wombat1138: (Default)
I'll have to figure out how to set this up-- at first, I was thinking a table format with one column for each route, but I don't think that'll work by itself. I may need to combine color-coding as well. Bleah.
Read more... )
wombat1138: (Default)
(Dammit, kid, cooperate or I'll go after one of your less fluffy prumpts instead.)Read more... )
wombat1138: (Default)
Some thoughts on HatoFic:

1.) Sakuya is weirdly difficult for me to pin down, at least into the mood I'm trying to get him into. He's very high-strung and skittish, with a brittle arrogance that can quickly flare from ice-queen snobbery into rank-pulling snitfits. Under physical strain, he goes into wild-eyed panic mode. He's bossy and rude and I have no idea why I have this weird affection for him. The only things that bring his vulnerability near the surface are music and exhaustion, and even then he has that brittle self-protective facade. Firm confrontation can win his respect, as long as it's resolved calmly.

2.) I'm basically pigeonholing (haha) Yuuya as a calmer, saner Enishi. Whatever that means is left of Enishi after that filtering process. He is fun. It's nice to reconfirm that he survives Sakuya's extended ending.

3.) I adore Nanaki as a character, but I can't seem to envision writing him at all. I can't get much of a grip at all on Nageki. I like Anghel, but I'm just feeling automatic warning bells about trying to get anywhere near his madness place.

4.) Ryouta is sweet, but a bit bland. "Yasashii boy," the wombat-consort usually calls this type. He's just kinda there.

5.) Apparently I can project Dr. Iwamine's mindset with disturbing efficacy. I don't really get the squeeing directed *at* him... it's more of a sense that it would be unfortunately fun to *be* him.

6.) If birdified, Miles Edgeworth would totally be a fantail pigeon. I suppose Phoenix Wright would make a good blue jay. Now that I've refilled the birdfeeder out on the deck, bluejays have been objecting all over the place all day.
wombat1138: (Default)
Not much more to be said, really :b

It is horribly bad so far-- the usual structural stereotypes of backfill, description, and internal monologue with almost no actual dialogue or ongoing action. Dammit.
wombat1138: (Default)
And so the spiral continues downward. ("DATING PIGEONS IS NOTHING BUT SUFFERING AND MADNESS.")

I am actually having plotbunnies god help me.Read more... )
wombat1138: (Default)
Finished the BBL ("Bad Boy's Love", which is how it was teased from the demo version) true ending or at least some version thereof; I gather there's an epilogue section which I can't see until I finish clearing the remaining preliminary routes.

"Hatoful Boyfriend" is seriously some of the best entertainment I've had since playing 999. It doesn't have the puzzle-solving aspects, but it's easily just as good of a visual novel. The translator did a great job, overall-- I wish the text spacing was more graceful, and there are som stray proofreading errors here and there, but the prose flows smoothly and naturally in conveying the desired moods.

Yes, the initial premise of a pigeon dating sim sounds joyously ridiculous, and it does have multiple ROFL moments esp. in the preliminary character-introduction/dating routes. But once you've cleared enough of those to open up the BBL option-- and even during some of those intro routes-- the plot starts diving into apocalyptic conspiracies and interwoven tragic backstories. Over the weekend, when I hit one point in the game, I just sat there staring at the screen for several minutes, saying slowly to myself, "Oh. Oh. That means-- oh, no. Oh, crap." And not just out of concern for the human girl PC-- this game somehow makes you *care* about almost every one of the major bird characters by the time it gets through with you.

And now I still have to scoop up two more intro routes, including one for which I've already read a partial playthrough description which ends up in a double-suicide-by-cop scenario. ("Bad birds, bad birds, whacha gonna do-- whacha gonna do when they come for you...")
wombat1138: (Default)
Okay, got the game settings to more or less where I wanted them and whipped through enough of them to trigger two new options and unlock the "BBL" ending, which I'm now about three "class" levels into out of at least five.

This game is exploding my tiny little mind. It's by far the best entertainment for $5 that I have ever had. Almost anything else I can say would be a spoiler.

...other than, I guess, to acknowledge that this is a dating game where the (female) protagonist is the only human at a high school for uplifted birds-- mostly doves, plus a narcoleptic quail mathematician and an ominous patridge researcher.

(I have no idea who applied the ratings tags over there-- there's no sexual content, but I definitely don't think this is rated G. There's occasional swearing, and several paths have bloodshed, mayhem, and/or general dismemberment.)

I was originally hooked by reading this playthrough thread of the free demo, but the full game is... more fuller. Yowch.

My brain hurts. But in a good way. I think. Maybe.
wombat1138: (Default)
After reading some hilarious playthroughs, I decided to buy the English-patched version of the game, and I am getting very frustrated with the setup.

Hurdle #1: defusing my brower's flashblockers to allow download.

Hurdle #2: making sure I had all the auxiliary programs needed to play it.

Hurdle #3: looking up the proper file-permissions tweakage necessary for Mac OSX.

So now I've been able to get the game started, but the text display looks weird. There may be some option within the game to adjust the fonts and sizes, but it doesn't look like there's any kerning... and all of the command menus within the game are still in Japanese.

There are definitely options for tweaking the text speed and setting the text to auto-advance. (O--TO proves to be "auto-(advance)", not "sound"). At least I think I found the options for adjusting the music volume. There's also one to temporarily zap the text box and admire the artwork.

So far, I've quit and restarted about three times because I buggered the text speed and started fast-forwarding through the game, which is probably useful for the opening sections on replay but not on initial playthrough. Also, the save menu options are also in Japanese.

Why haven't I ever finished memorizing katakana why oh why D:

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