Video Game / Paradise Killer

The main cast, with Lady Love Dies front and center

"Time to breathe life back into Paradise."

Paradise Killer is an open-world, first-person investigation-adventure game developed by British studio Kaizen Game Works and published by Fellow Traveller. It was released for Nintendo Switch and Steam on September 4, 2020.

"Paradise Island" is an artificial pocket reality, designed and operated by the immortal "Syndicate" as part of a multi-millennium plan to revive the dead alien gods they worship. Twenty-three failed attempts of Paradise Island have come and gone, and now the twenty-fourth iteration of the Island Sequence is reaching its end; soon to be replaced by "Perfect 25", the perfected and therefore final version.

On the night of Paradise Island 24's shutdown, the Council that rules the Syndicate is suddenly murdered during their secluded meditation to end 24 and birth Perfect 25. Paradise Island 24 is immediately locked down until a culprit is found and convicted.

Lady Love Dies — a Syndicate member informally known as the "Investigation Freak" — is summoned from eternal exile to solve The Crime to End All Crimes: Who killed Paradise?

As an open-world investigation game, every character on the island is a suspect and can be accused of a crime. You can start the final sequence of the game at any time: the Trials that will accuse, prove, and sentence the guilty. However, the outcomes will hinge on the evidence and testimony you gather, who you decide to accuse, and the interpretations you present to the impartial Judge. Is it your job to present the "facts" of the case? Or instead, to determine the "truth" of what occurred?

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Paradise Killer contains examples of the following tropes:

• Abusive Parents: Carmelina kept her son locked up in an underground facility for all his life, focusing him on the single-minded goal of killing the Council.
• Aerith and Bob: Multiple characters tend to have fancy monikers, such as protagonist Lady Love Dies, Doctor Doom Jazz, Carmelina Silence, and The Witness To The End. However, there are also slightly-less-obtuse names such as Yuri Night and Henry Division.
• The Ageless: Some version of this seems to be in effect for members of the Syndicate. Syndicate members born millennia ago before the founding of the Syndicate and the Islands, such as Doom Jazz and Witness to the End, retain relatively youthful appearances. However, some form of aging evidently does exist, as Syndicate members born later on the Islands, such as Yuri Knight and Carmelina Silence, look like adults, which should not be the case if aging did not exist at all.
• Air-Dashing: Love Dies can learn this ability via one of several optional footbaths scattered throughout the world.
• All Crimes Are Equal: At the climactic Trial, anyone found guilty of involvement in any of the crimes connected to the Council murders (regardless of whether it's murder or just opening one of the Gates) will be executed by Lady Love Dies via gunshot upon being sentenced. Averted in the Playable Epilogue, where you can instead choose to either exile or execute characters you think got away with involvement.
• All for Nothing:
  • From Henry's perspective, the investigation is pointless. Henry is a Citizen, so regardless of what happens, he dies with Paradise Island 24. The only thing that will change is whether he dies with the collapse of the island, or being executed from a conviction. If you prove him completely innocent at trial, he does at least thank Lady Love Dies for standing up for him, noting that it's the first time anyone ever has.
  • There's a lot of speculation amongst the characters as to whether Perfect 25 will truly be a successful version of Paradise Island, or if the methods of the Syndicate are inherently flawed and doomed to failure. Probing into the creation of Perfect 25 reveals a significant flaw: although the terrain has been reinforced against Demonic corruption, this will just force the corruption onto the Citizen population instead, transforming Perfect 25 into a "hotbed of Demonic possession".
  • Carmelina's conspiracy can become this if she's executed during or after the trial. She spent over 2 decades working on an elaborate scheme to kill the Council and seize power in the vacuum they leave behind on Perfect 25, but Lady Love Dies can unravel the conspiracy and/or convict her of any one of the numerous crimes during the Trial, killing her before she can reap the rewards of her plotting.
• All There in the Manual: The development team has been fairly open about the game's lore, even hosting a Q&A.
• Alternate Universe: Paradise Killer is set in, to quote its store description, "an alternate future history filled with cryptic lore and even more mysteries", which you can learn more about through finding relics. More specifically, it's Another Dimension that preserved a Suppressed History and regularly kidnaps people from "our" world to toil as their "Citizens".
• Ambiguous Situation: Did Witness want the demon he snuck into the Council to kill everyone or merely scare the Council into realizing that they had become too materialistic and complacent? It's speculated that Witness could have just underestimated just how uncontrollable the demon would be, but nothing concrete is revealed, and he benefits from the incident regardless of if the Council is dead or alive.
• Animorphism: Crimson Acid sports a goat head, gifted to her by one of the gods. Some of the gods themselves also have distinctly animal traits, based on the various statues around the island.
• Anti-Villain: Several members of the Syndicate fall under this, being affable people who also just happen to be in charge of a death cult responsible for the kidnapping and torture of innocent humans, and potentially The End of the World as We Know It. The most obvious example is the two Day Breaks, who are perfectly friendly and have a sympathetic reason for being involved in one of the conspiracies: they just want to leave the Syndicate and lead ordinary lives. However, they are both ex-assassins who were previously involved in toppling governments in the real world; and because they are only loyal to each other, they are the most willing of anyone in Paradise Island to lie to your face with a smile, and appeal to your prior friendship to get them off the hook.
• An Arm and a Leg: Doom Jazz's backstory involves him being captured and tortured during the Great Betrayal, resulting in the loss of his arms. He currently wears prosthetics.
• Artificial Hybrid: Crimson Acid was blessed by one of the gods, radically altering her appearance. She retains her human body, but now sports the head of a goat.
• Artificial Limbs: Doctor Doom Jazz sports prosthetic arms, having lost his own during the Great Betrayal.
• Artistic License – Law: Justified. The Trial at the end has every crime punishable by death, and very few courtroom procedures that are standard in several countries are followed, but the Trial itself is a last-minute affair being conducted on a nearly deserted island run by alien-god-worshipping immortals, so it's not like it has to follow the normal rules of a courtroom. Carmelina also tries to speed things up at the start in an attempt to avoid suspicion, limiting the time Love Dies can spend on each crime, further making things screwy.
• Author Filibuster: The artbook contains a paragraph telling you that you should find Rubenesque women hot.
• Baphomet: Likely inspired the appearance of Crimson Acid, the goat-headed, large-chested idol and Lady Love Dies' comrade in her former investigation team.
• The Bartender: Sam Day Break is one of these, and he's very good at his job. His hang outs involve him waxing slightly poetic about ideal ways to mix drinks and how to treat his customers. He even kept Lady Love Dies' usual glass and has been transporting it between islands, and he eventually returns it to her if she hangs out with him enough.
• Bastard Bastard: Henry, guilty of demonology, never knew his father. You can uncover through blood analysis that it was Council member Eyes Kiwami, who also secretly fathered Dainonigate with Carmelina.
• Battle Couple: Sam and Lydia Day Break are a couple that used to kill for a living and have toppled entire governments together.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: Carmelina and Witness each mastermind different conspiracies to murder the council.
• Big Labyrinthine Building: Several locations qualify:
  • Witness to the End was born in the Chaos Palace, a vast, labyrinthine complex located in Persia. He became lost in the Palace during the Great Betrayal, nearly going mad until he was found and inducted into the Syndicate.
  • (On the god Moonlight Petal) ""Expert terraformer and architect. Built the Eternal Labyrinth in a dead star. Killed during the Great Betrayal in her endless city in Siberia. Her corpse is currently buried within the Russian catacombs.""
• Bilingual Bonus: Akiko 14's swears are actual Romanian insults and are, indeed, quite vulgar.
• Black Speech: The demon inside Henry uses this to communicate, his words are so beyond otherworldly they literally burn themselves onto Henry's skin and anything else he comes close to. ^note Despite first appearances Crying Grudge is not using this, he actually uses cuneiform, one of the oldest forms of written languages in existence, developed by the Mesopotamians.
• Boom, Headshot!: Montserrat shoots the Demon that attacks him and the rest of the Council, killing it. It doesn't save any of them, however.
• Boring, but Practical: While Carmelina's plot against the Council includes a number of people to help sell the lie that Henry killed the Council, Witness just hires the Day Breaks to sneak a demon into the building.
• Canine Companion: Carmelina has a dog that is almost always seen with her. It seems to be quite perceptive of Carmelina's emotions; when Carmelina is angry, it too will bear its fangs.
• Caring Gardener: Witness to the End has a hobby of taking care of rare, fragile plants, drawing parallels between the nurturing of plant life and the gods' supposed nurturing and uplifting of humanity. He often offers these difficult plants as gifts, much to the chagrin of their recipient. If Lady Love Dies engages in enough optional conversations, Witness will offer her one of these plants.
• Chalk Outline: In pink, matching the aesthetic of the pastel world of Paradise. It's ambiguous whether they're actual outlines or Gory Discretion Shot stand-ins for actual bodies, as when Love Dies examines them, they are clearly shown as bodies. Further muddying this is that one outline is found in a location of a body that had not been discovered. Further further muddying this is that other bodies are found that are not outlines.
• Claimed by the Supernatural: Henry Division has sigils showing all over his body, signifying his demonic possession. This is apparently the result of the demon attempting to speak; as a mortal like Henry is incapable of understanding demonic language, the demon's communication manifests in the form of sigils.
• Closed Circle: The 24th Island is locked down as a result of the Council murders, leaving the remaining members of the Syndicate unable to proceed to Perfect 25 until the murders are solved.
• Cool Boat: Doom Jazz owns a yacht. His luxurious, philandering lifestyle is given as the reason when it is pointed out that none of the other Syndicate members own one. He sinks it before leaving the island if he's still alive, a longtime tradition for him.
• Combat Medic: Doom Jazz was a very good one prior to becoming a member of the Syndicate.
• The Conspiracy: Carmelina and Witness are the ringleaders of two different plots with two different motivations that both involved attacking the Council.
• Consulting a Convicted Killer: Ten years ago, Henry Division was possessed by a demon and convicted for killing his mother, Rina Division, and Grace Bloodlines, the Syndicate's exorcist. He is the prime culprit in this case, as well, resulting in Lady Love Dies having to consult him to gain clarity on the case. Not only is he being framed for the current murders, but he was framed ten years ago for Bloodlines' murder, as well.
• Contrived Coincidence:
  • Carmelina's motive for conspiracy to kill the council was to get a well-earned position in it during the next iteration, not knowing that the Judge would follow old laws and make her the Council head during Love Dies' investigation.
  • Carmelina and Witness both use a meeting they had on the night of the murders as their main alibis, unaware that they were both leading completely separate conspiracies at that time.
• Courtroom Episode: The endgame, which can be initiated at any time, is Lady Love Dies using the evidence and testimony she's uncovered in a trial to determine who the culprits of all of the crimes are.
• Crapsaccharine World: Paradise Island 24 initially looks nice, then you learn about the slaves, the demon invasions, the reality corruption, the old gods that destroy entire civilizations, the constant backstabbings, the high murder rate among the Citizens, the caste system the Syndicate enforces, the mass sacrifices...
• Culture Chop Suey: The Island. The buildings for the Syndicate are brutalist modern, the apartment buildings for the citizens are Japanese, the sculptures are vaguely Greek, and the language appears to be Ancient Egyptian.
• Cryptic Background Reference: The setting is FULL of these, as they're peppered into lines of dialogue, character entries, and the various collectables and mementos you can find scattered around the island. One of the most mentioned of these is the Great Betrayal. Other bits of dialog and item descriptions paint a vast and terrifying picture of elder gods, arcane locations, and entropic demons, among other lore bits. Even the island sequences themselves are full of untold stories, such as Sequence 8 (which the Council has suppressed knowledge of) and Sequence 18 (where the timelines were so messed up a Syndicate member had to sacrifice themselves to right them).
• Dead Person Conversation: Lady Love Dies can interact with One Last Kiss, who is the vengeful spirit of the murdered exorcist Grace Bloodlines. She can also speak to the spirits of several citizens, who have perished but remain on the Island due to various circumstances and require some kind of closure to move on.
• Dem Bones: Sam Day Break's appearance of choice (or rather, the appearance he was stuck with after Lydia killed him in their first meeting and the island's deities brought him back) is a scarlet red skeleton with sunglasses.
• Demonic Possession: Henry is noted to be interested in demonology, suffered from this occurring a decade ago, and uses this as a potential alibi when Grand Marshal Akiko 14 deems him the prime suspect.
• Didn't See That Coming: Suffice it to say, no one on the island expected a competent (or impartial) investigator to be placed in charge of the murder case, let alone for the Investigation Freak herself to be summoned from external exile after three million days.
• Dirty Cop: Grand Marshal Akiko 14, leader of the island's main peacekeeping force, is a potential suspect that can be accused of being one. She actually is one, as she took part in Carmelina's conspiracy and is largely responsible for framing Henry for the Council murder.
• Double Jump: Lady Love Dies can optionally attain this ability by finding and using one of several footbaths scattered throughout the world.
• Drinking on Duty: By opting to hang out with Sam while investigating the Council murders, Love Dies can be given numerous drinks from the skeletal bartender.
• Driven to Suicide:
  • Eyes Kiwami, who fatally threw himself off of a building for unknown reasons prior to the Council murders. The reason why is never discovered, but evidence suggests it may have had to do with his two illegitimate children.
  • Another case of this is Dainonigate, who slits his own neck after Lady Love Dies uncovers his hiding place, though he's fatally wounded anyway and would have either bled out or been left behind when the island was destroyed.
• Dude, Where's My Respect?: Carmelina's potential motivation for conspiracy, forever denied a spot in the Council despite creating their islands due to a crime her father committed.
• Eldritch Abomination: Judge, who manages the courthouse and serves as adjudicator for the crimes. In a world of odd beings, they're considerably odd. They have four arms, their face is obscured by a multi-face mask, and they speak with the Voice of the Legion. A note is made when first met that they have scrubbed all identity and ego from themselves and official records, and have fused themselves with the island in order to be as impartial as possible.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Shinji is, as he himself admits, a demon who enjoys collecting artifacts of tragedy. Given how much damage a demon can do to different island sequences, his motives are suspect, though he protests that he's far too weak to do any actual damage (an assertion that another character supports). However, he frequently expresses disgust with the Syndicate and waxes philosophically about the pointless structures of the island sequence system.
• Everybody Did It: Not exactly, but a variation. Almost every suspect is, in some way, involved in the Council's killing, along with the other crimes.
  • Carmelina created a multi-decade-long conspiracy to kill the Council and when her plan to have Henry kill Grace Bloodlines failed she took matters into her own hands (literally) and strangled Grace herself.
  • Witness was the head of another separate conspiracy that at the very least contributed the Council's deaths (though he states he just wanted to scare them straight)
  • Akiko 14 was part of Carmelina's conspiracy, she helped frame Henry, personally killed the fake Marshalls and allowed Carmelina to kill Grace Bloodlines. All in exchange for Carmelna inducting the Marshals into immortality.
  • Yuri was responsible for leading Henry down the path of demonic possession and killing K. HX, along with helping Dainonigate through the Seals to kill the Council. Carmelina promised him a seat on the new Council.
  • Lydia and Sam helped Witness by gathering information about the seals, getting needed materials, and bringing the box containing the demon into the Council's innermost sanctum, passing through the Seals. They wanted Witness' help in leaving Paradise and the Syndicate.
  • Doom Jazz didn't have a direct hand in the murders, but he helped cover up the births of Eyes Kiwami's two illegitimate children, both of whom were essential parts of the conspiracies.
  • Crimson learned the secret of the Second Gate from K. HX after Witness asked her to in exchange for putting her into a more active role in Perfect 25.
  • The only person who actually didn't do anything at all relating to the Council deaths or the Seals is Henry, who also isn't even guilty of the murder he was originally convicted of (Grace Bloodlines'). The only reason he's involved at all is because he's an unknowing pawn in Carmelina's conspiracy and is being framed for killing them. The one crime he did commit was murdering his mother, but even then he did it while under demonic possession.
  • One Last Kiss is also a victim and uninvolved in the murder of the council, on account of her being a ghost and thus already dead years before the murder happens.
• "Everybody Dies" Ending: If you choose to convict every suspect (and/or execute the survivors after the trial to tie up loose ends), Lady Love Dies becomes the only one to leave Island Sequence 24. Henry and the Marshals will perish with the island, and everyone else is some kind of paranormal entity that doesn't much care about a collapsing pocket dimension.
• Evil Versus Evil: The game's general setting and background conflicts are this. On the one hand, demons are (mostly) the chaotic and destructive forces one would expect, and even the Syndicate has a hit list of gods they want dead or never revived. On the other, the Syndicate is an immortal cult dedicated towards the empowering of horrible alien deities that are responsible for genocide and terrible atrocities on a planet-wide scale, and they kidnap innocent people and force them into labor, worship, and eventually a mass Human Sacrifice in the name of these deities. Shinji lampshades this, and it's even a plot point that demons and gods are similar to the point where Syndicate-made technology can't distinguish them biologically.
• The Exile: Lady Love Dies was one before the game's events. A successful trial leads to her being offered a permanent return, and regaining a position as the leader of her own investigation team. You can also choose to exile any and all survivors of the Trial (except Henry and One Last Kiss), turning them into this.
• Extranormal Prison: While ordinary citizens who break the law are imprisoned in the Marshal Headquarters, the demonically possessed Henry Division is kept in the Desolation Cell. The Cell is offshore of the main island, only reachable by a single bridge, and is decidedly unpleasant; the area is tinged in red, with an unpleasant atmosphere.
• Fanservice: Most of the male characters wear outfits that expose their very muscular torsos, including the Marshalls who are human and are meant to play the role of both police and army for the Island, and yet are completely shirtless. Crimson Acid's robe is also *very* low cut, showing off a generous amount of her considerable bust.
• Fall Guy: Henry is this as part of The Conspiracy to off the Council. This can also happen to a number of suspects during the Trial, such as Lydia if you accuse her of killing the Marshals at the First Seal.
• A Father to His Men: Akiko 14 is very highly regarded among the Marshals and will often stick up for them and their work. The Marshals also obviously hold her in high respect, and many of them are quick to defend her if Lady Love Dies speaks ill of her around them or to them. That is not to mention the fact that in at least a few of the last islands she has taken on lovers from within the Marshal ranks, something that is considered ilegal and against protocol. If Akiko 14 is accused and found guilty of involvement in any of the crimes, she will immediately throw Carmelina under the bus since she only agreed to her conspiracy in exchange for her troops to be included in the syndicate and made immortal, as they are considered Citizens and are thus destined for Human Sacrifice at the end of every island. Should she be executed, all of the Marshals you meet will verbally lash out at Lady Love Dies for her death. Their anger is understandable - as well as the respect they had for her, she was also their shot at surviving the end of the current island.
• Felony Misdemeanor: Lady Love Dies punishment of eternal exile for the crime of being deceived by a god seems this way at first. When it's later revealed that this deception ultimately resulted in the end of the 13th island sequence, it makes more sense.
• Fictional Greetings and Farewells: Everyone in the Syndicate bids each other farewell in a way that references their Birthsigns. For example, Lady Loves Dies was born under Kiss Me To The Moon, and everyone always ends conversations with her by saying "And may you reach the moon."
• First-Person Perspective: The game focuses entirely on Lady Love Dies and is played entirely from her viewpoint, save for the occasional Framing Device scene talking about her case.
• Fishbowl Helmet: The helmet Lady Love Dies wears when exploring the vaccuum of space constituting the Second Holy Seal resembles one somewhat, with a clear faceplate.
• Flipping the Bird: Shinji is constantly using two of his four arms to flip everything off. However, they're both censored.
• Foil: Of all characters, Dr. Doom Jazz and Akiko 14 prove to be this the most. The former is a friendly, carefree playboy who enjoys the pleasures of paradise and doesn't let the many failures and scheming surrounding the Syndicate bother him. Akiko 14 is a gruff, easily aggravated no-no sense military woman who usually responds to Lady Loves Dies attempts at bonding with her with murder threats. Both of them secretly indulge in relationships with mortal Citizens and even briefly dated each other. Their clashing personalities make their reactions to their similar romances especially notable: while Doom Jazz can move on from his romances, Akiko feels the crushing tragedy of losing yet another lover with each failed island. Ironically, Doom Jazz seems to still have some feelings for her since he keeps her framed picture in his yacht.
• Forbidden Zone: The Dead Zone is a massive concrete sarcophagus considered off-limits to everyone on the Island. It was formerly a Citizen apartment block, until Henry Division attempted to commune with a Demon, resulting in his demonic possession that has persisted to the present. The apartment block was cordoned off and encased in concrete as a result. Going inside makes it quite clear why the area is off-limits, demonic possession seems to cause something akin to radiation, as even the building still shows visible pulsing energy 10 years after the fact and opening a vent to let air from the zone escape is enough to make the Island systems go haywire.
• Framing Device: Finding various alcoholic drinks around the island will cause a small cut-away to two nameless patrons in a bar, discussing the case and what led to the current island's creation.
• The Fundamentalist: The Witness To The End views the aliens empowering their worlds with extreme religious fervor. His potential motivation for conspiracy is that the Syndicate were becoming too self-interested and ignoring their stated goal of bringing the god's to the island via sacrifices, and needed to be scared straight.
• Gag Censor: Shinji is always completely nude, but his crotch area is covered by an emoji with three X'd out eyes.
• Gambit Pileup: Over the course of the investigation, Lady Love Dies can find evidence that there are two separate murder conspiracies that acted independently, both of which could have resulted in the deaths of the Council and which together involve almost every single remaining person on the island.
• Gameplay and Story Integration: Following the Trial, it's possible that the Warp Whistle service will stop functioning, due to Lydia being dead/exiled. Killing Sam will net you the same result as she will be alive but will ignore your calls.
• Gentleman Detective: Being a part of the upper-crust Syndicate and having a posh British accent qualifies Lady Love Dies as this trope.
• Gameplay and Story Segregation:
  • The game uses payphones to summon Lydia's car so she can take you around the island. However she can't take you somewhere without a payphone, or somewhere you haven't been to before. An attempt is made to handwave it since she apparently uses the payphones to access a wormhole to her next location (since there aren't streets in Paradise Island she can drive on). However that doesn't explain how she got to the top of the Ziggurat or the top of the council building without a phone up there. Conveniently she doesn't seem to need a payphone when the story requires her to be somewhere. Also, you can obtain two different cellphones during your investigation, yet you can't use them to summon Lydia. It can be argued that the car needs payphones, but that still doesn't explain how Lydia can manage to get to inaccessible locations without one.
  • If during the trial and aftermath Lydia is killed, exiled or you execute Sam, the fast travel service will no longer be available to you so Lady Death Dies will need to drive herself to Perfect 25. This implies that she at least knows how to drive the car, yet she's not able to use it to fast travel anywhere, the only available option is to go to the next island.
• The Ghost: Lady Love Dies' ex-husband, Isaiah, is mentioned several times, both by Lady Love Dies and others. By the time she arrives on the island out of exile, he's already moved to Perfect 25. He's heavily implied to be one of the two bar patrons.
• God-Eating: Not quite "eating", but Crying Grudge, a slowly-reviving god, has had flesh carved out of him on numerous occasions so certain characters can fuse with its unique biology as a way to pass through one of the Gates into the Council's inner sanctum.
• Gratuitous Japanese: Characters in the game sometimes have voiced interjections that play over the dialogue on screen. One of Love Dies' interjections is "Nani the hell?" This could be just local vernacular, but Love Dies also has a "What the hell?" interjection. The architecture is a physical example of this; the city is plainly designed with what the developers called a "90s city pop Japanese street feel."
• Great Offscreen War: "The Great Betrayal", when humans rebelled and killed the gods millennia ago leading to the creation of the Syndicate. Various other fights with demons, other gods, and humans are also alluded to in flavor text, such as the memento for Island Sequence 9.
  The ocean boil as an army of demons descend on us. Natasha Silence dies in the defense of the Golden Church.
• Guide Dang It!: The island contains a number of findable collectables and little puzzles, often in unintuitive or difficult-to-spot-or-reach places. Even a few pieces of crucial (though not mandatory) evidence are in out-of-the-way spots or behind locked doors or gates. Much of this annoyance can be mitigated by spending blood crystals at foot baths to gain additional movement abilities or an ability that lets you see interactable things through walls, not to mention Starlight keeping tract of any open investigation threads that point you in the direction you need to look for more evidence.
• Hate Sink: Yuri is a narcissistic, egotistical slimeball with few to no redeeming qualities. His rude manner, naked ambition, and implied Deal with the Devil for good looks all make him look like a vile little worm and an obvious culprit. Which, granted, he is; however he is not working alone.
• Hacking Minigame: There are some terminals that Lady Love Dies can interface with, that require matching up pieces of a silhouette with displayed images in order to gain full access.
• Happily Married: Lydia and Sam Day Break still remain very close despite being with each other for a literal eternity.
• Human Notepad: Henry Division is covered in sigils from his demonic possession. One Last Kiss explains that they're not just symbols but an actual demonic language, caused by the demon within Henry burning so hot with rage he's burned his screams into Henry's flesh. This is a plot point, as well - Henry's only actual murder victim had the sigils burned into her flesh do to being held close to Henry's skin for too long (implied to be a hug), while the ones pinned on him by others have the sigils carved into their flesh with a blade or written in blood.
• Human Sacrifice: While the Syndicate and Council are able to transfer themselves to the island's next incarnation, most (if not all) of the Citizens are used as the energy that fuels the process.
• I Never Said It Was Poison: Asking Yuri or Sam about information pertaining to the Gates that block access to the Council have them reveal a tad more than they should know, which can be used to implicate them at the Trial.
• Ironic Echo: One of Carmelina's oft-repeated voice lines is "craft is its own reward." At the trial, if you expose her conspiracy, Lady Love Dies can respond to her Motive Rant - centered on not receiving sufficient respect or power for her work - with the same words. She obviously doesn't find it amusing.
• Karma Houdini: Depending on the outcome of the trial, any number of people involved with the various crimes can escape any punishment, either by lacking evidence to convict them or by the player not choosing to implicate them in the first place. You can also choose to subvert this, as after the trial, Lady Love Dies is given full authority by Judge to kill or exile any of the remaining suspects without any trial, allowing the player to go mete out justice as they see fit.
• Kill the God: Most of the gods worshiped by the Syndicate died millennia ago, in a rebellion by humans known as "the Great Betrayal". One of the Syndicate's main goals is to revive these gods or recover their corpses/parts, but they haven't had much success so far. So far only being able to bring one god to Paradise Island in millennia of work.
• Knowledge Broker: Crimson Acid serves as one of these.
• Locked Room Mystery: Taken to a new level: the murder scene has four locks on it (The Holy Seals). In an interesting reversal, the room is still locked, and the only reason the characters know the crime happened is that they have a suspect with a belly full of council members' blood, a murder weapon and 2 dead guards. Therefore, one of the first mysteries to solve is how to access the crime scene so Lady Love Dies can investigate it, and determine how the culprit accessed it.
• Love Across Battlelines: The Day Breaks first met as enemies, with Lydia even being the cause for Sam's skeletal condition.
• Lovecraft Lite: Paradise Killer is the brightest, cheeriest, and campiest Lovecraftian mystery story while still having murder, disturbing, violent imagery, and a cult pursuing The End of the World as We Know It.
• Mascot: The beverage company Dead Nebula has a mascot, also named Dead Nebula. It looks like a cross between a robot and astronaut, and actually exists as an artificial intelligence. Love Dies can interact with Dead Nebula for story progression.
• Mayfly–December Romance: When an immortal member of the Syndicate falls for a mortal and disposable Citizen. This led to Henry's birth, which was scrubbed from the records, and is also Akiko's Fatal Flaw; she keeps falling for her Marshals, who are left behind when an old island collapses. Doom Jazz also tends to sleep around with Citizens, but he never gets attached to them.
• Morality Kitchen Sink:
  • The members of the Syndicate vary in behavior and motivation, but none are firmly good people. All of them are immortals who at least complicit in regularly kidnapping, brainwashing, and sacrificing mortals from Earth in the aim of reviving their dead gods, assuming they don't do any of that themselves. The more Love Dies digs into the various affairs of the Council and the other Syndicate members, the more it comes out that the Council themselves is a gang of Asshole Victims who maintain the horrible cycle of the Paradises — see Evil Versus Evil above.
  • Averted by Dr. Doom Jazz who seems to be the closest thing the game has to an actually nice person. While he is involved in the cover up of the births of Dainonigate and Henry, he only did it to protect his best friend Eyes Kiwami to whom he owed his life and unlike everyone else he isn't involved in either conspiracy, he just happened to still be at the island when the murders took place. If you accuse other characters in conversation or at the trial they will brush off your accusations and scoff at you, but he is genuinely hurt and angry if you accuse him, doubt his motives or speak ill of his friends. He even holds no grudge against the council even though Leader Montserrat got Doom's father killed. Despite his appearance he isn't playing dumb when he says he has no clue what happened to the council he really is just an adorable himbo.
  • Sam and Lydia Day Break are the nicest people in the game behind Dr. Doom Jazz, but they're also former assassins who helped institute regime changes in Europe. Their motivation for wanting to leave the Syndicate is also due to boredom, rather than any real moral objections with how things are done.
  • The Player can make Lady Love Dies part of this or avert it. In conversations with Shinji and Witness she can express an opinion that the council, the syndicate or even all of Paradise Island are a farce and doomed to fail or defend the atrocities they've committed and the broken system they've established are "for a greater good".
• Moral Myopia: The culprit can demonstrate this. Both of them. The Witness to the End calls the rest of the cast sinners and lambasts the Council for ignoring their divine work, but he's the one who unleashed a deadly Killer Demon on the Council, has been experimenting on demons and broken the law by going into the forbidden zone. Carmelina accuses the Syndicate of betraying and toying with everyone for power and prestige, but she set up a decades long scheme just to vie for power herself ruined Henry's already miserable life for her own purposes, and she even had a child she kept in complete isolation just to use him as an assassin in her schemes.
• More than Mind Control: The crime of "deception by a god" involves this: the god doesn't just offer a bargain of power, but subtly manipulates their psyche of its target via dreams and influence so they believe their acceptance of the divine temptation is made of their own free will. Lady Love Dies notes that this makes the target a victim rather than a criminal, a viewpoint that is both shared and challenged by others over the course of the story. As pointed out by some, it's not that different from demonic possession, further pushing the discussion of how similar gods and demons really are.
• Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Dr. Doom Jazz. Subverted in that he's one of the nicest people on the island.
• Narcissist: Yuri Night, who was supposedly gifted the blessing of a handsome body by his deity of choice. His potential motivation for helping Carmelina is simply because he felt he deserved a spot on the Council despite being an upstart and a nobody before Carmelina took him on as an assistant. Notably, he likes to think himself above Lady Love Dies, but she can point out in conversation how ignorant he is about most of the topics he claims to be an expert on and things of himself better stationed than anyone else despite just being the go-getter of a non-council member of the Syndicate.
• Non-Indicative Name: "Paradise" isn't a true paradise, considering most of the population are kidnapped humans forced into slavery and servitude to false gods, stuck in a crime-riddled community where they're allowed very few rights then summarily massacred as a power source when the ruling elite decides to move on to greener pastures. Said ruling elite isn't faring much better as they've become decadent and paranoid to the point there are multiple overlapping conspiracies to overthrow the current regime.
• Noodle Incident: The game is full of these (see Cryptic Background Reference above) but here's a few highlights:
  • The incident that led to Lady Love Dies' exile, which involved falling for a god's deception, which led to a demon destroying Island 13, which in turn led to a fallout with her (now ex-)husband Isaiah and the retirement of her old investigation unit.
  • All the previous islands get a line of text that, if you're lucky, describes why the island fell. Past Council members, Syndicate members, and gods get a little more.
• Notice This: Items you can pick up are 2D sprites with bright yellow boxes around them which you can see from a good distance away and produce a distinctive, static-y sound as you get close to them. Save points are viewable in the AR vision, colored bright magenta, and they also periodically emit a short music tone that you can hear if you're close enough. Items in the environment you can interact with, such as ladders you can climb and doors you can open, are also colored bright magenta to help them stand out.
• Occult Detective: Lady Love Dies certainly qualifies, given the setting. Her backstory involved her leading a unit called the Paradise Psycho Unit, though it was disbanded following her exile. At the end of the game, Judge can allow her to reform the unit on Perfect 25.
• One Last Job: The Day Breaks had to pull this to be allowed to leave their former life behind. Their involvement in The Crime to End All Crimes is also due to this, as they want to leave Paradise for good and travel the real world.
• Pimped-Out Dress: Carmelina Silence wears a dress consisting of a black and white diamond pattern, adorned with gold trim.
• Playable Epilogue: After gathering evidence and participating in a trial to determine the Paradise Killer, Lady Love Dies is allowed to explore the island one last time before it's erased to make Perfect 25, and can execute or exile anyone you believe had escaped justice as well as pick up any collectables you might've missed.
• Portal Network: Without anyone knowing, Carmelina used her power as Architect to create a number of tunnels that all link to a central room, allowing her near instant travel between various spots on the island. Discovering this network is key to breaking her alibi. Dainonigate inherited some of this power, as after murdering the Council, he creates a new door in a wall outside the penthouse and uses it to flee back to his cell. He gives the key to Love Dies before he passes away, allowing her to use the limited network at will.
• Power Dynamics Kink: Doom Jazz suggests flirtatiously that Lady might want to "investigate" his body, which she can agree to depending on player choice. More serious conversations, however, make it clear that they fully understand the weight of her job.
• Power Fist: Being a former assassin, Sam Day Break owns a pair of powered gauntlets that he used to utilize as weapons. Lady Love Dies can acquire them and use them to open a secret passage.
• The Power of Blood:
  • Blood factors into a lot of day-to-day life for Syndicate members. Access to various parts of the island is restricted based on the individual's blood, and members carry around a vial of their blood in a key-like object to get access to certain places, even some elevators require this vial to be inserted before they work. This applies to the case, as access to the main crime scene is restricted to the blood of certain people. Love Dies herself cannot (normally) access the crime scene, as it's the Council penthouse, and only the Council members have access.
  • Blood Crystals are also the form of currency on the island. Shinji has helpfully robbed some of the rich folks of the island and scattered Crystals around for Love Dies to find so she can purchase upgrades, pay for information, travel around the island, or just buy drinks from a vending machine.
• Properly Paranoid: It was mentioned that Monserrat became more dictatorial and paranoid over time, even taking to carrying a gun on his person. Given how he is the target of two separate conspiracies and winds up dead, he was right, though it's fair to note that one of the conspiracies came about only as a result of his paranoia.
• Recruiting the Criminal:
  • Lady Love Dies is an example of this, as she's three million days into her sentence of eternal exile for the crime of being deceived by a god before she's called back to Paradise to solve the crime of the millennium. It helps that before she was exiled, she was Paradise's best investigator and head of the Paradise Psycho Unit.
  • Idol/underground investigation broker Crimson Acid, if they survive the Trial and are talked to after, asks Lady Love Dies to hire them for her reinstated investigation unit. The player can accept or refuse.
• Regime Change: Lydia and Sam Day Break incited in one of these as their last job before retiring from the assassin life.
• Relationship Values: Lady Love Dies can spend some time bonding with the various people involved in the case. When they start trusting you, they start openly voicing their suspicions about others, opening up new lines of questioning with the people involved. For a couple of characters, this can even lead to an Optional Sexual Encounter at maximum level; but, true to the trope's form, it's nothing but a Fade to Black.
• Resignations Not Accepted: If implicated in Witness' conspiracy, the Day Breaks reveal that they wanted to leave the Syndicate, but were not allowed to without the authority of someone like Witness.
• Retired Badass: Lydia and Sam Day Break used to work as contract killers, but have since retired, with the former now working as a cabbie/ferry captain and the latter as a bartender.
• Save Point: There are numerous payphones scattered across Paradise that Lady Love Dies can use to record her progress.
• The Scapegoat: It doesn't take much time on the island to find some evidence that points to Henry being framed for the Council murders. Finding more evidence reveals that this is indeed Carmelina's plan, one that Love Dies can foil by digging up enough proof.
• Secret Room:
  • One of them can be found in the Dead Zone. Carmelina built it as part of a larger but abandoned plan to make safe rooms around the island, but Witness has been using it as a demonology lab for his own plans.
  • Carmelina keeps her secret son, Dainonigate, in a room near the Syndicate Graveyard.
• Secret Underground Passage: There is a hidden passage extending from the basement of Sam Day Break's bar to the cordoned off Dead Zone.
• Seers: Some flavor text indicates that the god Crying Grudge can see into the future.

The god endlessly weeps at the visions of the future he cannot unsee.

• Sexy Discretion Shot: Reaching the maximum Relationship Values with certain characters will have a "Flirt" option that leads to a brief Fade to Black if selected.
• Sigil Spam:
  • Henry Division's body is scorched with sigils as a result of his demonic possession; the demon is trying to communicate in a language incomprehensible to humans, manifesting in sigils instead.
  • Through sustained close contact, like an embrace, Henry can also scorch the demonic sigils into other people, killing them in the process. This is what happened to Henry's mother, Rina Division.
    • This fact is key to determining the true killer of Grace Bloodlines, who was allegedly also killed by Henry. Grace was strangled to death, but the sigils were carved into her skin with a knife, not burned in. Carmelina arranged for that to incriminate Henry, and Love Dies can present evidence that exonerates him due to the lack of scorched-in sigils.
  • The two dead Marshals that form the First Holy Seal have sigils drawn in blood on and around their corpses. Again, this hints at their deaths being a set-up, as Henry scorches the sigils into his victims; he does not draw them in blood, nor would he even be in the proper mindset to do so at the time that the Marshals were killed.
• Sinister Scimitar: Grand Marshal Akiko 14 and her subordinates all use curved blades.
• Sins of Our Fathers: After an entire island sequence was brought down by Carmelina's father, the Council permanently barred any further Silence family members from ever being on the Council. This is part of Carmelina's motivation for their murder, as she feels such a ban is unfair and petitioned unsuccessfully for the ban to be lifted on multiple occasions.
• Sitting on the Roof: Tire tracks are found on the roof of the Council Building, prompting a questioning of Lydia, who owns the sole car on the island. When questioned, Lydia insists that they were only present on the roof because it served as a good place to relax and reflect. She's lying.
• Skull for a Head: Witness is always seen wearing a golden helmet encasing his entire head that is shaped like a skull.
• Snarky Non-Human Sidekick: Shinji, a demon that takes an interest in Lady Love Dies, greets her before she even goes down to the island and serves as a sort-of sidekick. He's too weak to properly maintain a corporeal form, but he can be found at various places around the island and if you talk to him he'll often drop a comment on the investigation, the island, the Syndicate, or sometimes just a random non-sequitur.
• Space Mask: A helmet is all that is needed to protect Lady Love Dies from the vaccuum of space while exploring the Second Holy Seal. Perhaps justified in-universe, given the semi-immortality afforded to members of the Syndicate.
• Stalker with a Crush: The Syndicate's Craftsman, K. HX, is absolutely smitten with Crimson Acid. His house is filled with her posters, and he believed he would ascend to Heaven with her as his queen when Perfect 25 was brought about. This is exploited by Crimson herself who enters a relationship with K. HX just to discover the mystery of the Second Seal protecting the Council.
• Story Branching: There are many possible killers, and many ways to build a case. You can successfully convict anyone you have enough evidence to make a strong argument against, and define your personal "truth", regardless of what the actual facts of the case are (which are the same in every playthrough). However, the ending will always be the same: the Paradise Killer is decided, and the survivors prepare to move on to Perfect 25 (save for the Citizens, who will remain behind as the island blips out of existence).
• Suppressed History:
  • In the game's lore, the gods worshiped by the Syndicate first arrived in the "real" world millennia ago, gifting humanity with technology before getting bored, manipulating them into war, and dying in a human rebellion known as "the Great Betrayal". Most of humanity struck the gods' involvement, and thus thousands of years of history, from the records, while those that still worshiped the gods created the Paradise Islands.
  • On the flip side, Leader Montserrat has been trying to pass edicts to erase portions of their history he disagrees with this is one of the many crimes Witness holds against Montserrat and one of the pieces of evidence against Witness is that he has taken to vote against every single proposal submitted by Montserrat to the council.
• Taking You with Me:
  • Monserrat, the head of the Council, had a gun that he used to fire a shot at his attacker before succumbing to his wounds. A Killer Demon is found dead from a shot at the crime scene, but Dainonigate is bleeding from a similar wound before he offs himself, and either of them could be determined to be the Paradise Killer.
  • If you pin one of the crimes on them at the Trial, both Yuri and Akiko 14 will almost immediately turn on Carmelina, swearing that if they're going down, they're going to bring Carmelina with them.
• Through the Ceiling, Stealthily: As part of her investigation, Lady Love Dies can covertly explore the Martial Barracks by entering the facility through a ceiling hatch. One of the plots to murder the Council also involves using a maintenance hatch to bypass the two Marshal guards that form the first Holy Seal.
• Time Abyss: All members of the Syndicate are functionally immortal. Many have been around since the beginning of Paradise. While the actual amount of time isn't stated outright, for perspective, Lady Love Dies was exiled at the end of the 13th island sequence, the game takes place at the end of the 24th island sequence, and she's been in exile for three million days^note that's approximately 8,000 years. When placed next to Henry, a Citizen who is twenty-seven years old, it's easy to see how callous the Syndicate can be to those who don't share their immortality.
• Together in Death: If either one of the Day Breaks is found guilty of a crime, the other will immediately confess to their own, not wanting to spend immortality without them.
• Token Evil Teammate: Most of the members of the conspiracies have complicated and even sympathetic motives for their actions...except for Yuri, who just wants power and to send people on suicide missions for his god.
• Translator Microbes: Lady Love Dies' computer Starlight is able to translate Crying Grudge by accessing the island network. Justified in that if the subtitles are anything to go by and not just Painting the Medium, he's speaking in Mesopotamian, a human language a supercomputer like Starlight should be able to translate without much trouble and not some form of Black Speech. The language he speaks is not alien, he's just old, very old. ^note The subtitles are written in cuneiform, the oldest known written language.
• Trash the Set: Doctor Doom Jazz has his own personal yacht, which he sinks at the end of every island's incarnation before moving on to the next. Each island is also completely destroyed as the reality containing it unravels after everybody is gone and the shutdown sequence begins.
• Turned Against Their Masters:
  • During the great betrayal, humanity rose up against the gods that enslaved them, killing, imprisoning, or severely wounding most of them and expunging them from history in the aftermath.
  • This also happened in the 7th island sequence, where the Citizens rose up against the Syndicate.
• Two Dun It: The result of a full investigation unveils that two entirely separate plots to kill the Council occurred at the same time, each of them unaware of and almost entirely unaffected by the other.
• Utopia: What the Paradise Islands are suppose to be for the Syndicate. True to form, all of them have had fundamental flaws. Even Perfect 25 is noted to have one - demonic corruption has previously seeped into the literal foundations of each island, and while Perfect 25 was made to have concrete and buildings that resist the corruption, they have no measures in place to protect the Citizens in a similar way, with one character calling it a hotbed for demonic possession.
• Utopia Justifies the Means: The justification given for the ritual kidnapping, enslavement, and slaughter of innocent people is for the Syndicate to create a perfect island and so they can revive their dead gods (who are, by all accounts, monstrous and terrible in their own ways).
• Vaporwave: The game's aesthetic and soundtrack heavily invoke this.
• Vicious Cycle: Paradise is the 24th failed incarnation of the island, and despite what the Council says, there's no clear sign that Perfect 25 will live up to its name either. One Last Kiss, the only expert on demons among the cast, is openly contemptuous of the idea that it could break the cycle and goes into detail on why it's already doomed.
• Villain Has a Point: Akiko 14 has some clear grievances with how the Marshalls are sacrificed as lowly Citizens rather than loyal soldiers to the Syndicate. If they're executed, the Marshalls are openly contemptuous with Lady Love Dies for costing them their chance to avoid imminent death.
• Villainous Breakdown: You can get these from numerous characters during the final trial as their plans unravel or their schemes are revealed. It makes sense, since being found guilty of any of the crimes in the trial is a death sentence.
• Villain Protagonist: Downplayed. It's pretty clear that the Syndicate and the gods they worship are not very nice, but Lady Love Dies is less worried about the Syndicate's morality and more about bringing the killer to justice. You can also pick responses to have her skew very heavily towards finding the Syndicate a repugnant and corrupt body, along with openly wondering if all this sacrifice and kidnapping is even worth it in the end.
• Virtual Ghost: One Last Kiss is revealed to be one for Grace Bloodline, the Syndicate' former exorcist who supposedly died during Henry's Demonic Possession incident a decade ago.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: Yuri Night's top is mainly just a collar and sleeves, exposing the abs he has been "blessed" with. Doom Jazz, Witness, and Sam also reveal their chests, though Sam's is all bone, no skin.
• Warp Whistle: Lady can spend a collectible Blood Crystal at any payphone to call Lydia Day Break and get a lift to any other phone on the island that a Crystal was spent at.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist:
  • Grand Marshal Akiko 14 is a strict general who wants to expand the power of the military, but she is fighting demons. She's also more emotionally focused to the plight of her fellow soldiers than she lets on, and her actions can largely be traced to defending and protecting her men.
  • Witness might be dangerously fanatical, but he's not wrong about how the Syndicate members have become distracted from (or bored of) their primary mission, which should be the retrieval and resurrection of their patron gods. It's the only "justification" for twenty-four islands of human torture and sacrifice, and yet the Syndicate have only managed to retrieve one god, and nowadays seem more concerned with arguing among themselves or idling out their immortal lives. However, it's hinted throughout that the Syndicate are ultimately moribund: they lack the assault power or personnel to retrieve any more gods from the real world without significant losses, and they can't even replace fallen members such as their Chief Investigator or Chief Exorcist. No wonder they distract themselves with squabbles and vice.
• What the Hell, Hero?: Dr. Doom Jazz will become irate if Lady Love Dies traces the blood of Eyes Kiwami, which she only could get by desecrating his grave. Notable as one of the only times a suspect gets angry for how the investigation affects someone else.
• Who Wants to Live Forever?: Played with. For the most part, the Syndicate is doing pretty well and things change constantly, keeping people focused and entertained. The Day Breaks frequently talk about hobbies and skills they’ve picked up over time. However, creativity and progress is also stifled because the Council restricts immortal access to Citizens and anything from Earth. One Last Kiss notes that immortals are getting weirder with time, and Lady Love Dies is stunned by how the Council and Witness to the End have become increasingly radical and extremist over the centuries. Sam and Lydia’s hobby talk also takes a more somber note, when Lydia reveals that they’ve done enough with their immortal life. Their pleas to return to mortal life on Earth have been completely rejected. Overall, it’s heavily suggested that immortality is lowering the empathy and sanity of the Syndicate at large.
• Wide-Open Sandbox: Lady Love Dies can explore the whole island for clues, relics, beverages, and other collectibles.
• Wine Is Classy: Yuri Knight prefers expensive wines when drinking at Sam's bar, thinking it makes him classy or sophisticated. Sam thinks it makes him look pretentious, pointing out that the grapes are lab-grown.
• You Are Number 6: Grand Marshal Akiko 14, even though there were not 13 previous incarnations.
• You Got Murder: The Killer Demon that potentially murdered the Council arrived via shipping crate. It's possible to accuse Witness and his secret lab as its origin, and the Day Breaks as responsible for the delivery.

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"...and may you reach the moon."