Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code+ Coming to PS5, Xbox Series, and PC

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: ,
May 082024
 

Hey, we’ve got some mystery game news to discuss this month, which fits nicely with our theme!

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code, which came out last year for the Switch, has now been announced for the PlayStation 5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC as Master Detective Archives: Rain Code+.

According to Gematsu, the additional features are 4K resolution, a gallery, and the short episodes that were originally released as DLC.

I never ended up getting the Rain Code DLC, and this isn’t enough to compel me to buy it again. I enjoyed Rain Code, but it has some definite lows despite my overall impression being positive (largely saved by the final two cases).

What I want is a Rain Code sequel that expands on its strengths and fixes its flaws. The premise has so much potential, and I want to see more done with it!

Now, in a perplexing move, Spike Chunsoft confirmed on Steam that the game will launch with only Japanese and Chinese support, while English, French, Italian, German, and Spanish will be patched in on October 1. Since it doesn’t appear that there’s new story content and the game already has an English translation, I don’t understand why it’s not launching with English.

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code+ will be out on July 18 in Japan. I don’t think I’ll be picking it up unless they announce substantial new content after all, but what about you?

Information from the Kingdom Hearts Missing Link Beta Test is Intriguing

 Video games  2 Responses »  Tagged with: , ,
May 062024
 

The last time we talked about Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link, the upcoming new Kingdom Hearts mobile game, we still had a lot of questions.

Now details are coming out of the Missing Link closed beta test, and it sounds pretty intriguing.

As someone who is mostly interested in the story, I was eager to check out new footage from the beta now that there’s story content.

The current story introduces us to Nept, Remus, and Freya, who belong to a group called the Baroque Society. We also see two sinister figures dressed in black who seem to have manipulated guards into trying to apprehend the main character and Remus. While it’s a small amount of story, it’s enough to make me want to know more.

Everyone’s speculating about the two silver-haired figures and any potential connection to Xehanort they might have, but I’m also curious about whether there’s a reason Nept and Remus have broken away from the Norse naming conventions used by the Scala ad Caelum characters so far.

Gameplay-wise, I’m impressed that there’s a full 3D city to explore and character customization of the character model. It looks like a huge step up from the previous mobile games.

Unfortunately, it’s still a gacha. When I look at Missing Link, I can’t help but wish it was just a smaller-scale console game instead of a gacha mobile game.

Oh, and we have an answer to our question about how it can be a GPS game that also lets you play without leaving home. It seems that if you play from home, you have to spend AP to do anything. If you play in GPS Mode, however, you earn AP instead of spending it. So it sounds like you’re greatly rewarded for using the GPS features and walking around with the game.

The only recent gacha game I’ve managed to stick with for more than a few minutes is Love and Deepspace, and I don’t go out and about often enough for the GPS feature to appeal to me. On the other hand, Kingdom Hearts has an advantage over many mobile games since I’m already invested in the overall story. KHUX and Dark Road both had great stories (too good to be trapped in now-offline mobile games), and Missing Link’s few story details already have my interest.

Are you looking forward to Kingdom Hearts: Missing Link? Are you planning to play it? What do you think of the new characters introduced so far?

Celebrating All Things Mysterious: Fatal Twelve

 Celebrating All Things Mysterious, Reviews, Video games  4 Responses »  Tagged with:
May 032024
 

It’s time for our first review of Celebrating All Things Mysterious 2024, and the first game we’ll be looking at is Fatal Twelve.

Fatal Twelve is a visual novel available for Switch, PS4, and PC.

It follows a teenage girl named Rinka who is transported in her dreams to a place called the Court of Fate. There, she learns that she and eleven others died on the same day. Now the twelve of them have a chance to change their fate – by eliminating the others until only one remains.

To eliminate another participant, you must know their name, cause of death, and regret. This, along with other rules of the Court of Fate, brings them into conflict with each other.

While Fatal Twelve is described as a mystery game, and there are certainly elements of mystery in it, I’d say it’s more of a character-driven thriller. It’s often less about investigations and more about reacting to the lengths participants will go to in order to get information about another. It’s filled with plenty of tense, suspenseful moments, and by the time I was on the path to my first ending, I was thoroughly invested.

There are several endings based on your choices throughout the game, although it doesn’t branch as much as you might expect for a game with this premise. That’s probably because the main focus here is really the characters.

Fatal Twelve’s greatest strength is how it shows the stories of the characters in this twisted game of fate. While Rinka is the main character, a few other characters get viewpoint sections as well, and others develop as they interact with them. It does a great job of showing that even characters who might seem deadly and ruthless are as human as anyone.

While there are some romantic elements, especially due to one of the other girls being in love with Rinka, and that’s an important part of the story, it’s not so prevalent that I’d call this a romance game. It’s just one more aspect of the characters’ humanity.

Overall, Fatal Twelve was an enjoyable game with an intriguing premise. I’m still not sure if I should call it a mystery, but it’s unusual take on a death game premise makes it a good choice to kick off this year’s event nevertheless.

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