In its original guise, Paradise Killer was wonderfully idiosyncratic, a breathlessly stylish blend of visual novel and exploratory open-world murder mystery unfolding on the gaudy, sun-drenched Paradise 24 - part tropical island retreat, part shrine to a pantheon of preposterous cosmic gods - where players, in the role of Lady Love Die, must hunt for clues and cross-examine suspects to discover exactly who horrifically butchered the island’s ruling council. It’s at once a breezy, upbeat escapade - in large part thanks to its lively, appealingly diverse cast of characters (ranging from a fighter turned reluctant idol after a thankful god blessed her with the head of a goat to a blood-red skeleton eternally caught between life and death following a confession of true love) - and genuinely unsettling as its slow ebb of cosmic and human horror builds insidiously beneath the surface. “Paradise Killer is, like its island setting, so many things jostling awkwardly against each other,” is what I said in my Recommended review. “It’s a visual novel, a first-person exploration adventure, a kleptomaniac platformer, a murder mystery, and a refreshing spin on cosmic horror. And like Paradise 24, once you’ve become attuned to its peculiarities, it coalesces into a beautifully distinct whole. It’s a stylish, wonderfully assured vision, and a deeply engrossing detective yarn, as goofy as it is disquieting, even in the brilliance of its tropical sun.” All of which is to say that it’s fabulous - and, intriguingly, it might just be a little bit more so in its upcoming Xbox and PlayStation guises. According to Kaizen Game Works, its new console versions will feature a range of previously unseen content, including new music, “mysterious new beings”, plus new quests, rewards, and collectables. And if you already own the game on Steam and Switch, you’ll get the new stuff in a free update too. This new version of Paradise Killer will be available on Xbox One, PlayStation 4, Xbox Series X/S, and PlayStation 5, with current-gen consoles supporting “4K60, ray tracing, super-fast loading, Xbox Smart Delivery, haptics and a ‘day/night’ lightbar cycle for the PlayStation 5’s DualSense controller, and much more”. Kaizen notes it’s also bringing “performance enhancements” to the existing PC version (which will be available on the Epic Games Store for the first time), alongside achievements for Steam. And if that’s still not enough to be getting on with, the developer is also releasing a new compilation album on 16th March, building on Paradise Killer’s already stupendous original soundtrack with new songs by original composer by Barry “Epoch” Topping, plus new vocal arrangements, remixes, and bonus tracks.
