Poll: Katawa Shoujo: Not Sleezy fetish Sim

[kouriichi]

In recent news, the game "Katawa Shoujo" A.K.A Disable Girl Dating Sim, has caused a bit of a stir. Well, having pulled an all nighter ((10:30pm-7:31am so that my wife wouldnt catch me playing it Sneaky Huh?)), and i can proudly say, its not sleezy. It doesnt even feel like a "dating sim".

Let me start off saying this isnt a review, and im going to give you my unbiased opinion based on all subjects of the game, and related to it.

The game itself is a "standard" text based, japanese style relationship game ((Notice how i didnt say dating)), in which you can form ((complex)) relationships with one of the several female characters.

While im not an expert in Japanese dating sims, having only played 3 in the past ((and getting no more then 30mins-2hours into them because they made me feel to much like a perverted freak of nature)), but this one feels quite a bit different from the others. The characters in this game feel like real people, and the actual deal of "sexual relations with a handicapped person" is very minimal as a whole.

This is not a game about romancing and boinking the female you think is most attractive, so much as it is about forging a stable relationship with the person you enjoy being with most, and your character Hisao, coming to the realization that people with disabilities are no different then people without.

I have nothing negative to say about this game. The writing, pacing and characters are VERY well developed, the music ((while a tad bit repetitive at times, but its a Japanese Relationship game, what do you expect?)) is extremely well done, the humor is tasteful, and while the "plot twists" you will see coming a mile away, are always fitting and never feel like they're pandering.

I wont give this a 10/10, a 9/10, nor any other rating. This isnt a review. All i can say is, download and try it yourself. You'll be surprised at what it really it. A game where characters come first, story comes second, and everything else is just gravy.

At the moment, its completely free at the developers site (( http://katawashoujo.blogspot.com/ )).

What are your thoughts on it?
If you've played it, what do you think? Was it what you were expecting?
If you haven't, will you give it a try?

 

[brumley53]

I played it at first because I expected a badly written cheesy piece of crap with about as much taste as south park. Once I started the game I was amazed at how tastefully done it was and the story was really compelling. I only played through it once and got the good ending for Hanako, but honestly that's all I felt I needed to play. I really did feel a connection with the characters and Hisao having arrhythmia made the whole game tie together better. I'm amazed at both the fact that the game is this good and the fact that it came from a board on 4chan. One thing I'm interested in seeing is what the artist of the original sketch thinks of the game.

 

[LilithSlave]

I'm really meaning to hurry up and read it and stop putting it off. It looks incredibly interesting.

I'm a sucker for a decent romance. I like that a lot more in video games than violence. I find it funny that people call pretty much every instance of romance in video games "cheesy" but then turn around and chop up zombies.

 

[AyreonMaiden]

Played it, got Emi's good ending. ADORED this game. I wanna do the other paths, but I'm waiting to sorta "get over" Emi as I'm still attached to her slightly.

First VN I've ever played, and it was very tastefully done. They have physical disabilities but that doesn't change that they're teenagers and that sex is a part of that life. This genre is notorious for being exploitative (or so I hear,) but this was so far from that it's not even funny.

A lot of people think the moment they hear "Disabled girls dating sim" that it means "AHHWHWHWHWHH HAVE SEX WITH MY STUMP KIMOCHIIIIII DO ME IN THE EARS I CAN'T HEAR DAME DAME DAME" So much for an industry that demands challenging, tasteful content right? The moment the opportunity appears, we immediately get on our high horse about how moral and clean and respectful we are the moment a bit of sex appears, and utterly dismiss the possibility that this might actually be for a purpose. Same thing happened with Catherine. Everyone wrote it off as "Qbert with tits" when in reality it was one hell of an exploration of indecision and romantic relationships, with nary a nipple in sight.

I never take anyone seriously when they even slightly imply "There's no originality in the industry." I say to them fuck you, open your eyes, get off your high horse, and TRY SOMETHING NEW. You never know, you might enjoy it. Or at least, find that your original assessment needs work.

 

[Z of the Na'vi]

You know what? Fuck it, I'm going to give this game a try.

I haven't played any of these types of games before, other than hearing the stereotypical rumors of the aforementioned "LOL SEXY JAPANESE DATING GAME LAWL." However, seeing as how the game is being described as a clean, wholesome experience that derives into the possible real-life situation of having a relationship with someone who is in fact, disabled. It sounds...well, interesting.

I admit it, I am generally interested. Is that bad?

[sub]Ulp.[/sub]

 

[kouriichi]

You know what? Fuck it, I'm going to give this game a try.

I haven't played any of these types of games before, other than hearing the stereotypical rumors of the aforementioned "LOL SEXY JAPANESE DATING GAME LAWL." However, seeing as how the game is being described as a clean, wholesome experience that derives into the possible real-life situation of having a relationship with someone who is in fact, disabled. It sounds...well, interesting.

I admit it, I am generally interested. Is that bad?

[sub]Ulp.[/sub]

In truth, i think a lot of it is just social stigma.
The reason i downloaded and tried it was to see if it was really just a fetish game. Just from the idea of a "Disabled Dating Sim", i was put off. But once you start to play you really do get past the physical disabilities of the character. After a while, i stopped noticing "The girl with 3rd degree burns", and started seeing, "A little sister figure". There was even an ending for just being like an older brother to her if you continue to baby and shelter her. Not even a sex scene to that ending. And i was happy with it. Started a new game, and made started making friends with a completely different person, and enjoyed it even more.

 

[Alterego-X]

The thing is, that it's not really a Dating Sim at all. There is a genre known as "visual novels", stories that are built up in that same format as Katawa Shoujo. Or rather, it's more like a whole medium, they are not really video games after all.

Dating sims: a video game genre, where gameplay mechanics are used to simulate seduction.

Visual Novels: a digital medium, where storylines are presented in a background+character sprite+text format.

Video games can have "Visual Novel elements", in the same way as they can use "movie elements" (cutscenes), to communicate plot points. For example Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney has them. But especially, many dating sims use them, to the point that the typical Visual Novel screenshot also became known as a generic dating sim reference.

So there came a confusion about mixing up any story that is told in the Visual Novel format, with dating sims. Even the ones that are "full" visual novels, that don't include any gampley, or even the ones that are not even romantic.

On gaming sites that ignore these genres, Katawa Shoujo is basically the ugly duckling of dating sims, even though it's actually a decent example of it's own real genre/medium.

 

[Drakmeire]

Haven't played it yet but from what I can tell, the characters are defined by their personality rather than their disabilities. and I see it as a great step forward in equality in games since there are so few handicapped characters.
I liked the social links in the Persona games and I guess that this style of game is very similar so I might even like it.

 

[Alterego-X]

What pisses me off even more than those prejudiced people who just assume that it's lowbrow crap and ignore it, are those who started off with a prejudice "I don't like Visual Novels, they are all crap" before even trying any, but then, after trying KS, they modified it to "I don't like Visual Novels, except KS. That one is good.".

 

[Iron Lightning]

Nah, man, I'm not into visual novels.

 

[Paddy the Second]

I've got about two hours in and can honestly say it's both really bloody good and very tastefully done. Not that m friends will listen to me.

 

[Elivercury]

I've not played it, and probably won't. I'm sure it's tasteful, interesting and all the rest (despite the initial knee-jerk I think we all had when we read about it), but I've got 20 odd games to play which I don't have time for already.

I've a question for the OP however: Now having played it, judged it as tasteful and recommended people give it a fair shot, are you still embarrassed to admit playing it to your wife?

 

[RedEyesBlackGamer]

I've already got it installed, I'm just waiting till the weekend to read/play it. I've heard nothing but positive things about it.

 

[Zio_IV]

I was pretty surprised myself at how good the writing was in this game. Better than most of the garbage that comes out on theater every week, at least. When it finally got to the explicit parts, It was actually a little jarring and most of me wanted to get back to the story.

Strange, huh?

 

[The Cake Is Annoying]

Played it.

One of the best games I've played in a long time. I won't say I liked everything about what I've played so far (I'm < 2 hours in on my first play) and the game has already demonstrated first rate story telling and both believable and likable characters.

Fine treatment of delicate subject matter. Flawless? No. But since there's sod all games I can think of that explored characters with physical disabilities in depth this is a brave game breaking new ground.

Can't comment on whether the endings or romance / friend elements, as I simply haven't played it that far, but if this was another genre of game I wouldn't even being ask myself if it had a crappy third act.

I've not played relationship/dating games before, but if more of them are of this caliber I think I see myself spending more time with the genre.

 

[Kvaedi]

Ok, first I'll start off by saying this is not my kind of game. I'm a death metal singer-we aren't really the demographic for any kind of romance related...well anything!

The first things I heard about this game were 4chan and "you date disabled girls." Wow, I couldn't even imagine that turning out slightly well. It was only after reading a review for it on the forums here that I tried it out...

And I was amazed. This game made me feel things. This game inspired me to go running this morning. This game inspired me to actually work out an exercise plan for myself.

I don't watch anime, (I have watched a few in the past, very few that I really liked) so this caught me completely by surprise. If you haven't played it, do so. All of you.

 

[RESURRECTION21]

i have played the game and found it to be very sweet as much as it can be it is still a porn game but the ladys are not sex objects like most girls in this type of game and the love scenes are not hardcore or over the top in fact 90% of the game is just talking to the kids in the school and the disablitys of the girls do not define them

 

[GonGon1]

I downloaded it the day it came out. I had been waiting and following the dev blog for quite a while before it came out, and it's everything I had hoped it would be. Very well written, the music is good, none of the weird things that sometimes come from Japan, and what few sex scenes there are aren't overdone. I was happy to get back to the story when they were finished.

I've finished one route, but got a very depressing ending. Fortunately I kept a save right before I made the important choice.

It's too bad I would never be able to convince my friends to play it, and I would probably get crap for trying in the first place, so why bother?

 

[NubiJuan]

dating sim and disabled anime girls weren't the words that jumped out at me. having my ps3 recently ylod on me and deciding not to buy a new gaming machine for an indefinite amount of time, the words "free" and "game" had me sold. i figured i'd be in for some standard anime fare entertainment, some good chuckles here and there maybe.

well I just finished it my first time through and I LOVED it. really it was no different from reading a GOOD light hearted teen romance novel (not that I've read any), but the typical annoying high school teenage drama was nowhere to be found. instead I found myself creating and establishing relationships in what at first seems like a foreign environment. i have an involuntary habit of trying to relate whatever song lyrics I read to whatever I have or I think I might experience so i had no problem slipping into the protagonist's shoes from the first sentence on, but the strong writing didn't waste any time drawing me in and the main character's reflections and recollections were ones that I could totally see myself having. hisao nakai is thoughtful, observant and way beyond more tolerable than any similar high school character you can think of because he is pretty well fleshed out while still leaving me some room to slip into him and better feel the situation is in.

i only really got to experience one character (emi) as I guess that was the storyline i had chosen for myself even though I am confused as to how I made that choice since I only saw about five instances where the novel asked for my input on a particular occurrence and each time the decision and consequence seemed relatively unimportant. as for the girls, they too share with the protagonist the quality of being well fleshed out and being believable characters in the given premise. i was curious throughout how the novel would manage the relationships and the sex scenes and i'm pleased to say they were done better than in any movie I have seen because I could at those instances care only for how the experience would affect the characters involved.



so yeah not much more I can say that I already haven't and those who want to see what its all about will note the length of this post! this probably equals the amount that i wrote for fallout 3 and mass effect 2 and those two are my all time faves! so if you enjoy reading and some romance then download it now!

 

[ckam]

I love this game. Though, it was actually kind of hard for me to go down Hanako's route; I accidentally went down Emi's instead. Very good game that doesn't feel like a gimmick, at all. Now, this is a good reason why 4chan exists.