What does Katawa Shoujo mean to you?

[Sefera]

When I first played KS, I was awed by how realistic and human the characters are even in that sort of unreal setting. It genuinely touched me, and I actually learnt quite a lot from it. Now, though, when my girlfriend just dumped me, I find myself replaying the game. I find myself feeling better and getting over the relationship. I'm still in grief though, but it's surprising how KS manage to make me better by letting me imagine how it will be like to talk with the characters.

[newnar]

It means that I will remember these feels forever and ever.

[Tempester]

Katawa Shoujo inspired me to take up a regular running schedule and lay off junk food almost completely, but I was already living a semi-healthy lifestyle before I started playing it, and Emi's route simply gave me that extra push I needed in the correct direction. Oh, and I suppose that I am slightly more accepting and understanding of disabled people now. As least for now, for me it's mostly just a really good VN with empathetic characters and (mostly) great writing for VN standards. I didn't find it a massive life-shifting event, but I congratulate anyone who did and hope that they can go through with the changes they want to undertake. Maybe I'll pitch in again if I discover something else in KS that inspires me.

If a work of fiction successfully convinces you to take a positive direction in some part of your life, that might tell you something about yourself. You've probably had the urge to improve your life for some time now, but you just didn't find the spark to ignite that flame of passion until you played Katawa Shoujo.

[mainframe004]

Katawa Shoujo is now my favorite visual novel of all time. The characters are so human and realistic that it's almost scary, and both the concept and setting are very well thought out. It's also reminded me that I am capable of feeling emotions that I'm normally afraid to show to others. Beautiful piece of art.

[yank4vicios]

It is something made my life come back again.Not just a game but a friend for me ks is.They say book is the best friend of human.Well it really helped me in life.After my girlfriend cheated on me and i learned i have a tumor in my pancreas.Even though when they took it of it was just big enough to make an operation and took it out.Hostpital, my girfriend, everything hit me so bad.After operation i lived like a ghost for 3 weeks.And then when i was watching gaming videos on youtube just like i do everytime, i found chilledchaos' ks playthrough.Even he reads the game/visual novel so funny, it emotionally hit me.He isn't finished it yet, and he is on the hanako's path.in his episode 24 i decided to check if this game was free.It turned out it was free!(im so thankful to 4 leaf studios for it) i downloaded it quickly and made the same choices like chilled, get to the part where he is and started playing myself.I made the 2 important choices myself and hit the good ending of hanako.After finishing while credits coming, i stand up, i was nearly crying, and started clapping.Just to congrat em.It was so emotional.After playing it, i came back to life, decided to reset my life and get a clean page to write my life.Now i know that whatever happens, i must stick to people that i know will never betray me(also never betrayed before) like my family my best friends.Even though i had so much friends, after thinking about it it turns out that i have a few "real" friends.After playing the game i told them that i want to hang out.They was in my hospital room when i was in hostpital.They really supported me.They showed their love, so i told them now it's my time to show my love to them.Not like a girlfriend-boyfriend or wife-husband love, but a pure love like them.Now im going to my check-ups with my friends.After check-ups i hang out with them.Even i made my family get out i watched a film with them including my brother.I wasn't getting so much along with him.

So basically this game made me really come back to life as i said.Thank you with all of my heart 4 leaf studios.

[dunkelfalke]

It is my self help group, the means to see my waifu and to make Emi proud. And it helped me to meet a new friend.

[Ippo279]

I'd like to thank 4 Leaf Studios for making this visual novel. I'm not sure how other people see this project as, but it means a lot to me. I'm sorta putting myself out here, even as just an anon, so forgive me if I sound shallow or naive. I can say with a fair amount of confidence that stuff like Katawa Shoujo keeps me going every day. I'm not sure that I'd be able to put up with as much as I do if I hadn't seen KS. Now, I don't have some crippling physical disability. I don't get bullied in school. I can afford to eat 3 meals a day. You could say that a lot of people have it worse than me, but as far as I'm concerned, I consider myself depressed. I feel distanced from everyone in my life. I have no close friends. Sure, i have people I hang out with, but they always seem like they have better friends to talk with or things to do than me. Even when I'm with my family, I feel alone. It's a pain to even talk with them. I'm utterly and completely alone. Until I'm back on my laptop, that is. When I see Katawa Shoujo, I see people overcoming their weaknesses. I see people finding happiness despite of their past tribulations. That itself is enough for me. I know that Katawa Shoujo isn't reality. I know that right now i can't be as happy as Hisao is in some of his endings. But what KS does give me is hope. It shows me that even though I'm in this pit right now, I can still find happiness. I don't know if I can even achieve something like one of Hisao's happy endings. but that doesn't matter. Because of things like Katawa Shoujo, I can tell myself that I need to keep on living until I find my happiness or my time runs out. What Katawa Shoujo is to me is a hope and a reason to keep on living.

Now, I don't expect everyone else to have the same feelings I do for KS, but what does KS mean to you? Is it just a game? Or something more?
Sorry if my post was a bit too personal for comfort. Thanks for putting up wit it!

This is exactly how I feel...

[Snow_Storm]

Katawa Shoujo means to me is that because both side of my family have heart problems, I'm gonna die of a heart attack like Hisao.

All joking aside, to be somewhat honest, it just means to me another great game that will stifck with me for a while. Maybe not for the rest of my life but something that I can say "Yeah, I loved that game back in the day" or something.

[Roy-Kr]

People are crazy, visual novels are entertainment and KS is no exception.

[MrDogsniper]

Katawa Shoujo is not only a beautiful story but makes me realize that things can happen to anyone...Im a victim of a dog attack which people make fun and stay away from me even to avoid my scars, in my mind Im Hanako.

[Daitengu]

People are crazy, visual novels are entertainment and KS is no exception.

Books, music, and movies are all entertainment as well. Doesn't mean they can't inspire or cause people to reflect. Anything and everything can be learned from, so long as you are open to learning.

Personally I came to understand parts of myself better after playing KS, and am willing to grasp at chance more instead of wallowing in doubt. I finally understand what people mean when they say grasping for straws feels better than not participating, even if it's a loss.

[SplendidClaw]

This is going to be a long one, but hey this might one of the only few forums inhabited by people who type just as much as I do into a single post.

For me, I guess the game represents hope. It's helping pull me out of a quarter life crisis that has struck me ever since I realized I will be done with college soon. All I've ever really done is go to college, go to my part time job, then go home. I've been conditioned for so many years to just go to college, and that once I'm done with it I'll magically find a career, afford an apartment to move into, and start being an "adult". Well, after my finals tomorrow I will officially have a Bachelor's degree, but I still have no rhyme or reason on where I'm going with my life. I guess playing this game has really helped me not only sort what is important in my life, but also gave me perspective on my own problems. This might be a really shitty phase of my life right now, but to be honest there are people out there with WAY worse problems than my own. I'm sure a lot of people would gladly trade their problems for my "I graduated college and don't really know what to do" problem. It honestly made me feel like a spoiled brat that I was so down in the dumps, when there are other people out there who have a much tougher lot in life, yet don't complain about it nearly as much as I do. I'm not talking about characters in this game, but actual people. I guess experiencing that thought through a form of medium that I enjoy really helped drive the point home that things could be much worse than they are now.

It's helped me really dig up past issues that I've been trying to avoid. I created a goal of dieting/exercising a lot after Christmas in order to lose more weight. I was already sticking pretty well with it, but playing this game really pushed the effort I've been putting into this plan into overdrive. The game helped me realize that what you get out of life depends on what you put in it. I guess I was just depressed because after losing 100 pounds due to exercising a lot, eating very little, and playing a shit load of RPGs(No kidding....this is really how I lost all that weight. Hey, have to be realistic with diets I guess haha), I gained about 60-70 of the pounds back in about 4 years time. Now I want to lose 120 pounds, and I really think if I stick with it for a year, I can do it. I've realized that with the body type I was born with I will only be considered two things: Fat, or Buff. Right now, I'm a mix of the two I suppose. I'm overweight, but I also look like I work out I guess.

Following this train of thought, I guess it also helped remind me that I wasn't put on this earth to be average. I guess I was just kind of depressed lately because I really had no tangible goal to work towards to. Playing this game made me realize that they were inside me the entire time, I was just afraid of the possibility of failure to give them a shot. Nothing in this game ever happened to Hisao by just waiting on the sidelines. He pretty much actively went out of his way to do (or NOT do in Hanako's case) things that would improve his dire situation, and they worked. I was foolish to think that my life would sort itself out if I just skated through college, and now I'm paying for it. But all in all, I guess I've learned to turn what was once a situation I thought to be depressing into an opportunity to really prove who I am.

I think, in addition to focusing on the diet/exercise routine to further shape my body to a way that better represents my work ethic, I'm going to be applying to law school this year. I've tutored pre-law subjects for about 5 years now but never really had the courage to try out law school. I guess I've always thought that there is no way in HELL someone who loves anime and plays video games all the time could ever become a lawyer. That might be the case but hell if they don't exist yet might as well become the first, right? It will be a giant pain in the ass getting the loans needed, but I'd rather try a monumental task in front of me then run away from it like I have been for the last few years. I guess you could say this game helped me realize that too.


Odd what kind of life lessons you can learn when they are presented in the format of a video game lol

[Snow_Storm]

People are crazy, visual novels are entertainment and KS is no exception.

[Mysterious Stranger]

People are crazy, visual novels are entertainment and KS is no exception.

Books, music, and movies are all entertainment as well. Doesn't mean they can't inspire or cause people to reflect. Anything and everything can be learned from, so long as you are open to learning.

Personally I came to understand parts of myself better after playing KS, and am willing to grasp at chance more instead of wallowing in doubt. I finally understand what people mean when they say grasping for straws feels better than not participating, even if it's a loss.

Sorry to break it to you, broski, but in all likelihood you just fed a mild troll.

[Paddy]

My friends, I am a Roman Catholic. I am staunchly pro-life and anti-abortion, believe gay marriage is a paradox and an impossibility, and think contraception and perhaps fornication should be illegal. As you may have guessed, I also despise the Democratic Party's agenda and most often vote Republican (although I technically non-partisan).

But I have a great enjoyment of Internet culture - memes, the Cheezeburger Network, YouTube Poop, even 4chan on occasion. When I heard a game had been produced out of 4chan, about disabled girls, and actually got positive reviews, based on its compassion towards the disabled, I had to check this thing out.

I am glad I did. It's given me hope for the human race, most especially those who use computers in most of their free time like myself, and I imagine most of you.

The writers of these stories give me hope for the future of humanity because I can see they take emotional and sexual fidelity seriously. In fact, Emi's Route - the first one I played - elucidated the human level of sex for me. It really is a binding between two people who love each other not just today, nor tomorrow, but now and forever. It is THE sign that says "Even if you need me to carry the world, I will never leave you, abandon you, or forget you".

Also, it's something to be cherished. We all know about the responsibilities that come with sex: children, STDs, and the like. But has anyone who stressed responsibility in sex ever told you: sex is a wonderful thing? And I don't just mean they just said it, but I mean they really seemed to mean it?

The writers of this game, I think, are the first voice aside from my own which I've heard genuinely emphasise both points. Katawa Shoujo demonstrates that sex is not an end of itself. The real point of any relationship is to do what is best for your friend, partner, or loved one. In short, Katawa Shoujo teaches us to love. Love isn't just about having sex or "going all the way"
or any of that. It's the most pronounced way to express love for sure. But it's only one of many, many means towards the goal: unshakeable unity, in love, dedication, and endurance.

Truly, the natural law is evident, if not visibly shining, in the world of Katawa Shojo. You have made me cry manly, manly tears.