"Style has a substance all of its own" - Joseph Stalin

I remember a few weeks ago speaking to a friend who was bemoaning the impossibility of replaying detective mystery games because, already knowing their mysteries the experience falls flat as there is nothing to solve.
"Lol, Skill Issue" I responded and here I am on a second playthrough of Paradise Killer

Its kind of insane how much Paradise Killer works, because in theory all of its ideas sound like they should fall utterly flat on their faces. An Open World investigative detective game? Taking a genre that's traditionally strictly linear so as to control the pacing of the story and parcel out small bits of information as it builds towards a meticulously planned reveal of the truth behind it all ; and just letting the player piece it (relatively) unguided? A whole ass 3D open world made by, going by the credits, essentially 2 people? Platforming mechanics in first person added on top of what is essentially an adventure game visual novel? To steal a joke from a certain someone - "That's not a recipe for disaster, that's the fucking Anarchist's Cookbook!"

Paradise Killer sort of does the impossible by turning these seemingly contradictory design decisions to work in its favour. Its to its credits that even on a second playthrough I was utterly enthralled, going from brutalist skyscrapers built to rule over masses of kidnapped innocents to drop down and airdash into one of their living quarters finding things like a set of dominoes or a love letter, evidence of their humanity that the syndicate tried so hard to deny them. There was always something out there to spot through the corner of my eye, a blood vial, a conversation with the ever entertaining Shinji or a new music track to earworm its way into my brain. Incidentally both the idea of having music unlock with finding it in the open world and the in-universe customizable music playlist are kind of amazing and I hope someone else does something similar at some point.

Another possible weakness would of course be that a 3D world made by two people on a low budget is going to be hard to get fancy with shaders and complex geometry etc but Paradise Killer embraces these limitations. The sort of brutalist architecture of the syndicate as these big Imposing rectangular buildings of concrete tower over the player contrast against the more obviously japanese inspired residential areas, the looming, harsh structures of the power of the Syndicate almost looking down at the housing of the citizenry they opress. The garish at times mix of purples and gold of the Opulent Ziggurat, a sort of marriage of city pop album cover and horrifying lovecraftian death cult adds to me a sense of a sort of banality of evil. These people just dont really reflect on the morality of their insane plan all that much as they do their intrigues, their high fashion and luxury lifestyles. A couple of days ago I read a piece on this game comparing Paradise Killer to Those Who Walk Away from Omelas, a famous story about a society built on the suffering of a single child and in that sense PK becomes a whole lot closer to home, for all its musings on Eldritch Gods and transdimensional demons and pocket dimension islands.

Because ultimately whilst I don't sacrifice people to appease a race of genocidal space aliens my existence and prosperity is partly also built on the suffering of others, namely animals and the exploited, imperialized world.

Paradise Killer even did the impossible for me, it made me care about its lore and worldbuilding told mainly through the medium of item descriptions. Dark Souls couldn't make me care but PK did with about a fraction of the budget. Its just very good at drawing you in, and I think a detective game is more condusive to making me interested in the approach when all you are doing at the end of the day IS learning about the world, the architecture, the character designs everything else is feeding into your brain as you explore every nook and cranny hunting for clues in this world. As much as the open world can fool you into believing you're in total control, there is a deliberate parceling out of information based on the order you find things but it never becomes a railroad of forced linearity, there are always threads to pull even if those threads themselves are interlinked and may require steps in a certain order.

There is a lot of Paradise Killer that will turn people off, as I said before its kind of a miracle it works (for me) and there is definitely stuff to criticise. The collectible currency is easy to find and use but other than the footbath upgrades (and incidentally I sincerely hope people realized that the investment in blood crystals was worth it because the game doesnt really signal that these unlock movement powers until youve already spent the sum) starlight upgrades and various minor things you get way more than you'll ever need. I was achievement hunting for this game on a second playthrough and I was suprised at how little I had to go out of my way to get for the achievements. At first it looks like the collectibles are haphazardly spread around but I can definitely say now that there is a method to the madness. There is a cost to unlock the fast travel spots (sure) but also to use them (boo), though again this is the BOTW thing where there are way more blood crystals than you could ever need and I ended up with a surplus of 30, so really I think the fast travel cost is just to make a use for it, which seems a bit like breaking a bone so you can use your new set of crutches but its not that big of a deal, the island is small and most out of the way places you probably wont need to go more than once or twice.

If there was one word to describe Paradise Killer it might be indulgent, and there is definitely a case to be made that the game could have been improved if at certain design meetings someone had told the creators NO but I think indulging is good once in a while. Even if it alienates a substantial portion of the audience I like the boldness of the vaporwave aesthetic, even if Im not the biggest fan of the genre if ther was ever one album to convert me it might be the OST to this game which is a certified banger.

I'm certainly not the person who could or even should make this point well, especially cause I might make it wrong and step over what others who are more directly affected by this but given the diversity in character designs which is both a credit to the overall aesthetic of the game and to better inclusivity in the industry, its kind of unfortunate given the obvious japanese inspiration of the setting (the city pop, the combinis, the japanese whisky, dead nebula's zaibatsu, etc etc) that there are no on-screen Japanese Characters. Similarly, again its not a point I feel confident in making but I think there is something to be said about the wave of fascination with certain superficial aspects of japanese popculture that this game belongs to that could be said to come from a place of the "othering" of Japan as a sort of mythical special place for westerners to endlessly gawk at in the naïve belief that its a place to escape to, either physically or mentally from the banality of the places we live in.

Not maliciously of course and Im not suggesting any conscious prejudice or anything of the sort on the part of the developers, but I think its a phenomenon worth examining and reflecting on. In the art book for the game there is an account from one of the designers which I'll paraphrase here but essentially it was something like During the pandemic it was depressing to live in boring, grey, dull England, I wanted to go to somewhere cool, Like Japan! I love Japan! This is on the one hand understandable, lord knows I have thrown myself in escapism when I have been unsatisfied with my current life situation but I think its a remnant of a particular european/western attitude towards Japan. I think its great to show appreciation for other cultures and learn more about them, even celebrate aspects or (respectfully and appropriately) incoporate them into your own, but its important to remember that Japan or any other country, is a country, its not Disney Land.

All that aside, Paradise Killer remains a tremendously absorbing mystery game which I have played through a second time I think I have enjoyed even more than the first. Even the relatively rushed and not super involving trial sequence didnt really feel all that out of place : Paradise Killer is a game about investigation more than Justice, both mechanically and thematically. I enjoy how it all fits into the story as Lady Love Dies is essentially a lib, critical of the excesses of the syndicate and their worse crimes and corruption but never for a second doubting their overall goal. She's evil but doesn't think she's evil, which is refreshing to me. See you in Perfect 25.

tried this for like 2 hrs and couldnt take it anymore. horrid to look at and disgusting to play. gaijin city pop ost that ive heard better from when a clerk puts me on hold. the suda/grassmanu pastiche it tries is stupid as it always is, and the cartoon detective mystery is too lifeless to even qualify for the diet camp it would like to think it achieves. smugly assumes i would enjoy its "player freedom" which amts to dropping you in a sandbox without a single interesting thing to actually hold attention, or show promise that there is substance here of any kind. on top of this it raises flags for being further proof that lovecraft is the most dipshit literary genre point of reference in games in recent years (tied w cyberpunk for this honor).

1. Pones mimo en construir un mundo.
2. Añades coleccionables, curiosidades y secretos en él.
3. Das libertad para explorar, sin secuencia a la que ceñirse.
4. Y, finalmente, conviertes al jugador en detective.

Es tan simple que sorprende. A mí me sorprendió encontrarme tan absorbido y disfrutando a tales niveles de algo tan elemental a nivel conceptual. ¿Cómo no se ha hecho esto antes mil veces? Con tanta gente hablando de "lore", enganchada a la historia de un mundo revelada a través de información obtenida mediante la observación de un lugar. Y con el éxito conseguido históricamente por tantos videojuegos de (libre) exploración, ejemplo reciente de Breath of the Wild inclusive, entre muchos otros. Cómo puede ser, me sigo preguntando, que algo como Paradise Killer no apareciese hasta 2020.

Era eso, que aquello que buscar en el mundo fuese la verdad. No power-ups, ni tesoros, ni atajos, ni nuevos lugares a los que acceder. Ni siquiera pequeñas historietas, aunque todo esto funcione y tenga su propósito y ayude. Tan solo eso, la verdad. Una verdad ocultada, secreta, para que el mundo esconda un misterio que desentrañar. En este presunto paraíso, la isla 24, se ha cometido un crimen, y nosotros somos los encargados de resolverlo. He aquí unos presuntos hechos, un presunto culpable. Pero también todos estos sospechosos, y esta isla que es una escena del crimen gigante. ¿Quién sabe más de lo que dice? ¿Quién miente? ¿Quién conspira? ¿Es el relato oficial lo bastante sólido o algo huele a podrido en Dinamarca?

Así pues, a explorar. A buscar pistas, a hablar con la peña, a desmantelar coartadas, a encontrar contradicciones, a descubrir posibles conspiraciones y a atar cabos para, al final, demostrar y ajusticiar en la corte. Con todas las sorpresas y bolas curvas que nos deparará el camino.

Mucho hemos tardado.

"Paradise Killer" tem uma das estéticas mais lindas que já vi em um jogo mas se perde em seu tamanho, estilo e história.

A ambientação do game pode muito bem ser descrita como um sonho alucinógeno num estilo VAPORWAVE. As cores neon vibrantes dos anos 70 se misturam a relíquias bizarras e uma história recheada de surrealismo. Mas seu maior ponto forte também é seu ponto fraco.

O mundo aberto do game é MUITO FALHO, o jogador fica rapidamente cansado andando e vagando por um mundo grande sem encontrar nada para avançar a história (e o game falha em ser intuitivo).

O jogo também é puramente linhas de dialogo e até o jogador com uma boa fluência em inglês uma hora simplesmente se cansa de ler TANTO DIALOGO.

Agora de longe o auge do game é sua ótima trilha sonora. É muito legal achar uma nova trilha escondida nos caminhos da ilha, trocar sua música e curtir aquela vibe incrível de mistério de assassinato dos anos 70.

Foi muito dolorido abandonar esse jogo no começo dele, mas eu simplesmente não ia conseguir terminar ele com vontade. Infelizmente o game peca ao trazer uma história muito complexa, somente em inglês e um mundo aberto gigante e vazio que pode se tornar cansativo. Se você curte o gênero de mistério e curte a vibe anos 70, sem dúvidas você vai amar o game.

Remember way way back, before Persona 5 and Dark Souls, when Atlus and From Software were making weird niche games that rarely left Japan and sold only like 10,000 copies? Because Paradise Killer will bring all those memories rushing back. It's a zany, colorful blast from the past that would feel right at home on Dreamcast.

Although it's often compared to Phoenix Wright, Paradise Killer has more in common with collectathon platformers. You spend most of your time running around Island 24, gathering clues, collecting blood vials, and interrogating suspects. It's a true open-world game -- there are only a few progress-blocking gates, and most of them can be worked around in multiple ways. You can also end the game at any point. Once you feel you've collected enough evidence, you can return to the judge and start the trial.

Being an open-world game, Paradise Killer exhibits the same pros and cons that are common in the genre. Early on, when the world was still full of collectibles, I had a lot of fun running around, jumping up mountains, and chatting with random characters. But as I neared the end and there were only a few unresolved mysteries and uncollected items left, my patience began to wane as I aimlessly ran around the map in search of the missing piece. Ultimately I was able to find everything without resorting to checking a guide, but not before feeling a twinge of boredom.

Naturally, the game's open-world nature impacts not only the gameplay, but the narrative as well. In my case, I stumbled upon a very big piece of evidence right at the end of the game -- it was literally the last thing I found before taking my case to trial. Because my playthrough unfolded the way it did, this revelation led to a serious sense of deus ex machina. It was like the final piece clicking into place and it felt all too convenient. If I'd found it earlier and had been given time to mentally fit it into my investigative puzzle, perhaps it wouldn't have felt like such an abrupt contrivance. I suppose that's just the nature of open-world games. Everyone's experience will be a bit different, for better or worse.

The final trial is also relatively straightforward. If you're expecting the twists and turns of an Ace Attorney game, you'll be disappointed. Despite that, however, the character are well written and the story that's here is enjoyable enough.

Finally, I must note that the soundtrack is an absolute banger. If anything, I think it's underutilized -- the songs are played as background music when they really deserve more time in the spotlight.

Anyhow, that's Paradise Killer in a nutshell. Come for the platforming and vaporwave vibes, stay for the characters. I'll see you in Perfect 25.

like a hercule poirot novel made by an anime fan. its not without its rough edges, particularly in how the game kinda spoonfeeds evidence to the player, but so much here is reliant on the players own willingness and desire to explore the island.

a lot of mystery games feel pretty handholding at times which wouldn't be such a big issue if the story was good. however most of the time the story is extremely clear-cut. paradise killer is not that. there's palpable whodunit inspirations with the games story defying the traditional expectations of the whodunit genre which makes it really feel like an agatha christie novel committed to the digital medium. after playing about six hours straight one day i spent hours talking to myself trying to unravel the mystery and when i got to the end of the game and was able to validate my own truth and guesses i felt like a god damn fucking genius. paradise killer is a game that rewards you for finding your own truth and backing it up with evidence and every bit of exploration feels rewarded.

outside of some annoying character writing and some design issues at times this is a near-perfect gem of a detective game. i went into this expecting something serviceable but i came out the other end feeling astonished. finally a game that proves that good open-world detective games are possible, and i hope this inspires more people to make good ones--i know its certainly inspired me.

SO CALLED "FREE THINKERS" WHEN LOVE DIES: ALL THAT REMAINS ARE THE FACTS

okay so the aesthetic of this game is out of this world. first of all. loved going through the world and collecting all the collectibles (there are a TON which is amazing for ME in specific i love collecting things) and doing funny parkour without taking fall damage. related to this the soundtrack is also a jam and a half especially the title theme
the word "diverse" has been tainted but there's something very nice about the varied backgrounds of the characters (especially witness who is iranian probably kurdish? i am not kurdish but i am iranian and he HAS AN IRANIAN ACCENT it makes me sooo happy) and the queerness of it wrt love dies and her optional flings. i love the whole cast and how messy they are even if they suck shit the world they're in sucks shit so it's influenced them. except for yuri because he's a dick but that's the point i guess?

as a mystery... it's great. i love it. i like how starlight groups all your evidence together so that i don't have to do the heavy lifting and thinking. the final act with the trial was also a delight and i like how different characters can be convicted based on the evidence you have at the time (whether you start the trial prematurely or not) and how co-conspirators can drag each other down with them it's like watching dominoes topple. though unfortunately for all the free will love dies gets as detective and executioner (especially once the trial is over) it feels kind of empty. like the only consequences come if u mess with the based married couple and even then it's not much

but don't let this stop you from playing!! Please play this game im so normal about it

Great openworld detective adventure game (with light platforming elements of all things). The atmosphere is top notch, the characters are all interesting and well designed visually, the soundtrack is absolutely superb and the mystery unfolds in a way that is paced surprisingly well for a game structure that has a habit of tossing such things in the bin in search of player freedom. This game also has a tropical setting, which reminds one of danganronpa 2, except paradise killer is actually good.

One thing to keep in mind however, is that Paradise Killer is much more a game about investigating than solving a crime if that makes sense. The great paradox in detective games is that (and I have played a lot of them) no one has ever quite figured out the way to craft one where the player can figure out a mystery and convey it to the game without cheating or causing frustration. PK sort of sidesteps this issue by having the mystery sort of solve itself and even not really checking if you made the right decision (its complicated and nigh impossible to explain without spoilers). Dont expect an Ace Attorney/Danganronpa etc hour long trial where you have to cross examine every piece of evidence. Fittingly for the vibe of this game, this is much more laidback and casual, which may turn some people off but I particularly think it works fine

This isn't really a detective game so much as it is a collectathon, IMO. Not a bad thing, but the direction was initially surprising so I figured I'd mention it. If you collect every pick-up in the game, the conclusion is pretty evident, and if you miss even one or two pieces, you'll likely come to a completely different conclusion. There's not much "deduction" to be done, as the game basically spells it out for you if you find everything. Again, not a good or bad thing IMO, just worth mentioning up front. If you're into soaking up atmosphere while listening to synthwave and exploring a hyper-colored paradise, you'll dig the game. If not, you definitely won't.

“[Paradise Killer] might really be just style over substance, but goddamn, that’s some well-considered, obstinate style.” -me, like a year ago.

Looking back, this sentiment was misguided. If I were to go back and edit this line (which I can, but I won’t), I’d instead ask if Paradise Killer’s substance is capable of transcending its, as I put it, well-considered, obstinate style. It was and still is clear that PK is speaking to some capital-C Classic themes: it is not the first nor will it be the last piece of media I take in where the ruling class is depicted as megalomaniacal deities. The unfathomably massive scale of its worldbuilding plays on our incapability to perceive relatively-colossal things accurately. The cosmos! An infinitely stretching timeline! How big is a universe? Unfortunately, too big for us. I guess it's appropriate, then (warning: it’s been a while since I’ve played the game) that the drabble of each individual component ring less clear in my head than the totality of the island, exposing both the positives and negatives of the bigger picture.

To put it simply, PK spends a lot of its time and efforts building upon this tapestry of infinites, and in the process bypasses too often an opportunity to speak to the present. At the intersection of the Yakuza-like dedication to worldly verisimilitude and unhinged sci-fi setting lies Paradise Killer, though with less of a handle on the intimate moments that makes its very clear inspirations great works. I think this is why my original stance a year back felt so unsure - for as incredible as some of the collectible descriptions can be at depicting this world, how much of what is said there can be extracted and applied? Does this game have that totality it is shooting for, or is it a museum disguised as a game with lots and lots of platforming?

Of course, all this time spent brainstorming does result in something. The 24th island itself pulls its end of the weight, depicting slaughterings of citizens (a fee of sorts for the island sequences, which the leaders are routinely fucking up!) against vaporwave backdrops, all but implying an inseparable bond that routine and atrocity hold. The islands are made in the image of the Syndicate, and end up speaking volumes to their values, their taste (or lack thereof), and self-perceptions. Better than the actual texts of the game even.

Alongside that original statement, I also said that the game sticks its landing in the final hour - and I still do think that! What ends up tilting the scale away from the gauzy theme-safari that PK risks being is the trial itself, a moment where the game decides: yep, give them the gun and let them destroy it all. I ended up playing it as straight as I could, but you can really just forgo all evidence and ice your fellow immortals for no reason if you should desire. And given the omnipotent Judge’s purpose, I think that’s probably the more favorite outcome? Because, at the end of it all, getting the issue out of here and letting the process continue is the ultimate desire for the world. Stopping the gears to repair them risks having to look at them, bring their purpose to the forefront of your mind and, worst of all, question them. We can’t have that, can we?

I might be a little flat on Paradise Killer now that I realize that these massive proper nouns and LCD screen-isms all boil down to some pretty simple, well-trodden themes, but the things that sing within PK do so from talented mouths (I didn’t mention it, but that vocal song is like 5-star goated status, god fucking damn). Given that Kaizen have teased working with the likes of Ikumi Nakamura, the developers have a lot to look forward to and, by extension, so do I.

Paradise Killer is the "not like other girls" of games but in, like, the cool trans girl way, not the internalized-misogyny way? I can truly say I have never played a game like it and I don't know why any of it works. Why is every single character name so cool? (Lady Love Dies! Lydia Day Break!! Carmelina Silence!!!) Why does Doctor Doom Jazz live on a yacht? Why is the soundtrack such a banger, with the most satisfying end credits music I have ever heard in my life? Why does a Phoenix Wright investigation-slash-courtroom sim have fun 3D platforming and exploration in it? I don't even know why cruising around this brutalist vaporwave death cult island is so enjoyable, the collectables are mostly pointless, but there are just so MANY of them (an absolutely bonkers profusion) that no matter where you go, you always feel like you are uncovering something.

That the gameplay works is something of a miracle, but then there's the fact that the story is good. Don't ask me how the developers pulled this off. Writing a good mystery is hard enough, but setting your mystery on a transdimensional island ruled by a cult of immortals dedicated to resurrecting Lovecraftian horrors with names like "Silent Goat" through human sacrifice...presents, uh, another set of challenges, I imagine. In most games, a world this wild would be the mystery, and the whole game would be a boring lore hunt. There is lore in Paradise Killer, but none of it really matters, and once you acclimate to the general weirdness of everything (which is admittedly a pretty steep hurdle at first), the mystery itself is surprisingly easy to follow, although there are lots of layers to it, and even some intriguing ethical dimensions, which are not deeply explored but make the story more thought-provoking than you might expect from a game that initially seems to not be about anything more than its own bizarre dedication to an aesthetic.

I am convinced Paradise Killer must have been made under the auspice of some capricious but temporarily benevolent alien deity, because a game this audacious at every level should not work. I kept waiting for some overreach or misstep to bring the whole thing tumbling down—the quirk that broke the camel's back—but it never came. Playing this game is like watching Icarus gleefully flip off the sun and fly acrobatic circles around it because it turns out actually he's a psychic vampire possessed by a demon trapeze artist or something. It is miraculous and delightful and kind of freaks me out and I'm glad there's only one of them.

god where do I even begin

This game would've been better as a simple visual novel but instead there's weird 3d platforming gameplay hamfisted into a narrative filled to the absolute brim with unlikeable characters.

On that last point, I know you're probably not meant to like them because they're all selfish and have their stupid petty agendas against each other but there's a difference between a character having unlikable/negative traits and a character being straight up annoying. The cast of this game, including the protagonist, falls into the latter category -- interactions with them were a slog of unfunny dialogue, petty conflicts, and stilted relationships.

Cool setting, I guess. But even that means little to me. Wish I liked it!

If you love Ace Attorney/Danganronpa, you might not enjoy this.

Despite a lot of comparisons being drawn between PK and those series, I see that as a bit of a stretch. While PK is a murder investigation game with plenty of dialogue and evidence, the similarities fall apart there. The trial does not involve punching holes through witness testimony, you don't get to know if you made errors in judgement, and there is only one grand trial for everything (albeit with multiple parts). If those are the similarities you were looking for in PK, I recommend doing a little bit of research into this game before deciding whether you want to play it.

Personally, I never felt the "click" while playing this game that I did with many other mystery/detective games that I love (Ace Attorney, Danganronpa, Return of the Obra Dinn, Nancy Drew, Her Story, Shenmue, Zero Escape). However, PK was a confidently executed, fresh take on the genre and I'm excited to see what may follow after it.

The game really felt like it was lacking in a lot of crucial ways. It feels like a mediocre attempt at making Disco Elysium for weebs or something. The writing really didn't stand out much and offered very little outside of the murder mystery plot that was obviously at the forefront. This just makes the game have almost no effect on me and makes it hard to connect with the characters and the story itself.

The visual style is also quite rough. It doesn't look very good from a graphical standpoint. When you look at the assets in the game, they just don't blend together at all and look quite flat. Quite the contrast when you compare this to the way all the characters look. Some have interesting designs, while others look downright silly. I liked Witness, Akiko and One Last Kiss at least.

The way it blends the open world formula with the visual novel style of storytelling is also quite strange, but I did like this aspect. Having to actively go out and find clues yourself and talk to people in a non-linear order was enjoyable. The platforming did not feel good at all though. It's hard to describe unless you've experienced it yourself, but you can't really move your character after you jump, which gives off this weird and often times frustrating lack of free movement, as it makes just climbing over small obstacles and walls annoying.

Also, I wish every open world game had this: a feature that lets you see all the collectibles. This game still has some of that annoying open world feature where collectibles are in the game to give it a longer lifespan, but a lot of the ones in this game actually have a purpose, sometimes giving you extra story elements and lore.

Paradise Killer nails its goal of presenting a loud, plastic, hyperfemme, vaporwave surface littered with ephemera and infused with the sinister air of modern mundanities and cosmic horror, reverberating in its musical molotov cocktail of brash city-pop and strangely melancholic downtempo synths that make up its criminally cool soundtrack. It's the most extra video game I've played in 2020.

The setting and lore are completely bonkers, the characters are larger-than-life with some sick-ass names like Lady Love Dies, Doctor Doom Jazz, and One Last Kiss, and the story takes some wild turns.

It's the only open-world detective game I've ever played, and it's impressive how much this non-linear approach actually works for this genre, especially coming from a studio that only made its debut with this title. The tool that keeps track of all your leads is super handy and crystal clear with its sorting method that I never got lost of each thread in the game's vast web of mystery even when I took some days off between sessions throughout my 17 hours with the game.

People also weren't kidding about how much of a platformer this actually is. That aspect mostly works, although I have an incredibly tiny nitpick about how your momentum when jumping forward really doesn't make for precise platforming.

I'm not as down on the climax that some people seem to be from what I've heard and read, because while mechanically it's actually pretty straightforward unlike, say, the trial sections in the Ace Attorney series, it does reflect the open-ended nature of the game and its themes of distinguishing facts from truths and fairness from justice and the pettiness of people in power. It's also just satisfying to lay down as tight of a case as possible that you built with some real hard-nosed investigating and watch uppity conspiratorial assholes with their manicured facades crumble!

I do think it would have been good for the game to give you an idea of how the trial would work. 100% agreed on the general sentiment I've seen from others who've played the game that had I known the trial's structure, I maybe would have made different choices to spare a couple of characters.

If there's one other big thing I wish the game did, it would have been to make the characters more reactive to actions and dialogue choices you make. I'm sure that would have been infinitely more complex to attempt and would probably make solving the mystery even harder if, say, you get locked out of certain information if you overstep your boundaries or say the wrong thing, but I think it would have made for a way more interesting game and emphasized the importance of building relationships and navigating truths that its themes touch on.

Still, given how intricate the plot is and how the investigative experience still works with pacing peaks and valleys despite its open-world structure, there's a lot of praise to be given to Kaizen Game Works for achieving their own set of narrative and gameplay ambitions.

Paradise Killer equally values exploration and style with a liberal dose of visual novel seasoning, and while I must acknowledge the Playstation Plus fog lingering over my takeaway that does little to devalue how I powered through this game in two pretty visceral, almost astonishing pair of seven hour sessions.

I'll grant that as I got into the back third of the game that the city's labyrinthian construction became extremely annoying, and the mystery isn't actually all that mysterious. After my first marathon, I felt confident enough to approach the judge with my accusations only to realize I had very little evidence to present.

That could've felt discouraging, but instead it was exactly the push I needed to keep digging into Paradise 24's secrets. And I was truly surprised by many of the later revelations Lady Love Dies' detective work offered, and even if I was only confirming my early suspicions I really enjoyed the process of finding out exactly why some character made a choice, let alone their role in the broader mystery.

Better yet, the trial made me aware that I'd forced the hands of some characters to solidify my hypotheses, that there were several more clues to find and mysteries to solve, and that while I may have satisfied the demands of the court I may not have fully solved the mystery of Paradise 24.

As I began uncovering lie after lie, it was undeniable that not only did the Blood Crystal economy feel mightily restrictive (though I'm sure more than enough of them exist for the obsessive collectors) but the city itself was quite a burden to navigate even with all the movement upgrades. It got less and less fun making my way towards the character I wanted to talk to the closer I got to the end...but the thinker in me also began to interpret that impatience as an extension of the gameplay. In those moments, I started finding the time it took to get from one suspect to another a representation of both my and Lady Love Dies' frustration with the increasingly desperate lies of her former friends who'd become my new adversaries.

I'd like to think I nailed the trial. It sure seemed to feel like it. But I also know that there are mysteries I didn't solve, environmental puzzles and narrative links left dangling. Perhaps I was allowed to accuse one person of too many crimes, and finishing one or two of those Resident Evil-esque puzzles may have been the key.

I suppose for now I'll just have to feel okay with what I chose. But I wouldn't surprise myself if I came back to this when I'm looking for something to play and tried to uncover the mysteries I presented to the Judge as tangential.

At the very least, it'd be nice to wander around this place listening to its dope ass, mysteriously joyful soundtrack in search of the various Sinji interactions I missed. Because at the very least, the truly curious player just has to know if the reward for finding all of his instances is the removal of the hilarious emoji obscuring his banger.

All praise the New Weird. The New Weird will never die but when it does I will track down its killer and catalog the crime on my Nightmare Computer.

For a solid week, this game is the only thing I could think about. It infected my dreams. Along the way, it had me tossing and turning over not just its mystery plot but thoughts about dead malls and beach vacations, economic inequality and clique-ridden virtual communities.

Also, there’s some jumping puzzles. You don’t have to do the jumping puzzles. (I did all of the jumping puzzles.)

Just an amazingly strange and singular game. Easily one of my favorites of the past few years. Possibly one of my favorites ever. I’ll have to think about it a bit more. Not just because I want to; I have to.