Emotional Attachment to KS

[fcd15]

If you're like me, then you'll likely get through Shizunes without a bad case of the feels. I laughed a lot in her route, mainly thanks to the antics of Misha, and it's been enjoyable, but no heavy emotions were brought on me. Do it, if not just for the experience.

Yeah, I saw that poll about who had the best route and it looks like everyone hates her. Lilly lead with ~150 and Hanako followed with ~140. Shizune was last with maybe 20? I'll do it. Her unpopularity is reassuring

[Robnonymous]

If you're like me, then you'll likely get through Shizunes without a bad case of the feels. I laughed a lot in her route, mainly thanks to the antics of Misha, and it's been enjoyable, but no heavy emotions were brought on me. Do it, if not just for the experience.

I definitely didn't get very emotional at the end of Shizune's path, but I did feel a bit let down. Her bad ending, on the other hand, was extremely depressing.

[bluetopaz]

Here's one for the books.. Katawa hit me so hard not only did I write a piece about it in MY own book. BUT I've also started learning Japanese because of it! 0.o

[Koda89]

How I got around the whole "not wanting to play the other paths" thing was I saved the path I really wanted(Hanako's) for dead last.

That way I got to enjoy the other paths first, and then was blown away by the path I wanted.

However, while I am pretty attached to the girls in this game, I'm not really obsessing over them. In fact, I actually know why I was even able to connect so well with them in the first place.

I was friends with/had crushes on(occurred at the same time.) different girls in high school who were a lot like the Katawa Shoujo girls. Not exactly, mind you, but there were definite parallels there.

I had a crush on a girl who was athletic and sociable like Emi(albeit she was on the school's swim team instead of track team), a girl who was in the student council like Shizune, a girl who was artistic and cuckoo like Rin, a girl who was motherly and kind to all those around her like Lilly, and a girl(actually two girls) that liked to read, but was socially awkward like Hanako.

I could relate to the characters because I had already met them years ago. Of course my interactions with the characters in KS went a lot better than my interactions with those girls, but that goes without saying.

[Aka]

Apart from Lilly becoming something I will never be able to forget without a mental disease?
Its more like KS just reminded me of things I'd forgotten in life.

[ZeroSavior]

I got very emotional at the end of Hanakos route. Since I waited so long for the full thing I was quite excited to start and finish Hanako. I did feel some attachment, and did feel that I loved her(as awkward as that is, I'm still gonna say it), but after a couple days of thinking about nothing other then her route and character I pulled myself up and thought about how I could relate it to my life. I still haven't played any other routes because I still get that feeling of guilt but some I'm just going push through it. This is just helping further thanks man.

*Edit: Also I started watching Clannad and got the same "feels" so I think I hit an overload along the way too haha.

[fcd15]

*Edit: Also I started watching Clannad and got the same "feels" so I think I hit an overload along the way too haha.

Where you at on Clannad? If you're still in the first season be glad you didn't watch the second while playing KS. You'd be dehydrated by now hahah

[UncleJellyfish]

I rather like my emotional attachment to Katawa Shoujo. I do believe I intend to keep that attachment and pass it on to my kids one day.

[InfinitiveBlue]

Just gotta say, I love the online community we got here, it's nice to know that I wasn't the only one getting all (what seemed) overly emotional at KS :'D

[ken261]

KS is the first VN I have ever played/read. I couldn't have picked a better introduction to them.
Without knowing really anything about it (or VNs in general), I just started into it. The starting graphics were wonderful and the story read nice, so I kept going.

My first route wound up being Emi. I really got into the story line and could put myself in Hisao's shoes.
Of course I made the wrong choices and came to Emi's bad ending. I was really distraught over how it ended between them. I kept wanting to have more choices, to give Hisao more to say to her.
I was so upset over it, I almost quit playing KS altogether.

Luckily I kept going. I started over and made other choices and got on Shizun's route (good end ).
I'm almost done with it now (99%) and have truly loved it.
I tell you, this game is an emotional roller coaster ride. I find it hard to think how one could not become emotionally attached to the game or some (all) of the characters.

[HTL2001]

In general, I usually find myself very invested in stories I read/watch/play. However, I think what really gets to you is when you find a route where you aren't imagining being involved in the story, but remembering. This was my case with Shizune's route. From another thread ( http://ks.renai.us/viewtopic.php?f=13&t ... 298#p76918 )

(note: only done this and emi's path so far)
My girlfriend throughout college was similar in many ways to a combination of Shizune/Misha. The competitiveness was more inward-directed but still apparent, over-committed to clubs, tried to include everyone (drag everyone in - more successful due to less outward directed competitiveness I think).
We even co-headed a student govt. committee with no other members, despite both of us not satisfying the requirements to do so.
I suppose the biggest depressor the whole route was how the relationship was always on hold indefinitely. It seemed time would 'build up' and Shizune would realize that she was in a relationship but hadn't been acting like it, and give a burst of intimacy - see: the time between making the relationship official to when (it seems) they first kiss, and after the first H-scene to the next time they even really talk to each other, the time between intimate encounters (given intel from the bad route, compared to Emi's). She buried herself behind work to not deal with relationship issues, and avoided being affectionate around friends due to their feelings towards her.
Since this whole 'on hold relationship' seemed to run through the whole route, it just kept reminding me of my past. This all ended about 1.5 years ago but this story still got to me pretty badly. I usually get really into a story anyway, taking it to heart etc, but this one I felt like it didn't even have a slight barrier to do so.
(there are more similarities, but are less compelling and I attribute them to confirmation bias after being convinced of the connection by the on-hold relationship bit)
...
As much as I like that fan epilogue (and want to take it as cannon) my own impression is again taken from my experience, where they 'love each other as friends' or something. I still speak with my college girlfriend (in the context of our friend-group), so... this just seems like how it was. I actually didn't take the ending too hard though, it was the middle section of the route which got to me the most... which is an odd occurrence for me when reading a story, usually the endings bug the hell out of me.


Reading posts in this thread have helped me enjoy this 'route' more - I "disliked" it because of how it reminded me of my past, but the way people put the route into perspective here have helped me put my past in perspective as well. I came out of the whole thing a lot better than if I had never been a part (I predict I'd have been a shut in, not crazy like kenji hopefully)

I feel like players will be drawn to this type of route if they have one. I only got Emi's first because I was being sensible about Hisao's heart condition (if a bit over-confident). I was actually looking to just tool around in act 1 with slightly different choices to see how dialog lead to Emi's route again (me being a bit of a completionist) but 'stumbled' into Shizune's route and just went with it.

[yipyapper]

I rather like my emotional attachment to Katawa Shoujo. I do believe I intend to keep that attachment and pass it on to my kids one day.

As will I, but when they are 14 or 15, otherwise their outlook on it will be marred or they will be scarred.

[UncleJellyfish]

I rather like my emotional attachment to Katawa Shoujo. I do believe I intend to keep that attachment and pass it on to my kids one day.

As will I, but when they are 14 or 15, otherwise their outlook on it will be marred or they will be scarred.

Well, I have three step-kids, ages 15, 10, and 7, and a two month old son of my own, the 15 year old being the one that introduced me to KS in the first place. XD Hopefully the other three will like it once they're halfway through their teen years as well.

[yipyapper]

I rather like my emotional attachment to Katawa Shoujo. I do believe I intend to keep that attachment and pass it on to my kids one day.

As will I, but when they are 14 or 15, otherwise their outlook on it will be marred or they will be scarred.

Well, I have three step-kids, ages 15, 10, and 7, and a two month old son of my own, the 15 year old being the one that introduced me to KS in the first place. XD Hopefully the other three will like it once they're halfway through their teen years as well.

I probably won't have kids anyway, I grew up with 5 brothers, it was hell...
And I don't think I'll look for a relationship just yet, got to workon getting that dream jobanyway, eh? Katawa will, err, do for emotional stuff.

[InfiniteBladeWorks]

I played Rin's route first. She was the most interesting to me when I first played the demo about a year ago and continued to be when I started playing the full version.

I don't think I was really prepared though.

You see, I had pretty much completely forgotten about KS since playing the demo but then I saw a thread on /v/ and it all came back to me. This was on the sixth or so. I was ecstatic that KS had been released but I wanted to wait to play it until I had bought a new computer. My old one died on me and was beyond repair. It was free anyways. There was always the possibility of playing on my Dad's computer but it was set up in our small living room which doubles as my parent's bed room so I pretty much ruled it out for obvious reasons.

Anyways, I cracked. About a week ago, I made an agreement that I would take his computer in my room during the night and return it in the mornings. (I never said why, Just "I miss having a computer")

Then I played Rin's route. Got the bad ending, neutral, then good in a single night. I even continued to play Shizune's route a little afterwords too but it wasn't the same. I realized I had been completely emotionally devastated by Rin's route and had fallen in love with her. I wasn't prepared for the game to be so emotional and even philosophical. Sure, I had seen people's reactions but I never thought it would get to me so much and it did. All this week I've really only been able to think of Rin. The only other things that have really gave me the Feels even close to this extent, ironically both of which are visual novels, are Clannad and G-Senjou no Maou. (Highly recommend, both. Especially G-Senjou no Maou. Which is also know as The Devil on G-String)

ANYWAYS. I did manage to play through all the other routes but as I was playing through them, I felt hollow. Not really the right word but I never got that feeling of being highly emotionally invested. I mean, I got emotional and I liked pretty much all of the routes but something was always off. I did enjoy them though so don't get me wrong there.

I don't know. I just don't know how to feel. I guess it's just good to get that off my chest.

P.S. Sorry if none of that was coherent or if it was worded poorly. I have a really hard time expressing my thoughts and how I feel about things. Heh. Maybe that's why I love Rin so much. Also, this post kind of makes me sound underaged. I am not. I am 18. I don't know why I feel the need to clarify that, I just do.