Kaizen Game Works announced murder mystery game Paradise Killer. The title is coming to PC and the Switch on September 4, and it’s quite a kooky game.
Paradise Killer dubs itself as an “open-world murder mystery” title. Players take on the persona of Lady Love Dies, a murder investigator. Lady Love Dies is searching for the murderer on an island that regenerates once every few millennia.
As the game tries to be a “perfect” paradise, the world shows its tainted colors. The entire she-bang is crazy, and there’s no saying what will come next.
Paradise feels straight out of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure
From the two trailers of the game, Kaizen is not showing off a lot so far. PK looks very avant-garde and experimental in its style. The game seems to combine the aesthetics of Myst and Talos Principle with Japanese visual novel quirkiness.
Paradise is colorful, with a lot of the island to explore and alien gods to see. Death is everywhere, and there’s evidence to find at every corner. The aesthetics are bombastic and can be downright ridiculous, similar to Death Come True.
Even the characters are larger than life. They feel like someone plucked them out of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure. There’s a ton of neon pink and colorful imagery.
Players would have to solve a ton of puzzles to push through the storyline. It doesn’t help that everyone outside Lady Love Dies seems to be a suspect.
PK is an ominous mystery hiding in neon
Paradise Killer is a weird game. Its queerness and eccentricity is not for everyone, but it makes for interesting gameplay. The entire world is one big visual novel, and it is open for investigation.
The environmental design is 3D, populating it with 2D anime characters. Much like Talos Principle, there’s an ominous feeling that the game is hiding something. Everyone is a neon-colored weirdo, so expect the unexpected.
What strikes different from Paradise is the NPC system. All characters are 2D in a 3D world, which looks surreal. Much of the world is sprawling all over, and investigations will bring players everywhere.
It looks more proof of concept than anything, but it is a full game with a $20 price tag. Even then, Kaizen Game Works will give a 20% discount to all fans on launch.
On Switch, discounts will run until September 11. The PC version discount will run from September 4 through 18, bringing the game down to US$16.
Paradise Killer is Danganronpa on steroids, and it feels like that too. For people who would like something new, this game should scratch the itch. The gorgeous, open-world will be a superb treat to explore.
Images courtesy of Fellow Traveler/YouTube Screenshot