If I told you the developer of this game had never heard of SUDA51, you'd be well within your rights to slap me in my face and repossess my entire video game collection. Paradise Killer is pretty blatantly swaggerjacking SUDA51, like, the whole entire aesthetic is fucking farm to table. But those with a learned and discerning eye will note that aside from the deviantart-tier character designs, the guys behind PK are actually pretty fucking good at replicating that off-kilter and smooth style that people attribute to SUDA51. There's a bunch of flashy nonsense thrown at you that can be kind of fun to think about. Its the kind of thing that seems low effort but will miss and seem horrible if done poorly (see dumb bullshit like Killer is Dead and all those bad games that aren't really by SUDA51).
Mechanically, the game is pretty sorely lacking. It could have been better. Could it have been good? It does one super fascinating thing, which is to stitch a visual novel onto a 3D platformer. Gives you a world to explore, even if it is mostly just an excuse to get text dumped at you. There are some fun platforming moments. The way the game teaches you about fall damage, oooooh baby. That's fucking video games right there. But otherwise, eh. The detective elements are mostly just a function of exploration, which due to a completely horrible map falls short of what it should be.
The map. My god, the map. How? Why? Is a compass forbidden by the dead gods of that world? Is navigation considered an impure skill, evidence of illegal enthrallment? This game largely consists of walking back and forth across a map with no consistent way to orient yourself thereon. Why? Even just an indicator of north: surely, I overlooked something; surely the Nintendo Switch just can't handle that sort of complexity and the feature is available on other consoles; there must be some rational explanation for this.
Exploring the map on the moment to moment level can be fun. It should be fun. There are a million little collectibles and it must be underscored how good the music is. At the beginning of the game you still need to talk to everyone, so its easy to make progress. As real navigation matters, the annoyance sets in. There is a fast travel system but the reliance on currency made that difficult to take advantage of. The map isn't even easily accessible.
The writing is silly and dramatic and cool. There are some ruminations on the nature of truth that I can dig for sure. Those don't really go anywhere and I didn't think the end result (that I reached, at least) was all that much deeper than a Poirot novel or something like that.
Paradise Killer is close to fine. It's stylish and tries to be interesting. I'd buy these guy's next game, they're sure to get there someday. I don't know if this is really worth it. But if you'd like to waste some time, there are worse ways.
Mechanically, the game is pretty sorely lacking. It could have been better. Could it have been good? It does one super fascinating thing, which is to stitch a visual novel onto a 3D platformer. Gives you a world to explore, even if it is mostly just an excuse to get text dumped at you. There are some fun platforming moments. The way the game teaches you about fall damage, oooooh baby. That's fucking video games right there. But otherwise, eh. The detective elements are mostly just a function of exploration, which due to a completely horrible map falls short of what it should be.
The map. My god, the map. How? Why? Is a compass forbidden by the dead gods of that world? Is navigation considered an impure skill, evidence of illegal enthrallment? This game largely consists of walking back and forth across a map with no consistent way to orient yourself thereon. Why? Even just an indicator of north: surely, I overlooked something; surely the Nintendo Switch just can't handle that sort of complexity and the feature is available on other consoles; there must be some rational explanation for this.
Exploring the map on the moment to moment level can be fun. It should be fun. There are a million little collectibles and it must be underscored how good the music is. At the beginning of the game you still need to talk to everyone, so its easy to make progress. As real navigation matters, the annoyance sets in. There is a fast travel system but the reliance on currency made that difficult to take advantage of. The map isn't even easily accessible.
The writing is silly and dramatic and cool. There are some ruminations on the nature of truth that I can dig for sure. Those don't really go anywhere and I didn't think the end result (that I reached, at least) was all that much deeper than a Poirot novel or something like that.
Paradise Killer is close to fine. It's stylish and tries to be interesting. I'd buy these guy's next game, they're sure to get there someday. I don't know if this is really worth it. But if you'd like to waste some time, there are worse ways.