How well with KS stand up to the other great VN?

[Suriko]

If you want more narrative-focused VNs, you might also want to try Sekien no Inganock, which has very little sex and a presentation system somewhat removed from the usual fare. As an added bonus, it's also not set in a modern day Japanese high school.

Quartett is my favourite VN due to a number of reasons (many being related to the way it's presented; every single scene is as beautiful as the most poignant CG), but is unfortunately not yet translated. Worth keeping an eye on though.

[Xuan]

Kira Kira is an excellent VN, especially for those who enjoy Japanese music.

KS won't fall below, it has a pretty unique style by itself.

[Aura]

Weird question. Like asking how well does [a movie] stand up to the other great movies. I dunno, it's sort of hard to compare objectively. People will like different things, but I guess the quality of one's work can be considered some sort of measuring stick. We lose in production values to high-end commercial games (which I assume make up the bulk of "other great VN") a lot, and while the story and art are not bad I guess, it's very amateurish. Not that something made by a more experienced writer or artist is automatically better, but there just is a lot of stuff that is weak because we don't have experience with this.

To be fair though, the fact that KS is at all comparable to commercial games made with a budget means we are doing better than expected. I think for a doujin game, KS is pretty high quality or at least above average. Whether it makes any "top N VNs of all time" lists or not, impossible to predict. Plus our predictions tend to suck. After all, we used to estimate that only 1000 people or so at most would care about KS at all.

[das bruce]

What are the download figures?

[Aura]

The torrent alone has well over 40000 downloads, I haven't asked the DDL figures lately but it's more than torrent has, plus then there's the mirrors we can't track. So around 90 000-150 000 in total.

For comparison, a moderately successful commercial eroge in Japan sells around 30 000-40 000 copies, and the hit games sell maybe around 200 000.

[Smoku]

Which is highly awesome.
Well, a sure thing is KS already beats every FREE VN there is. no amateur in the world beats our amateur devs!
As for the comparison to professional VNs: KS is pretty high and mighty, in my opinion. It's not all flashy as the biggest ones there are, but it's standards are high and popularity is increasing. at least on /c/ if I see any threads that are linked with VN characters it's either F/SN or KS. other may appear but significantly more rare.

Someone mentioned a word "ethics". As a matter of fact I study philosophy with specialization in ethics (hey, yay for practically useless studies, but it's not the point) and I must say that KS gave me a lot to think. and as it is, act 1 really gave me a different view on cripples. Which is ethically genuinely good.
The sex scenes that will appear, if they are made in such style and class as act 1, will even shine in an ethical matter showing that cripples too have normal, healthy sex life and are able to overcome their disabilities to live a happy life. So I guess KS not only goes with a lesson of tolerance and better understanding of disabled people but also with an encouragement for real cripples to bravely strive for happiness in their lives and not lose hope.
Well, for anyone who doesn't care about ethics, please ignore. As for anyone who does care- greetings from northern Poland ethics department.

[Shades of gray]

Aura, considering those figures you just gave, these are the stats for the demo, I imagine the figures for the full game will be larger, mainly due to the fact that some sites won't say a word about demos, and considering that only a few sites have mentioned KS, those figures put you ABOVE commercial VNs.

any developer can make a "so-so" VN, the fact that KS is doing so well compared to VNs with a large budget, experienced Devs, advertisment etc speaks volumes for the KS Devs.

KS is a unique VN on Concept, Style and Design, and i think that when the full game is released it will blow away the Commercial VNs.

I eagerly look forward to the full games release.

[HeMeido]

It's pretty top-tier.

The slice-of-life elements don't get in the way of Hisao's relationships and they're based on Hisao rather than the girls. A story that pushes the relationships back a few hours is a deal-breaker for me and I like that Hisao helping the student council isn't just Hisao raising flags.

The art is above-average. Hisao has a face (I personally don't like faceless protagonists), the difference between the pictured backgrounds, the sprites and the CGs isn't jarring at all, the proportions make sense and the sprites and CGs are quite detailed.

The characters represent most of the major high school dating sim VN archetypes without just copying the archetypes. They're missing the senpai/kouhai fetishes though.

The music is a bit subdued, but it works within the context of the game.

As far as dating sims go, it takes third place on my list, first if I limit myself to VNs with regular choices.

[Minister of Gloom]

You dealt with a most difficult subject in a way that was not just mature, but also funny, charming, sweet and exciting. You are releasing completely for free what I would consider to be a true masterpiece, and one with a saying, of all things! KS will be able to stand up to the other greats. Who knows? Maybe it will beat them one day. I sure like it now better then I like stuff like FS/N, and I have only played the demo!

[Panty Supervisor]

KS is not groundbreaking in its use of the medium, but the characters have a lot of potential. If the storylines of the full version are interesting, I think the game might get some attention from famous blogs and communities on the internet. The people who play VNs on a regular basis are rare, but KS somehow seems to appeal to people who have never played VNs before. Therefore, I think that it has the potential to get more players than the commercial VNs.

The only way that this game gets a large following is if the word is spread. Thanks to the accesibility of the internet, this isn't too hard. The articles on Fakku or Kotku also help, though it would help if they painted a more accurate picture of the game. If enough people learn about this game, and spread how good it is, then perhaps KS would remembered by many, rather than a few.

You have my sword!

[Esa94]

KS was my first VN, so I'm not really one to compare it to other VNs... But personally I think it's well-written, and the character personalities are believable and kinda realistic - what I mean is that there's absolutely no way to make anything perfect, but the devs have certainly succeeded with the characters and the plot.

Uh, I could've just said I think the writing is awesome. And that the art is awesome, too. But based on those numbers that Aura posted, KS might really get quite popular after the full version is released. I don't think the player base will instantly explode, but rather that there might be (much?) more new players per month or something.

Anyway, I don't really have much to say that hasn't been said already, but I'm waiting eagerly for the full version :3

[Csihar]

Aura, considering those figures you just gave, these are the stats for the demo, I imagine the figures for the full game will be larger, mainly due to the fact that some sites won't say a word about demos, and considering that only a few sites have mentioned KS, those figures put you ABOVE commercial VNs.

Not to mention that it's already beaten many Japanese VNs without even having been released in Japanese yet, when they are by far the largest market for VNs.

[Esa94]

Not to mention that it's already beaten many Japanese VNs without even having been released in Japanese yet, when they are by far the largest market for VNs.

I think that's mostly because English (not to mention them other languages) is much more accessible to the majority of the world than Japanese, and because the majority of the world's population doesn't live in Japan.

[Bara]

Aside from an attempt to read Narcissu (computer glitches with the software prevented me from completing it) Act 1 of KS is the only VN I've read. I don't have the background to judge it against any other "Great" VN's. I simply judge it as a story. Those I've read by the ton. In my opinion it is a well written story with characters I can care about.

With it's background KS will always be unique, let people look back and make their judgements with 20/20 hindsight. I'm just waiting to enjoy the rest of the story.

[kosherbacon]

One thing KS has going for it is its accessibility. Download off the homepage or torrent and play. No shady file hosting services, poorly hosted torrent, japanese installer guesswork, or crappy third party translation patches to deal with.