Katawa Shoujo, a freely released visual novel set in a school for disabled students has been recently completed and released. There's been some issue in certain quarters over its title and perceptions of its theme and content.

Been playing it pretty much non-stop the past two days and I've got to be honest, it's brought a tear to my eye more than once. The characters are touchingly written, interesting and inspiring. It is displaying a heartfelt without being schmaltzy message about how we interact and feel about those who unfortunately have disabilities.

The quality of the art, soundtrack and writing is superb (at least in my opinion )

Has anyone else given this gem a try?

Not yet, but I plan to eventually.

I don't have the privacy to read something like that, although I would like to.

I didn't realize the full version was out. I played act 1 and was really impressed with it. Very well written, particularly for freeware. I was worried that the disability thing would be treated as a gimmick or worse, a kink (considering which image board spawned the idea for the game). However, this was one of the most mature treatments of the subject I've seen in a video game (or anywhere really). Best VN I've played aside from Digital: A Love Story.

Hopefully that assessment still stands for the full version? Excited to check it out.

It was made by people who go on /v/ (the video game section of that site), you should not think that everyone from that site is a freak or some crazed hacker the mass media wants to think of them as. Personally I am not one for visual novels.

The way RPS described it makes me not want to go anywhere near the thing. I've played one or two games where I didn't mind RPing the dating sim sections -- Persona comes to mind -- but an entire game/visual novel about just that would probably only bore me and irk me.

I did and I loved it, so far I've only compeleted Liliy's bad ending( I messed up in the sunmer house and blew her off when she asked how the character was feeling after his heart attack). I would have got more done if it wasn't for the lack of privacy in my house. Since this is my first visual novel I was wondering if the lack of choice was common in games like it?

Hanakos route

Yes I tried it and really enjoyed it. People should try it before judging it, saw on another forum people thought it was more of a sick fetish game. six played a small part in the game, anyone playing for that will be dissapointed. Its all about characters.

Apparently Shizunes route is the only bad one, but I wont play rins I dont think. She confuses me, but thats the point.

RDR, FNV and KS are the only games I know of that made me feel depressed after playing them, devs did agreat job.

Ignore that guy, he seems to have more issue with VNs than the gme. Should have had someone else review it.

Try it, its free. I was originaly creeped out, but peoples views had me interested, then I played it and I have no regrets. Its only 5 hours per path. Much less if you end up with the "manly picnic" ending.

Depends on the game. Kanon and Tsukihime are my favorites and they have a bunch of choices and branching paths.

Also, it seems that the popularity of this game is making more people interested in one of my favorite (underrated) genres, nice.

Never tried it but I am downloading it now to see what all the fuss is about.

I was actually just thinking about making a thread about this! I played Act 1 when it was released back in 2009 and absolutely loved it. It was (and is) my first and only VN I've read. I was initially turned off by the bad reputation of VN's being little more than porm with a plot (even though a sad majority ARE), but I was definitely surprised by the depth of the characters and the great writing.

I find it really hard to care about characters in most stories (be they movies, books, shows or games), and one of the only times has been in the anime Toradora!, which was also the first slice-of-life I ever liked. Katawa Shoujo gives off the same vibes, and even reminds me of Toradora, which is a huge compliment imo. The characters (although on first appearance seem like typical anime clichès) are so believeable and you really get to know and love all of them.

It definitely plays less like a game than just reading a novel, with choices every ~30min or so. I wouldn't even call it a dating simulator, you're basically just watching through the eyes of the protagonist, not actuall controlling him. I actually like this aspect of it, and my first playthrough 2 days ago ended abruptly before act 2 even began, due to me making decisions that I personally would have made. Ended up with the "Manly Picnic" ending, which left me completely depressed, ended up sitting stunned through the credits, turning off my comp and going to bed. Few games have affected me like Katawa Shoujo (RDR indeed had a great ending, I was just so stunned/impressed I didn't know what to do with myself).

Definitely try it out if you haven't, the six scenes have as much importance and length as in the first Mass Effect, and there's even an option to never see them (checkbox in the options menu).

Try it again, your missing out if you just have the manly pcnic ending. Emi has a mix of happy and sad, and can be funny. Hanako's is just depressing. Yeah I hated Hisao doing some things he did.

Oh I know, I was mostly just giving it as an example, I started through again last night trying to get Rin, but ended up on Emi's. I love that the choices seem vague, and aren't obvious who it'll affect and who you'll end up with.

When playing through it I did it in pairs as Hanako and Lilly's paths complimented each other, Rin and Emi's. With Shizune's path it would have been interesting to have had a separate path for Misha. I guess because the tone in Shizune's path is less dramatic it has been viewed as the weakest of the paths. It did make me laugh the most with Kenji's appearences being made better use of.

Went back to Rin's path to play a couple of segments and it really does hit you hard. I found hers to be the most infuriating, most likely why it hit all the harder.

If after finishing KS and you're feeling "Now what...?" give Narcissu a try.

Yeah I had a similar thing, tried to do Hanakos route, ended up with the manly picnic.

I dont think I will play the lilly path, rin confuses me, and shizunes is pretty bad.

What playthrough did you enjoy most ? Im guessing by your post it was Rin's ?

I also hope this thread goes on for bit, would like to see how some people feel about this before and after playing.

Probably would be easiest to put how I played through the game and how I reacted to each part. I'd played the Act 1 release demo and that gave me a good idea of how to reach each path. First one I got from the demo was Emi's I'd been more drawn and intrigued by Hanako though so when the full game was released I started with her path. I bawled like a baby through hers it was touching, interesting and not overly melodramatic, the good ending was a good conclusion point that gave you an impression of the characters futures and not leaving you with the feeling of a lack of closure. I was sure that I'd hit the best of the set on my first path.

Went onto Lilly's path after that and it got to me in a different way, she was more inspiring and I found myself admiring her sense of initiative and playfulness underneath that slightly aloof exterior. The addition of an epilogue was a great idea in her path with the good ending. Her dialogue in the hospital at the end was brilliant, it was ernest, heartfelt and moving.

Seeing as Shizune didn't have a mirror path I thought I'd try hers before moving onto Rin and Emi. Like many others I found it a bit of a let down given that I was expecting another emotional rollercoaster. Perhaps her bad ending gives the final surge that's needed for her path. I can appreciate it as a more laid back path where you're just sounding out a potential partner, getting to know each other and how to be comfortable around one another. Not a bad path, just a different tone.

Rin's was the most frustrating as a lot of Rin's personality was present in someone I'd been seeing a couple of years ago. I found myself making the same choices that I would have back then. Ended up badly which made it all the more frustrating. Her Raison d'etre segment was fantastic. I just felt a little hollow playing her path due to the personal connection with her kind of personality and outlook. Very interesting and moving path though.

Emi's made me laugh, it was both fun, sad, playful, moving and believable. The path was written as a relationship with ups and downs, goofy moments and attempts at seriousness. In short it was something that I could identify with. I think it had better pacing than the other paths as well. Quite an inspiring if reckless character as well.

I enjoyed all the paths for different reasons, the one that got the strongest positive reaction from me was Hanako's though. The one that made me think the most was Rin's.

I'm hoping this thread continues for a while also. I'd love for more people to give KS a try and explore their outlooks and what they've taken from it.

Lilly's path is really worth doing as both a compliment to Hanako's as well as for it's own strengths. Hanako's can be really draining, Lilly's is a nice counter to that.

Give yourself a break then give Rin's a try but do be prepared for an awkward and at times very sad and frustrating time.

I'd been waiting to see if Rock Paper Shotgun were going to cover KS, they got the wrong person to take a look at it. Admitedly it wasn't a review per-se. It just felt like lazy writting though. I'm not a fan of John Walkers non-industry related writing but this did stand out as a particularly weak piece. I'd have loved to have read Quinn's impressions ever since reading his Three Parter on Pathologic, another game I have a deep fondness for.

How big is it? I may just.

Download currently available by torrent and comes in at 420 mb. When installed it's 473 mb.

If it was 250-300 MB, I might have, and I've no torrent programs.

You don't have to have a torrent program to get it. Someone was able to get the direct download before the developers took it down. http://ks.renai.us/viewtopic.php?f=45&t=4802 This is where it was posted.

Cool. I'll check it out, thanks. If I have enough of my cap left by the end of the month, maybe I'll get it.

You're confusing Visual Novels with eroge. Visual novels != eroge. Most visual novels are the exact opposite of what you said: about plot, not ero scenes.


And now you know why they are called visual novels

It's alright. I have to say I liked Tsukihime's story more, but at the same time it has very nice music to make up for it.

And as you all know I can forgive almost anything if the music is good.

What about Limbo of the Lost + Caramelldansen?