ABC Challenge - H/I
Hatoful Boyfriend
10 hours of playtime, 16 of 16 achievements
💖💖💖💖♡ 👍
It’s no secret that I don’t get engrossed in Visual Novels much. I usually just find them okay in the end. When I bought Hatoful Boyfriend, I pretty much expected a silly otome with crazy plotlines that revolve around you dating birds. Overall, I was correct, but it actually had some deep storylines and interesting twists and turns you don’t expect from a pigeon dating sim. I won’t say much to avoid spoiling it, but it made me laugh at some routes and get pretty sad in others. Honestly, I wouldn’t have liked it so much had I not gotten to the BBL route. That was surprisingly well done and had me engrossed the whole time. If you like visual novels, then Hatoful Boyfriend will be fun to play. If you don’t like VN’s, you may not be swayed by it, but play it all the way to the end to get the full experience. I might even say it’s the best bird dating sim I’feather bought. get it?? okay i’m walking away now..
INSIDE
5 hours of playtime, 2 of 14 achievements
💖💖💖💖♡ 👍
I really loved INSIDE. The atmosphere and sound effects were perfect and the gameplay and controls were very smooth. It very similar to Limbo but with much easier puzzles. There are no lines of dialogue so you have to rely on the visuals around you and the small details perfectly placed throughout the game. A lot of people hated the ending. I didn’t love it or hate it… I just didn’t get it. Maybe when I go back and get all the achievements it will make more sense. For now I’m just enjoying the feel of the game and how perfectly detailed and put together the world is. INSIDE is very dark, strange, and vague, but overall very engrossing. I recommend some good headphones for this one!
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HYUCK! Love your pun. Would it be all right to link this post in my VN masterlist for your Hatoful Boyfriend review?
Also I agree with you about Inside - I loved the atmosphere and setting and all the plot teasings… and then the ending…. just…. what? That’s it? Not to spoil, but finding the hidden stuff doesn’t exactly change much, it just gives you another extra ‘ending’. It hints at a certain way to interpret things that also… wasn’t… that satisfiyng.
The real flaw I have with Inside, which is why I have a hardtime outright recommending it to people, was that it promises and promises and promises but doesn’t really DELIVER anything substantial. Questions are met with more questions instead of, really, any answers. From a writing standpoint, that bugs me - it makes me feel like me, the audience member, has to do all of the work instead of the kind of mode I think works best: the writer and audience member meets halfway. I had a WONDERFUL time up until the very end, and the ending was just so underwhelming and disappointing it really soured my whole experience.
If there was ever a game that I hope gets developers’ commentary, though, it’s Inside.
Love your pun. Would it be all right to link this post in my VN masterlist for your Hatoful Boyfriend review?
definitely!
Also, I 100% agree with you about INSIDE and it’s lack of answers to the many questions I had throughout the game. I think I wasn’t bothered as much, because I read about the vague and ambiguous ending before I finished the game. Hopefully they add a directors commentary, or a dlc that explains what the heck happened :P
Oh god I can’t describe how much I love Inside, put one more heart on it pls :D
That gif was perfect for your post. xD
On a serious note, Inside seems like a great game. Good to hear it’s close to LIMBO. I enjoyed that game a lot on the 360 a few years ago. Might pick Inside up someday. Btw, congrats on beating both games and good luck with the rest of the challenge!
Thanks. The game is really good but the ending kind of raises more questions then answers. Overall it was a good experience though.
Good luck to you too!