Hongdae board game café: Hero Board Game Cafe Hongdae Branch 1

Hero Board Game Cafe Hongdae Branch 1 (히어로보드게임카페 홍대1호점) has plenty of the murder mysteries and deduction games I enjoy, so I sometimes drop in when I have time to spare in Hongdae. This time, the two of us played one episode of Unlock 8.

How do you get there from Hongik University Station?

It is about a 10-minute walk from Exit 9 of Hongik University Station. The address is 31-10 Wausan-ro 21-gil, Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea (서울 마포구 와우산로21길 31-10).

The building has an elevator, so we took it up. It was extremely hot that day, and we hurried inside. The hours listed in the original post are 1 p.m. to midnight daily.

What seating is available for two people or a group?

I liked being able to choose seating to suit our group size and preferences. There were chairs, floor seating, and loft spaces. Options included tables for four and six, round tables for eight, and group seating for ten or more.

Since there were two of us, we chose the smallest option: a table for four.

You order drinks and food through the table ordering system. When a notification arrives, take your table number with you and collect your order.

How varied were the deduction games and murder mysteries?

According to the original post, the café has more than 300 board games. Even excluding the deduction games, a large bookcase was packed with games, with more on two additional shelving units. There were especially plenty of party games.

The deduction games were grouped together on one side. Murder mysteries, taktam (tabletop detective games), and cooperative deduction games had separate categories, making them easy to browse. I did not check every title closely, but I noticed games from several publishers.

A QR code linked to a list of the murder mystery games available. If you have a particular game in mind, you can check the list.

How difficult was Unlock 8 for two players?

We did not have much time left, so we chose just one episode from Unlock 8: “김종말박사의 동물로 뿅” (roughly, “Dr. Kim Jongmal’s animal transformation”). I picked it because it looked like the cutest episode in the eighth set.

Another Unlock 8 episode we had played previously was so difficult that we needed hints for almost every puzzle. That made me hesitate a little this time, but thankfully, I liked both the theme and the difficulty. We still used a few hints, though.

The numbered cards were mixed up at first, so we spread them out on the floor with their backs showing as we played. Compared with the early Unlock sets, there were lots of new features, which made it fun to play.

What else was there, and was it busy on Friday?

The lobby had spot-the-difference games, arcade machines, and a billiards table. There were things to enjoy together besides board games.

It was busy when we visited late on Friday. The lobby was particularly crowded, so I could not take as many photos of the hallway as I wanted. We enjoyed the game again this time, and it is somewhere I would consider when looking for an indoor activity in Hongdae on a day with bad weather.