Finding Paradise is the sequel to To the Moon, and A Bird Story, both by essentially a one man dev team. They are all made in RPG maker, and in my mind hold the title of the only games to ever be well known and popular yet made in RPG maker.
If you have not read my review of Too the Moon, please do so first, as I am assuming that you have in writing this review.
Finding Paradise markets itself as the sequel of To the Moon, yet really it is the sequel to A Bird Story, of which I so, so wished I had played before playing Finding Paradise. Just trust me on this one. If you want to enjoy finding paradise to its fullest, play A Bird Story first. Lets get on with the game review itself:
Finding Paradise is by almost all accounts a very, very similar game to To the Moon. In fact, besides having a different story, nothing else is different, yet the story is what defines these games. The art style is still beautiful, the music some of the best I've ever heard in a video game, and the story aiming and succeeding in being sappy and touching, sad yet humorous, and above all it sticks with you.
If the game is so similar, lets talk about the few portions that are different:
The music, while a similar style, I felt stepped it up a notch, and managed to become more memorable than To the Moon's soundtrack. You can find the soundtrack here: https://freebirdgames.bandcamp.com/album/finding-paradise-ost
The story: This is the big one. Did it live up to expectations? Did it surpass and continue to push the limits of storytelling in a 2D pixel game? I'd say it met expectations, but did not pass them. I had high expectations for the game, and it met them, which is quite the feat, yet it didn't do anything so radically different or better that made me surprised, except in the case of the mystique/intrigue to do with a character that I will not mention for fear of spoilers. They were not what they seemed and it did catch me off guard. Most of the time, these kind of games give unsatisfactory endings, yet here I thought they did a nice job. It was the pretty standard sappy ending trying to evoke emotion from the sad music, which actually had lyrics and a singer, which was surprising. It was a story where the main characters sort of suffered from the passive character problem, in which it felt like they hardly did anything, yet it was a wild ride of emotion and fixed most of the pacing problems from Too the Moon. The puzzles still seemed weird, out of place, and frankly a waste of time, yet they weren't really harmful and as such not a huge deal.
Overall the story went a less straitforward path, which was good, and it met the expecations of fans of Too the Moon. The developer can put out anything and I will be satisfied knowing that it will be a good game. Still won't preorder anything though :)
Overall Definitely Worth the buy, as long as you have played Too the Moon and A Bird Story first. Its super cheap, even not on sale, so just buy it whenever you can.
Have fun, and let me know what games you want my thoughts on, or anything else I could write about.
