A fun little murder mystery that feels like an indie Danganronpa, with its repetitive voice clips, paper cut out sprites and lo-fi world map and UI. Exploring the open world and spending a few hours grabbing collectibles was more fun than the actual mystery to me though. I was enjoying the game for what felt like the wrong reasons, much like Ghostwire Tokyo which I played last year.
Unravelling an island wide conspiracy should be exciting, but the uninteresting characters that aren't nearly as fleshed out or fun as they should be, which I blame on the game not being willing to commit to being a dark comedy. The character designs are wacky and stylish, everyone has these weird names, there's sort of an irreverent feeling of "who gives a shit" to everything due to comedic side stories and a barren open world which seems to be an ironic slight at AAA games in its uselessness.
But the dialogue isn't ever funny. It's very serious at points, but never about anything profound. Just sort of characters having to pick up the burden of explaining 100 different lore terms to the player, and constantly retelling the same plot reveals because of its non-linear structure.
The trial at the end is pretty unrewarding too. Like, I like how you could potentially withold evidence for the most morally right outcome, but thats only because of the life or death legal system, so it doesn't work as commentary on society, because our punishments have nuance.
Paradise Killer is a an acceptable murder mystery with slick vaporwave aesthetics and a fun collectathon structure painting over an underbaked narrative and overexpository writing. The wit of classic LucasArts adventures isn't here, and the trashy reality TV charm of Danganronpa isn't capitalized on.
Unravelling an island wide conspiracy should be exciting, but the uninteresting characters that aren't nearly as fleshed out or fun as they should be, which I blame on the game not being willing to commit to being a dark comedy. The character designs are wacky and stylish, everyone has these weird names, there's sort of an irreverent feeling of "who gives a shit" to everything due to comedic side stories and a barren open world which seems to be an ironic slight at AAA games in its uselessness.
But the dialogue isn't ever funny. It's very serious at points, but never about anything profound. Just sort of characters having to pick up the burden of explaining 100 different lore terms to the player, and constantly retelling the same plot reveals because of its non-linear structure.
The trial at the end is pretty unrewarding too. Like, I like how you could potentially withold evidence for the most morally right outcome, but thats only because of the life or death legal system, so it doesn't work as commentary on society, because our punishments have nuance.
Paradise Killer is a an acceptable murder mystery with slick vaporwave aesthetics and a fun collectathon structure painting over an underbaked narrative and overexpository writing. The wit of classic LucasArts adventures isn't here, and the trashy reality TV charm of Danganronpa isn't capitalized on.