Now that the discourse surrounding Boyfriend Dungeon’s content warning has subsided a bit, it’s time to talk about another aspect of the game—its dungeon design. While there are plenty of ways that Boyfriend Dungeon shines, from its inclusivity of LGBTQ+ folk to its engaging characters and memorable soundtrack, the dungeons leave much to be desired.

I quickly realized I was whipping through Boyfriend Dungeon whenever I was reading text messages or going on dates, but when it was time to enter a dungeon, I’d set the controller down and decide to revisit the game later. It isn’t that I don’t enjoy dungeon crawlers—I followed up my experience with Boyfriend Dungeon by logging more than my fair share of hours in Hades, as its dungeons are diverse and exhilarating. The problem is that the dungeons in Boyfriend Dungeon are painfully dull.

Related: Choosing Valeria In Boyfriend Dungeon Made Me Question My Bisexuality, But It Shouldn't

To be fair, this was not my first impression of them. Entering Verona Mall for the first time and encountering the VHS bats immediately drew me in. The enemies were quirky, the music was catchy, and at first, I adored the hangouts where you could take a break to have a conversation with your weapon. But this charm was terribly short-lived, as these qualities stay the same throughout the game. While it didn’t take long for my interest in the dungeons to wane, that interest vanished entirely after picking up Hades.

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via Game Informer
https://www.gameinformer.com/indie-world/2020/08/18/supergiant-games-awesome-dungeon-crawler-hades-comes-to-switch-this-fall

If you’ve played Hades, then you know there are several dungeon regions: Tartarus, Asphodel, Elysium, and the Temple of Styx. All of these regions are refreshingly distinct from one another. While there are enemies, traps, and urns to break in every location, your adversaries differ from each other in terms of appearance, attacks, combat style, and color tones. Asphodel’s Bloodless, for example, will leap across the room and charge at you. The Dracon, on the other hand, burrows into the ground and pops up to fire projectiles in your direction. Essentially, every foe is different—especially from each previous region—which allows the game to constantly find new ways to surprise you. Asphodel’s terrain is distinct from Tartarus as well, glowing with a much richer red and lava that zaps away Zag’s health if he lingers in it for too long.

The differences between Verona Mall and La Rosa nightclub, the only two dungeons in Boyfriend Dungeon, are minimal. The colors of the two locations are different—Verona Mall is full of light while La Rosa nightclub has a much darker appearance, as you’d expect. But aside from this, it doesn’t feel as if there are any major distinctions you can make between them. You encounter enemies with slightly higher stats in La Rosa, making them minimally harder to kill. All of your opponents in La Rosa are remarkably and disappointingly indistinguishable from the ones you’ve already spent ages fighting in Verona Mall—even those lovely hangout spots I mentioned previously are boringly similar.

Even if we only compare the first location from Boyfriend Dungeon to Hades—Verona Mall to Tartarus—the former falls incredibly short. With Hades, every time you go through another door, you’re building towards enhancing Zagreus in some way. Each door forward is marked with a symbol for the next room’s reward, whether that’s a power boost, a HP increase, or a range of similar boosts and boons. In Boyfriend Dungeon, every time you go down another floor, it feels identical to the one above. It’s another wave of similar—or exactly the same—enemies and, even worse, it often includes the same hangout locations that trigger identical dialogue scenes if you’re wielding a weapon you’ve used before.

Related: Best Hades Builds - Best Weapons And Boons To Beat The Final Boss

What drew me to Boyfriend Dungeon initially wasn’t the dungeon-crawling aspect of the game—I just wanted to date some sexy sexy swords. So, the hangout areas you encounter in the dungeons that include potential flirty chats with your partner seemed perfect. However, since these are repeated constantly, I found myself enjoying the extremely minimal dialogue in Hades’ dungeons way more than any of the lengthier but predictable conversations in Boyfriend Dungeon.

In Hades’ dungeons specifically, dialogue is few and far between, yet the irregular comments Zagreus makes perfectly capture his personality. I had myself a very ugly snort laugh the first time I heard him say “No urns permitted in this chamber” after I’d destroyed them. The dungeon dialogue in Boyfriend Dungeon, which is almost entirely tied to the scripted scenes in the hangout locations, offers some value the first time you hear it. But if you’re working on leveling up a specific weapon, it repeats every time, and they aren’t just quick comments either—they’re full conversations.

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via Siliconera
https://www.siliconera.com/review-boyfriend-dungeon-includes-good-and-bad-dates/

Boyfriend Dungeon doesn’t only fall short when it comes to variation in enemies, terrain, and dialogue. There isn’t much in the way of stat-building either. While the controls are extremely similar to those of Hades, part of what makes the dungeons feel so bland is that you’re always tapping the same buttons without having to give it much thought. While Hades had me trying to strategize the best build for Zagreus in each run, I found myself zoning out entirely during my empty, button-mash runs in Boyfriend Dungeon.

My guess is that the intent in Boyfriend Dungeon was to have the dungeons be as painless to get through as possible so that players could spend a good chunk of their time on the dating sim aspects of the game. Plus, it’s no small ask for every indie game to be as challenging and complex as Hades. But Boyfriend Dungeon's enemies, terrain, and certainly the dialogue could all be much more varied without the dungeons becoming unnecessarily challenging. Hades sets a high standard, but the roguelite manages to have a compelling plot and entertaining characters in addition to its stellar dungeons. Boyfriend Dungeon gets the first half right, but falls way short in its level design.

Next: Beginner Tips For Boyfriend Dungeon