In the beachside Sunset Town, a new apocalypse threatens the town and the world every week. It’s a bit like real life. The only thing standing in the way of total destruction? Hot monster singles near you. That’s right, the world’s fate is in the hands of some hard-partying heroes and monsters, but you’re the new hero on the block, ready to take on anything and bang anyone. Yes, it’s time for a visual novel/dating sim multiplayer RPG called Doomsday Paradise from Lemonade Flashbang.
In Doomsday Paradise, you play as a newly arrived hero in Sunset Town. You can choose five playable characters: a beautiful cryptid, a Kobold baker, a frog…samurai, a sentient astronaut suit with a rat floating in the helmet, and a Merman scholar. You get a choice of names, including custom and random. I mention this because it does have a bearing on your character stats. The same goes for the unlockable skins for characters.
The plot is simple: a boss character is coming to end the world, and you have a matter of days to train and prepare for the final battle. You can choose short, medium, or long for your adventure with three difficulties: vacation, adventure, and war. Then, before you set off, use what is essentially Monster Tinder to choose who you have a crush on.
Doomsday Paradise Is The End Of The World As We Know It And I Feel Fine
There are six main characters: Al the anime pirate, Cleo the warrior, Tessa the criminal/shopkeeper, Frank the doctor who isn’t a doctor, Vando the wizard who is not a vampire (why would you say that), and Haley the monster girl. Whichever you choose has no bearing on the game; it just gives you a bonus affection point with that character.
At the beginning of each day, you gain a level and have a choice of 3 options. Rest will heal you, study will teach you a skill, train will increase random stats, party will gain you a party member, work will gain you reroll tokens, flirt will gain you an affection point, sin will gain you a curse, and inherit will give you a random item.
Then, you get to choose one location to visit per day. Each location will also grant you a point in one of your stats. The places you visit during your run will also influence the story and events you encounter. There are 400 scenarios and 120 endings. 120 ENDINGS. Do the devs not realize what this means? This means I have to keep playing it until I find all of them. I have discovered 47.
Honestly, it’s no problem because this game is incredibly fun. It’s filled with my exact brand of nonsense, and all the scenarios are distinct and filled with good character-building. The more you play, the more you get out of the story of each individual. For example, did you know that powerful wizards like Vando really like helping out with blood drives and sneaking into the hospital to clean the blood tub? Then there’s Cleo, who I have dubbed Meta Warrior, who constantly talks about EXP, leveling up, and stats, much to everyone else’s confusion.
The Characters Of Doomsday Paradise Are The Star Of The Show
When it comes to combat, it’s a card-based turn system. You can acquire physical items like swords, bows, balloon knives, and more to do damage, as well as defense items like shields, thorns, and a massive purple dildo that decreases enemy defense. How? No idea; I don’t want to know; please don’t ever tell me.
There are also skills and spells that you can learn, along with curses that will offer a benefit for a trade-off. You can, however, purify curses if you can get your hands on an herbal tea—one tea per curse, no refunds. You can also reroll items as long as you have reroll tokens, just in case you want to gain the thrill of gambling and also the horrible chance of gaining a massive purple dildo.
The strength of Doomsday Paradise lies in the characters and writing. Many games have the same elements as Doomsday Paradise, some that work, some that don’t. This one works especially well because it leans heavily into absurdity while creating some amusing stories and scenarios that can go many different ways. There are also secret characters. I found this out at the end of my first run, where I got an achievement for successfully dating a secret character. I know I haven’t found them all yet because there is a locked achievement for dating every secret character. I have a very particular set of skills (ADHD and Autism), and I will find you.
The Biggest Dilemma in Doomsday Paradise? Constantly Going “Oh No, He’s Hot!!”
It would be remiss for me not to talk about the game’s art. Yes, everyone is very hot. Are there a lot of body types on display? Not so much. However, it is a bright and creative world in general. The enemies are bonkers; there’s one called a Man Spider, which looks like a melting fish with a hodge podge of human limbs, Stabby Jack is a little round Jack O’Lantern syle beast that stabs you. One of the world-ending boss characters is a flaming goth unicorn with a blade for a horn. It’s pretty rad.
Then there are the playable characters. I briefly mentioned them at the beginning, but I think it’s worth spending a little bit more time talking about my favorite one – the Merman Scholar. What do you think a Merman Scolar looks like in this world? Maybe Triton from The Little Mermaid, but with glasses? No, you are wrong. It’s a fish-headed bodybuilder with crab claws instead of hands. His default name is Ben, and the costumes I have unlocked for him are Garfield and dapper radioactive fancy pants. He is the best, and when he goes into battle, he just makes gargled blub noises. He is a legend and the hero we all deserve.
There are also a lot of nods to pop culture hiding in the game. For example, apart from Cleo’s meta-game talk, there’s a particular party member you can unlock that may or may not reference something. It’s very subtle. It’s a hedgehog that drives a car and says, “Gotta go fast!” when he pops out at the end of your turn and buffs your agility. It’s on the tip of my tongue, and it tastes like chili dogs.
Wrapping Up
Is Doomsday Paradise perfect? No. It definitely can suffer from the downside that many of these games fall prey to, which is repetition. It’s easy to go for many runs without encountering new endings or even unique scenarios. I would love an auto-battle or skip button during the final boss, at least, and if you select a character skin, it should appear on all the screens instead of only combat. I want to see the radioactive fancypants, Merman, that’s why I chose it. In the end, though, it does have hot monsters and weirdness, and if you’re lucky, a giant crab will join your party and talk in the voice of a Chibi anime character.
Doomsday Paradise is out on November 8 for Steam
