Paradise Killer is a murder mystery investigation game that wears its spikechun and suda51 influences on its sleeve proudly. It has an excessive and unrelenting vapor wave style, that to be completely honest, is a bit of a trend that I'm not partial to, especially because even with the excellent art direction that this game has, vaporwave just generally (and this game is no exception) hurts to look at. That said PK takes this aesthetic and dangronpa-esque style and mashes it up with a lot of creative flare.
However, I'll stop the comparisons with "esque." Unlike DR, PK just has one major mystery, with numerous scenes to investigate and one large island to explore. The cast is smaller too, yet not wanting for more detail. The characters in this game are really unique and interesting, and I mean it. Each one of them is uniquely extreme in their own way, with their own motivations, feelings about the other major players on the island, the murders at the center of the mystery. I would say a lot of them are really superbly written, and have different dialogue trees for just about any evidence you find. The core loop of this game being primarily, free form exploration where you stumble upon things, asking characters for alibis, clues, tip offs for the existence of clues, but also lies and misinformation. This is a solid loop, but not without its faults.
While exploring the island is a fun task, players who aren't particularly thorough will, or at least could miss out on relatively plot critical details. The game does have a bit of an open ended finale where the information you ultimately know by the end, and who you choose to convict of murder is largely up to you, and if you wanted to you could end the game immediately. But thinking critically, if I wasn't hopping around like a maniac collecting the random vapor wave trinket trash that liters the island - the high octane gaming for which my brain was naturally designed - there are some clues that are pretty hidden which I'm not sure had hints towards their existence. For some that may leave holes. Occasionally, jumping around between characters can be kind of annoying or lead to lost time. There is a fast travel mechanic that I didn't use enough of though (although I'm also not sure why it costs a resource), so to be fair that's on me also. While I'm not necessarily upset about how much you have to go back to speak with a character again (which is something you'd expect to have to do as you learn new things), there's quite a bit of retreading.
The collectibles are well, pretty moot, they just sort of feel like they are there and there's really no reward or meaning to them besides a funny name and a blurb. At times the game's humor just didn't really land for me. Sometimes finding something that you know exists can be a bit of a chore when you have to look at perpetual vapor wave. The mystery itself is also not that mysterious after a certain point, though understanding what the motivations of each character could be or would be or are is more where the game puts the focus. and in those places I think it succeeds well.
The thing I must praise most in this game is the world building. While everything is extremely hard to look at, the environmental story telling, and the actual story telling really make up for the complete eye bleed. Paradise Killer takes place in what I can only imagine is something like a post-post-post-apocalyptic world. I'm talking like Warhammer 40k elder space god vibes. the writing really does a good job of world building this crazy universe, there's basically enough here to write your own RPG scenario. I'm not going to go into details so you can experience it for yourself. The island, game universe, and how each of your potential suspects fit into it actually does make the choice you make at the end of the game for who to convict actually pretty interesting.
Which moves onto my biggest complaint - I want more things written in this universe. Its fuckin cool man. To be frank I don't think the payoff for the ending feels that satisfying and once you've peeled away the layers of the mystery on your own the game doesn't have a vehicle for rewarding you because there's not any real final correct "answer." This frustrates me, but it put me into the mindset of the characters. PK doesn't ask you who to convict so much as who's cause do you support the most, and the 'causes' of the characters that the game builds up in this very strange post-post-post-apocalyptic world really excite me to see if the devs will continue to use this universe.
My eyes melted but it was hella.
However, I'll stop the comparisons with "esque." Unlike DR, PK just has one major mystery, with numerous scenes to investigate and one large island to explore. The cast is smaller too, yet not wanting for more detail. The characters in this game are really unique and interesting, and I mean it. Each one of them is uniquely extreme in their own way, with their own motivations, feelings about the other major players on the island, the murders at the center of the mystery. I would say a lot of them are really superbly written, and have different dialogue trees for just about any evidence you find. The core loop of this game being primarily, free form exploration where you stumble upon things, asking characters for alibis, clues, tip offs for the existence of clues, but also lies and misinformation. This is a solid loop, but not without its faults.
While exploring the island is a fun task, players who aren't particularly thorough will, or at least could miss out on relatively plot critical details. The game does have a bit of an open ended finale where the information you ultimately know by the end, and who you choose to convict of murder is largely up to you, and if you wanted to you could end the game immediately. But thinking critically, if I wasn't hopping around like a maniac collecting the random vapor wave trinket trash that liters the island - the high octane gaming for which my brain was naturally designed - there are some clues that are pretty hidden which I'm not sure had hints towards their existence. For some that may leave holes. Occasionally, jumping around between characters can be kind of annoying or lead to lost time. There is a fast travel mechanic that I didn't use enough of though (although I'm also not sure why it costs a resource), so to be fair that's on me also. While I'm not necessarily upset about how much you have to go back to speak with a character again (which is something you'd expect to have to do as you learn new things), there's quite a bit of retreading.
The collectibles are well, pretty moot, they just sort of feel like they are there and there's really no reward or meaning to them besides a funny name and a blurb. At times the game's humor just didn't really land for me. Sometimes finding something that you know exists can be a bit of a chore when you have to look at perpetual vapor wave. The mystery itself is also not that mysterious after a certain point, though understanding what the motivations of each character could be or would be or are is more where the game puts the focus. and in those places I think it succeeds well.
The thing I must praise most in this game is the world building. While everything is extremely hard to look at, the environmental story telling, and the actual story telling really make up for the complete eye bleed. Paradise Killer takes place in what I can only imagine is something like a post-post-post-apocalyptic world. I'm talking like Warhammer 40k elder space god vibes. the writing really does a good job of world building this crazy universe, there's basically enough here to write your own RPG scenario. I'm not going to go into details so you can experience it for yourself. The island, game universe, and how each of your potential suspects fit into it actually does make the choice you make at the end of the game for who to convict actually pretty interesting.
Which moves onto my biggest complaint - I want more things written in this universe. Its fuckin cool man. To be frank I don't think the payoff for the ending feels that satisfying and once you've peeled away the layers of the mystery on your own the game doesn't have a vehicle for rewarding you because there's not any real final correct "answer." This frustrates me, but it put me into the mindset of the characters. PK doesn't ask you who to convict so much as who's cause do you support the most, and the 'causes' of the characters that the game builds up in this very strange post-post-post-apocalyptic world really excite me to see if the devs will continue to use this universe.
My eyes melted but it was hella.