VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Katawa Shoujo [Final] [Four Leaf Studios]

One of my first erotic novels, well written and very different type of characters from any other I've played since, the story's entertaining and the visuals still hold up well. Not alot of sex but the various branches and stories attached to them got me into this genre would love to see a sequel.

Really beautiful storytelling. Worth mentioning not all paths quite feel of the same quality (made by different people), but there is just so much great content here. Mainly story focused, few H-scenes at the end.

Without question, the best free piece of code ever made on Ren'py. Sex is really a little extra here. But when it does, these are scenes to think about. You can even feel awkward during scenes with some girls. The girls are really interesting as characters (well Shizune for the least). The creators really cared about the little details.

There have been lots of reviews talking about all the reasons this thing is awesome. So I'm just going to talk about one bit in particular - something that's easy to overlook but critical to the game's impact. And that's the protagonist.

This is a game where all the heroines have physical disabilities. It's kind of the whole premise. When writing a story like this it's extremely easy to make the protagonist the 'saviour' as fundamentally he can do things they can't. The gallant hero swooping in and rescuing the beautiful heroine from her tragic circumstances is a staple of literature, let alone in a scenario with this premise. But that's not the story the writers here wanted to tell. Not only is it a very cliched story it's a rather patronising one, one in which the disabilities are portrayed as things that make the girls need rescuing. Which raises the question - how do you avoid that?

To be sure, you could simply not write it that way. But instead they took the approach to make the protagonist disabled as well. Putting him on the same level as them. And the disability they gave him was... a heart condition.

I can't quite get over how genius this choice was. He can still do all the things that most people can, making it easier for the majority of the audience to relate. (By contrast, a story with a blind protagonist where the screen is blank the entire time would be interesting. But that's a concept to its own and not the story they wanted to tell here.) A lot of the time his disability isn't really relevant to the plot and managing it is simply a case of taking medication. This keeps the emphasis where it should be - on the heroines. But there's always that looming threat in the background. That if he forgets those pills. If he over-exerts himself. His life could be in very real danger. And even in the best of circumstances he's unlikely to live much past 30.

In doing this the writers completely flip the expected dynamic. The heroine's disabilites have a significant impact on how they live, and exploring that impact gets a lot of attention. But theirs don't pose a direct threat to their survival. And so rather than our protagonist being their saviour, he's the vulnerable one. In all of the routes it's not just him learning to live with his partner's disablity. She's learning to live with his.

I can't remember if it was ever stated, but I always had the thought in the back of my mind that if they got married and had children.. he'd be gone before long. He will never see his kids grow up. He won't be able to grow old alongside his partner. And on her part, she's going into this relationship fully aware of that. She knows that her love will almost certainly die before she's halfway through her life. There's something very melancholy & beautiful in how they all choose to be with him anyway.

Holy shit this is a god tier VN. Like one of the most emotional stories that I have played that includes actual fucking AAA games. The music, tone and script just fucking nails it. The characters feel for the most part real. Except maybe the anime trope nurse and librarian. But there is a real negative to this game. Hanako. If you play her path first like I did you are fucked. Everyone else becomes irrelevant and Hanako is all that matters. Every damn time I start a new play through I end it somehow ends with Hanako. Once you experience her romance their is no other routes in this game. So I suggest enjoying the other stories before getting hooked like I did.

Even though this is a popular game and has plenty of reviews I would like to add mine to the list of them. This game is one that is fully deserving of the Five star rating and a prime example of why VNs are legitimate games/interactive media.

I may have a bias based on the subject matter the game deals with. I know what it's like to feel less than when it comes to a disability specifically in the eyesight department. That's touched on in this game in one of the routes, but this game is more than just that. It's about people dealing with extraordinary trials and struggles in life.

This game came at a very important time in my life that I"m still probably dealing with in a lot of ways. It helped put things in perspective and among other things in my life, helped to change my thought process to a more positive one.

I wouldn't recommend playing this game for the H scenes. It's not that they aren't well drawn and thought out. It's a matter of them being more impactful emotionally than lustful in my opinion. If you happen to read this review all the way through, then I cannot praise this game enough. I've only done 3 of the 5 routes so far because I've really been taking my time with this one.

Coming back to it from time to time to do another route and not rushing it. If you are looking for a well thought out emotional roller coaster, you would be doing yourself a disservice if you didn't play this game. Again it's a top tier VN.

ART

It quite literally changed my life for the better. And there will never be another video game that makes me feel so at ease as I am in the student council.
Great characters, great art, great music, and a part of internet history

When starting this game I wasn’t sure what to expect. I did see allot of dialog on screen, not the most amazing resolution of the artwork (I now know it’s not a very recent game) so to be honest I was not blown away the first 10 minutes but I kept reading the story carefully word by word to find out where it would take me.


Eventually when your interest is piqued in one (or more) character this game turned into a true masterpiece for me which did stand the test of time because of the top-notch writing, pleasing artwork in combination with the great music. After countless of very touching scene’s and interesting dialog the story came to an end for me and made me feel like I did the right thing. I felt good about it, my job was done. This was an emotional rollercoaster of which I did enjoy every moment (yes even the first 10 minutes when you are not emotionally connected with the MC yet looking back at it).

10/10

This game is truly Jazz for the soul, everytime I see it pop up on my files I cherish the memory of playing it for the first time. It mayhaps is light on the reason people play these sorta games but it surely delivers on the story part.

It was my first contact with visual novels and what an amazing experience it was! Amazing story and characters, with every route being worth it and unique, I cannot recommend this enough! A great game that shows new perspectives from people who suffered in life and are just trying to go on, it is mostly light hearted but with pretty emocional moments. Give it a try

I'll get straight to the point, you play Katawa Shoujo not for the sex scenes, neither for the various choices (Beacuse there are not many choices, is more of a book, this game), you play this game for the story and loveable chracters that will probably melt your heart.
I play this game whrn I feel sad and somewhat it puts a smile on my face.
This game may not have the perfect writing, but it has some beautiful music and some cool visuals and scenes.
Play it, you should not regret it, if you want an heartwarming experience.

A real fucking classic right here. Katawa has one of the best written characters there are. I really enjoy the whole unique settings of this story. This story has great ups and breath taking downs. Good sex scenes as well, but nothing exeptional in that category.

An old classic, well worth a play through or two if you've not done so yet (how?!). The unusually concept of all the girls having some form of disability plays off really nicely. Wish more games had art of this quality and writing.

Definitely worthy of the 5 star rating. This game is really fantastic and down to Earth. It's emotional, funny, and wholesome. It's everything I could want in a visual novel and I honestly feel like I grew as a person after playing it. It's very different from the raunchy VNs of today; for the best imo.

The short version is: “Katawa Shoujo” is an interesting and very unique game in many aspects, while the narrative isn’t always perfect, the characters are incredibly well designed, making it a worthy time investment.

As a side note – this review will have no story spoilers.

“Katawa Shoujo” is somewhat different in nature to most other games you’d find on this website, it has no intention at all to be a “sex” game, and, while that is present on the story, it serves a narrative purpose, demonstrating, in a way, the advancement of a relationship. With that being said, both the story and it’s characters are very well designed.


STORY:

This game has a “generic” first act that serves the purpose of, via your choices, decide which of the more “specialized” following acts you will get to play, in total there are 5 “main” paths, one for each of the women, said paths can once again branch into good, neutral or bad endings.

With that being said, most choices do not appear to matter all that much, the exception being on act 1 since they serve the purpose of deciding your following acts. On the following paths this is not necessarily a bad thing, because the story is interesting, but it does mean that it is very much railroaded, and there’s a very low number of decisions to be made that make a big difference, mainly the ones that dictate your ending, most of them just cause minor dialogue changes.

As for each of the 5 main paths themselves, I should also mention that they’re not all on the same quality level, they’re all enjoyable and should be a fun time, but a few of them definitely stand above the others. Opinions on which of them are better do seem to vary though, which in a way is a good thing, because people with different tastes than me are also likely to find something they enjoy.

The general nature of the narrative is very much that of a drama, it has some light hearted funny moments, it also has some conflict and some sad moments, it doesn’t touch anything all that heavy, so don’t feel alarmed by those, it does, after all, concern the school and love life of 18 and 19 year-olds, so there’s nothing all that complex.


CHARACTERS:

The characters are by far “Katawa Shoujo”’s biggest stars, they are where the game shines its brightest and every single one of them is interesting in one way or another, even the side characters are interesting.

If I were to make one “bad” criticism to any character in this game it’d be to the main character, but even that is rather light as my main problem with him regards his inability to actually comprehend how other people feel, which, in a way, is justified, since 18 year-olds rarely manage to do that well, but from a different perspective also means that a very good chunk of the “issues” that the narrative deals with stem from him. Even then, it works for the narrative, since the idea is that he is as “new” to this world as the player is likely to be.

Each of the game’s characters is very unique, with a particular set of abilities and quirks, learning more about them is always interesting and is probably one of the main draws of the game, so much that I’ll probably miss reading about them now that I’m done with the game..

You might have noticed that, so far, despite the game’s description, I haven’t mentioned any of the characters’ disabilities, and, the game kind of does that to you, this is its true master class, it teaches the player to look at its characters for what they CAN do rather than for what they cannot, this serves a narrative purpose as much as it serves an educational one, both of which are done very well.

If nothing else I’d say that the game’s ability to make the player at least a little bit a better person is already an astounding success, very few games manage to do that, and the ones that do deserve all the praise they can get.


SEX SCENES:

To be perfectly frank I don’t really care about the sex scenes on this type of game, they’re not really why I’m playing and most of the time I just find them boring, there are very few that I find graphically enjoyable.

With that being said it’d be unfair for me to be harsh to games on this specific point – I’ll not kink shame though, go nuts people – that’s why I’ll write about them either way.

For “Katawa Shoujo” specifically, they’re not it’s thing, if anything they’re as awkward as you’d expect a first time to be, they’re in the story for narrative purposes and they do fill that role well, they’re also normally on the final stretch of each characters’ route, meaning there aren’t any on the early acts of the game.


CONCLUSION:

If reading through a somewhat long story with incredibly well designed and unique characters sounds interesting to you – give “Katawa Shoujo” a try.

It is worth how much time it requires to be finished, while it does have some “low” points where the story does drag a bit, they’re few in number, in a way that doesn’t really tarnish the whole product.

With all that being said – “Katawa Shoujo” is deserving of a very solid 5/5 as both a visual novel and an educational narrative, in a way that very few other materials achieve.


CREDITS:

I normally use this last part to credit the authors but this game has a longer than normal list, so I’ll drop a link serving that purpose.

Most people that worked on it are nowadays working on other unrelated stuff, but I’m certain they’d appreciate anyone clicking their links and checking them out, so feel free to do just that at:

www.katawa-shoujo.com/staff.php

I've never missed a game as much as this one.
Each girl's story is engaging and compelling. I played through 4 different story lines (didn't really care about Shizune's character). This VN is the best I've ever played and I miss the quality of the story and how invested I am when playing through the different characters. Anything lewd (which isn't much) seems like a natural part of the story line. I wish the author/developer had continued on with other games. I can't recommend this VN highly enough, if you haven't tried it.

all i can say is wow, i cannot begin to explain how this story made me feel, its very personal but i had to come and recommend it. this is an absolute gem that i am so glad i found. At the same time in a way i wish i never found it because of how it made me feel and how i want more. Play it if you're ready for a emotional adventure.

I've never cried from a porn game before. I've actually never cried THIS MUCH over any piece of fiction. Excelent story. Excelent characters. Decent Porn but if you come here for the porn you're gonna stay for the story, trust me.

If my heart could tell you how much love I have for these characters, It'd weep itself out.

I'm a tough guy to please when it comes to stories. I drop stuff easily as there are hundreds of porn games and only so much time to play them. But this one was able to hold me for weeks as I cleared each and every route.

You owe it to yourself to finish at least 1 route. It will open your eyes to something you might not even know you have inside you. There is lust without love. There is love without lust. This one is both, but in its cleanest, purest form. You can tell people you've read this VN, and you can do it with pride. Because while there is porn moments in this game, it is so much more than that.

Play it at least once. Its a once in a lifetime VN.

One of them VN that's great and this game is started from someone scratch character and many people join in and BOOM, you got this game, each girl has different personality, different backstory, which many of them is not common for typical VN these days. The girls are handicapped but still, love is love and nothing can stop it.