With the release of the diving RPG Dave the Diver the developer MINTROCKET hit the bull’s eye. Now they announce their next game on Steam, which, to everyone’s surprise, goes in a completely different direction. Nakwon: Last Paradise will be a survival game with zombies.–>
In a third-person perspective, you’ll take on the role of a survivor traveling in a post-apocalyptic Seoul. There is supposed to be an area with PvPvE content where you can find useful materials to bring to your safe zone.
Nakwon: Last Paradise: Parallels with Dave the Diver
Like Dave the Diver, Nakwon: Last Paradise consists of two basic aspects: Scouting and Simulation. In MINTROCKET’s first game, you’ll have to explore the deep sea and catch fish to serve in your sushi restaurant. In their upcoming title, you’ll have to fight your way through the PvPvE zone – which includes defeating AI opponents, i.e. the zombies, but also fighting against your fellow players.
Once you make it out of the dangerous area, the game becomes more of a simulation. You sell the captured items to collect money, which in turn gives you privileges in the last safe city Nakwon. Your character must eat, sleep, and pay taxes in order for the safe zone to continue. Each in-game day you decide whether to scout or stay “home,” but food becomes scarce, which drives you back to the streets after all.
In the trailer you can see how one person wanders alone through the gloomy alleys of a city – Seoul. With only a melee weapon in hand, she lashes out at individual zombies there. If there are several, she throws objects as a distraction and sneaks by. “Survive at all costs,” reads the game’s subtitle at the end of the one-minute video.
Zombies, but no firearms
That the character in the trailer only carries a melee weapon is no wonder, because in Nakwon: Last Paradise firearms are expensive and rare. Until the zombie apocalypse, they were forbidden in Korea and only available to the police and military. If you have collected enough money, you can probably treat yourself to a pistol or shotgun later, but ammunition is supposed to be just as expensive. So probably first close combat and sneaking.
Moreover, the zombies should only be eliminated for a short time – you can’t kill them, they just lie on the ground for a while and then get up again. So it’s often useful to hide from them in order to collect resources in peace. When doing this, you need to be as quiet as possible, as they react to sounds.
How exactly the interplay with others works, the developers do not reveal yet. They only write that you can scout alone or “with a friend”, that your “first priority remains your own survival”. What exactly happens when the character dies is unclear. It remains to be seen how harshly Nakwon: Last Paradise will punish its players if they fail.
A release date for Nakwon: Last Paradise does not yet exist. They have started development in December 2022, according to MINTROCKET. They are currently focusing on the scouting aspect, and there is still a lot to do in the simulation, they said. Nevertheless, they are planning a pre-alpha test, which should still take place in 2023. Until then, you can check out our full review of Dave the Diver, where things are much more relaxed than in the upcoming title.