Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children is slowly becoming one of Steam's favorite tactical turn-based role-playing games.
Korean indie studio Dandylion released Troubleshooter in 2020, but it's collected over 8,000 "Very Positive" reviews since then, many of them praising the game's ambitious XCOM combat and interpersonal drama à la Persona. But, though Troubleshooter aspires to be a JRPG in looks, attitude, and combat, it's missing the genre's archetypal dating system. Dandylion tells fans there's a good reason for that.
"Dating system...it's a feature that a lot of people wanted," Dandylion said to a Steam reviewer moaning that their "only complaint is no waifu dating system."
- Avowed director didn't add romance as RPG players often try to cheese companion relationships and she wanted them to "feel natural"
- Horror game legend Ikumi Nakamura swaps her love of gore for true romance by helping dev use custom sidequest as real-life proposal: "Moments like this remind me how lucky I am"
"My team members... have no experience with it, even in real life...." Dandylion continued. "Thank you for this review."
"We can build a feature to ride a dragon but not go on a date, because we have no experience with that," mused a popular comment on X. "A date might be harder to imagine these days I suppose."
It's sort of true. According to my observations, daily life is devoid of Troubleshooter's lightning magic and critical hit attacks. But the Pew Research Center reports that, at least in the U.S., dating has become more difficult and less satisfying for single adults. I think that the statistics might look even more bleak for strategy game enthusiasts.
But, instead of building a bond based on eternal love and compassion, at least the Troubleshooter developers can, uh, defeat a bunch of hunching creeps in a single swoop? Wear an awesome floor-length jacket without a shirt on in their game? See, there's lots of things to do instead of being in love.
If you disagree, check out the best dating sims, ranked.
