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

Jintor

Member
I think it's going to be real difficult to top Rin's path. That was painful. In a good way. In a bad way. In a good way.
 

Jintor

Member
This has the same or more amounts of branching storyline choices as does other ADVs I've played, though admittedly I am not a big VN novel player.
 
Dunno why anyone wouldn't go Lilly. Also, fuck Rin. Also, I died.

I really stopped thinking much about their disabilities pretty quickly, which says a lot. I do like how the characters are quick to go "WELL MAYBE YOU SUCK" when the protag gets stuck with handling the girls disabilities.

Why did I play this game... anyway, yeah, I was like this except for Rin. Also, is it ever possible to get an explanation from her on how she uses the bathroom? Rin hated me, so I never figured out anything about her, so if anybody here knows please inform me!
 
Erm, so, on Emi's route (and maybe Rin's), Kenji says if he were to kill someone, he'd throw them off the roof and make it look like an accident.

...

...

D:
 

Alexios

Cores, shaders and BIOS oh my!
Does this become happy, because it starts really depressing and I'm not in the mood for that... Oh, and I assume turning off the adult stuff doesn't mess the plot, you still get the same relationships or whatever just without unecessary sex scenes or similar?

Other than that, really professional presentation, thumbs up. Sad it's not an actual adventure game but oh well.
 

hellclerk

Everything is tsundere to me
Thanks! So that's how it works...

Doomed made me curious about Emi, she looks like the lamest character and was going to ditch checking her story altogether. Now I think ill check it out (after checking all the other girls first).

Well, I was aiming to see all the girls stories anyway(The writing is surprisingly good!), I hope i wont stumble into a bad end because of a vague choice :p

Alright, I should put down a disclaimer before you go into the Emi route bright-eyed and excited: legs or no legs, Emi is the kind of character I tend to deeply relate to, so I'm definitely biased in my outlook on her character. And in either case, the Emi route is... different. It wasn't what I was expecting and it brought in very nuanced takes on the old cliches. They're still the old cliches, but it was very cathartic, at least for me. Your results may vary. I'll probably pick it back up over next week since this weekend I have sound recording for a student film. Maybe I'll move the files over to my netbook and bring that over to play since I have Jury Duty...
 

dimb

Bjergsen is the greatest midlane in the world
Does this become happy, because it starts really depressing and I'm not in the mood for that... Oh, and I assume turning off the adult stuff doesn't mess the plot, you still get the same relationships or whatever just without unecessary sex scenes or similar?
There's a lot of exposition during the sex scenes. I dunno how they'd be able to keep that stuff in tact if you're skipping the whole scene.
 

Jintor

Member
Also, the filter doesn't skip like... nudity for some reason, just sex scenes.

Disgusting. What will Japan think of next.

image.php
 

Thoraxes

Member
I'm taking a break for a bit to distance myself from the game since I'm not going to be able to get into any of the other routes with Emi on the brain, but yeah, I agree. Actually, I kind of wish they
went to a hospital instead where he was in some sort of a coma or a quadriplegic vegetable. That certainly would have been a curveball, and it would have made the revelation that much more heart wrenching
. Still, I think the Emi route will be hard to top, so I really should have saved her for last or something. Then again, I don't think I'd have such high praise for the game if it weren't for that route...

You know, I had thought about that part too. It probably would've shocked me somewhat if that happened, and it was in the back of my mind until the part actually happened. Regardless, the outcome was still pretty nice and I was completely engrossed that I pretty much did everything from
the running competitions
all the way to the end, in one sitting.

I agree with you too, in that I also have pretty high praise for this game too (in that i'm greatly enjoying it so far), not to mention the script is pretty much error-free (it's the little things that really go a long way with me anyways). I'm hoping the other routes manage to keep up, and I think i'm going to go for Shizune next. From what i've heard Emi is the best one, but with it being this good, I doubt the other ones can be considered "bad".

Disgusting. What will Japan think of next.
Got bad news for you...
 

Ultratech

Member
Heh, I thought this game looked familiar...

I remember reading an article on Kotaku about it (and yeah, some people were getting up-at-arms about the content...blah blah blah).

May have to try it out, I suppose.
 
So I finished Hanako's route.

I have to say I loved the way it slapped the idea of "moe" in the face. Hanako is this poor traumatized girl shy and gets nervous around people. Many, many, many people reacted to her with an "awwww I just want to hug her and protect her forever" attitude.

Hanako doesn't like that. She knows she has problems, she's trying to deal with them. But people sheltering her and treating her like a scared little girl about to break pisses her off. The bad ending to eloquently (and harshly) demonstrated this. You get this bad end by making choices that aim to "protect" her.

It's awesome and quite possibly the best way to deal with her ever. In stark contrast to other similar characters in anime and stuff.
 

redlemon

Member
I think it's going to be real difficult to top Rin's path. That was painful. In a good way. In a bad way. In a good way.

It really is. I kind of regret doing her route second because I'm almost positive the others I haven't done yet wont be anywhere near as emotionally exhausting as her's was.
Emi's route was enjoyable but I'd dare say Rin's goes into being well written which I was never expecting from this game. I really have to hand it to them they did a fantastic job. If it wasn't for the silly violin music the sex scenes would be less awkward than they are in most media too.
 

jman2050

Member
So I finished Hanako's route.

I have to say I loved the way it slapped the idea of "moe" in the face. Hanako is this poor traumatized girl shy and gets nervous around people. Many, many, many people reacted to her with an "awwww I just want to hug her and protect her forever" attitude.

Hanako doesn't like that. She knows she has problems, she's trying to deal with them. But people sheltering her and treating her like a scared little girl about to break pisses her off. The bad ending to eloquently (and harshly) demonstrated this. You get this bad end by making choices that aim to "protect" her.

It's awesome and quite possibly the best way to deal with her ever. In stark contrast to other similar characters in anime and stuff.

It's interesting, on one hand, they do a real good job writing her character and correctly conveying the potential behavior of someone who actually deals with an anxiety disorder and introversion, which is impressive because it's very very easy to do it wrong and completely miss the point.

On the other hand, it being written that well means that anyone who's even remotely dealt with or knows someone who's dealt with that type of thing will know exactly where the story is going before it even begins. And also know which choices to avoid. Which is why as soon as the dude started going on his 'I must protect her!' spiel I told myself that if they did indeed write this correctly that attitude would come back to bite him.

Although now you've got me interested in the bad end.
 

Arol

Member
The lack of choices really hurt this. Being fan made, I understand, but still, ugh.

Heh. Yeah I went into this thinking the same thing, that was a "choose your adventure" type of game.

It's mostly due to my ignorance of the genre completely that I didn't realize it. I did enjoy it though, might look into other ones.

So I finished Hanako's route.

I have to say I loved the way it slapped the idea of "moe" in the face. Hanako is this poor traumatized girl shy and gets nervous around people. Many, many, many people reacted to her with an "awwww I just want to hug her and protect her forever" attitude.

Hanako doesn't like that. She knows she has problems, she's trying to deal with them. But people sheltering her and treating her like a scared little girl about to break pisses her off. The bad ending to eloquently (and harshly) demonstrated this. You get this bad end by making choices that aim to "protect" her.

It's awesome and quite possibly the best way to deal with her ever. In stark contrast to other similar characters in anime and stuff.

Damn I did this one first so I don't really remember, but can you tell the specifics of your ending?

What is the bad ending?


The ending I got it has her kissing Hisao at the end in the town plaza it looks like, is that the good ending or bad? It seems good but I can't really tell with this game

I haven't gotten to all of them but yeah I enjoyed Hanako's character, thought it was well written. Seems weird but it had me wondering if she would act the same in spite of her injuries, meaning if she is naturally shy that her burns simply exemplified it.
 

Thoraxes

Member
One good thing of this, to me, seems to be that people are discovering VNs for the first time.

At least judging by some of the reactions in here anyways, it seems like many people have never played one before and are giving them a shot. Makes me happy.
 

jman2050

Member
I haven't gotten to all of them but yeah I enjoyed Hanako's character, thought it was well written. Seems weird but it had me wondering if she would act the same in spite of her injuries, meaning if she is naturally shy that her burns simply exemplified it.

I imagined she'd still be shy and introverted, but as she said herself she's okay with that. Without the trauma and resulting anxiety attacks she likely have a much better job dealing with people when she needed to, much like most people of her personality type.
 
One good thing of this, to me, seems to be that people are discovering VNs for the first time.

At least judging by some of the reactions in here anyways, it seems like many people have never played one before and are giving them a shot. Makes me happy.

I've only ever played that 'don't take it personally babe' game before. Wouldn't buy one, but they're not all bad, anyway.
 
It's interesting, on one hand, they do a real good job writing her character and correctly conveying the potential behavior of someone who actually deals with an anxiety disorder and introversion, which is impressive because it's very very easy to do it wrong and completely miss the point.

On the other hand, it being written that well means that anyone who's even remotely dealt with or knows someone who's dealt with that type of thing will know exactly where the story is going before it even begins. And also know which choices to avoid. Which is why as soon as the dude started going on his 'I must protect her!' spiel I told myself that if they did indeed write this correctly that attitude would come back to bite him.

Although now you've got me interested in the bad end.

To get the Bad End you need to not take Hanako out to the city after Lilly leaves. Then you need to ignore Lilly's advice. The bad end comes swiftly afterword.
 

mugwhump

Member
Followed my heart in Act 1 (never played the demo), and it lead me down Hanako's route
but following your heart isn't particularly accurate in this game.

Pretty impressed, overall. The characters and setting felt surprisingly realistic, and they treated the subject matter with an unbelievable amount of sensitivity. The final product is pretty damn far from its roots in the back pages of a porn comic.

Hanako's route didn't have much 'plot' to speak of, though. It was basically entirely about her developing relationship with the MC. It felt a bit boring at times, but I suppose it worked, since I was pretty attached to the characters by the end. Also, whoever wrote this route clearly doesn't have a fetish for burned chicks, he has a fetish for adverbs. If I'd taken a shot every time I read "quite" or "rather" I'd have been dead in minutes.

Nitpicks aside, the writing was definitely above-par, and the production values were downright shocking. Tons of CGs and art, and great music. And I never would have expected animated cutscenes in a million years.

EDIT: Actually, what happens when you disable the sex scenes? Hanako's route wouldn't have made sense if that got skipped.


Well, the "Nurse" is a man, but he has a badass theme.
Yeah that surprised the hell out of me, I thought he was the final boss or something.
 

Jintor

Member
The animated cutscenes are godly. I wish there were more of them.
I like how they are semi-spoilers of the endings that don't make sense until later... I think
 

Arol

Member
One good thing of this, to me, seems to be that people are discovering VNs for the first time.

At least judging by some of the reactions in here anyways, it seems like many people have never played one before and are giving them a shot. Makes me happy.

Yeah, thinking I might check out more if they're any free ones or maybe relatively cheap ones. Not sure what the average price for these type of games goes.

But as Jintor said, the animated cutscenes were pretty awesome, I do wish there were more but I understand the nature of the project.

I imagined she'd still be shy and introverted, but as she said herself she's okay with that. Without the trauma and resulting anxiety attacks she likely have a much better job dealing with people when she needed to, much like most people of her personality type.

Makes sense.

Also I guess not many play with the disabled sex scenes content, or go back to see the difference and not sure about all of them but it seems to skip the exposition that occurs during the act and instead shows a picture of a fish or something similar leading into the scene right after the sex.

If you think it disables the brief nudity in scenes leading up to it, it doesn't.


EDIT: Actually, what happens when you disable the sex scenes? Hanako's route wouldn't have made sense if that got skipped.

What do you think gets skipped?

Spoilers for scenes that get skipped:

Groping scene and sex scene are the ones that get skipped for Hanako, she still gets nude and shows him the scars
 
It's not really that bad. A lot of VNs don't have any choices except for route splits.

They're visual novels, not adventure games. Saya no Uta has like three choices, but it's awesome.

Heh. Yeah I went into this thinking the same thing, that was a "choose your adventure" type of game.

Different VNs may have different levels of choice, and that's fine, but for this one, the lack of choices is a negative. It'd be one thing if it were just my expectations. I wouldn't have mentioned it at all then, because that'd just be my fault, having expectations for a game I went in knowing nothing about. It wasn't just that though. The first Act is full of choices, and then there's a drought of any meaningful interaction at all.

It feels like I was enticed to play one type of game, only to get suckered into something that is most decidedly not a game at all.
 
Different VNs may have different levels of choice, and that's fine, but for this one, the lack of choices is a negative. It'd be one thing if it were just my expectations. I wouldn't have mentioned it at all then, because that'd just be my fault, having expectations for a game I went in knowing nothing about. It wasn't just that though. The first Act is full of choices, and then there's a drought of any meaningful interaction at all.

The first act is full of choices because it's determining which of 5 routes (or the 1 bad ending) you go on at the end of it. Once you choose a route, the choices are just there to determine which one of the 2 or 3 endings you see. I suppose they could have had more choices in the later acts, but I'm not sure exactly why it would be necessary. The way things are handled work fine with the way the VN is structured.
It feels like I was enticed to play one type of game, only to get suckered into something that is most decidedly not a game at all.
Well, it's not a game, it's a visual novel. The point of it is the narrative, the choices are there for you to choose which story/ending you see.
 

survivor

Banned
The route choices for what girl I want are obvious right? So there is no way I can pick the wrong girl?

I'm definitely going after the girl with the scars now. Don't like Shizune, the blonde girl or the one that almost killed me by headbutting me.
 
The route choices for what girl I want are obvious right? So there is no way I can pick the wrong girl?

They are mostly obvious. Some of the girls are friends with each other though, so for example if you completely ignore Lilly (the blonde), you won't get the chance to choose Hanako (the scar girl).
 

Arol

Member
The route choices for what girl I want are obvious right? So there is no way I can pick the wrong girl?

I'm definitely going after the girl with the scars now. Don't like Shizune, the blonde girl or the one that almost killed me by headbutting me.

Yeah, the cutscene you get going into the 2nd Act pretty much reaffirms your choice.

Also, doing the Shizune storyline I noticed something Mischa was wearing in a scene :

Mischa is wearing a Bush - Cheney 2004 shirt when departing for the Summer Break trip to Shizune's home.

Not sure why but I audibly laughed when I saw it.
 

survivor

Banned
Alright thanks guys. Time to get to the Hanako route before I sleep.

Also Misha is pretty funny. She makes up for Shizune being boring.
 
Yeah, the cutscene you get going into the 2nd Act pretty much reaffirms your choice.

Also, doing the Shizune storyline I noticed something Mischa was wearing in a scene :

Mischa is wearing a Bush - Cheney 2004 shirt when departing for the Summer Break trip to Shizune's home.

Not sure why but I audibly laughed when I saw it.

Haha, I pretty much had the exact same reaction to that shirt, I found it to be super out of left field
 
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