Freebie Feelers.. Hatoful Boyfriend

Freebie Feelers is a series where we download the free monthly console-specific or newly released free-to-play games to test their worth. This series will contain some useful information as well as plenty of personal opinion. While these articles may not be reviews, we hope that you will be able to use them to help decide whether that free download is worth it.

What is it?

Hatoful Boyfriend is a pigeon dating simulator. No, that’s not a euphemism, it’s literally what it is - you’re a Japanese girl trying to date one of your schoolmates who happen to all be birds. There are many, many endings - I’d say multiple, but I just want to stress that doesn’t mean “four or five”, it means “more than 10”. It can take up to nine hours to complete, and I got three endings in an hour.

You have to spend time with the bird you want to go out with, choose the right elective classes, which club to join, whether you should get a part time job… You can rush through, but certain choices make the story branch to entirely new locations which come with their own choices.

Way-hey!

What did you think?

Since you spend your time looking at pictures of birds, it seems pretty dull on first glance. Visual novels usually at least show characters in different outfits, but not Hatoful Boyfriend. However, once you get a peek behind the surface, you wonder how deep the rabbit hole goes. Metaphorically - everyone’s a bird, there are no rabbits. You’re not encouraged to start a new game over and over, to try different combinations of choices - but you do feel like you need to.

I've no idea why those other options are even there, to be honest

Is it worth downloading?

Yes, saving you £7.99 and giving you cross-buy so you can experience life in the St. PigeoNations Institute on your Vita as well as your PS4. I’ve not had all of the endings yet, but I’ll definitely be going back to it to get more endings, and more trophies.