Thread by @VespertilioGem

So I picked up Boyfriend Dungeon for the Switch because I'm a sucker for dungeon crawls AND otomes. Sounds perfect so far! It was $21 after tax, so a little steep, but that's Switch games nowadays, unfortunately.

At the start, it asks if you want texts from someone named Mom, 3 picks of pronouns (he, she, they) that can be changed at the apt, and a trigger warning.
"This game may include references to unwanted advances, stalking, and other forms of emotional manipulation. Play with care."

This is trying really hard to be inclusive and careful while still telling a story. There's not a ton of customization options, but I figure that's okay. A game can only go so far in the beginning after all.

There's no filter on the MC naming, which can be good and bad, depending on who is playing. But that means your name can be ANYTHING so long as it's 14 characters or less.
My trial name included Fuck.

Our first person to encounter is our cousin, Jesse. I like that he's of mixed/ambiguous race, so it doesn't feel weird when you come in fully dark-skinned or light-skinned.

Jesse is giving us our apartment to live in rent-free until end of September. Sweet! And don't worry, Jesse's moving out to live with his partner. There was just a few extra months left on the lease and he figured he'd let his little cousin use the space instead of wasting it.

"We have the whole summer to solve your problem."
What.
"Your mom said you've never dated. No big deal, but I'll do what I can to help!"
No. NO.
"This can be your summer of Love!"
NOOO-
"Or of Totally Platonic Friendly Hangouts. Those are good too."
Oh. OH. YES. ACE/ARO REP!

I am not kidding when I had a full-body release of tension at that scene and a sudden bubble of happiness.
I know I'm some form of GreyRomantic and some from of Asexual, so to SEE the inclusion of "No Pressure" right away?

Oh, the name of the setting is called "Verona Beach" and is known as the town for lovers.
If that sounds familiar, but not ringing any bells yet, let me help:
"In Fair Verona Is Where We Lay Our Scene" is the second line of Romeo and Juliet.

Anyway, Jesse asks us what our main problem in love is, and we come across the first multiple choice question I don't like.
"Nobody appreciates me." (You get called arrogant.)
"I'm cursed." (You get called scared.)
"I'm ugly." (You're told you need self-esteem.)

This feels like a stat I'm picking in retrospect, but wow did I not resonate with any of these! And when I picked the first one to continue the story, it felt like a slap to be called arrogant for it! Also it's a question about love? When I just got told it's cool to be platonic?

I think this needed to be phrased different.
"When it comes to meeting new people, no matter who it is, what fears do you notice?"
OR SOMETHING

Okay, NOW we talk about the dungeon-crawling aspect! Apparently dungeons are a new "fitness fad" in Verona Beach. Monsters are real and they infest places that have something to do with fear. Not sure yet.

Also Jesse just asks if you can turn into a weapon. No matter what, you give it a try, but it's a no-go. "Guess it doesn't run in the family," Jesse reassures us. "Transformation's big in Verona Beach." Weapon folks call us "wielders".
I feel this was made by/for queer people.

Jesse mentions that he's setting us up to train with his swordfriend this afternoon. NO DATE. TRAINING. "Remember, wielding isn't romantic. Perfectly platonic friends can wield each other, okay? The important thing is you're stronger together."

Jesse leaves for now, meaning our room can be wandered around in! Our options are Zines, Crafting, Mirror, Phone, and Leave. Zines and Crafting aren't available yet. Phone is our menu option. Mirror is customizing.

Our starting clothing is very limited, but interesting! The three different colored dresses (with pockets!) and three different colored sweaters can be worn by any pronoun/gender! We start with a headscarf and a turban! No glasses option, but we'll see if those pop up later.

Oh, I forgot the white t-shirt. The first thing every character starts out wearing. "Worn when I've forgotten to do laundry." It's a good neutral start.

I renamed FuckThin to Rose and she's looking beautiful. We leave the apartment, and we can go anywhere in the town! We just can't do anything anywhere, except at the mall. Fair enough. Tutorial Me, Baby!

Jesse tells us there's a weapon-thief out there and weapon-people are going missing. Spooky...

Inside the mall, we find a long, thin blade that fits nicely in our grip. It's Isaac, Jesse's swordfriend! He stays in sword form for now as it takes effort to change from one form to another. "Your hand on my hilt is as good a handshake as any, after all."
(don't swoon Pred)

A Dunj is a place to fight your insecurities. "Here, your own psychology will create monsters to fight." It mentions that fears of germs, poverty, insecurities, etc can be used. Everyone is afraid of something.

Before we even get to some monsters, Mom texts us (if you agreed). As someone who doesn't have a good relationship with his mother, I'm probably going to read this differently than someone who does. That said, she texts us to look out for pickpockets and listen to our cousin.

My first monster was a cellphone with fangs. We're told the phone might symbolize fear connecting to people. Isaac said he fought a lot of trucks. He doesn't hate them, yet they manifested. It had something to do with his issues around masculinity, he says.

Beverages (customizable in options) are health potions. Zines are spell scrolls.
"Use your Dragons Zine and breathe fire." Don't Mind If I Do!
We also picked up some wire. For the crafting bench, perhaps?

I have come across a safe chained up in the middle of the room. It's either death or a new friend. Wish me luck!

It's a sword! It's slightly broken at the tip. It quickly warms under our hand.
He magic-boy transforms into a man wearing spiked-leather jacket, red pants, and nothing else!
Meet Sunder.

Last thing he remembers is someone in a cloak chanting, then nothing. Now he's chipped and alone. He's also VERY flirty! He leaves the Dunj, giving us fond memories and his number.

WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT WHAT

Ok, suddenly a bunch of enemies spawned and I'm out cold. I keep all treasure and EXP, but WOW, that was not cool!

The paramedics bring me back to consciousness! OKAY. It's night now and time to take my character to bed. Isaac asks to be let go of, which OOPS didn't know I was still holding him.

HOLY SHIT ISAAC IS A GORGEOUS BLACK MAN IN A SUIT WITH IMPECIBLE TASTES AND STYLE

I AM WEAK

Jesse comes by to talk about our first Dungeon Crawl and mentions a guy named Eric that runs a sword shop. Hopefully they're not sentient swords.

So I noticed a lot of dating sims have the sin of making the MC shy/insecure always, no matter the player. This one picked up that stick and ran with it. Just trying to say "Hi" in a practice to talking to a stranger was "too much" for our MC. So be warned of that, I guess.

Eric runs the Naked Steel shop. It's not porn, but does make a damn fine sword shop. I only mention the porn angle because the game does.

Eric seems friend-romancable at least. He's a huge weapon enthusiast and a smith. I think I'm Eric, NGL.

After talking to Eric, Jesse texts you about how the date with Eric went. You can't say it wasn't a date, just 💖 or 💩. 💖 leads him to make sure the MC isn't going to propose immediately and leads to the next question I hate. Mostly for the same reasons at the last one.

"I'll find you another date adventure soon."
1. I want to date weapons.
2. What about Isaac?
3. What about Eric?

No "Let me go at my own pace"? Or "I think one was enough"? Or "Let's make friends first, THEN dates"? What happened to the option of Summer of Platonic Friends?!

I WAS HAPPY! To get a "No Romo!" at the start! To feel welcomed for not wanting to DATE -- at random or at all! To feel relief that I wasn't going to be forced into an awkward situation where I feel distant from the MC because they're saying things I'd never say!

But then I get immediately shoved into DATING people! Not as friends, either! I now have to either play along and pretend to be HAPPY, or say everything was MISERABLE and besmirch either my "date" or my cousin because the binary answer options aren't adequate communication!

It felt like someone asked to add ace/aro rep in the game, so they added some lines here and there, but it doesn't work like that. The "Platonic Friend Summer" feels more like a "if all else fails" option instead of an open and ready option to explore.

It feels like we have to "fail" at dating for a time before we can safely say "no thanks". And again, ace/aro doesn't work like that.

I've heard that some later social interacting that is clearly non-romantic is still called a date. Either no one knows what a date is, knows that date has a strong romantic tie, or know that better synonyms exist.

To keep from answering his question even more, I'm going to talk more.
Jesse was in college when we were in 5th grade, which was 10 years ago. So he knew us at age 11, now we're 21 and he's maybe 31.
He was told by our mother that we've never dated. She's shown as over cautious.

This is all based on a huge breach of privacy and a pushy cousin that we may not safely feel comfortable telling to shove off because we're living in an apartment he's renting.

I'm not saying this is intentional, but it's amazing how many red flags rise if you don't like Mother.

No more stalling! Picking "What about Eric?".
"No, no. Variety is the spice of everything. So I'm going to find you someone nice."
Thanks, Jesse, for not caring about what I want. Again.
He tells us to go around town and dunj, and he'll let us know when our next date is set up.

Sunder asks if we like dancing. Sunder asks us to come to his club, La Rosa. "Just tell the bouncer you're with me." Cause that always works, right?

Isaac asks us to come by his office and we'll train. The choices are to be an ass about how he signs texts, or be nice and say we'll be there.

Again, getting that "too awkward to say hello" vibe.

A minor nitpick (cause everything worse when angry), the cursor in the phone always resets its location back to the top left. If you're not expecting that, you can be fast-picking the wrong option.

I was going to go Dunj Crawl, but all I can do is Shop, Date, or Home. Huh. A shop has some Exclamation Marks, so I'll go there.

Oh, there's some cute outfits here, but since I only have $1.50, I have to pass.

And the marks are gone. So it was to tell me new items are there.

But why didn't it do that for both shops? Because one has gifts and the Marks had clothing? Doesn't feel consistent.

So All social interactions are called Dates. All of them. Oh gods, okay, this... This isn't how I'd label things, but here we go.

There's two colors associated with "Love". Red and Yellow. I said something that made Isaac light up with both colors! I saw a dark blue or black when his father walked in, so that means Dad isn't taken well. I wish I knew what these meant, besides the obvious Good and Bad.

I've played games where they gave you a simple introduction tutorial and spelled out what meant what, or at least they made it obvious what was GREAT, Good, or bAD. When I click around to find a guide that maybe I forgot to read, or read too fast, I can't find one in-game!

Mother is texting.
She doesn't like me fighting monsters. Is it because I didn't pick an option earlier about Mother supporting me? Don't know!

Look, I've READ/SEEN supportive Mothers writing to their children. This doesn't read as that. To me this reads as emotionally wedging herself into her child's life and judging every little thing. Also, HOW DID SHE FIND OUT? I didn't tell her! Jesse is my only suspect!

Unless Jesse told his mother, that then told my mother. Or something. Either way, he's in the social loop of it all.

I can Dunj! Only with Isaac right now, but I wonder if it has to be with JUST weapon-folk I have to fight with. I'm going to talk to Eric and see what his shop has.

As I'm talking to Eric, he realizes that any experience I have with weapons is with weapon-people. He makes a face. "People win wars. Not weapons." UM.

Eric: "It's not polite to say, and pure humans aren't superior, but the truth is we're better-suited to leadership."
MC: "I'm sorry, 'pure'?"
Eric, disgustedly: "Or whatever the opposite of 'hybrid' is."

Eric wants to make his own weapon. And give it a minute amount of intellect. "It doesn't need its own thoughts and feelings and baggage."

MC: "You want it to be the perfect weapon?"
Eric: "Ideally, no. Ideally it would WANT to be my perfect tool. But... in practice, yes. A perfect servant will always be more loyal than an equal."

DUDE, WHAT THE FUCK?!

This game will warn me about romantic abuse, but not about the clearly racist/Nazi shopkeep?! My eyebrows are slipping into my hairline! I don't know if it makes a difference, but my character is a Black woman with pink hair. That conversation has a whole lot of second meanings!

It occurs to me that Jesse both introduced me to Isaac, a professional swordperson, and Eric, a Nazzi bigot. Did Jesse not hear Eric's desire for a sword-slave? He was pretty quick to give me the spiel! Eric went beyond Dog-Whistles and went full air-raid siren racist!

I don't mean to be harsh on Jesse, but he's pushy, invasive, inconsiderate, and blind to his privileges.
The only nice thing he's done is offer us the apt for free for a few months. If I knew if was pest-infested, I would've refused!
I've never known a cousin to be like this!

Dating Sunder. BRB.

Wait. The "I'm with Sunder" thing works? Okay!
OH MY- The lady beside Sunder is VERY pretty!

Oh God. The Soulmate Question. And it's not in jest, shit.

This concept is the bane of a lot of ace/aro people. It's used as a method of erasing our existence, or making us appear broken. There's been some healthy ways around it, like Platonic Soulmates being included, but this game isn't letting us go that easily.

We walk up to Sunder and Mystery Lady talking about doing something with or without emotion.
Sunder: "And without love, what's the point? Hey, MC, do you believe in soulmates?"
1. Absolutely.
2. I want to.
3. No way.

Unless this is a sword-person concept that has the same name but a different definition, I am so disappointed YET AGAIN.

The answers from before lead to:
1. "I think I do too. I just keep getting so disappointed, I'm not sure anymore."
2. "Me too. I just keep getting so disappointed, I'm not sure anymore."
3. "That's probably smart. I just can't resist the idea of finding someone... perfect."

Mysterious woman is Mandy. She co-owns the club, La Rosa. All three of us go to dance on the floor. As Sunder heads to the bathroom, Mandy slips closer to me, and tells me that Sunder is dangerous. I... though that was going to a different place. Like, to Mandy maybe- nevermind.

She tells me Sunder will just use me and toss me aside. Too violent and gets addicted too easily. Not to drugs, though. It's addiction to the control he gets over the innocent ones.
"You're... sweet. I'm trying to protect you."

THE FIRST PERSON I CAN TELL TO BACK OFF IS THE ONE I DON'T MIND.
My dialogue can be as confident as I feel I am normally, but only when I'm talking to Sunder.

And Eric is talking again. Giving him big Eff You vibes.
JESSE IS TELLING MY MOM THINGS. I KNEW IT!
She admits it! And oh good, Mom is threatening to kill others for me. After I tell her to back off. I love having my wishes ignored.

I can't stall anymore. DUNJ CRAWL TIME!

I SEE A DAGGER. It's chipped. Her name's Valeria and she's not happy.
She talks a lot about consent and not liking being used by someone.
I like her.

The dodge is for evading, as in getting out of the way. It is not a teleport or invincibility.
Between levels, you can change weapons if you want.
A healing room where you can give gifts to the weapon you're wielding. Nice!
There's also vending machines to buy potions.

Welp, I died. That's the thing of rogue-lites, though. You keep going in, deeper and deeper, until you eventually find the way through.

So Mom asks if Dunj is like therapy since the monsters are inner demons. Then she tells us that she went to therapy for 12 years and it helped her grow.
There's no option to be supportive and positive, but we can say "12 years?! are you ok?!" to her.
I don't like MC's lines.

Ok, Sunder has a text dialogue where he acts all horny, but when you say "show me", he sends a pic of himself as a sword instead of a Dick Pic. I really liked that. It's pretty sexual, so I feel uncomfortable posting it here, but... it's amazing.

The dialogue is sexual, not the picture! That's what makes it funny!

I'm gonna stop over explaining.

In fact, I think I'm going to stop this thread here. If I start another one for this game, I'll link it below.
For now I'll post the link to the joint tip jar. Only donate if you can, guys!
Until then, good night and many happy dreams for all!
paypal.com/paypalme/AnaMa…

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