Katawa Shoujo Act 1 Preview feedback thread

[Swordman]

while playing fullscreen mode on my 22' monitor the images is stretched horizontaly, but the text is displayed correctly

[Lithium]

I've really never been an RPG fan. I remember during the 90s all my friends where like OHHH GAWD Play Final Fantasy, but I honestly played it for about 20 minutes and walked away. But this struck my interest, not only did it strike my interest but for a demo it was executed almost perfectly. Besides several issues stated before i.e. it's difficult to distinguish the dialogue with Shizune and and Misha. Also towards the end of the festival I flipped out of my chair. I had my surround sound on max volume since I was blasting some music, then the next scene, Baaamm! Fireworks.

Overall, I am looking forward to the final product. Not only the final product, but if you make any more games.

[koldsauce]

Hey I'm kinda new to this all, I saw it on /v/ and downloaded it and just finished playing through it. I thought it was really amazing, and the quality of it really blew me away, especially for something initiated on 4chan (that is the story, right?) The only suggestion is to make the background chatter volume a bit lower, aside from that I thought it was great!

Could someone answer a few questions I have though? The first reply mentions playing the "Shizune route" but I didn't get anything like that, how do I go through that? All I did was click New Game then read through what am I missing lol?

[Aura]

There are six endings to Act 1, each roughly corresponds to one of the girls (and there is one extra). By making different choices, you can reach the different endings. Just start a new game and choose differently, see what happens.

[jingplusone]

Congratulations on releasing an awesome preview. I'm still playing through the game and enjoying every bit. You guys put a heck of a lot of work into this project and it definitely shows.

So far I've come up with two things that could be improved:
1. The different music tracks doesn't seem to have a consistent volume. Some tracks seem noticeably louder than others. The difference is even more jarring when playing with headphones.
2. It would be awesome if you could add the option to advance the normal text by scrolling the mouse-wheel down and not just the text history.

I'll post again if I come across of any other things as I play through.

Edit: Another good feature would be for the skip function to be able to immediately skip to next unread text or choice. It would make replaying the full game quicker as it already takes quite a while to go through multiple replays with the current skip function in the preview.

[jusmailuck]

Hey, I don't usually do this, but I just registered simply to let you guys know that you've done an absolutely FANTASTIC job so far. I still remember the threads talking about the image being turned into a full on project and thought it was all just a bunch of smoke... but my god.

Every path is engaging and as much as I'd like to finish every story completely, I've been playing it for about three hours straight since I downloaded the demo instead of studying for a final I have on Friday. Not the wisest choice obviously, but I firmly believe you guys have something solid here and I can only hope you guys keep the same level of quality up to the end.

Also, please for the love of god, make a scene involving Kenji's NOBODY ALLOWED fort.
He's a man among men.

As for feedback... the portions where Misha was interpreting for Shizune led me to wonder who was really talking sometimes. Though I'm sure you probably intended it to be that way, it can be a little difficult to follow what's going on without a more obvious clues ( I was thinking something along the lines of changing the font color for when she was interpreting, but then you obviously loose the charm of Misha not really saying what Shizune actually means).

Anyway, keep up the amazing work guys!

[Razgriz]

Wow. Just.. wow. If I'm honest, I was expecting something a little less professional, but this feels like a full, paid-for product, just on the grounds of Act 1! I'll be interested to know how many acts are planned overall.

The characters feel varied and genuine and their backstories (or what's been hinted at) and mannerisms match their art and speech very well. I hope Hisao's personality will continue to change more based on who he hangs out with more often (even Kenji!) though I would like to see who the headmaster/principal of such a school would be. it feel like meeting that person would be one of the first stops on arriving at a new school, tbh. I've seen Nomiya and Muto and Nurse-kun (98% complete, and still can't get that scene after Home Field Advantage >_< ), before someone asks.

The audio suits the tone of the game so far, and I especially like Rin's theme. Parity, I think it's called. The track "Romance in Andante, piano version" sounds like it was recorded with a lot of echo, however. I'm not sure if it's just my cack onboard sound card or intentional, just in case.

Seconded that there should be an omake, whoever it was on the board suggested it! Perhaps drawn with the chibi versions of the characters, like they are on the Extras page on the main menu.

In summary, an excellent job and thoroughly enjoyable, even for a work in progress. Expect me to apply for a proofreader position once someone posts about it!

[Silentcook]

Thanks to all for the feedback. I'm posting also to mark that all the typos mentioned before have been taken care of and will be gone from future releases, with the exception of the dumplings/takoyaki thing; takoyaki are a kind of dumpling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takoyaki

Keep it up!

[Warwick]

Thanks to all for the feedback. I'm posting also to mark that all the typos mentioned before have been taken care of and will be gone from future releases, with the exception of the dumplings/takoyaki thing; takoyaki are a kind of dumpling.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takoyaki

Keep it up!

Sorry about that, being Chinese and all, when I see dumpling I immediately think the Chinese boiled variety.

And as for the people who find distinguishing Shizune and Misha's dialogue difficult, I think the ambiguity's great. Part of the fun is seeing her seriousness filtered through Misha's upbeat personality. But for people still having trouble, I noticed that Shizune's paper doll moves to signify her signing before every line (at least, whenever I was paying attention, I'm sort of a fast reader and blaze through stuff at times).

[Dash]

Act 1 far exceeded my expectations. Judging from the demo, I'd say it's easily one of the best doujin VN's out there and even beats some commercial ones. I got completely addicted to it until I finished it 100%.

The writing is excellent, it uses a generic high school setting but the original ideas (like Shizune needing an interpreter) makes it feel original. The characters are my favourite part, all of them have completely different personalities. I like Rin the most, I haven't seen a character like her before yet I found her instantaneously likeable. Kenji's a good comic relief, his conspiracy theories made me laugh often. Shizune's and Misha's constant aggressive teasing got on my nerves sometimes, although that might've been intended.

The art is of very high quality, clearly the best western anime art I've seen. The CGs were seemed closer to something from a commercial release than amateur drawings. As a small nitpick, the nurse's sprite seemed to be drawn in a slightly different style than the rest, making him stand out a bit.

The music's good, although nothing special. I like how it didn't play constantly, silence is something a lot of VN's don't utilize. Some of the songs didn't loop seamlessly which bothered me a bit. The sound effects are also good, not much to comment in there.

One thing that I wasn't expecting was the constant use of advanced features in the Ren'Py engine. I didn't think it could make that complicated special effects, like the one in Shizune's ending. They made the whole package seem very professional, doujin novels rarely have eye candy of that level. The filter used in the backgrounds is just strong enough, making them look more drawn but not making them too blurry.

Thank you to everyone who contributed to the project, I'm looking forward to the full release!

[Benjamin]

It was enjoyable, I don't know if this is because it's just a demo or if the storyline would force this ending in the full game but I somewhat disliked the main character dying at the end of the no girl storyline, perhaps include something involving Kenji, he's a fun character, I know this isn't really in the spirit of the game to not choose a girl and I fully understand why you wouldn't do it but I enjoyed listening to Kenji

Most of the characters were enjoyable, I was somewhat taken aback by the oddly out of place fanservice in the Lilly vs Shizune scene where Shizune's panties are shown, seems somewhat out of place considering that the game hasn't had really any other noticeable fanservice in any of the other paths I've had the chance to play, just something that caught me off guard, it's not that it offends my tastes or anything it just seemed out of place.

It's enjoyable though, the fact that I stayed up later then I should have to play a few storylines through and to then critique it on this site is fact enough. I liked Rin the best I look forward to seeing her character developed more as the game comes together.

Edit: I'm not going to delete my second paragraph because I don't like deleting things like that but I would like to say now that I didn't realize that this game was designed to be pornographic later down the line until I read some more of the forum.

[GoldenCrater]

I must admit that I'd seen stuff about this in the past and was very impressed with how it's turned out. I throughly enjoyed my first play through and am going back through to unlock the other routes. I can't wait for a full release.

I did, however, notice a continuity error. In "An Aesthetics", Rin refers to a blind boy in the art club, to which Hisao replies that he's already heard of this. However, on my first playthrough I took the side route of helping Hinako find Lilly (Paint by Numbers). It wasn't until my second playthrough (where I didn't get the required flags for this route) where I ended up meeting Rin at the unfinished murial (scene "Things You Can Do"), where she refers to the Blind Boy (as well as bad luck). I didn't notice this discrepancy on my first playthrough and it's totally possible that she refers to the blind boy elsewhere which I missed, but it's a minor issue I discovered.
Just wanting to make you guys aware of this.

[Ratchetdeam30]

For a demo, this is very indepth. I'm amazed and suprised by how this game works, The characters are unique and adorable, the music is catchy and fitting, the art is beautiful and such. I thought this was going to be a VN PARODY rather then veyr touching. My best wishes to you all making this game and giving the disabled some love too.

[Fou]

Just registered because I had to say it...


Wow. I can't believe that I sat down for five hours, completely engrossed in a dating sim that didn't come packed with an absurd amount of H scenes. This fan project is without a doubt one of the better bishoujo games I've ever encountered. The writing, the art, the music, all of it fits both settling into a well established genre of games while at the same time being unique and far more interesting than a majority of its counterparts.

I'll have to find time for the other endings of act 1 (just completed Hanako's, and really want to try for Rin's next) but already I can safely say you guys kick ass at this, and the years this has been in development have payed off.

[Quixoticism]

I was very impressed with this demo. Excellent work! The characters are awesome and lovable(which is the point) as well as their interaction and dialogue. I am looking forward to the full release. (after looking around the forums, I will vouch for the "all ages" version. Hentai is not my thing.)

I have a few thoughts I would like to share. When in the art room with Emi getting Rin's supplies the main character makes the observation that Emi stands on her toes to look at the top shelf. I'm not an expert on prosthetics but to me it seemed out of place that she would be able to do that having no muscles connected to her ankles. (but of course jumping makes sense)

The shower scene with Kenji was a little awkward, but funny regardless.

Even though she technically isn't one of the disabled students I would like to see a branch for Misha. I find her character the most entertaining.
(I'm not sure what kind of role she plays in Shizune's branch as I played through and ended up with Emi.)