Hatoful Boyfriend Holiday Star (PC) Review
:
We liked?
- Nostalgia factor for fans of the first instalment.
Not so much?
- Somehow it's even wackier than the original – and that's saying something
The unlikely phrase “pigeon dating sim holiday special” was never going to inspire much confidence
repare for more feathered fun with this collection of short, holiday-themed stories from the world of Hatoful Boyfriend. Solve a Christmas mystery, meet brand new birds, and enter a dream world as Hiyoko and all her pigeon pals return for more crazy adventures.
Even in the crazy world of Japanese games, the original Hatoful Boyfriend managed to stand out, thanks to its gimmick of having you date not human teens, but birds. Depending on your point of view, it was either charming and endearing or just the teensiest bit insane – and I have to admit I was in the latter camp. So I was a bit surprised that the creator managed to get more traction out of the series by producing another game in the series.
Holiday Star isn’t a full-fledged sequel (no pun intended); instead, it’s a gathering of short stories and extras, some of which were originally released as stand alone mini-stories. It all starts out cheerfully enough, with Hiyoko and the birds looking forward to Christmas, but in typical fashion things soon escalate to the point where you’ve got mysterious hybrid creatures, assassin crows and golden pheasants wielding giant lasers. If it wasn’t for the fact that the last of the four main stories had quite a sad and poignant denouement, I would have written the whole thing off as a bad – and distinctly bizarre – experience.
*Final Thoughts*
The unlikely phrase “pigeon dating sim holiday special” was never going to inspire much confidence, and indeed. Hatoful Boyfriend Holiday Star is even weirder than the original game. Those who enjoyed the first title in this extremely niche series will no doubt have already snapped this up, but for everyone else, rest assured it’s a curiosity best appreciated from afar.