Boyfriend Dungeon is a combination dungeon crawler/dating simulator, and if you’re moving to close the tab right now, hold on for a minute. Even if the concept is outside your comfort zone, there’s something for everyone here. Regardless of the concept, Boyfriend Dungeon is my perfect indie game. It’s short enough to marathon in a day or two, but that time is packed with meaningful progression. The story weaves optional character stories in with a relaxed main narrative in satisfying ways. Combat is light but packed with complex options. But perhaps most notably, Boyfriend Dungeon deals with sexuality, gender identity, and the realities of romance in a way few games ever have.
Boyfriend Dungeon
Developer: Kitfox Games
Price: $19.99
Platform: Xbox Series X/S (reviewed), Xbox One, Nintendo Switch, PC
See, the main hook of Boyfriend Dungeon is that the boys, gals, and nonbinary pals available to date can all transform into a variety of weapons (and no, this is neither given nor needs explanation). You date a sword, that sword becomes more powerful in battle. It also unlocks new abilities that give each weapon a unique feel. Once you’ve gone on a date, it’s back to the dunj to fight together and raise your love level. It’s a satisfying loop that never takes itself too seriously. Dungeon crawling intertwines with getting to know the inhabitants of Verona Beach, a small seaside town.
The setup for the premise is a light touch and expects you to buy in implicitly. Your character (who you create, complete with choices of appearance, outfits, and even pronouns) travels to Verona Beach to spend the summer with their cousin and get out of their shell. You’ve never had much luck in the dating department, but your cousin reckons themselves something of a matchmaker. Before long, you’re meeting cute people who can turn into weapons and digging into the mystery of who is capturing weapons throughout the town. It’s a mystery that’s set up pretty swiftly and becomes one of the main threads pulling the game along.
Dialogue choices and gift-giving represents most of the character interaction, with these events regularly offering rewards like new pieces of equipment. And hey, not a fan of monogamy? Not a problem. Date as many swords as you like, or just go full aromantic and build up a stable of close friends with no hard feelings. No matter how you engage with relationships, Boyfriend Dungeon does its best to keep you covered.
But that’s really only half of the game. All of this dating ties into a very satisfying isometric dungeon crawler. The basic mechanics are simple, with light and heavy attacks combining with dodge rolls, healing potions (or rather, healing bubble tea), and a single magic button that you can switch out as you unlock more spells. While combat seems simple at first, dating increases the capabilities of each weapon and introduces mechanics that further inform how to use your weapons. Your estoc gains abilities that shine when you regularly riposte, while your dagger wants you to dodge the nights away. My favorite weapon, the copyright-friendly lasersaber, fires off chain lightning at the end of combos and can take care of huge groups of enemies with ease.
The only real problem is the disconnect between character and weapon. While the weapon transformation for each character is thematically appropriate, it’s unlikely that your favorite date is going to sync up with your favorite weapon. This means that, if you want to get to smooch-town with your favorite college enby, you’re going to have to spend some time swinging around an unwieldy glaive. It doesn’t ruin the game by any means. Switching up weapons can prove entertaining, and your love gains double after you reach max love with a single weapon. But it often leads to less quality time in the dunj with your favorite cuties.
And those dunjs are a vital part of the game, as well as the story. Each dunj represents a deep-rooted fear for your character, making conquering each one a kind of hack-and-slashy therapy. While it takes some time to fully uncover, the dungeon drops hints in the form of the enemies you fight. For instance, in the first dunj, monstrous flip phones and record players tie into the theme of the whole dunj.
The dungeon crawling gameplay is represented in cute, colorful art with poppy stylization and a super deformed main character that you can customize to your liking. Enemy designs get a bit creative when merging real life items with monstrous touches. They help complete the ambiance and provide clear targets and attack projections, but they’re not exactly designs that will stick in the memory of the industry.
But you can’t talk about Boyfriend Dungeon without addressing the elephant in the room. Like a sleeper agent waiting for a secret phrase, the internet activated upon Boyfriend Dungeon’s release after the appearance of Eric, a local blacksmith whose descent into stalkerdom is so swift that it can’t be considered a spoiler. The character is truly despicable, so worries about inadequate content warnings immediately cropped up. Unfortunately, these then spiraled into harassing the developer. Soon, some were demanding the content, a key part in the message of the entire game, be removed. Kitfox quickly updated their existing content warning to be more explicit, but by that point, the gloves were off. Death threats were coming to not only the developers, but the voice actor of the offending character.
If the outcry concerns you about the content of this game: don’t worry. The game deals with its complex themes as competently and compassionately as I’ve ever seen. While the content warning is justified and depictions of dysfunctional relationships come up, they’re always handled with care. The shameful behavior aimed at Kitfox, for nothing but addressing difficult topics, is the only real problem.
In fact, for the most part, the game is impressively inclusive. Your character can use he, she, or they pronouns, and characters respond to this choice. This is also reflected in the cast, with two nonbinary characters joining the cis characters. Better still, your pronouns have no impact on the characters you can date. It’s the evolved urban fantasy of the future, baby!
The only meaningful fault I’ve found is that text messages can be finicky. I regularly found myself at the next love level for a date, but I wouldn’t receive a text unless I went delving into a dunj I’d already completed. In the worst case, one of our team members had this happen in the text chain to unlock the final boss, leaving them in what appeared to be a game-breaking bug until they defeated the boss of their most recent dunj one more time. There’s little indication as to how intentional this is. Sometimes the texts fire off and sometimes they require another delve, despite completing all available dunj content. It’s not a deal breaker, but it can break the flow of the game.
Clocking in around 5-10 hours, Boyfriend Dungeon is a light, satisfying game with some heavy story beats and plenty of truly heartwarming representation. It’s something special in the dungeon crawling space. The dating sim portion proves appealing to even those who would normally avoid the genre, mixing in enough satisfying dungeon crawling to keep more gameplay-centric players invested. It’s not quite a masterpiece, but it has all the makings of a beloved indie classic. Even if you’re not sure of the genre mix, Boyfriend Dungeon is worth your time. So long as the content isn’t too heavy for you, you’re going to find something, or someone, to love.
The Final Word
Boyfriend Dungeon is a unique game, but it hits every mark it aims for. While parts of the visual design don’t pop as well as the gorgeous character art and animated scenes, that’s a minor element of an amazing experience. It doesn’t matter if you’re solely a fan of dungeon crawlers or dating sims. Boyfriend Dungeon makes a compelling argument to be a fan of both.
– MonsterVine Rating: 4.5 out of 5 – Great
