Katawa Shoujo Act 1

[cosmo]

There is a short review about the latest version of Act 1 in a German article about Ren'Py. More in English here: http://lemmasoft.renai.us/forums/viewto ... =4&t=12561

[clannadman]

Katawa Shoujo is now completed and available to download from:

http://katawa-shoujo.com/

[Taleweaver]

Already played it. And boy, does this game tear me apart. Unfortunately, not in a good game.

Technically, Katawa Shoujo is nothing short of brilliant. Anime-quality short animations, a great use of all the tricks that Ren'Py allows, wonderful music, convincing art (though the filtered photo-BGs don't always work, but the character art makes up for it entirely)... really, this could have hardly been done better. And then, a game of that sheer length all free - seriously, a great group effort. Not to talk about the theme, disabilities, which is difficult to handle in the first place and which, with a cast of very positive-minded characters and with a very healthy message about the quality of life, really makes this game stand out from generic romance VNs. Really, this could have been something absolutely fantastic.

If it weren't for some flaws in the writing that really, really ruins the experience for me.

The most glaring flaw is the blatant overexposition that happens literally everywhere during the introduction of a new character or scene. You see really beautiful graphics of a room and a character in the room, and then the text spends ten goddamn lines just describing what you see. It's the same mistake inexperienced theater directors sometimes make with Shakespeare: Many Shakespearean plays have the actors describe in detail a scenery they are standing in - because on Shakespeare's stage in the 16th and 17th century, there wasn't much of a stage setting. The actors had to describe where they were, or the audience wouldn't have known. Inexperienced theater directors will, in great detail, recreate the setting the text is describing but then still have the text unchanged. Katawa Shoujo does this all the time.

Not as though the story wouldn't move at a slow pace anyway. Until the end of Act 1, pretty much nothing happens except for character exposition. Expect your protagonist to break every dialogue with an internal monologue after every second line so that he gets a bit of exposition as well - not that he is an awfully complex character anyway with his generic disease-induced depression and his overall loser attitude. He likes nice and quiet girls and dislikes scheming and loud girls, and when he looks a little closer, he starts to see all the nice qualities in everybody too - yeah, been there, done that.

From the moment the path splits more, however, it becomes absolutely blatant that this project had more than one writer. Not only does the overall quality of the plot vary widely from seriously engrossing drama to sappy tear-jerkery of the worst kind, even the style of writing changes, sometimes so abruptly that you can literally see where one writer stopped with the text and the other began.

To a large extent, Katawa Shoujo seems to me as though the creators did everything to make the game as long as possible, even at the expense of the quality. So much stuff was crammed into the plot that some of it probably had to stink, and then no one dared to edit out the worst parts. And I know that this must have been possible; some of the writing is so good that at least that one writer must have noticed that others were not up to par with him or her. In a group effort, it can be hard to bluntly tell your companions that what they are doing isn't up to the standards of the rest; with a project the scope of Katawa Shoujo, this unfortunately ruins a lot of what it could have been.

Finally, the H. Handled beautifully, absolutely appropriate to the theme. But was it necessary? Definitely not. To me, the adult content seemed like catering to the 4chan crowd, tacked-on to satisfy the original urge for "porn with disabled people". I don't think the game as a whole profits from it. It doesn't distract from the rest, the same way it didn't distract from the rest in titles like Kanon. But Kanon didn't need the H either.

Sorry, guys. I'd love to love this game. But a good visual novel needs more than good visuals. It needs to work as a novel as well. In my book, Katawa Shoujo doesn't.

[applegirl]

I suppose I have different tastes in writing, I thought it was well written. I like it when the writers actually take the time to slow down and develop the characters. I suppose people have different views on whether it is original or not, but isn't that the case for all visual novels? BxG: if there is a girl, most likely there is romance between the main character and girl. Otome: you usually have your shy boy, over-confident jerk, and glasses type. The fact they took on a controversial topic and handled it with (in my opinion) great sensitivity made this an original visual novel.

I have to be completely honest, I have a pretty low opinion of the BxG OLEVN that I've read so far (that are free). I can't really think of many (or more than two really) that made me feel impressed. Usually, it seems to me to be filled with parodies that left me not laughing or generic stories/harems that usually lead me to delete the game after...say, 5 minutes of reading. It usually is a struggle to force myself to read it for 5 minutes too.

Haven't finished the visual novel, but I like it a lot so far. Some of the scenes were incredibly powerful, like:

The scene when Hanako hugs the two gifts she got on her birthday, so happy just because they were gifts from her only two friends in the world.

I saw/read that scene and I felt sincerely touched. Maybe I happen to like sad stories more? I don't like the whole pandering idea, but I like visual novels like Narcissus. It was adorable and I really smiled.

I've read a lot of visual novels, both from Japan and the OLEVN community. I suppose I have different expectations for each. So, it may be personal tastes. But I really was impressed. It makes me hopeful that the next BxG OLEVN I read (which would probably be Cradle Song or Shock Cocoon) will exceed my expectations as well.

Err...there's also an option to disable the H scenes. (Just like in a few visual novels I've read, like F/SN). I probably missed out on things there, but I admit, I don't particularly see the point in them. But I don't think what I did (disabling the H scenes) detracted anything and it allowed me to enjoy what I thought was a fine visual novel.

EDIT: I just realized, I liked probably 4 or so BxG free OLEVN. Haha, whoops. I'm not counting commercial ones, because that's not a fair assessment.

[zeroyuki92]

I am pretty surprised that the only VN that made a biggest boom in western internet haven't really talked seriously here.

Have completed two routes of five. While @Talewaver had a solid point there about the general pacing, actually that phenomenon already happened in many other visual novels, and already turned into a kind of "convention" to Visual Novel writing style...Well, they even acknowledge it in their blog site, but too bad they thought that Katawa Shoujo from the very beginning isn't a concept that strong enough for another level of writing that will need many more effort and deconstructions. At least they made some good efforts in the writing "the usual slice of life VN", and I know that they spend around 2 years in editing process, which I appreciated deeply. (Although from what I heard, Shizune route is pretty bad written, I haven't tried it by myself)

In KS, some routes were played straight but some had a very good job in deconstructing theme. They also successfully avoid some bad cliches in VN, and while most of the story don't have too many surprising factor, it really succeed in "story that hits home" experiences, which especially effective for VN/literary first timer. I'm still amazed to how far KS spread it's wings and made a very big boom in the internetz. The huge pre-hype, disability and 4chan controversy and the unexpected "most of /a/ and /v/ turn into a civilized and respectful internet board just because of a single visual novel" play a big role to the success.

Personally, I loved what I played now. I never have any problem with slow-paced visual novel, so pacing is not a problem for me. It had a line of good casts, good romance, heartwarming endings, good art+music, good messages to convey, etc...The only downfall for me is...it wasn't, and far from a masterpiece. Katawa Shoujo actually don't have anything that can be called as "outstanding", but I'm sure that for OELVN, it's at least...one of the best example that you can find.

[Taleweaver]

I am pretty surprised that the only VN that made a biggest boom in western internet haven't really talked seriously here.

The reason for that is that you're looking in the wrong place.

[zeroyuki92]

I am pretty surprised that the only VN that made a biggest boom in western internet haven't really talked seriously here.

The reason for that is that you're looking in the wrong place.

Lol, I don't expect it to be posted in separated thread from this thread, thanks.

[dott.Piergiorgio]

I can suggest closing this thread for avoiding dispersions ?

Best regards from Italy,
dott. Piergiorgio.

[AshenhartKrie]

this is actually a really awesome game. I've played it through and got almost every single ending. ^^ Needless to say i got extremely bored. definitely worth playing.

[distorsion]

Mac direct download not working.

[darkphilious]

I like this game. The graphics, the music, the story, everything is perfectly lined. I like the characters, the endings, even the bad endings. An excellent VN in my opinion.

[Taleweaver]

Everybody please kindly resume discussion in this thread.