Preview: Boyfriend Dungeon

Kitfox Games’ Boyfriend Dungeon has been grabbing attention since its Kickstarter campaign took off. After seeing it at PAX East 2019, I understand the hype. This is an incredibly Caitlin-ass game, in ways I wasn’t expecting.

Let’s start with the obvious. The dating in this game rules. It’s visual novel style, clicking through text with branching dialogue, and the writing is great. I only encountered three characters during my demo, but they all had clear personalities I was eager to dig into, even if I didn’t think I’d like them. It doesn’t hurt that pretty much everyone, regardless of gender, is extremely hot.

That’s another cool thing: Boyfriend Dungeon has some solid gender diversity, despite what the name might imply. There are romanceable characters of multiple genders, and you can choose between he/him, she/her, and they/them for your own character. While it’s far from perfect, it’s still rad to see devs give players more inclusive choices for who they want to date and how they themselves can identify in-game.

You meet the game’s so called “bae blades” either while out in the world, or in the titular dungeons. This is where I was happily surprised. I’m not much of a dungeon crawler person. They usually require too much patience and attention to detail for me. But exploring the depths of Boyfriend Dungeon’s Verona Beach mall was actually really fun. I didn’t feel like I was constantly having to keep track of stats or that I was going to end up in a bind without resources. Your combos are highlighted in the top left corner, which is extremely helpful in combat (can every game just do this please???).

Dungeons also double as date sites, since your weapons are human too. If you get far enough, there are places where you and your weapon/companion can take a break and get to know each other a bit better. This gives the dungeons a better sense of pacing; breaking up the exploration and combat by chatting with your companion makes the whole thing feel like less of a grind and more of a journey you’re easing through together.

I can’t wait to see what the full extent of this game ends up being, after being so thoroughly charmed after such a small section. If you’re a fan of dating sims, hack and slash games, and/or (like me) have always wished someone would combine the two, Boyfriend Dungeon is definitely a game to look out for.

All images courtesy of Kitfox Games