Katawa Shoujo Discussion

Off-Topic
#21

Oh I forgot about this topic. Katawa Shoujo was a decent visual novel. It’s definitely a good start into VNs in general, and has a pretty nice premise to it. Of course it wasn’t anything amazing as far as VNs go, but it was nice.

I remember me and my girlfriend were able to make a non-nudity patch (because skipping the sex scenes still has nude sprites) which makes it essentially safe to play at work/school. Didn’t ever end up releasing that anywhere. I wonder if I have a copy of it, if anybody’s interested.

#22

I more or less stopped reading this in favor of Little Busters way back when, but I managed everything except the Hanako and Emi routes.

Like many others, I’ll definitely agree that it’s far from the best in any sense of the word. But for what it was, I did enjoy reading it. I really wouldn’t ever consider going back and reading it again - it wasn’t that memorable - but I do want to eventually go ahead and finish it for the sake of leaving no story unturned.

#23

I remember absolutely loving Katawa Shoujo when I first read it, as did most of the people I shared it with. Re-read it a few times and still find myself wanting to go back to it, but I just can’t. Since it was my first VN I had nothing to compare to but after reading LB and Clannad, Katawa Shoujo just seems so… disappointing. Particularly best girl Emi’s route where GOD DAMN IT HISAO HAVE SOME GOD DAMN SENSE.

Still, KS gave me my 10/10 best waifu, no legs necessary.

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#24

She still has a butt, who cares what’s below.

#25

I liked KS when I read it, but that was before I read Key-VNs
By now I think that it could do much better, because the premise isn’t half bad and the girls are all pretty likeable (some more and some less: Emi top, Shizune… yeah)

Funny thing is, there’s a fan-written Suzu Route on the KS forums from the perspective of the girl, and that Route is better than some of the “official” routes imho :smiley:

Through KS I also stumbled across Missing Stars, another western VN with a similar theme, but it’s mental issues instead of physical like in KS. It’s been in development for a few years, we’ll see if it ever gets finished
Link to their website

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#26

I think of Katawa Shoujo as “Baby’s First VN” it’s really easy to get into,and lets you get a grasp on basic concepts you’ll be seeing in future VN’s. Naturally the fact that it even exists is amazing considering where it came from,so if you take that into account,it’s alot better than what it COULD have been. Is it 10/10? Certainly not,but it is an entertaining and enjoyable experience,and personally I think is worth your time.

I have also come to be the Stalwart hero Shizune needs,but not the one she deserves.
DEAF WAIFU BEST WAIFU. COME AT ME

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#27

So it appears that the common consensus is that Katawa Shoujo is decent for what it is, but nothing more. Good for those who have little to no experience with visual novels (I happen to fall into that demographic because I’m the filthy casual of the group apparently), but it really doesn’t stand up to the bigger titles out there.
Even as one who has VERY little experience with visual novels, I can see quite a few of its issues, and I’m only 17% completed it.

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And this is more me judging it as its own story, not as a visual novel. I’m actually debating with myself if I want to 100% it before I start Rewrite (because I finally got my patch to work, thank God), but I’ll figure that out when the time comes.

#28

Do it now, or you’ll never go back

#29

Started reading it a short while ago, finished the bad ending as well as Shizune and Rin’s endings. Shizune’s route was pretty bad, lot of wasted potential, but I enjoyed Rin’s. Just started on Emi. Overall I like it just fine, not incredibly amazing but not god awful or anything like that. I think one has to remember that it was a small group of people who made it as a past time, not a major company like Key, so can’t really expect it to have a lot of production value or anything like that. And for what it is, and the fact that they were able to finish something like this I think is a pretty big accomplishment and quite a feat.

#30

I think it was pretty great when you consider the team that made it wasn’t a huge company. I especially like Kenji’s humor… heheheh

#31

Katawa Shoujo is pretty much the third visual novel I’ve ever read (and after reading Little Busters! and Rewrite, of all VNs, at that). It’s been a while since I read it, and I don’t know if I want to revisit it, but I did remember enjoying it a lot.

I don’t think I can pick a favorite character – I think I’m torn between Rin (a love at first sight) and Shizune (who totes warmed up to me) – but I can say for sure that Lilly had the best ending. That ending is total love. Likewise, I don’t think I can pick a favorite route without revisiting it. Coincidentally, Rin’s and Shizune’s themes are also my favorites.

Meanwhile, Hanako route contained the best CG in the game:

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Call me weird, but I personally love this more than the sunset field scene. And the sunset field scene is glorious, I agree. :))

As for the story itself, I can’t really judge it right now – I might get a different impression on the writing if I read it again. However, I still appreciate the effective thematic exploration that the story offered. It doesn’t really hide it – this is meant to be a collection of character stories meant to portray PWDs as human beings with agency.

And agency plays a big role in the story: Hisao feared that being treated as a PWD would take away his agency, until he became acquainted to these girls. Practially every one of the girls already found their agency in the story (though in the case of Hanako, her struggle is that she wants her agency to be recognized, but everyone keeps pitying her). Through knowing these girls, Hisao eventually realizes pretty much that.

And there are a lot of efforts made to show that agency: in their passions, their relationships, the way they handle a sad past or a situation, and heck, even their h-scenes. And I personally found the h-scenes to be pretty tasteful because of what it meant in the story.

Meanwhile, if there’s anything I dislike in the story, it’s Kenji and Shizune’s dad. Arrrrrghhhh. To the point that I get triggered every time I hear the percussive intro of Kenji’s theme. AAAAAAAAA.

The art is jarringly inconsistent, but I appreciate its aesthetics regardless. The music is either quite beautiful, or doesn’t really stand out.

In any case, I think the story succeeds in what it wants to do, and I can appreciate that.

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#32

A resurrected Katawa Shoujo thread? I’ll get in on that.

Shizune’s route is the weakest, I agree. I enjoyed it more on a second reading after coming to the conclusion that it’s telling the story of Hisao, Shizune, and Misha as a group, rather than just focusing on the relationship between Hisao and Shizune.

It’s well done, too. One of my favorite things about Katawa Shoujo is that none of the heroines’ personal struggles has anything to do with her disability (possibly excepting Hanako). It’s a great way of illustrating how they are much more than their disabilities.

Man, really? He’s responsible for at least one of the top 5 greatest moments in the whole game (when he takes off his glasses). I love him the rest of the time too, but that moment really stands out.

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#33

I’m going ahead and say that Hanako’s best girl (shocking, I know), Shizune’s the underappreciated second, and Lilly’s totally overrated.

I noticed that right from the start, especially how we got to learn about the girls. Yes, some of the first things we noticed were stuff like Rin eating with her feet or Emi’s lack there of, but we quickly get to know them for who they are, not by what’s wrong with them. I didn’t give a shit that one side of Hanako’s face looks like a slab of bacon or that for a while, all of Shizune’s dialogue was spoken through Misha. They don’t pretend their disabilities aren’t there, but it’s far more than that.

I totally agree, but the shed scene was really pushing it. While we’re on the topic of h-scenes:

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Okay, Shizune’s dad was an asshole, but Kenji was awesome. Getting the bad ending has never been so fun.

And that is why I say it was better that Misha never got her own route.

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#34

I played through Hanako and Lilly’s routes recently (Lilly best grill) and I was thinking this had the potential to be a really, really good VN. When the characters shared tea at the Shanghai it managed to give me that weird sense of nostalgia that very few VNs are able to do. And then I played Emi’s route and was kind of shit. The route can basically be summarized as just “Hey, let’s fuck.” “Hey, I want to be an attention whore and shut out everyone around me.”
“But Emi, I love you!”
“Oh okay, forget everything this route was all about!”
I still have Rin’s route ahead of me, which I’m assuming will be interesting in its own special way. Lastly Shizune’s route, which I’ve heard mixed things about.
This VN really had a lot of momentum in my eyes until I played the Emi route. If every route was as good as Hanako and Lilly then this would have been in my top 3 VNs.

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#35

The only thing this game means to me is when I say “Kara no Shoujo is my favorite visual novel” and people respond “oh the one about the crippled girls?”

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#36

Just respond “no, the good one” even though they’re kinda right.

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#37

I remember playing this visual novel a long time ago. I think it was actually the first visual novel that I actually decided to sit down and play, since the basic plot interested me, and so did the characters.

While all the characters were interesting and sympathetic in their own way, I was mostly interested in Rin. However, it being a blind playthrough, I wasn’t able to get to her route on the first go. Or even the second and third tries. I would usually always end up getting Emi, which seems to be the easiest route to get (or at least it was for me).

After going through her route (at a very slow pace), I finally decided to just look up a walkthrough so I wouldn’t have to go through anymore trial and error with choosing the right options.

Rin herself immediately caught my eye with how unique, adorable, and charming she was, and while her route wasn’t the most entertaining for me at first, I found myself getting quite invested in it, even staying up later than I should have to finish it.

After completing Rin’s route, I never went through with reading the others due to a lack of motivation.

Again, this was quite a while back, so I don’t remember much of anything of Emi’s or Rin’s routes except for a few details and all of the characters basic disabilities, but it was quite enjoyable for me.

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#38

Oh man I never posted here about the time I got my non-weeb friend to host a group reading of Katawa Shoujo.

Two years ago, during my Freshman year of college, I was staying in a dorm that was populated by mostly Computer Science majors, so we quickly formed a fairly tight nit friend group who I’m still going to rooming with this year. One of their rooms became the unofficial meeting spot were on the weekend we’d frequently come to watch movies, TV shows, play video games, or just chill and talk.

Now only about a third of us really knew much about anime culture and one of them first talked the person whose computer we normally crammed around into playing another, even more joking VN, Panzermadels. As you might expect we played it for a couple of hours and had a few good laughs before the novelty wore off and we stopped, so I half jokingly suggested “We’re playing Katawa Shoujo next, right?”

Honestly after I described it to him I don’t remember what I possibly could have said that convinced him. We spent the next few evenings as a few nerds watching another nerd play an eroge (I didn’t tell him about the H-scenes ahead of time, I wanted to see his reaction)

He was torn between Lilly and Hanako, but he eventually decided to court Lilly and the rest is history. It may because the only VN he played beforehand was even worse than KS but he was overall satisfied with Lilly’s route. “Better than average writing and the story was decent.” Another one of us who didn’t watch anime/read VNs was curious about Hanako’s route so he even went and played it on his own free time.

tl;dr non-weeb gets talked into played Katawa Shoujo and actually gets into it.

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#39

Just finished it and thought it was good if nothing extra special, one to play maybe when starting out with VNs. I did like that the characters had mainly already come to terms with their disabilities and didn’t really need “fixing”, but none of the routes were that memorable for me. Music and art reasonably good and the setting is just different enough from the usual High School to make it stand out a little.

Most interesting route: Rin
Most pleasant route: Lilly
Most why did they bother route: Shizune

Hanako’s route was deffo quite enjoyable but while Emi’s started promisingly it seemed to lose its way badly.

The trouble with Shizune’s route is that Misha is just so much more diverting and interesting. There’s no real sense of any kind of chemistry that would draw Hisao and Shizune together and the story is bland.

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