Katawa Shoujo released!

[Lettow77]

 The greatest visual novel of our times is upon us, and it's free. It was developed in english by an international staff. I owe it to languish to let them know. The game can be downloaded from www.Katawa-shoujo.com or, should that be unavailable, most torrent sites should have it with thousands of seeders.

I'd have spoken to y'all sooner about it's release, but I was busy locked in an internet-less cave playing it ceaselessly for the past two days.  A writeup I made earlier on each character, from the perspective of the demo:

Shizune Hakamichi: A confident, clever and driven woman, Shizune was in many ways presented as a spotlight character in the first Act, regardless of which path the player ultimately chose. That she should forcefully take the spotlight is in keeping with her character- insomuch as anyone could be said to lead a school council with an "iron fist", she does so. Each heroine is paired up with a counterpart, and Shizune is notable for being paired with a girl who has no route and is thus not part of the main cast. Her faithful companion is the ensemble dark horse Misha- a boisterous, ebullient and raucous girl whom seems a natural fit for Shizune, given the latter's inability to hear.

Lilly Satou: Lilly is an excellent foil to Shizune; she is reserved, ladylike, and has a mothering nature that has lead her to take Hanako under her wing. Her path writer is a fan of Maria-sama ga Miteru, and it strongly shows. Walking slowly is preferred here, indeed. Lilly seems content to help others without any regard to her disability, and is something of a nurturing Ojou character. Insomuch as she indulges her own interests and preferences, she can reliably be found drinking a cup of tea in tranquility. The most gentle and elegant of the characters, she has been my stand-out favourite, and somehow this leaves me with the least to say about her.


Hanako Ikezawa: A shrinking violet with self-esteem issues about her appearance, Hanako seems destined to win the affections of people who can't help but want to protect her and "fix" her problems. For a girl without a proper disbility, as such, it is noteworthy that she has the most difficulty functioning in public. When she isn't in Lilly's unjudgemental company, she can usually be found in the library, and is perhaps the most well-read of the main cast. She is perhaps the most popular character, and it is easy to see why. Her demure and withdrawn nature resonates easily.

Rin Tezuka: A lady with the soul of an artist, Rin has a unique perspective on life and an extremely laid-back attitude. For me, Rin was the most interesting if not the most appealing character, and this ensures that her route is amongst my most anticipated. She maintains a high degree of functionality in spite of her lack of arms, but finds herself under Emi's care frequently regardless- For all the incredible things she can do to get by without her arms, it seems her largest impediment to functioning is a whimsical mind that is in no hurry to put aside pondering philosophy and the nature of existence to do something as mundane as worry about deadlines or carry out something approximating a daily routine.

Emi Ibarazaki: The genki loli and star of Yamaku School for the Disabled's track team, she has suffered perhaps more than anyone else from being pigeonholed as a stereotype, and commands the smallest visible popularity in the Katawa Shoujo fandom. The staff is cognizant of this, and it can be expected that beyond Act 1 we will see a more engaging character. What we have seen thus far, however, is not unlikeable- Emi is a cheerful, health-conscious girl, and is competitive without the edge that can be sensed in Shizune. For a character seen as the most immature, she has caretaker tendencies with Rin, and discovering more about their friendship is something I am looking forward to the most.

Understand that the kind folks of Katawa Shoujo have made this a labour of love, and intend to distribute the game freely. The price they have paid in time and creative effort has been staggering, and any words of encouragement to the kind developers as they near the completion of years of effort would be appreciated.

[Barrister]

meowtf?

[Lettow77]

 It's a visual novel. That's a story, with pictures, and limited user input to steer the path of the story.

In it, you grow close to people with disabilities, while coming to terms with the protagonist's own heart condition.

[The Brain]

[Drakken]

Will never beat Cosmology of Kyoto. Now that's a great adventure game set in Japan, and without the anime crap!

[HisMajestyBOB]

I prefer Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

[Lettow77]

 It's not really much of a game. Anyhow, it is the loss of anyone who fails to try it- a couple of the routes easily stand up against any VN you'd care to name.

[Neil]

Why disabled people?

Is this why you've been doing that faux-blind thing?

[Lettow77]

 

I mean, my selecting the blind character as my avatar predates either KS's release or my electing to be blind.

I've been quite in love, you see; she is my waifu. She is responsible for launching an odyssey into the life of the blind, which has broadened my reading horizons, the way I perceive the world, and inspired some fine poetry. I've enjoyed it greatly.

[11B4V]

I prefer Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

Or Enola Gay

[grumbler]

I prefer Thirty Seconds Over Tokyo

Or Enola Gay

Thirty Million Degrees over Hiroshima.

[Syt]

RPS has a not so happy article about the "game":
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2012/01/10/impressions-katawa-shoujo/

[...]

After a good twenty minutes with the game, I've interacted twice. Once to choose whether to say something or not, that I imagine may have happened anyway. The second time given a three-part choice of what to ask a person, the game then refusing my choice and making that meaningless. I have, instead, read a great deal.

Even so, even though all I've done so far is click repeatedly on the screen to make the next line of written dialogue (or indeed the next ellipsis) appear, this isn't comparable with reading text or viewing something. The closest would be reading a comic, where I in essence physically "interact" with the book by turning the pages, and emotionally interact with the experience of the story. Except, were this a comic, it would never get away with just having the same image repeated for panel after panel.

But then, I'm playing a guy with chronic arrhythmia and congenital heart muscle deficiency, who is forced to restart his life in a boarding school for the disabled, after a heart attack at a very young age. His friends at the new school have various conditions, one seemingly extremely hyperactive, another deaf. And with a constant internal monologue from Hisao about his circumstances, it's a very introspective, underplayed narrative.

Underplayed, sadly, proves painfully true. The more I play, the less there appears to be to do, with this half-a-story being told at me while I click after every pause and sentence. And worse, those sentences quickly become far less worth reading. The interplay between the excitable Misha and the mute Shizune are pointlessly confusing, one invisibly signing to the other, both voices coming from Misha, but with the game seeming to make no effort to clarify any of it. Why I should care whether Hisao joins the student council or not is entirely beyond me, let alone the agonising length of the conversation about it. It spends more time making me read an argument about joining the council than it did introducing the heart attack, or the subsequent life-changing consequences.

[...]

I would definitely have stopped by now. I've been clicking through conversations, taking in as much as flashes before my eyes and still entirely keeping up with the paper-thin plot. Good grief, the meticulous detail that goes into every tedious detail is agonising. Why would I ever care about Hisao's morning running routine for more than a sentence, let alone literally half an hour of conversations, looping endlessly around the same topics, hurting my will to live? Clicking and clicking and clicking, nothing happening, nothing of any meaning occurring, and then I see the horrendous words, "ACT 2″. What? How many acts? Even if there are only two, this means I'm only halfway through this! Oh please no.

It's a visual novel. That's the justification. But it's also half-pretending to almost be a game, and I can judge it for that. AND I can judge it as a visual novel – I cannot imagine the comic version of this. It would be 900,000 pages of the same six drawings over and over. No one would surely want to read it that way, would they? So why this way? And why is it so many people have recommended this to us, apologising that yes, it's a 4Chan meme, but really, it's so much more than that.

Created by 4Chan, after they became obsessed by a sketch, it's been developed by a collection of internet communities under the name of Four Left Studios. And whether it's disability porn or an affectionate teen romance is up for grabs.

[...]

[Lettow77]

 That positively reeks of babby's first visual novel. I imagine most gamers would be frustrated by a review from someone who clearly didn't understand the medium.

It stands up extremely well as a visual novel, never mind the fact that it is the first credible gaijin one to speak of. "The closest comparison would be a comic"? The closest comparison would be other visual novels; it copies existing conventions quite scrupulously. People unable to enjoy any visual novel will not enjoy Katawa Shoujo; it sounds like he was upset he got tricked into reading a book.

[garbon]

Oh babby.

Anyway, do visual novels really consist of the same images over and over? What's the point then?