5 Years Later, There’s Still Nothing Like This Bizarrely Beautiful Detective Game

The leaders of the world’s most exclusive resort lie dead in a locked room, and a detective exiled from the community years ago is the only one who can solve the case. That’s not a particularly unexpected setup for a mystery story, except that everyone involved is immortal, the resort is an entire alternate plane of existence, and the slayings happened on the eve of a ritual that would see mortals sacrificed to further the victims’ ends. It’s been five years since the release of Kaizen Game Works’ Paradise Killer, and there’s still nothing else out there that comes close to its otherworldly style.

Released on September 4, 2020, Paradise Killer follows detective Lady Love Dies, armed with her trusty laptop, Starlight. The case she’s brought in to solve is straightforward in some ways. The victims have all been murdered with no attempt to cover it up, and the only possible suspects are the fellow residents of their island paradise. Other parts of the case are a little more complex, like the magically locked door outside, the demons haunting the island, and the fact that absolutely nothing anyone says can be trusted.

Where some detective games are content to guide you by the hand to their solutions, Paradise Killer sets you loose and trusts you to put your theories together on your own. Most of the game consists of walking back and forth across paradise, speaking to the island’s inscrutable residents. Masked cultists, bartending skeletons, and goat-headed gods are the most ordinary residents you’ll find here, and they’ve all got their own agendas and secrets to keep. As you scrounge around for clues and interrogate the members of the elite Syndicate about their significance, you’ll be caught up in years-long grudges and plots that you need to untangle with almost no help from the game itself.

Besides the murder mystery elements, Paradise Killer is a game about what it means to build a perfect world. The project of the Syndicate, and the reason their exclusive island exists at all, is to summon paradise. Over the course of millennia, the Syndicate has built and rebuilt their world, sacrificing countless human servants in an attempt to make the perfect one. The game is an interrogation of who gets to decide what perfection looks like and who gets left behind in that vision as much as it’s a mystery to uncover.

Wandering the island and retracing your steps is necessary to figure out exactly what’s going on, so it’s a good thing that it’s such a glorious environment to find yourself in. Paradise Killer features a vaporwave art style that truly looks like no other game. Part island resort, part bizarre dream, the game’s world is subtly unnerving, while its characters are deviously stylish. A fantastic, synthy soundtrack accompanies the investigation, its playful vibe clashing with the grim work you’re there to do.

Even if its aesthetics were the best part about it, it would still be worth playing through Paradise Killer just to experience them. But what really makes it a must-play mystery is how open-ended it is. Few detective games actually make you feel like a detective, laden as they are with bread crumbs and quest markers. The free-roaming style of Paradise Killer means it’s easy to get lost and frustrated, but that just makes it all the more satisfying when you can finally build a case against the Syndicate’s attacker.

Earlier in 2025, Kaizen Game Works released Promise Mascot Agency, a game just as bizarre as Paradise Killer, but entirely different from it. Both are narrative adventures, but Promise Mascot Agency blends life sim elements and minigames into its strange story about a Yakuza member recruiting the world’s worst consumed mascots. Along with their enclosed settings, what the games really have in common is Kaizen’s skill with turning absurd premises into unforgettable experiences.

Paradise Killer is too weird of a game to ever be a mainstream success, but it seems destined to become a cult hit. Dripping with style and utterly unique in its investigative gameplay, Paradise Killer is a game you need to experience and it hasn’t lost any of its edge five years on.

Paradise Killer is available now on PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PC.