Aug 31, 2023
Dominion’s Paradise had one of, if not the strongest openings out of all entries in this contest, that was something that I had stated as a first impression, and it hasn’t changed even now. The dystopian cyberpunk settings at the start gave it a rather fresh look before the isekai, and the use of gaming classes, level-ups and all of the standard tropes you might see in a game world was done rather well.
But throughout its development, a problem that had been consistent to the story is the fact that romance has, to be honest, been a bit of a second fiddle. The Domination fight would have been the perfect end to it - the main cast had just survived a huge threat, reaffirmed their stances and legions while slowly building up the bud of a relationship… but had you ended there, then it would have stayed an isekai first, romance second story. However, everything else after that felt tacked on at best, with the main cast just kind of meandering around with no particular goal in mind and no real build-up to another “main event”. Most of the romance is here, but they don’t really contribute anything to the story.
Still, this is a solid entry. I feel that the romance restrictions made it worse than what it could have been, but no doubt with enough tweaks and adjustments (if the time is provided) then it’ll be a lot better than its current state
