Thriller Mysteries With Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Creator Kazutaka Kodaka – Anime Expo 2023

Creator game Kazutaka Kodaka Known for his own brand of “weird”, of the conniving murder dummy anime“>Danganronpa to wild criminals anime“>Akudama Drive. His most recent nickname is Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODEa mystery game set within a city of constant rain, corporate maneuvering, and murder. rain code It topped the video game sales charts in Japan during its first release, outselling it Final Fantasy XVI. Building on its success, we asked Kodaka about Shinigami’s writing, how he names his characters, and if he plans to create more games in the series.

anime News Network: many puzzles in rain code more than accused. Is it difficult to plan a mystery when more than one person is responsible for the crime?

Kazutaka Kodaka: When first creating the puzzles, I first like to briefly decide on the time span of an issue and things like that. And from there, when I find that there is not enough time for just one criminal, I increase the number of offenders and highlight them with some twists. This is how I make my cases. I really don’t think it’s all that different from my usual way of doing it. perpetrators. In that sense, it wasn’t too difficult. I did the same for anime“>Danganronpa.

Do you have a favorite locked room from fantasy? And if so, which one?

Kodaka: In Japan there are many mystery books and media that contain strange murder cases, such as what happens in it anime“>Danganronpa And rain codeSo, the case will be solved. I really love reading those – especially Sherlock Holmes and… anime“>Detective Conan. I love anime“>Detective Conan.

What is your style of writing Shinigami? She is very attractive physically, but her personality is somewhat controversial.

Kodaka: Many users might get upset that she sometimes teases and plays with Yuma, but I made sure to balance that out with her cute looks, facial expressions, and voice. I tried to portray her as not too sweet and not too cool.

What three elements does a story need to be “kodaka”? What do you consider your signature?

Kodaka: Firstly, the story contains a lot of details and elements. And the second thing is that she has two strong partners, the character designer Roy Komatsuzaki and composer Masafumi Takada. The third is that the story has many attractive characters.

Speaking of characters, a lot of rain code The characters have very interesting names. The main character is Yuma Kokohead, and there is Yomi Hellsmile. But there is also Makoto Kagutsuchi, who has a unique design but has an ordinary-sounding name. I was just curious how the character names would develop.

Kodaka: When I created Kanai Ward, I first thought of creating their own language. But if we did, it could get very fanciful. So instead, I added many different languages, such as Russian, Hindi, Japanese, English, or some multinational element, by showing signs around the city. After that, it naturally made me feel like giving them names with multinational impressions. I set the names to make the characters match the names. At the same time, instead of typical names, I chose some quite unusual names, like Hellsmile and Nightmare, which you may have heard before but may not be anyone’s given names. I choose names that are unique but easy to remember.

You noticed the Russian, I think.

Kodaka: There is Russian, Hindi … There are many languages. Of course, when I create the names, some of them are unique, but others are rather familiar, like the Japanese name “Makoto”. So I balanced it out with non-existent names.

Is there any meaning behind Makoto’s nickname that English players may not be familiar with?

Kodaka: The names Kagutsuchi and Amaterasu Corporation are names of deities from Japanese mythology. I researched it and found out that Kagutsuchi is the “God of Fire”. Kagutsuchi and Amaterasu are names that the average Japanese does not have. The way you might feel weird about names like Hellsmile and Nightmare, I think Japanese gamers might also feel uncomfortable hearing names like Amaterasu and Kagutsuchi.

There are side quests in rain code Players can access it at certain points. One I was very interested in seemed to involve some kind of spooky cult. So what’s wrong with these guys?

Kodaka: A different writer wrote this story. I only edited the text, so I didn’t expect to include this kind of story, but since it was a lot of work to fix, I left it as it is, but it’s also a mystery to me. He laughs.

It was very scary, very scary.

Kodaka: I thought the story really suited Kanae Ward. Love her. It’s mysterious. for Gumshoe Gab and How to be a Master Investigator: The Yakou Furio Case digital novel Q Games too” Yuichiro Koizumi He wrote the script for these two.

The neon color palette returns, like blood pink rain code. What do you like about this color palette?

Kodaka: Our games are not 3D games of realism titles, so it is necessary to have uniqueness in order to stand out. I tend to choose bright neon colors for this reason. The neon colors blurred by the rain set it apart rain code Game. I like it too. When I created Kanai Ward, I created hundreds of image boards.

when it comes to laying rain code, it is closely related to the political situation in Kanai Ward. Were there any real-life events or histories that influenced the creation of the place?

Kodaka: when playing rain codeI didn’t want players to feel like they were referring to something from the real world. So instead of the government being a dictatorship, we were deliberately set in a fictional story where one corporation was taking over the city.

is similar to anime“>DanganronpaDo you want to create more games within a world rain code?

Kodaka: Because we went through a lot of trial and error, like creating mystery mazes, it took six years rain codeAnd I’ve worked hard on that. Now I am confident that I know what is good and effective within the game itself. So I hope by using these experiences, I can develop a continuity rain code. It won’t take six years this time. He laughs.

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Disclosure: Kadokawa World Entertainment (KWE), a wholly owned subsidiary of Kadokawa Corporation, is the majority owner of anime News Network, LLC. One or more of the companies mentioned in this article are part of the Kadokawa Group of Companies.