Hatoful Boyfriend, the high school pigeon dating simulator, is by far and wide the most peculiar game I’ve played this year. Perhaps the most peculiar thing about it was that I not only enjoyed the hell out of it, I genuinely became invested in its oddball cast, which included a French dandy and a demon-slaying angel, both pigeons, of course. It’s good stuff, but imagine, for a moment, if they weren’t pigeons. Imagine if they were dragons.
Dragon Dating Simulator is currently looking for funding on Indiegogo, and looks very much like Hatoful Boyfriend. But with dragons. Mankind has discovered another world, one populated by dragons, and as the first human to enter this scaley world, you must explore it, uncover a conspiracy that threatens it and, of course, find a hot date.
It’s ridiculous, but Dragon Dating Simulator, judging by the trailer, is at least somewhat played straight. Which makes it all the more bizarre.
Here’s the developer explaining why dragons are the subject of this visual novel, with its “novel sized” script:
“We think dragons today are suffering from a substantial image problem. While popular media usually credits them as the amazing and powerful creatures they are, too often are they also depicted as being stereotypically evil or uncaring. Our aim is to show the world that dragons are people too. They think, speak, experience happiness and pain and can also be gentle and loving as well.”
If it looks like your cup of tea, you can download a demo here.
Cheers, Eurogamer.