Paradise Killer was such a big surprise for me. I went in expecting a solid indie game with decent writing and got so much more than that. The worldbuilding is definitely the thing that stands out more than anything else in this experience. It's obvious that everything was so well thought out and that they had a strong internal source book to keep everything consistent. Because of this, it was so easy for me to stay engaged and become invested in the underlying mystery. Having two avenues of knowledge (the murder mystery and the larger world) kept me super engaged. In addition, the characters were simple yet fantastic, each and every one of them were engaging in their own way, and I found myself caring for Akiko more than I care to admit by the end. The ending also hit me way harder than I expected it to. Having to execute those who I ended up calling my friends for the sake of 'justice' was as heartbreaking as it was shocking. The other thing that stuck out to me about the ending was that nothing actually ended up changing about the system by the end. The system is still being upheld, and the slave labor that Paradise is built on will still be perpetuated and continued. Although simple, this game does have a lot to say, which I really appreciated. It was cool that the so-called V A P O R W A V E A E S T H E T I C (despite it not really feeling very vaporwave, just vaporwave adjacent) fed into the anti-authority narrative as well. The only complaint I really have with the game is the janky collection gameplay. A large portion of this game is about exploration, which I apprecate, the only issue is that a lot of exploration is thrust upon you via collectibles. Although it was fun for a while, This fell apart in two ways for me. There was one point where I felt stuck, I had to explore the island, essentially tidying up the entire map to the point where there were no collectibles in my viscinity. This took about an hour and a half, and I found it to be quite tedious. Also, it's hard to find all of the evidence on your own due to meditation not showing any of the important stuff to you. Despite that, Paradise Killer remains one of my favorites I've played in a while.