The big reason to play Paradise Killer is for the vibes - and that's not a bad thing.

The mystery itself is enjoyable and the collectathon first-person platforming is decent enough (if a weird combo with the VN detective bits) but that's not the reason this game will stick in your mind.

The reason this game stuck with me is the worldbuilding - and uncovering just how fucked up Paradise really is, with its obsession with reviving evil gods and violent rituals, whilst the game itself is submerged in vibrant vaporwave is really the core of what makes Paradise Killer stand out. It's one of the few games I stopped to read the flavour text and take in the environment - there's a whole Pantheon of Gods and lore surrounding them that really help you buy into what could otherwise have been a fairly routine detective-style mystery game.

Because of that unique worldbuilding though, it makes this one an easy recommend.

I'll see you on the Perfect 25.

Even though I'm not the best at rhythm games, Hi-fi Rush still manages to make you feel like you know what you're doing (most of the time).

Was not a fan of the record-scratch introduction from the trailer but the humor, style really ended up working in the context of the game. Always great to see unique, colorful art styles being used.

All in all a great surprise drop that makes a great use of gamepass.

forgot i played this until i beat violet lol..

left off right before the elite four and i don't see myself coming back but im basically done soooo
this game is the biggest kick in the balls ever!! i was so excited for sinnoh remakes and Bam.
its the same exact game yet it looks worse and is stripped of Platinum Content. yeah the grand underground is there but it feels like that was squeezed into the game the same way smash bros tosses in clones at the end of development except it stinks

in a vacuum this game isn't that bad but im kinda sick of having to look at this series that way in order to not absolutely despise the games

What happened here?

The opening and first area gave a really positive impression. There's a lot of room to navigate the city in a catty way, climbing around on surfaces, scratching things, slipping through someone's legs when they're not paying attention to sneak into a building. For a bit, it seems like they really are interested in the questions about "what does it mean for a cat to navigate this world, how would they experience it".

After a certain point it feels like they've run out of ideas, and what they fall back on is the most boring gameplay tropes imaginable. One scene has you activating a loud elevator that slowly descends while you dodge zombies, like any 2006-era action game for the 360. In another you avoid flashlight beams in the most boring, by-the-numbers stealth sequence, with drones ready to shoot your little cat dead. They don't give you any sense of real tension, any narrative reasons to care about them, they're just boring and embarassing filler. Worse, they don't make any use at all of your being a cat. They seem to have forgotten to consider that maybe a cat might have different ways of moving through the world like in the open world sections. You could have made these exact scenes with a generic human and wouldn't have to change a single thing. I might have felt better about them if they didn't make up at least 75% of the game.

The story emphasizes that this isn't a story about a cat at all. The robot doesn't get the focus just because he can speak, but because they don't seem to have thought about the cat as being capable of having real emotions or motivations. The cat doesn't seem to want to go anywhere, doesn't seem to want to do anything. Aside from a couple of scenes where they're briefly injured, and one of the final scenes, the game doesn't really care about presenting the cat's emotional state at all. The developers don't seem to have had any confidence in their ability to tell a story about someone who's not human and how they experience the world, so they didn't even try. What they did make is as clichéd as I could imagine, and every single twist and attempt at an emotional moment is predictable and weakly told.

I felt a little better about the game before the final action scenes, which are so frustrating and so badly matched to the rest of the game that I just wanted it to be over.