Disabled Girl Dating Sim Katawa Shoujo Finally Available

[crimson sickle2]

My first impression of the story is as follows: "did 4chan assist in making a dating sim, nooooooooooo!"
The idea of dating girls with disabilities isn't that bad of an idea for a dating sim, but I would have preferred it if the game featured disabled and not disabled girls. That way, the game could still feature disabled girls, without the idea surfacing that this game is intended for people with disable fetishes. Although the main point may be lost that way, so whatever works.

 

[AetherWolf]

Nice to finally see it out! I kind of stopped following development after the demo came out and just sort of forgot about it after that... But man, half the comments here...

I think anyone interested in my opinion can clearly see what it is with what I have written here above. But I don't understand all the "disgust" or whatever you might call it around Katawa Shoujo since it's a good VN. And the people that are perplexed by it are just making assumptions without even reading the full article. At least read the entire article before judging something, but preferably play it to get the full hands-on experience before you judge it honestly.

I second this.

 

[lacktheknack]

Probably won't play (it's eroge), but I can see this being a weirdly good thing if it's tastefully handled. And from the above comments, it is. Hmmmmm.

 

[The Last Parade]

Double post bc of the terms and conditions

 

[The Last Parade]

I haven't played many sims however the sheer quality of writing music art and plot had me completely gobsmacked, I DLed it at midnight and played till three, it was incredibly immersive and very tasteful, I haven't even come up to the adult content yet.

also the adult content can be filtered out in the options menu...

 

[NoOne852]

I may give it a look and free is a tempting price, but I am not sure I'd want to or not. So far it sees to be good based on the comments, so I shall have to ponder this some more.

 

[twaddle]

I've played a few of these games as well as my share of visual novels. They are not just sex games. You be surprised in the amount of depth and detail goes into the writing and story for these games. I wish we had more writers like this for big triple A games.

 

[Worgen]

Well its certainly weird but its also one of those things that society tends to sweep under the rug, I mean really in movies the only disabilities you see are the kind that will leave you pretty but eccentric. So if they want to do a disabled girl dating sim then whatever, I mean I suppose it shines a spotlight on them and doesn't treat them like monsters.

 

[Juliamon]

Ah, I remember when this project first got started! I contributed some concept sketches, but then everything kind of collapsed and reformed somewhere else and I lost track of what was going on.
Glad to see it's finally completed! I look forward to playing it when I get a chance!

 

[DracoSuave]

Dear Japan. Props on including people with disabilities in games.

But seriously. What. The Hell?

It's not Japanese.

Actually, when I tested the first chapter, I was like 'alright, this'll be halarious.'

But it wasn't halarious, or a train wreck, or anything like that. It's about a guy with a broken heart (literally) trying to come to terms with his weakened condition.

It was actually very sweet, as I found my character drawn towards the athletic runner with the prosthetic limbs, while palling with her friend who uses feet to paint and doesnt afraid of anything.

The characters are all well realized, and the writers (NOT Japanese) really put forth the effort to make something interesting, tasteful, and meaningful.

I find perhaps that *all* of the girls are disabled in some way a little too much. I would rather see a regular dating sim incorporating maybe one or two of these characters into it - why? Because, when presented with a choice of love interests who are *all* disabled, it's like saying 'we know that if we put an 'able-bodied' girl in here you'd choose her. So you only get these ones to play with.'

I disagree.

The main concept is the -main character- is disabled. And his relationships with the girl of his choice is to help him deal with the challenges of HIS disability. It's not about 'date the cripple'.

Secondly, if you had one disabled girl, it'd be 'oh hey, did you do the cripple story? Naw, only did the brunette' and you'd compartmentalize her as 'the handicap' or whatever. But in this game... that does not happen. You think it would, but after a while, everyone's crippled so you see PAST that, and instead look at their personalities as a whole.

It's VERY well written, actually.

 

[Draconalis]

So... I've had time to think it over...

I think the game would have been better if it had included a person with a disability rather than "All your choices are such".

Then, when you pick the disabled chick, (provided the writing is good enough for it) and you realize what a strong person she is, or kind, or whatever. It makes overlooking the disability all the more appropriate, rather than "What flavor of disability would you like?"


For the record "Overlooking the disability" isn't exactly what I mean, but I don't have the appropriate words. Do excuse me please, disabilities are not terrible things meant to be ignored if the other qualities are good enough.

 

[dyre]

lolwut? A school for disabled people? Sounds like someone's sick fetish.

While I'm almost a tiny bit interested in what an anime-style game's take on disability is (probably something "kawaii"), I'm not interested in playing a dating sim, or dating visual novel, or whatever. If there were a game in which a disabled main character had to play the role of a typical world-saving hero while being hampered by some significant physical disability though, that might be cool...

 

[NeutralDrow]

Shoot...I'd be playing this right now if I didn't have three other visual novels unfinished and hanging over me right now (Family Project and Snow Sakura in particular I want to finish first).

Still, it is gratifying to not see as much of the knee-jerk reaction as I was expecting in the thread. Still a few, but there's always lost causes, and the overall tentative interest makes me hopeful. I haven't played Act 1, yet, but everything I've heard indicates that this will be among the better VNs I'll have played.

 

[R5-Reject]

The term Dating Sim makes me angry. Engrave this upon your mind. Visual Novel. That is the correct term.

The game is a work of art. If you won't give it a try (I dare you) you have no room to criticize.

 

[Polite Sage]

offers a counterbalance to the vast assortment of visual novels that focus on large-breasted, blonde cliches

You actually meant

offers a counterbalance to the vast assortment of visual novels that focus on flat chested, full color spectrum hair cliches

right?

Though honestly, Katawa Shoujo isn't doing anything groundbreaking since there already is a LOT of plot concentrated eroges, but it's still very interesting to finally see a high quality original English languge visual novel. Will definitely read this.

 

[NeutralDrow]

The term Dating Sim makes me angry. Engrave this upon your mind. Visual Novel. That is the correct term.

I just kinda gave up on making that other people see the distinction (and to be honest, it's a gameplay distinction more than a genre one, much of the time), outside my reviews.

I'm just happy the response has been more positive than expected. This is usually the kind of crowd that see Kana: Little Sister and immediately latches onto the incest, if you get my drift.