#hero21verse

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 =)

Not long after the birth, Hallie returned to her work with the Marine. The adjustment was not always easy, but she stepped back into her routine with the same determination she brought into everything else. While she spent her days carrying responsibility elsewhere, Tavio found his own rhythm at home.

He cared for Talani attentively, almost instinctively.

The arrangement fit naturally into the life they had built. During the peaceful hours when Talani slept in her small bed, Tavio returned to his paintings. The house often became quiet then. Brushes moved across canvas while sunlight wandered slowly through the rooms.

His work still did not bring in much money. Not yet. But Hallie remained the steady foundation beneath everything, allowing him the freedom to continue learning and improving without pressure constantly waiting behind him. Tavio appreciated that more than he often put into words.

At night, whenever Talani needed a bottle or simply wanted comfort, Tavio usually rose first. Hallie often barely had time to wake before he had already left the room with the baby in his arms.

He never treated it like sacrifice. He simply knew how much energy her work demanded. Letting her sleep a little longer felt natural to him, something done without discussion.

On Hallie's free weekends, they slowly learned how to divide time in ways that felt fair. Parenting quickly taught them that rest mattered just as much as presence. They took turns stepping away for small moments of silence while making sure neither missed the tiny things that somehow became important.

Because with Talani, even ordinary moments suddenly mattered. A sleepy smile. A strange little sound. Tiny hands reaching toward nothing in particular.

Sometimes one of them walked down to the beach in front of the house for a short while, simply to breathe and exist without crying, babbling or constant movement surrounding them. Just a few minutes alone often felt enough.

Still, they never lost themselves entirely inside the routines of parenthood. Their time together remained.

When Hallie was not spending time training, she often sat beside Tavio while he painted. Sometimes she watched silently. Sometimes she asked questions. And every single time, she reacted to his creativity with the same amazement she had shown from the beginning.

Tavio always smiled at that, because even now, after everything had changed, Hallie still looked at him as if discovering something new. And somewhere between paint-covered hands, sleepless nights and the sound of waves outside their home, life had become fuller than either of them could have imagined.

If he tripped, he stood up. If he scraped his knee, he complained for approximately ten seconds before sprinting off again as if nothing had happened. Auron had long accepted that his younger brother seemed nearly indestructible.

The rest of Auron’s breaks rarely changed either. He spent all of them beside Nanako.

Most days they stood together in a small circle with their closest friends, talking about whatever occupied the school that week. Rumors. Teachers. Exam results. Who had somehow survived difficult assignments and who had clearly not.

The topics changed constantly, but somehow Auron and Nanako always ended up standing close together, occasionally exchanging looks only the two of them fully understood. Without realizing it, they had become nearly inseparable and nobody around them seemed particularly surprised by it anymore.

At home, things looked very different. Age differences had never mattered much inside the Scott household. Even now, despite the years between them, Auron and Corvin spent an absurd amount of time being completely ridiculous together.

Sometimes they wrestled across the couch cushions. Sometimes they argued dramatically over meaningless things. Sometimes they simply laughed until nobody remembered what had even started it.

Auron never seemed to mind. He had always been gentle by nature, endlessly patient in ways most people noticed immediately. And when it came to Corvin, there was very little he would not do.

One evening during dinner, Corvin suddenly looked up from his food. Henry sat nearby while Auron absentmindedly picked at the last few bites on his plate.

Without warning, Corvin spoke.

“You know…”

The room stayed quiet. Corvin looked directly at his older brother.

“I think you're really cool.”

Auron blinked.

Corvin continued eating for another second before casually adding: “When I grow up, I wanna be tall and strong like you.”

The words came so naturally that he barely seemed aware of what he had said. Auron looked at him immediately. There was no teasing response. No embarrassed reaction. Only warmth. The kind that reached his eyes before anything else.

Across the table, Henry quietly watched the moment unfold and somewhere deep inside him, something softened immediately. Because no matter how much children grew, no matter how different they became, seeing one child become someone another looked up to never stopped feeling special.

Several weeks later, another beginning arrived. Early in the morning, Yujin stood in front of Adam Entertainment for her first official day of work. She looked calm. Perhaps even relaxed, but only on the surface. Inside, nervousness moved through her in waves she tried very hard not to show.

Fortunately, that feeling did not last long. Almost instantly she discovered that the people around her were kind, welcoming and surprisingly helpful. Questions never felt inconvenient. Mistakes never felt embarrassing. The atmosphere softened her worries quickly.

By her very first day, she was already invited to participate in an important team meeting where monthly numbers and strategies were discussed. Marketing plans. Idol schedules. Audience reactions. New ideas.

Yujin listened carefully. The entire world felt unfamiliar, but exciting. Very exciting.

Later, during lunch break, she spotted a familiar face. Siyeon. The moment her daughter saw her, her face brightened immediately. The excitement was impossible to miss.

They sat together through the entire break, talking and laughing so much that neither fully noticed how quickly the time passed.

Siyeon looked genuinely happy. Not simply because her mother worked in the same building now, but because Yujin had found something that belonged only to her. Something beyond routines, beyond motherhood, beyond caring for everyone else first. And somehow, seeing that felt important.

That same day became important for someone else too. Corvin had reached another small milestone. He was no longer considered a child. Now, officially, he had become a pre-teen.

Of course, Corvin himself mostly cared about what this meant immediately. More freedom. More independence. More opinions people supposedly had to listen to. And if there was one thing everyone in the Scott household already knew - Corvin had never exactly struggled to make his will known before.

Now, it simply seemed likely that his determination had become even stronger and somehow, everyone suspected the household would notice it very soon.

The questions rarely stopped when the homework was done. In the evenings, Rowan often found Claire or Miles somewhere around the house and began asking. Sometimes it started with something small, something specific, but it never stayed there. One answer led to another question, then another, until the conversation stretched longer than expected.

Claire answered patiently, adding what she knew. Miles often filled in the gaps or admitted when he didn’t know either. Those moments didn’t seem to bother Rowan. If anything, they encouraged him to look further on his own. Curiosity had become part of his routine.

Claire and Miles made sure that their own routines did not disappear in the process. Every two weeks, once Rowan had settled for the evening, they left the house together. Nothing elaborate, just time set aside on purpose.

Most nights, their path led them to the stretch of beach between the main island and the resort. The place carried a familiarity by now. The water was clear enough to see the movement beneath the surface even in the fading light.

They stayed in the ocean longer than necessary, drifting slowly through the water, surrounded by small schools of fish that moved without urgency. Conversations came and went, sometimes fading into silence completely.

On certain evenings, the resort came alive in the distance. Small drones lifted into the sky, forming soft patterns of light above the surface. From where Claire and Miles floated, the reflections stretched across the surface, breaking apart with every wave around them.

They watched without speaking much. There was no need.

At some point, one of them always brought it up. Not deliberately, not as a planned topic, but as something that returned naturally.

The first time they met again after all those years. The moment Claire recognized him among countless faces and chose to speak.

It still felt unlikely in retrospect. And yet, it had happened.

Miles sometimes glanced at her then, as if checking whether the memory had changed. It hadn’t. Neither had what followed.

Back at home, Rowan had his own version of those quiet evenings.

With only a neighbor occasionally checking in, the house felt different without his parents. Not empty, just open. He used the time without hesitation.

Documentaries played on the television or computer more often than anything else. Oceans, forests, animals he would likely never see in person. He watched closely, sometimes pausing, sometimes rewinding, absorbing details others might have missed.

Other nights, he sat with his tablet, moving from one article to the next. Cahaya again. Its history, its ecosystems, small details about places he already knew but had never really looked at this way before. The island grew larger the more he learned about it.

By the time Claire and Miles returned, the lights were often still on. Rowan rarely said much about what he had been doing. But the next day, the questions returned. Slightly different each time. More precise.

And somewhere between homework, late-night research and lively conversations, something continued to take shape.