I was playing Agarest (yeah, steam got me :/) and with the VN part of the game, I wanted to play a real VN -not that I've played many of them. And I found Katawa Shoujo, well, by pure luck, while reading /b/.
Reading the pitch of the game, i was perplex and doubtful, thinking that would be some creepy game for freaks (and with /b/ just throwing praises at it... well, let's just say I don't value very much the opinion of /b/)
I started the game with a little apprehension, not sure about it. I can't tell when I started to play, something around 21, but i know when i finished : It was 5 in the morning, and I've played it straight until I finished the first route I went in. I don't know how to express how I felt, a mixture of sadness and happiness at the same time, and I was really impressed by how you guys managed to create a story in a school for disabled, and not being weird or creepy or gross or whatever. So first of all, I want to congratulate the writing team for that. I'm sure your hear that a lot, but still.
Well, my first play through went with Emi. That's a wonderful story, and Emi puts me to shame for being so much out of form myself
but what mostly impressed me about Emi or what I saw of the game at the moment is that the characters are not cliché. It felt like... I don't know. Like Emi isn't just a character in a game, like she's somehow real. Or at least, that she could be real. As if there is a real Emi somewhere, just the same. The girls are not some random traits put together that you can identify instantly like "the tsundere" or "the Moe", instead they feel like real persons. And more importantly, I didn't felt like Emi was defined by her disability. She has her own personality, and that's wonderfull.Through Emi's story I was really getting attached to her, even if it's just a character. The story is extremely well written, funny at times, sad at other moments, but everything felt like... natural ? I went through the story and nothing ever felt out of place or forced to me. And the scene at the last scene, at the graveyard, that was probably the most perfect scene of her story.
Then, i went through Hanako's story. And well... I was moved by it. The words here are not enough for me, because it really touched me. On a personal level. So my comments on this story will be very personal.
I had a somewhat similar childhood; not exactly the same, and not to the same extent but still. I lost a parent (my mother) when I was 6, and when part of your family blames you for it (hell, even know I've grown more than 20 years older, I still don't get how you can blame a 6 years old child for his mother's cancer, but they still managed to do it) it's really hard to go on living without self loathing. Other children can't even possibly understand how you feel, and you're suddenly the black ship. Let me just say that your scars don't have to be visible for other to treat you like some freak. You're different, that's enough for hate and laughter. Even those you thought were your friends. "All the scars are on the inside", to quote Blue Oyster Cult. So I shut my self to the outsiders (well, at least I managed small talk, lies and improvisation, to be left alone without question). I read books and stories, I love chess. I grew to learn to love games that you play alone. Hell, when she just walks on the black tiles on the floor, I do exactly that, every time i'm alone, for more than 20 years now, and other stupid rules, like "don't walk on the lines". I guess in 30 years I'll keep doing it
It's not really hard to guess why I felt related to her.
I don't know. I wanted her to open up, to tell me her story. I wanted to lift this burden from her shoulders, to tell her that she's not alone. It took me years to manage to talk to someone about it. And I knew she had to talk about it, but when your life is like that, you trust no one. You can't talk to anyone. I had the same thoughts for years.
The look she had when she received her present was so heart-warming, I was so happy for her. And when she revealed her scars, I just knew how much courage she had to do that, to tell her story. And I wanted to smack Hisao on the face for not telling her he loved her.
In the end, I was happy they managed to find each other, so she could at least live. Not live normally, that's just plain impossible, but live and be happy. Just stopped from being that much shut from the outside world.
Her story felt so real, and fulfilling. My congratulations to the one who wrote this story. And my thanks. You managed to make Hanako so real, that as long as I kept reading, I didn't even considered as anything else than real. She was real, and she kind of still is. At least for me.
I've not played yet the other stories, but after finishing Hanako's... Well, I just had to say thank you.
