My Take on Hatoful Boyfriend

[Permagate]

Just finished Hatoful Boyfriend until True epilogue. I have quite mixed feeling here, but I still believe it's a recommended read. It's short anyway. I feel that it's underrated in VN community, maybe because it's otome and gimmicky (at a glance, it's actually not that gimmicky the more you read). Anyway, I'll just a give a short review here.

 

The bad things first:

- Except True route and the overall main plot, the pace of some individual routes are freakin fast, barely resembling coherent stories.

- The romantic developments often come out of nowhere. Even though it seems like it, romance is definitely the weakest point of this game.

- Stats are generally not interesting, especially since they are mostly just used for route requirements. But its relevancy in combat scenes are hilarious.

- True route requires you to have a huge suspension of disbelief and tolerant of deus ex machinas.

- While the idea behind the main story is good, the execution could be better I feel. I especially don't like how the plot twists are revealed. It's like the writer is too impatient to reveal them.

 

The good things:

- The main story is actually quite good, in a somewhat scifi-wtf-kind-of-way.

- While I flamed the individual routes, they are surprisingly good at planting little hints here and there, connecting them with the main story. Most of them are relevant and elicit 'oooh, so that's what they are!' feeling when their significance are revealed in True route.

- I like the writer's take on some tropes. For example, the 'promise in childhood' trope is written on a different angle here. I like it.

- The dialogues are funny! Or maybe it tunes with my sense of humor.

 

The neutral things:

- Birds are actually significant here, not just marketing ploy.

 

I decided to read this when I found that Hatoful Boyfriend is not well-regarded in VN communities, but highly-praised in gaming communities instead. While I agree that it doesn't have the greatest plot/writing, I think it has better plot than most VNs out there. Unfortunately, the relatively low quality of the individual routes might spur you off. Still, it has the feel of grandeur story with big reveal, something akin to Ryukishi07 VNs, Ever17, 999, Euphoria, etc2, which makes it a good entry VN in my book.

 

Just want to share my take with you all.

 

EDIT: Fix formatting.

[Mr Poltroon]

Please clarify what BBL stands for. I'm an uncultured lazy man and I require my internet posts is layman's terms.

Otherwise, quite surprised by a couple of things here, kind of regret spoiling myself on them. 

[Zalor]

Several people (who I would usually trust) have told me that Hatoful Boyfriend isn't that bad. But I feel like this is all a conspiracy to troll people into buying the game. Like it's a huge inside joke going around the VN community to say that this VN is good. Similar to how people say Boku no Pico is a good anime. All I can say is, nice try.  

[Permagate]

Please clarify what BBL stands for. I'm an uncultured lazy man and I require my internet posts is layman's terms.

Otherwise, quite surprised by a couple of things here, kind of regret spoiling myself on them. 

 

My bad, I changed them into the more common terms (true route). Also, if you are curious, BBL stands for Bad Boys Love. Anyway, there is no romance whatsoever despite the route's name.

 

No way that romance can happen, since the protagonist is killed at the beginning of the true route.

 

Several people (who I would usually trust) have told me that Hatoful Boyfriend isn't that bad. But I feel like this is all a conspiracy to troll people into buying the game. Like it's a huge inside joke going around the VN community to say that this VN is good. Similar to how people say Boku no Pico is a good anime. All I can say is, nice try.  

 

To be fair, I rarely troll. If you want to get a glimpse, try out Yuuya/Shuu route first. Among the individual routes, they are the better ones. They also provide more insight into the true route than the others. It is surprisingly similar in vein with Ever17 and the likes that I mentioned above.