There’s a lot of things that can make a video game feel more immersive, and dogs in video games help connect the physical player to the digital space. They assist in immersing players into an imaginary realm where you can forget about the stresses of reality and focus all your attention on that imaginary realm.

Paradise Killer’s world is an vaporwave fever dream beset by demons and glamorous backstabbing immortals clawing for power at the dawn of a minor apocalypse. It’s also deeply familiar to those of us who pay attention to the particular style of evil perpetrated by the wealthy rulers of modern imperial-capitalist empires.

“I see myself as more of an explorer. I wander around until I happen across a fragment of an image or concept that either soothes my mind or excites it, and then I just see where it goes.”