There have been tons of light novels, adventure games, dating sims, and dungeon crawling RPGs on the Switch. Boyfriend Dungeon mashes those genres together for something incredibly new. The game was developed by Kitfox Games who have made a ton of indie games for PC. Their last notable game on consoles though was Moon Hunters in 2016.
Boyfriend Dungeon was teased as far back as 2018 so gamers have been eagerly anticipated this hybrid for quite some time. Did it live up to the hype as Kitfox Games’ best title yet? Based on reviews so far it seems like the answer is yes, but it is complicated. Let’s see what this game did and didn’t do right.
10 Best: Great Diverse Cast Of Characters
Boyfriend Dungeon is full of colorful characters, which is great. Dating a bunch of blank notebooks would be boring. There are more than romantic partners in the game worth investing time into like your cousin Jesse.
Even the mom character is a really supportive person. A game like this depends on memorable characters and thankfully this game has that in spades. It’s funny too.
9 Worst: Mostly Text
The voices that are in Boyfriend Dungeon are great. Unfortunately, most of the game is a text-based adventure. This is the same problem with another recent Switch light novel game, The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures.
Both of these games have strong characters and dialogue that would have benefitted from more voice work. This is an indie game so it is understandable as the budget might have inflated too much otherwise.
8 Best: Music
Right from the moment one boots up Boyfriend Dungeon they will be treated to a catchy pop song. It’s called “Without A Weapon” and there are plenty more tunes where that came from. Who would have expected a game about dating weapons would have such a great soundtrack?
It’s similar to how Neo: The World Ends With You is as that too has an incredible pop soundtrack. Thankfully the soundtrack is already up for purchase.
7 Worst: No Auto-Advance
Not having more voice work is one problem. Another to coincide with that is not being able to auto-advance the text. For the rare scenes that do have voiced dialogue, it would have been nice to sit back and listen as if they were cutscenes.
Even non-voiced text would have benefitted from an auto-advance option. To bring up The Great Ace Attorney: Adventures again, at the very least that did have an auto-advance option which would be nice to see all light novel games include.
6 Best: Chill Vibes
Perhaps the best part about Boyfriend Dungeon is its chill vibes. Dating can be intense as one dives deeper into backstories. Battling through dungeons can also be heavy. However, one can make it as hectic or as relaxed as one wants.
There is no real-time limit to anything so the pressure is off there. Simply date and hack away at the dungeons as one pleases otherwise enjoy the fine shores of Verona Beach.
5 Worst: Waiting For Texts
The text messages in Boyfriend Dungeon are too real. Waiting for someone to reply can cause anxiety as those ellipsis' bounce up and down. Talking to your mom can be especially daunting.
That can actually be chalked up as a plus for some as this game successfully mimics the dating game rather well. Kudos to the team for that, but it can also detract from the chill vibes. Like life, it’s complicated.
4 Best: Character Intros
Every time one finds a new partner, they will have an animated character intro. The animation in these cutscenes are excellent. They are over the top especially Sunder’s who rips open his chest and clenches his teeth between a rose.
The only issue is that there are not enough of them and they are too short. That seems like a good problem to have though. An anime based on these intros would be great.
3 Worst: Character Portraits
The animation art for these cutscenes are very different compared to the in-game portraits. It’s like comparing anime to more realistic drawings and this makes the art a little less charming.
Boyfriend Dungeon overall has kind of a mobile phone aesthetic to it. It doesn’t look terrible. It can be described in the nicest way possible as simple. For those that care more about mechanics and not visuals, this shouldn’t be a problem.
2 Best: Fighting Random Objects
The dungeon crawling portions of Boyfriend Dungeon may not be visually captivating from a graphical standpoint. However, there is something special about these sections. The monsters within a dungeon, or dunj, are derived from the Wielder’s fears.
The player character has a fear, apparently, of tube TVs, cordless phones, VHS tapes, and so on. These fears manifest into some of the silliest enemies ever made for a game but are charming all the same.
1 Worst: No Lock-On
Boyfriend Dungeon is a pretty basic hack and slash RPG. For example, there is no lock-on so getting overwhelmed by forces is quite easy.
Don’t expect this to be the most in-depth combat system around. Each romantic level up to a weapon will increase their abilities or add to them like inflicting status effects. This doesn’t change combat dramatically enough though.