Paradise Killer was a nice surprise. I knew it looked great aesthetically, but for some reason I was expecting something much smaller and simpler. This is a full scale, complicated, juicy mystery in a vast island full of evidence to find. It is set in a bizarre and stylish futuristic universe, so you are not just trying to understand what happened, but also what the fuck this place is, what are their beliefs, what is their conception of time, or power.

You have a robust menu system with a timeline, a log of people’s testimonies and alibi’s, and the usable evidence related to each crime committed. You can build trust with someone so they will tell you more and you can cross-reference what they said with someone else. The mystery is multi-layered to such a degree that basically everything you find ends up being relevant in terms of painting a complete picture of what happened. And best of all: It is all addressed in the end. It is probably possible to simply collect stuff and improvise an accusation, but if you go to the trial having thought everything through, the granularity of the system allows you to build the case exactly as you want and it is so fucking satisfying.

There is a bit of first person 3D platforming, which is somewhat finicky as one would expect, but it’s half broken in an ultimately pleasant way; sticky friction if you will. Same with the clash of art styles; you have these 2D characters in 3D environments, and menus that feel like anime title cards. There’s a light layer of vaporwave over everything, but none of the story deals with the frankly boring nostalgic themes of that genre, and the soundtrack is way too lavish and funky to be elevator music. This using something familiar to do something unfamiliar is present in many facets of the game, and it’s very tasteful.

Since the menus are so detailed, when they did omit something, it was a bit of a shame: I still used a pen and paper to note things down because I realised not everything was going to be clear in the in-game notes. And I do wish the world traversal options were a bit more varied.

But overall, it’s a wonderful addition to this genre, with a great level of care put into the parts that matter the most, and clever artistry making the rest of it work.