Katawa Shoujo First Impressions + Introduction Thread

• BobYoMeowMeow wrote on 2012-01-09 08:58
  The cat made a thread about this in Rua's house
  but it was so crappy that the cat asked Osayidan for the cat do a new thread.
  
  Played through a lot of the game already and felt that this will do much much more justice
  [SIZE="6"]DEVELOPMENT
  [/SIZE]Originally a professional artist named RAITA drew a doujin about these disabled girls in 2000
  however, he never got around to creating a visual novel for it despite wanting to
  2007, a bunch of people on /a/ picked up on the project and decided to create a visual novels from scratch. About 21 volunteers were gathered, none of them being professionals on creating visual novels.
  In fact, the game was being created only on their free time outside their professions (unrelated), which is amazing considering this VN is much more high quality than some of the professional VNs the cat has played.
  
  There were 5 writers, 3 editors, 3 directors, 1 coder, 5-8 artists(?)
  [video=youtube;Q8Um3ZsL3tQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q8Um3ZsL3tQ[/video]
  
  [SIZE="6"]Introduction
  [/SIZE]
  So you play through the eyes of Hisao
  A normal guy who happens to receive a heart attack after being confessed to
  This lead to him being stuck in a hospital and his friends and lover drifting away due to his absence from school.
  Concerned for his well being, Hisao was sent to a private school, Yamatu Academy, that has a nearby hospital for caring disabled students.
  At first, Hisao was dreading this because a heart condition (arrythmia that causes heart problems with unknown causes) took away his old life that he enjoyed.
  
  In Act 1, you'll be introduced to classmates and all the possible characters who you can bond with.
  The choices you make will shift you towards the route of the girl that you treated well the most.
  There are 5 girl routes and 1 lonely route
  Lonely route obviously means pushing off all the girls
  
  The girls are
  Lilly - girl born blind with blonde hair and blue eyes. She is the class representative of a different classroom fit for the blind students.
  Rin- girl with no arms but has amazing artistic talent using her feet to paint. She is in the art classrooms.
  Hanako- girl with severe and noticeable burn scars. Often absent from your class due to how shy she is (even in a school of disabled students)
  Emi- girl with no legs and walks around on prosthetics. however, she manages to be at the top of the school's track team
  Shizune- Deaf girl who is the student council president.
  
  After Act 1 is done, you'll proceed to Act 2 with an opening cutscene of the girl (you'll see who you're with)
  
  There are 4 Acts. The choices you make will determine whether you'll get the bad ending, the neutral ending or the good ending (can't tell you which girl has a neutral ending or else that's spoilers). It is not difficult, use your best judgement according to the girl's personality.
  
  Note that there are H-scenes in this game. However, there is an option to turn them off
  The cat never really saw them as erotic but rather welcoming love scenes
  besides most of them are really tame. God of War and Mass effect are actually more inappropriate
  Also don't play this for the porn. The cat will explain why in the impression portion of this thread
  There's barely any anyways. (amount of H-scenes vary for each girl)
  
  [SIZE="6"]Impressions:
  [/SIZE]The cat had no idea what to think of the game
  only heard of it the year before as a "cripple pornz" game
  The game just came out this year and people were impressed with it
  
  it's free so it wouldn't hurt to try
  by fuzzys, the cat was pulled in by the beautiful art, and the quality animation (for an amateur VN)
  here's some samples
  [SPOILER="Spoiler"]

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/2Uclf.jpg]

  
  [/SPOILER][SPOILER="Spoiler"]

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/GHSVM.jpg]

  [/SPOILER]
  [SPOILER="Spoiler"]

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/aQHHH.jpg]

  [/SPOILER]
  [SPOILER="Spoiler"]

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/ZygrO.jpg]

  
  [/SPOILER][SPOILER="Spoiler"]

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/zKBnl.jpg]

  [/SPOILER]
  
  
  [SIZE="5"]Instead of ruining the game, the cat will list an insight the cat picked up from /v/
  [/SIZE]image
  [SPOILER="Spoiler"]

  [Image: http://i.imgur.com/aLuqa.jpg]

  
  [/SPOILER]
  quote
  

  So it's actually not about seducing and nailing disabled girls. The girls happen to have disabilities, but the more you get to know them, the more you come to realise that they are girls just like any other. They are humans with hopes and dreams, and messy, ****ed up insecurities about being alive and happy. They are not strange people - they are regular ordinary human beings who feel the way they feel not because they are disabled, but because they are ordinary. They are the universal allegory for humanity; the archetypal human; the mess you become when you feel sad and alone and unworthy. They are the girl next door, the prom queen, the bookworm, the tomboy, and all the baggage that comes with that - nothing more or less.
  
  They resonate with you because you recognise your flaws and needs and desires and triumphs and victories, and those of the loved ones you know and care about. You want to make them happy, because you want them to be happy, because you know them and are them, and in some way you believe everyone you love deserves to be happy.
  
  You are not alone, and you are not strange. You are you, and everyone has damage. Be the better person.

  
  it summed the cat's experience with the game
  The cat got the Lilly route on the first try because the cat really liked her personality
  full of elegance and honest
  she's like a motherly figure the cat never had (well the cat's a motherly figure to master)
  
  The cat played through all the routes
  the quality and length of each girl varied due to there being different writers for each one
  but all of them are tastefully done in the cat's opinion
  
  All the girls are different, so you might have preferences for either one than another person
  
  so download and give it a try
  http://katawa-shoujo.com/download.php
  sorry Sumphy, you're gonna have to play in English
  [SIZE="4"]
  NEW
  direct download links for those who dont want to torrent[/SIZE]
  Part 1
  http://www.mediafire.com/?rm7n88mopdi03a4
  Part 2
  http://www.mediafire.com/?j00wvfaltdd1731
  Part 3
  http://www.mediafire.com/?q02yytdn0k8kmtb
  
  Rule: keep spoilers in spoiler tags
  and don't post the H-scenes
  
  [SIZE="6"]Q&A
  [/SIZE]1. Is this game free?
  A. yes it will always be free
  
  2. Is there any voice acting?
  A. No, due to the fact that its a lot of work to voice thousands of lines. They worked really hard
  
  3. Are each of the girl's route parallel?
  A. Yes all the events are parallel. However, the events triggered by Hisao will not happen
  
  4. Will there be ports?
  A. No, the team decided not to for the sake of work and quality.
  
  5. Is there any merchandise
  A. unfortunately not except for artbooks are anime conventions. The team decided not to for the sake of keeping their friendship.
  
  6. Will they release the soundtrack, CGs, etc.?
  They will release a soundtrack later but everything else no.
  
  7. What is Hisao's personality?
  A. At first he's a really bitter person. The girl you end up with will influence and change his personality. So technically there's gonna be 6 Hisao personalities; 1 for each girl and 1 for the lonely route.
  
  8. Is this like other Visual novels?
  A. No, this visual novel was written in English and outside Japan. There will be Japanese influence due to the visual novel genre BUT there will also be English jokes and popular culture references.
  
  9. Is there a lot of fanart?
  A. Of course, on deviantart and even their forums
  http://ks.renai.us/
  
  Currently there's also a Q&A session with the developers now
  ask them questions there
  http://ks.renai.us/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=4896
• Ithiliel wrote on 2012-01-09 09:25
  I've always been interested in this game, I'll have to actually download it and play it when I get my main computer working again.
• BizarreJuju wrote on 2012-01-09 09:41
  No big fan on dating games, but since we are talking about cripples I may take a shot at it.
  
  Gunna checkout Hanako 8D
• Akemii wrote on 2012-01-09 15:16
  I will try this out for the Cat.
• Cucurbita wrote on 2012-01-09 17:19
  This game is getting massively high ratings. Surprisingly some reviewers are putting the writing of the game to be on par with the writing quality of other great story driven games such as Bioshock, Portal, Bastion, Mass Effect, etc etc.
• Ninjam wrote on 2012-01-09 21:53
  It is a great game. Ive only done Emi and Shizune's path, and the lonely one i guess, but they were all greatly written.
  
  Shizune's was my first path i got when choosing answers naturally, and made me realize i have a serious competitive streak that i didn't know i had. Well i suspected it a bit, but it was interesting.
  
  Great stories so far, am looking forward to reading the rest. For some reason i really dont want to read the bad ending to any of them.
• Dusk wrote on 2012-01-09 22:09
  i'm scared of nakid wimminz
• Ninjam wrote on 2012-01-09 22:31

  Quote from Dusk;729939:

  i'm scared of nakid wimminz

  
  
  Theres an option to turn that off too. No reason to not play it now right?
  Its a very well written story at least, makes you think a lot.
• Paul wrote on 2012-01-09 22:32
  I got the game on the 1st day of release. I don't really know anythng about it, haven't even installed it.
• BobYoMeowMeow wrote on 2012-01-10 01:54

  Quote from Cucurbita;729682:

  This game is getting massively high ratings. Surprisingly some reviewers are putting the writing of the game to be on par with the writing quality of other great story driven games such as Bioshock, Portal, Bastion, Mass Effect, etc etc.

  
  
  LOL
  mass effect has poor writing >w>
  don't even know why people consider that game to be good
  
  the cat doesnt think it's fair to compare this to video games in terms of story
  it IS a visual novel
  visual novels are MEANT to be story heavy
  however, most of them nowadays are eroges where you click click click
  fap fap fap
  this isn't that and bring better attention to visual novels
  especially since this is like the first one to be created outside of Japan
  easier to get into
  
  Also the writing, the girls seem like people
• Ninjam wrote on 2012-01-10 04:53

  Quote from BobYoMeowMeow;730203:

  LOL
  mass effect has poor writing >w>
  don't even know why people consider that game to be good
  
  the cat doesnt think it's fair to compare this to video games in terms of story
  it IS a visual novel
  visual novels are MEANT to be story heavy
  however, most of them nowadays are eroges where you click click click
  fap fap fap
  this isn't that and bring better attention to visual novels
  especially since this is like the first one to be created outside of Japan
  easier to get into
  
  Also the writing, the girls seem like people

  
  
  Don't want to put in spoilers, so ill just say that some of them i relate to so well and others i know people that can relate to them perfectly.
  Its too emotional for me to read everything at once, im going to need at least a few days in between readings. That is what i keep saying, but then i get drawn back into it early. After reading Emi's i think ima wait until at least tomorrow to start on Rin's.
  
  Also, er wait this is slightly spoilers so ill spoil tag it. Its about kenji, is all ill say. [SPOILER="Spoiler"]The lonely path you mentioned is the one about Kenji right? What exactly is his personality there because you say his personality changes.[/SPOILER]
• BobYoMeowMeow wrote on 2012-01-10 05:29

  Quote from BizarreJuju;729424:

  No big fan on dating games, but since we are talking about cripples I may take a shot at it.
  
  Gunna checkout Hanako 8D

  
  
  If this was merely a dating game
  the cat wouldnt recommend this at all
  in fact, it's more of a romance novel
  you're not the one dating the girls, you're just leading on Hisao to create relationships with them
  
  

  Quote from Ninjam;730472:

  [SPOILER="Spoiler"]The lonely path you mentioned is the one about Kenji right? What exactly is his personality there because you say his personality changes.[/SPOILER]

  
  spoilered
  [SPOILER="Spoiler"]The cat mentioned Hisao being swooned in by Kenji's silly ramblings and regretting being an absolute dickhead to the girls
  lead to his death
  
  the lonely route is actually a joke by the devs for you to PICK A DAMN GIRL[/SPOILER]
• Mentosftw wrote on 2012-01-10 05:32
  Wow bob, good job on gathering info and even reading the "Ask Here" thread of their forums.
  
  [spoiler]Oh also on Emi's path, there's a tongue in cheek joke where you get warned that eating on the roofs is dangerous since you can fall off and later you encounter Kenji who says that if he would ever murder, he'd push someone off the roof and make it look like an accident (ironically the rooftop picnic was an actual accident).
  
  You can also find out who Kenji's ex girlfriend was if you pay minor attention to the clues.[/spoiler]
• BobYoMeowMeow wrote on 2012-01-10 05:38
  should spoiler the kenji part
  people wouldnt know that without playing those routes
• Ninjam wrote on 2012-01-10 05:39

  Quote from BobYoMeowMeow;730520:

  If this was merely a dating game
  the cat wouldnt recommend this at all
  in fact, it's more of a romance novel
  you're not the one dating the girls, you're just leading on Hisao to create relationships with them
  
  
  spoilered
  [SPOILER="Spoiler"]The cat mentioned Hisao being swooned in by Kenji's silly ramblings and regretting being an absolute dickhead to the girls
  lead to his death
  
  the lonely route is actually a joke by the devs for you to PICK A DAMN GIRL[/SPOILER]

  
  
  Ahh [SPOILER="Spoiler"]I think i get it. I knew that there was something strange about it. It was probably the worst ending considering what it leads to, but it was funny, in a way. I got it after doing Emi's path while fooling around in chapter 1 trying to figure out who i wanted to read about next. Ended up panicking about something, probably a fear it would make me spill manly tears again like a few parts in the other routes did, and at some point began running away from everybody. Leading to to kenji's path.[/SPOILER]