Rain Code fans are celebrating what they think is basically a new Danganronpa game

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code screenshot
(Image credit: Spike Chunsoft)

Danganronpa studio Spike Chunsoft showed off its upcoming adventure game Master Detective Archives: Rain Code yesterday, but fans are struggling to see it as its own IP. 

As revealed during yesterday's Nintendo Direct, Rain Code will come to Nintendo Switch in Spring 2023. The game sees players take on the role of Yuma, a trainee master detective who must attempt to solve cases in a brightly lit city, accompanied by a spirit known as Shinigami. In Ace Attorney style, players must investigate their surroundings and look for clues to solve the case. 

Just like you'd expect from a game by the Danganronpa developer, though, things aren't as simple as they appear as Yuma  - with the help of Shinigami - will be transported to a new realm called the Mystery Labyrinth. This is where things get a little weird. Although this sounds nothing like Danganronpa - which instead sees high school students being forced to fight to the death by an evil teddy bear - many fans can't help but compare the two. 

Shortly after Rain Code's reveal yesterday, socials were flooded with the term "new Danganronpa", with some fans not appearing to notice that this isn't actually a game in the Danganronpa series and just a game made by the same developer. "Does this count as a new game?" One tweet reads, "I guess so. It's got the same music and everything. It's definitely a spiritual successor. Danganronpa is over," another fan replied

One Twitter user even went as far as saying: "Creators of Danganronpa really be like 'here's a new unique game' and it's literally Danganronpa" which is a fair observation, honestly. As an outsider, it would be very difficult to see Rain Code as anything other than a Danganronpa spin-off title. The main comparison seems to come down to the game's music, which, according to many fans, sounds very similar to the previous game's soundtrack. 

Of course, if you're a fan of the long-running Spike Chunsoft series, another game like Danganronpa can only be a good thing! And the even better news is that we don't have to wait very long to play it.

Find out what else you should keep an eye out for with our upcoming Switch games list.

Hope Bellingham
News Writer

After studying Film Studies and Creative Writing at university, I was lucky enough to land a job as an intern at Player Two PR where I helped to release a number of indie titles. I then got even luckier when I became a Trainee News Writer at GamesRadar+ before being promoted to a fully-fledged News Writer after a year and a half of training.  My expertise lies in Animal Crossing: New Horizons, cozy indies, and The Last of Us, but especially in the Kingdom Hearts series. I'm also known to write about the odd Korean drama for the Entertainment team every now and then.