Hisao Nakai is a normal high school student, currently in his final year of high school. One day Hisao receives a letter from parties unknown in his locker and waits at the written place for the sender. The person who wrote the letter turns out to be his crush; while speaking to her, he suddenly collapses. He awakes in a hospital bed, and is told by the doctors that the reason he collapsed is due to arrhythmia, a rare heart condition that causes his heartbeat to sometimes become irregular. Due to this, his parents have enrolled him in Yamaku, a school for disabled students of all kinds.
Katawa Shoujo
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this is with both the windblows version and Linux version from the website....be warned.
That's right at the begining!!!, I'll update python to make sure it's not that.
But this is amazing...yeah not bad at all.
I like the Shizune route.
I, myself, was a little bit overwhelmed when I first started this VN, as I had never really had any exposure to anyone with a disability before, and I am embarrassed to admit that at first I was judgmental of such people until I played and completed Katawa Shoujo.
The art was done to a relatively high-degree, especially given the circumstances of the production team. The music tracks are also great. Being musically-oriented myself, I have trouble liking a series or VN if the tracks aren't enjoyable, however, again Katawa Shoujo more than fits the bill.
Personally, I will treasure this VN, as it taught me a very valuable life lesson, and helped me to be less narrow-minded and shallow, which is no mean feat.
Kudos to Four Leaf Studios, your hard work and determination over the years is very much appreciated!
However, props to the 4Leaf team for working so hard on something that was ultimately free lol that's a lot more than I can do, and for bringing the medium of VNs to a lot wider audience.
Some routes of Katawa Shoujo, to me, were truly wholesome, and that's precisely what reels me in. I'm also a fan of unlikely/taboo/unrequited love in fiction, so this VN was refreshing to read.
The plot also struck a chord with me, as I'm actually under similar circumstances to Hisao, however my story isn't quite as exciting.. ;)
Might I ask you for other VN recommendations, perhaps ones you really enjoyed?
Thank-you.
Ironically one of the best things it had in it's favor was the fact that a western team wrote it, but they hurt themselves by forcing a setting and culture they know little about (Japan) onto the game. Akward sex? Heroines that are non-virigns? A group of attractive girls in a game and it ISN'T a harem game? These things just don't happen with Japanese eroge. I can only imagine how much better this game would have been if they would have ditched the "this is Japan" pretext and all the cliches and baggage that comes with it.
Also all of the stories seem to just end, without a proper ending. It almost feels like that they were sick of working on it so long and just ended the game about 2/3's of the way through. In these types of games you are supposed to have an introduction, some strife/conflict, and an eventual resolution. With many of the endings the "resolution" is a paragraph of text at worst, or a single scene at best. You never really get the felling that that conflict/strife is properly resolved. Maybe that is supposed to be the point, but to me it felt like the plots just left me hanging.
Hanako and Rin's "resolutions" are especially broken. I can't even tell if they are supposed to be happy endings or not.
And then you have really unbalanced plots as well. Without giving too much away, there is one girl you never really properly have sex with and another girl that you ask to be your girlfriend REALLY early on and yet there is no inkling of a relationship until almost the end of her arc. The sex scenes are irrelevant, but a believable plot and proper pacing is important.
I agree about the isolated plot lines as well. The fact that you are "locked in" after act one feels a little odd.
Plus, like the guy before me earlier, there is no sense of overall conflict/dilemma, other than the obvious ones. In the end for every route, it just felt like a series of events happened that worked out in the end. That's not really a story, that's just a bunch of exposition. In the end, it doesn't matter how "interesting" or "unique" your characters are, if they're not doing anything in the story.
Like I said earlier, in the end Katawa Shoujo just felt mediocre for me. I can understand how hard those guys worked and the passion they felt for the material, but what they wrote didn't feel like a visual novel for me, it just felt like 5 separate stories with "unique" characters. As for unlikely/taboo/unrequited love, no path made it seem like it was that way because no conflict was properly established in most routes. Things just happened and people ended up together. I dunno why I'm making such a big deal about it but I really want people to understand that Katawa Shoujo is really just scratching the surface of what VN can truly achieve and if you liked Katawa Shoujo, know that there are a lot better VN that really deserve attention.
Personally, I like to play all the routes with both good and bad endings, as I'm always curious as to what could've been.
You should be able to find said flowchart with a quick Google search.
the flowchart is there in my previous post
can't download for now just when i found the full version T,T
I have used this site for a while now and never dropped a thanks, but here it is. Thank you Admin!
Shizune Hakamichi:
1: Yeah, of course.
2: Ask about Shizune's deafness.
3: She has a point. Attack aggressively!
4: I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.
5: She was cute.
6: Wait for Shizune and Misha to come to a decision.
7: Yes.
8: Don't drag me into this! I've done my part!
9: Take it easy.
10: Try to dodge the subject.
11: Refuse.
Following this path will leave you with 3 CG's blank. To complete the CG's for Shizune's route just choose to "Comfort Misha" instead of "Refuse" to unlock all remaining scenes and CGs.
Rin Tezuka:
1: Yeah, of course.
2: I think I've got everything I need to know
3: It's a trap. It's smarter to play defensively
here
4: I'm sorry I didn't mean to startle you.
5: She wasn't cute.
6: Read my book
7: Yes.
8: Don't drag me into this, I've done my part.
9: Take it easy.
10: Sorry, I'm not in really good condition.
11: I'm interested in the art club.
12: I wish I was as good as you.
13: It makes me feel lik I'm stuck.
14: I want to be more like Rin.
15: You won't get a chance like this again.
16: What about Emi?
17: I want to support her.
18: Is that why you're being so supportive of Rin?
19: It doesn't matter
20: But if you found someone like that, then what?
Follong this path will leave you with one CG blank. To complete the CG's for Rin's route just choose, "But aren't you happy people are interested in your pantings?" This will unlock the remaining 1.
Emi Ibarazaki:
1: Yeah, of course.
2: I think I've gor everthing I need to know.
3: It's a trap. It's smarter to play defensively.
here.
4: I'm sorry I didn't mean to startle you.
5: She wasn't cute.
6: Read my book.
7: Yes.
8: Hey, come on. Cut me and Lilly some slack...
9: Go for it.
10: Offer to run with Emi.
11: Press Emi.
12: I suppose I can spare a few minutes.
13: Sure, why not?
14: Talk to her mom.
If you follow this path you will have 1 mission CG. To unlock all CG's for the Emi path, at the final choice, choose to "Go after her". You will get another choice: choose to "Downplay the issue" to get the bad ending, and choose "Give in and let Misha know" to get the final CG and an alternate
way to get back to the good ending.
Lilly Satou:
1: Why?
2: Ask about the Library.
3: It's a trap. It's smarter to play defensively
here.
4: Hi, I'm new here. Hisao Nakai. We're in the same
class.
5: She was cute.
6: Go talk with Hanakao.
7: Maybe...
8: Hey, come on! Cut Lilly and me some slack!
9: Sorry, I'm not in very good condition.
10: Go for a walk into town.
11: Tell the truth.
12: Ignore his insane ramblings.
13: Ask about Hanako.
14: Address it.
15: Talk about Hanako.
16: Mention the letter
After everything is done you should have all CG's of the Lilly route.
Nanako Ikezawa:
1: Yeah, of course
2: Ask about the library.
3: She has a point. Attack aggressively!
4: I'm sorry, I didn't mean to startle you.
5: She was cute.
6: Go talk with Hanako.
7: Yes.
8: Hey, come on. Cut me and Lilly some slack...
9: Take it easy.
10: Sorry, I'm not in very good condition.
11: Go to the library.
12: What do you think, Hanako?
13: Admit it.
14: Do you want to go into the city?
15: Agree with Lilly.
Following this path will leave you with 3 empty CG's. In order to unlock the other three CG's in the Nanako route, when asked to help out in the council, choose "I've done enough work for the council already.". Then, at the end of
Act 3, choose "How about we call it a day?". Then, in Act 4, choose "Agree with Lilly". Also unlocks the final CG. Cut Petals - When on the phone, select "Trust my own judgment".
Thanks for your advice.
Highly recommended!
PS: In my personal opinion, you should start with something like Emi or Lilly's route, save Shizune's for middle and then go either Hanako or Rin route as the last one (there are only 5) as both Hanako and Rin's routes are truly remarkable. Infact, to me, Rin's route easily beats any other route in any other VN I've played.
then i liked emi.
shizune is ok..
but I hate rin.. so much
First released was act 1, then the full game.