So I just played Katawa Shoujo...

[uchytjes]

and I have to say that is a really good game! (if Dear Esthar is considered a game on Steam, this is too.)

But what really surprises me is that this thing, which originated of 4chan of all places, actually is very well written in regards to sensibility towards the subject matter. I mean just looking at the origins to the game confounds me as to how it even came into existence and isn't offensive in any meaningful way.

Also, its actually put together with what seems to be at least a decent sized budget for what is a free game with no advertising revenue at all! This game is amazing and worth your time and is actually pretty charming.

also:

Emi is best, better than all the rest
Shizune is cool and second best
Rin is the most interesting
Lily is too prim and proper
Hanako's story seems scary to me, don't even want to try.

Spoiler: P.s. something about that smile...

 

[Username Redacted]

Loved Dear Esther. Loved Katawa Shoujo. Would recommend giving Hanako a shot. That said from a psychological perspective some of her stuff bothered me personally on a level that only the protagonists behavior in Lilly's story matched.

 

[ChupathingyX]

Fun fact: Today is the one year anniversary of Katawa Shoujo.

Glad to hear you enjoyed it, now go and try out other VN's.

 

[Lazy]

I am unfamiliar with this game(?) What is it exactly?

 

[ChupathingyX]

I am unfamiliar with this game(?) What is it exactly?

All the stuff you need to know can simply be found here. [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Katawa_Shoujo]

 

[scorptatious]

Fun fact: Today is the one year anniversary of Katawa Shoujo.

Has it really been a year already? Damn. I still remember the day I first heard about this. I thought it was going to be some depraved fetish game. Boy was I wrong.

Also, definitely do Hanako's story. It's my personal favorite out of all the arcs.

 

[General Twinkletoes]

But what really surprises me is that this thing, which originated of 4chan of all places, actually is very well written

While it originated in 4chan, I think something like 2 of the 20 or so developers are actually from 4chan. They heard about the project elsewhere. Anyway, I played it about 2 months ago, it's pretty good. I went in expecting the worst. I'd never played a visual novel before, and thought it was going to be a creepy exploitative game for people with a disability fetish. I was quite wrong

Though there are still a lot of things I dislike about it.

-Lilly's good ending is dumb and doesn't make any sense. Why the hell did that even happen?

-Shizune's entire route is pretty bad, and the only way it's any good is if you get bad ending. The good ending is boring, but the bad ending shows the most interesting, scummy side of Hisao

-Emi's character design. You might like it, but I found it weird how she looked 10 but was supposedly 19, the oldest of all the girls. Felt a little too much like loli for my taste.

-Hanako's whole character. I hate the "weak, shy, vulnerable but cute anime girl that needs to come out of her shell" archetype. Before anyone who hasn't played it gets the wrong idea, the theme of her entire story is that white-knighting is bad, and she should develop and overcome her obstacles herself. White-knighting gets you nowhere, and is definitely not what you should be doing. The whole route feels like a "take that" towards the terribly written and slightly misogynistic stories where a broken girl gets "fixed" because a brave, strong man came and saved her. But I still hate that archetype.

Even though I've been flaming the game a lot, it's actually pretty damn good, and I liked it a lot, even Hanako's route. I went into it with the worst possible expectations, but I was surprised. It's not the creepy fetish fuel I was expecting, the characters are actually well rounded, and the disability is almost never the cause of the drama in any of the stories. In fact, in all of the stories except Hanako's, the disability stops even being a plot point about half-way through.

 

[NightmareExpress]

When I first heard about it, somebody described it in the most lewd way possible.
Because some of the people who worked on it were on 4chan, and because it was brand spanking new a year ago, I decided to try it out due to curiosity. What else was there to be gained but some laughs and perhaps inner shame?

Boy was I surprised.
The game not only handled the issue well, but had the polish of something you'd expect to be sold at a commercial level.
The characters are lively, the music is done well, there are interesting choices to be had...and the disabilities that afflict the characters aren't what you'll be focusing on at all. Every character is more defined by their personality, and has a problem that isn't related to their disability (the exception being Hanako).

The bad ending with Shizune (along with the issue that arises) and a good majority of Emi's route seem natural and to an extent "realistic". Things that are entirely plausible for high-school students aspiring to head off to university. Some of the things that happened in Lily's route were a bit too far out there and sometimes felt like a soap opera (also that ending) and Hanako's route was...exactly what I was expecting it to be, truth be told. They were still enjoyable regardless, though. Overall, I think either Emi or Rin had the best route. The latter being the most interesting and unpredictable.

With all that said, I'd go as far as to call it my 2012 GOTY.
A breath of fresh air (I think I've only ever played two VNs), and a truly pleasant surprise.
Hard to believe all this could come from a few character doodles originating in 2000 by a then aspiring manga artist.

 

[uchytjes]

Fun fact: Today is the one year anniversary of Katawa Shoujo.

Glad to hear you enjoyed it, now go and try out other VN's.

Really? I knew it was released in January of last year, but wow. Did not know that.

 

[Laluune]

I couldn't really get into it, I'm a huge supporter of english visual novels and they did a great job with it, but it wasn't for me. I hope more developers see a potential in VNs I'd love to see more translated to english. Hakuoki seems to be the only one to my knowledge.

 

[TheJazzyH]

One year sure went by fast! And to think that this game has sat in my computer, installed and ready to play for several months now, yet remained untouched through my summer and holiday breaks...

I don't usually make New Year's resolutions, but if it's not too late to make one, I guess it would be to at to least start the game.

 

[Tethalaki]

I couldn't really get into it, I'm a huge supporter of english visual novels and they did a great job with it, but it wasn't for me. I hope more developers see a potential in VNs I'd love to see more translated to english. Hakuoki seems to be the only one to my knowledge.

((please note, the links below are probably borderline NSFW))

JAST [http://jastusa.com/] and Mangagamer [http://www.mangagamer.com/allages/] have translated and sold translated Visual Novels for years; plus there is a rather huge fan translation community for VNs. There are easily hundreds of translated VNs.


As for Katawa Shoujo: it's certainly a great VN, probably within my top 5 if only by being the first of 35~ VNs that I've read now.

 

[Laluune]

I couldn't really get into it, I'm a huge supporter of english visual novels and they did a great job with it, but it wasn't for me. I hope more developers see a potential in VNs I'd love to see more translated to english. Hakuoki seems to be the only one to my knowledge.

((please note, the links below are probably borderline NSFW))

JAST [http://jastusa.com/] and Mangagamer [http://www.mangagamer.com/allages/] have translated and sold translated Visual Novels for years; plus there is a rather huge fan translation community for VNs. There are easily hundreds of translated VNs.


As for Katawa Shoujo: it's certainly a great VN, probably within my top 5 if only by being the first of 35~ VNs that I've read now.

Oh they have Da Capo, awesome :3 Prob more M rated than what I play but this is great. Thanks for the links

 

[FFP2]

How popular is it? I know it's free so no sales numbers but does anyone know how much it's been downloaded?

OT:You should definitely try Hanako's route. It's the most heartbreaking.

 

[BreakfastMan]

Katawa Shoujo seems to be one of those things that everybody else likes, but I just don't seem to "get", like My Little Pony or the Metroid games. I read it and found it utterly dull. The story was uninteresting, most of the characters were either annoying or boring, and for those few who weren't, I had to put up with spending massive amounts of time with the others just to get to them. I guess I just don't get the point behind VNs of that sort. :\

 

[TilMorrow]

Fun fact: Today is the one year anniversary of Katawa Shoujo.

It's today?! I swear I thought it was on the 12th that it was released... *Does a quick google for the blog* Oh you're right. Well derp to me.

Spoiler: Though checking the blog just now enlightened me to this image.

Glad to hear you enjoyed it, now go and try out other VN's.

Should add the warning to carefully check out the background of the VNs before diving into them. Generally expect the unexpected.

 

[MammothBlade]

I loved Katawa Shoujo. My favourite route was probably Lily's. She's not too "prim and proper" for me, that aspect did not put me off at all. It only made her more alluring.

Then Emi. I could really connect with her on emotional level. She's also SCARY when she's angry.

Hanako was also lovely. Though her route ended a bit abruptly. She turned out better when she struck out for herself in Lilly's route.

Rin's route:

Spoiler

Talk about a total mind fuck lol. If you actually understand even half of what she says in your first route with her, power to you man lol. I had to play her route twice to try and comprehend most of what she was saying. She's defiantly the most interesting of the bunch. Mostly because by the end of it, she's either medically retarded (well I don't mean like that, maybe extreme ADD, OCD, IDK) or a total freaking genious. I would like to think the latter, but who knows.

I think Rin's behaviour is basically an example of Schizotypal PD [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schizotypal_personality_disorder], she strongly fits several of the traits:

Ideas of reference (excluding delusions of reference)
Odd beliefs or magical thinking that influences behavior and is inconsistent with subcultural norms (e.g. superstition, belief in clairvoyance, telepathy, "sixth sense", or bizarre fantasies or preoccupations)
Unusual perceptual experiences, including bodily illusions
Odd thinking and speech (e.g. vague, circumstantial, metaphorical, or stereotyped speaking)
Suspiciousness or paranoid ideation
Inappropriate or constricted affect
Behavior or appearance that is odd, eccentric or peculiar
Lack of close friends or confidants other than first degree relatives
Excessive social anxiety that does not diminish with familiarity and tends to be associated with paranoid fears rather than negative judgments about self

She wasn't that hard to understand, it just took patience. I liked her route, and it made me cry several times.

I've avoided Shizune's route however. Misha is apparently a cockblock. Get your own route damnit. Also, I'm not sure Shizune is quite my kind of girl. But for completion's sake, I think I'll play her route.

 

[JokerCrowe]

I really like Katawa Shoujo, it is unlike any game (if you can count it as a "game") I've ever played and I think it's amazing just how much effort the creators put into it.
That being said... I find it really hard to bring myself to play it anymore... I still haven't finished Lily's route, but I don't think I'll be able to either. It's just something about the entire GAME that makes me SO sad.
I don't mean like "Hey, this game is really good and all, but it didn't really live up to it's potential/ My expectations"- sad, I mean like genuine feelings of melancholy and even slight depression.

I think it's because pretty much all of the girls are so broken, (ha ha ha... I mean Mentally) even Emi, and it makes me both think about how I'm broken, but it also gives me a LOT of empathy for the characters. And since most of the stories are really Sad I can't help but feel sad every time I think about them, even though I did make sure that every route I played so far ended with a Good Ending. (even Rin's which I did fuck up at first... What's the difference between "Then explain." and "I need to know."?)
I think it's the piano being played in the opening of the game - on the main menu - it just has this melancholy to it. Also I think it reminds me of Clannad (that could be a contributing factor), and that in combination with the sad stories just make me "almost-depressed" for weeks after I even play just a little bit. :/

I could also be that I don't want it to end... This will probably give me the worst Post Anime Depression [http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=Post%20Anime%20Depression%20Syndrome] I've ever had, and I'm just not in a place where I can handle that right now. I knew Clannad was going to be sad, so I didn't watch it until I was ready, otherwise... Well... i don't want to think about it...

Depsite this Wall O'Text telling you that Katawa Shoujo makes me depressed, I still Really REALLY recommend it to anyone who hasn't played it. it doesn't matter if you're not into VN's, I wasn't and I still loved it. Just remember that it's and Eroge, so either turn the "naughty bits" off (in the main menu) or make sure that no-one is around when you start playing it.
/wall of text

 

[Legion]

It's probably the most emotional game I have ever played, one of very few where I have actually finished playing it and felt genuinely sad. Most games fail when they try and make things emotional as they tend to rely on cliche's or needless trauma (such as killing off popular characters or pointless drama).

Sadly not the kind of game I could recommend to many people in real life (most I know are judgemental about even the most simple and well known games), I only know of one other person who has played it and they are the person who recommended it to me.

My only real criticism of it is that Hisao (the main character) seems to change depending on which route you take a little too much in my opinion. It's not like he is a single character who makes a different decision and which leads down a different route. It almost feels like the character himself changes in terms of personality depending on who you go for. I do not mean in the maturing/growing up sense, rather like he is a different person in a lot of ways.

I guess that's a Meta thing though.

Although Hanako is my favourite character, I found it interesting that in many ways she is actually better off if you take Lilly's route as she becomes a lot more stronger and independent. Although if you go down the good route with her I guess that probably leads to it as well.