My Dangerous Life BL Game Review – F*ckboys in the City

My Dangerous Life is a boys love dating sim, that was originally released by Hituzigumo in 2018 on mobile as He and My Dangerous Life. The game follows a college student named Hinata who travels to New York to fulfill his life-long dream of studying abroad. His dream becomes a nightmare when in the span of one day, he is swindled out of his apartment and a stranger steals his identity to enroll at his university. At a loss for what to do, Hinata is approached by a group of handsome men who offer to help him by giving him a place to stay at their shared apartment…and so begins his dangerous new life in the Big city. The game was panned for it’s subpar translation… among other things, and not wanting to let such a “phenomenal” story go to waste, the powers that be teamed up with Giiku Games to overhaul the localization for a Steam release.

Full disclosure, I bought this game without having read the synopsis or the character bios–I saw the pretty art, the BL tag, and that it was on sale for $9.09 (the perfect alignment for an impulse buyer, such as myself) and I threw my money down. So, I didn’t vet this game before buying and surprise, surprise, this game isn’t exactly “high art”, but there is some enjoyment to be had from a “bad” game and My Dangerous Life is a train wreck I just can’t help but watch…

Game Details

• Drama | Comedy | Boys Love
• Cost: $12.99
• Play the Game: Steam | Nintendo Switch
• Similar Games (read: Better games): Seiyuu Danshi | Chasing the Stars | Blind Men

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Story

Hinata has always dreamed of leaving Japan to study abroad in New York City and he finally gets his chance when he is accepted into one of the city’s elite universities! So, he packs up his bags and heads to the Big Apple, but what is supposed to be a dream come true, quickly turns into a nightmare. In the span of just one day, Hinata is swindled out of his new apartment and he discovers that a complete stranger has stolen his identity and used it to enroll at the University in his place.

Hinata is now stranded and alone in New York City and at a complete loss for how to deal with the situation. While contemplating his next move, Hinata is approached by a handsome stranger who offers to help reclaim his identity, and even offers to let Hinata stay at his apartment. When Hinata arrives, he discovers that there are two other hotties living there too! But, all is not what it seems with his new roommates, each of them is hiding a secret of their own… Now Hinata has to navigate living under one roof with these dangerous men!

Characters

Chad

~ The Suave Conman ~

Chad is a conman who hides his true feeling behind his charming smile. Street smart and debonair, Chad always seems to be one step ahead of everyone else and he will take up any job no matter how dirty, so long as there is money involved. Chad feels sympathetic towards Hinata and offers to help him reclaim his identity and see to it that the culprits are punished accordingly.

He is drawn to Hinata’s innocence, often going out of his way to comment on how cute he is and tease him. Chad is VERY open with his affection for Hinata, even going so far as sneaking into bed with him the very first time he stays with them. He then proceeds to fondle and pet Hinata every chance he gets with absolutely no regard for his feelings—though, I will give Chad some credit, he does stop when Hinata says no. Chad really gets off on the “thrill of the chase” and at one point in the story spends the better part of a day literally chasing Hinata around New York, because he was “begging to be chased by him”. Chad despite his easy smiles and good natured façade, comes off extremely predatory and creepy—often treating Hinata like a child—he never says what he means, so it’s really hard to tell when he’s being truthful. His route is convoluted as hell and it was hard to follow what was going on most of the time, since Chad pretty much just does whatever the hell he wants without bothering to share his thought process with the rest of the class.

Brad

~ The Fun Loving Gangster ~

Brad is the leader of the street gang, 66 (the writers should have gone with 69, but alas). When he isn’t running with his street crew, Brad serves as a middleman at a bar that caters to the city’s criminal underground. Despite his rough around the edges appearance, Brad is actually pretty cheerful and upbeat—he’s quick to laugh and not above having a good time.

Brad initially saves Hinata after he is kidnapped by the stranger who stole his identity and offers to become his personal bodyguard, inviting him to stay at his apartment so he can keep a better eye on him. Like everyone else in the game, Brad is immediately smitten with Hinata and vows to make him his lover by any means necessary. But, thankfully aside from some light flirting, he respects Hinata’s boundaries, which after the Chad’s route is a welcome change of pace. Brad’s relationship with Hinata is much more relaxed and we actually get to see the two of them hanging out and interacting in the same way you’d expect friends to behave. The chemistry between him and Hinata was perfect, because the story took it’s time fleshing out both characters I was much more invested in their relationship.

Alan

~ The Handsome Assassin ~

By day, Alan is an attractive college student, who is practically perfect in every way. But by night, he’s an elite assassin who caters to the city’s underworld. Alan is also the owner of the apartment building that he, Chad, and Brad live in and when he learns about Hinata’s housing issues, offers to let him stay with them—though he does warn Hinata not to snoop around too much. Alan appears to be pretty normal, but every so often he lets his façade slip and reveals a much more intense personality. He rarely lets others get too close and when pressed about his past, Alan always manages to change the subject. He is confident in his abilities and often uses his looks to charm people into giving him what he wants, though he seems to genuinely enjoy being with Hinata. I like that his route takes the time to establish a friendship between Alan and Hinata. It was nice to see them just hanging out and laughing despite the dangerous stuff going on around them.

Hinata

The Protagonist

Hinata is an innocent young man who has always dreamed of studying abroad in New York City. But, when he arrives in the city he discovers that an imposter has stolen his identity and takes his place at his University, things only get worse for him when he loses his housing. Suddenly homeless and broke, Hinata is forced to rely on the kindness of strangers to survive the hustle and bustle of the big city. Before coming to the city, Hinata lived a pretty sheltered life, which makes him a little on the naïve side. Because of his appearance he is often mistaken for being a child, and his overly trusting nature often causes him to get into trouble. He is a genuine guy who always sees the best in others, even when they don’t see it in themselves. Even though he tends to get swept along by Chad and the others, he isn’t above telling the LIs off when they get too handsy with him.

Overall Thoughts

My Dangerous Life is a port of a mobile game and from what I’ve been told the translation in the mobile release was just God awful. Thankfully the translation underwent a huge overhaul for the Steam release and aside from some awkward phrasing and a typo every now and again, I didn’t see anything egregious. On a scale of 1 to 10, where one is QuinnRose’s localization of Alice in the Heart and ten is Hakuoki, this game clocks in at a solid 6 on the translation-o-meter—not the best, but still pretty solid.

The premise is interesting enough, it just gets bogged down by the writing! My Dangerous Life is a hot mess. The story is convoluted and messy and the characters are absolutely bonkers—there are times when I just could not take this game seriously—kidnapping, stolen identities, assassins, gang wars, it’s a lot to process. And yet, there is definitely some entertainment to be had from this god awful mess of a game.

Each route focuses on its own unique story that is specific to that path’s love interests and there are levels to the ridiculousness. I went for Chad’s route first and that was a HUGE mistake, he is an absolutely horrible person and his route has so many weird twists and turns to the point that I never knew what the hell was going on. Brad and Alan’s routes were much better, because their stories focused less on cheap thrills and more on establishing the ACTUAL characters. Hinata is an interesting protagonist—one minute he’s calling the LIs out on their BS, the next he’s a damsel in distress. Not gonna lie I started getting whiplash from all the personality changes, sometimes within the span of one sentence!

The game is set in New York and its very clear that the team working on the game didn’t really do their homework on American culture, because… WOW. The names… I’m still not over the NAMES!! Chad, Brad, and Alan—I’m sorry to anyone with those names, but lets be real, those are frat boy names.

After Chad’s route, I looked up reviews, because I needed to know what other people thought of the game and I was genuinely surprised to see that the response was pretty positive… DID WE EVEN PLAY THE SAME GAME?! Every other review I’ve read praises the hell out of this game and I don’t know if I’m missing something or if years of playing games has made me cynical, because this game is not good. At best, My Dangerous Life is one of those games that’s so bad it’s kinda good, but only if you don’t take it too seriously, which is a shame because the art is gorgeous! They got the same artist who worked on The Men of Yoshiwara series and it’s tragic to see such great character designs being used in such a subpar game. The music too is really good, the BGM consists of jazzy tunes that I honestly really enjoyed and the opening song is fun and upbeat. BUT, there is one thing I simply cannot overlook and that is the use of GOSPEL MUSIC AS THE ENDING THEME. No one else is talking about this and I have it on good authority that the gospel music WAS NOT in the original mobile game, so why in the HELL did the localization team choose to use a song about the love of Jesus in this dumpster fire of a boys love game?! WHO THE FUCK THOUGHT THAT WAS OKAY?!

So… I'm playing the ending of Chad's route in My Dangerous Life and the devs had the audacity to include a gospel song as the big ending song… and I need you all to hear this, because I am still in disbelief… #ChadintheCity #MyDangerousLife pic.twitter.com/azDkqsNLFd

— Naja B. Black and Nerdy 🔜 PAX East (@BlerdyOtome) February 15, 2021

It’d be one thing if it was a generic choral number, but they literally chose an upbeat, deep south, hand clapping, holy ghost spiritual as the closing anthem for their game and I can’t for the life of me understand why this even exists! Declarations of love set to a chorus of voices chanting Jesus is just so inappropriate it’s LAUGHABLE. But, there are just no words for how batshit crazy this game is and this was just the cherry on top of this clusterfuck.

My Dangerous Life is WILD and part of me is convinced this game is some weird fever dream I had brought on by months of social distancing, but alas this is very much a real game. I dunno if I can in good faith recommend this game, because it has A LOT of issues, but, there is something oddly captivating about it just the same… almost in the way Tommy Wiseau’s The Room is so bad it’s good. I laughed, I cried, I nearly pulled out my hair… and if you want to give this wonkadoodle game a play, have at it—for better or worse, My Dangerous Life is a game I won’t soon forget.

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Also if anyone is interested, I made a podcast episode for this review, totally listen if you’re interested in hearing me rant about the game: Blerdy Otome Podcast – Episode 1 – My Dangerous Life BL Game Review

https://anchor.fm/naja-beck/episodes/Blerdy-Otome-Podcast—Episode-1—My-Dangerous-Life-BL-Game-Review-er5eq8

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