Katawa Shoujo Act 1 Preview feedback thread

[Cylog]

General Feedback:
I love this game. Although this is my first Visual Novel, I'm sure it is one of the best out there.
I wanted to ask: Is the suffix -cchan a popular nickname? If I recall this correctly, Misha "invents" this suffix, but Hisaos parents leave a note in which this suffix is also mentioned...

[Esa94]

General Feedback:
I love this game. Although this is my first Visual Novel, I'm sure it is one of the best out there.
I wanted to ask: Is the suffix -cchan a popular nickname? If I recall this correctly, Misha "invents" this suffix, but Hisaos parents leave a note in which this suffix is also mentioned...

-chan:

1. is often attached to children's names when calling them by their given names. It can also be attached to kinship terms in a childish language.
2. An honorific ending for names that mostly indicates someone who is extremely close or someone who is much younger. It is mostly a female ending, and rarely used for males.

The latter could also explain his possible dislike of the name.

[Cylog]

-chan:

1. is often attached to children's names when calling them by their given names. It can also be attached to kinship terms in a childish language.
2. An honorific ending for names that mostly indicates someone who is extremely close or someone who is much younger. It is mostly a female ending, and rarely used for males.

-chan is nothing new to me,but thanks for pointing out. maybe I should have specified this further:
In this certain use of -chan the name is shortened and the letter "c" is added.
Hisao --> Hicchan
Shizune --> Shicchan

I guess this is just a derivation/modification...

[BlueJester]

Here's my feedback:

Okay, first of all, I loved the plot! The idea of the story taking place in a school designed for children with disabilities is simply genius! It's an interesting experience at first and it's easy to get used to. I think that the protagonist's feelings about the whole situation are pretty much the same as the player's (at least that's the case when it comes to me) which helps a lot with getting into the game. The next things are the characters, which are all also good, except for Hanako and Kenji who are simply brilliant! Brilliant! Honestly, the moment I saw Hanako I knew I was going to go for her and as much as I hate Kenji's approach to females it is introduced in a way that makes it funny. He's also got lots of funny dialogues. Which brings me to my next point: humour. I'm so glad you have involved humour in all this! It helps a lot seeing that they're just normal people too (if you take my meaning). The way you present the characters is also good and as the plot thickens it just gets more and more interesting/addictive. So overall I'm content with the writing. The music's okay, it's just what I expected and so is the art (although there could be more).

On a negative note, I think that the descriptions are often too long, thus it's easy to lose interest. I mean I'm quite sure everyone can imagine a school or a room of a nurse without trying too hard. Secondly, the choices. They are often not directly related to the girls whereas as I found out from the walkthrough, they always are. I mean I was trying to spend time with Hanako the whole game and made every choice accordingly and I still ended up with Emi (I haven't read any walkthroughs before the game). For example, I didn't tell the nurse that I'll indeed start exercising to try spending time with Emi but to start taking care of myself. Seeing the walkthrough after I've already finished the game, that's where I went wrong and therefore couldn't continue with Hanako which makes from little to no sense in my opinion. It just felt random. Or why does it matter what I choose in Risk? I don't think anyone would think that those choices affect which girls the player is going to end up spending time with. Another thing is that there's isn't much freedom given to the player. I understand that this is a Visual Novel, but it's also a game, is it not? It felt like I was reading a book in which I could interact only occasionally/rarely. Often times the protagonist says or thinks to himself that he has no plans for the afternoon which made me want to "take control", but he always ended up doing something because of a girl or just chose for himself. I think it would be great to provide the player the option to show which girls he's interested in or make the choices clearer/more straight-forward (like in the scene in which Lilly is confronted by Shizune/Misha) so he can choose accordingly. (I should probably mention that I've played a similar game before - I won't mention its name, I wouldn't want to advertise - and I had much more freedom as to which girls I wanted to spend time with/date/get.) I was, like many others as I see, surprised that there isn't a Misha path. Also, the concept of her being "inseperatable" from Shizune got my fantasy going...

Anyway, back on topic: my overall impression is that this game rocks! Again, huge thanks to Hanako's creator. Without her I wouldn' have become as much of a fan as I have (I think that's the key part in these games, to have a character whom you really do care about). Please keep up the good work!

[Esa94]

I mean I was trying to spend time with Hanako the whole game and made every choice accordingly and I still ended up with Emi (I haven't read any walkthroughs before the game). For example, I didn't tell the nurse that I'll indeed start exercising to try spending time with Emi but to start taking care of myself. Seeing the walkthrough after I've already finished the game, that's where I went wrong and therefore couldn't continue with Hanako which makes from little to no sense in my opinion.

Same here with the first playthrough; Although saying you are going to start excercising isn't what put you on Emi's route permanently, it was straining yourself on the track.

[bradpara]

Hello, I just discovered Katawa Shoujo a few days ago and all I have to save is that I love the game. I played through Act 1 for the first time and got Emi's ending. Next Time: I am going for Hanako. I am eagerly awating the next realase and hoping to get to know all of you soon

[GoodleShoes]

First of all, game is amazing. I hope the full game is the same amount of greatness.
Second, it's not an actual typo but in one of the scenes with Misha and Shizune, Misha doesn't know a certain word that I cannot recall at the moment, but she has Shizune actually write it out on paper for Misha. I guess that's all right, but in most situations with signing, one would simple spell it out with their hands. This isn't really a mistake, it just bothered me a bit.

[Leotrak]

Alright, here's something that's been bothering me recently, but isn't big enough for its own topic...

During the scene with the game of Risk, Hisao says "you're so competitive, Shizune". For some reason, I can not read this without hearing a fake gay-guy accent >_<" The word "so" just gives the entire line a whiny/worshippy feel, which feels out of place to me. Recplacing "so" with "very" or "real(ly)", then tagging on "aren't you?" would be an improvement, IMO...

... But all this is probably just me T_T

[Mercutio]

During the scene with the game of Risk, Hisao says "you're so competitive, Shizune". For some reason, I can not read this without hearing a fake gay-guy accent >_<" The word "so" just gives the entire line a whiny/worshippy feel, which feels out of place to me. Recplacing "so" with "very" or "real(ly)", then tagging on "aren't you?" would be an improvement, IMO...

... But all this is probably just me T_T

yeah, it's just you. I didn't get that at all, and I kinda doubt it'd get changed.

[griffon8]

Minor typo here.

In 'Smalltalk', after Misha asks Hisao if he has plans for lunch, the next panel has no speaker shown, but Hisao's thoughts are in quotes.

"I thought I would go to the library and pick up some books."

So I think the quotes around that need to be eliminated.

[Leotrak]

That's probably on purpose... At least, that's what I always assumed. You know, the business of 'thinking one thing, then saying another'

See, he was -thinking- of saying he was gonna look for the library, but changed his mind before the words got to his mouth. Also, narrative is from Hisao's PoV. Thus, quotation marks but no name of speaker. Because there was no speaker for that sentence.

[griffon8]

I guess I can see that. It just stood out as a change from anything else.

[Shujoxa]

Alright, here's something that's been bothering me recently, but isn't big enough for its own topic...

During the scene with the game of Risk, Hisao says "you're so competitive, Shizune". For some reason, I can not read this without hearing a fake gay-guy accent >_<" The word "so" just gives the entire line a whiny/worshippy feel, which feels out of place to me. Recplacing "so" with "very" or "real(ly)", then tagging on "aren't you?" would be an improvement, IMO...

... But all this is probably just me T_T

I wasn't before, but now I probably will, lmao.

[Mirage_GSM]

Chapter 44 (Throwing Balls):
In the previous chapter (Don't Panic) it says that Hisao slept until "almost noon"
Then after his encounter with Kenji and meeting Shizune and Misha:

"It's still light outside, but the sun is getting ready to set behind the trees."

This line is just when Hisao leaves the dorms, meaning it is suddenly evening already.
A bit further down:

...the dimly lit paper lanterns glowing warmly against the sunset...

And just a few lines down:

"Are they even done setting up?" "No, but it doesn't matter, ..."

Any comments on that? Doesn't seem to be fixed in V1.5
The sun is still starting to set around noon (well, technically it does every day...), and setting up the stands takes well into the evening.

[ninjaguiden]

I've said this in another thread, but this game really makes relationships and human interaction seem pretty realistic and non-forced.

What was the Dev teams thought process around these issues?