Everyone wanted this popular tactical RPG to have a dating system, but its developer sadly admits that “my team members have no experience with it, even in real life”
Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children is a great XCOM imitator anyway
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Troubleshooter: Abandoned Children is slowly becomingone of Steam’s favoritetactical turn-based role-playing games.
Korean indie studio Dandylionreleased 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 saidto a Steam reviewer moaning that their “only complaint is no waifu dating system.”
“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 commenton 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 becomemore difficultand 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.
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Ashley Bardhan is a critic from New York who covers gaming, culture, and other things people like. She previously wrote Inverse’s award-winning Inverse Daily newsletter. Then, as a Kotaku staff writer and Destructoid columnist, she covered horror and women in video games. Her arts writing has appeared in a myriad of other publications, including Pitchfork, Gawker, and Vulture.
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