Dating Sim visual novels are usually simple affairs, so in order to spice things up to leverage people’s interest, the developers of Hatoful Boyfriend HD decided to dip into the weird: The result of which is not only clearly evident, but still entertaining.

Hatoful Boyfriend HD is an HD remaster of the 2012 original Japanese game. While the original game did receive a translation, the new version received some GUI overhauls as some script cleaning. In addition, many of the game’s backgrounds and character portraits are of higher quality than the 2012 game. The plot deals with the protagonist, who is a human girl, while having a name, can be renamed to the player’s liking. Hiyoko Tosaka is the default name, and she attends a school for gifted…birds. Why she is going to a school exclusively for birds, let alone why birds can talk or go to schools is something the game eventually reveals these facts to you. In the meantime, the goal is to get through the school year while romancing one of the birds. This is done like most visual novels through dialog tree selections. The story is pretty threadbare in the beginning, with only bits and pieces being added in, with only a bit of character development. But after attaining all 14 character endings, you can start a new game and ‘fulfill the promise’ to start the true story of Hatoful Boyfriend. The theme also changes from a dating sim to a murder mystery thriller.

The game is definitely weird, but that’s what makes the game endearing. The fact that you are a human girl romancing birds at a school creates many humorous situations. It’s pretty funny that without this concept, this dating sim would be somewhat average, despite how interesting the underlying plot is. It’s almost as if the game was made as a cheap backup plan since the author lacked he budget to do justice to a proper dating sim. And indeed, the original free web based demo was conceived as an April Fool’s joke. The visuals aren’t anything to write home about. Photos of real birds represent the student body as well as faculty, and sometimes they are dressed in crudely drawn outfits when the situation demands it. The music is royalty free from Kevin McLeod, and it’s simple but pleasant. Each track encapsulates each scene appropriately. The only real problems I can see with the game are the inability to control graphic transitions speeds, and the inability to skip only unread text. The skip button skips everything, which can make it hard to stop from hitting new dialog after playing through the game for the tenth time or so. The Save icons are also represented by Question marks, rather than a thumbnail of where the game was at during the save. This makes it hard to gauge where in the story you actually saved at. The game’s weirdness might also be a barrier for some people, even on top of the Otome game niche. But Hatoful is an enjoyable time for those wanting something different and weird. It doesn’t hurt that it’s only 10 bucks.

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