From left to right
Paradise is a Boys' Love Visual Novel developed by PIL/SLASH (in a collaboration with the team LOVE&DESTROY). It was released on November 30, 2017, and was picked up by JAST BLUE for an English-language localization that was released on April 26, 2024.
The story follows Azuma — who in what he thought would be another uneventful day in his mundane life — finds himself winning a lottery, with the grand prize being a free six-day trip to the uninhabited Togashima Island. On the first day of the trip, he finds that he'll be spending the vacation with nine other men, including the tour guide.
The boat ride to their destination goes relatively smoothly, and Azuma almost immediately takes to the tranquil atmosphere and beautiful scenery of the island. Not long after, he finds himself wishing that he gets to stay there forever.
...Except that his wish comes true in the worst way possible.
On the third day of the trip, which is when they're expecting the boat to arrive with replenishments for their food and water supply, they find that the boat has yet to arrive. Nothing happens on the following days, either, and the entire group realizes that they're in a dire situation and as such, they must be more prudent with whatever they have left and hold on until help (hopefully) arrives.
But in an island cut off from the rest of civilization, it's only a matter of time before their basest survival instincts come to the surface and they turn on one another when their food, water, and electricity inevitably run scarce, and Azuma has to decide who he can trust or not if he wishes to make it out of there with his sanity — and his life — intact.
Paradise provides examples of the following tropes:
- Anti-Frustration Features: Paradise features an "Easy Mode", which allows the player to see which of their choices is more unlikely to unlock Mitsugi/Matsuda/Takura's routes, respectively. That being said, it doesn't hint to the player which choices lead to the good or bad endings.
- Golden Ending: Takara's route can only be unlocked after the player finishes all the endings in the other two routes.
- Humans Are the Real Monsters: In an island where there are no wild beasts, the core conflict that the cast has to deal with is mainly the threat of hunger and thirst... as well as their very own selves.
- Multiple Endings: As a visual novel, this is only par the course. Each route has multiple bad endings and one good ending each.
- No Full Name Given: The cast is introduced with only their last names; their first names are never revealed.
- Non-Standard Game Over Before the common route decidedly ends, the player has to decide whether Azuma helps out with foraging or with building a boat... or have him waver and offer to help wherever he's most needed. If the very latter option is chosen, then it results in the food supply eventually becoming fully depleted, the boat being burned down, and the entire cast inevitably succumbing to their lack of sustenance and dying in the island.
