Paranoize review - "An utterly boring AFK RPG"

• Boring auto-combat
• Generic-feeling anime comic episodes
• Easy base-building

Paranoize is an AFK RPG in which you must build your base, upgrade your heroes, and battle enemy monsters. It’s been eleven years since a vast, mysterious object landed in the mountains of Japan. After being blind for a decade, a run-in with a supernatural entity restores Renny’s sight. However, the creature, Smokey, is now attached to him. And to make matters worse, it has a taste for human flesh.

Paranoize Takes AFK to the Max

This anime-style RPG takes AFK gaming to the extreme. You’ll earn tons of rewards while offline, which you can use to construct new buildings and upgrade your base and heroes.

You can hold down the button in the lower right corner of the screen to automatically complete base upgrades. You can choose where to place new buildings, but the instant upgrades don’t feel satisfying, especially with how many upgrades you can get done at once.

Combat is no more engaging than the base-building mechanic. Sure, you’ll assign heroes to your team, equip them with gear, and level them up. But the actual combat is fully automated. It’s always nice to have auto combat as an option in the AFK genre, but it should be an option.

Paranoize Features Boring Auto-Battles

Technically, you can choose the order in which your heroes attack by which team slot you place them in. But other than that, which happens pre-battle, you really have no control. There’s nothing you can do but watch as your heroes obliterate the completion or succumb to it. This makes the whole thing feel largely boring.

Paranoize features a standard gacha summoning system, in which you’ll spend diamonds unlocking new heroes, which you can then add to your team. Once unlocked, you can improve your heroes’ chances in battle by training them, levelling them up, and equipping them with gear and memories. With so many ways to strengthen your heroes, it's rather easy to keep them in tip-top shape.

Paranoize includes Generic-Feeling Anime Comics 

Perhaps the most entertaining aspect here, not that it’s saying much, is the anime comic episodes you can unlock. These episodes follow Renny, a blind student, who regains his sight when he merges with a monster called Smokey. After some arguing, Smokey agrees not to eat humans, for now, and even helps Renny battle others of its kind.

While these episodes are certainly more entertaining than the gameplay itself, they don’t make up for the lack of interactivity. Further, even these episodes feel a bit stunted. We have a hero with a secret and a dark past to uncover, a smart-mouthed monster, and a timid pink-haired love interest. I can see what the devs are going for here, but it all just feels a little too like a generic anime.

Paranoize is a disappointing anime-style AFK RPG that leans way too heavily on the AFK mechanics. You’ll upgrade your base so quickly that you won’t get that rush of accomplishment.

Further, the automatic combat is terribly boring. You’ll spend most of your time in Paranoize feeling like a bystander rather than a part of the action. And the run-of-the-mill anime comic episodes you can unlock just aren’t engaging enough to keep you content.