Katawa Shoujo Act 1 Preview feedback thread

[Severyo]

I might as well put my opinion here, though I doubt I'll be saying much here that hasn't been said in either the irc or in earlier posts.

I like that it's a school theme, but there's a difference, the photographs also add a touch which I personally aren't used to in VN's. However, the quality in them changes between each, for instance there is a photograph early on of some plants which is only used once and in my opinion it was better than a lot of the others.

The characters are original in a way, but each of them reminds me of a arch-type for this type of games. The characters each have their own personality so far, except Emi, who at the minute I feel is very underdeveloped but that may just be because she's not in Act 1 often. Her ending for the demo was also very disappointing, and unlike every other one, didn't feel like much of a end at all.

Hmm, I've put down a lot more than I thought I would. I'll end it here.

PS: <3 Lilly.

[Tualha]

Is it at all possible to reach the Emi or Rin endings if you

take Lilly's side in Cold War?
Because I really can't bear her reaction if you don't.

[CleansingFlame]

Is it at all possible to reach the Emi or Rin endings if you

take Lilly's side in Cold War?
Because I really can't bear her reaction if you don't.

Not sure about Rin, but for emi all you have to do is run with her and have a heart attack and eat lunch with her, and then i'm pretty sure you're locked in with her.

[Fundefined]

Is it at all possible to reach the Emi or Rin endings if you

take Lilly's side in Cold War?
Because I really can't bear her reaction if you don't.

It's possible, don't say Hanako's cute and read a book instead of talking to her during the break should do it.

[Tualha]

It's possible, don't say Hanako's cute and read a book instead of talking to her during the break should do it.

Ah, thank you. Will try that.

Odd that your answer to whether she's cute affects things. It's certainly not through Kenji. Must be your own internal view.

[Tualha]

Unless Shizune can lipread, and I've seen no sign of that, there's a problem in "Smalltalk".

I didn't see a lot of kids hanging around after classes yesterday, so maybe there are clubs. If so, I wonder if I should join one.

All through class, the question remains on my mind, so I decide to ask Shizune about it when we split into groups.

After all, she did say if I had anything I wanted to know, I should ask her.

Shizune: "..."

Shizune: "..."

She crosses her arms and shifts her gaze slowly to Misha, who looks more preoccupied with trying to grind the eraser of her pencil down so that the top is perfect and evenly flat.

Shizune: "..."

Misha: "Ahaha~! Sorry, sorry, Shicchan~! Is there something you wanted from me?"

Misha: "Oh~... I see! Hm... That's a good question, Hicchan."

My first thought is that means she doesn't know, which is worrying. Maybe I'm being too negative. Well, anyway, Misha, please don't prove me right.

Shizune: "..."

Misha: "Oh, that's right! Everyone is encouraged to join a club. A lot of people do so because there isn't really anything else to do."
This looks like Shizune knew what Hisao was asking, even though Misha was occupied with her pencil and not interpreting. Misha should ask Hisao to repeat the question.

Of course, we don't actually hear him ask the question the first time, so it may be that this bit of dialogue is just being skipped both times...

[Tualha]

It's possible, don't say Hanako's cute and read a book instead of talking to her during the break should do it.

Turns out you can say she's cute, it still works. It's the book that matters.

I guess because then Lilly doesn't know you as well, and you don't end up helping her class. You meet Rin at the mural, then you're not up too late, so you can go for the run in the morning. I wonder if having told the nurse "yes" instead of "maybe" is involved too?

[Kilvoctu]

Hanako: ... Too little dialogue and too much hiding for me, you spend more of her route chasing her around with Lilly than with her really. I guess that's just leading on to her main story, of which i can see there is probably a lot waiting. I think i am probably asking too much from a demo/preview, but its hard not to when you guys set the bar so high already.

All that wait and chasing made her ending that much more enjoyable, because you know what they say about anticipation and et cetera.
I think her path thus far was quite suitable for an Act 1. Also, I'm plenty all right for the amount of dialogue; similarly to what someone has said about me once: she doesn't speak much but when she does, the words have more meaning...or something like that. All I know is that her personality as-is is perfect. I am known to be a very patient sort of person.
I did want to see some more events with her, but...I'd just repeating my first sentence at this point.

[vermithrx]

Tualha, you have it half right.
The only requirement for the second morning run with Emi is that you say "Yes" to the Nurse. It doesn't effect anything else, though. So, If you want to be friendly to all the girls but still have Rin as an option, all you need to do is make sure whoever you have lunch with on the third day is NOT who you side with during the Shizune/Lilly conflict. Reading a book just makes that easy.

[lurk moar]

First run through with Emi, but then I got Shizune, and the latter ending was about forty times better. I suppose it's just a demo though, but if Emi ends up being a consolation prize I will be disappoint.

[Tualha]

Ah, thank you, Vermithrx. I wasn't sure how much was the nurse and how much was having been up late. I had told the nurse "maybe" the first time through, thinking that perhaps an unconventional answer would appeal more to Rin.

[Tualha]

Oh, I forgot...before I started pointing out things to fix, I should have said, bravo to all the developers for having created a very well done game. And for making it available to Linux users. The latter made easier by using Python, no doubt.

Pity about the title...I wonder why Raita called it that. He's Japanese, right? He must have known katawa is not a polite word. Well, it's not the only insensitive remark on that drawing...

[Boxy]

Hanako: ... Too little dialogue and too much hiding for me, you spend more of her route chasing her around with Lilly than with her really. I guess that's just leading on to her main story, of which i can see there is probably a lot waiting. I think i am probably asking too much from a demo/preview, but its hard not to when you guys set the bar so high already.

All that wait and chasing made her ending that much more enjoyable, because you know what they say about anticipation and et cetera.
I think her path thus far was quite suitable for an Act 1. Also, I'm plenty all right for the amount of dialogue; similarly to what someone has said about me once: she doesn't speak much but when she does, the words have more meaning...or something like that. All I know is that her personality as-is is perfect. I am known to be a very patient sort of person.
I did want to see some more events with her, but...I'd just repeating my first sentence at this point.

Yeah to each his own mate, I guess i just don't like her character archetype that much. She seems the most stereotypical of the bunch.

Looking back again now i can finally see my first real complaint of the act 1 demo. I feel like with some of the girls i got a whole piece of cake to eat and a lot to look forward to. With some of the others (namely Hanako and Emi) i just got to lick the spoon, for lack of a better analogy. I think it must be to do with revealing too much at this stage, but it sort of leaves me feeling a little let down with those routes.

[A]

Some of Shizune's sprites strike me a bit odd. Like it's hard to register them as looking "at" me. It's like a weird inbetween of staring somewhere else and looking at the screen. Like an optical illusion, it keeps switching.

But Shinuze IS constantly switching between looking at the player and looking at Mishas gestures and Hisao even comments on this at least once.

*everyone complaining about Shizune/Misha trying to force you into the Student council*

I actualy liked those parts and thought they were funny *shrug*

[Just played]

I just got done with the Shizune route and let me say FANTASTIC job.

I loved the music and Daylight was phenomenal, I loved the stumble of the ... harpsichord was it?

The characters were all very cute and I plan on playing back through the varying routes for more fun although I don't see how you top Shizune's ending. Fantastic.

However I did have a fairly negative couple of experiences with the heavy all-or-nothing choices that are sometimes not conveyed properly?

In particular "I spend the whole afternoon in the Nurse's office." could be mistaken for sarcasm, but instead the Hisao flips out on them instead, also the "Do I push myself harder or take it easy." is just so ... bad?

You either try to push yourself to the brink of death or only run as much as you did the previous day and give up entirely. What's with that?

The Cold War scene was also very much like that of either sticking with Shizune and throwing Lily under a speeding train or forever tick off Shizune.

I know these are branch points but apparently Hisao has two operating modes of either total asshole/all-out or apathetic/whatever, I think you might want to reconsider how you've handled some of the branch points.