Paradise Killer is one of the greatest detective games ever made, which is remarkable when you consider it's the low budget debut of a tiny indie studio. It succeeds where other detective games fail by letting you actually be a detective. There are no missions, objective markers, pre-ordained paths to follow, or other such hand-holding. You're set free in an open world littered with clues, leads, and suspects, and piecing the case together is left entirely up to you. It's even possible to pin the crime on the wrong person entirely.
You play as Lady Love Dies, a disgraced investigator freed from exile and ordered to investigate a brutal mass murder on Paradise Island, a vividly painted world that lingers on the fringes of reality. It's a surreal dreamscape of idyllic palm tree-lined beaches, colossal crystal statues of bizarre deities, and Japanese convenience stores. Investigating the murder draws our formerly exiled detective into a vast, complex conspiracy, which she has to untangle by finding evidence, poking holes in suspects' testimonies, and breaking alibis.
Paradise Killer excels as a detective game because the world is completely free to explore, and you can trigger the final trial whenever you like using the clues you've discovered up to that point. The first time I went to court, something didn't feel right. I had enough evidence to accuse a suspect, and the pieces seemed to fit. But there were a few gaps in my theory that were bugging me. So I reloaded, swept the island for clues again, and found a single, well-hidden clue that completely transformed my perception of the case.
At court it was a totally different trial, and I cursed myself for jumping to conclusions the first time around. Paradise Killer puts a huge amount of trust and confidence in you as a player, which is always the hallmark of a great detective game. You can get a case through court, ending with the execution of the accused, but that doesn't automatically mean you got it right. You can always retry like I did, or you can just live with your decisions. The game doesn't judge you either way, which is one of its many strokes of genius.
Letting you accuse anyone on the island is an impressive feat of narrative logistics. Paradise Killer has a lot in common with visual novels (particularly the Danganronpa series), and there's a lot of dialogue. Yet everything is so intricately connected, and the writing so consistent, that you never feel overwhelmed by it. When you uncover a tantalising thread that might potentially lead to a case-shattering revelation, the game is good at keeping it within reach. You might lose momentum, but you'll never hit a solid brick wall.
Everyone who plays Paradise Killer will have a different experience based on the order they talk to people, find clues, visit locations—and, ultimately, when they decide to go to court. This leaves some players wondering if there's really one true sequence of events, or if the story changes based on your actions. But developer Kaizen Game Works has made it clear that there is a single, unwavering truth at the core of this mystery. That's another reason it's a great detective game: it sticks religiously to a timeline of events.
However, there's a chance you might bounce off it at first. I know several people who tried to play it, but were put off by its weird mythology and arcane lore. Before you can really get invested in solving the murder, you have to wrap your head around the abstract nature of the island and its eccentric residents—who have names like Doctor Doom Jazz, One Last Kiss, and Crimson Acid. It's a fantastic looking game, with superb character designs by artist Gigalithic and wild, vibrant environments, but it's all deeply strange.
But it's worth powering through that initial feeling of confusion. Spend enough time on Paradise Island and everything starts to make an odd kind of sense. You're then free to dig into the crime and tumble into its increasingly deep, fascinating rabbit holes. When I first played it, I kept catching myself staring into space and daydreaming about theories I had, or which suspect to grill next. Paradise Killer's offbeat presentation works because everything is underpinned by a solid, well-designed, and tightly logical murder mystery.
I also have to mention the music, because it's sublime. Composed by Epoch, it encompasses a variety of styles including funk, jazz fusion, city pop, and '90s video game music—specifically the PC Engine CD, whose games had a distinctively bright, sparkly sonic personality, which Paradise Killer echoes brilliantly. It's one of only a few video game soundtracks I listen to outside of the game, and a major part of why Paradise Island is such an enjoyable place to hang out. I can't wait to hear what Epoch comes up with next.
The game wears its influences on its sleeve, whether it's city pop album covers, Goichi Suda games, vaporwave, anime, or visual novels. But while games that take this much inspiration from other media often feel contrived, Paradise Killer has enough personality of its own to avoid feeling like a glorified mood board. Throw in the fact that it's a revolutionary detective game and there really is no excuse not to play it—especially now that it's coming to PlayStation and Xbox, having previously only been playable on PC and Switch.
