Finished it at last.
I'll keep it somewhat vague so I don't have to cover this entire thing in spoilers, but I'm just kind of done with it all now. As in the OG, Paradox Part 1 and Part 2, the uplifting emotional moments and unserious funny parts and parody elements of Part 3 were brief respites from the plethora of hang-ups and shortcomings of the story. I don't have the energy or investment to detail a full review, I just can't muster the words for the game at this point. While I understand the positive response to finally finishing the game and getting the true ending where everyone is happy and celebrating, I just can't ignore everything that led up to that point. I'm much more concerned with the path the journey took rather than the ultimate destination, so while I'm not going to go into all the elements of the writing and overall plot of the game, I do really want to give at least one opinion now that I've finished so I'll just focus on one singular thing that is always lurking in the corners of my mind with these games.
My mind always lingers on the lack of catharsis whenever an atrocity is inflicted on-screen in these games. It is this specific aspect that just settles in like a brain-worm and sits festering after everything else is set and done. The OG was hit-and-miss with it, but we for damn sure had some parts there that did deliver on getting a truly evil scumbag permanently removed from the world, and her name was Cassandra. For all the unambiguous cruelty shown in Paradox, especially with the multiple village annihilations, I was really feeling the absence of certain characters receiving an OG Cassandra treatment with a one-way trip towards permanent oblivion, even with the caveat that there might be some external influence involved in some of the actions shown. And even the rare instance a culprit got offed by the end, I somehow feel like the unreleased 4th route will undo even those, so I'm here looking at this game feeling more and more like the meme of a man standing in front of an empty field going 'Behold the field in which I grow my fucks. Lay thine eyes upon it and thou shalt see that it is barren.'
In Paradox, lasting retribution seems to fall by the wayside in favor of stopping chaos and preserving existence, and if it does actually happen, it ends up feeling meaningless because of time and dimensional shenanigans going on everywhere undoing consequences upon consequences. That feeling stayed with me by the end of each part of Paradox, and it will just always feel like the evil asshole got away with a metaphorical slap on the wrist because greater good, we're all in this together, and all of existence is at stake. When that happens, it doesn't just affect my view of the perceived asshole getting away with it, but affects my view of everyone involved in allowing said asshole getting away with it. These characters are the biggest contenders associated with that notion for me in each part of Paradox:
In part 1, Lilith Sisters.
In part 2, Collab Event Villains.
In part 3, Kanon.
Given a week to think it over, it's likely that my overall opinion of this game will worsen, and I'll feel even more harshly for what I perceive as shortcomings in the narrative, but maybe I came at this entire thing with expectations that I really shouldn't have had from seeing how much unambiguous praise these games get, and perhaps this post will temper the expectations of any reader that might have had an experience similar to my own. Overall, I wasn't really surprised that it turned out the way it did. I just wish I didn't spend so many hours on it when I really should have long-internalized a crucial fact about the writing by the end of the OG, and especially by the time I finished Paradox Part 1:
It's a porn game where the writing is femdom hentai, what did I really expect?