Disabled Girl Dating Sim Katawa Shoujo Finally Available

[orangeapples]

Probably already said:

So how is this any different than any other dating sim game? The girls in those games are already mentally disabled.

*rimshot*

 

[NeutralDrow]

Look! You answered it, even though you didn't mean to! Yes! Okay, it tells a good story. You know what would tell an even better story? A guy shunning the hot but manipulative/abusive girl in favor of the nice quiet girl in a wheelchair. BOOM.

A combination of actually playing this game, plus remembering years of after-school specials with similar plots to your suggestion that came off as utterly contrived, leads me to disagree vehemently.

 

[UberNoodle]

Of course, the headline and the article make the whole project sound exploitative and crass, yet I will always remember Rolf de Heer's bravery in depicting romance involving actors playing and truly afflicted with, cerebral palsy. That film was 'Bad Boy Bubby', an Aussie cult favourite. This game appears to be a lot lighter and not dark at all, yet, as much the scenes in BBB honestly made be uncomfortable at the time, it really threw me a perspective I'd never contemplated, and I'm glad it did. That film isn't for everybody, due to other aspects than what I'm talking about, but this game, or 'visual novel', which is a huge industry in Japan (though the game was made by a muticultural development team scattered all over the world), could have the same mind widening effect.

 

[ZiggyE]

I've been waiting for KS for years. Waited until the midnight release, been reading it since. Brilliant Visual Novel, and this is coming from someone who has read a fair share of Visual Novels in the past.
Rin > Hanako > Lily > Emi > Misha > Shizune

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

Anyone notice Lelouch from Code Geass in the middle of the screenshot..?

haha! I didn't notice that at first. (though mostly cause the picture is so tiny)
The gender bent haruhi definitely jumped out at me pretty quickly though (even if at first i didn't know why).

My friend also said the girl at the back with black hair was from something too.


Is it being done on 'purpose' in good humour, or are they shamelessly ripping off characters from different anime's to fill out their game or something? (and isn't it illegal regardless?)

 

[ZiggyE]

Anyone notice Lelouch from Code Geass in the middle of the screenshot..?

Is it being done on 'purpose' in good humour, or are they shamelessly ripping off characters from different anime's to fill out their game or something? (and isn't it illegal regardless?)

It's done on purpose in good humour. Lelouch is actually removed from the full version of the game, but other characters are present. She isn't visible in that image, but Ritsu from K-On is also in the class.

Here's the full image

EDIT: Furthermore, here's an additional image for those who believe the VN is an immature way to fetishise cripples

 

[Safe in the Dark]

You know what would tell an even better story? A guy shunning the hot but manipulative/abusive girl in favor of the nice quiet girl in a wheelchair. BOOM. Etc. etc. etc. etc. etc.

Those are the writers' ideas. So they get to craft the story into whatever they want. Make one yourself if you think your idea is "GENIOUS!!!"

Oh, oh my. Didn't think it would go there.

The age-old "if you don't like it why don't you make something better" defense.

Nevermind hundreds of years of literary criticism and the positive impact it has had, we should all just let authors and artists alike spoon-feed us their works without a second thought as to what's going on. Mhmm. Well, it's been fun.

I'd recommend playing the damn thing before generating any kind of opinion or "criticism".

 

[Some_weirdGuy]

Anyone notice Lelouch from Code Geass in the middle of the screenshot..?

Is it being done on 'purpose' in good humour, or are they shamelessly ripping off characters from different anime's to fill out their game or something? (and isn't it illegal regardless?)

It's done on purpose in good humour. Lelouch is actually removed from the full version of the game, but other characters are present. She isn't visible in that image, but Ritsu from K-On is also in the class.

Here's the full image

thanks from the image. Isn't that pink haired girl from something too?

((i know, i'll search it up!))

*the fruits of my search* (thanks to tv tropes):
((you're probably better to look at it on their site:
http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/VisualNovel/KatawaShoujo?from=Main.KatawaShoujo
but anyway: ))

# Shout Out:

* The class overview CG is a good start. Contains at least Lelouch, Lezard, Ikuno, and gender-bent Haruhi. The official blog has confirmed another: Ritsu. She was intended to be an original character, but by sheer coincidence resembled Ritsu when K-ON finally aired. Rather than change the design, the developers performed a "retcameo".
* Tea house Shanghai was originally supposed to be a Higurashi reference, but the devs quickly backtracked and made it a Touhou one instead.
* After a conversation with Kenji, Hisao mentions a book he's reading a book about "an underground postal system that may or may not exist", a reference to The Crying Of Lot 49.
* Hanako is reading a book about "a boy and a tiger on a boat". This is Life of Pi. If you don't scare Hanako away in the library, she'll even namedrop it.
* If you join the student council, Misha will clap and repeat the world "Congratulations!".
* At least in the Japanese translation, a 'Light Music Club' is mentioned among the various clubs that Lily lists.
* If you help Lily's class with painting, in the background you can see part of the world map from the latter part of Code Geass R2
* This might be stretching it, but Rin does mention using golden butterflies to spy on people. Thank god there aren't any "ahaha.wav" soundclips in Katawa Shoujo.
* Even Hisao believes that Poor Predictable Rock is unbeatable.

 

[Cliche]

Are people under the impression that handicapped people are a different species than those who aren't?

While nobody would suggest that disabled people are a different species, to even begin to compare the difficulties faced by disabled people, both physically and socially, to an otherwise non-disabled person, is a huge mistake.
It's akin to pretending that men and women are the same.

That aside, the idea that people have to be in similar situations or share similar interests in order for a relationship to work, is a very western one. So in a rather ironic twist, it's possible that the only reason why dating disabled people isn't a choice, is that this Japanese styled game was created by non-Japanese people.

A more likely possibility is that the authors expected people to sympathize with a protagonist that has become an outcast, but gets over it by befriending other outcasts, but what would I know.

 

[Shidira]

I'm downloading this now to give it a try. I'm not a huge visual novel player, but they can be fun and well done. From everything I've heard about this, it's done in a very tasteful way, so I'll give it a shot.

 

[Trucken]

I played the demo a few months back, and I was stunned when I realized how much effort must have gone into this game. The writing isn't just good, it's actually great. There's one moment in it where the protagonist feels his heart hurting and a terrible thought hits him: "Was I sent here to get better, or was I sent here to die?"

I'll have to download it soon. I'm curious to find out more about the characters.

 

[Draken Steel]

downloading now to give it a shot. I was always very skeptical of visual novels, but eventually read something talking about the story focus in them. Been very impressed with a couple of them, and even the less serious ones can be interesting.

But, they are still generally from japan, so many wtf was that moments have been had

 

[DracoSuave]

No, that's the comic re-interpretation of the heart condition, used for humorous purposes. In the game itself, it's taken dead serious. He has a kind of arrhythmia which could kill him if his heart is put under too much strain from physical exception, a blow to the chest, or even emotional stress, although barring that, he is likely to live a long life. The main character facing his mortality is a big part of the game.

Bah! You caught me, my research period of the game only lasted about 20 minutes, still I realize the severity of heart problems, and that is why I am kind of worried that people who go for the 'super-athletic girl' will find themselves in a 'bad end.'

It actually, as far as my own playthrough of the demo went... ends up with you in the nerses office, but it leads to bonding between you and Emi, not just 'you died lawl'.

 

[Corporal Yakob]

I'm not one for dating sims but if this game isn't exploiting the disabled (and I just made myself feel awful by imagining a dating game where you could take advantage of the mentally handicaped, which probably and if it does, regretfully, exists), then I have no problem with it.

Not that my opinion on what the company does with its propeties matters to them in the slightest!

 

[joshuaayt]

I remember downloading a demo of this, when it started floating around. All I remember was that it was really well written- unless it somehow took a quality dive, I heartily recommend trying it out.

I never once felt it was making light of any of the physical conditions- everything just seemed, I dunno. Genuine.

 

[FortyPercent]

It should be pointed out, 'Dating sim' is a highly inaccurate description of Katawa Shoujo, or indeed, many Visual Novels, and in general is a bit of a poor choice of words here, since it has a negative connotation to it.

In a dating sim, the main focus for the player is on wooing some fictional girl. In many visual novels, include this one, the main focus for the player is reading a story and making choices that affect the character development.

Katawa Shoujo is essentially a romance novel in which the reader makes some minor choices, which effect how the relationship develops. And simply put, I think anyone who has read it would agree 'Romance novel' is a far more accurate description than 'dating sim'.

 

[Cheeseman Muncher]

I've downloaded it out of curiosity and it's not what I was expecting at all. All the characters are well described and its more about the protagonist coming to terms with his condition rather than trying to get his leg over.

Moral of the story: Try something out before judging it. Also, the headline on this story makes it seems really crass and stupid.