Gamefaq's KS Critique

[Synthus]

Somebody explain this logic to me:

You guys wanted a non-biased review of KS and you got one with a 2/10 review but an endless sea of 9/10 and 10/10 reviews isn't biased and most of those reviews are basically jerking off the game and saying "OMG IT'S KATAWA SHOUJO!" OMG IT'S A TOUCHING VISUAL NOVEL! 10/10 VISUAL NOVEL OF THE YEAR ALL YEARS!".

I love Katawa Shoujo myself but I ain't gonna treat it like it's bigger than Jesus Christ or something and I ain't gonna harass or attack anyone who give the game a score lower than a 9/10.

It's biased in the other direction.

2/10 for the niggling points she raised is like failing your thesis because you spelled your references in an Americanized manner.

[Limbless]

That review is just ridiculous.

Scores that low for KS as it is are simply impossible if you're being objective, which is what a review should be. A 1/10 (or was it 2/10?) for visuals basically implies big black squares or crayon drawings by children, not 'amateur but competent art that is unfortunately inconsistent.'

I don't believe any media requires a comparison scale to be judged, and I certainly don't believe that "I've read visual novels so I'm an authority" is a compelling argument.

I found a lot of... well, 'emphasised' reality in KS, and it seems she didn't appreciate that.

[rydiafan]

i wonder is the review based off ks being a VN or a video game ?? ( cause as a game there isn't much in the way of interaction )

[encrypted12345]

i wonder is the review based off ks being a VN or a video game ?? ( cause as a game there isn't much in the way of interaction )

No. The main problem is that he's comparing a romance VN to an action/drama VN. He just was expecting the wrong genre. Because this VN is obviously a psychological horror. That and some of the other comparisons were out right silly. Like comparing this VNs music to a music of a sound novel or comparing the gameplay of this to a VN/RPG hybrid. (Hahaha, Rance. Those games are hilariously tasteless.)

[Mirage_GSM]

i wonder is the review based off ks being a VN or a video game ?? ( cause as a game there isn't much in the way of interaction )

Hey, she did rate the gameplay 5/10
That's probably the most ridiculous thing compared to her other scores...

[Palas]

VN/RPG hybrid

That's probably the euphemism for Dating Sim I adore the most.

[zanzarra]

i wonder is the review based off ks being a VN or a video game ?? ( cause as a game there isn't much in the way of interaction )

Hey, she did rate the gameplay 5/10
That's probably the most ridiculous thing compared to her other scores...

I'll have to admit, while KS is quite good, it's not that big on the "gameplay" side. It's hardly fair to categorize it as a game, I'd rather put it into "fiction".
This, of course, makes the 5/10 in gameplay, especially with the absurdly low scores in some other categories, a bit stupid.

I don't glorify KS, but an objective critique with an overall score of less than 5/10 hardly does it justice.

[Swoopie]

Wow, that reviewer seriously needs to get laid

I'm not really experienced in the VN world (this is my first, actually), so it could very well be that KS is technically-wise not quite as good as a lot of the other VN's out there, but I think that's not the point. Looking at KS alone still impresses me very much. I thought the art was fine, the music totally enhanced the experience and the storyline, well, ofcourse it may have been a lot deeper, but that was not necesssary! Hm, how do I put this, the mere fact that so many people are totally awe-struck by KS proves that it got the job done altogether, albeit it might not live up to other VN's quality-wise, emotionally-wise it did the job very thoroughly. No reviewer can deny that. This reviewer says she's "ashamed" that so many people like KS. Maybe she should be ashamed that she missed the point and only looked at KS from a technical / software point of view?

[Doomish]

The guy sees Kenji not being fully fleshed out... As a problem?

I... I think he has a disability of his own he should work out before writing reviews. I mean, they give constant 1s and 2s in categories KS has no chance of matching up to compared to "real" games, because they aren't important to the game itself, and then decide that's a fair review.

[Demonhornz]

This is hilarious in an absolutely horrifying way.

[GamerJM]

It's most likely one of those "balancing moves"...giving an extremely bad score just to even out the high marks in the other reviews. But its bias ridiculously obvious. I disagree the reviewer didn't play through KS...she obviously did and she obviously finished at least several routes, but it's pretty clear she went through the whole thing desperately trying to force it into an overly rigid mold. ("no villain to defeat?" Fail!, "No true ending that wraps everything up?" Fail!)

So while it's not one of those "Ew, cripple porn, how scandalous"-kind of reviews, it's not really much better since it's kinda like reviewing a first person shooter while pretending it's a role playing game and then giving it a low mark because the player character cannot gain levels. While I usually read both positive and negative reviews to get a good view of a game before trying it out, this kind of review wouldn't be very useful...too eager to bash it for not being what it isn't even supposed to be while at the same time whining about how her favourite VNs should be getting KS' level of attention instead.

I've read through this entire topic, and this is probably the best description of what was likely actually going through the reviewer's head. I'm the dude who wrote the unabashedly 10/10 fanboyish love letter to the game, while still pointing out that it's flawed. She probably read my fellow reviewers' reviews as well and was enraged that a VN she considers to be inferior to her favorites of the genre was getting such high praises. So she made up/exaggerated her complaints in order to deflate her score and inflate her complaints to counter the positive reviews. The entire review was written to troll the KS fanbase and to give attention to more underlooked VNs. Again, this is made evident by the fact that she posted the review on the game's board, as someone else pointed out.

[encrypted12345]

VN/RPG hybrid

That's probably the euphemism for Dating Sim I adore the most.

Sengoku Rance is less a dating sim and more a "Conquer Japan for its women" sim. Comparing that to Katawa Shoujo is just plain silly.

[themocaw]

Sengoku Rance is less a dating sim and more a "Conquer Japan for its women" sim. Comparing that to Katawa Shoujo is just plain silly.

Sengoku Rance is Nobunaga's Ambition with porn.

[Snow_Storm]

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[Roy-Kr]

The arguments in that review were fair enough until he started raging about the no-voice thing
Of course, he's wrong to constantly compare it to the best in the business rather than enjoying it for what it is.