Hatoful Boyfriend

Hatoful Boyfriend is a memorable visual novel. The birds in this dating sim are surprisingly interesting and have big personalities that unfold in a story that is deeper than we would have thought. In the base Hatoful Boyfriend is a funny game which will make you go WTF?! pretty often.

Come for the hilariously stupid premise, stay for the constant surprises.

It is a very clever, very charming thing.

Though it has some pacing issues and a seemingly useless upgrade system, the funny, meaningful stories had me reading right past them.

Devolver Digital and Mediatonic's Hatoful Boyfriend is a faithful upscale to the original game by Hato Moa and has the same charm and humor.

Yes, Hatoful Boyfriend is a dating game with a bird gimmick, and that alone will be enough to keep many players at arm's length. But to pigeonhole your time at the St. Pigeonation's Institute as a mere gimmick would be a grave misjudgment of a game that is far more delightful and unexpected than even its bizarre premise would suggest.

Hatoful Boyfriend makes fun of the dating simulator genre by turning it on its head, making it weird and outrageous. The witty dialogue and absolutely bonkers scenarios are genuinely fun to discover, and the handful of different storylines make repeated playthroughs worthwhile.

The true BBL story is gripping and an absolute must-play for anyone with an open mind who is a fan of visual novels. The game doesn’t make things obvious, though. I had no idea this route existed until I actually put in the effort to do more endings, and I’d recommend you do the same. If nothing else, it’s nice to see Devolver and Mediatonic bringing something so new and unusual to Steam.

I have always liked birds, but I have never dated them so that's the main reason why I wanted to play Hatoful Boyfriend. The game is a dating sim where you control a teenage girl who eventually ends up in a relationship with a pigeon, dove or some other type of bird. Although everything about it sounds like a big joke, the story is surprisingly deep and has a lot of replay value. I personally didn't like the fact that the game doesn't offer much freedom, because you have to follow pre-defined paths, but I guess that's part of the genre. [Nov 2014]

Hatoful Boyfriend has lots of funny moments and absurd characters, but it’s also charming in its own, plumy way.

For a product that started out as a joke, Hatoful Boyfriend is a surprisingly nice game. It will not take too much time, but it is fun to play with because of the absurdity and jokes.

Hatoful Boyfriend is by no means a game just for pigeon enthusiasts. Fans of dating sims and gamers looking for something different will find enough entertainment value here. The story arcs are bizarre, the birds about as strange and the dialogue is almost always funny. There’s not a lot more you can ask from a game about dating birds.

Hatoful Boyfriend is not the pigeon-dating sim you're looking for: It's more than that. Curb your enthusiasm for branching storylines after playing through the early romance portion of the story.

After a couple of hours this pigeon dating sim (yes, you date pigeons) turns into a psychedelic post-apocalyptic horror with gore elements. Is any other encouragement necessary? [13/2014, p.67]

Depending on your choices Hatoful Boyfriend can be a light-hearted dating sim set in a completely ridiculous setting, or a crazy ridiculous visual novel set in a ridiculous setting.

I was expecting to simply giggle at a nonsensical game in which I tried to woo feathered men, and what I received instead was wholly and wonderfully unexpected. Anyone with a taste for the unusual would do well to enjoy the company of these fetching fowl.

If you prefer plots that are weird to begin with and just get weirder, you will be extremely happy with Hatoful Boyfriend; if you don’t feel excited by every single Japanese pop culture trope re-enacted by pigeons, Hatoful Boyfriend might not be for you.

Hatoful Boyfriend is at times barely a full video game, but at the same time, this is an experience that would be impossible to integrate into any other medium.

Hatoful Boyfriend’s goofy pigeon dating antics belie a smart, on-tone parody with a moment or two of sincerity.

Hatoful Boyfriend is great at setting a tone and building a strange bird universe pockmarked with bits of broken, human-constructed items. These objects are eerie in such a happy-go-lucky world, though the creep factor is welcome in a game as ridiculous as a pigeon dating simulator. We'll call it the peep factor.

I came for the promise of pigeon romance, but I stayed for the surreal world these fowl reside in.

Hatoful Boyfriend is very much a mixed bag, in terms of story quality, but also proves to be a quaint curiosity. If nothing else, the anime art style is a pleasure to behold, with some bright and engaging set pieces on display.

A one-of-a-kind glimpse into the world of anthropomorphic-animal Japanese otome, Hatoful Boyfriend is surprisingly entertaining.

There's still plenty to coo over, especially if you unlock all the endings. [Dec 2014, p.80]

Occasionally, it doesn't feel quite weird enough to carry the whole concept of a human schoolgirl at an all-bird high school, but there's still plenty of laughs to be had for a brief experience that you're going to have to play through multiple times to fully enjoy.

Ultimately, this is a run-of-the-mill dating sim that, while fun, is a hard game to love. [Issue#153, p.125]

Hatoful Boyfriend is a straightforward dating simulator where all of your suitors just happen to be birds. If you're not drawn to your potential boyfriends, the early game can be a bit of a drag. While the second half of the game is worth the price of admission, many players will have a problem getting there. Proceed with caution.

Hatoful Boyfriend is not as bold and eccentric as it seemed. It's a typical visual novel, nothing else, nothing more.

Maybe it's because I'm not Japanese or familiar with Japanese culture, but these otome games, I'm sure they have a place in Western society, but I don't quite know where to put them.

A dating sim with pigeons? Eh, that's funny! A couple of minutes. Then it becomes embarrassing. There is an interesting post-apocalyptic background hidden behind all the WTF, but as rich as it is, anyone who's really into this kind of game will probably like interacting with human characters better. Especially for this price.

A mediocre tale in an “empty” game. There are far better visual novels out there.

Fan of genre? Pick this up. If not, Fall has games.

As a visual novel we wouldn't say it's "bad", but it's definitely a joke not everyone would get. If you want to play it, make sure to understand what it is before paying for it.