Despite Getting Delayed, Paralives Looks Like It's Avoiding Inzoi's...

After announcing a delay to May 2026, Paralives has shared a long video of new uninterrupted gameplay that's actually made me optimistic.

The big renaissance for life sims that I was expecting this year hasn't happened, thanks in part to a sudden delay for Paralives that was announced a couple weeks back. To ease the sting of delaying just a few weeks ahead of its intended launch, the Paralives team did show off 45 minutes of new, uncut gameplay this week. And you know what? It convinced me that Paralives is going to avoid the biggest flaw in Inzoi's early access: a lifeless Live Mode.

The whole 45 minutes of new gameplay takes place with a single playable "para" in his small flat and the shopping square below it. That may sound like a red flag for the state of the game, but I was way less worried about seeing the breadth of the Paralives neighborhood and more interested in the depth of its simulation. Some things that piqued my interest:

Anyone who's been nose to the glass for every Paralives update for the last few years probably already knew about all that, but seeing it all together in a play session made me feel cautiously optimistic again. It really looks like Paralives offers a lot of little loose ends to a player to help direct their para's life and pursue stories.

My biggest complaint with Inzoi's early access launch in March was its shallow Live Mode that just didn't make me want to do anything with my zois. Everyone else pretty much felt the same way, according to a player survey over the summer. It's gotten several updates this year, but still just doesn't have the little hooks that make me interested in my characters' lives.

I was worried that Paralives could suffer from the same problem, especially when its delay announcement mentioned specifically that playtesters felt "there are still impactful bugs in the Live Mode and a lack of activities to do in the town, which dampened the enjoyment of the players."

As warned by the Paralives community manager controlling the play session, there were some bugs on display: paras phasing through walls, trait upgrades with missing numerical values, and so on. Fundamentally though, it felt like a game where I might actually have fun making up my own goals and orchestrating my paras' messy lives.

Part of this is down to taste, maybe. I'm a Maxis match fan, not an alpha girlie when it comes to stocking my Sims 4 CC folder, so no surprise I prefer the stylized Paralives to Inzoi's hyperrealism. It's a

Source: PC Gamer