[Release] Katawa Shoujo r7
Katawa Shoujo r7 – Katawa Shoujo for the modern age
Newest update: 1.4.1
Katawa Shoujo r7 is a comprehensive remaster of the 2012 release, bringing in a plethora of improvements, bug fixes and all-new features with no compromise on the original's creative vision.
New Features
Ren'Py 8
The unwieldy codebase meets the modern version of the visual novel engine, allowing for arbitrary resolution scaling, HD text rendering, much faster skipping, stability and accessibility features.
Wide Mode
Ever wished for a new outlook at your favorite game? Broaden your horizons with a new mode, taking advantage of the widescreen technology that's been gaining popularity in recent years.
The peculiar resolution is made to strike a balance between the wider feel and the coverage of all existing visual content, and can be used to iterate upon other originally 4:3 interactive media as well. Toggleable off in settings for the original experience.
Accessibility Features
(OpenDyslexic font, high-contrast text, self-voicing)
Robust and comprehensive. Provided by the engine itself, but capped off with a nice endpoint. The entirety of the ingame text and user interface is adjusted and confirmed to be usable via self-voicing alone.
Controller Support
As a side-effect of this starting development as a PS Vita port (see below), full controller support is available. The controls ~ in the spirit of accessibility ~ are optimized for the possibility of one-handed play; every aspect of the game can be perused with the controller in either hand.
Ren'Py Sync
This is a save transfer service provided by Ren'Py itself, enabling you to sync progress between every supported device, including Vita and iOS. Accessible from the Load screen.
Community Mod Framework
As the foremost in what's to come for the Katawa Shoujo community, this release includes means to develop and deploy custom scenarios that plug and play directly into the main game. For them, every resource existing in the base game becomes available, as well as support for new resources at any resolution, both old-style imachine-based and new-style string and image translations, ruby text, and even voice acting. I sincerely hope this well help someone achieve their very own creative vision.
The following expansions are officialy supported:
Future Star Demo Reel (dlc-fsd.rpa) – Proof-of-concept excerpts from select well-regarded preudo-routes: Sisterhood, For Want of a Nail, Developments, Pseudo Pseudo Suzu, and Can You Open Your Heart.
The Dream of a Little Star (dlc-dp-creation-kit.zip) – A story set deep within an alternate universe, and a testament to the capabilities of the Ren'Py engine.
Summer's Clover (dlc-sc.rpa) – A rather infamous mod from the olden days when modding Katawa Shoujo was illegal.
Learning to Fly – Act 1 (dlc-ltf.rpa) – A recent mod, developed with the higher-resolution capability in mind and with prospects for an extended future.
pXt (dlc-pxt.rpa) – The only thing made by 4LS on this list.
The Answer (dlc-ta.rpa) – The other thing made by 4LS on this list.
Mods are distributed as singular .rpa files, and are loaded and unloaded by putting them into the `/game` directory.
On macOS, right-click > Show Package Contents, then browse to `Contents/Resources/autorun/game`.
On Android, the path is `Android/data/org.fourleaf.ks/files/game/` (this final folder needs to be created).
On iOS, files need to be added to the IPA file before install; open it like an archive and go to `Payload/Katawa Shoujo.app/base/game`.
Source files for the mods are included, and the files for Learning To Fly are annotated. Enjoy!
Additional Languages
Because why not, really. The Italian translation has been unequivocally officially released over here, but never made it into the game because it happened after end of support.
Unofficial translations may also be ported upon request. As of now, the Russian, German, Brazilian Portuguese, and Chinese languages have been added.
Original or Upscaled
This release gives you the either option. To enable the HD pack, download `hd-2x.rpa` and place it in the `/game` directory.
Streaming-Safe
All adult content has been relocated to the `*-r18.rpa` patch files; by removing them, you'll convert the game to a Steam-approved all-ages version.
In addition to that, with the patch present and the original "Disable adult content" setting enabled, nude sprites are appropriately censored for streaming purposes.
Fast-Forwarding
This is an alternative skipping mode that plays back all the animations as they happen. Great for playtesting your sound novels!
Temporarily activate it by holding `/` or `Z` keys on keyboard or Right on controller, or toggle it by using `Shift` or L1 with those keys.
Additional features:
Added autosaving. The two topmost save slots (one for the base game and one for DLC) are reserved in a way that doesn't interfere with existing saves, but overwriting them will result in them being overwritten back.
The game autosaves at each timeskip, and can be autosaved manually in mods.Changing music in the jukebox now extends to the rest of the Extras menu, and persists after completing a replay.
Completing a replay, consequentially, now puts you where you left off on the library screen.
In the gallery, exiting out of an image sequence is now possible with `Mouse2 / Circle / Esc`. In Wide Mode, both fullscreen and original versions of the image are displayed, and skipping to the next image is possible with `Mouse3 / Triangle / Enter`.
The engine is modified from upstream for the various needs of the project; the changes are documented in `renpy/diff.txt`.
Bug Fixes
This list only includes the bugs present in the original release.
The choice-tracking system now works correctly, independent of language and without occasionally losing progress.
The crowd no longer flickers in certain situations (like Hideaki's appearance in Lilly route).
Removed the sprite shading error in R40, confirmed as such by the original team.
Looped the train ambiance properly.
Fixed the save name saying "False" if the save is made in an unnamed scene.
Applied the correction pack from here.
There are no remaining issues known to us at the moment, but if you find any, report them to me and I'll work on fixing them.
Shiny New Things
3D Mode
Want something new out of your next playthough? Bring in a pinch of depth to the stage with this mode, controlled by your cursor or touch movement.
Comes preinstalled with the game, activated via DLC.
Note: This is just for fun; if this is your first time playing, we advise reading it as it was intended first.
PlayStation Vita version
Ah, the Weebstation. A console that revolutionized the visual novel market in Japan, and came out less than a month apart from KS itself. It is a match made in heaven, really.
This version functions identically to the PC release, and all expansion content is available as well, except for the following limitations:No FMV support. Only Tom could ever fix this.
The videos are provided separately; extract them to a folder of choice and view them with a standalone video player. I recommend this one.No self-voicing, as the Vita doesn't have a TTS engine.
In its current iteration, the Vita is not powerful enough to render transforms and transitions at the same time. A lot of work has been put into mitigating this, but there are a few spots in the game with inavoidable lag left.
To boot, 180 megabytes of RAM is not really enough to run modern Ren'Py, so a few tricks needed to be implemented:
Only one language can be enabled at a time.
Likewise, any loaded DLCs will add to the RAM burden, and for the most demanding ones the amount left is not enough; this is why the `*-script.rpa` files are separated out. Moving them outside the `/game` directory will unload the main game's script from memory, and allow those expansions to be played with no issues. Don't forget to place them back after finishing.
Even still, the amount of memory errors seems to increase dramatically with the size of the persistent file, to the point that 100%ing the game on a single file would not have been possible. The vast majority of this file is information about what text you've seen, so you have two options:
Flush this data automatically at each save, and not record what text you've seen. (This option and, consequently, "Skip unread text" are on by default, as the prospect of someone not reading these instructions and having their game slowly become unplayable is a frightening one.)
Flush this data manually, if recording seen text is something you require for completion. You'll need to do it about once per route.
The controls for these options are located on the "Accessibility options" screen.
The game will still eventually run out of memory, but it'll happen at rare enough intervals as to not be a hindrance to a pleasant reading experience.
Android / iOS version
It's not 2012 anymore, and your midrange phone can run anything in KS just fine. The mobile version maintains feature parity with its PC equivalent.
On iOS, use Sideloadly or a similar solution to install.
This port has a custom control scheme for touch; please consult the following chart.
Katawa Crash
is an Act 1–era fangame based on another fangame where the goal is to launch Hisao as far as possible.
I am rather fond of Katawa Crash; however, the only way to describe Adobe Flash in the present is "obsolete". So, this is a complete remake of it in Godot. In 60 FPS, with HD rendering, controller and keyboard support, and UX improvements in the UI, in every other aspect the Katawa Crash you remember.
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Download / Play: Katawa Shoujo r7
[When updating from an older version, please update all DLCs as well]
We're currently looking for testers on Play Store to fulfill Google's closed testing requirement. Please join the testing at the link above if you would like to help.
