Pigeonation’s, a respected academy for birds, and with that position comes a lot of responsibility. Through the course of the game and in exploring each of the relationship options, you start to unravel a shadowy, despairing, surprisingly political post-apocalyptic world that, without spoiling too much, might just rest on your primate shoulders. Hatoful Boyfriend takes place in the 22nd century, where birds have gained human-like intelligence and now go to school, join gangs, run cafes, and generally live in coexistence with the remaining humans, although not necessarily peacefully. In the end, who you choose doesn’t even matter as long as you choose someone. However, any inconsistencies get pushed to the side when you realize that each romance exists to contribute to the overall narrative. Another one of the relationships feels uncomfortable because the subject in question doesn’t even try to hide how creepy he is, making motivations to romance him unbelievable. In one instance, there is an eligible marathon-running bachelor that never develops an attachment to you, only liking you because you feed him beans, but he wants you to join him on his quest to find the “one true pudding” (don’t ask). A few of the romances rely on sweet, shallow humor and lack any emotional connection with the protagonist, eventually falling into semi-predictable territory. Some of the characters are better than others, leading to some of the endings feeling worth the 30 minutes to an hour each takes to finish. As the protagonist sits down to learn about each of them, they reveal more about themselves, whether it’s the rich snob that falls under the pressure of family or the best friend riddled with tragedy.
The characters are also surprisingly detailed, especially considering the aforementioned archetypes they tend to fall into. Even the most basic of endings are complex, bringing up issues with human and bird life spans or turning into spy thrillers and family dramas that don’t always end happily ever after. There are several romance options and 16 possible endings and while each awaiting bachelor adheres to specific genre tropes (the forlorn loner, the bird next door, the troubled teacher, the mad scientist, for example) the endings aren’t always expected or restrained. Granted there isn’t any sex in the game, but there’s just about everything else. It simultaneously pays tribute to dating sims and shojo anime while also giving them a big “fuck you”-pun intended. The great thing about Hatoful Boyfriend is that it is all of these qualities and none of them. All of these things are accurate, but only to a point. No, you’re not a bird yourself and yes, it’s from Japan. It’s a game about dating birds and no, that’s not a metaphor.
HATOFUL BOYFRIEND BACKGROUNDS DOWNLOAD
It has received something of a reputation since getting an English Steam release despite being available as a Japanese download since 2011. Most people can give you a brief description of Hatoful Boyfriend without even having played it. Now that we’ve gotten that out of the way and addressed the gorilla-or some form of giant bird-in the room, let’s talk about how that’s nothing but a distraction.
Hatoful Boyfriend is a game about building interspecies relationships with birds.
0 kommentar(er)
