Brown Dust 2 is a gacha game that went viral due to a trailer of the newest character, Iron Monarch Wilhelmina, but it’s not what you think.
You may have seen the game Brown Dust 2 grace your timeline, even if you didn't know it. A preview of its newest character, Wilhelmina, and her Iron Monarch outfit became viral for obvious reasons. This prompted reactions from people on the internet, but what really is Brown Dust 2, and how does it break expectations?
Brown Dust 2 is available on PC, iOS, and Android. It's developed and published by the South Korean company NEOWIZ. You might know them from Lies of P, since they also developed and published that game. They were also in charge of the development and distribution of London 2012: The Official Video Game for mobile devices.
Queen of Beirun, Iron Monarch Wilhelmina goes viral
First, let's talk about the video that went viral.
It was the promotional video for the new character, Queen of Beirun, Wilhelmina, particularly her Iron Monarch outfit. As you can see, it portrays her from quite a compromising angle.
The rest of the clip portrayed her and the other featured characters' gameplay, and it's really not what you'd expect.
As of the time of writing, the post has 23.6 million views and over 110k likes on X, over a week after it was posted. The video is one minute 12 seconds long, but the snippet of Wilhelmina's backside has gone viral way beyond the game's player base.
The same video is the top 8 most viewed on the game's official YouTube channel despite being age-restricted. It blew past the trailer for the game's collaboration with Mushoku Tensei, but the views still pale in comparison to the other, more popular videos on the channel, like the game's announcement trailer and a couple of Senran Kagura collab trailers.
Searches for the game rose by over 500% on Google after the trailer of Iron Monarch Wilhelmina went live.
Is Brown Dust 2 a "gooner" game?
While the character designs themselves do give off that vibe, the gameplay does not.
Brown Dust 2's in-game experience reminds us of games like Octopath Traveler. The characters are portrayed as chibis — small, cute-ified versions of themselves. You get to explore the various landscapes and areas in the game as these chibis, interacting with NPCs and seeking out enemies.
Battle is done in turns on a grid system, similar to a turn-based RPG like Fire Emblem. Obviously, the game still features gacha mechanics, with characters being acquirable only for a set amount of time.
This in itself isn't unique — we've seen other games attract players using explicit character designs and trailers, but actually demand some form of tactical expertise under the hood. Girls' Frontline 2 and NIKKE are two such examples, but Brown Dust 2 just takes it up a notch.
Brown Dust 2 also features a self-insert dating sim, allowing you to romance the characters in the game through various intimate scenes.
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Hooking gamers in
Iron Monarch Wilhelmina's trailer isn't alone in giving off major "gooner" vibes for the game, though. In fact, a short scroll through the game's official YouTube channel is enough to figure out that this is their tactic.
Take the "ONSEN TRAINING PV" video, for example, that they posted for the Jan. 15 hot springs-themed in-game event. The trailer for Onsen Practitioner Ventana had to be censored in the video, but as far as we know, you can see the cutscene in its full glory in-game.
So, it's not like there's any false advertisement going on here. You actually do get to see the scenarios in the previews by increasing your bond with the characters. It seems to be an effective way to get players, though, seeing how consistently they do it. The official account even leaned into the jokes after Iron Monarch Wilhelmina went viral.
Community reactions to Brown Dust 2 trailer
Nonetheless, the reactions of some users on the internet to the promotional video are calling the game out on its questionable marketing practices.
- "the gacha goon wars continue this is ridiculous," posted user @Shinken_Oh.
- "this s**t makes marvel rivals look like disney junior. the level of goonery is atrocious." says @DynamoSuperX.
However, some players took the chance to bring more people into their fold. Take user @CosmosSentience, for example, who collected Brown Dust 2 screenshots and discussed various aspects of the game in a thread to help people see beyond the bait-y teaser video.
They showcased the game's presentation, beautiful art, and fun minigames in the thread. "Of course, I enjoy the gooner content too but I really wanted to showcase everything else about the game!" they said.
It seems that the preview did work on some people, though.
