why do you like bird game
houghhh i'm hyperfixated on the bird game. someone save me
"Hatoful Boyfriend: A School of Hope and White Wings (Japanese: はーとふる彼氏 〜希望の学園と白い翼〜, Hepburn: Hātofuru kareshi ~kibō no gakuen to shiroi tsubasa~) is a Japanese dōjin soft otome visual novel released in 2011 for Microsoft Windows and OS X, in which all the characters other than the protagonist are sapient birds. It was developed by manga artist Hato Moa's dōjin circle PigeoNation Inc., and is the successor of a Flash game of the same name she created for April Fools' Day in 2011." - Wikipedia my beloved
I ended up giving Hatoful Boyfriend a shot out of curiosity and boredom, having literally no clue what would happen. Well turns out I like the bird game quite a lot and it won't leave my mind and I'm running out of money to spend oh god oh man.
What starts as a silly joke game and a silly pigeon dating sim ends up turning into this absolutely insane psychological horror murder mystery with themes of warfare, racism, eugenics, human experimentation and more. It looks harmless on the outside but underneath it all is a genuinely incredible narrative that you can only fully comprehend once you've read everybody's routes.
"The title of the game is a multi-layered pun; the wasei-eigo word hātofuru (ハートフル) means "heartful"; however, it is also phonetically identical to the Japanese pronunciation of the English word "hurtful". This is referenced in an alternate name for the Bad Boys Love route, Hurtful Boyfriend, as well as in the subtitle for the full release of the original game, Hatoful Boyfriend: Hurtful Complete Edition."
Hatoful Boyfriend: A School of Hope and White Wings
The original Hatoful Boyfriend. An absolute modern classic that starts off with a variety of fairly normal - all things considered - romance routes, but ends up devolving into horror in the other route option: Bad Boys' Love, often shortened to BBL.
All of the characters in HB are incredibly compelling, with deep lore that stretches between each route that makes you want to play more. Even though my favourite romanceable character is Kazuaki Nanaki, I think my favourite to play other than BBL was Azami's.
Incredible replay value and an overall good time.
Hatoful Boyfriend: Holiday Star
FUCKKKK MAN,,,,,, I sat down and finished Holiday Star in one evening and god was it brilliant,,, I'm not immune to a story so full of symbolism and themes. I really do care for The King, and I love all the little side stories (Anghel missing The Day The Night Slept because he was eepy killed me). I didn't expect the Christmas special to get so dark...
All the little details and lorebits in Holiday Star were so special to me... The King's storybooks, the design of Holiday Star itself, all of the small bits with Shuu my beloathed and Ryouta's dad are so special to me.
I've been eating this series up lately but I'm so disappointed that I'm running out of media to consume. Part of me feels the need to play Holiday Star again.
The Comics
Most people don't know that there's more to Hatoful than the two mainline games but there is so much external content!! I've read and loved all of the comics with English translations so here are some quick and easy thoughts.
Hatoful Kareshi (Webcomic) (including Hatoful Boyfriend Overload! Overflow! EX) - So cute and silly... Not very lore-heavy until the end (the chapters about Hitori and Nageki were EVIL !!!!!!!!) but that's something I really like about them! Like yess let them all have some slice of life fun for once in their stupid little lives. Also love how Hiyoko is depicted as a piece of meat. She so is.
Kazuaki-Kun's Book - Oh my shayla... Made me appreciate Kazuaki-kun more as a character and it was so interesting seeing how him and Hitori met! I think I'm just a Kazuakislop feaster deadass
Absolute Zero - the Forbidden Epic of Fallen Angels - My brain did not process half of this but I was still eating Anghel's little fantasy AU UPPPPPP. I love all of the designs and characters he came up with, and the more serious comic style rather than the four-panel ones was very welcome :D
Focus on the Hawks - Genuinely insane how if Shuu was not gay as fuckk for Ryouta's dad pretty much the entire story wouldn't have happened. Made me so sad for a slice-of-life but that's what made it good. Rare instance of me enjoying Shuu because that little freak pisses me off. Also so happy to see more Tohri content because I love Tohri.
The Drama CDs
Yet to listen. Will update when I have.
The Nanaki Corner
I LOVE KAZUAKI NANAKI!!!!!*
He's my problematic fav and my blorbo bingus forever. He's been added to my oshi collection. May even be a rare instance of me having a yumeship. Who knows.
I'm such a fan of this silly little narcolepsy bird who stole someone's identity once. He's such a sweetie patootie even if he's done so many wrong things
*I'm a fan of both Kazuaki-kun and Hitori-Kazuaki, but when I talk Kazuaki I'm meaning Hitori-Kazuaki
.png "art by ARTIST CREDIT")
