Boyfriend Dungeon is game #1 from the Humble Bundle Pixel Pride collection. Looking to challenge my usual video game buying habits and experience something new and refreshing!
Have you ever looked at a sword and thought hell yeah I'd like to take that out to dinner? Well this is the game for you. Boyfriend Dungeons premise is that there are people who can turn into weapons, and people who weild those weapons. You're a weilder in a town / city that's being invaded by monsters who are actually peoples fears that have manifested themselves in physical forms, you're also trying to navigate your own life and find someone special.
The game is part casual dungeon crawler and part dating sim - a combination I thought would never work. You have your apartment where you can craft a few things, check your texts which act as a sort of quest screen, and dress yourself and then you can head out to partake in the two main activities: dates and dungeon crawling missions!
I was not prepared for how engaging the gameplay loop is and how well everything works together. The process of finding weapons (who are...people) during the dungeon crawling sections, chatting with them, and then going on dates with them afterwards is oddly satisfying. After you've met someone new you can choose to take them with you in their weapon form into the next dungeon crawl. Each person, or weapon, has different levels and abilities. You'll meet a variety of people throughout your journey. Going off the games name I was under the impression that they'd all be Jesus looking figures boasting a six pack and a leather jacket, but I came across a painter called Valeria recently and she was completely different to the other characters I had met!
The innuendos in some of the dialogue sections really caught me off guard and now they're my favourite part of the game. They're laughable and ridiculous but it works, it plays so well into the dating sim aspect.
The combat is simple yet fleshed out enough to be satisfying, the dialogue and date scenarios are fun, the music is really good too - the production just feels spot on.
It feels like there's some kind of emphasis on how you interact with people throughout the game that I think spills over to the real world too. Things like talking to people kindly, noticing toxic behaviour from some of your potential dates, the notion of consent, being supportive etc. Maybe i'm reading into it too much but I thought these were nice things to include in a game, after all they're important aspects of life that aren't highlighted that much in bigger budget games.
I really appreciate the thought that's gone into the more sensitive topics too. At the beginning it notifies you that topics of kidnapping and stalking will be discussed incase that is an issue for anyone. It also lets you know that a supportive figure called "mom" will text you occasionally and that you can disable it if it makes you uncomfortable - small touch but It's nice that they're thinking of people who might not appreciate these things.
Overall I'm really taken back by Boyfriend Dungeon. I wasn't really expecting to like it much at all going in, but I love it! Looking forward to playing a lot more of it and seeing what else it has left to offer.
