Review | Boyfriend Dungeon - Hitting it Off!
If you’ve ever wondered what would happen if you gave a claymore a personality and abs, this is the game for you. Boyfriend Dungeon is a dating sim, rogue-lite from Kitfox Games, set in a world where people turn into swords and where the chosen career path for any young single person is decided by is wielding these weapon-people in thought-provoking dungeons. Just on the surface, that concept is brilliant and it is no wonder this game found a dedicated fanbase after only releasing a few trailers.
OK TIGER, first lesson of dating. There are always plenty more fish in the sea.
The game doesn't shy away from throwing you in at the deep end, at least with its exposition. You arrive in the big city and immediately your cousin starts hooking you up with weaponised hotties like some kind of horny arms dealing wingman. There wasn't much explanation of how this all works but the game sets it out so quickly and with such confidence, that after meeting a few possible dates I really didn't care. At first, I was a little worried that I only really got to interact with the three characters all over the promotional work for the game. None of them appealed to me very much, and I was a little disheartened. Luckily, I was just being bad at the game. Soon I was buried under so many beaus there was barely room to swing a cat ( which might be a bit stabby for the cat too).
Honestly… I have been on worse dates… and dates with more dungeons… Don’t ask.
The dungeons themselves are not the main focus of this game. They’re fun, don’t get me wrong. I like stabbing monsters. But they are not as built out as a fully in-depth roguelike adventure like Into the Gungeon or Hades - they’re more like a summer fling. A neat, stabby, dangerous summer fling, but not good long term material. Dungeons are your main tool for gaining the love ranks you need with each weapon to both date them and improve their weapon skills. They are built for the sole purpose of deepening your connections with the characters in the game and pushing the story forward. They are filled with special moments to share with you tools of destruction, recipes to craft gifts with and the materials needed for the same. The dungeons are a facilitator, where usual abilities, upgrades and encounters have been swapped out with mini-dates and cupcake recipes. And this works really well for the game and its tone; spending time with your weapons in the dungeons makes the romances and friendships you build much more genuine as you feel like you are really becoming one with your partner.
I… um… yeah… sword… words…. cute…
*faints*
The dates themselves are where this game shines. This is where the game goes full visual-novel/dating-sim and the writing doesn’t disappoint. You have to earn them through gifts and spending time in the dungeons with your weapons, and each character has a unique storyline. The first weapon I properly hung out with was Issac. He is a successful guy, who is an investor in a weapon dating app. It’s called Slicr - one of many gold star puns the writing team should be proud of. He also happens to have rampant father issues. However, despite Boyfriend Dungeon having plenty of humour and understanding the absurdity of its own concept, all the characters' problems are played completely straight and treated with the respect they deserve. This ranges from Issac’s daddy issues to the glaive who is struggling to make ends meet in college. The game is having fun but nothing about any of the characacters’ issues or personalities feel dumb. There’s a character who’s definitely not (but totally is) a vampire, but he is the exception to the rule.
This game lives and dies by its character arcs, like many dating games, but I want to applaud Boyfriend Dungeon for not just playing up the horndog dating game trope. I have not played many dating games in the past but most of the ones I did were very two dimensional. Boyfriend Dungeon tries to push the limits of its genre in both its narrative themes and its use of a dungeon delving centrepiece.
Wow, after only just seeing this dude for the first time I can say with a fair degree of certainty. FUCK THIS DUDE.
There has been a lot of discourse around the inclusion of a stalking storyline and what that entails. Playing the game, I think I was warned aptly (by the game’s own content warning), and I also applaud Boyfriend Dungeon for showing the negative sides of dating as well as the smooching and lovin’ side. What I like about the game is it shows the unfortunate realities of going out with strangers. While the storyline itself makes me uncomfortable, I appreciate its educational value and having dealt with a similar situation, it struck a chord with me. Showing these negative behaviours can both assure people who have dealt with these issues that they are not alone in their experiences, and educate people who might be verging on similar behaviours themselves as to why they are bad. It’s a completely valid standpoint if you would rather have the game without this storyline and this puts you off picking up Boyfriend Dungeon - some people want to play games for fun, and that is ok. However, getting angry and demanding a different piece of art instead of what you got from the writers, developers or voice actors involved is much less valid.
………….What if I was the wheat to your scythe?
Something that really hit me playing the game was, again, the realistic values of the characters. One of the swords I dated spoke about having chronic depression and the ways in which he dealt with it, both good and bad. But more to the point, he accepted it as part of himself. I have anxiety, and dealing with my anxiety has been a massive part of my life for a long time. Accepting it has been an even longer battle, but knowing others are experiencing the same issues has been a massive help - so you can understand my appreciation when I found a video game character doing the same. This kind of representation is phenomenal and Boyfriend Dungeon handles these portrayals really well.
The representation shown throughout the game is really good. There are gender-neutral pronouns available in the character creator, which can be changed at any time in the character customiser. Additionally, there are pieces of religious headwear that can be equipped by the character from the get-go. There is also a considerable amount of diversity in terms of race, gender and body type among the NPCs and romanceable characters. I will also mention that this game can be played in a “platonic mode”, which is a nice touch. The ‘dates’ as they were, can be more like encounters with each character rather than a romantic outing if you want them to be, and the game makes it easy enough for you to set that boundary with the NPCs diegetically in conversation, rather than through a menu.
Ok so even if your boyfriend has eight-pack abs, does your scimitar?
I could talk about this game forever, but in summary, I like Boyfriend Dungeon. To address the ‘Zagreus-shaped’ elephant in the room, this game is not a direct parallel to Hades. Hades is a roguelike that dips its toes in the romance genre, and Boyfriend Dungeon is a dating sim that has a little bit of dungeon crawling on the side. Similar vibes, but different focuses, and Boyfriend Dungeon is well worth playing on its own merits. As someone who would never usually pick up a dating game I very much appreciate Boyfriend Dungeon’s successful attempt to diversify its gameplay, and its interesting cast of characters and narratives makes it a worthwhile trip for anyone in need of some romantic, albeit stabby, stories.
