I definitely misread the memo for Doll Defenders. What I was expecting was either a twin-stick indie shooter or some sort of Forager-like experience (poorly assuming this from the character design). What I got was some marshmallow, yummy boy on a quest to find some hot men. Oh my god, this is gay. Ha! Of course, but so what? Can I not enjoy this as an alleged straight guy? Sure!
To be completely honest, aside from the premise and meeting up with hunks from the Doll Universe (new to me, maybe not so much for you), and the God-like creator Male Doll Aventures, who looks like the avatar for Adam Levine from American Idol, it’s not for anyone specifically than gamers, and it’s a proven ‘protect your base’ twin-stick shooter.
I don’t know where the tower defence aspect came from for Doll Defenders. This is not a tower defence title. As this yummy boy, girl, or whatever you identify as, your job is to protect statues in the image of the Male Doll, finish wave after wave in a few worlds and multiple levels, and release one of the heroes trapped in a cage to hook up. Only, it appears the PS5 version does not have the bumping uglies seen in the Steam trailer. There’s no nudity, so if you’re here for the sausage, go look at a website with a VPN.
A wave will start, and you simply have to fend off the enemies until the end. There are no tutorials or a list of controls, so again, yet to find a Konami code to unlock the tower defence mode, but for the sake of explanations, the left stick moves, the right ‘aims’, right trigger is attack and the left trigger dashes. Aims are in quotes, as it’s not a precise 360-degree affair, and you just point in the direction of bad guys and hope it connects.
Doll Defenders offers melee or ranged attacks, and each stat ranges from the damage done, its distance, and how quickly you can use it. The starting sword can carry you through the whole game, but I liked the boomerang. A katana is the final option, withi is a God mode weapon with insta-kills, though, I kinda had that with the boomerang. Enemies are typically weak and will either head straight to the statue, or there will be others that seek you out. With the run-and-gun approach, it’s quite easy to keep your distance and steam through.
Coins awarded will allow you to buy new weapons, but there are no changes to stats at all. Between waves, you can get chests that award health and either milk or jizz to repair the statues, but other than that, nothing else. The music is the same track throughout the game, so bring your own songs.
I did like the visuals and the repeat play aspect, but Doll Defenders became quickly monotonous and didn’t offer much challenge aside from the bosses, who hit unfairly hard until you one-shot with the katana. Talking of hard, this doesn’t feature the sexy stuff as mentioned, so the only rewards would be the additional Eastasiasoft set of trophies to have something to show for your efforts.
