Sigmund Corp. employees Dr. Eva Rosalene and Dr. Neil Watts are again tasked for fulfilling the lifelong dream of the dying man called Colin Reeds. The doctors insert themselves into an interactive compilation of his memories and traverse backwards through his life via mementos to fulfill a wish that seems rather paradoxical: to change something, yet change nothing at all.
While traversing through his memories Dr. Rosalene and Dr. Watts find that although at first they traveled backwards in time normally, soon they started to hop back and forth between old age and new age. Dr. Rosalene theorizes that this leap between memories actually follows the pattern of a decaying orbit around a "gravitational center" at about the middle of his life.
In Colin's later years, the doctors learn of Colin's relatively happy life with his wife Sofia and son Asher. Colin had become an airline pilot, learned to like the cello, and even went to his dream vacation of Bora Bora. Despite this, Colin reveals that he feels he had not lived a fulfilling life, and is unhappy enough to go to Sigmund Corp. in order to get a second chance. This causes friction within the family, as Asher and especially Sofia feel offended that Colin would give up his memories with them in order to get new ones. In actuality, Colin had asked for Sigmund Corp. to change as little as possible regarding his family.
Back in his youngest days, the doctors learn that although Colin's parents were often not at home, he soon meets Faye, a girl that lived in a nearby apartment, and talks with her across the balcony. Being mostly quiet and reserved, Colin seldom talked to anybody other than Faye, but they seem to get along very well as time passes, and she eventually convinces him to be a pilot. As Colin starts to become more acquainted with Sofia, a piano player in Colin's community orchestra, he begins to distance himself from Faye. When Rosalene and Watts witness this memory, they become convinced that Colin regrets choosing Sofia over Faye, but his loyalty to his family prevents him from expressing his wish. While evaluating how to deal with the situation, Watts suggests that the only way to respect Colin's conditions is to erase Faye from his memories.
In reality, Faye is actually an imaginary friend that Colin wrote about in his book as a way to cope with loneliness, and manifested as an actual girl in the memories. Faye (now sapient) overhears the doctors talking about erasing her and, believing that this would actually hurt Colin more, she takes advantage of a momentary pause to separate Rosalene from Watts. She takes over the digital environment, locking Watts out of the memories, so he has to fight her in the machine with the help of Rosalene in the real world in order to regain control by giving Colin sedatives. With the anomaly temporarily stopped, they are then able to access the last memory (the center of the decaying orbit), in which Colin lets go of Faye and stops writing about her in his book. It's implied that Faye is Colin's interpretation of the bird from A Bird Story, as Faye states she said goodbye a long time ago, she is given wings, and Colin refers to her as his first real friend.
However, as a result of the mental battle and the drugs used to weaken Faye, Colin's conditions rapidly deteriorates in the real world, and the doctors are running out of time to consider what they should do for him. Eventually, Watts realizes that what's preventing Colin from not having a fulfilling existence is the very knowledge of a machine that could create more fulfilling memories. Watts then convinces Rosalene that they should give full control to Faye, who has reappeared because of the sedatives fading, and they pass on to her Colin's wish as it is too dangerous for the doctors to remain in Colin's mind. Faye then erases the existence of Sigmund Corp. from Colin's memories, creating a life in which Colin never asked for a wish and there were never tensions between Sofia and him. Near the end of his new life, Colin looks across the balcony as he did as a child, where Faye shows herself for the last time to exchange their final farewells. Later, just before Colin's funeral, Rosalene calls Watts wondering why he isn't here, and it is revealed that he is working on a secret project with two other Sigmund Corp. employees. At the end what appears to be an image of Faye appears on Watts' terminal.
Development and release
Finding Paradise was developed and published by Freebird Games for Microsoft Windows, macOS, and Linux by the independent Canadian game designer Kan Gao. Created using the RPG Maker XP engine, the development started in 2015, a year after A Bird Story was released. Originally meant to be released in mid-2017, the game was delayed due to issues in Gao's personal life. The game was released on December 14, 2017.
