Poll: Katawa Shoujo: Not Sleezy fetish Sim

[RhombusHatesYou]

Hmmm... I think the lesson was friendship and the overarching theme revolved around Shizune being the most stereotypical 'loyalty and duty' Japanese of the characters. Her attitudes and actions are framed in terms of responsibility and obligation, even of service.

Spoiler

The theme between Shizune and Misha is about taking friends for granted... in the end both see that Shizune hasn't been treating Misha as a person but as an extension of herself, her means for communication with the wider world, and Misha enabling this behaviour to her own detriment.

Shizune's manipulation of people is another issue, though tangentially related. She goes into what she wants - people in her life, people energised and passionate about things but the difficulty she has in communicating with others, in giving her no medium for spontenaiety has resulted in a more calculating mindset. By 18 she's pretty much forgotten how not to manipulate people because so few people are able to directly communicate with her. It's become habit.

Then there's Hisao's influence on Shizune. First, he resents all attempts at manipulation and is forthright about it... and then goes on to learn how to better communicate with Shizune, something she deeply desires - another person she can 'talk' to without going through a third person or resorting to writing on a notepad. Hisao also tries to smooth over trouble, acting as something of a governor on her attitudes insofar as interacting with others goes. Third, Hisao's learning to sign leaves Shizune less reliant on Misha in order to communicate with others... which results in Misha reassessing her actions.

Very well put!

Only one question remains...Misha's political views...

Ugh.. more spoilerage ahead.

Spoiler

Misha is a cipher. Whether that was intentional to show how much she neglected her own needs/desires in her devotion to Shizune or just shoddy characterisation is pretty much a line call for the reader/player to decide. Even by the end of the Shizune's path, very little is known about her; we know she's 'in love' with Shizune, wants to be a sign language teacher and/or interpreter and isn't always the complete bubblehead she acts... oh and she dyed her hair pink after Shizune rejected her. Ah, and she didn't miss any friends from her old school... which was just left hanging there.

The thing is that just about everything Misha says is from Shizune.

For bonus points, read her as a twist on the 'nice guy' trope. Go a bit further down that train of thought and it can become quite sinister and predatory. A spurned suitor who also happens to be your sole means of communication with the rest of the world? Someone who could subtly shape your interactions with others, leaving you increasingly isolated and frustrated? Who would suspect the perky bubblehead? There's a psychological thriller in that premise.

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Not judging and I have never even heard of the game but I must say it sounds highly disturbing.

At face value it's a pretty fucked up premise... but it's actually quite a sensitive and emotionally powerful 'game'. The goal of the game isn't getting the character's end wet it's about the character's emotional growth...

 

[Weaver]

So....this is a dating sim...

No, it's not. It's a visual novel and the two genres are night and day different.

 

[ChupathingyX]

Spoiler

Misha is a cipher. Whether that was intentional to show how much she neglected her own needs/desires in her devotion to Shizune or just shoddy characterisation is pretty much a line call for the reader/player to decide. Even by the end of the Shizune's path, very little is known about her; we know she's 'in love' with Shizune, wants to be a sign language teacher and/or interpreter and isn't always the complete bubblehead she acts... oh and she dyed her hair pink after Shizune rejected her. Ah, and she didn't miss any friends from her old school... which was just left hanging there.

The thing is that just about everything Misha says is from Shizune.

For bonus points, read her as a twist on the 'nice guy' trope. Go a bit further down that train of thought and it can become quite sinister and predatory. A spurned suitor who also happens to be your sole means of communication with the rest of the world? Someone who could subtly shape your interactions with others, leaving you increasingly isolated and frustrated? Who would suspect the perky bubblehead? There's a psychological thriller in that premise.

Yeah I noticied that too. Considering how often she appears and how often she talks you only ever have like 4 or 5 actual conversations with her, which Hisao actually comments on at one point.

Also, that's a very interesting spin on the story.

[sub][sub][sub][sub][sub]Although, I was just making a joke about her jumper which says "Bush - Cheney 2004" which I thought was funny and interesting. Never mind. [/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub]

 

[1-800-STFU]

I'm pretty impressed with this thus far. I never played a "VN" or "Dating sim" before, but the writing for this is actually well done.

It doesn't seem perverted at all and I can actually relate to one of the characters on some level.

Go into it with a open mind and you'll be pleasantly surprised. I consider myself not normally effected by sappy emotional games but god damn parts of this had me close to crying ***** tears. The only game I've been impacted by so much is Persona 3's ending.

I dont even care about the sex scenes, hell I disabled them, this is just a great solid story about character and emotional development that really makes me want to better my life.

 

[Weaver]

Spoiler

Misha is a cipher. Whether that was intentional to show how much she neglected her own needs/desires in her devotion to Shizune or just shoddy characterisation is pretty much a line call for the reader/player to decide. Even by the end of the Shizune's path, very little is known about her; we know she's 'in love' with Shizune, wants to be a sign language teacher and/or interpreter and isn't always the complete bubblehead she acts... oh and she dyed her hair pink after Shizune rejected her. Ah, and she didn't miss any friends from her old school... which was just left hanging there.

The thing is that just about everything Misha says is from Shizune.

For bonus points, read her as a twist on the 'nice guy' trope. Go a bit further down that train of thought and it can become quite sinister and predatory. A spurned suitor who also happens to be your sole means of communication with the rest of the world? Someone who could subtly shape your interactions with others, leaving you increasingly isolated and frustrated? Who would suspect the perky bubblehead? There's a psychological thriller in that premise.

Yeah I noticied that too. Considering how often she appears and how often she talks you only ever have like 4 or 5 actual conversations with her, which Hisao actually comments on at one point.

Also, that's a very interesting spin on the story.

[sub][sub][sub][sub][sub]Although, I was just making a joke about her jumper which says "Bush - Cheney 2004" which I thought was funny and interesting. Never mind. [/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub]

Yeah, her shirt was definitely hilarious

 

[Weaver]

I'm pretty impressed with this thus far. I never played a "VN" or "Dating sim" before, but the writing for this is actually well done.

It doesn't seem perverted at all and I can actually relate to one of the characters on some level.

Go into it with a open mind and you'll be pleasantly surprised. I consider myself not normally effected by sappy emotional games but god damn parts of this had me close to crying ***** tears. The only game I've been impacted by so much is Persona 3's ending.

I dont even care about the sex scenes, hell I disabled them, this is just a great solid story about character and emotional development that really makes me want to better my life.

Depending on the character, I'd suggest un-blocking them. One in particular (Rin's) is, IMO anyways, important to the character's development. Hanako's is somewhat important to.

Trust me that these two aren't at all for pornographic purposes.

 

[1-800-STFU]

I'm pretty impressed with this thus far. I never played a "VN" or "Dating sim" before, but the writing for this is actually well done.

It doesn't seem perverted at all and I can actually relate to one of the characters on some level.

Go into it with a open mind and you'll be pleasantly surprised. I consider myself not normally effected by sappy emotional games but god damn parts of this had me close to crying ***** tears. The only game I've been impacted by so much is Persona 3's ending.

I dont even care about the sex scenes, hell I disabled them, this is just a great solid story about character and emotional development that really makes me want to better my life.

Depending on the character, I'd suggest un-blocking them. One in particular (Rin's) is, IMO anyways, important to the character's development. Hanako's is somewhat important to.

Trust me that these two aren't at all for pornographic purposes.

Alright thanks for the info, I haven't done their routes yet so I'll be sure to disable them for that.

This is a nice relaxing change from the normally hyper-competitive Starcraft 2 I play most of my days now.

 

[Vault101]

Oh god, I just realized Lilly's cinematic makes so much more sense after you play her route.

Obvious spoilers, don't watch if you haven't done Lilly yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-uYx3YvpLY&context=C3448c07ADOEgsToPDskIJhp46bvmldyfFUYV9I5yH

I have a question about Lilly route

[spoiler/] she left to go back to scotland..I get the sneaking suspision this is her "bad" ending..I think they do have "bad" endings do they? because I got hanakos first time on her path [/spoiler]

 

[Weaver]

Oh god, I just realized Lilly's cinematic makes so much more sense after you play her route.

Obvious spoilers, don't watch if you haven't done Lilly yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-uYx3YvpLY&context=C3448c07ADOEgsToPDskIJhp46bvmldyfFUYV9I5yH

I have a question about Lilly route

[spoiler/] she left to go back to scotland..I get the sneaking suspision this is her "bad" ending..I think they do have "bad" endings do they? because I got hanakos first time on her path [/spoiler]

That is indeed the heart destroying bad ending. If you'd like, I can give you a full flowchart of the choices required for each ending. Obviously... big time spoilers.

Seconding that, Let's just say that Lilly values honesty and openness about things in her relationships and your choices should reflect that.

 

[Vault101]

Oh god, I just realized Lilly's cinematic makes so much more sense after you play her route.

Obvious spoilers, don't watch if you haven't done Lilly yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-uYx3YvpLY&context=C3448c07ADOEgsToPDskIJhp46bvmldyfFUYV9I5yH

I have a question about Lilly route

[spoiler/] she left to go back to scotland..I get the sneaking suspision this is her "bad" ending..I think they do have "bad" endings do they? because I got hanakos first time on her path [/spoiler]

That is indeed the heart destroying bad ending. If you'd like, I can give you a full flowchart of the choices required for each ending. Obviously... big time spoilers.

Seconding that, Let's just say that Lilly values honesty and openness about things in her relationships and your choices should reflect that.

thanks! should be fine though..I think I know the point (but it was too late to "save-scum" it I think)

 

[Weaver]

Oh god, I just realized Lilly's cinematic makes so much more sense after you play her route.

Obvious spoilers, don't watch if you haven't done Lilly yet.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6-uYx3YvpLY&context=C3448c07ADOEgsToPDskIJhp46bvmldyfFUYV9I5yH

I have a question about Lilly route

[spoiler/] she left to go back to scotland..I get the sneaking suspision this is her "bad" ending..I think they do have "bad" endings do they? because I got hanakos first time on her path [/spoiler]

That is indeed the heart destroying bad ending. If you'd like, I can give you a full flowchart of the choices required for each ending. Obviously... big time spoilers.

Seconding that, Let's just say that Lilly values honesty and openness about things in her relationships and your choices should reflect that.

thanks! should be fine though..I think I know the point (but it was too late to "save-scum" it I think)

I'm a wimp and saved at every option

Good luck!

 

[RhombusHatesYou]

Spoiler

Misha is a cipher. Whether that was intentional to show how much she neglected her own needs/desires in her devotion to Shizune or just shoddy characterisation is pretty much a line call for the reader/player to decide. Even by the end of the Shizune's path, very little is known about her; we know she's 'in love' with Shizune, wants to be a sign language teacher and/or interpreter and isn't always the complete bubblehead she acts... oh and she dyed her hair pink after Shizune rejected her. Ah, and she didn't miss any friends from her old school... which was just left hanging there.

The thing is that just about everything Misha says is from Shizune.

For bonus points, read her as a twist on the 'nice guy' trope. Go a bit further down that train of thought and it can become quite sinister and predatory. A spurned suitor who also happens to be your sole means of communication with the rest of the world? Someone who could subtly shape your interactions with others, leaving you increasingly isolated and frustrated? Who would suspect the perky bubblehead? There's a psychological thriller in that premise.

Yeah I noticied that too. Considering how often she appears and how often she talks you only ever have like 4 or 5 actual conversations with her, which Hisao actually comments on at one point.

Shizune's path is pretty much the only one where Hisao isn't totally oblivious to what's going on around him. In fact it's the only path where he shows any insight at all prior to 'epiphany that saves the day', even if it's mostly unintentional.

I haven't even gone into how destructive Shizune and Misha's relationship codependency is.

Also, that's a very interesting spin on the story.

You want the dark possibilities of something found and explored, leave it to a paranoid psychotic.

[sub][sub][sub][sub][sub]Although, I was just making a joke about her jumper which says "Bush - Cheney 2004" which I thought was funny and interesting. Never mind. [/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub][/sub]

I pretty much took that as heavily underlining her apparent general cluelessness.

 

[Et3rnalLegend64]

So....this is a dating sim...

No, it's not. It's a visual novel and the two genres are night and day different.

Not entirely true. Dating Sims often use Visual Novels as a medium. However, that doesn't make every Visual Novel a Dating Sim.
Dating Sim is more of a genre/sub-genre anyway. Visual Novel is a medium like a book or film or game (some of them are not quite interactive enough to qualify as games in their own right and I think KS falls under that).

I guess Katawa Shoujo falls under Dating Sim Visual Novel in at least a loose sense. It's definitely a VN and you eventually romance a girl. It's just that the plot threads are mostly unchanging except at key moments and you're not manipulating solid relationship values.

 

[TilMorrow]

Just finished 100% on KS... I'm sad.
I never expected Shizune's path to turn out the way it did at all. It was slightly surprising but definitely interesting. Also another bad ending you want to avoid and a slightly humourous and uplifting good ending (Albeit it isn't as solid an ending as the other paths').

*Ahem*

Spoiler

I know a number of people consider that the 'interest' option in Rin's ending split during 'The Scene' scene of her path leads to her neutral ending but I have to disagree. When she purposely points that she thinks its better to forget everything that happened between her and Hisao and reiterates that she is "good at forgetting things" made me feel this was the worse ending compared to the out burst that she alternatively has if you confront her about using Hisao whilst in the studio. Most likely due to the same outburst happening not long after when you continue her path past that point.

But out of all the characters I would have to say that Hanako's bad ending is the most gut-wrenching. You'll know what I mean if you happen upon it.

I have to say that the game has been extremely enjoyable to play and although there was nothing like an epilogue as hoped there would be at the end (unless you count the good ending of Lilly's path which was a nice touch), I have to say the last gallery image was a good 'parting gift' for getting 100%.

 

[teh_Canape]

finished with Hanako's good ending [sub]my first run where I got kenji's ending falling off the roof and dying didn't count[/sub]

Spoiler

I gave me feels
ALL the feels

can't bring myself to play any other route after that

so yeah, it was an awesome time, completely not what I expected at all

 

[Loop Stricken]

I just finished Emi's path, and I loved it. What initially seemed to be a bubbly, cliched character ended up tugging at my heartstrings. Which is amazing, considering I never normally touch romance with a ten foot pole.

I can't emphasise enough just how much I enjoyed this game. I'm going to go back and replay, although I have a feeling I'm not going to top the excitement and interest of my first playthrough with Emi.

I feel this exact same way even though I only downloaded the VN for Hanako. Ended up with Emi accidentally but everything went better than expected.

Hanako though... Jesus.
Bad ending first off. Argh. But, I think I should've turned it off and carried on again the next say instead of powering through again so that wouldn't happen. I don't think I paid enough attention to it and as a result it ended up feeling slightly hollow.

 

[Mr Cwtchy]

I've finally managed to complete every girl's path now, albeit only the good endings. Brief feelings on each path below:

In retrospect, I would say that Rin's was definitely the most well written, although as a person I was not originally attracted to her much at all. Probably the second most emotional path, after Hanako's, granted my character preference comes into that ranking somewhat.

Shizune's was my least favourite. Partly because I never really liked her much, and partly because the plot seemed to get lost between getting to know her and the big issue later on(you know the one). Still pretty decent though, and the last scene was amusing.

I found Emi to be very loveable as a character, I would genuinely like to have an Emi as a RL friend. She just seems like a fun person to hang out with. ^_^
As far as the path goes, more light-hearted than others, but with a couple of heart tugging scenes too.

Lily was the last path I ran through, and certainly felt the most complete. If there was to be a 'canon' path(I know there isn't), it would be that. Classic romance story really, very enjoyable.

Last and best for me was Hanako. As a character she drew my attention straight away, I guess you could say I fell straight into the White Knight trap. My favourite girl without a doubt, and not just into terms of appearance(yes, scars and all <3). The path was a real soul-wrencher, the only one I came close to tears on. My only regret is that I didn't get to see more of them together.

As a sum up for the VN itself, play it.

Play it now.