OK, so I just went from discovering KS to getting 100% in less than a week. Mind you I also work full time!!!! There were a few nights where i stayed up to 4-5AM and I get up for work at 8AM!
Awesome game. Not what I expected at all. I literally googled "erotic games for linux" and came across KS. Without reading any reviews or knowing what the game was about (even about the girls having disabilities) I started playing.
A few scenes in, I knew this wasnt any normal dating-sim, and I was hooked!
Rin
My first playthrough I stumbled into Rin's path. I was amazed with her story. It was so deep and inspiring. I really felt like there with her. I got all the "feels" as you guys on this forum call it - must be an inside joke, cause I dont know the reason you call it that - or just havent dug into teh archives of this forum.
Rin was interesting. I liked how complex she was, although it was also frustrating!
I dont see why some you guys think she might commit sucide at the end of the nuteral path - she said shes going to leave the school and go do the thing at the university or whatever.
Rin's storyline is bittersweet at best, and sad depending on the ending. All she really wants is someone to tell her that they understand her which nobody really can, but Hisao has gotten the closest to doing so.
Anyways, Rin really pulled on my heartstrings. At work all I could do was think about her.
Lilly
My second playthrough was with Lilly. I got her "neutral ending" first. The Feels man, the feels. Compared to Rin where it seemed more one-sided, Hisao and Lilly were truely in love together. I put quotes around "neutral ending" because while it isnt as bad of an ending as other characters bad endings, it hurt my feelings more than the actual bad endings. I then went to get her good ending, and was totally suprised to see the same exact events unfold! I totally thought he was going to convince her to stay, or that she would decide not to leave, or at least see some different scenes... I was relieved that he decided to go after her at the airport - but why didnt he just call her? he had her number, or Hideaki could have called Akira when Hisao met him. Gah! So frustrating!
I loved the music box in the room - it made me so happy, but it bugged me that we never learned how Lilly got to the hospital or found out about Hisao's heart attack. We know she arrived there at least 2 days after his heart attack. She says herself "I heard later that it happened as you were running down the raod after me". I guess she went to Scotland, found out and came back. I would have perfered that since he saw her walking and cried out "Lilly" at the time of his attack, her sensitive ears would have heard it and she rushed over to his unconsionous body, and she had stayed.
Anyways, I truely fell in love with Lilly as I played.
Hanako
I just didnt get into Hanako's arc as much. (maybe I was too tired when playing it - I haven gotten much sleep this past week!) I probably should have played a different girl after Lilly, or played her before Lilly because playing Hanakos path felt like I was cheating on Lilly. and they are friends. I need to play this path again, and it will be the first I fully replay.
Honestly, not much remains in my mind about Hanako's path except for the sex scene. It felt forced, or at least rushed in my opinion, and shocked me. Almost rape, kinda. A little bit of foreplay would have nice. She shows him her scars, so he just kisses her for a moment and then immeaditly takes off all his clothes and... etc. Yes, there was some foreplay but was she more scared to stop him or did she really want this? My first reading of this scene made it seem like she was too scared to stop his advances, but subseuent readings made it seem less so, and that she was willing.
All in all, I feel like Hanako's best ending was when you play Lilly's path. She gets more confident, and interacts with others, just because you were her friend and not trying to get in her pants. Dating Hanako doesnt get her to make as much progress as when you are just her friend/"family". We do see that there is potential at the end of her Good ending though, so there is hope.
Shizune (& Misha)
Shizunes path was not what I expected. I liked how it took a long time (both in reading and the timeline of the in-game world). But a few things really bugged me. Hisao was extreamly reluctant to talk about his heart with them. I accepted the quickness of his learning sign language though, though it was a little weird. Also, the Misha/Shizune fight seemed contrived and not realistic. And when we found out that Misha was in love with Shizune, it wasn't really mentioned again after that - I expected a bunch more from that revelation. It was just like Oh? Ok. lets talk about something else now. Another minor thing that really bugged me about this path was that Hideki and Akira were never really mentioned to be dating each other, and that Hideki was treated like he was much younger than the Hideki in Lilly's path. Also, if Shizune and Lilly are cousins, then so are Hideki and Akira, and they are dating! - Eeww!
I liked how you really got to know and understand Shizune, but they never really went on dates or did anything romantic together, except for the occasional spontanious sex.
There is only one question in the shizune path once you get to act 2! Its just all reading! I would have loved to have some more input, but nope!
I expected more fallout to happen in the bad ending example: Shizune found out about you sleeping with Misha, or you have a heart attack when plowing Misha and then right after we find out Misha's feelings for Shizune and its like wait? what?! that was kinda out there...
And the last line of the bad ending really got to me - "It makes me smile in a way without amusement." Shes getting exactly what she deserves for being a stupid bitch, and it makes me smile. It didnt really feel like Hisao.
In the end, Shizunes path was decent. But I didnt get as emotionally attached to her as most of the others. Whenever Hisao thought to himself about his feelings for her, I just didnt share them. I would think to myself, "That previous scene made you feel fonder for her? It just kinda pissed me off!" and so on and so forth.
Emi
"Emi at her Emiest" I love that quote from Rin.
Emi... Emi. Emi. Emi. *sigh* I didn't love her like Lilly, or was as fasicnated with her as Rin, but she did seem the most realistic, which I liked. I loved the beginning of the relationship - it made me really happy! And the amount of sex they had made me smile. - although the actual sex scenes that we see could have been better. like the first one faded away right when I expected it to get really good! and the Lemon flavored lube... well, at least it was realistic (cept for the line where he says he used the ENITRE BOTTLE!!!)
Oh! Rin's "Target Audience" and Emi's "Track Meeting" scenes contain a vast amount of duplicated material, so I tried to skip the duplicated parts, but it didnt work. That just bugged me.
The fights you have with Emi... well I just wanted to smack Hisao and say "DUH! The reason shes doing this is _____! READ BETWEEN THE LINES!" (Actually I felt that way with Hisao in multiple paths, but Emi's path had the most of them!)
I felt that Emi and her path was the most predictable in the game, but I still enjoyed it!
Overall
I loved this game. I totally understand why you guys love these characters so much, and cant forget them. I've never felt so emotionally connected to any characters before and it saddens me that there is no more KS to discover. I would love an expansion pack or something down the line...
A few things that I havent mentioned above bugged me, either while playing the game or afterwards when I was thinking about the stories...
I get that Hisao isnt a gigalo, and I wouldnt want him to be (that would change the dynamic of this game), but he really excludes the other girls once he starts going down a particular path. (There are a few exceptions.) Act 1 has you interacting with all the girls and being friendly with all of them, unless you choose otherwise. I really expected this dynamic to continue. Just because you have chosen one girl above the others doesnt mean that you have to ignore the others for the most part and not hear about their lives... (Gossip appears to run rampant in this school, yet you never hear any personally.)
For example:
- If I dont choose Rin, does she still do the art gallery thing?
When dating Shizune, since her timeframe is the longest, we see Lilly again. Why did Lilly come back from Scotland, when we knew she left when called for? Did she miss the school? Did she fight with her family? Did she come back for Hanako?
Does Hanako make progress if not dating her or Lilly?
How does the Misha/Shizune friendship work out if we leave them alone?
Does Emi get over her issues? (doubtful)
What happens with Kenji?
Also, All of the endings could have been longer - bad and good. you could talk about what happened with the other students, and see how your failed or sucessful reltionship with this girl causes the future to play out. Even if just for a little bit.
I WISH I KNEW MORE PEOPLE THAT WOULD BE INTERESTED IN THIS GAME!!!!!!!! I've told the one person i think might like it... I need more friends who are Nerds like me. Why are my friends so normal?
Oh, and I read on these forums that some people think that Yuuko was dating Kenji the previous year. Yuuko did not attend the academy. Kenji dated a unnamed student (Most likely Emi, in my opinon, if it was one of the girls we know about). There are similarities to what each say, but more differences. I could understand why some people would think of them having the relationship, but there are clearly mentioned facts that disprove it.
WHAT DO I DO NOW?
I can't draw, and while pretty decent at writing, I dont want to write a fanfic.
I want to play again.
I think I will (back up and) delete my save file, and play again. If I dont do this, I'll just skip everything and just watch the sex sceens! Lol, no, but I would skip some scenes, and I wouldnt want to do that. I'm not going to try for 100% again, and just play it naturally with (little to) no help from a flowchart.
KS came into my life where I really needed to feel these emotions that it gives me. I'm not ready to leave KS just yet.
Thank you 4LS!
I don't expect to post on this forum very often. I just had to get these words out there. Its probably more meaningful to me to say this stuff than for you guys to read it!