Hatoful Boyfriend - 5/20 hours

I've played through the game twice more, exploring the Ryouta and Sayuka storylines, and they were relatively normal (though that "relatively" is important - I cannot stress this enough, everyone in this game is a bird). Sakuya is a spoiled rich kid with few life skills and an arrogant attitude, but deep down, he has the sensitive soul of an artist, and his strict, patrician father demands that he give up his dream of playing music to succeed him as the head of an aristocratic family. If you become intimate with him, he will flee his home and move in with you, becoming a musician and building a life of his own.

Of course, he's a pigeon, and you'll be living together in a cave, because Hatoful Boyfriend is bizarre, but underneath all that, it's kind of a sweet story. Ryouta's, however . . .

Maybe I'm biased against it because it featured a bird in a maid's costume. That would be a sufficient reason for anyone. I don't think that's it, though. Yes, it was weird and gross, but honestly, also kind of funny. No, I think the reason that I don't care for Ryouta's story is that it's the first one so far that doesn't work if the boy is not a bird. You see, Ryouta is a hardworking and conscientious boy who works several jobs to care for his ailing mother while also attending a school for the gifted, and in the end, he falls in love with the supportive childhood friend who was there for him all along . . . but he's scared of being with her because he's a bird and his much shorter lifespan means that he's destined to die long before she does.

I really don't like being reminded of Hiyoko's creepy sexuality. There's this scene, where Sakuya and Yuuya are competing in a swimming match, and Hiyoko thinks, "the damp, tight-clinging feathers are making my heart race," and I just want to start shuddering and never stop. There no point mincing words here. Hiyoko wants to fuck a pigeon.

Maybe I'm being too judgmental. The main problem with bestiality is that there is such a huge gulf between the experiences, capabilities, and inner emotional lives of humans and animals that any such relationship would be exploitative to the beast and utterly degrading (or the sign of severe mental problems) for the human. However, the pigeons in Hatoful Boyfriend are basically human. They have complex interests and feelings. So it's not inconceivable that there might be a connection between them and a homo sapien. It's more like a relationship with an alien than an animal. It would be churlish and ignorant of me to object. . . but I just can't get past the physical aspect.

I have to assume that Hiyoko's socialization was different than mine. Presumably she grew up with images of pigeon beauty spoon-fed to her in the pigeon mass media (despite living in a cave as a hunter-gatherer), and thus it's entirely understandable that she has some internalized xenophilia. But that just raises further questions about the nature of the human condition in Hatoful Boyfriend's universe. Perhaps it has something to do with the mysterious student Higure Anghel, the exotic Luzon Bleeding Heart Dove who claims to be a fallen servant of God.

It's odd. I thought that the explanation for this bird world was something science-fictiony, but perhaps it's supernatural after all.