Characters / Boyfriend to Death

A list of characters who appear in the visual novel Boyfriend To Death.

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The Protagonist

A lonely, somewhat depressed college student who finds themselves at the mercy of one of three dangerous men.

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• 2 + Torture = 5: Many of the "zero sanity" endings result in them succumbing to whatever madness the guys have tried to force on them.
• The Alcoholic: The game opens with the protagonist waking up after a night of heavy drinking. They almost immediately decide to go out for another drink. This becomes a minor plot point Sano and Strade's routes. Strade's route opens with the main character admitting that they've grown apart from their friends and started drinking alone. In Sano's route, he interrogates the protagonist about their drinking problem, and refusing to acknowledge their issues leads to unfortunate consequences.
• Ambiguous Gender: Their gender is never stated in-game, and all scenes are written in a way that doesn't imply a specific gender.
• Ambiguously Human: Naming them "Ashe" and pursuing Cain's route implies this. If they ask Cain why he chose them, he asks the protagonist if they're human, and they confirm that they aren't.
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': Every option in the first game will end up leading to a rather nasty outcome for the protagonist.
• Defiant to the End: It's possible to be hostile and combatitive rather than compliant, and a fair amount of endings require you to do this. In Rire's route, it's practically a requirement to get far.
• The Dog Bites Back: In the second game, it's possible for them to kill their abductors in every route except Cain's.
• Despair Event Horizon: If they run out of sanity, they'll suffer a mental breakdown.
• Dice Roll Death: They just happened to be in the wrong bar at the wrong time...
• Failure Is the Only Option: No matters what happens in the first game, it's not gonna end well for them.
• Love Martyr: Certain endings culminate in the protagonist accepting, and even enjoying the awful treatment they've received.
• Slave Collar: One of the few endings where Strade doesn't kill you involves him placing one of these around your neck.
• Too Dumb to Live: In the second game, they can knowingly go to a one-star rated bar named Route 66 and ignore the review that flat-out warns them to avoid the shady place with a lot of weird people.
• Used to Be More Social: They did have a fairly close circle of friends at some point, but due to the stress of college life, they've grown increasingly isolated.

Characters introduced in Boyfriend to Death

Sano Kojima

Screen shake: Very Mild
Violence: Medium
Rape: Very Mild
Nudity: Heavy
Drugging: Heavy
Self Harm: None
Parasite: Medium
Mind control: Mild

A man with a chilly demeanor and a knack for human experimentation.

Found by choosing to go to the Snake Pit when the game starts.

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• Defrosting Ice King: Starts out very cool and clinical, but he may genuinely warm up to the protagonist. Unfortunately, in no way does this make him less crazy.
• Only Sane Man: Downplayed, for a certain value of "sane". While he has a bit of a sadistic streak, he is nowhere near as gung-ho to excessively injure the player as Rire or Strade. He's also considerably kinder to the player when he finally warms up to them.
• Yandere: A couple shades of it throughout, but it escalates to the point of him chopping off the player's legs and arms and replacing them with doll limbs.

Akira Kojima

Sano Kojima's twin brother. He has a bit of a short temper when it comes to his brother.

Found by choosing to go to the Snake Pit when the game starts after the player first speaks to Sano. For more information, see Vincent Metzger's character entry.

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• Ascended Extra: Never appears outside of Sano's route in the first game. Has his own route under the alias of Vincent in the second game.
• Professional Killer: Claims to keep things professional.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: Red to Sano's blue.
• There Is No Kill Like Overkill: In spite of claiming to not be into torture, many of Akira's Death Sequences involve him inflicting more violence than would be necessary to kill you.
• Undying Loyalty: He will never betray Sano, no matter how fond he becomes of the protagonist.

Rire

Screen shake: Mild
Violence: Heavy
Rape: Heavy
Nudity: Very Mild
Drugging: None
Self Harm: Mild
Parasite: None
Mind control: Heavy

A charming demon with a fondness for playing games.

Found by going to the Snapdragon at the game's beginning.

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• Beard of Evil: And what a stylish beard it is, too.
• Berserk Button: It's not a good idea to take off Rire's shades without his permission.
• Classy Cravat
• Combat Tentacles: Uses his tentacles to throw the player around quite a bit, alongside other things.
• Fake Difficulty: Since his affection meter is hidden until the end, it's very difficult to tell if you're making the right choices. Getting all of his endings is dependent on trial-and-error.
• Hate Sink: Played with. While all the other characters are no saints, he is by far the least likeable of the original three, being a rapist and a murderer with a horribly smug attitude.
• Man of Wealth and Taste: Sports a fancy waistcoat, a cravat and a pair of stylish sunglasses, and you meet him by going to a classy jazz lounge.
• Master of Illusion: Causes some truly mind-screwy hallucinations for the player at certain points.
• More Teeth than the Osmond Family: When he drops his facade of humanity.
• Morphic Resonance: It seems he can't change his eyes.
• Mr. Fanservice: For the first game. We've never actually seen him naked though, unlike everyone else.
• Sunglasses at Night: To hide his demonic eyes. They also count as Sinister Shades.
• Wicked Cultured: Rire pretty much embodies this trope.

Strade

Screen shake: Heavy
Violence: Heavy
Rape: Medium
Nudity: Mild
Drugging: None
Self Harm: Medium
Parasite: None
Mind control: None

A cheerful, easily excited psychopath.

Found when the player chooses to go to the Braying Mule at the start of the game.

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• Adaptational Mundanity: An outright supervillain, considering his Combat Tentacles, in This Is Not Romance, but "just" a run-of-the-mill Serial Killer here.
• Adaptational Wimp: Severely downplayed. In This Is Not Romance, he has Doctor Octopus-esque Combat Tentacles, while here, all he has at his disposal is a torture basement. Not that it makes him any less of a threat.
• Asshole Victim: He is murdered in the period between the first and second game. Since he's a sadistic serial killer, it's pretty hard to feel bad for him.
• Berserk Button: If you hurt Ren, Strade will kill you, no matter what color his heart.
  YOU DIED - Strade axed your face!
• Bilingual Bonus: During certain scenes, Strade speaks a few lines of German. As for what he's actually saying during those scenes...
• Canon Immigrant: Initially appeared in This Is Not Romance before this game, and he was a sadistic murderer there, making him pretty ideal for this game.
• Faux Affably Evil: Strade is an upbeat, friendly, seemingly down-to-Earth guy who'll smile and call you "buddy", even while he's driving a drill into your foot.
• I'm a Humanitarian: During some down time, you discover a stash of organs and "steak", and later Strade will eat some of you in front of you or force you to eat yourself.
• Mugging the Monster: Presumably, his death between the two games was because of this, since the fight he got in killed both him and the person he kidnapped.
• Sadistic Choice: At one point during the second day, he makes you choose between having him use a hammer or a drill on you.
• A Sinister Clue: He's left-handed and a very dangerous individual.
• Snuff Film: It turns out in one of his endings that he likes to make snuff films for the Dark Web, and in the ending in question, he turns you into his latest "star".
• Yandere: One of his endings is triggered by getting his heart meter past red. Aptly titled "Strade loved you too much...". He rapes and then strangles you to death because he gets too overexcited. It's an extremely easy ending to get and he's the only character with an ending for raising his affection too much.

Ren Hana (UNMARKED SPOILERS)

Screen shake: High
Gore: Very High
Rape: Mild
Horror: Very High
Nudity: Mild
Extra warnings: Gun Violence, Hard Vore, Electrocution, Severe Death/Gore of on-screen character, Genital Mutilation

Ren is a fox boy that shows up in both BTD games.

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• Abduction Is Love: Seems to think so, if his actions toward the player indicate anything.
• Affably Evil: Zig-zagged. Whether he's legitimately nice or a sadistic asshole seems to change a lot within his route. It's fitting, though, considering his Mood-Swinger nature.
• Boom, Headshot!: If you insist you don't love him, he pulls one of these off.
• Cute and Psycho: By the second game, he's an adorable fox beastman who can still kill you if you much as provoke him the wrong way.
• Disproportionate Retribution:
  • If the player says that Strade didn't love him, he electrocutes them to death.
  • Saying you don't love him on both occasions has him shoot you.
• The Dog Bites Back:
  • After years of abuse at Strade's hands, Ren refuses to help him as he's dying. Oh, and eats his heart later, too.
  • If you successfully retaliate against him, he becomes the victim of this trope.
• Freudian Excuse: He's had an unhappy childhood, and it's heavily implied that being imprisoned by Strade seriously warped his ideals and morals, leading to his Abduction Is Love attitude, amongst other things.
• Glowing Eyes: In some scenes.
• Happiness in Slavery:
  • The protagonist can turn the tables and slap the slave collar on Ren. Ren asks what they want from him. If they protagonist says "love", he's absolutely overjoyed, and his heart level maxes out despite being at the lowest level at the beginning of the encounter.
  • You can become an example of this in some of his low sanity endings.
• He Who Fights Monsters: Some of his endings can have him become Strade 2.0, and the player as his new victim.
• I Just Shot Marvin in the Face: Downplayed; in one scene, he accidentally shoots the player in the shoulder with a nail gun while receiving a blowjob.
• I Was Quite a Looker: His appearance in the DLC of The Price of Flesh, which takes place almost three decades after the second game, reveals that he's gained a bit of a receeding hairline in his late 40's.
• Insane Troll Logic: He gets very upset if the player says they're upset after either witnessing or committing a murder. His reasoning is that the player is ungrateful and selfish, since he did so many nice things for them and they have the gall to be upset. There's a reason agreeing with him and apologizing requires low sanity.
• Lack of Empathy: As noted above, he gets upset that the player is scared after killing or witnessing the killing of someone.
• Mood-Swinger: He's very prone to getting excessively upset if the player says or does something he doesn't like, easily leading to a Game Over.
• Morton's Fork: Once he pulls a gun on the player, getting shot is inevitable — the only thing that can change is whether the shot is lethal or not.
• Nice Guy: In the first game. In the second game...
• Redhead In Green: If he wears Strade's outfit.
• Secret Character: Sorta. His route has to be manually unlocked in the sequel, and unless you looked at promotional material beforehand, you wouldn't know he has a route.
• "Shaggy Dog" Story: Some of his endings involve him being in the same position he was with Strade, with the player as his new captor.
• Significant Wardrobe Shift: The outfit he's wearing towards the end of the second game signifies what kind of person he's become. If he's wearing his tank top and shorts, he's more submissive (although still dangerous). If he's wearing his sweater, he's not quite submissive but still not really aggressive and dominant either. If he's wearing Strade's old clothes, however, he's gone off the deep end.
• Slave Collar: He wears one of these, and depending on the ending, the main character may end up with one, too!
• Stockholm Syndrome:
  • Despite Strade's brutal nature, Ren greatly admires and looks up to him, and feels a fair amount of guilt for his role in Strade's death.
  • In the second game, some of his endings have you fall into this if your sanity drops low enough.
• The Stool Pigeon: In the first game, he'll call for Strade if you attempt to sneak out of the basement.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In the second game. How many levels depends on the player's choices.
• Trademark Favorite Food: Hearts, human or chicken; and he prefers them raw.
• Unusual Ears: He sports a pair of bright orange fox ears, as well as a tail.
• Walking Spoiler: Pretty much all of his tropes were previously whited out, and for good reason.
• Yandere: His entire route is essentially him acting like this. It's very notable in one ending — when the player says they don’t love him, he shoots them with a pistol.

Characters introduced in Boyfriend to Death 2: Fresh Blood

Vincent Metzger / Akira Kojima

Screen shake: Mild
Gore: Medium
Rape: High
Horror: Mild
Nudity: High
Extra warnings: Vomit, Piss, Gunplay, Gun Violence, Hard Vore, Eye Trauma, Non-consensual Alcohol Use, Burning

A man with serious rage issues. For more information, see Akira Kojima's character entry.

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• Badass Biker: Has a motorcycle and wears leather, and is pretty strong.
• Dead Person Impersonation: Vincent was actually KIA by a werewolf long ago. The "Vincent" you meet is actually Akira.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: It does not take a lot to get him angry.
• Impersonation-Exclusive Character: We know little about the real Vincent except that he used to serve in the military and got killed by a werewolf. It isn't even confirmed whether or not Akira's behavior as "Vincent" is in line with the actual guy.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: In one route, he falls in love with the protagonist and lets them go, and makes sure they can't find him. His last parting gift is a note that reads, "Have a good life."
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: For all the shitty things he does, he clearly loves and cares for Farz, and in his golden endings can protect the player from being attacked by his werewolf form, accept him into his "pack" or intentionally split with the player despite his attachment because he genuinely loves them.
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: He doesn't remember anything before he was attacked and turned into a werewolf, except a little about his father.
  • A tie-in story reveals that he is none other than Akira Kojima, having joined the military and lost his entire team to a werewolf. The same werewolf is the one who turned him, causing his amnesia. The reason for his name change is because a comrade switched his dog tags with that of the real Vincent Metzger, due to racism towards half-demons that would result in him not receiving proper medical treatment.
• Little Bit Beastly: When close to his full transformation, he sports wolf ears and a tail.
• Manly Man: He's ex-military man who is super ripped and rides bikes, and is very sexually charged.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: He's ripped, and can lift the player off the ground by the neck with one arm.
• Stepford Smiler: Beneath his brash, callous facade, Vincent deals with serious self-worth issues. It gets much worse for him if Farz dies.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: He doesn't seem too stunned or upset if he accidentally runs over the player with his motorcycle.
• Walking Shirtless Scene: About 80% of his route has him go shirtless for no real reason.

Cain Zeitgeist

Screen shake: Mild
Gore: High
Rape: High
Horror: Medium
Nudity: Very High
Extra warnings: Religious Themes, Autocannibalism, Claustrophobia, Acrophobia, Hydrophobia

A fallen angel who kidnaps the protagonist.

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• Cain and Abel: Guess who he is?
• Expy: of Rire from the first Boyfriend to Death. Both are Wicked Cultured demons who employ Combat Tentacles and are associated with the color red.
• Fallen Angel: A very brutal example.
• Faux Affably Evil: He's very polite and courteous when you met him. Yet this gentle demenour couldn't be further from his true self.
• Hate Sink: A downplayed example. Cain can be romanced as with the other main characters, but compared to them he's much less remorseful about his violent actions and has no excuse to make him sympathetic. What really makes Cain an example of this is that out of all of the game's routes, his is the only one with a competing love interest.
• Romantic False Lead: Zig-zagged. As with the other character's he's the primary love interest of his own route; but should the player successfully contact Damien he can end up embodying this.
• Sadist: He inflicts gratuitous pain on the player just because he can.
• Stalker with a Crush: If the protagonist manages to escape to the church, Damien mentions that Cain is oddly taken with them, and you can see Cain's silhouette against the window, watching and waiting.
• Wicked Cultured: Heck, when you first meet him, he's playing Moonlight Sonata.
• Was Once a Man: As the Biblical Cain.

Damien Morningstar

Cain's half-brother, who works as an exorcist for the church.

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• Breather Level: If the protagonist manages to unlock his path, they'll be transported to a church where they will be perfectly safe. The protagonist can ask Damien about his work, his abilities, and even have S&M sex with him without any risk of serious harm.
• Cain and Abel: Although he's not that Abel, he still fills the role against his half-brother, who is the original Cain.
• Cuddle Bug: Loves cuddling, and doesn't hesitate to let the protagonist get close.
• Easter Egg: Zig-zagged. The method for meeting him is well-hidden, and there's no hint that he even exists at first, but after being discovered the game's character and ending lists reference him.
• Fallen Angel: A pretty good guy, though.
• Guide Dang It!: Meeting him requires clicking on a small object that is very easily passed over and shows no signs of being able to be interacted with in the first place.
• Knight of Cerebus: Inverted. In a game where the player can expect to be gruesomely tortured to death over and over, Damien's appearance is where things start to vastly look up.
• My Species Doth Protest Too Much: He's a fallen angel who works for the church.
• Nice Guy: And flippin' how! Thus far he is the only romantic/sexual option who will never rape, assault, or otherwise damage the protagonist without their consent. Even with the bar set that low, he still comes across as sweet and heroic.
• Sadist: But much, much nicer about it than Cain, and seemingly only in a consensual sexual context. He's thrilled to learn the protagonist has masochistic tendencies, because he's just as interested in making them feel good as he is in indulging himself.
• Sexy Priest: Technically not ordained, though he does wear a collar and work as an exorcist. He plays the trope to the hilt if the protagonist has a kink for it.

Lawrence Oleander

Screen shake: Medium
Gore: Medium
Rape: None
Horror: High
Nudity: None
Extra warnings: Non consensual Drug Use, Hallucinations, Insectophobia, Amputation, Hydrophobia, Gore/Death of on-screen character

An awkward, very unstable man who kidnaps the protagonist.

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• Ambiguously Human: Played with. It's clear he's not human, but it's much less clear what he actually is. There's a reason the question "What is Lawrence?" has become a minor meme within the fandom.
• Asshole Victim: It's possible to stab him to death during Ren's route. If you refuse, HE will stab you instead.
  • In the "You killed Lawrence instead." ending, which is exactly what it sounds like.
• Berserk Button: He does not like having his humanity questioned or being called a monster. His reaction to the player doing so indicates that he has killed people for it before.
  Lawrence: They're always sorry. After I make them sorry.
• Beware the Quiet Ones: A very quiet and shy man...who can easily beat you to death in a fit of rage.
• Came Back Wrong: He apparently died once, but something went wrong in his transition to the afterlife. He came back an insane murderer. It gets even worse in The Price of Flesh, where he degrades into something not even vaguely human-like.
• Cryptic Conversation: He really likes this trope.
• I Love the Dead: Implied, if the player has sex with him.
  “I’ve....never done that with someone who’s still-”
• I'm Having Soul Pains: Certain paths imply that his soul is literally rotting, and that that's what makes him so unstable.
• Meaningful Name: Oleanders are a type of poisonous flower. Lawrence loves plants, and is very dangerous.
• Not Quite Dead: During Ren's route, he can be stabbed to supposed death by either the player or Ren himself. However, an extra scene implies that he may still be alive.
• Resurrective Immortality: He never stays dead when he dies, a result of too much experimenting at the boundary between life and death.
• Unkempt Beauty: Isn’t very well-kept at all, but still pretty attractive.
• Yandere: His ending where he chops the player's limbs off in order to "keep" them has this trope written all over it.
• You Are Not Alone: His Golden Ending involves the player telling him this, as they have also seen the river.

Characters introduced in Till Death Do Us Part

Marcus De La Cruz

MC Temperament: Strong
Gore: Very High
Rape: Very High
Horror: Very High
Nudity: High
Extra warnings: On screen character death, Mind break, Scarification

An unstable police officer with an intense obsession.

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Chris King

MC Temperament: Abusive
Gore: Medium
Rape: Very High
Horror: Mild
Nudity: High
Extra warnings: Abuse, Verbal Abuse, Asphyxiation, Heavy Violence

A shy and timid insurance sales man who hasn't had the best luck when dealing with other people in his life.

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• The Dog Bites Back: Essentially the point of his route. How far he goes depends on how the player responds.
• Earn Your Happy Ending: Play your cards right and the story can end with the MC and Chris admitting that they both treated each other horribly and deciding to seek help in order to repair their marriage.
• Token Good Teammate: Compared to the other two flavours of Bastard Boyfriend, Chris King is arguably the least toxic. His treatment of the MC occurs after years of abuse, and one ending results in him becoming so horrified by his own actions that he calls the cops on himself.

Aria King

MC Temperament: Abusive
Gore: Very High
Rape: Medium
Horror: Medium
Nudity: Mild
Extra warnings: Human trafficking, Whipping, Violence, Incest, Needles, Claustrophobia

A prominent no-nonsense attorney who is highly protective of her brother, Chris.

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Jack Buchanan

MC Temperament: Neutral
Gore: Very High
Rape: High
Horror: Very High
Nudity: High
Extra warnings: On-screen character death, Necrophilia, Insectophobia, Maggots, Cannibalism, Non-consensual drug use, Vomit, Eye trauma

A quiet and reserved psychology professor with some nasty hobbies.

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Ellen Klein

MC Temperament: Neutral
Gore: High
Rape: Mild
Horror: Very High
Nudity: None
Extra warnings: Ear trauma, Insectophobia, Maggots, Genital mutilation, Mind break, Vomit, Mouth trauma, Gaslighting

A young woman who is one of Jack's students. She has a passion for learning and understanding.

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