Today, for your delectation, DIYGamer presents Hatoful Boyfriend, the heartwarming tale of a young human girl looking for love in all the wrong places. To be specific, St. PigeoNation’s institute for talented birds. No, you’re not in the middle of a fever dream. This is real. You might have heard of this completely barmy dating sim/visual novel elsewhere, but today is especially special. The English translation patch has just been released. Y’know. In case you wanted to date a handsome pigeon or two. I mean, how can you resist such graceful head-bobbing?

It’s all completely tongue-in-beak, of course, not taking the concept the slightest bit seriously. The game opens with an apology, admitting that despite crediting a variety of famous Japanese anime and game voice actors, there are no voices, and you should just imagine the credited actors speaking their lines instead. The option is even offered to introduce ‘even the birdiest of birds’ briefly with a visual human interpretation, if you’re struggling to assign personalities to the various chatty aspiring avian alumni.

So handsome! So regal! Such beautiful plumage!

The dialogue wanders between standard dating sim cliches and surreal tangents off into the world of birds, with some of the cast being predators, some being scavengers and so on. The origins of each breed of bird are even focused on for some time. It’s almost educational – at least, it would be, if I believed I’d be remembering anything even vaguely coherent about this. In all honestly, this is probably worth downloading just so that you can say that it exists, and that you have it. And then you can give it to all your friends. If they don’t have you committed first, of course.

Edit: As revealed by the exceptionally helpful AuthorX in the comments below, there IS a commercial version of this game available, but it’s untranslated and is currently only being sold at Japanese comic conventions. It adds one more potential feathery soulmate and a few additional endings.

[Hatoful Boyfriend, English Patch]

-

DIYGamer Holiday Give Away! For each and every article we post we’re giving away an indie game.

This article’s game is Antipole for the PC (code redeemable on Desura) by Saturnine Games.

Leave a meaningful comment below to enter into the drawing.