Main Game Artwork
"All men must decide whether to carry or cage their own shadow - fools who venture to do both are bound to go mad."
FOOL'S PARADISE is a satirical horror visual novel made by DEA Dline Studios. The game is available on Steam
and Itch.io.
Invited by a stranger to join Fool's Paradise, a so-called "safe haven of acceptance", you find yourself living among an eccentric cast of characters. You figure that like you, they were also lured in by the promise to live unapologetically as themselves. Seeking a sense of community without conformity, you do your best to contribute to the commune.But even in paradise, it seems, competition and contempt lurk about.
—
Life is made up of difficult choices. No matter where you go, that truth remains the same. So, when confronted by division and derision, will you change the status quo or are you content to let it crumble?
FOOL'S PARADISE contains examples of:
- Ambidextrous Sprite: Sprites are flipped to show who's talking to whom.
- Art Shift: Some parts of the game change in art style. For example, when Sorin is telling a story, the game becomes sketchy and picture-book-like.
- Auto-Save: Though you can also save manually if you wish.
- Black Comedy: [CARSON] and Drew casually discuss the possibility of a shooting and mass murder at the commune in front of the player and then brush off the likelihood of death.
- Bland-Name Product: In the quiz portion of the game, Mc Donald's was parodied with Wc Donald's. A later patch renamed the restaurant to Blendy's Burger Boint.
- Content Warning: There is a content warning present when the player opens the game and on the game's website.
- Dysfunction Junction: Implied. The commune within the game is for those not accepted by society in some way.
- Episodic Game: There will be three acts in total, with only a part of act one available to the public.
- Exhausted Eye Bags: Noel, [CARSON], and other characters have eye bags or dark circles.
- Featureless Protagonist: The protagonist of FOOL'S PARADISE is faceless but can be implied to be similar to the shadow in the introduction scene.
- Humans Are Flawed: Stated in the summary and shown within the entire game. Even though this is a paradise for those rejected by society, the player realizes that there's a lot fundamentally wrong with the people within it.
- Odd Friendship: Tempest and Mary.
- Ominous Visual Glitch: The game has multiple visual glitches, from screen warping to text glitching.
- Multiple Endings: In the demo, there are currently three endings. There are likely to be a lot more in the final game.
- Series Mascot: Noel's teddy bear plush named Mr. Cocoa. He is seen on the developer's websites, icons, and game merchandise.
- Shadow Archetype: The player experiences a nightmare in the first scene, meeting a shadow when they sit in front of a mirror.
- World of Technicolor Hair: Subverted. While most of the cast has colorful hair, most of them are found to be dyed.
