When I first saw Paradise Killer, I instantly went “nope” and moved on. I mean, it looked like a weak attempt to mix the currently still popular 80s aesthetic with Suda51 and Danganronpa that had all of the flair, but no substance. Yet, as time went by I’ve heard more and more good things about the title and eventually decided to give it a go myself. While my original assumptions weren’t entirely disproven, Paradise Killer turned out to be a really enjoyable game.
Paradise Killer is an open world investigation adventure game with elements of a visual novel and, possibly most uniquely, fully unrestricted first person traversal controls. You can walk whenever you like, crouch, jump, even unlock additional traversal options at specific points. And you can explore the island you will find yourself on any way you see fit. It’s not exactly unheard of, since the story exploration games/walking sims started similarly and the revival of first person perspective adventure games with horror themed titles of Frictional Games all played similarly, but it’s still quite unique just how completely unrestrained you are in this game. Given that the island is also full optional items (some of which can be helpful for the investigation), it’s very unusual to see the game just be totally fine with the player abusing the jumping physics or weird geometry inconsistencies and, in fact, almost expecting many people to do that.
While that might not be a defining characteristic of the game, it certainly shows how open the title is. There’s a setup – a mass murder, – and a certain expectation at the start that people would at least look at the crime scene first. But you may choose to just go in a different direction and explore as you want, finding more potential leads or even new cases as you explore and talk to the weird inhabitants of this bizarre and effed up world. Suda51 comparisons are unavoidable and the developers are wearing their influences as a badge. And they do try to take this weird vaporwave meets Old Gods rule the world dystopia feel different from what you usually get from Suda51. Resulting in a universe that makes more sense, feels more consistent and doesn’t flippantly invent some crap just because it was fun. Which might be disappointing to some (not that there isn’t any “punk spirit” in the game), but I found at least interesting. And while I personally didn’t love the a e s t h e t i c or even the catchy soundtrack all that much (as it’s more “plain” and far less “quirky” than something Masafumi Takada would do), I’m sure lots of people would love this far more than I did.
Now, if you want this game specifically for an investigation part, you might be slightly disappointed, as lots of it requires you to also want to explore and “hang out” with characters, and also because there are no real “bad choices” you can make up until the trials start. You can find a bunch of evidence, talk to a person and ask them about literally everything with no consequence whatsoever, you can’t say a “wrong” thing or play your cards too early here. I didn’t find that disappointing, but, as a result, it did make all of the talks work far more like just clicking through stuff to get it over with, rather than thinking about what you talk about with whom and when. Additionally, given the size of the island, you might sometimes get in the situation where you remember seeing a place you need to go to with an item you just found, but the game doesn’t keep any information on that. It actually does track pretty much everything and any, say, computer you found that you “hack” with a simple minigame, will be tracked and shown in your AR mode. And it will smartly sort all of the evidence items for you in the computer interface. Yet if it’s just a spot on the ground which you saw several hours ago and can’t remember where it was now that you can interact with it – can’t help you there.
I suppose, the main strength of the game, in how nicely it flows and how open it is, is also it’s downside. Even during the final part of the game (which you can initiate whenever you feel ready) – the trials, – you usually only have to select the person you consider guilty, the rest will play itself based on the evidence you have uncovered. No need to explain yourself, no need to point out the specifics, no need to word replies carefully or not choose some options. Just select a person and go through all topics, just like with the dialogues. If you don’t have enough evidence to support the claim, it won’t fly, if you do it will, as simple as that. The game does focus on the concept that “a fact isn’t the truth”, which comes into play when you consider if you actually wish to condemn someone who is clearly involved, or let it slide and remain outside the truth of the matter. And it’s a nice concept. Yet, I can’t say that it would make you truly pause and think before acting, more likely you will have made up your mind far before it comes to making the choice.
Still, I really enjoyed exploring the island, learning more about the terrible world of this game and investigating the cases. They’re nicely written and voiced and the game isn’t all style with no substance. But I can’t say that it engaged me as much as the investigative parts of, say, 999 or Danganronpa which it clearly borrows from. It’s a really nice game that’s worth checking out – it might be just the thing for you.