Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE Shinigami Has Roughly 100 Unique Portrait Illustrations

The Japanese site Famitsu recently interviewed the writer of the upcoming Spike Chunsoft mystery adventure Master Detective Archives: RAIN CODE, Kazutaka Kodaka, following the outlet’s preview of the game’s first chapter.

One exchange concerns the pursued presentation for this ambitious entry. While the art style is highly similar to the Danganronpa series, new efforts had to be embraced for such a large-scale project.

Our team’s Ryuji translated the following passage:

Interviewer: Shinigami was also attractive because of the many expressions in her illustrations.

Kodaka: This time, since there were 3D models when I was drawing the characters’ idle poses, I asked them to create some kind of composition with the 3D models, and Komatsuzaki retouched and drew the pictures as he went along.

The cost of a single illustration was lower when compared to Danganronpa, so I was able to draw many more expressions. Sometimes Spike Chunsoft or I would ask for a particular portrait to be added, but with Shinigami, Komatsuzaki would often suggest multiple varied portraits. I believe for her soul-like form, there are about 80 of them, and if you include the human form portraits, that number grows to over 100. And the number of portraits for Yuma is about the same as well.

Interviewer: By the way, what is Shinigami’s gender? They’re female, right? I mean, we don’t know Halara’s gender.

Kodaka: Yes, she’s female.

TL Note: We’re not 100% sure what Kodaka means about the cost here: It could be monetary or just an overall effort to create the illustrations, but the Japanese word makes it hard to tell.