"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.
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.