Is katawa Shoujo the gateway drug of visual novels?

[Leotrak]

As far as the Higurashi anime goes, it was waaaaay too confusing and lots of torturing kids, which I really didn't care for when I couldn't understand half of what was going on. If I was already a fan of the game and could have appreciated the story better, I think I would have enjoyed the show much more. Just like I enjoyed the Umineko anime because I had already played the VN. Had I not played its VN I wouldn't have enjoyed the anime nearly as much.
My friends loved the Higurashi anime, though. It's not like you're weird for liking it

Well, that's good at least... But did you watch all of the anime? Cause even though the first half (26 eps) is rife with confuddling, the second half (24 eps) explains a -lot- about what the fudge was going on.

Sidetracking aside, I plucked the two downloadable ones off the 'nets, just need to get around to actually going through em now... Soon as I'm done reading the fanfic section here ">_>

[Xybaro]

Sidetracking aside, I plucked the two downloadable ones off the 'nets, just need to get around to actually going through em now... Soon as I'm done reading the fanfic section here ">_>

Technically, Narcissu bundled with Side 2nd, makes for three!

[delta]

Katawa Shoujo has been my gateway drug to not reading VNs anymore.

[Member22]

Katawa Shoujo has been my gateway drug to not reading VNs anymore.

How??

[Escalator]

Katawa Shoujo has been my gateway drug to not reading VNs anymore.

How??

I imagine it's easy to get tired of something you're working on EVERY DAY.

[Bara]

Katawa Shoujo has been my gateway drug to not reading VNs anymore.

How??

I imagine it's easy to get tired of something you're working on EVERY DAY.

Maybe that, but Delta also likes likes trolling us fanboys too.

[delta]

I could go on at lengths about this, but I'll just say that I am less than impressed with the quality of VNs in general now that the novelty has thoroughly worn off. And before anyone accuses me of hypocrisy, yes, I can't say whether I'd like KS if I was only passively consuming it, and in fact I doubt it.

[neumanproductions]

I guess it is time for me to tell my story.
So of you might have heard already or not but I first was an Anime fanatic, manga, then came the VN's after I saw Shuffle! I didn't immediately go and play shuffle but search through sites and such until KS drew my attention on a youtube search of VNs. The site I was lead to was actually the Ren'Py site. KS act one had been placed on there and I followed it to the site and downloaded. It was marvelous. I quickly went through all the routes and then went on to many of the other smaller novels on the Ren'Py archives. (Real Life, Moonlight Walks, ect) Then I went on to find Lemmasoft forums and there was a great deal for me to do there and I signed up; later to make my own VN. Then other novels like Princess Waltz, Shuffle, Snow Sakura, Yumemiru are done or in the process.

But before I finish I like to point out the KN known as True Remembrance. That has been my most memorable experience in most all cases. I am actually an emotional guy. Stories can move me and that is why I love VNs and such with a good story. I love things like that and will never forget them as they have that ability to move my heart. (I hope a female finds that good someday )

Thank you KS staff and your vision for making things like this for me to enjoy. It has brought people together and has caused me to be more open and get to know you guys/gals on here and a lot of other places.

[Csihar]

I tried to get into True Remembrance but for some reason it never really clicked for me. Maybe I'm just a snob when it comes to writing but it seemed like there was something missing... I don't know how else to explain it. Either the characters seemed a little flat, or the pacing seemed a little off, or something like that. (Or maybe I just worship Eternal Sunshine too much for there to be any more room in my heart for memory-erasure stories. ) Is it one of those stories that starts off slow and gets amazing by the end or something?

I could go on at lengths about this, but I'll just say that I am less than impressed with the quality of VNs in general now that the novelty has thoroughly worn off. And before anyone accuses me of hypocrisy, yes, I can't say whether I'd like KS if I was only passively consuming it, and in fact I doubt it.

That's really not surprising actually. Visual novels are a pretty limited medium, and god knows even anime (the majority of it anyway) could get awfully boring after a while if it weren't for all the pretty visuals, since it tends to be so formulaic. Not to mention the extremely high crap-to-gold ratio that VNs have.

[Extremist_Line]

KS was my first novel. I was lucky enough to stumble across it on TV Tropes one day. Later that week, I got sick and had nothing to do, so I downloaded it and 100%-ed and reviewed it in one day.

I managed to get into the VN format easily, as I am a big RPG gamer. In particular, I had really gotten into Persona 3 & 4 before I started playing KS, which can best be described as VN/dating sims crossed with a typical Rougelike RPG. At this time of writing, KS is still the only true VN I have played, although I have started getting more and more interested in other VNs, such as Fate/Stay Night. I haven't gotten around to actually playing them though, as I have no idea where to find copies, and after having both my laptop and desktop computers nearly die due to viruses, I am not taking any chances with a torrent.

I still hope to get to play more VNs someday, but for the time being, I'm sticking to genres I'm more comfortable with.

I had an interest in VNs before KS, but it was minor. After playing KS, I began to have more of an interest n VNs, but I still haven't gotten into them yet. Only time will tell....

As a side note, my cousin really enjoys the dialogue picking aspect of modern RPGs and VNs. He played KS and enjoyed it, but ended up skipping about 60% or more of the story. Still, I think KS nurtured a minor interest in VNs for him.

[Aura]

That's really not surprising actually. Visual novels are a pretty limited medium, and god knows even anime (the majority of it anyway) could get awfully boring after a while if it weren't for all the pretty visuals, since it tends to be so formulaic. Not to mention the extremely high crap-to-gold ratio that VNs have.

VN is not any more limited medium than movies, theater or comics are. The medium is perfectly fine and you could do amazing things with it. Problem is that VNs and the people who make them are terrible and don't have anywhere close to enough budget to make something really cool.

[TheHivemind]

It's similar to making sausage. After you've actually done it yourself, you really might find that you aren't wild about sausage anymore. Torturing the metaphor further, you may also realize that all the other sausage makers are not really doing much to make their sausage flavorful, choosing instead to stick to one recipe instead of experimenting. Nobody wants bland sausage--unfortunately it seems to be all they fucking make out here.

Like Aura says, there are things to be done with the format, and I'm sure that someone could conceivably gin up an engine that will be able to really make something amazing that actually tells a good story, tells it effectively, and actually draws the reader in, but I doubt we'll ever see that. I've mentioned Digital before, and even that suffers from having a few good ideas that are just not executed well enough.

Blaming the limitations of the format is a bullshit excuse, because it is like saying you cannot tell a good story in print because there's no way to make paper play music. Knowing the limitations of the format and taking them to their absolute limit is the only way to tell a good story, but everyone (and I'm including myself in this) would rather just use the narrative conventions that we're used to. Taking full advantage of what Visual Novels could do as a literary form would require far more time and effort than anyone trying to make money out of it would be able to give. As a hobbyist myself, I just don't have the resources or the knowledge to do so, being nothing more than a writer; I can't draw and I can't code (and some might argue I can't even write all that well). It takes a different approach of storytelling to take advantage of this format, which is regrettably something that I will always worry we've not been able to do.

[delta]

Actually, noticing that KS with all of its problems and limitations and people who have never done this before and zero budget and almost stock settings and characters is actually a semi-decent VN in comparison to the grand scheme is a pretty grim realization for the medium as a whole.

[Bara]

Actually, noticing that KS with all of its problems and limitations and people who have never done this before and zero budget and almost stock settings and characters is actually a semi-decent VN in comparison to the grand scheme is a pretty grim realization for the medium as a whole.

More of a condemnation of the commercial producers who are content to sell products that are badly made with next to no attempt to, as you and THM said, push the technology. Even worse those commercial products which don't even try to reach the level of writing an engaging and entertaining story; instead, relying on an injection molded piece of formula about as unique as a plastic water bottle for the story line.

Maybe KS will have the effect of making some commercial production companies raise the bar on quality for their stories and the tech they use in producing them. Or at least get the consumers asking themselves why they are paying so much for not such great stuff in return.

Then again maybe the final release of KS will trigger the Apocalypse...

[neumanproductions]

Then again maybe the final release of KS will trigger the Apocalypse...

So you're saying my prediction of a 2012 release date might be correct.