Per his recent tweets (xeets? xweets?), Kodaka is going to personally retain his own full ownership/control over whatever the "Limit x Despair" game turns out to be.

Kodaka previously used the Facism-Promoting Platform Formerly Known as Twitter to share his enthusiasm over how obsessively fixated he's been on writing Limit x Despair.

In the past, I've talked about Kodaka's current (to be extra clear, at the time) body of work and its lack of representation of characters outside the gender binary, or characters who fucked with it.

Kodaka's relationship with writing gnc characters has been a hot topic for a while due to the inclusion of Chihiro Fujisaki in Danganronpa 1, a character who, according to any straightforward analysis, was simply written without consideration for the sheer existence of gender non-conformity. Not only is this lack of acknowledgement of queer experiences disappointing coming from an adult - yes, even in 2010, though yes, it being 2010 plays a role in the narrative - but many players felt a connection to elements of Chihiro's experience and felt that their own queer identity/experience had been actively disrespected. Beyond that, there's the Ultimate Imposter in Danganronpa 2 (and later 3), a character whose identity "and gender" are unknown, but it's made pretty clear with every part of his representation and writing that he's really just a guy, who only ever presents himself as a guy, and the inclusion of gender in this description was just to hammer down the fact that he was a complete mystery. (Unlike Genocider Shou from Danganronpa 1, for example, for whom the police had fairly accurate theories concerning her potential profile.)

Later on, after Kodaka left Spike Chunsoft to found Too Kyo Games and started working on multiple new projects, due to having Wiki brain and being a fan from the release of Episode 1, I was in the midst of a small controversy concerning Cutthroat's gender in Akudama Drive. As Funimation's subtitles had a character who had never seen Cutthroat's real face use the neutral pronoun "them" to refer to him, some viewers assumed Cutthroat may have been non-binary. Something else that played a role was the lack of an official translation for the characters' Japanese profiles, and the fact that a few viewers decided to use Google Translate, which mistakenly prompted up the word "gender". This was a mistake due to the machine translator not understanding a line break, and this word was in fact not mentioned in his profile at all. The final nail in the coffin: none of the characters' profiles mentioned their genders. I absolutely do not blame anyone for believing in this theory (and as a headcanon, I definitely respect it,) seeing as there were enough vague elements to make one consider it. Unfortunately, as it turned out, this was another case of not even taking the possibility of gender non-conformity into consideration. This time, the year was 2020. It's very likely that the characters' genders weren't mentioned because you were supposed to look at the characters and think "well obviously, that's a man" "well obviously, that's a woman". (Because Doctor's whole shtick is more of a mess, I won't delve into it for the purpose of this post, but as of very recently the manga artist indulged in a little bit of transphobia in how he referred to her and allegedly thought up her backstory himself - in a way that's honestly just confusing.) As for that aforementioned subtitle, just like the Ultimate Imposter's gender was unknown, this had to do with Cutthroat's anonymity.

It was only on February 25, 2023, that an official profile featuring Cutthroat's gender was released in the manga. No surprise here: he is listed as being male.

So from October 8, 2020, when Episode 1 released, to February 25, 2023, I was left to die on the hill that… no… he's not non-binary, guys… I'm sorry, it's a misunderstanding. Because not only did I receive some insults and was subject to rude reactions, but also because believe it or not, I would actually also have been overjoyed had he been non-binary, as time went, I explained why I believed he wasn't meant to be. This included the explanations above, that factually the idea that he was non-binary stemmed from a misunderstanding, but I also mentioned Kodaka's current known body of work - at the time.

Kodaka had never created a character who was actually gnc. His creations included characters who had clearly been written without gender non-conformity in mind. It's not like his only other work since he founded Too Kyo Games at the time (Death Come True) had non-binary characters either. It just wasn't a thing in his works. Best we had was… Kiibo, the robot from Danganronpa V3…? He has a throwaway line in which he mentions not being for a fact gendered. Because he is a robot. Nothing happens with that, and he is not human, but it did feel a little bit like real life was sort of in the room with us for once.

As such, and because none of us know Kodaka personally, there was no reason to infer that this Japanese man in his forties who had never even tried to imply he cared about trans and gnc identities… cared about trans and gnc identities. I was told it was a bit harsh to claim he didn't care, but I thought it important to present to young queer people who were at risk of being lied to the possibility that this stranger in his forties isn't in fact their friend. I thought it a concept important to take into consideration, when you know, queerbaiting exists. When parasocial relationships exist. And when there are also angrier consumers who assume the worst - that he is in fact actively transphobic - I wanted to clarify my stance that we just. Don't know. And that the information we had pointed towards him probably being an ignorant man who doesn't care about it.

Then comes RAIN CODE. At some point, maybe a few months before the game's release, official character profiles were written in English for the main cast. Although every other character's profile included their pronouns, Halara's, specifically, didn't, and instead very clearly repeated their name where there would have been a gendered pronoun. Despite my general stance, which I made clear in this post, I did have the belief that this meant Halara would use neutral pronouns.

There was no certainty, and I was extremely ready to be disappointed. That being said, there were multiple elements which made it a reasonable assumption; not only did this profile clearly stand out in this way, but I had other reasons to believe it a possibility - notably, Spike Chunsoft's involvement, and the promotional content that made it clear RAIN CODE was being made by the team behind Danganronpa. At this point in time (being 2023), with knowledge of Danganronpa's fanbase and a specific intent to cater to it, it was extremely reasonable to believe that Spike Chunsoft was going to want - or possibly accept, if the idea was Kodaka's in the first place, which I don't know - a token non-binary character. It's yet again a pretty crude way to put it, but by being so deeply involved in the Danganronpa fandom and by having dealt with Spike Chunsoft directly for a while, the time felt right. On top of that, Kodaka's work partner and fellow game creator, Uchikoshi, has demonstrated himself as a proper trans ally. With Uchikoshi having defended gnc identities, and his close relationship to Kodaka, there is a fair assumption to be made that Kodaka may have been influenced somewhat.

And not too long later, Halara's official profile was published on the official site, where one line was added - and this line used the neutral pronoun "they". At this point, it was clear that regardless of what their identity would turn out to be, Halara was going to be presented as a gnc character.

This post is already very long and I'm only now getting to what I wanted to say: I'm glad. I'm not sure I've said it before, but I'm glad.

I haven't played RAIN CODE, so I can't speak to how Halara's identity was presented, if it was good or not, but it's been confirmed to me that they are in fact neither a man or a woman. When I was in Wiki brain mode and taking note of the promotional content for the game, it was genuinely exciting, as someone who has had to look at a lot of Komatsuzaki's designs, to look at Halara as his first non-binary design. To consider the thought that was put into designing and presenting them the way they are. Finally!

This doesn't change the way Kodaka's previous works were written, but it is extremely reassuring to see that things are moving in the right direction. That gnc identities are being taken into account by someone who famously didn't before. That there is good will being extended to people with those identities, who want to see themselves on-screen. Now, here's to hoping that Halara won't be an outlier. That in Kodaka's future works, more gnc/non-binary/trans representation will be found, be it in main or surrounding casts, as a normal option for how a character can be.

That's all I wanted to say.

hey Danganronpa fans there was a new trailer of Enigma RainCode on Nintendo Direct here some of the pictures IM SO EXCITED It has a Persona 5 feel too it to and it seem that ghost and Shingami are the same person and here the trailer

I rushed to draw this in 2 days so I could enter the Spike Chunsoft contest lol. I'm not like... Incredibly happy with it... but considering I was on such a time crunch I think it came out pretty well. Either way I love this game and I'm happy I got a chance to draw it!

Thoughts on Master Detective Archives: Rain Code Chapter 1

So, thoughts on Chapter 1.

I'm starting to fall out of love with Shinigami, not that I was ever really in love with her in the first place. I understand writing her as not having a traditional human morality, but having that on top of her literally dragging Yuma around on a whim and apparently not liking him associating with other people (aka Halara) like a jealous girlfriend while also being degrading to him is...not great. Hopefully this will turn around later.

Definetely seems like each of the next couple of chapters is going to focus on a specific Master Detective with them working with Yuma to solve the case. This chapter is Halara, who does the whole "I only work for for money but I'm not a bad person" bit, except they stick with the working for money thing to the point that Yuma basically will be in debt for life to them. Still, their Post-Cognition ability is fun to play around with in the investigations. I like them (and yes, it seems that they are a "them", not a "he" or "she", which is honestly pretty cool, I hope it stays that way), although they need to lighten up on the Sink-or-Swim mentality that leads to the Labyrinth this time.

I also don't love the end of the chapter, where the charater development that Yuma and Halara have together essentially gets reset at the end to a degree. Like, it's in service of maintaining The Secret with Shinigami, but this is a group of people with various supernatural powers and don't seem like they'd react badly, so there isn't a narrative reason for keeping Shinigami secret aside from an ill-described contract.

The chapter itself is good, though. I don't think it's a spoiler that it's a love letter to Locked Room mysteries, which results in you investigating several, some of which I figured out pretty quickly, and some that I needed the game to give me specific options to figure out. It isn't a bad thing that I'm solving things IN the Labyrinth with Yuma, rather than figuring it all out beforehand. The Labyrinth was also nicely different from last time and the mystery was successfully twisty.

I do wish that people reacted more to the deaths around them. Like, Yuma doesn't feel great about people he talks to dying (especially considering...specific circumstances), but then they seem to get forgotten soon afterwards. It makes some sense for Kanai Ward residents, but for all the Master Detectives from outside the Ward it's a little jarring.

Also, first official appearance of Yomi, who looks like a Big Bad but I suspect will get usurped near the end. I already want to punch his stupid face, but I know that's not going to happen for a while.

9 DAYS TO GO FOR RAIN CODE ! ! !

✨Character of the Day✨

- Seth Burroughs -

Voiced by Yuma Uchida (Japanese) and Landon McDonald (English)

My first fanart of Death Come True back when it came out wasn't my best, so when I replayed it yesterday (idk why I said “today” in my Tweet lol), I decided to draw some more. Here's a certain serial killer. Or someone like that.

ID under cut

[ID: A portrait of Makoto Karaki from Death Come True. He is represented with silver hair, inspired by Rui Komatsuzaki's artwork. He is looking slightly away from the camera with a determined expression, pointing a gun to his own head. End ID]

Anw I bought this clear file long time ago but still everytime I look at it I still think he is cute

raincode actually does look kinda cool ngl. feels weird to me that theyre marketing it almost like an extension of dangan ronpa (pink blood and everything???), but if they can refrain from being too disgusting i would love to see another game from the team thats a little more similar to drae with the dark city setting and two central characters instead of a huge cast. really does look like dangan ronpa 4 though

Coochikoshi

Master Detective Archives: Rain Code coming Spring 2023 to Dangan your friggin’ Ronpas

So today’s (9/13/22) edition of “Nintendo Direct: Now with 400% More Farming Games” included a new trailer for Enigma Archives: Rain Code — now titled “Master Detective Archives: Rain Code.”

Full trailer is here! (This is just a link to where it is in the overall Nintendo Direct. They haven’t posted a broken-out version yet. I’ll update this to embed that when it hits.)

Here’s some of the information we saw and learned today:

— This takes place in a corporate-controlled metropolis where long-unsolved cases are investigated by so-called “master detectives” from around the world.

— You play as Yuma Kokohead, an amnesiac detective. (Naturally. We love those.) He’s just a trainee at his agency, though.

— Shinigami is a spirit who haunts Yuma because of a pact between them. She’ll be your partner, evidently.

— So you investigate crime scenes and talk to people in 3D. That’s cool.

— “When you’re ready,” Shinigami conjures you a mystery labyrinth. This is where you’ll work through the evidence and logic of the case via physical manifestations of the mystery, such as...

...this crazy mine cart ride that seems to clearly be a “Logic Dive/Psyche Taxi” type-event. “MIND MINE”? :) 

— Oh, but apparently “mystery phantoms” will attempt to hinder your progress. So you’ll have to “cut through their contradictions.” This segment shows you dodging attacks in an arena that’s very “Tokyo Mirage Sessions”-esque, then literally slashing through words blasted at you.

It’s “coming first to Switch in Spring 2023.” So there’ll obviously be other platforms later on. (The new trailer also makes it clear that there’s gonna be a full English voiceover, in case you were curious.)

Previous info we have: 

— According to DR writer/creator Kodaka, he’s spent five years on this game, which he considers his “masterpiece” (DAMN, ok dude).

— Danganronpa character designers/illustrators Rui Komatsuzaki and Shimadoriru plus Danganronpa music gurus Masafumi Takada and Jun Fukuda are all in on this. You can definitely see/hear that in the trailer.

Great Ace Attorney really doomed me into liking niche visual novel puzzle solving mystery games, huh

Since these all have small fandoms, please consider reblogging this poll so it can get as many votes as possible!

Due to having both the advantage of a recency bias and Spike Chunsoft's involvement, RAIN CODE is not included.

Bias acknowledgement: my followers are Akudama Drive fans. Make sure to reblog after voting so this doesn't put the other IPs at a disadvantage!

I remember World's End Club fans hanging around for a while, but haven't seem them much recently. Death Come True I think will lose, though I really enjoyed it. TRIBE NINE is the only one on the list I'm not a fan of.

Oh raincode is out now

SPOILERS for Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE!

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Just wanna talk about that amazing Chapter 5 and game for a second.

Makoto Kagutsuchi is such a breath of fresh air compared to the comically crazy antagonists in the Danganronpa series and the Peacekeepers in this game, I was genuinely blown away. I hope they take notes from this game for a future installment in Dangan or perhaps a new Tookyo IP.

I was absolutely blown away by how good this game, a little jank, slight pacing issues and gameplay annoyances here and there, nothing too egregious or standout compared to Danganronpa or smth though.

The writing is on another level, while the game does stumble in Chapter 1 and Chapter 3, the rest of the chapters are absolutely solid and the characters are GREAT.

The last mystery and the final sword fight was hype as fuck!!! God dammn!!

I can confidently say I like this more than Danganronpa and would actually recommend new players this game first due to its distinct lack of troublesome stuff.

I give RAIN CODE a solid 9/10, it's big, it's overambitious, it's flawed, but it was fucking awesome.

Thoughts on Master Detective Archive: Rain Code, Chapter 0

So, I'm playing Master Detective Archive: Rain Code starting yesterday, and since this is technically a blog I'd thought I put down my thoughts. Will try to stay spoiler-free (like, the game came out yesterday), but might slip up. Starting with Chapter 0...

...which is a very lllooonnnggg Chapter 0. Like, this game is a spiritual successor to Danganronpa (including lifting several things like minigames and so, so many references) to the point where I'm starting to think that the grand reveal will be that Shinigami is actually a now-dead Junko. But this Chapter 0 is way longer than and Danganronpa prologue chapter. If you do play this game, set aside a lot of time for this first part.

Gonna be honest, after I read the title of the chapter and saw exactly who was on the train to Kanai Ward, I pretty much guessed what was going to happen. Kept hoping that I was wrong, but then it became more and more apparent that that was exactly where we were going. And I get it, it's a good twist and probably makes the plotting of the rest of the game easier. But goddammit these were the characters that I liked!

That being said, as much I want to NOT compare this to Danganronpa too much and let it stand on its own, the story that they have is making it extremely hard to do so. Aside from all of the direct references to the past series (I am writing this after finishing Chapter 1, and I've clocked at least six), the structure of Chapter 0 does the same thing that all Chapter 1's in Danganronpa do, where the murder plot from the first chapter is meant to completely screw with player expectations. It does make me a little worried that Kodaka or someone else at Spike Chunsoft either can't or won't write a different story structure.

The first mystery itself it well-crafted, it gives enough information before the Mystery Labyrinth section to give you some clear ideas about what happened, while also hiding enough so that you end up figuring it out along with Yuma during the Labyrinth. Also, I was worried that the trailers might have revealed too much for stuff like the Mystery Phantoms. They, in fact, did not, and that is all that I will say.

Will also talk about the Prologue a bit that is just talking after Chapter 0. Just going to say, Yakou is definitely going to betray us at some point. Sympathetically probably, but still. Number One might not be so great a person either, but it's too early and he hasn't shown up enough to tell. I just think that he represents an Everything Must Have A Proper Solution, Damn The People Involved mindset that could potentially turn ugly.