Paradigm Paradox Review

Review code used, with many thanks to MMPR

A Story in a Dystopian World

The story of Paradigm Paradox revolves around Yuuki. She lives in Theta, which is a colony inside an encapsulated dome. The dome is needed for the people of Theta to survive, because outside of this dome the environment has become hospitable. Everything outside of the dome is supposed to wither away, but not for all creatures…like the horrific Vectors.

We learn at the start of the game that Yuuki’s parents have died while she was very young, and that she doesn’t remember them. She only has a pendant as a keepsake that belonged to them. Aside from all that, she lives an ordinary life as a student in a dorm near the university with her friend Lize. But Yuuki wants more from life and her prayers are answered when she is forced to join forces with the Blooms. The Blooms are a special force of female superheroes that can indeed take out the Vectors. As I played on, I found not all is as it seems!

The Popular Boys

I couldn’t find a recommended route order for Paradigm Paradox, so I went out on my own and played whatever route came my way. The order I eventually ended up with was: Ayumu -> Tokio -> Kamui -> Mihaya -> Ibuki -> Hyuga -> Yukinami -> Ryo -> Finale -> Common Route.

Later, I did find a route order, which in hindsight did make more sense. This order was: Kamui -> Mihaya -> Ayumu -> Tokio -> Hyuga -> Yukinami -> Ibuki -> Ryo -> Finale -> Common Route.

Tokio Takato

Tokio is the nerd type of this Otome game. He has been born and raised inside the research facility with only Ayumu as his friend. Tokio has always had a good relationship with his parents who are in the research field and inherited their curiosity for things in the world. He speaks his mind because it seems he does not have a social filter. As most highly intelligent people do in the Otome world. But putting that aside he is really kind and caring towards Yuuki and tries to cheer her on in his own, science oriented, way.

Kamui Saibara

He is the popular kid in high school and is always surrounded by a fan club of girls. Luckily Kamui is not the standard arrogant popular student. He is very caring and wants to make everyone in his life happy. Even if that costs him his own health. When playing his route, I immediate thought: he must have been a nerd or a fatter kid in his youth. Mostly because his flirting was very much based on what he thought girls wanted to hear and because he and Yuuki first bonded over food. Which he made clear was very important to him. Turns out I was right, as it is sort of revealed that he studied often and hard when he was younger.
There were moments that made me giggle in his route and even though he was a bit clumsy with Yuuki in his flirting tactics, I did fall in love with Kamui.

Mihaya Araki

Mihaya is a year below Yuuki, but don’t let it fool you into thinking he is the immature little brother type. He mostly keeps to himself in the school library and is not known for socializing with other classmates. Since he is not the socializing type, he has a mysterious allure about him. This is because of his tragic backstory and his fellow schoolmates love to gossip about it. But, surprisingly enough, he is not afraid to stand up for himself and for what is right.

Before playing his route, I didn’t expect much from Mihaya, but I turned out really liking his character. In my opinion his route was also one of the most interesting ones to play, plot wise. I finished his route rather quickly.

Miyaha, the sweet and mysterious underclassman

Ayumu Mamiya

He is the student council president and appear to be very friendly towards everyone. But when his adoring fans are not around, he shows his true face, which is often a not so friendly one. Frankly, he is quite rude sometimes. The only person in his life he cares about is his younger sister Ritsu. He wants to protect her and chases away anyone who is not fit to be her friend.

He is very arrogant towards the heroine and is not likable at first, but of course this man has a touching backstory which makes you feel sympathy towards him. This route in Paradigm Paradox is a classic example of the enemies to lover’s trope, that in the book world is very beloved and I am also a sucker for.

The popular but arrogant class president

Ibuki

This is a character on the villain side of the game. In the hero routes we don’t get to see much from him, except for the times he gives Yuuki some cryptic information, which in turn makes him relatively mysterious. Contrary to him being a ‘villain’, his demeanour seems gentle and not at all evil. It could sometimes be a little creepy, the way he could say something really cruel about humans in a lovely manner.

His route really shows some light on Yuuki’s backstory and what the villainess justice is for attacking Theta. Overall enjoyed his route, but I did expect a little more from it and in terms of character development.

Hyuga

Hyuga is one of Ibuki’s loyal followers. In the other routes we only see him when he is fighting the Blooms with his guns and badmouths them. But in the villainess justice routes we find out he is not super talkative. He is however the ‘mother hen’ of the group, since he is the one that cooks and cleans the place they live. Even though he tends to be very rude and acts like he doesn’t care, he does show that he can be kind and caring if he wants to. You will quickly learn this when playing his route, a typical Tsundere is you ask me. I did like Hyuga’s softer side and thought it was adorable at times.

Yukinami

He is the last person in the villainess trio, that keep attacking Theta and the Blooms. He appears to be energetic and childish, but when fighting he shows this crazy and creepy side to him. We always see him fighting next to Hyuga and he often bosses him around, which Hyuga does not necessarily mind. Overall, his route creeped me out a bit, the little brother types or childish personality in Otome are not my favorite, and Yukinami’s route was weird for me. Especially with the way he treats others and even Yuuki.

Ryo

We first come to know Ryo as the “Fairy” due to him being the academy’s maintenance worker and him popping up at rare times. Students have even been saying that those who find him will receive good luck. When Yuuki joins the Blooms, she finds our Ryo is not just some maintenance worker, he works with the Blooms. We also find out he has something shady going on by going in and out to the research district for some unknown reason.
This route was the most underwhelming for me, it severely lacked romance and the plot was, in my opinion, not executed well.

Visuals and Sound

Visuals

The backgrounds in Paradigm Paradox are beautifully made and very detailed. But in comparison to the background the characters and CG’s (Computer Graphics) are a little too plain for my taste. I sometimes didn’t even notice that I was looking at a CG.

Sound

The background music was what its name implies, just background music. Some of the more “emotional” tunes I did enjoy. The opening theme “Course of my fate”, performed by 8P and the ending theme “Owaranai Blooming”, performed by Yashiro Taku (Takato Tokio), Kousaka Atsushi (Saibara Kamui), Enoki Junya (Arata Mihaya) and Chiba Shouya (Mamiya Ayumu) are quite good and nice to listen to. For the ending themes there are two songs, one for the Hero side and one for the Villain side. One thing to note for the ending songs is that they are sung by the cast.

System

If you’ve played other Otome games, you will see that Paradigm Paradox has some familiar additions to the system. Let’s start off with the Status page. On the status page it shows you at the start if you are closer to the hero or villain side. After you have entered a love interest’s route, it will show you your ‘Ability Usage’ and ‘Affection’ toward the love interest.

Paired with the Status page, when making a choice, either a DNA helix will show in the colour that you develop or in case of the love interest’s route, flowers will appear. These factors will determine what ending you are going to get, so this was a very helpful tool.

The DNA icon that gives the player indication

Next is the flowchart. Every possible route has its own flowchart, combined with the background colour of the character route you are playing. This flowchart mostly shows you when a CG is coming (through the box that is overlapping the chapter boxes) and what ending you are in. In my opinion the flowchart was not necessary, but it did fit the science/research theme. As an IT girl I have also worked with flowcharts, this is sort of our lifeline in coding when describing what we are going to do.

Flowchart with all the route information

Overall Thoughts

Let’s start with my biggest issue about Paradigm Paradox. I thought it lacked a plot and was way too fast paced. They did build up an issue in each route, but when the ending came it was solved way too quickly. When I finished my first route, I didn’t even realize it ended until the ending theme started. Also, the build-up toward an actual plot was a little boring most of the time, nothing really happened, and the Blooms missions missed action. Most of the battles were over in two minutes.

I should also note that the romance factor in Paradigm Paradox is quite low. Only a few characters actually had a romantic moment and in the rest of the routes it was more implied. So, keep this in mind when buying the game.

Something also irked me about the Blooms. They are generally not nice to Yuuki and did not want to be friends. Which could be because they must protect their identities, but still. Yuuki constantly had to prove herself, which was weird to me because she had no choice in becoming a Blooms member. They could have made her just as powerful as the rest of the group, but she was made ‘weak’.

One thing I loved was the clothing all the characters were wearing in the game. Especially the Blooms outfits, because each character had their own main color and styling that fit them well. The styling reminded me of high-end circus costumes.

The characters that I really liked playing were Ayumu and Kamui. Ayumu and Yuuki’s dynamic made me laugh and their stubbornness reminded me of my own relationship. Going into the game I predicted that I would like Kamui, and he did not disappoint, his route was also quite nice and not super rushed.

Conclusion

I am really torn about Paradigm Paradox. It did have some nice qualities here and there. For example, the story itself is an interesting idea and I liked playing the routes of Kamui, Ayumu, Mihaya and Ibuki. But the game does not bring a lot of innovative stuff. There was also a lot that was missing for me. The routes were fairly short, there were too many routes for me, and the plots were rushed, which also didn’t give me a chance to really see character development in Yuuki’s love interests.

After mentioning the negative points, I do feel it had so much potential that wasn’t used. I did like some of my playtime, but this would not be the Otome game I would pick up over all the other great ones out there.

Final verdict: I’m not sure.