Katawa Shoujo, anyone played it?

[Erik_Twice]

If you haven't heard about it, Katawa Shoujo is a western developed, japanese-styled dating sim centered about girls with disabilities, like blindness or burns. Being originally conceived in 4chan of all places, it may be surprising to read it's an actually very well-written and tactful game, with many praising it's handling of the topic with naturality.

The game can be downloaded for free (creative commons license) here:
http://katawa-shoujo.com/about.php

Anyone tried it? I'm thinking of giving it a shot.

[AmishSamurai]

If you haven't heard about it, Katawa Shoujo is a western developed, japanese-styled dating sim centered about girls with disabilities, like blindness or burns. Being originally conceived in 4chan of all places, it may be surprising to read it's an actually very well-written and tactful game, with many praising it's handling of the topic with naturality.

The game can be downloaded for free (creative commons license) here:
http://katawa-shoujo.com/about.php

Anyone tried it? I'm thinking of giving it a shot.

It's actually a very well-done visual novel, which takes a premise that could go badly fast and handles it with a great deal of respect and thoughtfulness.

[scarper]

Most of my close friends have played it, and thought it was brilliantly hilarious. I'm apparently obligated to play this now that my actual girlfriend dumped me. Downloaded it not too long ago.

[Menegrothx]

I played the demo version back in the spring of 2009 or 2010. It was quite lengthy for a demo, I think I played it for like 3 or 4 hours before it ended. Might give it a try again some day

[isiolia]

I have. It is pretty well done. You do have the option to play without the "adult" scenes if that's a hangup.

[Xeogred]

Never knew this was Western developed, I keep hearing about it though. Interesting...

[J T]

I was really impressed with the demo. I've only recently begun to start the full version. I was very impressed with the pathos presented for people with chronic or terminal diseases. WHen I first played it, I was working in a hospital at the time in an area for people with debilitating epilepsy. The game gave me a lot of empathy for my patients. It made me realize how much of a complete life shift it is to get a diagnoses of a severe disease where you suddenly realize hospitals are just going to be part of your life from now on and other people with severe problems are going to be your peers in this new environment. The main characters internal monologues are very well written in this regard.

However, I've also found that you really can't click through this story with any expectation that it be a game whatsover. There is no interactivity and even the times in which you can choose from a series of conversation options have minimal impact on how the story plays out. Also, as you get further into the game, it drags out certain conversations to an obnoxious degree. Though there is some great writing in there, it could have used some editing. Nevertheless, that such a humanizing portrayal of disability emerged out of 4chan is the closest thing to a legitimate miracle that many of us will ever witness in our lifetimes.

[isiolia]

However, I've also found that you really can't click through this story with any expectation that it be a game whatsover. There is no interactivity and even the times in which you can choose from a series of conversation options have minimal impact on how the story plays out.

It's a visual novel, and as such is pretty much in line with what to expect from the genre. It isn't much of a game, but the "choose your own adventure" kind of decision points do steer the story different directions - namely, which girl you wind up with.

[KDub]

I gave it a real short review (I guess we can call it that) in JT's thread of doujin games. I played all the way through with Ami as my story line. I'll pull that up and quote it here.

Finally got around to downloading it and playing (aka reading) through the whole story.
It is a really good story and despite there being some "eh" moments here and there, it actually made me think a few times. It took me about 6 hours to go through and I did it all in one day, I couldn't stop reading for long.

For anyone like me who is weary jumping into a visual novel (lets be honest some of them just like slash fiction are just perverted) this one isn't bad. Once you actually jumped onto the romantic story line there was some sexual intercourse but it was pretty tasteful. The artwork wasn't anything you wouldn't see in a rated R movie and the wording wasn't any worse than your standard off the shelf women's "romantic novel". You can censor it to a degree if it still goes past your tastes and I've only played through one possible story line I believe so I can't comment on them all.

One other thing I will note, this is more of a novel then it is a game. Some Visual Novels give you lots to interact with and lots of choices to make (such as Don't Take It Personally Babe it Just ain't Your Story) but this one the choices were very few and far between. It is more like a classic adventure book, you read for a few chapters and then get one question to flip you to a new set of pages and go from there.

I'll also add that the visuals are great and there are even some animated cut scenes. Those cut scenes were fantastic, I went back and watched them after I was done playing. You can find all the cut scenes of youtube if you want to see them.

With the story as well and something I didn't consider when I first played it. The story lines were all written by different people. So even though I liked Ami's story line and can recommend it overall, the others may not be as good. I haven't had a chance to go through the others and when I looked around online there were some very different opinions on which story lines were good and which were bad.

[MrEco]

When I first heard of this game a while back it was still in development and they had only released the first part of it. At the time I had dismissed it because 1) I don't like playing unfinished games and 2) I feel uncomfortable around amputee's.

But after hearing all the praise this game has gotten, and it being free, I finally downloaded it today and will be giving it a try when I find the time.