Boyfriend Dungeon (Xbox One)

Giving a human name to a reliable weapon isn’t too unusual of a practice, but actually getting into a romance with a sword that served you well is another matter entirely. Luckily, in the world of Boyfriend Dungeon, you won’t actually be cuddling up to inanimate blades, those weapons that serve you well in the dungeon instead able to take on human forms that can go on proper dates and live their own lives in addition to carving apart monsters.

 

When your customizable character heads to a fictional beach-side town for the summer, they learn the dating scene is about far more than just making a personal connection. Certain people are able to transform into weapons, the act of wielding one in a dungeon viewed as an activity with a romantic undercurrent. While it can be done platonically, fighting your way through a dungeon with one of these weapon people will strengthen your bond with them, the game offering a small selection of characters to pick from both in regards to what you want to fight with and who you want to date. Despite the title, Boyfriend Dungeon allows you to date men, women, and non-binary individuals and one of your weapons is even a transformed cat, but you won’t be doing anything untoward with that feline. One interesting element of the many weapon people you can get involved with is the freedom in how you set the boundaries of them. You can pursue a friendship angle with someone and there is no penalty for being polyamorous if you do wish to date most every weapon you meet. Some relationships in the main story go nowhere, a mystery around weapon people turning up in dungeons damaged adds some intrigue, and there is a persistent character named Eric who leads to conflict as he won’t take no for an answer, but you are free to pursue most of the weapon people as you see fit along the way rather than being locked into any particular decisions to advance in this adventure.

 

Each of the dateable characters has a small arc that progresses as you go on more and more dates with them, the range in personalities and romantic fantasies making it easy to find someone in the pack to latch onto. Isaac is a well put together gentleman who bristles a bit against the business world but still has that professional air that makes helping him relax and unwind a worthy goal. Sunder on the other hand looks like he’s taken straight from a romance novel cover, his route more about unraveling the mystery behind this overly flirtatious individual as he’s perhaps the closest the game gets to a true bad boy across its mostly feel-good saccharine dating stories. For someone like the eager yet scatterbrained Sawyer, helping the college student get their life together is a satisfying goal whether or not you pursue them romantically, and while Rowan’s interest in the occult can sometime be a bit overbearing in their dialogue, their personal story of trying to move on after a loved one’s death gives them an interesting character arc. Everyone has some flaw you’re helping them overcome with your support, and since you’re choosing the dialogue in the interactions you can actually put them on different paths like helping the boy band member Seven decide on his career path. These are, in essence, fulfilling little short stories told by the conversations you have during your dates and they end up the best part of the experience because you’re steadily learning more about these fascinating characters whose fates are in your hand.

Naturally these fates can lead to long-term relationships, and while the game does sort of ask you to pick one person to be the main partner no matter how many you pursue, the ending still doesn’t rob you of the meaningful relationships you built up. There are many funny, cute, and sweet moments to be found, and if things do get steamy the game does quickly brush through it without getting too blue in the descriptions. Since these people can turn into weapons though you can expect quite a few sword-based innuendos to cover up the kind of raunchy descriptions that might push this game too deep into sultry territory, but by lightly touching on them you can still be said to have a deeper connection with a character without it getting too indulgent. It is far more satisfying to help someone like the dagger Valeria find her purpose again than it is to get them to the bedroom of course, and while everyone takes the same amount of dates to reach their personal tale’s climax, the progression happens at a good pace where someone can gradually thaw or properly mull over their core issue rather than rushing into anything that would make the personal connections feel artificial. The dates most often unfold by way of visual novel interactions, some lines voiced while others are only in text boxes, but the character art does sell the emotional side of even unspoken lines and some well done animated character intros really add a nice flourish to meeting a new potential romantic partner.

 

Boyfriend Dungeon isn’t just about those dates though, as between them you’ll need to develop your bond with a character by wielding them as a weapon in a dunj. Dunj is just a short name for a dungeon, but a dunj is a bit different than the typical fantasy image of a cave full of goblins and treasure chests. Here, parts of the city like the mall and a dance club have turned into a dungeon and represent your player character’s insecurities in some manner. The game does go for some very broad insecurities to form a dunj’s focus so that you’re not informed your customizable avatar is nervous about something unusual, but there is an unfortunate fact about these dungeons that can’t be overlooked: there’s too few of them. In the base game there was only the mall and club dunj and an update later added a third dunj, but it’s still likely you’ll finish all the dungeons before you’ve finished all the character routes and will need to plunge back in not to face new enemies and challenges but just to earn the points needed to progress the specific romance plots. The good news is once you finish one person’s route you will get a big bonus to accumulating points in the others to expedite the process, but perhaps the sadder part of so few dungeons being available is that the hack and slash element of the game is quite good.

Each weapon you acquire battles in a distinct manner. The dagger is quick to strike, the cat claws can hit a lot of enemies around you as you swing, and the scythe has slow but broad swings good for handling spaced out crowds. What’s more, as you progress your relationships with the characters, each date will cap off with you unlocking a new skill for the weapon, the player sometimes getting to choose which of two upgrades to utilize. Some of these are simple buffs like the glaive returning faster after a throw while others can add extra effects like a bleeding status ailment, a lightning shock that arcs between foes, or even a gravity well to pull foes into a cluster that’s easy to attack. On top of having two attack types and a dodge roll, each weapon ends up with distinct advantages and fighting styles that color how you approach enemies, and the enemies themselves are fun twists on mundane real world objects. You’ll be attacked by evil cell phones or martini glasses while being pestered by sour notes from audio equipment, and their different attack methods will ask you to be smart on when to strike so you can survive. Dying in a dunj will just lead to you being forced out with no loss of rewards or experience, although the elevator that lets you return to floors at certain points in each dunj is perhaps too generous in helping you eventually reach the boss and clear it. Some difficulty barriers in terms of how much damage enemies can deal and take are meant to shove you back out of the dunj so you can go on a few dates and progress your weapon relationships before diving back in, but some player skill can often overcome a power gap even though leaving a dunj periodically is better for game progression.

 

Inside a dunj there are secrets to find and even spots where you can have a short interaction with your current equipped weapon, and to make strengthening the bond with each weapon easier you can even swap them between floors. Items acquired from beating enemies or opening boxes can be crafted into gifts you can give characters but also into outfits for your character that sometimes have benefits or little magic spells called Zines of dubious necessity. Since the magic system requires collecting a resource in the dunj you can’t use something like a fireball or decoy too often, but your normal attacking is already so flexible and a solid fit for the dodging and baiting battle style that tossing in a magic spell doesn’t feel too necessary or all that helpful. The loot still has purpose because of its ties to progressing each character’s story more quickly if you give them the right gifts and since your power is pretty closely tied to how far along a relationship is there is that feedback in helping you complete dungeons. The battle system did have more potential than is realized here but the game at least keeps its dunj design creative despite some randomization in terms of room placement, so the adventuring side plays its role well and feeds often enough into the relationship progression that you won’t be stuck fighting in a dunj too often to get that next date. The action being inherently satisfying makes it easy to plunge back in as part of the character courting process, so it’s not like you’ll resent a need to dive back in even once the unique content has dried up a bit too fast due to the imbalance in romanceable characters and distinct dungeon content.

THE VERDICT: Sweet and interesting romantic plotlines with characters who have a diverse set of backgrounds and troubles makes Boyfriend Dungeon’s dating element the most compelling part of the experience, but plunging into a dungeon still ends up entertaining because of the varied weapon styles and attack options. A few more unique dungeons would help to make the adventuring better line up with your romantic pursuits, but the personal stories that unfold and their ability to be truly influenced by your desires lets you engage with the more fulfilling side of the experience regularly and without too much impediment. Keeping both the action and writing engaging makes the constant progress almost addictive even with the balance slightly off, Boyfriend Dungeon pulling off both sides of its title in a surprisingly cohesive way.

 

And so, I give Boyfriend Dungeon for Xbox One…

A GOOD rating. It’s fairly easy to find a character or two to latch onto in Boyfriend Dungeon whose character arc you’ll end up heavily invested in, but all of the main cast save the more humorous cat route do provide something unique both in battle and on dates. The relationship between battling and making progress with your romantic partners is perhaps the strongest one in the game though, incentivizing engaging with a well realized action element that provides plenty of rewards afterwards to satisfy the cravings for more story progress. The main plot perhaps could have been a more involved story and a few more dungeons would help to better space out the dates instead of requiring some dives just for the sake of leveling up a bond, but there really isn’t much impeding your ability to enjoy the battles and the dates. Each weapon feeling different to wield carries over that diversity in personality over to the gameplay portions of the game quite cleverly, many of the weapons even having some congruity between who they are normally and how they fight in a dunj. Ideas like the crafting system and Zines aren’t quite as well realized, but mechanical and writing quality were given the degree of attention needed so that Boyfriend Dungeon doesn’t drag even when you need to do a little grinding to top off the remaining relationships. Some areas could be deeper and the feel-good nature of the world and writing might mean relationships are sometimes a bit too easily earned but Boyfriend Dungeon isn’t trying to deny you a good time. It’s a game about romancing people who can turn into swords and it has some fun ideas for how that can unfold and who the involved characters can be, and while the date progression is often gentle, the action ensures you do have to earn their love in a manner of speaking.

 

Boyfriend Dungeon does a good job with the time it does spend on its elements even if the quality of them makes you ache for more. More time spent exploring a likeable character’s life, more time facing interesting enemies with a good range of attack styles, and more reason to keep diving into the dunj with someone even after you’ve finished their relationship path. It didn’t drag itself out though so the game manages to focus on its silly but surprisingly heartfelt premise, the weapon element at some times a metaphor but at others just a fun way of giving you some actual action in between the sugary sweet interactions with many of the easily romanced options. Perhaps more fleshed out than its jokey premise might make some think, Boyfriend Dungeon is a solid romance visual novel on top of a dungeon crawler with fun combat, a marriage of ideas that could have gone very wrong but instead formed a lovely bond you can join in too.