Why You Should Play Hatoful Boyfriend

Yes, that pigeon dating game.

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     So, you're still here? Good.
     Hatoful Boyfriend, originally developed by Hato Moa and released in English territories by Devolver Digital, is a japanese style dating sim where you romance a wide variety of pigeons. And I think you should play it.
     The first thing Hatoful Boyfriend does is introduce you to yourself through a conversation with the boy-next-door, Ryouta. You're a human girl that lives in a cave, eats a large amount or ramen, and attends an otherwise all bird academy. The birds speak, they read and do math, they have history class. It's very high school. The game introduces you to various birds, and then demands you choose one right away. The best part of forcing a decision from you early on (there is a "Game Over" screen in HB, though I had to intentionally fail in order to see it, for achievement reasons) is that there are no wrong choices. Every character is more complex than they seem on the surface, and every storyline present is emotionally satisfying. Will you fall prey to the maniacal control freak? Will your heart be broken by one whose own heart is yet mended? Will you meet a god? It's all possible within HB, and you'll soon forget that it would be strange to date a pigeon. The game makes frequent, sometimes painful, bird puns. That's part of the fun. I won't spoil any of the routes here, but there are some real tear jerkers in there, as well as a few laughs and a lot of personality digging.
     The most important part of playing HB, though, is doing it right. The game is very good from the start, but things really pick up once you reach the post game. That's right: There's a secret ending to HB, and it's the best part of the game. If you romance every possible bird (this includes the ones not unlocked until about halfway through the story), you have the option to launch into a choose your own adventure style mystery-thriller ending to the already strange visual novel. It's a strange, powerful, and compelling sci-fi story that not only hides in a dating sim, but thrives off of the fact that it is inside it. You can read more about it here <link incoming>. Or you can just play it for yourself.