Skip to main content

Finding Paradise Steam review

It was 2015. A Bird Story had come and gone, leaving little in the way of impact. But that wasn't really that much of a concern: after all, he had been working on the next actual major story, featuring the doctors' next patient. But this was no ordinary case - indeed, in several ways, this would be a truly extraordinary tale.

If To the Moon focused on the idea that sometimes wish fulfillment could be a good thing, Finding Paradise instead focused on the other side of the argument, that wish fulfillment was dangerous and had to be done in moderation. This is cleverly illustrated through the patient's central desire, which at first seems too broad and vague. It turns out that all of his pains come from his hankering for more, from him not seeing what he'd already got. In this manner, it's actually very profound, almost like a Buddhist sermon without the preachy, religious bits.

Of course, that's not to say it's perfect. A lot of the focus goes towards a relationship with a muse. The story tries to draw sentiment for him by attempting to portray him as a boy so lonely he ended up creating a muse to amuse himself. Except, everything we see of his condition fails to convey any of that. If anything, he comes off as an extremely sheltered guy making mountains out of molehills.

Still, unlike the past two stories, the author here actually succeeds at conveying the core theme and messaging, even if it's diluted a tad by the somewhat unnecessary focus on the muse, especially when he keeps needlessly hiding her true nature for the sake of a surprise "twist". Unlike the past two stories, this is actually fairly enjoyable once you grasp the central theme driving the tale.

So, let me bring attention to something. To the Moon began by taking a look at wish fulfillment, and taking the position that sometimes, for some people with noble yet unfulfilled ambitions, wish fulfillment isn't so bad. Finding Paradise then takes the opposite side, pointing out how dangerous it can be when not applied in moderation. So, the theme was effectively covered in full, right? How can there be more main games? How could they say more about the central theme? Would they perhaps change tacks and focus on something else, like perhaps the ethics of the memory manipulator?

Well, the author found a...let's say "unconventional" way to get around all of that. Exploring that is best suited to the Impostor Factory review, however. 🙂

Also, the author doesn't deal with the whole "forgiving the central protagonist for selfishness and irresponsibility" thing here either. While Colin's hankering for petty desires and his neglect of his many blessings is at least portrayed negatively, it still remains the case that he is very self centered and uncaring, and is still ultimately rewarded despite that. To be fair, this is likely a flaw in the premise itself, where the doctors are instructed to fulfill the patient's last desires, not improve them, and that, at the deathbed, improving their personality would be too late to really mean anything, but it still comes off as rather wrong and disturbing.

That aside though, this is an actual good story that succeeds at its messaging, despite warts, and very well worth playing. If you wish to experience this franchise, it's best to only pick this up, and then go back to To the Moon if you get curious.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

About Me

  I am Dev Jyoti Chand, a man of many interests. Chiefly, I like playing video games, specifically, strategy 4xes, strategy RPGs, and adventure games. My favorite games are Master of Magic, Tactics Ogre, specifically the SNES/PS1 version, and Quintessence - The Blighted Venom. I also am very interested in learning about history, especially ancient and medieval history, and am ever curious to learn more about the world. This blog is mostly a grab bag of subjects I felt strongly enough about to dedicate words upon words. Most notable among them are a series of challenge runs of the Star Ocean 2 remake, a long form commentary on To the Moon that I am not particularly proud of these days, and, more recently, LPs of the classic Mana games . I am ever eager to talk about my interests, and am very accepting of feedback, as long as it is given in good faith. If you wish to contact me, you may do so through the following means: Shoot an email to dev221117@gmail.com Join my Discord with th...

Caster of Magic for Windows School Evaluations: Death

 Now for the very final school of the game, the cold, clammy twin of the divine/deathly pair. DEATH Death is the realm of decay, evil and, well, death. Most of its spells either summon demonic creatures, turn foes to its side by raising them as undead, or weaken them. In this manner, it acts as the exact opposite to Life - that realm was all about strengthening itself, this is about weakening the world from within. Thus, it doesn't care about regular units much, choosing to fight either with its summons, or its curses. Common Tier 1. Skeletons: Cost: 25 MP Effect: Summons a skeleton unit to the overworld. Analysis: Death lays its cards pretty early with this summon - it's literally a spearman unit, but undead! Actually, they fight better than spearmen, having more figures, defense, the whole bevy of Deathly immunities(immunity to Death, Cold and Illusions), and Missile Immunity on top of that! That said, their stats are pretty horrid, and they definitely shouldn't be used a...

Caster of Magic for Windows School Evaluations: Life

 We now move away from the "natural" elements and into the realm of divine and deathly duality. We're first covering the more lawful/"divine" side of it, the school of Life. LIFE Life is the realm of the divine. It expresses its themes through spells that "bless" their targets and either directly make them stronger, or protect them from deathly effects, usually from the Chaos and Death realms. It also has spells to similarly "bless" cities and either make them more defensible, or improve their economy. And, to top it all off, it has a bevy of appropriately "divine" summons. But its clearest focus is on its buffs, and as such, most of this list is made up of them. Thus, it is much more dependant on regular units than other realms, and picking the right race matters far more while playing this school. Common Tier 1. Bless: Cost: 7(in combat)/35 MP Effect: Grants 5 defense and 5 resistance against Chaos and Death spells, fire/lightning...