The game which I am reviewing today is most definitely the strangest, most ridiculous, yet hilarious game that I have ever seen or touched. It's called Hatoful Boyfriend. Hatoful Boyfriend was originally released in Japan back in 2011, though the version that I am reviewing is an HD re-release of the original game that came out in the US on Steam in 2014. It was developed as well as published by Mediatonic and The Irregular Corporation. The art style and user interface of this game is set up like a typical Japanese Visual Novel, just with a very bizarre, hysterical twist added on to it. Seriously, this game is hysterically strange overall.
The game starts out by letting us know that the events we're about to play through take place in the somewhat distant future of 2188. The protagonist that we get to use while we play is a nameless female student who has been invited back for her second year of school. She also happens to be the first and only human attending St. Pigeo Nation (Can you tell where this is going yet?). This peculiar academy is strictly made for the avian species, by the avian species. The character seemingly has already gotten used to the confusion from being the only human of the school from her first year there, though there are still some awkwardly hilarious situations which arise from you being the only human there. Though, I believe having awkward encounters is pretty typical of visual novel games.
The beginning of the game starts out on the first day of your second year of highschool as you are introduced to your best friend in the game, Ryouta. Ryouta of course isn't a human, and happens to be a Rock Dove Pigeon. Your goal in this game is basically just trying to attempt to face this school year head first with determination and zeal, as well as possibly more as you search to find a bird to love (God, this game is weird). Throughout your first day of attending school, you begin to slowly be introduced to various other characters that also go to the school. You have an option to display an illustrated portrait for each bird character depicting what they would look like as a human being while you are talking and interacting with them. Each character has their own unique design from one another, and I can say for the most part I believe that each portrait matches their personalities.
Along with their portraits, there is quite a variety among the birdbrained characters and their personalities as well. The characters traits range from things like one of them believing that they live in a delusional world where he strictly behaves like he's in a fantasy, to another character who seems clinically depressed and full of melancholy who hides in the library all day, to even a teacher who seems like he has narcolepsy and has severe issues staying awake for more than a few minutes at a time and obviously much more.
So, there's plenty of birds to chase after with each one giving their own scenarios and endings to run through. Which means good news for anyone who cares about replaybliity factory, since there's plenty of that here to be found. And, without going into spoilers I'd just like to say that some of the endings are absolutely hilarious, sad, and occasionally pretty creepy. I think I actually enjoyed each of the endings for one reason or another, and there weren't any that particularly put me off from the game.
However, there is also one way to get a game over screen/ending without doing too much. The way you do this is just by not pursuing any single bird character in particular. I accidentally found this out the hard way by just selecting the vague choices during the dialogue options, since I figured the game would give me time to figure what path I wanted to take. I mean, this game is very much a traditional dating sim, so I wasn't expecting someone to come end me in the middle of the night because I just wanted to be friends with these weird birds. So, you might want to avoid doing what I did my first playthrough. Obviously to go forward in the story you'll have to pick a character to pursue along with the right choices which satisfy them and make them happy.
One thing which is quite nice with this game is that your character isn't just a boring, talking cardboard cutout throughout the narrative, which I was honestly expecting before I started it up. While I don't have a huge amount of experience with the dating sim genre, any and all that I'm familiar with just have these uninteresting, boring, and not too special main characters that aren't entertaining to play or use. However, you actually can sympathize and care for the protagonist in this game because she's actually witty, entertaining, and intelligent. Oh, and she spends most of her free time in a damp, dark cave (which somehow has a doorbell installed even though there's no electricity or door). What more could you ask for in a dating sim character?
Basically all of the paths you can follow down to an ending, besides the early game over screen, give these hints of something bigger and more strange going on within the school. Now, you're never able to get any specific characters to give you answers throughout the game on what this thing or being is, but it is definitely hinted throughout that something is wrong in the bigger picture of things. I was left feeling bummed that this is never touched upon too heavily in these paths, as there's quite clearly a much larger story going on besides a teenage girl falling in love with some pigeons that I would love to know about. It does make the game more interesting and help to add some type of mysteriousness to the atmosphere of the game which is great. At least that was how I did feel until I restarted the game again after beating the romance sections.
So, what's left after you've burned through the traditional dating sim/romance paths of the game? Well, that's where this game gets really interesting (And, honestly even more strange and bizarre, which is hard to believe considering the game) and takes on a whole new angle that you weren't expecting at all. I won't go heavy into spoilers for it, but it becomes a dark, mystery style game with horror elements strewn about. In this section you'll be playing as some of the side characters of the game and trying to solve the shocking events that the game presents to you.
The game has so much story, character development and depth to it in this section, that I'm left bewildered at why there's even a dating sim portion of the game included. This game has left me frazzled, as I went from giggling with laughter to being utterly confused and somewhat freaked out within just a short span of hours. I have to say, I love this section of the game, however.
What I will tell you without spoiling anything is that you'll find out why the world has become the way it is, why you're the only human beings to be found, and the motivations that drive the things going on behind the scenes. It didn't quite answer everything that I wanted to know, but it did fill me in on a lot and also give me an entertaining, chaotic story that I was not expecting whatsoever when I picked up this game. I'd actually be shocked if anyone was expecting the game to devolve into what it did at this point.
The only downside to this game in my opinion is that you can speed run through your playthroughs pretty quickly on the dating sim portion. I've actually read of people claiming that they've been able to do it in as quick as an hour, and some of mine have been only a little more than that as well. That section of the game does tend to get a bit boring after your first playthrough. This is due to the fact that some things will just become quite repetitive to do, and you'll have to continue reading through all of the dialogue in case there's any new additions which means you've got to sit through all of that again and again. Another thing although not a huge deal by any means, was that there were a fair amount of spelling errors that I noticed every now and again as I played. This isn't too shocking, considering where the game comes from, and I don't think it would be a deal breaker for anyone. But, I figured it was probably worth mentioning for anyone who truly considers themself a grammar nazi.
This game has so many good points to it, and not just in the latter section where it totally changes. Even the dating sim portion will give you so many laughs and hilariously awkward events to have to deal with that you can't help but enjoy it, even for how weird it is. Once the second section begins you'll find yourself enticed into it's feathery arms and you'll be on the edge of your seat while you try to figure out what the hell is happening. The more that I think about it, the more I believe that this section is close to being a horror game.
So, if you're looking for something to give you some quality humor filled entertainment for awhile, you'll find that here. The games first section is no doubt hilariously strange, and has funny antics tossed around as you play. If you're wanting something that has a psychological horror vibe to it, with supernatural elements and just plain horror and mystery tossed in there as well, then, well, you can find that here too! I have a hard time saying who I could recommend this game for, as it seems like it didn't really have a specific target audience. I personally think it's a great game, and it's definitely worth the try. So long as you don't mind your Steam friends questioning what you're doing with your life, anyways.
Thanks for checking out my review! Hope you've enjoyed it!