[HEADING=2]So, what is a visual novel?[/HEADING]
A visual novel is just that; a story told in the format of a video game or Choose-your-own-adventure book with a focus on visual and audio.
Like this.
Due to the genre coming from Japan, an anime or cartoon art style is typically used.
Katawa Shoujo is a western-made, high quality non-kinetic eroge game... let me translate: A game where you make choices that effect the story, with porny bits to fill in the gaps. The porny bits are small, though, and intentionally about as erotic as toothpaste and shit being used as paint, unless you're into that (in which case you'll be all over this game) and the plot is character driven with a focus on narrative.
This is the mold most visual novels use.
[HEADING=2]So, what's Katawa Shoujo[/HEADING]
In the... well, I can't remember the date, but it was June. An artist called RAITA uploaded this onto the glorious Internet:
OH, I remember, it was 2007.
As you can see, this is an omake page. Just little extras that come with DVDs. Nothing more.
At least, until 4Chan found it. And God damnit, when someone said to go through with the plan, were they SERIOUS. After 5 years of disagreements, labour, lots of practise, and almost one restart, Katawa Shoujo finally surfaced. There were so many people on the page that it crashed the HTML coding. No, seriously. The entire page crashed, just like that.
Katawa Shoujo starts with the kicking off point of the story and the main man of the story, Hisao Nakai and Iwanako. Just before she confesses her feelings, Hisao has a heart attack.... yeah. A Hollywood Heart Attack to be precise.
After spending four depressing, boring, lifeless months in a hospital that closer resembles a jail, with Iwanako stopping her visits some time ago, even if she was the last to stop, Hisao gets diagnosed with arrythmia, meaning he'll have to go to a specialist school, Yamaku, which is tailored for disabled or the impaired.
Yes, it's handled a lot more tastefully than you're thinking. Yes, the game is more or less "bang disabled schoolgirls". Yes, it's self-aware. And yes, it's respectful, plot driven, and high quality, unlike everything you ARE thinking right now.
Throughout "Act 1", you're introduced to everyone you need to know: Shizune (Not She-Zune, She-zu-ne, as in "next". Her name is annoying) and Misha, the local student council, one of whom is death, one of whom broke a nail, and both of whom know sign language. Rin, the local artist with a mind vaguely akin to Jim Carrey's on morphine... and she doesn't have arms. Emi, the lower leg-less track prodidgy. Lilly, a Scottish blonde who really likes tea and being sexy and stuff and can't see 'cause she's blind. And Hanako, a victim of a fire that left her body as crispy as sunday morning breakfast.
And a bunch of extras. The sexy librarian, your teacher who looks like he's from a David Lynch movie, a ton of minor characters who act as the author avatars of the developers, and the dropped gay option, a bisexual conspiracy theorist who's been depressed and wary of all women since his girlfriend dumped him who secretly wants in your pants who is also blind... pretty much all of these characters need a good deal of art, so you can see just why, with an ameutar international team, why the game took so damn long. Here's a video more or less summarising the basics of every character:
That was Lilly's sexy face, by the way.. "eto eto"... haha... oh, wait the, ugh, review thingy. That.
To say anything more would basically be a spoiler in and of itself. Here, you also decide which route you're going on, and it's much harder than you expect. For example, one very early choice basically locks you into a route with no turnabout.
[HEADING=2]Art[/HEADING]
Being the western attempt at a Japanese visual novel that we all love so much, KS uses a lot of visual tropes that Japan stopped using a while ago, or are all currently used as money saving tricks. In partciular, the majestic side-mouth, eyes over hair, both of which are just money-saving tricks devloped in japanese animation, and many other anime-isms, I despise. However, for what it is, it's good.
The art is high quality, without a doubt, with art that'll put most other indie games to shame. The CGs are well drawn, the sprites are well drawn, and the photography skills used to get the backgrounds are high quality... so, it gets a free pass, but the anime tricks really annoy me.
[HEADING=2]Music[/HEADING]
Pretty damn awesome. Just like the art and writing, the music is good; it's catchy, there's lots of it, and every character has a few themes that fit well with their personality; my favourite is Rin's, Parity.
[HEADING=2]other stuff[/HEADING]
*The community is welcoming. Their currently making a bunch of spiritual sequels, essentially keeping the game alive, at least within the circle already established, most of which are also decent. Most.
*The game's professional, free, and even if you don't like it you could still use it as a "what not to do guide"; it's obvious the devs poured their heart and soul into this.
So, Katawa Shoujo may forever live on in infamy with the abridged version basically being "sex with disabled girls", but looking at it closer shows that it's something with a heart, a soul, and a story. So no, it won't turn you gay, burn down your house, or anything else that the Internet is telling you it will.
A visual novel is just that; a story told in the format of a video game or Choose-your-own-adventure book with a focus on visual and audio.
Like this.
Due to the genre coming from Japan, an anime or cartoon art style is typically used.
Katawa Shoujo is a western-made, high quality non-kinetic eroge game... let me translate: A game where you make choices that effect the story, with porny bits to fill in the gaps. The porny bits are small, though, and intentionally about as erotic as toothpaste and shit being used as paint, unless you're into that (in which case you'll be all over this game) and the plot is character driven with a focus on narrative.
This is the mold most visual novels use.
[HEADING=2]So, what's Katawa Shoujo[/HEADING]
In the... well, I can't remember the date, but it was June. An artist called RAITA uploaded this onto the glorious Internet:
OH, I remember, it was 2007.
As you can see, this is an omake page. Just little extras that come with DVDs. Nothing more.
At least, until 4Chan found it. And God damnit, when someone said to go through with the plan, were they SERIOUS. After 5 years of disagreements, labour, lots of practise, and almost one restart, Katawa Shoujo finally surfaced. There were so many people on the page that it crashed the HTML coding. No, seriously. The entire page crashed, just like that.
Katawa Shoujo starts with the kicking off point of the story and the main man of the story, Hisao Nakai and Iwanako. Just before she confesses her feelings, Hisao has a heart attack.... yeah. A Hollywood Heart Attack to be precise.
After spending four depressing, boring, lifeless months in a hospital that closer resembles a jail, with Iwanako stopping her visits some time ago, even if she was the last to stop, Hisao gets diagnosed with arrythmia, meaning he'll have to go to a specialist school, Yamaku, which is tailored for disabled or the impaired.
Yes, it's handled a lot more tastefully than you're thinking. Yes, the game is more or less "bang disabled schoolgirls". Yes, it's self-aware. And yes, it's respectful, plot driven, and high quality, unlike everything you ARE thinking right now.
Throughout "Act 1", you're introduced to everyone you need to know: Shizune (Not She-Zune, She-zu-ne, as in "next". Her name is annoying) and Misha, the local student council, one of whom is death, one of whom broke a nail, and both of whom know sign language. Rin, the local artist with a mind vaguely akin to Jim Carrey's on morphine... and she doesn't have arms. Emi, the lower leg-less track prodidgy. Lilly, a Scottish blonde who really likes tea and being sexy and stuff and can't see 'cause she's blind. And Hanako, a victim of a fire that left her body as crispy as sunday morning breakfast.
And a bunch of extras. The sexy librarian, your teacher who looks like he's from a David Lynch movie, a ton of minor characters who act as the author avatars of the developers, and the dropped gay option, a bisexual conspiracy theorist who's been depressed and wary of all women since his girlfriend dumped him who secretly wants in your pants who is also blind... pretty much all of these characters need a good deal of art, so you can see just why, with an ameutar international team, why the game took so damn long. Here's a video more or less summarising the basics of every character:
That was Lilly's sexy face, by the way.. "eto eto"... haha... oh, wait the, ugh, review thingy. That.
To say anything more would basically be a spoiler in and of itself. Here, you also decide which route you're going on, and it's much harder than you expect. For example, one very early choice basically locks you into a route with no turnabout.
[HEADING=2]Art[/HEADING]
Being the western attempt at a Japanese visual novel that we all love so much, KS uses a lot of visual tropes that Japan stopped using a while ago, or are all currently used as money saving tricks. In partciular, the majestic side-mouth, eyes over hair, both of which are just money-saving tricks devloped in japanese animation, and many other anime-isms, I despise. However, for what it is, it's good.
The art is high quality, without a doubt, with art that'll put most other indie games to shame. The CGs are well drawn, the sprites are well drawn, and the photography skills used to get the backgrounds are high quality... so, it gets a free pass, but the anime tricks really annoy me.
[HEADING=2]Music[/HEADING]
Pretty damn awesome. Just like the art and writing, the music is good; it's catchy, there's lots of it, and every character has a few themes that fit well with their personality; my favourite is Rin's, Parity.
[HEADING=2]other stuff[/HEADING]
*The community is welcoming. Their currently making a bunch of spiritual sequels, essentially keeping the game alive, at least within the circle already established, most of which are also decent. Most.
*The game's professional, free, and even if you don't like it you could still use it as a "what not to do guide"; it's obvious the devs poured their heart and soul into this.
So, Katawa Shoujo may forever live on in infamy with the abridged version basically being "sex with disabled girls", but looking at it closer shows that it's something with a heart, a soul, and a story. So no, it won't turn you gay, burn down your house, or anything else that the Internet is telling you it will.