Katawa Shoujo's Maturity

[Potato]

Totally agree. Coming off of Mass Effect 2's childish relationships, this felt infinitely more natural. I actually understood why the pair liked each other and I understood enough about her feelings to know that backing off was the right choice. I even understood why she was upset and why I'd be upset too. Very nicely done.

>Mass Effect 2's relationships
>childish

...
http://25.media.tumblr.com/4ad3a3ef9c97 ... o2_500.gif
Bullshit

Dude, every girl basically jumps on you after like, three kind of iffy conversations at best.

I'm reminded of Saints Row 4's parody of ME where the 'romance' options are literally just variations of "Wanna fuck?"...That's pretty much how most RPG-esque games handle relationships because they're not that important to the story being told. Unlike KS, where it's basically integral to the stories.

[Steinherz]

That makes sense, but it still doesn't feel very natural.

Not everyone really takes seven months to ask a person out. Actually, Mass Effect's romances are more "realistic" than Katawa Shoujo.
Everyone in KS are teenagers. Do you really doubt teenagers are going to take that long to get to the point of a full relationship?

I'm reminded of Saints Row 4's parody of ME where the 'romance' options are literally just variations of "Wanna fuck?"...That's pretty much how most RPG-esque games handle relationships because they're not that important to the story being told. Unlike KS, where it's basically integral to the stories.

The Saints Row series in general is a parody

[Potato]

The Saints Row series in general is a parody

Nah. 1's just kind of a funny ripoff (and not worth it). 2's a blatant parody of the genre, 3 is psychosis in clown shoes (at a certain point, there is no parody, only madness), and 4...4's back to parody, only it parodies everything under the sun instead of one genre. So it's half-and-half.

And the difference between KS and ME (and others like it) is that KS is about the relationships so they're better-written, natural or not. Relationship systems in most games are just an excuse for sex scenes (The Witcher - justified for characterization though), bizarre karma-system-esque mechanics (Any GTA that uses it), or subplot filler (ME, and other RPG-esque titles).

And I'd still wager KS is closer to reality than fucking like lemurs (rabbits are cliche) after three or four minor conversations.

[SpunkySix]

That makes sense, but it still doesn't feel very natural.

Not everyone really takes seven months to ask a person out. Actually, Mass Effect's romances are more "realistic" than Katawa Shoujo.
Everyone in KS are teenagers. Do you really doubt teenagers are going to take that long to get to the point of a full relationship?:

Mass Effect's romances were just plain awkward, I don't know what else to say. If all I had to do to get a girlfriend in real life was have three conversations with them where I told them what they wanted to hear in the most generically nice way possible, I'd have a lot less trouble with it.

To tell you the truth, I know lots of teenagers wouldn't take that long to have a relationship, but I also know that lots of teenagers also have crappy, entirely sex-based relationships that break like twigs when put under pressure. I'd much rather take my time and have a meaningful relationship like the one in KS than something like that, so for me at least, KS has a much more realistic portrayal of what I see as a worthwhile relationship.