“this level of reasoning is possible for furudo erika. what do you think, everyone?” - furudo erika, umineko no naku koro ni

initial impressions of paradise killer have made me think it’s a somewhat hollow pastiche of suda51’s kill the past oeuvre, from its very title being seemingly mashed from grasshopper manufacture’s titles, to its near constant reiterations of protagonist lady love dies’ catchphrase “the truth and facts are different”, and its very… flower sun and rain-like quality to it. paradise killer wears its inspirations on its sleeve nearly to its detriment, but it ultimately shows that it’s taken away a lot of the right things from kill the past. in fact, i would go as far as to even surmise that surface-level comparisons to ktp is an intended choice; an idyllic paradise is host to a society built upon injustices and exploitation (such as the kidnapping and forced servitude of mortal humans to churn the gears of the lifestyles of love dies and her nigh-immortal demigod cohorts’ indulgent lifestyles) that they throw away and start again in island cycles, with the audacity to tell us their next island is the 25th one. the picture-perfect paradise feels shallow, and the overtly vaporwave-influenced visuals and diegetic music of the island accentuate it, with speakers blaring its music selection almost everywhere love dies runs to. vaporwave is, after all, a genre rooted in anarchy and critiques of consumer capitalism as paradise killer lifts motifs from ktp the way vaporwave producers sample from old pop songs and commercials to induce the feeling of nostalgia the genre is often associated with. it’s the perfect nod to grasshopper’s identity as a “punk rock video game studio”.

some areas i felt paradise killer felt were rather lacking in went from small details like grammar and punctuation making the reading feel somewhat awkward and stilted at times to more sweeping design issues like how uninvolved the investigation and interrogation process feels sometimes. there isn’t a whole lot of dynamism to how love dies interrogates suspects and she almost always says the right things and the presenting of her accrued evidence during the trial is love dies explaining what it is and it’s simply taken as-is without that much resistance confronting the player. additionally, as a game that prides itself on allowing the player to spin their own truths derived from the facts, the evidence found, circumstantial or otherwise, points to a pretty clear objective truth. and even if the player manages to manipulate their truth to avoid incriminating certain characters, there’s nothing in the epilogue that acknowledges the player actively making the choice to cover for them. i do, however, feel that there’s a certain thematic significance in at least attempting to do so, even if the execution runs contrary to its core tenet.

i prefaced the review with a quote from umineko’s furudo erika because the way she operates in umineko episode 5, i feel is not too dissimilar to how lady love dies can approach the mystery. what erika represents in umineko manifests through love dies in how the player chooses how much they want to investigate, and how much the facts support the truth they want to weave. erika supplants protagonist ushiromiya battler’s position as the detective in the gameboard of umineko’s main setting, rokkenjima island, where the murder of 18 people occur, and the witch beatrice claims to be the culprit. for the sake of brevity (and because i’d like people who haven’t read umineko to do so), i’ll say that essentially the main conflict of umineko is disputing that the culprit is not a witch and can commit the rokkenjima murders entirely through human tricks. however, beatrice’s gameboard represents much more than just the murder mystery, but erika simply does not care for any emotional throughline beyond the mystery. she is solely focused on unraveling the truth of the murder, and completely hones in on who she assumes to be the culprit and constructs her truth entirely off that assumption, going so far as to suspend the gameboard after only accounting for facts that support her truth instead of allowing the game to run to completion and conducting a more thorough investigation. paradise killer gives the player the option to suspend love dies’ investigation whenever the player decides to do so and allow them to accuse any they deem to be the culprit behind the mystery, provided they have enough evidence to support it. among those that love dies can accuse are even her old friends, the daybreaks, with more than enough evidence to justify putting a gun to their heads if she so wanted to. it almost makes their past history and any existing emotional connections entirely meaningless should the player follow through in convicting them of being accomplices in the murder. all for the truth, right?

what’s maybe the most damning thing about the farce posing as the trial isn’t just how the truth is at the whims of the player, but judge giving love dies the authority to execute or exile any suspect in the trials aftermath, all without trial, at the player’s discretion. to me, this cemented love dies as a dark reflection of the silver case’s kusabi tetsugoro, minus the rugged machismo posturing. where kusabi had acted at the behest of the state as a fascist thug committing extrajudicial murders under the pretense of stopping crime, completely unquestioning of what he and his peers do, love dies is keenly aware of the inherent wickedness of the society and status quo she works to enforce, yet continues in the name of nebulous concepts such as “truth” and “justice”. where ktp characters like kusabi, kodai sumio, and morishima tokio eventually find it in themselves to thrash against the wards’ oppressive regime with every fiber of their being, love dies is content to perpetuate it, maybe sometimes bailing her syndicate pals out of execution (should the player want to) while the island sequence and its rulers continue to oil its gears with the blood of its citizens. the futility of it all is further exacerbated with henry division’s fate; there simply isn’t a way out of paradise whether the player acquits him of the murder conspiracy or not. he’s tied to island 24 as part of its disposable class, and will die with it. the only thing that changes is whether he dies at the hands of love dies or not. ultimately, the “truth” and “justice” love dies upholds are tools granted by the state and are inherently cruel and only serves as another means of violence, making love dies another collaborator in the atrocities the island sequences are built off of.

overall, paradise killer is a competently thought-out critique on authoritarian regimes and hypercapitalist societies masquerading as a stylish murder mystery adventure (sound familiar?). while aspects of the game left me wanting something more dynamic and involved, its decent enough as-is with a lot of thoughtful pontificating on the space between fact and truth, how the beauty we often envision paradise with is almost always cultivated on the exploitation of the weak and disposable, and what it means to pursue one’s own truth.

doctor doom jazz having a sticker on one of his mechanical arms that say “child labour” is maybe the most thematically appropriate design choices in fiction.

Reviewed on May 26, 2022


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