You’re new in town, on vacation for the summer visiting a relative. Your main purpose in life seems to be dungeon crawling. This may be why you’re single. That’s all about to change in Boyfriend Dungeon, as this town is crawling with weapons and single people; usually they’re one and the same. Yes, that’s what it means. You are able to date weapons! These are people who can transform into weapons, and you’re able to wield them. As you explore the game, you’ll find these people/weapons and create a bond with them. As you increase your relationship, they level up. Don’t like using just one weapon? That’s okay! You have no commitment, you’re here for the summer and can date everyone and anything. This is a cross between a dungeon crawler and a dating simulator. An action-romance if you will. A romaction! There’s also a creepy stalker too, so be on the lookout for awkward situations.

Here’s what I liked:

Lover of All — Being new in town and never having a relationship, you decide to open up your emotional barrier and let any and all take their shot. I decided to use that phrase instead of the one I really, really wanted to use. But yes, you don’t give a rat’s behind who is interested, you’re desperate for attention and love and will welcome any suitor. You’ll date a man, a woman, a non-binary person, a sword, a knife, and even have a close but non-romantic relationship with a cat who’s also brass knuckles. Let me back up a minute and explain. There are certain characters that have the ability to change into a weapon. These weapons can be wielded by your character to fight in dungeons. As you fight with them, you build a bond. Once this bond reaches a new level, you can go on a date with their “human” form. This then unlocks new abilities with that weapon. You may boost the relationships with gifts as well. This leads to many weapons and relationship leveling all at once, which keeps you busy every day! I never found a dull moment where I had nothing to do.

Choose Your Weapon — The best part of the game is having so many options for weapons. At first, the dungeons are difficult and you’ll likely die a lot in the beginning. As you find new weapons/boyfriends (girlfriends, and so on), you’ll find a weapon that feels overpowered and be able to do dungeons very easily. If you’re just wanting to burn through the game and focus on the love, you can go into options and increase your damage to make things easier. So really, the choice in how difficult the enemies are is up to you. If you want to be efficient, you’re able to change weapons if you “maxed” them out when changing floors. I enjoy multitasking, and being able to switch weapons out in order to get the most out of a dungeon run is great. After gaining new abilities, the weapons really start to shine and you’re able to perform moves like arched lightning or health-draining effects. It’s fun getting them all leveled up and seeing them destroy your enemies with ease.

Lover and a Fighter — Besides just fighting in the dungeon, a ton of your time spent will be reading and responding to people and text messages. Oh, and if you’re just starting, you’re given an option to turn off messages from your mother. Do that, as she’s the most annoying person in the game and really cuts into your time on vacation. I typically am not someone who enjoys a lot of reading during a game but I was genuinely interested in what all of the characters had to say. Each has a unique side-story that includes a lot of neat scenes and wonderful art. The voice actors are also pleasant. I was excited to go on dates, not just to earn new abilities, but also to see what happens next. It’s pretty goofy at times but overall very entertaining.

Here’s what I didn’t like:

Limited Dungeon Crawling — Unfortunately, there are only two locations that are dungeons. There are several floors but it does get a bit repetitive. You’ll need to go back to them frequently, both to level up weapons and to farm materials for crafting. There are bosses but this is also limited due to only the two dungeons available. Also, the enemies are a bit underwhelming. So if anything really stands out as lacking, it’s the limited options in where you get to fight. You end up in the same areas often and it can feel like a grind at times. There are a few hidden rooms but it’s nothing to get you excited about running through the same stomping grounds.

What Does This Do? — You’ll find these books that teach you “zines”. These are powers unrelated to your weapons. They’re used to help you in battle and are limited but can be found after defeating enemies. You can put enemies to sleep, create a turret, create a decoy, and use elemental attacks. I found these just about worthless. While they’re cool sounding and I do like how they look, there aren’t many times you’ll use them except to experiment and see what they do. The damage output with your weapons far exceeds the zines, and the weapons typically have abilities that mimic the zines anyways. I never found them useful enough to utilize.

Wrap-up

While nothing is really stand-out spectacular, all the little things add up to a really fun experience. The way you can check messages, mess around in your room with crafting, go farm items and levels and go on dates makes for a relaxing and almost addictive good time. The story doesn’t have to be taken seriously and has unique situations for every character you meet. I really had a great time in the world. The only things I didn’t care for were based around “not enough”. Not having many dungeons to explore and certain powers being underwhelming was only a slight let-down. There are a few other things that bugged me but not enough to really write about. If they ever make another game like this I’d want to play it. It would just need better monsters and more areas to explore.

Score: Highly Recommended

Boyfriend Dungeon was published by and developed by Kitfox Games on Xbox One. It was released on August 11, 2021, for $19.99. A copy was played using Game Pass.