Katawa Shoujo is a bishoujo-style visual novel set in the fictional Yamaku High School for disabled children, located somewhere in modern Japan. Hisao Nakai, a normal boy living a normal life, has his life turned upside down when a congenital heart defect forces him to move to a new school after a long hospitalization. Despite his difficulties, Hisao is able to find friends—and perhaps love, if he plays his cards right. There are five main paths corresponding to the 5 main female characters, each path following the storyline pertaining to that character.
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The 15 hour stream was so worth it
Hanako uuuuuuuu 😭
yikes
I read it, had some good routes and some bad ones.
The fact there are still 'people' who discuss it 12 years later is ridiculous.
Lily best girl.
The fact there are still 'people' who discuss it 12 years later is ridiculous.
Lily best girl.
Ever since this came out in 2012 I have constantly revisited it. For a game that was developed by a group of people from a bunch of different message boards primarily brought together by one piece of art, you would expect it to be passable at best, not a genuinely, incredibly well-written romance story that can be silly at one moment and then emotional the next.
As someone who is aromantic and rarely finds romantic plots in stories anything more than an often-unnecessary B-Plot (and even less commonly enjoys straight relationships since, being a guy, I usually unconsciously put myself in the male role and thus find it even less appeal), I can say that Katawa Shoujo is a game I should not like but honestly might consider some of - if not THE - best romantic plots in media. Having recently replayed it on and off over the past few years after learning about the death of one of the co-directors (RIP Raide), I don't think I can really pin-point any point of the game that I think is bad. Some of the jokes don't land or have aged, yeah, but I didn't think they ruined the experience at all.
Overall I highly recommend this to everyone. It's free, too, so it's not like there's any cost involved if you don't end up liking it.
Honestly the worst part of the game is that Miki didn't get a proper route. I know they wrote one and released that script or synopsis (I don't remember. I read it once) at some point but it's a shame it wasn't included in the game.
As someone who is aromantic and rarely finds romantic plots in stories anything more than an often-unnecessary B-Plot (and even less commonly enjoys straight relationships since, being a guy, I usually unconsciously put myself in the male role and thus find it even less appeal), I can say that Katawa Shoujo is a game I should not like but honestly might consider some of - if not THE - best romantic plots in media. Having recently replayed it on and off over the past few years after learning about the death of one of the co-directors (RIP Raide), I don't think I can really pin-point any point of the game that I think is bad. Some of the jokes don't land or have aged, yeah, but I didn't think they ruined the experience at all.
Overall I highly recommend this to everyone. It's free, too, so it's not like there's any cost involved if you don't end up liking it.
Honestly the worst part of the game is that Miki didn't get a proper route. I know they wrote one and released that script or synopsis (I don't remember. I read it once) at some point but it's a shame it wasn't included in the game.