Final Fantasy XV is not a bad game, but it is supremely frustrating at almost every level. It has flashes of brilliance but there's so much untapped potential.

Obviously FFXV didn't have the easiest development history a game has ever had, but it's noticeable how incomplete so many aspects feel. While it generally does a good job with its four main protagonists and villain, there are so many side characters that are either terrible (in design and/or writing) or severely underused - in fact, some just go missing completely despite being introduced as a major player.

The story itself is fine in concept but is held back by a number of issues - not least vanishing or underused characters that are meant to be important to the story - but also by an infuriating amount of time skips that seem to jump over important plot or character developments. This is most evident at around the point the game switches from open world to a more linear progression where characters experience a big event, and then a number of weeks pass and some have completely changed their demeanor and personality. The best utilised time skip comes towards the end of the game, but at that point you're a bit too close to the end to see the ramifications of it (not that you can, as the rest of the world is gated off almost completely at that point)

It also doesn't help that a lot of the interesting stuff that happens is completely off-screen, and you only find out about events through radio broadcasts and newspapers. Story events happening off screen are fine in isolation, but it's a regular occurrence in this game. Even worse is that some major developments occur to some of your main protagonists which are saved for DLC or just not elaborated on at all - especially infuriating is that one of these DLCs would have fit really well in the main game.

I have other quibbles about awful level gating (it's supremely easy to be overlevelled very quickly), combat that's purely functional rather than interesting and those awful, awful outfits for Cindy and Aranea, but the most annoying part of it all is that there was so much potential for this to be a great game. It needed a lot more time in the oven but I think Square Enix lost patience and the game director (Tabata) only had so much he could salvage. It does have its moments - the Altissia and ending sequences are very strong, Ardyn is a very intriguing character and the soundtrack is another fantastic Shimomura composition - but while I didn't dislike the time I spent with the game it's hard not to feel disappointed at what could have been.

I'd initially been drawn in by the absolutely wonderful soundtrack as well as the overall aesthetic and these are truly the highlights of the game. Paradise Killer oozes style, from the character designs all the way to its world lore. Learning information about what had happened in the past took a while to get interesting but that ended up being my main drive, rather than the whole murder business (more on that later).

While I liked the aesthetic of the world, the same can't be said about the world itself or traversal. Some areas of the map are a hopeless mess (I hope Perfect Island 25 decided to actually employ a city planner), while actually moving around became a chore thanks to some finicky controls, weird momentum shifts and the fact that Lady Love Dies apparently cannot move across the slightest bump in the ground without jumping over it.

However, Paradise Killer's main crime is that it's not a very good murder mystery or detective game. Actually exploring the whole island is nice shake up, but all you're really doing is finding the clues. There's no brain power required on the part of the player to solve "The Crime to End All Crimes" as everything is spelled out to you in big obvious letters on finding a clue, leaving the rest of the game to play out more as a visual novel, and a visual novel that loves to repeat itself. The trial at the end was such a disappointment, requiring the bare minimum of thought to solve what happened.

And yet I kept on playing - sometimes a game's style really can be enough to pull you through to the end. It wasn't an amazing experience (and it certainly isn't much of a detective game) but I it was quite relaxing and chilled out.