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Hatoful Boyfriend

Hatoful Boyfriend

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There's something about pigeons. The way they move (hobbling about in public squares). Their soulful gaze and graceful bobbing of heads (it just radiates intellect and charisma doesn't it?). Or perhaps they're just rats with wings. It all depends on your point of view.

It's your first day at St. PigeoNation's Institute and as it turns out you're the only girl in school. Not just that. You're the only human. The rest of the students and staff are pigeons and birds of various kinds, and apparently they're all more or less appropriate dating material. As the player your choices will dictate where this bird meets bird story ends up.

Hatoful Boyfriend

Hatoful Boyfriend was originally a flash title and it has now been made into a fully-fledged game on Steam thanks to Mediatonic and Devolver Digital. The basic premise is that of a dating simulator and it plays like an interactive graphical novel where your choices lead you down various avenues. Some creepier than others.

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The game is part serious (as serious as these things get), part tongue-in-cheek (hey, it's a dating sim with pigeons), and plays a lot with clichés and tropes found in these kind of games as well as the anime scene. To be honest, we're not terribly familiar with the Japanese dating sim scene (apart from the odd adventure in our youth), but even if we're fairly sure you'll enjoy this game more if you are, it's certainly not necessary in order to enjoy the smorgasbord of oddities that's available here.

There are dialogue options to choose from and choices as to where to go when there are optional classes and so on. You may want to stay out of the infirmary though as the school doctor sets off all sorts of alarms. The teacher who wants to make sure you get home safely also sent shivers down our spines, but perhaps he's harmless. As you'd expect there is plenty of high school rivalry and posturing as well - all birds aren't created equal after all. Some come with rather spectacular plumes.

Hatoful Boyfriend

There's something surreal and unnerving about the photo portraits of pigeons on top of the more traditional anime/manga style drawings. It's very difficult not to feel a bit self-conscious about it all. And we were lying at the top, there's nothing soulful about the gaze of pigeons. Especially not when they're locking eyes with you from inside a dating sim. But then you proceed down an avenue in the game with a surprisingly serious tone that will actually move you as you begin to uncover what's going on. We're not going to spoil any of the potential dates and love interests you'll have as that's the whole point of the game, and there's a total of 14 endings to unlock so given the few actual interactions you'll perform during a playthrough there's still quite a lot to experience. It doesn't take long, maybe an hour or two to progress through one game depending on how carefully you read the dialogue.

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The dialogue is very well crafted and bounces between silly word puns to more serious issues, and the ground covered is rather impressive. As it's the main takeaway from the game, it is naturally extremely important that it holds your interest and it does just that.

Hatoful Boyfriend

We've come to the end of this review and this is where it gets difficult. How do you put a score on something like Hatoful Boyfriend? In many ways it's an experience that you can't put a number on. The limited amount of actual gameplay and interactivity, means it's all down to whether you enjoy the story that unfolds as a result of your choices. Some will certainly feel it's a little too simplistic in this regard, others won't mind and focus on the stories that unfold. We certainly enjoyed ourselves. And felt a bit awkward enjoying ourselves as much as we did. It's a curio more than anything else, but one you may want to pick up when it's on sale on Steam (it's not expensive to begin with at £6.99) and experience for yourself. It's lunch money well spent.

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07 Gamereactor UK
7 / 10
+
Pigeons... and Parakeets. Great dialogue that will weird you out and potentially move you. Lots of endings to explore.
-
The interactivity is limited. It's a bird dating sim so naturally it's not for everyone.
overall score
is our network score. What's yours? The network score is the average of every country's score

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Hatoful BoyfriendScore

Hatoful Boyfriend

REVIEW. Written by Bengt Lemne

"How do you put a score on something like Hatoful Boyfriend? In many ways it's an experience that you can't put a number on."



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