The "feels" bazaar.

[Dream]

Emi's bad ending (And on a lesser degree, some of the recurrent topics of Emi's route in general) hit a bit too close to home for me, since it reminded me a lot of some of the problems that ocurred in my past relationship. In fact the bad ending was like living my break-up all over again, i was emotionally devastated when the bad ending started, while many parts of KS left me in a melancholic or ambiguous mood, that bad ending felt really painful. But more than that, among many other things, that bad ending helped me learn and understand one of the many, many ways in which i was (and/or did things) wrong back then.

The bad endings are just part of the story as well, and they're just as important for insight into the route's themes as the good endings are. You guys should follow Xanatos's advice

[Xanatos]

Emi's bad ending (And on a lesser degree, some of the recurrent topics of Emi's route in general) hit a bit too close to home for me, since it reminded me a lot of some of the problems that ocurred in my past relationship. In fact the bad ending was like living my break-up all over again, i was emotionally devastated when the bad ending started, while many parts of KS left me in a melancholic or ambiguous mood, that bad ending felt really painful. But more than that, among many other things, that bad ending helped me learn and understand one of the many, many ways in which i was (and/or did things) wrong back then.

The bad endings are just part of the story as well, and they're just as important for insight into the route's themes as the good endings are. You guys should follow Xanatos' advice

^ Everything he just said, plus I deleted the extra s in "Xanatos". :3

[Shadix-CF]

When you're given a really good and greatly crafted story, you get sucked into the world.
You go into role, and you start to feel like you really are part of the story. The world wraps around you and these people ingame actually become real to you mentally.
So when something that would normally be really heavy stuff in real life, it hits you the same way ingame. So naturally you feel the need to empathize with them.
And this is where the feels come in. Each mind set yields a different feel flow for each different path.

I can't pick a path that has given me the most feels because I've only gotten down 2 of them so far, and working on my third one as we speak. My decision would not be fully educated.

tl;dr version: Keep your Diken-stein hard.

[Shadix-CF]

Guys, is it bad that I find myself constantly thinking of Hanako?
Is it bad that I always listen to the KS soundtrack each night, and nearly be brought to tears as I remember each moment with Hanako?
Is it bad that I'm suddenly a lot more attracted to disabled people?
Is it bad that I'm trying to find my Hanako in life?

I seriously can't stop thinking about her.
Something is wrong with me guys.
What do I do?

It's all cool, I call it Katawa Curse.
You get really into the game, and you can't stop thinking about it, no matter how hard you try.
Felt the same way last year with Emi (She was my first path), same right now with Hanako since I picked the game back up.
It's also fine that you're looking for a person you're specifically interested in, cause its shows that when you do find one, you'll be happy (hopefully).
There are 2 ways to deal with Katawa Curse:
1) Blow your fuse; Play the game soooooo much that you wear yourself out from it (Not recommended as this can backfire or just be a waste of time)
2) Take a long break from it, and I mean long. Months wise if you want it to work.

[OtakuNinja]

Take a Katawa Break.

[Xanatos]

When you're given a really good and greatly crafted story, you get sucked into the world.
You go into role, and you start to feel like you really are part of the story. The world wraps around you and these people ingame actually become real to you mentally.
So when something that would normally be really heavy stuff in real life, it hits you the same way ingame. So naturally you feel the need to empathize with them.
And this is where the feels come in. Each mind set yields a different feel flow for each different path.

I can't pick a path that has given me the most feels because I've only gotten down 2 of them so far, and working on my third one as we speak. My decision would not be fully educated.

tl;dr version: Keep your Diken-stein hard.

Oh, you're in for a treat when you hit Rin's.

[kbk]

It gets better. It's been a while since I lasted played KS and if I stumble upon a KS song while I'm shuffling it no longer draws upon the feelings I experienced. I suppose it is good and bad, I was extremely introspective following my first few KS playthroughs but I was also feeling a tad depressed but now until I find something else to stimulate my feels I am back to where I started.

[Yellow 13]

You have a bad case of a waifu

[Fiandra]

It gets better. It's been a while since I lasted played KS and if I stumble upon a KS song while I'm shuffling it no longer draws upon the feelings I experienced. I suppose it is good and bad, I was extremely introspective following my first few KS playthroughs but I was also feeling a tad depressed but now until I find something else to stimulate my feels I am back to where I started.

You got an addiction for feels, brah. Try reading Nurse-kun's story or Blindmute Loli if you haven't read it

(Sorry if I'm kind of a late and dumb person)

[Denouement]

This is somewhat embarrassing, perhaps even entailing a post in the Hanako's Broken Heart forum, but this game, though I love it, leaves a gaping hole in my heart where depression and emptiness fills in. The most amount of feels I experience is not even when I am playing, not even close. Its when I am away, either listening to its music (foolishly), trying to sleep, or just thinking. Of course, when playing some of the paths there have been moments where tears came out, particularly in Lilly's path. Rin's path was also mind-numbingly depressing. Haven't tried Hanako's yet, it will be my last, but I fear that it might be one of the more powerful ones as well.

A part of me almost wishes I hadn't played, though I guess I wouldn't change that I have. Part of the reason I have created this account on here to talk about the game is hopefully to commune away some of these feels. I don't feel often, and when I do, it is pretty hard, so not only am I not used to them but its a big demand on how much feels I get. As such, a lot of my posts may or may not reference to this issue in the aim of ridding of them so I can simply have the pleasure of being glad to have played and nothing else.

[kbk]

I think most of us here share in the happiness of having experienced KS once the feels wear off. As I've said before it kind of leaves you feeling introspective and it's up to the individual to parse through the feels in order to find out why you feel this way.

[Hisao&Hanako<3]

personally, I don't think I ever really got over finishing Katawa Shoujo. I don't think it's as possible as people think, truth be told. Right now I'm writing a fanfic, on this site, that's effectively a retelling of the game (of Hanako's arc) from Hanako's point of view - that's been my way of getting over the game after finishing it. Continually writing about it has been my method of release and whatnot, but when it's done I reckon I'll just go back to that feeling of "what do I do now?" that I had when I finished my personal last arc (Lilly's, for the record). Oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it...

There's always more to do, that's the cool thing. Draw, play some music, find some games to create the girls in... That's what I'm doing, all the while completing more Hanako runs. Some people just can't get enough of Miss Ikezawa. The way she blushes when she tells you about her tile game... who gets tired of seeing that? Or the way she hesitates before giving you that grand smile and saying "Th-thank you for hanging out with me." You're just like YES. Sort of like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A90YG6vY1o

[Xanatos]

personally, I don't think I ever really got over finishing Katawa Shoujo. I don't think it's as possible as people think, truth be told. Right now I'm writing a fanfic, on this site, that's effectively a retelling of the game (of Hanako's arc) from Hanako's point of view - that's been my way of getting over the game after finishing it. Continually writing about it has been my method of release and whatnot, but when it's done I reckon I'll just go back to that feeling of "what do I do now?" that I had when I finished my personal last arc (Lilly's, for the record). Oh well, I'll cross that bridge when I come to it...

There's always more to do, that's the cool thing. Draw, play some music, find some games to create the girls in... That's what I'm doing, all the while completing more Hanako runs. Some people just can't get enough of Miss Ikezawa. The way she blushes when she tells you about her tile game... who gets tired of seeing that? Or the way she hesitates before giving you that grand smile and saying "Th-thank you for hanging out with me." You're just like YES. Sort of like this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7A90YG6vY1o

Created Shizune in Artificial Girl 3. Regret nothing.

[Brisingr]

It is good to hear you had such an enjoyable experience with KS. This was one of the first productions of any kind of entertainment media that gave me any significant feels. I play games, watch anime, read manga but I have played, watched, and read enough to have a rather jaded reaction to things that would make a first timer explode with feels. KS was my first VN and that likely contributed to the sheer amount of feels I had but moving on, when I finished, I can tell you that I, and going by many other posts I read at the time, suffered from the "what the hell comes after that" syndrome. I choose to throw myself into looking at similar VN that give the feels. One thing lead to another and I became ensnared by TVtropes.com. The point I am clumsily trying to convey is to do something to distract yourself from the game while you recover from the feels. Nearly everybody who plays this game goes through some level of feel overload at one point or another so the fact you are still thinking about the game could be due to the The Tetris Effect. Just know that the fact that you suffer from the feels at all means you truely enjoyed such a wonderful game.

[Carighan]

The funky thing about this was that I didn't actually play it when it released, filing it under "Cripple porn, lulz" as did so many, I suppose.

I played Spec Ops The Line, and held it really high for giving me such strong emotions (I choose the bad end at the mirror, in fact I've been hoping there was such an ending to choose).

And then... I played Katawa Shoujo.