Paradise Killer review: A true Investigation Freak

Keep an open mind and an appetite for the truth, and fall in love with Paradise Killer, its colorful characters, and the gripping murder mystery at its center.

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Lady Love Dies is a world-famous detective called back from exile to solve her most challenging case yet – who killed Paradise. Paradise is not a person, a band, or a religious concept. It’s an island full of the most bizarre people you’ll ever meet.

Welcome to Paradise

Going into Paradise Killer’s story in detail will take far too long and will leave most of us very, very confused. So let’s cover the basics.

The island of Paradise where the game takes place is Paradise 24. Like every island before it, this island is dying, and all the residents must leave to a new island – Paradise 25. The council is responsible for creating this new Paradise but were all killed before they could finish it. Now it’s up to us to solve their murder so that everyone on Paradise 24 can move on.

There’s a lot more to the story I’m not getting into, and I encourage you to find out for yourself. I’ll admit, I was skeptical about Paradise Killer at first, as the story is a bit odd. But to my delight, I discovered a genuinely captivating investigation.

Not Everyone in Paradise Is a Saint

Since we are here to investigate a brutal murder, we get to question many of this paradise’s residents. Despite them being in Paradise, they are not a delightful bunch.

A key character we meet is the Judge. She is the one who summoned us back from exile and tasks us with solving the murder. She’s the first important person we see in the game, and one look at her is enough to tell you the people you are going to meet are not ordinary by any means.

Shinji is a perfect example of just how twisted everyone is in Paradise. He appears a lot during our investigation and tries to help us along the way. But mostly, he is very strange. His skin is light blue (with not a lot covering it), and he has the head of an animal and a free spirit. Shinji is also one of the very few characters we can’t make a romantic connection with.

With each new person we meet on the island, we have the opportunity to learn more about them, the island itself, and how the world changed while we were in exile. And if we’re lucky – maybe even a juicy secret or two about other characters. Some bits of information might look useless at first but could eventually turn out crucial to the investigation. Speaking with anyone you come across is important as those interactions can uncover some serious and shady motives.

The characters are all carefully designed to look and be as insane as possible. One can flirty and sweet when you first meet them, but maybe later you’ll find out they were lying through their perfect teeth. Some might look very guilty, but a conversation or two can reveal a whole other truth. So even if they look like a demonic skeleton or a sexy priest, you can never judge them by their cover.

An Investigator Is Only As Good as Her Tools

Since Lady Love Dies was exiled from Paradise many years ago, the residents don’t really trust her. But she is the only one who can solve the council’s murder. With her incredible machine named Starlight, we collect information, items, and all the secrets we can find.

But Starlight is more than just a computer. We can use her to go over everything we gathered so far, analyze it, and more. It’s all organized in the most convenient and approachable way possible.

Everyone we speak with appears in Starlight’s database in different folders, each containing everything we know about them for conversation and the information we collected on them. We also use this information when interrogating our colorful suspects.

Since we are an impartial investigator, we are driven only by the data we uncover. Nothing else impacts our personal judgment of our witnesses or suspects. Paradise Killer will continue on and on until we make the call and announce our final suspect. Once we do that, we have to present evidence supporting our claims. I recommend you do not jump to conclusions, and explore the game’s world as much as possible before choosing your suspect.

Odd, Morbid World 

Paradise Killer got me confused, or rather in sensory overload, just by walking around its semi-open world, picking up pieces of information, and talking to people.

I always had a plan. I was going to go in a very specific direction to speak with a very specific person. But on the way, I still got distracted looking for collectibles, clues, or a new person I’ve never seen before.

There is a map at your disposal, but I barely used it – I let the leads and my curiosity carry me around. Sometimes when you reach a new location with someone you never met before, they’ll contact you to ask me to come and talk to them. I find it is the best way to explore Paradise Killer – just follow your gut and see where it takes you.

The game surprised me with how detailed it is. The world, and everything in it, kept me captivated in the search for answers and clues. One of the things I love most about it is how it makes you feel like a real investigator. And how it manages to keep everything light and enjoyable, despite the gory murder we’re investigating. 

It’s the ’80s, Baby

There are many things to say about Paradise Killer and how magnificent it is – but it’s the soundtrack that I’d like to focus on. The entire game’s mood is dictated by its obvious adoration of 80’s popular music and 90’s video games.

During our investigation, we walk around this big open island to the sound of awesome ’80s-style music. Although I wasn’t around in the ’80s, even I can see (or hear, rather) that the soundtrack takes a lot of inspiration from this decade. It’s the perfect background for a weird game such as this one.

While the music screams “1980s,” the game’s visuals remind me of late ’90s websites. Environments are bright, with rough 3D models and textures that look like JPGs and GIFs. It can assault your eyes at times, but again – it all fits with the game’s mood very well.

There’s a lot to discover on Paradise 24 as Lady Love Dies. I had no clue what to expect when I first started Paradise Killer, but I quickly realized how wonderful, captivating, and fascinating it actually is.

Keep an open mind, and don’t let the bewildering characters and story scare you away. The colorful vibes and distractions of Paradise will get you hooked on a murder mystery you’ll be dying to solve.

Our Paradise Killer review copy was provided by the publisher.

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