It's FANTASTIC people are in love with this game and its characters. I cannot deny the characters and their characterization in the story are totally enjoyable. For the most part, it's a partial return to form for Fire Emblem after the 3DS follies.
Nonetheless, this game is probably my note to walk away on the franchise. Maybe more on that another time, but either way, great blog!
I tried watching this live when you played it, completely failed to understand even one minute of what-the-fuckery, and now I feel like I understand it even less. I am actually dumber for having consumed this much Hatoful Boyfriend content. Thank you, ZombiePie. Whatever hell you subjugate us all to next, may it end with you just hammering our heads into concrete.
Trust me, I have now played this storyline twice, and I don't think I entirely understand what it is trying to accomplish. That said, parts of this game remind me of your horror novels where shit hits the fan out of nowhere and there's no turning back.
Having watched you play this live, this game really does leave all of its weirdest fuckery behind this hidden, literal 5-hour-long route. At some point it just turns into Akira, and that's neat.
This seems to take it way farther, but would you put all of this ending in the same camp as Doki Doki Literature Club? They both skewer the genre in a weird way, but I’ve found it impossible to explain these games to casual gaming friends who don’t have a passing familiarity with typical dating visual novel games, so the subversion/deconstruction of the genre is lost on them.
So, there's a lot the differentiates Hatoful Boyfriend from Doki Doki Literature Club. For one, as you can see in ArbitraryWater's comment, the game's real reason for being is locked behind a 5-hour-long route you cannot access until after you play a normal-ass anime visual novel. Additionally, while I love Doki Doki Literature Club, I don't think that game is engaged in a hostile critique of a genre. It certainly subverts the genre it is working with, don't get me wrong. But in the end, it uses a genre that you would not expect to descend into madness to provide some of the most gripping and creepy moments I have seen in a modern video game. Finally, Hatoful Boyfriend doesn't stop being a visual novel.
I guess the best way to describe these sorts of games is to call them psychological thrillers, but that moniker has been basically run into the ground. Even I struggle to describe films that pro-actively attempt to deconstruct a genre. So, your guess is as good as mine.
I'm going to wish you the best of luck and check out of these blogs, I don't need my fandom of XII validating but I don't need to read thousands of words shitting on it either.
So... I know this comment is old and wanted to respect it for sharing a perspective that does not mimic my own. That said, it's fucking WILD how much better this game gets in its final act. Holy crap, I think I'm actually starting to enjoy this game. And I don't just mean that I'm having fun playing the game, but, the characters and story all somewhat redeem themselves in the final two acts.
In the end, here's where I am: I think this game has one of the most significant mid-way turnarounds I have ever seen in a video game.
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