• Price: $14.99 USD
• Developer: Lemonade Flashbang
• Publisher: Astrolabe Games
• Release Date: September 12, 2024

A review code was kindly provided by Astrolabe Games on behalf of Lemonade Flashbang. We thank them for allowing us to cover something they’ve worked so hard on.

Note: Rated M for “Drug References, Sexual Themes, Strong Language.” Player discretion is advised.

While I certainly enjoy games with more serious undertones, there are times that I want to play something just ridiculous and funny. Doomsday Paradise is a multiplayer dating sim that takes place over the 7 days before an apocalypse, and it sure looks like some wacky fun.

Although the game can be played in multiplayer mode for up to 4 players, it can also be played in single player mode. You get to choose how many players will participate in a run, the game length, difficulty level, and more. I wasn’t quite sure what holiday mode was, but I checked it anyway.

Then you get to choose your character from 5 different creature types, such as a cryptid, a kobold, or a fish-man hybrid. The designs are so weird (in a good way). Choose which crush you want to go for in the playthrough and name your character, and then the game will start.

A random event occurs every morning, and your choices might cause weapons or monsters to appear at one of the locations in Sunset Town. In the afternoon, whatever you decide to do can increase your crush’s affection levels, or cause a “party member” with helpful abilities to join you from the sidelines in battle.

After the morning and afternoon selections, you have to decide which location you want to visit; each one is associated with 1 of the 6 main crushes, and you also get a stat increase for the stat related to that location. Sometimes your crush will change things up and be in a different location than usual.

Regardless of which location you choose each turn, you’ll view a scene with the main cast of crushes – and possibly even some secret crush options as well. Humor is very subjective, but I got some laughs out of these scenes. The game is rated M, so be prepared for some not-so-clean comedy.

Simply selecting a character as your crush at the beginning of the run isn’t enough to get with them by the end. You need to choose the right response in a scene to increase their affection. It’s possible to decrease affection into the negatives for your crush, but also increase affection for another character in a scene. I think it’s usually pretty obvious what each choice will do, though.

There are 6 quests for you to complete in each playthrough, but one of them will always be the quest to lock in your chosen crush as your date for the doomsday party. (Or crushes, with polyamory as an option.) Their affection needs to reach a certain point by day 7. Other quests ask you to obtain items or increase different stats, and some can be completed by accepting a negative effect in exchange for something good.

Stats are relevant because demons will often attack in between days/turns. Battles are turn-based using weapons cards and ability cards. You’re able to choose one weapon card or more, and then spend turn points to attack the enemy, give them a status ailment, and/or buff yourself. You earn more points towards your final score for the damage you deal to the enemy.

With only 7 days before the world ends, each run is fairly short. I kind of wish runs were a little longer, but it does make sense for them to be shorter for multiple playthroughs. If your crush’s affection is high enough by the seventh day, you’ll meet with them, and can choose to date them or just be friends.

And you’ll secure that date just in time for the world-ending boss to appear. Try to be a hero and defeat them yourself, or let someone else handle them. Hilariously, letting someone else fight the boss increases your final score a lot.

The final boss won’t be the same each time, and some of them are harder than others. Choosing to let someone else handle them is risky because you will still fight them – just with a random character. They may not have great cards to use, so if you think you have decent cards you might want to try fighting the boss yourself.

Win or lose, after the final battle you get to see your final score and then an ending. The game has an impressive 130 endings to obtain. (Thankfully they included a fast forward option for scenes you’ve already seen.) It seems like a lot of endings involve either dating or remaining friends with a crush, or some require you to have an individual stat with the highest value.

You can view which endings you’ve obtained on the main menu, and there’s also a library section that displays:

• Stats (friends made, skills learned, worlds saved, etc.)
• Challenges (achievements)
• Collection of items found
• Gallery
• Unlockables (i.e. reskins and new enemies)

I really like having unlockables; they made me want to keep playing to unlock everything. And if you think this game is something your friends would enjoy too, you can try out the local multiplayer mode (online play is available, but I was unable to test that).

Local multiplayer includes competitive and cooperative modes. In multiplayer, gameplay is mostly the same – you just take turns. At the end of a competitive playthrough the person with the higher score wins first place. Cooperative mode combines the players’ scores. Players individually decide if they want to face the boss with their character or not.

I did like the multiplayer mode because it lets you see more events in a single playthrough. My only criticism would be that it doesn’t let you select the same crush in competitive mode, so you can’t try to beat other players to dating them.

Doomsday Paradise won’t be for everyone due to the frequent swearing and “inappropriate”/gruesome sense of humor. But I had a good time with it. I liked the art style, and they included partial voice acting, which was neat. I had a few favorite characters, such as Umbra, the eldritch monster girl who wants to start a cult. This is an entertaining experience with a combination of light visual novel/deckbuilding elements.