The "thank you 4LS" thread.

[N. Bekkler]

I finished my first run early last week and recently started my second. This game... it was surprising how much it affected me. Forgive the wall of text, but I feel inspired.

Some background info before I begin. The only other visual novels I had ever encountered were the worst of what you would expect - thinly veiled conveyors of pornography. They were vulgar, pointless, and I assumed that this was the case of the entire genre. When Kawata Shoujo first came to my atention about two years ago, I thought that it was strange for one of these games to get so much attention given my aversion the the genre as a whole. One night I decided to play the Act I demo after reading the unexpectedly high reviews. I thought that it was interesting enough to keep installed, but it hadn't crossed my mind until I heared that the full version had been released.

Like other games, I wanted to approach it with as few spoilers as possible. By the time I started, many people were already talking about their plans for their second or third playthrough. I knew that there were several routes with good and bad endings, but aside from that I went in blind - every time I was presented with a set of options during the game, I went with my reaction at that moment, consequences be damned. This proved to be a good idea. Finding myself on Emi's route I was struck by the quality of the writing, how personable and believable the characters are, and how attached I got. I can understand this game being pigeonholed as a 'waifu simulator,' but what it is is a love story, and a damn good one at that.

I am not normally an overtly emotional person, and I found myself crying in a way that I can't remember doing in years. That is how I know this story is something special - it can of evoke emotions in a way that few other narratives are capable of. I have also never been very social; most of my time in high school through now has been split between school and taking care of my disabled mother. Maybe this can be called living vicariously through a game or even unhealthy, but I disagree. Being lifted from a soul crushing loneliness to unbridled joy at the prospect of spending an hour or so each day with people that I care about can't possibly be a bad thing - I'll take artificial rapture over factual despair any day.

While I was not a part of the community during its development, I plan and hope to be one from here on out. With Four Leaf Studios now out of commission, it is bittersweet to know that everything that there will ever be of Yamaku Academy exists as a 420 MB file on my computer. Still, it is comforting to know that it will always be there.

To the good people of Four Leaf Studios, I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart. My experience with your work will stay with me, as I'm sure that it will for countless others. What you have done has come to mean more to me than I can aptly put into words.

[ChibaMasaya]

It was nice reading, really. Keep it up mate.

[Core Xii]

I don't think I will do another storyline after Hanako's.

I think that may be one of the bigger mistakes you could make. I didn't feel like playing more after my first play-through either; boy am I glad I did.

[El Jay]

I haven't logged into these forums in absolute ages, but I figured now was the best time to amend that and catch this train before it's long-gone out of the station.

When I first came around here, I was 19. To be quick about things, it was a weird time for me artisticly and personally, and this was and still is the first 'dating sim' VN I've ever been interested in. It struck nerves back when it was still on the chopping block.

One day I'd heard that this great project came to a finish after letting it slip my mind, and I got hammered with nostalgia, and instantly went hunting for the link I'd had saved for years , before remembering about Google. I'm going to try and stay concise for once in my life, because there's been enough long-windedness here.

4LS, I love you all. I'm definately not the first to say this, but I better not be the last. This game is more of an experience than many, MANY big budget games past and present. I went back into it concerned about how I'd look for playing it, and I came back out, at first broken and on a search in my mind to why I felt that way. The story, specificly Rin's story, still hits home very close to my heart and mind, and I can't lie when I say it spun me for such a loop, I'm still having trouble settling down. I'm still playing through, taking my time though, out of a slight fear of an overload of feel-good emotions, and a bigger fear of mistakes and screw-ups. It's just a game, but I can't see it that way now. Instead, all I can do is sit myself down in my chair, strap in, and pick one of the huge emotional rollercoasters I want to go on when I play now. Hell, even as I'm typing this, I can hear the music in my head, the one we should all know by now. Like this is some sort of confession.

And in all honesty, it is. For the past few years, I haven't really been 'me'. This month is my birth month, and coincidentally, like a certain character, I rue this month. Usually, at least. I'm not so sure I will this year, and maybe not the next. I'll have to chalk it up at least partly to this wonderfully written thing turning me on my ear. It's not often that I find something, or someone, that I connect to on a level like this, and rarer so is it a game of any sort, or their characters. I don't want to carry on much longer here, because I don't feel I can do so without running out of words that fit, without making new ones, so I'll just get to the meat now.

I'll say it again, I love you all, 4LS. This game is amazing. I'll probably never part with it. Partly due to wanting to keep it with me for years to come, and partly out of paranoid fear of forgetting it again, and maybe out of losing something I find has helped me vastly. As unlikely as it is to happen, should you guys ever do anything like this again, I'll probably stick with it from the beginning to the end. But most importantly of all, thanks for all you've done, and thanks for the great fun and good times. They will not be forgotten.

[encrypted12345]

http://ks.renai.us/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=5462

People! Answer this questionnaire so that the professor studying this can finish gathering personal reactions! Only about 10 more people are needed.

If you really want to thank 4LS, let's help the academic study on it!

[kuro630]

Heya, im new to the game and forum.

Though i just started playing and have only completed one path so far i have to say Thank You to the 4LS team.
It takes allot to keep me interested in a game, let alone a book. I originality went into this thinking "I will hate this but ill just be nice and check for my friend".
However upon the opening scene and oping animation i was imidiatlly captivated and have not been able to stop playing other than times like now.
The writing style though they vary a little with each path its refreshing to get a taste of each style. The art and sprites are simply beautiful flowing with each scene.
A large favorite of the project was the music as its a great inspiration to me.
I look forward to any projects that may or may not happen and also to talking with those who love this Vn like i do, and to talk to the ones who created it.

[Mysterious Stranger]

Coming from someone who had next to no knowledge of or experience with visual novels before discovering the game a couple days after its January release on a complete fluke, I felt compelled enough after playing through three of the five paths (so far) to register an account and express my thanks. I've always been an exceedingly reserved person, perhaps too much so, but I've finally found a work of art able to well and truly break me emotionally. KS is an absolute masterpiece. Thank you, 4LS.

[Ninomiya]

Created an account to post this.
I've been dealing with some pretty bad times lately, and for me, playing KS couldn't have come at a better time. i feel like i understand myself better as a person, and the way i interact with others is changing as well, all thanks to what i've learned from KS. I sincerely want to thank you, 4LS. i'm only 19 at this point, but, if i ever happen to run into any of you in a bar, i'm buying you a drink. whiskey and pretzels. no cups.
-Ninomiya

[The_Thing]

Thank you 4LS for creating this wonderful, inspirational, time-consuming visual novel. I thought it was the greatest thing I have ever experienced in my entire life. I don't think I will ever find another visual novel that will be just as good and indelible as this one.

The art design makes places in the environment appear to be in watercolors; close up, the pictures don't look like anything, but seeing it from a far makes a huge difference, especially when I play this in the dark at my computer.

The characters you actually meet in the game are interesting in their own ways, but my personal favorite one would have to be Lilly's. It's as if you didn't need to be honest with yourself once you followed her path.

The music? Don't expect any negative responses from me. The music tracks are fantastic and are definitely in correlation with the locations during each section of the visual novel. My personal favorites are Red Velvet, Romance in Andante, Concord, To Become One, and Sarabande from BWV1010, Musicbox.

Overall, as before, it's the most emotional thing I have ever witnessed in the history of visual novels, and as a person who was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome and has had some complications when it comes to identifying body language and facial expressions, this is one thing that makes up for it. It's as if this game changed me in a sense...emotional-wise.

[Guest]

What to add, really?

Thank you.
Those words can't contain all the feelings and meanings I would like to.
I don't think any other words either would.
So, Thank you.

It's not only the game. It's the feat itself, the long journey and the hard work that gone into this true piece of art, true piece of love. The thing that really struck me is how you guys, 4LS, went all the way through it, against the bad and the worse, just because you feel it, and you did not care about what others could throw at you. You have the spirit and the eggs to pursue your passions, and to get something BIG out of that. That deserves more than a thank you. You are a sample of mankind greatness. I might sound a bit too dramatic here, but that's what is in my mind. I think the best subjects of human creation where made of love and passion, careless obsession. And this, Katawa Shoujo, is a true love made thing.

Thanks for the inspiration. Again.

[Beoran]

I'll probably repeat what has been said before and sound like I'm exaggerating with sperlatives but after playng Katawa Shoujo, this is exactly how I feel.

I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart for making this for this gem of a game which is much more than a game, a life experience full of honesty, emotion and wisdom. I hope to always remember and keep the lessons and wisdom of Katawa Shoujo alive in my mind, my heart, my acts, my whole being, flaming brightly as the sun, until the day I die. A triumph of the collective wisdom of the internet over all the foolishness of our current times, that is what you have created, and I hope that one day, these lessons will be taught in one form or another to all of mankind.

Kind Regards,

B.

[MoogleDee]

I have no idea how I missed this thread before. Ugh, I have "Letting My Heart Speak" playing in the background and it's not helping heh.

For all the highs, the lows, my greatest dreams, my worst fears, and least of all a bucket or two of tears... thank you Four Leaf Studios for your dedication, hard work, and your passion into this project.

[masuda]

THANK YOU! <3

[Tyroki]

Hello everyone

I would quite honestly like to say: Thank you Katawa Shoujo. Thank you so very much!
For many years, I had been emotionally detaching myself, replacing all other feelings with little more than anger and hatred.
I distanced myself from people, both IRL and online, who cared about me.
People would never stop lecturing me. I felt heavily burdened by society and becoming just another cog in a machine I simply don't fit in.
Many had backstabbed me so much that I just lost my want to be kind and caring. So I simply stopped.

I have Aspergers, and recently learned that I have a fairly sizeable Cavernous Malformation that has been hemmoraging. For obvious reason, I've been very scared since learning that.

The other day, I found out about and began to play Katawa Shoujo. I began on Hanako's path, thinking "So cute...", when I discovered Rin.
Rin intrigued me. The more Hisao spoke to her, the more interested I became in her character. She's so much like me. Many parts of me, including how I used to be.
Anger? Hate? These things don't matter.

Then she followed the path of self destruction, and I began to realise just how horrible I'd become.
When her good ending came around, I had a mental breakdown. I realised just how much of a monster I was, and yearned to be who I used to be.

I don't think I've cried as much in the past few years as I have in the past few days... and I love it. It feels like such a release.
Rin and Katawa Shoujo helped me to begin to take down the emotional barrier I had created to protect me from the outside world.

Thank you so much... so very much!!

Rin <3

[Babli]

Hello everyone

I would quite honestly like to say: Thank you Katawa Shoujo. Thank you so very much!
For many years, I had been emotionally detaching myself, replacing all other feelings with little more than anger and hatred.
I distanced myself from people, both IRL and online, who cared about me.
People would never stop lecturing me. I felt heavily burdened by society and becoming just another cog in a machine I simply don't fit in.
Many had backstabbed me so much that I just lost my want to be kind and caring. So I simply stopped.

I don't think I've cried as much in the past few years as I have in the past few days... and I love it. It feels like such a release.
Rin and Katawa Shoujo helped me to begin to take down the emotional barrier I had created to protect me from the outside world.

Thank you so much... so very much!!

Rin <3

Man, this is like if I wrote this I was the same before KS. It´s incredible how it made us realize these things. At first, it really hurt, but now I am very grateful that I realized how much I was detached from other people. I feel much more alive now.

Rin is just awesome thank you devs.