What I'm Playing: Hatoful Boyfriend

I did it. I broke down and started playing Hatoful Boyfriend. I had added it to my Steam wishlist a while ago, and then JV surprised me while I was on my trip and bought me a whole bunch of those games for my birthday, including this surreal pigeon-oriented dating sim.

I'm late to the game on this one, but for anyone who hasn't played it yet, a summary: you are a human in the unnamed but not-too-distant future. There aren't many humans now. A deadly strain of avian flu devastated the entire world, but it made birds super smart in a relatively short period of time. Now almost all of the remaining culture and civilization on Earth is bird-based, with humans relegated to a second-class status and a strained relationship between the two prevailing.

You are a sophomore, and the only human, at the prestigious St. Pigeonation Academy for obscure political reasons. Everyone else is a bird. There are the typical shounen portraits for almost all of your suitors, but they are actually birds. You can even turn off the portraits if you want, for extra surreal effect.

Nor is the only joke in the game just, "Hah, hah! Everyone's a bird!" Pudding, mad science, snark, and puns abound.

This is my first and probably only foray into the world of anime dating sims. While Hatoful Boyfriend is consistently hilarious with its bizarre interspecies romance, the normal sort of dating sim isn't really my thing.

I haven't played through to all of the endings yet, but I've done almost all of them, and I've romanced every bird (just some have multiple endings). I think my favorite suitor is Okosan (pictured above, demanding to fight in the nude).

Have you played Hatoful Boyfriend? Do you have any other humor/parody games to recommend?