Before I jump into my first impressions, I wanted to quickly mention something important:
Paralives just entered Early Access, which means the game is still growing and changing over time. Features may evolve, systems may improve and some things may simply feel unfinished for now.
So rather than treating this as a final judgment, I wanted to approach it the same way I approach storytelling: by observing small moments, little surprises and first impressions along the way.
After asking you all what I should specifically keep an eye on, I spent my first 24 hours trying to pay attention not only to mechanics, but also to atmosphere, tiny details and all those little moments life sims are often built around.
One of the biggest questions many of you asked was: Do Paras actually live when nobody pushes them?
My answer after the first day would be: Yes, but with limits.
They are definitely living their own lives, though not in a way that would constantly entertain players without input. To be fair, I don't think I have ever played a life sim where absolutely no player engagement was needed to create meaningful situations over a longer period of time.
Small moments happened naturally much more often than I expected though. Paras reacted surprisingly well to their surroundings through moodlets, facial expressions and little animation changes. When objects broke, frustration became visible. I even noticed wishes forming around those situations, like wanting to repair something that had gone wrong. For an Early Access title, I honestly expected much less.
-> Here you can see my first ever Para Olivier, who desperately tries to fix the toilet before going to work, because it gave him a bad moodlet and he autonomously gained the wish to repair it.
One thing I really enjoyed was how gameplay occasionally created little story hooks without me forcing them. Paralives introduced two systems that constantly pushed me toward situations I probably would not have created myself: Storyteller Cards & Community Boards.
Every night, the Storyteller offered several cards that could shape the following day with goals or suggested interactions. The Community Boards scattered throughout town worked similarly, giving Paras strange little requests from other people around town.
Some of them were unexpectedly funny. At one point I found myself accepting requests without even questioning why someone wanted help destroying sandcastles at the beach.
-> This is a screenshot showing the Storyteller Cards one night. The option on the left and in the middle each bring up three new cards, but players have to stick with whatever stack they choose for the night, so choose wisely =)
Another thing I kept paying attention to was whether the game itself could simply be fun to watch.
And honestly? I think so.
Paralives feels incredibly cozy. The entire game carries this handcrafted feeling where almost everything seems placed with care. NPCs have biographies, homes feel thoughtfully designed and the world itself constantly encourages little discoveries. There are collectibles hidden around town, a museum that rewards curiosity and even small quest systems that make daily life feel less repetitive than the usual "go to work, go home" loop we know from other games.
-> A screenshot showing Olivier who's digging up a mystery chest. Collectible mushrooms are also visible.
Visually, Melino impressed me a lot. The town feels detailed, warm and very close to what the early trailers promised. The art style sits somewhere between cartoony and hand-painted and after a while it started feeling incredibly natural.
Not everything felt fully developed yet, of course.
Character chemistry, for example, did not stand out strongly during my first 24 hours. Paras interacted naturally enough to stay immersive, but I personally did not notice systems that created especially deep chemistry yet.
Jobs currently function as rabbit holes too. Surprisingly though, I enjoyed them more than expected because the progression system around professions feels very fresh. Promotions and work performance often unlock different perks connected to skills, coworkers or completely unexpected bonuses. For me personally, it felt like one of the most interesting rabbit hole systems I have seen in a life sim.
-> Here's a screenshot of the job menu, showing the card with the blue background which is a permanent perk for my para's job, while there are also temporary ones available and ones who simply increase the rank shown above the green text.
As for family gameplay... my baby isn't born yet 😭 so I unfortunately couldn't properly test family interactions during my first day. If you want to know more about family gameplay, please let me know in the comments <3
Overall, after my first 24 hours, Paralives felt exactly like what I hoped it would become: A cozy, atmospheric life simulation full of potential, little discoveries and lots of room to grow. Honestly, I already caught myself saying "just one more in-game day" way too many times xD
Please let me know if there are more things you'd like me to test during the next few days and if you liked this post in general. I've fallen in love with Paralives within a few minutes and would gladly show you more if you want to =)
Lots of love to all of you and have a wonderful week, my friends!
📸 BTS #7 – 🎮 Quick community question (incl. poll)
Many people in the inZOI / life sim community seem curious about Paralives, just like me, so I wondered: would you be interested in a post about my first 24 hours in the game?
Just first impressions, little discoveries and honest thoughts in general. With screenshots of course, you know how much I love taking those =)
(Additional info: If you want to see it and vote accordingly, the post would approximately go online between 22pm CEST May 26 - 3am CEST May 27)
Would you be interested in a Paralives First Impressions post?
Yes, I'd love that 👀
Maybe, depends on the content 🤔 (comment your ideas / questions below!)
I’m here for inZOI only 🌿
Voting ended onMay 20
If you would like to see a Paralives BTS First impressions post:
What would you be most curious about? 👀
Building? Paramaker? Performance? Family gameplay? Tiny details? Anything else?
Feel free to let me know in the comments and I'll gladly keep an eye out for you during my first 24 hours with the game. As some of you already know, I usually try to take all your comments into consideration, so please share anything that you'd be interested in <3
📸 BTS Paralives – Innovative Systems & Mechanics ⚙️🔧
Today I'll show you a more in-depth look at some of the mechanics in Paralives which aren't implemented in any other life-sim game available yet. The Paralives devs have clearly put a lot of thoughts into those systems and I think all of them enhance the gaming experience to some extent.
The Storytellers:
From left to right: Ricardo Castello III, Maxence & paradog Stella
All three of them are selectable as storyteller by the player when starting a new game. They are the ones who choose the story cards at the end of every day for you (I already talked about this in my last Paralives post: here ) and let you adjust a lot of the game's settings whenever you feel the need to. While Ricardo is described as a storyteller who will make your paras' lives more challenging, Maxence offers a fair and balanced experience and Stella wants to keep your paras from life's lowest lows, acting as a literal guard dog apparently.
You can switch between all of them as well as adjust all available settings whenever you'd like, making it easy for players to figure out their playstyle along the way.
Group Interactions & Conversations:
You can select multiple paras, e.g. to have a conversation together, by holding the left mouse button and dragging a window across all of them. Once you've done that, the white circles below their feet let you know which paras you have currently selected.
The light-blue frame around the dark-blue action icon in the left corner of the screen indicates that the action includes multiple paras, making it easily visible all the time.
Whenever your para is in a group conversation and you're about to select another action which doesn't allow the group to do it, the game shows you that your chosen para will leave the group to do the action. This is very helpful, especially while getting used to the game.
Your Para's Wishes:
Your para develops wishes throughout the day. Usually there a about 2-4 wishes available which you can choose freely once your para has gained enough points for one of the many emotions implemented -> a small icon on the top right corner of the emotions shows that new ones are available. Fulfilling those wishes (they only stay until your para goes to sleep) grants your para skill points (more on them later).
You can save one of the wishes once you've selected them by pinning it with the pin icon in the top right corner of each wish. I find this very useful for storytelling purposes, because becoming a friend with someone doesn't happen in a day, especially when your para has to go to work, etc.
Skill Points & Traits:
Paras gain points for fulfilling wishes, life goals and community quests. Those can be spent on the four categories of your para's skill set. In the screenshot, all four skills only have up to three bars, but I noticed that it can above that if you choose.
The traits below (for temper, social bonus and talents) are also locked behind fulfilling those things mentioned in the paragraph above. There are plenty of them available which will make your para's social life easier or help them to climb up the ranks of their job faster.
Newborns:
There are already a lot of interactions to do with babies. In the screenshot these are: pick up, feed with bottle (other option available when selecting baby with its mother), cuddle, rock baby, burp baby, play baby airplane, talk to baby.
When your para is about to give birth, your screen will darken and you'll see a pop-up (or multiple xD ) in the upper right corner. Here you get to choose the first name of each baby. The most remarkable thing to me is the surname selection though. You can choose to take the mother's or father's surname, as well as write a new one -> in my case I combined both surnames, as you can see in the screenshot.
Sickness:
Your paras can become sick with stomach flu. Mine got them from work, but I assume it can also be developed by eating rotten meals. This will give your para a new, negative emotion. Additionally, the sick para's needs will change for the duration of the flu: hunger will be ignored completely, while sleep and toilet needs are shortened, thus decreasing faster.
As you can see in the screenshot above, those negative emotions will influence your para's ability to learn and further develop new skills. Once they're healthy again, they will go back to learning everything normally.
The New Paper:
Every day at 5:30 am, the New Paper will be delivered right to your doorstep (-> you can click on the small newspaper icon on the bottom right of the screen). It usually shows you small headlines about recent events in town and can sometimes give you a bonus if one of your para's skills in above a certain number.
Cheats:
There are already a lot of cheats available in the game. For a rotational player like me, being free to disable aging and choosing my paras' life stages with a simple cheat comes in very handy.
To view the full list of cheats, check out the Paralives Wiki.
I hope this post was able to shed some light on the various systems and mechanics of this gorgeous cozy, life-sim game. If you have anything on your mind that you haven't fully figured out yet OR that you want me to talk more about, please let me know in the comments. I'll post some Paralives content every now and then, so I'll gladly include any of your feedback.
(You can check out the previous posts about Paralives and its systems & features here.)
Today I want to show you some features of Paralives which I happen to enjoy the most lately. I wasn't aware of some of them right from the start, so these might help out some of you too.
Feedback Button:
Once you launch Paralives, the small button with the up-and-down thumbs is shown in the upper right corner of your screen. By clicking it, the game opens your browser externally and brings you to the official Paralives Suggestion & Bug Report website. Requesting additional features, sending in bugs / glitches or simply giving some feedback couldn't be any easier.
There's no additional, private information about you or your setup required to send anything to the team. You can add one photo, if you wish to explain your report further though.
Unstuck Button:
The in-game menu (accessible via escape key OR by clicking on the three buttons in the upper right corner) offers various options and one of them is the Unstuck button. Any game, especially in early access, has to deal with bugs and glitches, so this is very convenient.
Once you click it, a small pop-up makes sure you didn't just hit the button by accident. After confirming it's an intentional action, your whole active household gets teleported to the front of your current lot. This has fixed all minor bugs I've come across so far and it helps to keep the immersion-break as small as possible.
Inventory System:
A very simple inventory makes Paralives easily accessible for anyone. It's shared throughout the household, so no need to individually search through every Para's pockets.
You can select any item to see if it's already been given to the museum, etc. -> Very convenient and reminds me of games like Coral Island which make collecting items for the greater good easy for us players. (This info is not shown in the screenshot -> you'd see an extra pop-up on the right side of the shown, blue window)
Selling and placing any items from your para's inventory can be done via the marked buttons on the bottom. If you choose "place object" (right one), the game automatically brings up the build mode where you can easily rotate or even adjust the item's size.
Cheats & Cheat Console:
There are already a lot of cheats available in the game. To view the full list of cheats, check out the Paralives Wiki.
I haven't used a lot of them so far, but I highlighted two cheats which I think are crucial for any life-sim game right from the start. Editing a selected Para and adding a NPC to your household make gaming in such a vast, continuously changing world worth expanding in my opinion.
Feel free to check all of the numerous cheats out yourself via the link above =)
Once you've chosen which cheat you want to apply and open the cheat console (like I have described in my previous post), the team made it very easy for you to make use of it. If you type any letter, the console displays all available codes which include this letter. The further you type, the smaller the amount of suggested cheats you get. It's very useful and, once again, increases the game's accessibility.
Paramaker Details:
When in Paramaker, you can always add a brandnew Para to your active household by pressing the circled avatar shown in my screenshot.
Your already existing or even the new Paras can have a variety of name options. To access those, simply click on the three dots right next to your Para's family name. This brings up a new pop-up with new name possibilites, such as nickname, second name or showing the family name first.
The devs made sure to include even more personality details to individualize your Paras. To access them, click the three dots at the end of the given gender choices.
Below pronouns, pregnancy and feeding newborns options, there's three choices for "jealousy in relationships": never jealous, witnessing your partner have any kind of physical touch with others, witnessing your partner kiss or get intimate with others.
I really appreciate those options, because I enjoy playing with polyamorous Paras sometimes, so that makes it a lot easier.
Connected Wishes / Wants:
One of my Paras developed the wish / want to spend 6 hours with his partner. When both of them sat on the couch and watched TV together later that day, I made them talk. After a few of the common Together Cards (tell a joke, flirt, etc.), a new one appeared: Share recent wish with Para. As I chose this new option, he seemingly told his partner about his new wish and suddenly the wish became hers too. It's the one in the second screenshot, highlighted with a little star icon.
I didn't know this was possible and even already implemented in the game, so it was a huge, pleasant surprise <3
Promotions:
One day, my Para developed the wish to apply for a higher ranking job. I checked the job listings via the computer and noticed that he was indeed able to apply for a higher-ranking job in the same building with the same profession but a different job title. Then he got promoted from receptionist at the fitness studio to celebrity fitness coach.
You can easily check if your Para is skilled enough to apply for certain jobs by checking the circled numbers in the right corner of the additional pop-up on the right side. In his case, 26 is the amount of skill points he needs and 74 is the amount he has gained so far. Safe to say the promotion was long overdue xD
Enormous Food Variety:
Paralives offers a large amount of different meals for your Paras. They'll learn new recipes when levelling up the cooking skill OR by searching for them online via a computer. Not every dish can be served as single-portion or group-portion, but you can check this out individually by clicking on it, as shown in the screenshot.
I hope this post was able to shed even more light on the details of this gorgeous cozy, life-sim game which I love the most at the moment. If you have anything on your mind that you haven't fully figured out yet OR that you want me to talk more about, please let me know in the comments. I'll post some Paralives content every now and then, so I'll gladly include any of your feedback.
📸 BTS Paralives – Innovative Systems & Mechanics #2 ⚙️🔧
(You can check out the previous post about the systems & mechanics here.)
As a lot of people enjoyed my latest Paralives post, I decided to take a few more screenshots and explain some additional features in detail too. Have fun =)
Questing in Melino:
Along with the numerous Community Boards in the lovely town, you can encounter residents with random, daily requests. They're easy to see with a large "!" quest icon hovering above their heads.
To listen to their requests, you start a normal conversation with them. Once the conversation gauge has filled up for the first time, besides the Together Cards, you get a Red Together Card which referring to their request. Then you get the option to accept or deny the quest.
All accepted quests (& life goals) are listed in detail for every Para individually in the "!" category in the bottom left menu of your screen. You are able to view "reached life goals" in this list too, if you want that (e.g. for storytelling reasons), by simply turning on the slider marked on the bottom of the pop-up.
Every quest has multiple steps for completion and all of them will get ticked individually by the game for you, once you've successfully completed them. When you're done, a big, green button will appear next to the quest title, showing that you can redeem the prizes by returning to the quest giver.
Which prizes you get for completing any quest is shown by the "reward pop-up" whenever you hover your mouse over it. Usually it's a small amount of Paradimes (the in-game money) and an increased relationship with the quest giver.
If you happen to accept a quest which you don't want to complete at all, there's always the option to delete them by clicking the "bin icon".
Additional info: The quests can be pinned to the right side of your screen if you choose to do so (only one at a time). Thankfully, those pinned pop-ups aren't very big, but still well-readable and have a transparent background, so you don't lose a lot of space to witness the world.
Multiple Conversations:
This screenshot shows how the developers chose to display two or more Paras from your household having two conversations separately (= not with each other) at the same time. It looks neatly organized, doesn't get confusing to look at and shows the remaining household members too. I really like it =)
Changing Outfits Anywhere:
Changing your Para's outfit as well as creating a new outfit for them can be done by interacting with any kind of wardrobe item AND by clicking on your Para and opening the Paramaker via the "t-shirt icon" displayed right below their name. These options make storytelling easy for realistic roleplay and for people who want to take the perfect picture anywhere.
Once you click the "t-shirt icon", a small pop-up lets you choose from all outfits you've put together for the chosen Para. If you want to add a new one to any of the categories (namely: all, everyday, fitness, sleepwear), simply click the dark-blue button at the bottom of the pop-up: "Add New Outfit".
Individual Quirks:
Paras usually have the following needs: Hunger, Sleep, Toilet & Cleanliness. Depending on your Para's traits and talents, these needs can vary quite a lot.
In the screenshot above, the cleanliness need is greyed out, because the Para is "goofy" by design and sometimes chooses to ignore one random need for 24 hours.
In addition to ignoring one need, due to his "goofy" persona, a new need for "fun" is added. This one remains important to them for all their life, so it does not disappear and re-appear randomly, but simply stays forever.
This amazing system makes it really funny to meet and overtake NPCs, since some of them become really different from others due to their needs, perks and quirks. I have only encountered one other special need so far - solitude. I assume there are others already implemented though.
Switching Households:
You can zoom out to visit the town map anytime. Similar to other life-sim games, numerous differently colored icons will guide you the way to your next favorite location. The slightly bigger, green icon with the golden outline indicates your current household's own lot, so you can find the way back home quickly.
Rented or sold lots have the light-red icons. Once you click on those, a new pop-up shows the name of the currently residing household, the size and amount of room types and avatars of the residents' portraits. Below all this info, a light-blue, huge button lets you switch to this household right away.
Melino has a lot of NPCs which aren't directly living on a lot in the town. You can meet them there frequently, but switching to them can't be done via the map.
Fortunately, the devs have implemented a very handy cheat console which you can access by holding ctrl + shift + c. Then click on the "V" in the upper left corner of the new window. Once you choose the option to get an overview of all Paras in the save file, your window will look exactly like the one from my screenshot above.
Now you can read through all of their names until you find the Para you're looking for or you want to find them quickly by typing some part of their surname or family name in the white search bar. Once you've found the one you've been looking for, select them (then they're highlighted blue) and choose "switch to household" from the menu found by selecting the three dots in the bottom right corner.
This may sound a little inconvenient when reading my short guide, but I promise, you'll get used to it after doing it one or two times. I'm glad it's been included from the start, because the townies are all really unique and I wouldn't want to miss out on a chance to play all of them.
Cheats (again):
There are already a lot of cheats available in the game. For a rotational player like me, being free to disable aging and choosing my paras' life stages with a simple cheat comes in very handy. I wanted to include this once more, because a lot of players haven't heard about the already existing cheats yet.
To view the full list of cheats, check out the Paralives Wiki.
I hope this post was able to shed even more light on the numerous systems and mechanics of this gorgeous cozy, life-sim game. If you have anything on your mind that you haven't fully figured out yet OR that you want me to talk more about, please let me know in the comments. I'll post some Paralives content every now and then, so I'll gladly include any of your feedback.
