by Meghan Duffy
I’ll admit it here and now, I’m a sucker for weird stuff and for dating sims, and Hatoful Boyfriend is probably one of the strangest dating sims out there. Set years into the future in a post apocalyptic Japan where most humans have been wiped out, you are a human girl attending bird school, known officially as St. PigeoNations. The predominant forms of life in this world are intelligent birds, most of whom are various forms of pigeons.
Humor is easily Hatoful Boyfriend’s best aspect. Each character available for you to romance is eccentric. You have the stuck up noblebird who is obsessed with ninjas, the crazy school nurse who acts more like a mad doctor and hints at how he wants to experiment on you, a pigeon who loves pudding and speaks only in coo’s, a bird who acts and talks like he’s in a RPG -- complete with a boss battle, and many other charming characters. The game does not take itself too seriously at all which is good because if it did, the characters and dialogue would lose their charm.
Many of the characters are the stereotypical dating sim types, yet because of the situation they’re in. The flirt is the half-brother of the noblebird and hides several deep secrets and there’s a sadly undateable bird who drives a scooter emblazoned with “Blaster” on it so far under the speed limit that you get to places faster by walking. All of these little touches make the game shine and cause you to laugh out loud.
Hatoful Boyfriend is weird, but the weirdness doesn’t come from the pigeon dating like you might think. You get used to that in the first ten or twenty minutes. It’s the environment you’re in that causes you to wonder what this bird-filled world is all about. There’s plenty of hints scattered throughout that lead you to believe that birds weren’t always the dominant species. After all, pigeons couldn’t have built skyscrapers that are clearly visible in one scene. The characters even refer to Brian the Pigeon who was the first intelligent bird, and discuss the medical reasons why the birds became sentient and humans are no longer around.
You live in a cave and have adopted the hunter-gatherer way of life, although you still are able to eat udon, a Japanes noodle cuisine. I suppose running to the grocery store counts as gathering in this place. Unfortunately, you are killed if you don’t romance a bird. If you don’t work hard enough to get the bird as your love, or if you screw something up, you’ll be assassinated by the Hawk Party (a subtle reference to the Hawks and Doves from the U.S. during the Vietnam War) and have to start the game over again. Nothing’s more frustrating than making one wrong choice and losing an hour of progress. It’s a good way to keep the player engaged but it gets incredibly tedious to have to replay such long section of the game.
The story really picks up though once you access the Bad Boys Love route. For a game that is rooted in romancing various birds, the deep and twisting story of this route is a breath of fresh air. It had me torn between laughing and tearing up at parts because of how well the story was done. All of the characters get incredible development. Despite it being a beast to undertake and to even access, it’s an enjoyable section of the game that’s well worth your time.
The art style has received a wonderful upgrade in this remake. The backgrounds no longer look like they are from a stock 3D render of Japanese schools. They’re beautifully painted and are refreshing to look at in comparison to the original. The English subtitles have been done by professional translators, adding more clarity to dialogue than the unofficial fan translation released awhile back did.
The only significant downside to Hatoful Boyfriend is if you want to get the Bad Boys Love route you have to play through the game at least five times. There’s enough there to keep you interested when you’re getting the different routes, but when it came down to it I found myself skipping through the lines of text that I’ve seen five times just so I can get to the unique storylines for the characters. The game’s funny, but by the fifth time of molting season I felt like I was about to start molting from pulling my hair out in frustration. A minor concern is the amount of typos, especially in the BBL route. One of the more lousy ones read “That’s that decided, then.” They can be a bit distracting but they don’t detract from the overall gameplay.
Hatoful Boyfriend is certainly an extremely enjoyable experience. The new look to it gives it a new but familiar feeling. Although it can get tedious repeating the game to get Bad Boys Love, the humor in each route warrants it, along with the incredible story told within Bad Boys Love. For $10 on Steam it’s a worthwhile buy and will give you at least 10 hours of content. I give Hatoful Boyfriend 8 talking birds out of 10.
