Official Review Nintendo Switch Updated

Paradise Killer (Nintendo Switch)
Official GBAtemp Review

Name: Paradise Killer
Item: Paradise Killer
Rating: 8.5
Author: relauby

Product Information:

Release Date (NA): September 4, 2020
Release Date (EU): September 4, 2020
Publisher: Fellow Traveller
Developer: Kaizen Game Works
Genres: Open-world exploration investigation
Also For: Computer

Game Features:

Single player

Local Multiplayer

Online Multiplayer

Co-operative

Get to know a strange, alien-worshipping culture and try to solve the crime to end all crimes in this open-ended investigation thriller!

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Investigations often feel like a necessary evil in modern detective games. From Ace Attorney to L.A. Noire to Danganronpa, most of these sequences are structured as pure information dumps with little to no thought required from the player. Go to a room, click on all the highlighted points of interest to receive the information, and you'll be told when you're allowed to leave, where to go next and when you've collected all the evidence and are allowed to start the trial. There may be a puzzle here or there, but for the most part you're simply trodding along the game's path and waiting to be allowed to play again.

Paradise Killer does a few clever things to get past this problem. First of all, there's only one single case in the entire game, eliminating the need for an overarching plot or, really, any character arcs or development. The narrative is focused entirely on crafting an engaging mystery, and with such ample time, it quickly becomes an engrossing web of conspiracies. It also sets itself in a strange world, with its own unique culture and rich history to explore, and uncovering the nature of the world can help encourage players along before the breadcrumbs of the investigation come together in a way that's really intriguing. Your player character, Lady Love Dies, has been in exile for the last three million days, positioning her smartly as an audience surrogate who's unfamiliar with the current state of affairs, but doesn't need to have the basics of this world explained to her, allowing some mystery to build surrounding this society. Some players may be put off by the garish style and complete alienness of the world (I'll admit to eye-rolling a little at characters with names that sound like they come out of bad noir-detective tabletop RPGs, like Lady Love Dies or Lydia Day Break), but those who love getting lost in a new world, especially one with a sci-fi/fantasy/horror blend, will be in love here. It's also easy to get absorbed by the flair on display, with the neon colour scheme and fantastic soundtrack, which sounds like a modernized, up-tempo version of jazzy, noir detective score.

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Paradise Killer's setup is hard to explain succinctly, but I'll do my best. It takes place on Paradise Island Sequence 24, an island created in a pocket of reality separate from the "real world" by the Syndicate, a group of immortals granted gifts by the god Sad Goat, who now spend millennia worshipping and trying to resurrect the other gods--who are really just cosmically powerful aliens from the far reaches of space that don't seem benevolent or even particularly fond of the Syndicate. Island 24 is dying, as the previous 23 have, due to demonic corruption and invasion, and on the eve of the creation of Island 25, the heads of the Syndicate, known as the Council, are murdered during a meeting. Lady Love Dies, sentenced to exile after being deceived by a god into letting demons onto Island 13, is brought back to Paradise to solve the case.

It may be convoluted, but it pays off in terms of creating an engaging, thematically complex world. The Council is torn between devoting their efforts towards perfecting their Islands and focusing only on resurrecting the gods. This leads to some infighting and petty power struggles, highlighting the Council's selfishness, as even the most devout among them are willing to commit sacrilege to further their own goals. The idea that the Syndicate worship themselves as false idols is further supported by the fact that they've started to resemble traditional versions of Norse and Roman gods, and even the few things we know about their specific gods. They're immortal and granted other fantastic gifts, but are not infallible or impervious to pain, and are all some combination of hedonistic, wrathful or materialistic.

Most of these immortals seem to have been born around the end of the first millennia, meaning their views on religion skew more towards wrath and subjugation than a modern "love thy neighbour" worldview. The Islands are powered by the Citizens, thousands of enslaved people from the real world who are given eternal life, but are slaughtered at the end of an Island sequence, necessitating the need for fresh meat on the next one. The Citizens are placated by propaganda and simple commercial products that keep them working and give them small favours to look forward to, ensuring they don't revolt. While that type of commentary on the downtrodden worker and late-stage capitalism isn't particularly new, the religious undertones--when you consider that the ruling class are in a godly position, and are themselves worshipping vengeful gods for a self-destructive and unknowable purpose--breathe a little bit of new life into it.

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The most important thing that makes its focus on investigation stick is its commitment to player freedom. After a brief tutorial, players are dropped on to this island paradise and left entirely to their own devices, with complete freedom to pursue the truth however they wish. You're given the assumed version of events, and a handy augmented reality view that guides you to the crime scene and every person on the island you can speak to, to help direct your initial investigation, but any specific action or sequence of actions are up to the player. The first-person exploration controls are surprisingly smooth, and lend themselves well to minor platforming challenges as you climb fences or jump off a cliff to reach an otherwise-restricted rooftop. Blood crystals, this world's currency, are scattered around the island, encouraging exploration to the nth degree, which can lead to some finds that are integral to the case. While this could easily become overwhelming, the menu system does a fantastic job of cataloguing and categorizing your evidence, suspects, and general information about the Island to help keep you on track.

One memorable moment found me climbing the exterior wall of the building where the murder happened when I missed a jump and plummeted to the river below (fall damage isn't a thing on Paradise Island), and stumbled onto a discarded piece of evidence that strongly suggested one of the suspects was framed. A piece of evidence that, to my knowledge, is not hinted at by any of the other characters, and with nothing in particular to point you in that direction. The evidence didn't end up being relevant because I had enough other evidence when the trial came, but it might have ended up crucial to somebody else's case.

This touches on another interesting thing: players set the pace of their investigation, and decide when they want to go to trial. Similar to how Calamity Ganon can be fought at any time in Breath of the Wild, players can decide they have enough evidence to get the convictions they want and approach the judge at any time. The judge will decide whether the evidence is sufficient to convict or if the assumed version of events will be accepted. This also means that, while the developers have a specific series of events in their head that is canon, there's no way for players to know whether they cracked the case correctly or sent innocent people to their deaths. I'm fairly confident in my convictions because I got confessions out of everyone I accused, but in a world of co-conspirators, unrequited loves and gods that can infect and deceive people's minds, I don't know for sure that they weren't covering for somebody. There was only one lead I wasn't able to chase down during my time on Paradise, and while it felt minor at the time, I still find myself thinking about it and wanting to return to ease my uncertainty.

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Paradise Killer might be a hard sell for a lot of people. The tedium of modern detective games may leave a bad taste in people's mouths for investigation mechanics in games, and those who prefer a bit more direction in their games may be put off by quite how open-ended the exploration can be. However, trying to broaden a product's appeal can often dilute it, and Kaizen Game Works were confident enough in their work to settle comfortably into a specific niche and they nail every aspect of what they set out to accomplish. If you like detective stories or getting lost in unique sci-fi/fantasy worlds, Paradise Killer is a must-play.

Verdict

What We Liked ...

Open-ended investigation gives player real agency and makes it easier to get sucked into the mystery
Terrific music
Strong narrative and worldbuilding

What We Didn't Like ...

The alienness of the world can be off-putting or overwhelming near the beginning, especially when trying to get invested in the specifics of the murder case

Gameplay

Most of the gameplay here is simple investigation via exploration, but everything works as well as could be expected. The controls are smooth and simple, the game runs perfectly on Switch (in both handheld and TV mode), and the agency handed over to the player in the investigation is a clever design that makes it easy to get engaged.

Presentation

Paradise Killer's world and narrative are its strong suit. The mystery is a long, tangling web of conspiracies that unfolds nicely and is presented nicely to the player, despite the fact that the player dictates the pace and order things come out. The world is engrossing, and the music and visuals do a lot of heavy lifting as well.

Lasting Appeal

Like most mystery stories, especially ones with such a singular focus on solving the mystery and little else, there's little replay value in Paradise Killer. There may be some interest in reloading old saves to pursue false convictions, just out of curiosity, but little else. However, the investigation has a good length to it, lasting roughly 15-20 hours depending on how in-depth you wish to go with hunting the truth.

8.5

out of 10

Overall

Paradise Killer may not be for everybody, but by focusing so singularly on one niche aspect of games, it makes detective work more engaging and memorable than any other game of its kind.

Reactions: MaxToTheMax and T-hug

relauby
Sep 4, 2020

I just want to briefly mention a softlock bug I found. I didn't put it in the review since it's relatively minor and will probably be patched out quickly (though still present as of 1.0.8 update that went out this morning):

1) If you hit the + button while on the map screen to select where you want to fast travel, the map will go down but your case files won't come up, softlocking the game

I should mention there was another similar one that did get patched out this morning, so there's reason to believe this one will be fixed as well. I just wanted to briefly mention it here since Paradise Killer does not autosave so if you're not regularly saving you could get really screwed over by this (like I almost did).

1800 games on my switch. But im not getting this. Looks boring as fk.

Reactions: darcangel

This looks like one of the worst character design I saw in a game in ages. Easy-Pass

Chrisssj2 said:
1800 games on my switch. But im not getting this. Looks boring as fk.

1800 games youre a loser. because you have too many games.

Reactions: slaphappygamer

Pokemon_Tea_Sea_Jee said:
1800 games youre a loser. because you have too many games.

Jealous much?

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