Hatoful Boyfriend: Sexy and Luxurious Part 2

A little over a month ago I managed to get myself wrapped up in the infamous pigeon dating sim, Hatoful Boyfriend. Despite my absence in blogging about it, that doesn't mean I had stopped playing it! Just like I said I would, I got right back into that game and went after the remaining 4 pigeons, and wrapped up any loose endings I didn't get before, including the bad endings. I haven't had much chance to play it since I completed the "normal" endings, as I have been in complete rush mode in preparation for  Anime Boston and simply didn't have the spare hours to devote to exploring the legendary BBL mode, but Anime Boston is over (sadly!) so there will be a third post about Hatoful Boyfriend in the future.

In interest of doing something a little bit different from last time, and largely because my screen shots are all on the computer that I installed the game on which is currently buried under a pile of clothes and craft supplies that ended up there in the aforementioned Anime Boston rush-mode, instead of a play-by-play of each pigeon I dated in my second round of play, how about a nice Feels Chart™.





That's right, I decided the best way to express how I felt about these characters was in chart form. As you can see from this chart, I actually spent a couple play throughs actually literally crying real tears, of sadness.

The mourning dove who works in the library, and will rip your heart out and stomp all over it.

In the last post about this game I had played Ryouta's route and teared up quite a bit at the end, but in my second round of playing I went after Nageki, the sad grumpy library pigeon, and found myself doing a little more than tearing up and just straight up crying for the last 5 or so minutes of his route. If that's not a testament to to how surprisingly good this game was, I don't know what is. I certainly did not put on a goofy pigeon dating sim with the intention of crying literal tears of sadness.

Sakuya, more than just a spoiled brat apparently!

One of the other pigeons I wooed this time around was Sakuya, the snotty aristocrat pigeon. Throughout all the other play modes he mostly just got on my nerves in the background, he was really snotty and I just couldn't get the appeal of his character. Until I went after him. As you can see from the handy Feels Chart™, Sakuya's route was a pretty steady does of "D'awww" adorableness, and he won me over in the end with his touching backstory.

Not actually a bird that's been stabbed, but a Luzon Bleeding-heart pigeon.

Anghel's line on the chart looks massively confusing, and let me explain why! He's a hidden character that pops up if you do things a certain way after completing the game a certain way first. He's a pretty wacky bird, up there with Okosan in weirdness. Every interaction with him is as if he's straight out of some high fantasy video game, and, this took me by complete surprise, his ending features an actual boss battle. Hence, me dying about 4 times before I could complete his ending. Here's a hint, if you plan on wooing Anghel, take a gym class or two to raise your strength!

Sexy and luxurious!

The last character I went after was Yuuya, Sakuya's saucy brother. Despite what the chart seems to imply, I actually found his route the least satisfying. Sure, he was constantly wooing me as much as I was wooing him, but that honestly sucked a bit of the fun out of it. Yuuya's romance, to me, was very blah, but the route was still worth playing for the storyline, as Yuuya's route includes a lot of important information about the world of Hatoful Boyfriend.

I still haven't had the chance to play BBL mode, but when I do, I'll definitely be back to talk about it, as I've absolutely loved the experience of playing this game. This game has pretty much opened my eyes to the possibility of dating birds visual novels and dating sims as satisfying games to play, as in the past I've sort of written them off as being somewhere between a too-short manga and a too-difficult porn. I'm definitely on the lookout for more games like this!