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

  1. 5.00 star(s)

    FallenHeir

    Completely played through. One of my favorite VNs cannot recommend enough; only thing missing is active gameplay. Each of the routes is excellently written and memorable; played it plenty of years ago and remember all of them rather well, with the exception of Lilly's.
  2. 5.00 star(s)

    jiroa

    It has been 12 years since I played this game, and I can still remember all the characters and all the details. Walking to the grocery store and hanging out. It takes you into its world and makes you fall in love with the girls...
    Top notch, have an open mind and give yourself to this masterpiece!
  3. 5.00 star(s)

    Free2Run

    An absolute classic.
    Began as a meme on 4chan and really brought life back into the Ren'py and Visual Novel scene.
    But all jokes aside, the characters are done really well, the story is good, there are actual consequences to your action.
    Plus the artwork and sex scenes are great, too.
    hanako mai waifu...
  4. 5.00 star(s)

    AlleyGatR

    Truly a masterpiece, I feel like this game doesn't really belong on this site, but then I remember that there's games on here with NO sexual content. There is of course lewd scenes in this, but as with many others, I feel like they're not really necessary.

    I started this game expecting just a good visual novel, but what I got was a life changing experience.

    I know the premise is kinda weird, but if you haven't played it yet you owe it to yourself to give it a shot.
  5. 5.00 star(s)

    EdelweissFoster

    This is a recommendation arising from the desire for more people to know Katawa Shoujo ❤‍ , a game that changed the lives of many and continues to do so.

    December 30, 2000 a dojinshi is published on the Internet without attracting attention from the Internet, it contained several sketches of characters including several disabled girls. Six long years passed and a version of those sketches were published in color on the 4-chan website. with more publications at the time (Twitter reditt didn't even exist so to search for something you had to go to the specific page, not even Google helped much).

    Whether by luck or thanks to fate, the simple sketch exploded in popularity, with people giving ideas theorizing what a game with that plot would be like: disabled girls in a school.

    A website was created only for katawa shoujo and from there hundreds of development teams for the game emerged but little by little all of them disappeared except one, a team made up of only 12 people who would be the ones to start the production of the game. .

    But enough of the stories, that can wait, I came to give you a recommendation and that's what I'll do.

    Katawa Shoujo seen from the outside many people consider it something "shady" "bizarre" "sick" "fucking a disabled person" and if I only have to deny it so they can play it I will do it.

    Notice that I will not give spoilers since you do not need to know the story itself to be attracted to it.
    The game, a high-quality visual novel, puts us in a situation in which one day like any other, our protagonist, Hisao Nakai, ends up in the hospital due to a heart attack. Until then, Hisao had had nothing but mundane thoughts about disabilities (like most of us before playing the game) that is until he was diagnosed with cardiac arrhythmia, a disease that causes the heart to pump more blood than it should, causing a heart attack.

    From that moment on, Hisao was in the hospital and the months he spent there, he gradually lost his color, until after 6 months of hospitalization, Hisao was transferred to a boarding school for the disabled called Yamaku, which left him astonished since his life had changed. a 180° turn from his point of view, and normal pessimism invades him.

    This is where katawa shoujo and your katawa shoujo begin since the game will change radically depending on who you spend your time with. If you like someone, don't hold back and spend as much time as you want on it.
    Katawa Shoujo will completely change your way of seeing not only disabilities but people themselves if you give it a chance, and it will make you wonder if you really aren't open-minded.


    Physical or mental disabilities do not have to prevent you from achieving your goals or living a happy life, it may not be normal but without a doubt if I lose both legs it will hurt, but I will remember that I am not the only one and that a little high school girl is an athlete. Even without legs, a crazy girl is a painter despite not having arms and a not-so-serious classmate is the president of the student council despite being Deaf and Mute.

    A Game that has changed the lives of many and continues to do so waits for more people who need to see the world and their own lives in a better way.


    Remember if you play thanks to this review
    That each person helps you ask yourself something
    Hanako: can you face your fears?
    Lilly: can you see the world that I see?
    Emi: can you stand up for yourself?
    Rin: can you reach tomorrow?
    Shizune: can you tell me what you think?
  6. 5.00 star(s)

    Ghiser

    This was the first game i played with renpy.

    This game has a really good story for every girl, a really good story , all ur decision change the game u play, so u can play every route and u won't be disappointed.
  7. 4.00 star(s)

    Deleted member 6577935

    First let me preface by saying, that I don't know what Katawa Shoujo is doing here. I have no problem with that fact, but it seems to me like a "1 of these things is not like the others" kind of deal. At any rate, I looked for completed works by weighted rating, and here we are, even though I read Katawa Shoujo a long time ago.

    Just a couple more things: I can't do a short review on a "pure" (and somewhat long) visual novel. I'll try my best to be synthetic, but there's a lot to talk about. Second, Katawa Shoujo is NOT a top tier visual novel. I think it's fine that it's highly rated, and I would add that it's an excellent starting point for people who want to "get into" visual novels, but keeping expectations a bit on the subdued side, might be in order.

    Moving on to the "meat and potatoes":

    - Setting - The entire twist of Katawa Shoujo lies here. You are still in high school with cute girls, but all of them have some sort of disability. The title didn't need anything else to stand out, and they make sure to remind you of things like an "armless girl", having trouble to dress on her own. Your brain will remember Katawa Shoujo, on difference alone.

    - Pacing - Everything moves very fast (short heroine routes) and it's well structured. The choices aren't always easy to understand, but common sense gets the job done, and experiencing the not so good ends is intended.

    - Lily and her route - The weakest route, but the best heroine, from a romantic POV. Whoever wrote Lilly's route, must be familiar with 90's live TV, and filling up something with nothing, while waiting for an occurrence. The conflict of interest is made apparent in chapter 2, and only gets disclosed by chapter 4. In the meantime nothing happens. Lilly herself is a delight though, "wifey material" by any standards. Lily's disability is the least addressed out of the 5, and it stays on simple "seeing" remarks.

    - Hanako and her route - The "white knight syndrome" triggering route, meaning it's impossible to not like, and want to help Hanako. At first it seems like there is nothing there, just a lot of trauma and pain, but this is not true at all, and the final stretch of the route really paints Hanako in a great light. Hanako is a "girl's girl" if you will, and shows some jealousy and assertiveness, when you were expecting a rescued puppy and submission.

    - Emi and her route - The more traditional route, with the most teenage like girl. I'd put this 1 above Lilly's, but the theme (fear of losing something precious/ guarded behavior) has been explored to exhaustion in other works. Emi fits an energetic (Genki) archetype, and she just needs red hair and calling you senpai, to be an obvious staple of most romance visual novels. Nothing bad here, just a lot of "non-originality". Emi's disability is well thought out though, with a flair for the dramatic, but good.

    - Rin and her route - The reason why you should read Katawa Shoujo, and your only bet at finding greatness in Katawa Shoujo (Read Rin's route first, do as you like afterwards). Rin's route addresses many interesting notions: The difficulty of understanding your own feelings; Why in the end you will always be alone (you can't be "inside" someone else); Trying to find purpose when there's nothing to drive you; Who you are changes even if you try to "stand still" it etc... It's a bunch of philosophical stuff that has no clear answer, but everyone thinks about it at some point.

    The beauty of it all, is in the 2 characters and how they are portrayed. Romantically, it's a bit of a stretch, but from a simple perspective of 2 human beings trying to understand each other it's close to brilliant. Rin herself, is also one of the more unique characters you will ever see in a visual novel. I don't know any "artsy people within the spectrum" in RL , but Rin is a likely depiction of such.

    - Shizune (and Misha) and her route - This one tries to do too much, without enough "runtime" to back it up. The comedy and slice of life, are much greater than in the other routes. Shizune, Misha (their personalities) and the "triangle" with the protagonist, needed a lot more events to really sink in. On the other hand the essence of the title's setting is properly portrayed, and Shizune's disability is well handled. The girls begin the route working like opposites that attract each other, but they evolve (show more) as things roll by. Misha is immediately likable, Shizune has a lot of good traits, becoming apparent, it works.

    - Humor - Not a lot of it and very light. Some chuckles were given, but I'm an easy target. Kenji (the friend), can be funny or exhausting. Shizune's Father is genuinely amusing.

    - Visuals - Lots of attention to detail. What you read and what you see match. The dialogues split when more than 1 person talks at the same time, The flashbacks have a dream like palette. The NVL is used correctly on long exposition/introspection etc.. The art itself can't compete with modern titles (even in 2015 there was much better) but it's serviceable (I like Lily's cg's).

    - Audio - The biggest problem of Katawa Shoujo is the lack of voice acting. Visual novels need voice acting to really separate them from other mediums. It's very difficult to grasp the true intentions of the writer regarding characters like Misha(who speak for 2), without V.A. Something simple like a "hello", can be delivered in dozens of different ways (ask Samir). As for the music it's very adequate (even moving) but a couple of tracks are loud and out of place. Overall the audio brings the score down, by simple comparison to other titles.

    - Writing - Really, really good, but far too prim and proper for the setting. It feels like some characters are training to have tea with the queen in the Victorian era (I'm kidding). I even learned a new word "corrugated". With that aside, Katawa Shoujo is very competent and highly descriptive: The hand is dainty, the arm is lanky, the finger wags, the movement goes gingerly. Lots of adjectives to convey nuances, lots of care and endless revisions of the text (that's a guess), and a bit too heavy on the modal adverbs. There's no spark of genius here, but hard work needs just as much praise.

    - H-Scenes - They are just there. You don't read Katawa Shoujo for them. Let me be clear, they went the "realistic" way. All those VN tropes you can think of don't apply here. No build up, no proper placement, duration, quantity etc... They delivered something different, and did their own thing. It's not a turn-on in any way. Sometimes it barely makes sense.

    - Score - I'd say this is an 8/10, and I recommend it if you want to try it as your first visual novel. Do note that this 8/10, is not the same 8/10 I would give to one of the "graphic novels" (differentiate) you might find here. VERY different standards, I'm far more demanding when looking at Katawa Shoujo (I know visual novels, I'm still learning about the others).

    P.S: There's a lot more to be said (visual novels need more detailed reviews in my opinion), and the vast majority is very positive. I only become this "analytical" with stuff I like. Go give it a read.
  8. 5.00 star(s)

    BDP2000

    This game is beautiful. It is so damn wholesome and I love it. It is honestly one of my favorite stories of any VN, especially Emi's route. She is just so well written that I was actually getting a tad emotional during my playthrough. I can't wait to play through the rest of the routes
  9. 5.00 star(s)

    Sin-Gel-Itch

    Timeless classic with a really neat backstory.

    I've played this in 2012, and I still remember the communication issues from Rin's path, or the iconic bad end from Hanako's.

    A great piece of art, wholeheartedly recommend reading.
  10. 5.00 star(s)

    Nevermind_1979

    A classic. Was one of my first novels, completely broke me for several weeks. A beautiful, beautiful project. A word of warning - it is not a porn game, obviously, but a romance novel. What an amazing game.
  11. 5.00 star(s)

    kinkyman98

    I genuinely don't think that there is anything I can say that hasn't been said yet, so instead I'll just share some genuine thoughts.

    The development hell that this game went through and the whole conceptualization of it is nothing short of a miracle. The fact that a rag-tag group of people on 4Chan could create one of the most memorable, gripping & emotionally wrecking stories I've ever playing is just.. mindboggling. Never mind all of the random, "stock" background pictures that were taken by some dude in Japan. Never mind some of the art which may be a little.. sub-par at times. Never mind any of the other shortcomings, which would be subject to quite a lot of ridicule nowadays. This game is an absolute must play, even if you're a horny fiend looking for the next wank on this site.

    Take your time with it. Don't rush through the dialogue - you won't get anywhere. Really analyze the characters and their connection to the MC and the world around them. Trust me, it is going to hit you so, so much harder if you genuinely pay attention to things.. There are enough games on this site that'll get you a quick fap, but please, for the sake of your own sanity - don't try it with this one.

    If you're anything that even resembles a human being, you'll likely cry. Or, at the very least, get shivers down your spine as the beautiful music plays over a soul-wrenching scene. Your mind is going to be filled with thoughts, theories and, most likely, sadness for countless nights on end after playing this.

    Play it. It's free, even on the original site. Always has been, and always will be. This is the product of genuine passion & love created by a random group of people that, for the most part, had absolutely nothing to do with each other before starting development.

    Thank you, Four Leaf Studios. It's a shame that they never ended up being a proper studio afterwards and instead decided to part ways. You rarely see this type of passion put into a product nowadays (let alone by total strangers..), and they could've been precisely what the VN genre needed.
  12. 5.00 star(s)

    Iamthegoldengod

    Absolutely heartwarming for good endings <3....

    Pros: multiple endings, beautifully crafted characters with very well defined personalities and struggles, very unique plot, mostly a casual plot but some of the most wholesome shit VNs here have to offer, Music is so well crafted and selected, writing is absolute gold.

    Cons: NONE.

    Verdict: Play it already! Must play for people wanting to dabble with JVNs!! Game actually teaches you how to view and treat others that you might think are different from you. It's their normal and you should treat them as just humans rather than something broken. Absolute gold VN!
  13. 4.00 star(s)

    Sherm29

    4.5 stars. I haven't played all the paths yet, infact I've only played the emi route and that alone is enough for me to give this game a rating of 4.5 stars. This is a breath of fresh air from all those mindless fuck simulator filled in this site. It deals with an very mature theme in a very graceful manner. The art style also seemed to have aged fairly well. Almost every character is likeable in their own way, even the science teacher.

    the only issue I have with this game is the Kenji character, his existence serves no purpose in the game. You could very well remove his character and nothing in the story would change. He was implemented in an attempt to act as the comic relief but most of the time he comes across as a mildly annoying character. His "friendship" with Hisao is not a mutually beneficial, most of the time when he appears on screen he asks for money or favors from him and most of the times he also seems to be directly against hisao hanging out with all the girls. 90% of his dialogue is about some silly conspiracy theory that he's been brewing up. Very annoying character.
  14. 5.00 star(s)

    trigillass

    When I played this game a long time ago, it gave me a gift that I never really appreciated until now. That gift was a life lesson that one should never give up, no matter what life throws at them.

    Playing the game again with more age, I appreciate that this game is a timeless masterpiece that fought hard for its existence. But the result is that the characters and story are so unique and memorable that I can't compare the game to anything else.

    The only way to really understand is to try the game yourself.
  15. 4.00 star(s)

    LS47

    This game has been on my radar for quite a while, but I never went around to play it, mainly because most of the time when people suggest me popular, well-loved games, they're often overall subpar or have glaring flaws the players willingly ignore, and I always end up dissapointed. I'm glad to see this wasn't the case with Katawa Shoujo. This game has 5 stars on this forum, and it largely deserves them all. Almost.

    I won't go back too much on the positives everyone else has already pointed out. KS is a nice breath of fresh air with mature themes without being too dark, the illustrations are suprisingly good, and while the story has quite a slow pace at times, is never hard to follow. Going into this game, I was scard to be lost in countless branching paths in hope to get the best outcome for the relationship I was pursuing, but I was glad to discover the choices are quite straightforward. The structure of the story overall is pretty sound, although it suffers from replaying many of the same scenes in every route to get you to speed on some characters you might not have interacted otherwise. A bit annoying, but comprehensible if you want to get a full picture on what's going on in the MC's back.

    Emi's story, closely followed by Lilly's, are by far my favorite routes in the games, followed by Hanako, Rin and Shizune. I think among them all, Emi's is the only one that ticks all the checkboces I had for a story of this caliber : A good pacing, both Hisao (the MC) and Emi's disabilities are not ignored and greatly affect their interactions, the girl has a nice backstory, not too dark but tragic and relatable enough that it was incredibly easy for me to connect with her and understand her struggles. And they actually have disputes over their pasts and their disabilities, which was refreshing to see in an industry where all relationships have to be lovey-dovey all the time with no conflict between the love interests.

    Lilly's story is as interesting as Emi's, notably because it actually explores Hisao's view of his disability more than it does Lilly's, which was a problem in the last 3 stories because we didn't get to see much of it. I played Lilly's story last, and in all the others, Hisao's problems were more like an afterthought once the running drama for the current girl was over. Here, it's at the forefront, and it gives more welcomed depth to a character I couldn't find many reasons to empathize with up until now. Although, I regret that nothing much happens in terms of drama ; what actually happens is important for the characters, but I don't know, it didn't reasonate with me as well as it could have been. I think it's mostly because we didn't get that much introspection into Lilly's life and family to know what they actually look like, and so I felt kinda detached from Lilly during their relationship, but it's still a minor gripe. I think it's because I came from Emi's story first, which I enjoyed much more.

    Hanako's story is on par with Lilly's, in my opinion, although it has some weird things going on that I do not understand. First of all, Lilly's story has a nice character development for Hanako that is strangely absent from her story, like joining the journal club, and putting more confidence in her voice. Hanako feels like a more complete character in Lilly's story than in her own, and I do understand that this game had multiple writers with varying levels of skill, but it was weird to not see this in her own story, like the writers didn't communicate on this point.

    Another weirdness is Miki, a completely generic NPC that pops up twice or thrice in Hanako's route and... Does nothing important. She chats with Hisao for a few minutes, but she doesn't do anything Kenji or a random faceless NPC couldn't have done. I feel like this is where we see the development difficulties the devs experienced while making this game, because it seems like Miki was supposed to get a much larger role in the story as she has full renders and her own disability, but they were short on time and had to axe her out. Too bad, at least she looks nice.

    As for Hanako, her story is definitely the darkest and most tragic of them all, but it doesn't have impact it should have, in my opinion. We're told, more than shown, what Hanako has experienced during her childhood (barring her scars of course), with the bullying and her maladive shyness, but while we see her stuttering and fleeing in panic when she gets too much attention, we don't get to experience the reasons why she still is the way she is, even though everyone around them seems to nice and caring towards her. I thought Miki would be sort of like a bully for her, as she only appears in her story, but actually no. Of course, I'm not saying the story is inherently worse because it is not as dark as I would have preferred it to be, but I think it was a missed opportunity to make us truly feel her pain and relate more to her character. As it stands now, the story goes like "Hanako is introduced, you spend time with her, she ends up sharing her past, you spend more time with her, you get the girl, end". It's still good and I really enjoyed it, but it's not as good as it could have been, in my opinion.

    As for the last two routes, sadly they don't live up to the level of the first two, in my opinion. The least interesting of the two was Rin's, the autistic girl with no arms. It's not that I don't like Rin because of the fact she's autistic, but rather because it makes it harder for me to relate to her when she is so hard to understand. Rin is a very cryptic character who says weird things and does weird things, and had trouble understanding other people and make them understand her, and her story revolves around Hisao trying to understand her and get closer despite of the inherent inability for her to properly express her feelings. Which is a great character arc for both of them, honestly.

    Although, I don't really like cryptic characters that spout nonsense all the time, because what inevitably happens is a lot of useless dialogue that doesn't make sense and that I skipped halfway though because of how bored I was with most of her conversations, the story only takes a turn for the better around halfway though her route, with her art teacher involving her against her will in an art display, and all the stuff that happens there.

    The story gets really good there because Hisao and Rin actually have a real dispute that gave me a bad ending the first time I reached it, which, as strange as it might sound, was a great thing to happen to me, because character-wise, it makes perfect sense for both of them : They can't communicate their thoughts properly to one another, they can't understand each other, and so they scream and argue to unleash their frustration, which was a daring move by the writer and a great thing to happen in a story I might not have cared about otherwise. But overall, it was still a weak story with a slow and boring beginning and middle.

    As for Shizune, the real problem I have with it is that her story doesn't actually lead anywhere. We learn plenty enough about what Shizune is like (and she is someone I wouldn't like at all IRL) and her fusional relationship with Misha, but in this route I couldn't find the qualities I found in the other routes. For starters, Hisao and Shizune almost never have any communication issue inherent to her condition of being deaf and mute ; Hisa quickly learns sign language and her disability pretty much goes away for the rest of the story. Both characters' disability play such a small role in their story that they might as well not be there, which is a huge missed opportunity for installing conflict and character development. It doesn't help the fact that even though Hisao and Shizune end up dating, they don't do any actual dating, unlike all the other routes. Their relationship is barely mentioned twice in the entire route and ignored the rest of the time as if Hisao never confessed to her, with both characters acting towards each other as they always did. There is nothing wrong with people just being content with being with each other, but their relationship didn't bring anything new to the table, nor did it stir the pot a little bit. It was just something that happened, and then was completely dropped.

    Misha also has a small history with Shizune but is never explored in depth nor given enough time or thought to give her a proper character trait other than being the loud bubbly sidekick for Shizune. The latter's spite towards Lilly is also something that is never truly explored, and while I'm not stupid enough not to see much of it is due to their lack of ability to properly communicate, it isn't used for character development more than to lock you out of one route or the other.

    There is also something going on with her family, and I greatly expected some conflict with her and her dad over her disability, as her dad is a giant asshole with little care for his daughter as she clearly makes him uncomfortable... But not much happens here either. Her father gets pissy and starts fights with Hisao, but that's it. The issue in Shizune's story is there isn't much conflict going on, between the characters but also for Shizune and Hisao themselves. The communication barrier is quickly removed, their disabilities are barely explored and don't seem to impact their daily lives almost at all, there are no disputes or conflicts of interest between Hisao and Shizune, and while it's well written and IMO more enjoyable than Rin's story, I'd say this is the weakest story of them all, which is ironic considering how much you see Shizune in the other girls' routes.

    And Kenji is there. I guess. It's weird that he has a single moment or actual character backstory in Shizune's story while nothing is about him in the story. He's just the comic relief that had one funny moment in Lilly's story, and that's it. Completely negligible. The only reason I stopped skipping his dialogues is because Shizune appeared during one fo them during her route.

    And that's it for the routes. I know it doesn't seem like it as I mainly focused on the negatives, but I didn't want to rehash what everyone has already said countless times. I really enjoyed Katawa Shoujo and I'm really sad to see this team won't make another game ever again. They had great ideas and despite their inexperience, they made something astonishing that shaped the AVN industry forever. That's really fucking impressive.

    And I know everyone has made the point, but I just adore the story behind how this game came to be. A group of nobodies, coming from internet's smelliest shithole, known for racism, homophobia and doxxing, make a game about disabled girls and played it straight without ever going tasteless and putting everything they had into it. It had all the ingredients to become a worldwide-known disaster, and yet they still acheieved something incredible many writers would be jealous of (me included, to be honest). At this point I'm genuinely impressed to see such talent and passion coming from where you last expected it. 4chan could end world hunger if those fuckers put their minds into it.
  16. 5.00 star(s)

    tomoe_wroc

    Not the best AVN but the topic is very unusual. The way that game was developed is very unusual. Game is availble for free, also big +. Remember, peoples with disabilities also can fall in love. All 5 girlshave diffrent personalities.
  17. 5.00 star(s)

    Peacekeepr

    There's a reason why classics never age nor die, and Katawa Shoujo is a great example of that. If you never played a VN before, or even if you did, it is still a masterpiece which, in my opinion, everyone should play at least once.

    Moral lesson of "past the disabilities lies a human being" aside, this game is the prime example of what a Visual Novel is about, and might be the best english AVN ever developed to date.

    Visual Novels are ultimately illustrated romance books. While it shows its age and budget (simplistic animations, no voice acting, 2D with static pictures, etc.) it embodies the ideals of what a VN is supposed to be, and thus, it would be unfair to give a rating below Excellent.

    This is probably the reason why even in 2023, eleven years after its original release, it is still in the first page by weighted ratings, with a solid 5 whereas most others fall slightly short (at 4.7~4.9 range), in a website where about a third of all games are VNs (that's competing with about five thousand other titles!) Many can make a good game, but making a good VN is something rare which Katawa Shoujo fortunately is capable to offer.
  18. 5.00 star(s)

    X Death

    My first VN game ive ever played, honestly this game is pretty dope, i love playing it despite its about dorm with people with disability. I dont remember exactly what's the story about since its been 6 years. mc himself has some serious illness, he also forgot his memory. despite that he still able to get his own girlfriend.
  19. 5.00 star(s)

    OldMcDonald

    One of the best VNs I played. It's not that heavy on the porn, because the sex scenes are not that common and not really necessary for the plot, just a bit of characterization. However, this VN should be played by anyone, regardless of porn!
  20. 5.00 star(s)

    SunBoots

    I don't really need to give this game any more praise, just adding another 5* to the pile. I haven't played it since its release, nor will I again, I remember it still.

    This is a character VN far more than it is a porn game. In fact I might argue it's not actually a porn game at all and if you had any expectations for that, you're here for the wrong reasons.