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Katawa Shoujo |OT| (VN, Free, Waifus, etc)

Jintor

Member
ok, I know its just me but I feel seriously stupid right now. I just finished all the of the endings of Rin but for some reason I have very little understanding of it.
From what I understand its just about Rins passion of art, while Hisao tries her to open up to him with little to no success and the good ending being Rin finally getting rid of all the pressures put on her and making her own decisions?

I really really suck at all interpreting stuff a lot of times and I feel like Im wrong with what I understand, would be glad if someone can explain it to me. I think I can see the dots, its just that I can't connect them in any meaningful way...

As far as I understood it (and this is based off one reading), Rin's primary problem is that she finds it impossible to communicate with anybody except through art, but even then people are always asking her to try and explain what she means through her art. She thinks that art will help her communicate better with other people (and the teacher and the gallery manager encourage this approach, though for different reasons) but even at the gallery all the artistic types have no fucking idea what she's saying and turn to her for her meaning of it. The reason she gets wrapped up in a passion about her art is because it's her method of communication. What Hisao does is allows her to communicate to an extent (even though it's an imperfect method) without her art, and thus, she doesn't particularly need to use the art itself as an anchor (additionally, she'd gotten it into her head that in order to be a great artist she needed to 'destroy herself', which was getting dangerous). So the ending is her learning that being able to connect to other people is an imperfect process but one that still is... well, you know. What's that word...?
 

Soma

Member
b7JIN.png


tumblr_lxar98OeZi1r8lyaco1_500.jpg


i love these
 

vall03

Member
Oh I see, so I guess my initial impression about "art" being the central connecting theme for their relationship isn't far off the mark. So I guess I'll settle with that for now, thanks Jintor! and I would also agree with weeeboo, I find that Rins route is a clusterfuck but in a good way and also sets this particular route to be different and unique compared to others. Will go for Shizune tomorrow...
 

P90

Member
The game has an interesting premise, but I am bit disappointed with the VN after spending a fair amount of time with it. (I can only DDL Act 1. I can't do bit torrent for some reason. I'm not tech savvy as per the reasons why). First, answering the limited amount of options you are given and being fairly honest with my personality, the only three paths I get are Emi, Rin, or
Man Picnic
. I much prefer the social linking/story branching of a number of games vs. KS. Second, after reading the Act 3 endings on the forum boards, KS makes all of the girls with handicaps have
much more psychologically "wrong" with them than the vast majority of people with disabilities have. I think the VN actually stigmatizes people with handicaps. I would think this is opposite what their intention was.
Just my perspective, YMMV.
 
The game has an interesting premise, but I am bit disappointed with the VN after spending a fair amount of time with it. (I can only DDL Act 1. I can't do bit torrent for some reason. I'm not tech savvy as per the reasons why). First, answering the limited amount of options you are given and being fairly honest with my personality, the only three paths I get are Emi, Rin, or
Man Picnic
. I much prefer the social linking/story branching of a number of games vs. KS. Second, after reading the Act 3 endings on the forum boards, KS makes all of the girls with handicaps have
much more psychologically "wrong" with them than the vast majority of people with disabilities have. I think the VN actually stigmatizes people with handicaps. I would think this is opposite what their intention was.
Just my perspective, YMMV.


http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8IK3IVB4

There you go, easy direct download of the exe. The game is a VN so don't go in expecting Persona or anything. It's more akin to a Choose Your Own Adventure novel than a social linking game. Secondly, the game does not stigmatize anyone, it does address issues as to why people who are disabled may be (unfairly) shunned by the community, and some of the girls do struggle due to their disabilities, but it does not denigrate any of its characters. You should play for yourself and see how it handles these issues.
 

Ronok

Member
I won't go into too much detail, but Emi's route really disappointed me. A lot of stuff didn't make sense, and the writing was pretty bad in places. A lot of Hisao's speech was incredibly unnatural. Worst of all, he was unbelievably unobservant/clueless/stupid...


Oh well, I can at least hope Rin's story will be a little better. :(
 

P90

Member
http://www.megaupload.com/?d=8IK3IVB4

There you go, easy direct download of the exe. The game is a VN so don't go in expecting Persona or anything. It's more akin to a Choose Your Own Adventure novel than a social linking game. Secondly, the game does not stigmatize anyone, it does address issues as to why people who are disabled may be (unfairly) shunned by the community, and some of the girls do struggle due to their disabilities, but it does not denigrate any of its characters. You should play for yourself and see how it handles these issues.

Thanks for the link and the insight about the VN. I'll try the other acts before passing judgment.
 

Lopson

Neo Member
ok, I know its just me but I feel seriously stupid right now. I just finished all the of the endings of Rin but for some reason I have very little understanding of it.
From what I understand its just about Rins passion of art, while Hisao tries her to open up to him with little to no success and the good ending being Rin finally getting rid of all the pressures put on her and making her own decisions?

I really really suck at all interpreting stuff a lot of times and I feel like Im wrong with what I understand, would be glad if someone can explain it to me. I think I can see the dots, its just that I can't connect them in any meaningful way...

I said it once, I'll say it again. The easiest way to understand Rin's route is to listen to Pink Floyd's The Wall. Rin lives in her own little world. Why she created such a world, we don't know (I think?), but the truth is it exists inside of her. She protects it with a "wall" of sorts: her passive attitude, her cold, distant eyes, her overall detachment to the world around her. At first, Hisao thinks that the easiest way to know more about her is to try to get inside her little world (convincing her to do the art show, getting into the art club, trying to understand her paintings), but to do that, he has to destroy the "wall". Try as he might, his attempts prove somewhat unsuccessful, since Rin keeps pushing him away. However, in the midst of all of this chaos, she does realize that Hisao is trying to change her own world, and even though she's afraid of change (she herself says this much), she somewhat accepts Hisao's desires of change and tries to do what he wants (by "destroying" herself, by trying to destroy the "wall" by expressing herself through different types of paintings). When things between her and Hisao start to get rotten, she gives up in trying to change (to "destroy" herself). The first sex scene of the route symbolizes these intentions, with the act itself acting as a sort of anesthesia (resembling the song "Comfortably Numb" of the aforementioned music album), and runs back to the very world she was trying to destroy ("The show must go on"). While she finds solace for some time in it, she eventually realizes that she doesn't belong in that tiny world of hers anymore. Her own world kicks her out, the "wall" around her crumbles and, for what was probably the first time in a long while, she can look at the people around her without something blocking her view. That, and Hisao was patient enough to wait for her outside the "wall". In the end, she acknowledges the feelings she has for Hisao and Hisao's feelings for her. The very last sentence Rin says can be interpreted in two ways: one, she wants to learn how to express herself in a way that people who were outside her own world can understand; two, since it's something that Rin used to say at the beginning of the route, it most likely means that what happened might repeat itself in the future (much like the album I mentioned ends, with its ending being its beginning), like an infinite loop of sorts.

Kind of a complicated, roundabout explanation, but that's how I looked at it.
 

Diamond

Member
I won't go into too much detail, but Emi's route really disappointed me. A lot of stuff didn't make sense, and the writing was pretty bad in places. A lot of Hisao's speech was incredibly unnatural. Worst of all, he was unbelievably unobservant/clueless/stupid...

Care to share an example or two ? I thought it was pretty good overall. :)
 

Acosta

Member
Some days after and I keep thinking how much I enjoyed this. I also enjoyed Don't take it personal... I think I am starting to enjoy VNs in general.

I have started visiting the VN database and NeoGAF VN http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=421986&page=10 and planning where I could go from here. I have discovered Mangagamer through Siliconera and I'm downloading the trial version of a game called Kara no Shoujo that looks pretty interesting.

I am bit dismayed at how expensive are the top VNs. Fate is 115$ for example, Steins;Gate looks cheaper (60$) but I am bit fearful of having any problem with the patches. Baby steps I guess.

In other order of news, Fucking Lilly is awesome, but you already knew that, right? I'm still determined to stick to my plan of not playing or reading about any other path (it´s good that there is not Akira path, I would be tempted by that! she has minor development but I always enjoyed having her around).
 
Some days after and I keep thinking how much I enjoyed this. I also enjoyed Don't take it personal... I think I am starting to enjoy VNs in general.

I have started visiting the VN database and NeoGAF VN http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=421986&page=10 and planning where I could go from here. I have discovered Mangagamer through Siliconera and I'm downloading the trial version of a game called Kara no Shoujo that looks pretty interesting.

I am bit dismayed at how expensive are the top VNs. Fate is 115$ for example, Steins;Gate looks cheaper (60$) but I am bit fearful of having any problem with the patches. Baby steps I guess.

In other order of news, Fucking Lilly is awesome, but you already knew that, right? I'm still determined to stick to my plan of not playing or reading about any other path (it´s good that there is not Akira path, I would be tempted by that! she has minor development but I always enjoyed having her around).

Wait... Waitaminute... You just played Lilly's path and are leaving it at that? There is no emoticon to express my dismay
 
Some days after and I keep thinking how much I enjoyed this. I also enjoyed Don't take it personal... I think I am starting to enjoy VNs in general.

I have started visiting the VN database and NeoGAF VN http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=421986&page=10 and planning where I could go from here. I have discovered Mangagamer through Siliconera and I'm downloading the trial version of a game called Kara no Shoujo that looks pretty interesting.

I am bit dismayed at how expensive are the top VNs. Fate is 115$ for example, Steins;Gate looks cheaper (60$) but I am bit fearful of having any problem with the patches. Baby steps I guess.

In other order of news, Fucking Lilly is awesome, but you already knew that, right? I'm still determined to stick to my plan of not playing or reading about any other path (it´s good that there is not Akira path, I would be tempted by that! she has minor development but I always enjoyed having her around).

Nice to know this is actually getting people interested in VNs. Coupled with 999, interest in the genre is probably higher than it's ever been in the west.

Anyway, play Saya no Uta.
 

Acosta

Member
Wait... Waitaminute... You just played Lilly's path and are leaving it at that? There is no emoticon express my dismay

Ah yes, I explained it before, I know it´s silly but I can't help it.

Awww, that was beautiful. I got what I assume is the good ending with Lilly, I really enjoyed it, I have not much experience with VNs but I have always been curious about the genre and while I'm not exactly a romantic (probably quite the opposite), this story was charming.

I guess the point is playing the different routes, but I don't really want to and I won't do it. I would find it a bit "weird" if that makes any sense. I prefer the story stay as I experienced it (to be honest, I feel the same in almost every game with multiple paths). I am just going to check what is Lilly's bad ending, because I'm curious of how bad it is (I assume it can be really, really bad).

I have considered trying, but stepping in again as the same character and seeing everyone with different eyes it´s weird. I ended with Lilly in a natural way, I had no objectives or knew anything about routes, I just played and all developed like that in a natural way. Coming back to see other paths would feel less natural for me.

Again, I know it´s silly.
 

P90

Member
Ah yes, I explained it before, I know it´s silly but I can't help it.



I have considered trying, but stepping in again as the same character and seeing everyone with different eyes it´s weird. I ended with Lilly in a natural way, I had no objectives or knew anything about routes, I just played and all developed like that in a natural way. Coming back to see other paths would feel less natural for me.

Again, I know it´s silly.

I can see where you are coming from. I was planning on approaching it from a similar tact as well, though for me it would have been Rin and then Lilly. They just the seemed to be the two that I felt I could relate to the most. The others would only be for investigating the pathway.
 

GuardianE

Santa May Claus
I just played through without any particular gameplan in mind. I ended up getting Emi's good ending (I think). Something about her story arc seemed so natural. There were definite heartbreaker moments, and Emi felt like a real character to me. Needless to say, I enjoyed it... I almost don't want to play the other story arcs.

Is your path pretty much set as soon as the festival rolls around? Is it pretty straightforward what choices lean towards certain girls? I don't really remember what I chose in the beginning of the story... I just kind of instinctively chose without any particular goal.


That's another reason I like Emi's -
what feels like a Bad End is integrated directly into her route.

Major spoilers:
So you want to fix me, Hisao? Wanna swoop in on your white charger and save the day? Stop the nightmares, the phantom limb pains? Restore what's lost?

Well, you can't.

Nobody can.

Nobody will.

This is pretty important to me.
I think hitting that level of turmoil during the story arc really makes you feel it, hard. Hopefully there's more of this in the other girls' routes... I'm a sucker for heartwrenching/bittersweet moments that end with hope.
 

Lopson

Neo Member
Every route has multiples endings, so no, it's not that straightforward. The only thing that the 1st chapter determines is the girl you'll be going after.
 
Just downloaded this game, I'll play it once I have more time. I told my friend he should play the game in the commuter lounge at our student center, hook his PC up to the TV and not to disable adult scenes. Yeah, this will bring lots of hilarity.
 
Just downloaded this game, I'll play it once I have more time. I told my friend he should play the game in the commuter lounge at our student center, hook his PC up to the TV and not to disable adult scenes. Yeah, this will bring lots of hilarity.

That's just mean man. I wonder if he will even make it to the adult scenes?
 
That's another reason I like Emi's -
what feels like a Bad End is integrated directly into her route.

Major spoilers:
So you want to fix me, Hisao? Wanna swoop in on your white charger and save the day? Stop the nightmares, the phantom limb pains? Restore what's lost?

Well, you can't.

Nobody can.

Nobody will.
Holy shit I loved that scene. But it's not needed for the good end. You can get around it. But I love that with or without that scene you can finish the good route.


VVVVV- Below post: no mention anywhere that you're spoiling Emi's route. At least I think it's that; I'm not reading a blind spoiler :p
 

Ronok

Member
Care to share an example or two ? I thought it was pretty good overall. :)

I actually really enjoyed the start of the route, before the "exams". Now for why the later portions bothered me.
While I can understand the idea of Emi not wanting to talk about her father, and being traumatised by his death, I can't understand Hisao's lack of understanding of the situation. It's made painfully clear from the first time he was mentioned what had happened, yet, Hisao seemingly never realises. He's also all over the place when Emi becomes distant. The thought process after their initial argument is pretty ridiculous and he ends off seeming just as emotionally troubled as Emi, if not worse.
The problem I have with the writing is that it's pretty inconsistent and unbelievable. This mainly comes from Hisao's speech where he comes across far too formally for the situation and his character. It makes certain situations seem really awkward, however this couple is meant to be the most comfortable out of any of the ones so far. It makes no sense.

I think it's important to note, it's not Emi's character I had a problem with, it's how Hisao is portrayed throughout that route.
 

Danj

Member
Figured someone had made a new thread for Katawa Crash since nobody's talking about it in here any more, but GAF search is broken and Google doesn't show any new threads for it, so. Finally blew past the 100km achievement:

D0IFj.png
 

Danj

Member
I'm not playing crash until I finish all routes for fear of spoilers.

There are no story spoilers in crash.

There's no real story in Crash, is there? As far as I can tell it's just awesome random craziness, with a few cameos thrown in for good measure.

Incidentally I got a tip which has helped me out so far - try launching at angles of less than 10 degrees with full power, if you're lucky you should get some decent boosts at the start.
 

Danj

Member
I am bit dismayed at how expensive are the top VNs. Fate is 115$ for example, Steins;Gate looks cheaper (60$) but I am bit fearful of having any problem with the patches. Baby steps I guess.

I can't speak for the Steins;Gate patch but the Fate/Stay Night patch has been through several versions and is as far as I know problem free (I was one of the people helping to test it). You can use it to patch an existing install, but the easiest way to use it is as an actual game installer (you just need to provide your Fate/Stay Night disc and it will take things from there). Doesn't require Japanese system locale, and works fine on both 32 and 64 bit Windows.
 

Jintor

Member
I actually really enjoyed the start of the route, before the "exams". Now for why the later portions bothered me.
While I can understand the idea of Emi not wanting to talk about her father, and being traumatised by his death, I can't understand Hisao's lack of understanding of the situation. It's made painfully clear from the first time he was mentioned what had happened, yet, Hisao seemingly never realises. He's also all over the place when Emi becomes distant. The thought process after their initial argument is pretty ridiculous and he ends off seeming just as emotionally troubled as Emi, if not worse.
The problem I have with the writing is that it's pretty inconsistent and unbelievable. This mainly comes from Hisao's speech where he comes across far too formally for the situation and his character. It makes certain situations seem really awkward, however this couple is meant to be the most comfortable out of any of the ones so far. It makes no sense.

I think it's important to note, it's not Emi's character I had a problem with, it's how Hisao is portrayed throughout that route.

Re; Emi and Hisao
He is as emotionally troubled as Emi, in a lot of ways. He is a complete fucking idiot for not realising pretty much immediately the truth about Emi's dad though.
 

Diamond

Member
I actually really enjoyed the start of the route, before the "exams". Now for why the later portions bothered me.
While I can understand the idea of Emi not wanting to talk about her father, and being traumatised by his death, I can't understand Hisao's lack of understanding of the situation. It's made painfully clear from the first time he was mentioned what had happened, yet, Hisao seemingly never realises. He's also all over the place when Emi becomes distant. The thought process after their initial argument is pretty ridiculous and he ends off seeming just as emotionally troubled as Emi, if not worse.
The problem I have with the writing is that it's pretty inconsistent and unbelievable. This mainly comes from Hisao's speech where he comes across far too formally for the situation and his character. It makes certain situations seem really awkward, however this couple is meant to be the most comfortable out of any of the ones so far. It makes no sense.

I think it's important to note, it's not Emi's character I had a problem with, it's how Hisao is portrayed throughout that route.

Ah ok, I see where you're coming from. :)

I don't have a particular attachment to Hisao either, to me he's pretty neutral/bland. But he's not the main focus here. In fact, his slight lack of understanding of Emi's situation allowed the game to create a little drama in this particular path that I liked
(the others are talking about it : you come close to losing her, even when you make the right decisions)
and helped flesh out Emi as a character. I guess I payed less attention to Hisao and just liked this route because I was engrossed by her, which is already an achievement for this type of game, to me.

But yeah, I understand your point and it's always frustrating, to a certain extent, when you want to do something in a game and the main character's attitude doesn't match yours. I'd love to play a Katawa Shoujo similar to Mass Effect without combat (to give an easy to imagine example), in an open world where you can move freely, with branching paths and more open and frequent dialog options. Hey, maybe it'll happen sometime. :)
 

Acosta

Member
I can't speak for the Steins;Gate patch but the Fate/Stay Night patch has been through several versions and is as far as I know problem free (I was one of the people helping to test it). You can use it to patch an existing install, but the easiest way to use it is as an actual game installer (you just need to provide your Fate/Stay Night disc and it will take things from there). Doesn't require Japanese system locale, and works fine on both 32 and 64 bit Windows.

Interesting, thanks for the info. Tell me, is that good? Seems to have a nice balance between people that played and good rating.

Acosta, you could always try a classic like Tsukihime or Yu-No.

Thanks! I will check'em out.
 
Figured someone had made a new thread for Katawa Crash since nobody's talking about it in here any more, but GAF search is broken and Google doesn't show any new threads for it, so. Finally blew past the 100km achievement:

D0IFj.png

Hahaha, thats amazing.
My record is 86000, but i have the majority of the achivements. (15/15 silver, 13/15 gold and 20/30 platinum) they are two achivements that are impossible to get right now, and will be added in the next game revision.
Is your record done with the ultra difficult
misha sends you to space (unlimited drillworks)?
I only got that once and was my old 84000 record, but its really difficult to get it again.
 
I hit 90,000 once but every effort since then caps at around 20,000 or so

stupid shizune

If you play well your cards shizune is not so bad (she can even be one of the most powerful specials, and you can combo it pretty well)
Is fucking Mutou. His the one that usually fucks my perfect games, and his all over the place.
 
So does anyone know if Raita is actually aware of the game's existence? Think I'd be a bit amazed if some guys on the internet turned a little sketch I did into an entire game.
 

ultron87

Member
Played for awhile. Interesting and I'll play more definitely, but now I am super aware of and paranoid about my own heart beat. So that is great.
 
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