A Critique of Paradise Killer

[@borisbrodnik6466]

Hey, I found your channel through this video - there aren't many critiques of Paradise Killer. And now I'm watching more of your videos and they're all incredibly well made. I like how thoroughly you explore the games' themes and intentions. It's very clear that you went through them multiple times and looked at things from many angles. And I appreciate that :)

[@nagi9990]

Great video,, I have mixed thoughts on paradise killer. I was expecting the trials to make you deduce things yourself from the evidence, but all you get to do is pick who to accuse. Also I agree it’s annoying when you go to a character with evidence and nothing happens except two lines of dialogue denying it, especially when you have to go a long way

[@Erumore]

It's a shame because I love the idea of preparing evidence and making sure you didn't miss anything before heading into a trial, but the game just doesn't test you on anything you've learned at all. Thanks for the comment!

[@raulplacido1463]

I had the same problem and thought of the same potential solution of making the talking stages more engaging by limiting them, having to choose which questions to ask makes things so much more interesting

[@LunaAlphaKretin]

God, thank you, I am so glad to see a perspective like this after I played the game recently. You've echoed so many of my frustrations about the blood crystal system, the weak rebuffs from accused characters, the utter pointlessness of starting the trial early, while every other video on KZbin is nothing but glowing praise. I really wish the game forced you to go into the trial not fully understanding things, perhaps with a time limit like you propose. Another idea is to take out the perfect list of unclaimed evidence from the pause menu - let diligent investigators get the full story, but leave it up to the player's intuition if they've got everything, and with how hidden some evidence is (fairly or otherwise) there's a good chance many players would have been caught off guard and had a more interesting trial. In any case, it's just so validating to know that other players did have my experience.

[@Erumore]

Paradise Killer seems to be all about freedom on the surface, but when you have ultimate freedom without any responsibility to actually make choices, you just end up with a big checklist, which is what PK sadly ends up being. The game really would have benefited from giving the player a bit more responsibility, with the chance to miss evidence either because of a time limit or failing to spot clues. An open-world detective game is such a great concept, so fingers crossed somebody can execute on it at some point! Thanks for the comment and the kind words!

[@adammolski]

Idunno, personally I like the trials the way they are. You're not proving some absolute truth - you're just picking who's gonna get blamed for it. The whole paradise works like this, so why shouldn't you let someone off the hook if their part in the Big Crime was small? It's true that this is similar to Danganronpa, but I guess the difference here is that you are the Monokuma of the island. Not a game you play to win, a game you play to play. The only thing I disliked was Daimonigate. I will not elaborate on that one, he sucks the joy out of the whole mystery.