japan #JP #Tokyo #apolloarchitects&associates #concrete #concretehouses #courtyards #houses #japanesehouses #news #section:all #section:architecture #terraces #tokyonews #東京 #東京都
https://www.alojapan.com/1491349/apollo-architects-associates-prioritises-privacy-for-tokyo-home/ -
Capitolo 438: Verso Tokyo
Maggio è quasi finito e in questo mese, per ora, ho visto la miseria di undici film. Poi però ho notato che negli ultimi anni, a maggio, ho sempre guardato tra gli undici e i tredici film e mi sono tranquillizzato: niente di nuovo dunque (ma sarebbe bello capire il perché di questo calo proprio a maggio!). In questo capitolo trovate cinque film di cui tre e mezzo ambientati a Tokyo, ma tutti diretti da registi stranieri, vi state chiedendo il motivo? Dovreste. Forse avete già capito la risposta, ma effettivamente tra un paio di settimane un altro straniero, molto meno importante di quelli di cui vi parlerò tra poco, volerà in Giappone per raccontare quelle stesse città attraverso le sue immagini. Ma questa è un’altra storia (di cui, se vi interessa, potete seguire gli sviluppi su instagram).
Fargo (1996): Prima di volare nel Sol Levante, andiamo un attimo tra North Dakota e Minnesota, dove si svolgono le vicende di uno dei film più amati e memorabili dei fratelli Coen, in cui il venditore d’auto William H. Macy, pieno di debiti, decide di organizzare il finto rapimento della moglie per spillare soldi al suocero. Ovviamente tutto andrà malissimo e infatti il film è un’escalation continua di errori, equivoci e violenza improvvisa, sulla quale indaga la magnifica poliziotta Frances McDormand (Oscar per lei, oltre che per la sceneggiatura), gentile, apparentemente innocua, ma più intelligente di qualunque individuo che le gravita intorno. Visivamente è incredibile come i Coen riescano a trasformare la neve in qualcosa di quasi metafisico dove gli spazi vuoti e i silenzi amplificano ancora di più il rosso del sangue acceso nel bianco assoluto. La provincia statunitense, lontana da tutto, banale, ordinaria, che improvvisamente si sporca di violenza e avidità (potrebbe essere una storia vera, come recita l’incipit, ma di vero c’è solo la stupidità umana). Un gioiello, lo trovate su Mubi (che potete vedere gratis per 30 giorni cliccando qui).
••••Kill Bill Vol. 1 (2003): Cominciamo il viaggio verso il Giappone. Quando la sera non sai cosa vedere in tv e ti capita su Netflix il volto di Uma Thurman con la katana in mano, è difficile non resistere alla tentazione di cliccare play e fare l’ennesimo rewatch di questo film stupendo di Quentin Tarantino (che ho sempre amato più del volume successivo, anche se di poco). La bionda Uma si sveglia dal coma e ricorda perfettamente come c’è finita: tradita dalla sua banda di spietati assassini e letali assassine, capeggiata da David Carradine (il Bill del titolo), che ha ucciso la sua bambina e suo marito proprio nel giorno del loro matrimonio. L’unico suo desiderio è ovviamente la vendetta, da qui un revenge movie che ha fatto epoca. Rivedendolo dopo molti anni ho visto una quantità clamorosa di cose entrate nell’immaginario collettivo, se non diventate proprio di culto: dalla sirena del telefilm Ironside, firmata da Quincy Jones, alla spada di Hattori Hanzo, dalle asics gialle con bande nere al motivo fischiettato da Daryl Hannah (Twisted Nerve di Bernard Herrmann). Uno show visivo, un’esplosione di colori e di violenza spettacolare (dove spicca la sequenza nella House of Blue Leaves e i suoi 88 folli), una sfilza di dialoghi epocali e la voglia di andare al cinema per guardare The Whole Bloody Affair, ovvero i due volumi proiettati come un solo film (con l’aggiunta di alcune scene inedite), che arriverà nei cinema proprio questa settimana. Faccio sempre una fatica sovrumana a decidere una Top 3 del cinema di Tarantino, ma trovo difficile non inserire questo film (il problema è: quale lasciare fuori?). Se volete rivederlo senza dover restare chiusi in sala per quattro ore e mezza, lo trovate su Netflix. Un piccolo extra: recentemente è stato scelto come film della vita da una delle partecipanti al progetto Film People, che vi invito sempre a seguire.
••••½Lost in Translation (2003): Restiamo nel 2003, restiamo con uno dei film più amati in Film People e, soprattutto, restiamo a Tokyo. Quando ci si prepara a partire per il Giappone, è praticamente obbligatorio riguardare questo magnifico gioiello di Sofia Coppola, intriso di tenerezza e romanticismo, senza mai sembrare banale, scontato o prevedibile. Bill Murray è in Giappone per girare uno spot televisivo, Scarlett Johansson è una ragazza vagamente depressa che ha accompagnato in trasferta l’impegnatissimo marito Giovanni Ribisi, fotografo di moda. I due alloggiano nello stesso hotel e le loro solitudini si incontrano, sostenendosi l’un l’altra, sfiorandosi e poi abbracciandosi durante una settimana in cui i loro cuori si tengono per mano. Tantissime le scene iconiche, per uno dei film più amati di questo secolo, girato in maniera rocambolesca (Bill Murray era irreperibile e si presentò a Tokyo il giorno in cui sono iniziate le riprese senza che nessuno aveva sue notizie da tempo, come racconta Gabriele Niola in questo bellissimo video) e concluso solo grazie alla tempra e alla determinazione della regista. Uno di quei film che a ogni visione ti restituisce sempre moltissimo, grazie alla chimica di una coppia di interpreti che hanno forse colto il ruolo della vita. Sempre bellissimo, lo trovate su Netflix.
••••Tokyo! (2008): Un discreto spiedino cinematografico, dove sono infilati tre racconti differenti diretti da tre registi niente male: Michel Gondry, Leos Carax e Bong Joon Ho. Ovviamente, tutti e tre i corti sono ambientati nella capitale nipponica. Gondry racconta la storia di una coppia che si trasferisce a Tokyo in cerca di un futuro diverso, ma le cose sono più complicate del previsto: trovare casa è un inferno (mai quanto cercarla a Roma nell’anno del Giubileo, posso garantire), trovare un lavoretto per fare due soldi è anche complicato e la frustrazione aumenta, fino a trasformare la storia in una favola inaspettata (e molto graziosa). Carax ci introduce invece il personaggio di Merde, che poi ritroveremo in Holy Motors: Denis Lavant è fenomenale come sempre e le riprese rubate alla città sono divertenti, soprattutto quando il protagonista, un uomo mostruoso che vive nelle fogne, gira per Tokyo spiazzando i cittadini, ignari di essere ripresi. Bong racconta invece la storia di un hikikomori, un uomo che ha scelto di vivere dentro casa che però, innamorandosi di un’altra reclusa, si fa coraggio ed esce finalmente di casa per poterla ritrovare (è l’episodio più bello). Sapete che non amo i film a episodi, quindi il mio entusiasmo è piuttosto raffreddato dal fatto di dover entrare in tre storie differenti. Al di là di questo è un esperimento interessante.
•••Tokyo-Ga (1985): Come si fa a partire per il Giappone senza aver mai visto questo bellissimo documentario di Wim Wenders, in cui l’autore tedesco visita Tokyo vent’anni dopo la morte di Ozu, per verificare cosa è rimasto di lui nel Giappone di oggi (beh, in quello del 1983, ovviamente, in cui si è recato durante le pause di lavorazione di Paris, Texas). Wenders vaga per la città, cogliendo immagini di vita quotidiana e cercando di trovare in un bambino che fa i capricci o in un gruppo di ragazzi che gioca a baseball gli stessi caratteri dei film del grande regista giapponese. Poi intervista il suo attore feticcio (Chishū Ryū) e il suo storico direttore della fotografia, trasformando quello che somiglia a un magnifico vlog di viaggio in un documentario più canonico. Ci sono momenti di pura bellezza, tra cui le riflessioni fuori campo dello stesso Wenders e gli incontri con Werner Herzog e Chris Marker ma i picchi di incredibile meraviglia sono un po’ strozzati da lunghe sequenze su salagiochi, golf club e artigiani che creano cibo di cera per le vetrine dei ristoranti, perdendo un po’ di mira l’intento che Wenders si è prefissato nell’incipit, ovvero quello di ritrovare tracce della società raccontata da Ozu. Resta un lavoro di clamorosa bellezza, nella città dove lo stesso regista tornerà dopo quarant’anni per girare uno dei film più belli di questo decennio: Perfect Days.
••••[Se l’articolo ti è piaciuto, offrimi un caffè o magari una colazione,
#Cinema #fargo #film #killBill #lostInTranslation #recensione #tokyoGa #tokyo
una piccola mancia per aiutarmi a sostenere il sito!] -
https://www.alojapan.com/1491302/we-tried-tokyo-tourist-traps-so-you-dont-have-to/ We Tried Tokyo ‘Tourist Traps’ So You Don’t Have To #Tokyo #TokyoDestinations #TokyoTour #TokyoTravel #TokyoTrip #TokyoVacation #東京 We Tried Tokyo ‘Tourist Traps’ So You Don’t Have To Klook – https://www.klook.com/?aid=513&aff_adid=947706&aff_pid=&aff_sid=&utm_medium=affiliate-alwayson&utm_source=non-network&utm_campaign=513&utm_term=&utm_content=&aff_klick_id=89526363264-513-947706-627bab2 Your Ultimate Guide to Tokyo – htt
-
🔵C大阪戦 飲食情報🔴
6/6(土) #セレッソ大阪 戦の飲食情報を掲載しました🙌🔵🔴
https://www.fctokyo.co.jp/news/details/335783/当日は #明治公園 エリアで『AO-AKA FOOTBALL PARK FES supported by JOYPOLIS at MEIJI PARK』を開催😊✨
#味の素スタジアム でしか味わえなかった定番のグルメや、#FC東京 のオリジナルグルメが明治公園エリアに集結します!!🤝✨
-
Direct Flights to Japan on United Airlines https://www.byteseu.com/2055647/ #California #Chicago #hakuba #Japan #japow #Mountains #niseko #NorthAmerica #powder #SanFrancisco #sapporo #ski #SkiIndustryNews #skiing #Snowboarding #Tokyo
-
https://www.alojapan.com/1491091/tokyo-japan-akihabara-anime-city-life-peoople-walking-travel-holiday/ #tokyo #japan #akihabara #anime #city #life #peoople #walking #travel #holiday #Tokyo #TokyoDestinations #TokyoTour #TokyoTravel #TokyoTrip #TokyoVacation #東京 #tokyo #japan #akihabara #anime #city #life #peoople #walking #travel #holiday
-
Avelacom Launches Direct Low-Latency Route Between Bangkok and Tokyo
WHY THIS MATTERS The launch of a new, direct terrestrial fiber route between Bangkok and Tokyo by Avelacom on May 25, 2026, drops round-trip delay (RTD) to a historic low of less than 65 milliseconds. In high-frequency algorithmic trading (HFT) an…
#Japan #JP #Tokyo #finance #fintech #fintechindustry #news #tokyonews #東京 #東京都
https://www.alojapan.com/1490977/avelacom-launches-direct-low-latency-route-between-bangkok-and-tokyo/
