Reviews VisualNovel / Hatoful Boyfriend

Holiday Star - a Good Sequel?

Like the first game, making a review that is both informative and spoiler-free requires some careful wording, so please forgive me if some explanations feel odd.

First of all, unlike Hatoful Boyfriend, Holiday Star has almost no Dating Sim elements. It's a much more linear Visual Novel. Each time you finish one chapter, you'll earn both the next chapter and a side-chapter. These side-chapters are usually comedic in nature, and they're also often non-canon. Despite being non-canon, however, they tend to offer subtle clues that will gain importance later in the game, analogous to the "Archives" from the first game.

The more linear structure strongly affects the story itself. The meat of the first game was a Slice-of-Life-y high school story. In Holiday Star, each chapter revolves around a surprisingly large-scale central conflict, each getting larger and larger (though, the stakes in the end don't quite reach that of the first game's BBL route). However, even with the change, Holiday Star still maintains the characteristic combo of unbelievable silliness and heavy gravitas, so fear not. There are some rather good character-building moments (for both the new and old characters), but they don't feel quite as frequent as before. I really only have one complaint with the comedy. While first game certainly wasn't afraid to get referential and fourth-wall-break-y, Holiday Star seems to do it more often, and it felt just a little distracting for me.

There's one last thing I want to add. In the main menu, there's an option called "Radio," in which an assortment of fan questions are answered by the cast. Based on the title, I assumed it would be like an audio drama, so I didn't check it out immediately. Fret not, non-Japanese speakers, it's all text (it's reminiscent of Higurashi's "after parties"), and as such, it's all translated.

Ultimately, Holiday Star feels more like a side-game than a sequel. Still, if you liked the first game, I do recommend it. I am thankful it'll also be getting an HD re-release; the original font isn't terribly reader-friendly.