The seminal classic that every Visual Novel fanatic needs to read at least once, it's been well over 10 years since Katawa Shoujo has been released and it still holds up as one of the best VN's developed by the internet.
This game holds a very fond place in my heart as one of the first visual novels I managed to get my hands on and complete, and after replaying it, it's been a joy to re-experience it with more experience with the medium.
First and foremost, I love the characters. There's at least one girl that will capture your interest. All of them have dreams and goals with their own sets of problems; sometimes tangentially related to their disabilities, sometimes not, but it's never the main reason why. Even the side characters are pretty memorable too. Kudos to all of the writers who worked so hard here.
Hisao Nakai is a very interesting POV character. He starts as a very cynical and bitter guy, but slowly and gradually opens up once he gets on a route. You get to watch this really bitter guy who doesn't know how to deal with his new medical condition to someone who can rely on others and wants to support his friends and loved ones as best he can.
Special shout out goes to the music for this game. It's all great, I would say almost the entire score is memorable. From the wistful and nostalgic title screen music, to the upbeat and relaxed every day tracks. It knows when to let lush romantic strings play, when to be somber and moody, and when to be warm and joyful. All great stuff, definitely worth listening to on it's own.
I do want to talk about some negatives here though, albeit minor issues. This game has several different writers and it shows, but nothing too major. Your mileage may vary with the direction of some routes as well. There are some amazing bad endings that hit you right in the face to call you out, while others are not as impactful, or go in a direction you definitely did not expect from your choices.
I still believe this is an excellent game, no doubt. It's a miracle of game development from 4chan, and the well documented rocky development cycle should have doomed this game, but it didn't. And we have an amazingly written game to show for it (which is a miracle in it's own right considering other VN's this community is aware of). It's been a pillar of the Western Visual Novel scene for 12+ years, and it's been an honor and privilege to be able to still talk about it today.