I have no idea if Paradise Killer is worth playing but good LAWD the soundtrack

[Paul le Fou]

I'm pretty sure I've wrapped up almost all of the detective-ing, gotten all the info, talked to all the people, looked in all the places. There are a few more little things I might need to mop up but I'm just about to head into the trial. I think I have a lot of the pieces in place in my head, but I might need to comb through it on my laptop again to find a few more connecting lines to bring it all together.

 

[Paul le Fou]

And, done with the trial, done with the game.

First, one thing that stood out to me and colored my entire experience, start to finish, is that this game is embarrassingly poorly written. They very, very badly needed to hire a writer or editor to make a pass and fix a lot of typographical, grammatical, and even spelling errors (not to mention cleaning up the language to be less awkward and stilted). It was just amateurish. At one point in the trial, there was such a weirdly-placed and confusingly-worded option that I accidentally accused One Last Kiss of murdering the Council and had to reload.

Second, the music is so kickass

Spoiler: Trial and Ending stuff

I unlocked almost(?) every factoid before heading into the trial, I think, and put together the conspiracies pretty accurately. For a while I wasn't sure whether or not they'd be connected, but ultimately the "two simultaneous conspiracies" was the most descriptive option. The only thing I wish is that I'd known there was a post-trial to expend justice differently; I absolutely didn't want to let Witness off the hook, so I had to implicate Sam (and therefore Lydia also) in his crimes during the trial, and they each caught bullets. Not only was there not much made of my having to execute my best friends on the spot, but I also would have chosen to exile them if I could - only to find out later that this WAS totally an option, but it was never mentioned or even alluded to! I might have chosen exile for Akiko too, but she did murder those guards, so I didn't feel nearly as bad. Rest in peace, nenorocito. I was more than happy to execute Carmelina, Yuri, and Witness though. I wish there'd been more control to the execution section, like instead of automatically doing it, post-trial you walk up to each person at the witness stands and execute them (or don't, and exile or free).

The "whatever you say is true" thing is a little weird.
-Yuri ended up admitting to a lot more than I suspected him of just because he was connected to it sideways - I didn't realize he'd actually walked Dainonigate through (though the petals were there too, I guess).
-I wasn't entirely sure who'd killed K.HX - Acid had a lot of evidence but little or none of it actually incriminated her very much, so I went with Yuri. The evidence against him for that was actually kinda flimsy and his counterarguments were strong enough...but in both cases, Judge called him guilty, and he folded like a newspaper and admitted everything immediately anyway.
-His whole Enchanted Blue deception also didn't seem to come into play.
-I got Carmelina for killing Grace because of the strangulation, but the fact that someone carved the sigils into her body wasn't touched on, even though it meant Akiko had probably been involved (Carmelina could have stolen or borrowed her knife, but Akiko also must have painted the same blood sigils by the guards, so it implicates her), and I couldn't expound any more on it.
-The Psychic Death Scream machine pointed at Henry also didn't come up at all, which means there was some pretty decisive physical evidence for something that nobody ever mentioned and didn't fit into the narratives I had...

I almost wish there had been "right" and "wrong" answers to some of this stuff, because it felt kind of like the game was taking an easy way out. (The whole "Truth and fact are different," "create your truth" stuff didn't really feel like it had been sold well enough either, so it didn't actually feel like it was a strong thematic design choice to me.)

I exonerated Henry for his being a victim and a pawn... and he went back to his cell to wait for his inevitable death/cessation of existence when the island ends in a day or two. Dang.

Also I just found out that I totally failed to ever find Eyes Kiwami's apartment. Buuuuuuuuutts

Anyway, not nearly one of the best games I've played recently, but definitely one of the most memorable.

 

[Alixsar]

I think the pieces of evidence you mentioned that didn't come up are there so that, if you DON'T find all the evidence, you have something that can lead you to a conclusion. Like I was under the impression the death scream machine was placed by the Witness/Sam/Lydia group (though I forget who specifically cuz it's been months), and that was one of the first things I found that connected Sam/Lydia and Witness, so when I found later/more direct evidence it helped solidify things. It also made me wonder if instead of two conspiracies, it was one giant one? I ruled that out but for a while it did, anyway. Same goes with Enchanted Blue; it kinda doesn't really matter in the end, cuz Yuri was involved for getting more power and helping his boss, but learning that makes you suspect him even more and gives a pretty direct motivation for him when maybe you haven't established one yet. I think all that stuff is just there to be part of "the process", and if you're not a completionist (which seems weird to me cuz this game isn't SUPER long but still) you can just use that evidence instead to get your truth. It's not a perfect system, and I kinda agree with your idea of there being "right" answers but it's a neat experiment.

I didn't have the issues with the writing you did, FWIW. I mean it's not outstanding, but the premise and lore is engaging enough that it was never an issue for me.