The "thank you 4LS" thread.

[kyvi]

To 4LS,

I wish I could hug each of you, but some thanks on your forum will have to suffice for now.

This game made me smile, and it made me cry. It will stick with me for years to come, unlike any other game I've played before. I honestly did not hear about KS until the day it came out, and I'm not usually one to play VNs, but upon reading the feedback of even just the first act I knew I HAD to download this game. And I wasn't disappointed, what I found was beautiful. On a technical level every asset was amazingly done; from the character design, to the writing; to the short animations after Act 1, to the gorgeous and perfectly fitting music (the title track is definitely going to make me feel mixed emotions any time I hear it from here on out.)

I have loved games before, I have obsessed over games before. But never like this, you should all be proud of the creation that you have brought into the world. I love the girls of KS and they will each live in my heart and affect my life in some way. I couldn't have created a greater set of muses for myself even if I had tried. I want to live life to the Emiest, and never back down again. I want to let my imagination roam free and untethered and let Rin be my guide. I want to sit and enjoy life as it passes around me and take in the sounds with Lilly. And I want to be secure in my tendency to be an introvert with Hanako. (Sorry guys, but I just didn't click with Shizune )

When I think of the girls my heart hurts, but I smile all the same.

I am sad to know that Katawa Shoujo is and was your only masterpiece. I plan on replaying it frequently just to remind myself of the beautiful game and these beautiful personas you all created.

I wish each of you well in your own lives, and hope that at some point this creation of yours made some impact on your own lives.

With much love,

Kyvi~

[Gerbil X]

I already wrote something in another person's topic to thank you, 4LS, but let me say this as well.

The first book to ever affect me to such a degree that my life was changed was John Gardener's Grendel. The second was Gustave Flaubert's Madame Bovary. The third was John Updike's Rabit Redux. I found all of these works to be intensely beautiful, but even so, they all made me into an increasingly negative person. Those books moved me through means of sorrow.

However, the fourth story to reflect on myself, and change my life and outlook on it is Katawa Shoujo. While the preceding three books are still overwhelmingly important to me, and I have not forgotten the lessons I learned from them, KS has washed away layers of the cynicism that I've accumulated over the years. Thank you so much for creating a work so elegant, unpretentious, and heartrendingly beautiful as Katawa Shoujo. You have added years to my lifespan with this game, and I thank you so much for reintroducing me to the word beauty. Reading KS, I finally feel like I understand the whole point of fiction. I've said it before and let me say it again; you all have made the world a better place by creating this.

[Meikos]

Tonight, I finished the Emi arc. Initially, I was planning on going for Hanako, but after choosing the most natural choices to me, I ended with Emi. I approached this whole ordeal with a bit of caution, having not looked at anything even remotely related to anime, manga or the respective art styles in over 3-4 years due to a particularly traumatic moment of my life that occurred at that time. But the point of this post isn't to talk about myself, but about the game.

When I first picked up about this game it was, surprisingly, on the Know Your Meme website, which seems to have a pretty large following for the game on there. I was curious, but reproachful - the nature of the game, as an erotic novel, was a bit distasteful to me. Additionally, as mentioned above, the art style brought back painful memories that I would of rather left buried. Nevertheless, I downloaded out of sheer curiosity, not expecting to get very far in.

As I started, I was impressed by the music and art immediately. After all, I had been misinformed (or perhaps misunderstood) that this game had been spawned by 4-Chan, something I was reproachful of. But as I went through each sequence, as the music (which is even still playing in the background after the final Emi scene.) matched each scene perfectly, as I predicted something correctly but felt tears welling up and warm feelings embracing me, despite this, I began to realize that every notion I had about this game was incorrect. I no longer thought of it as something to be disturbed by or to avoid, but something to embrace.

I may not be exceptionally good at writing or expressing my feelings as such in writing, but as I sit here trying to make sense of whether I should be happy for the ending of Emi's arc or sad that it came to an end when I only wanted to keep reading, I feel as if I should offer my sincere thanks and apologies for my unvoiced criticisms of a game I had not played. After cooling off for a while, I will definitely pick it back up to experience another arc. Maybe in the mean time I will read one of my old manga or watch some Cowboy Bebop. Suddenly, I no longer feel so adverse to the art and stories. And it has been so long since I read one...

Sincerely (And with even more thanks for this wonderful story),
Meikos

[Morthious]

An update on my progress through the game... now that I have an account here and such. xD

I finished Shizune's path a few days ago, found it not as deep as Lilly's or Hanako's, but I did find the love triangle rather interesting. What got me most is its literally just one decision to determine whether you get the good end or the bad. That said, I still enjoyed her path.

I did Kenji's 'bad end' path after that, finding it hilarious that I actually had to go out of my way Just to see it. xD Seems like I have a knack for knowing what to say to take the right path. It was kinda depressing though that it wasn't Hisao's heart condition that ended up killing him, but getting stupid drunk with Kenji of all people. That said... It still felt kinda right. A fitting end for being so damn pessimistic.

Finally, at 2:20am this morning, just a short 7 hours til I have to get ready for work, I finished Rin's path. She had so many choices, and I never felt like I chose the right one and yet, in the end, after several fights, after parting so many times, they came together in the end. It was a roller coaster of emotion and I absolutely loved it. Now with only Emi's path left and some minor retracing of steps to get 100%, I still can't find the words to express how much this game has influenced me, or how much it means to me.

[HurricaneHarvey]

I would like to thank every member of this development team on a personal level as the experience would not be have been the same without everyone of you. Every detail mattered. Without going into too much I would like to stress my sincere thanks by saying something of myself. I dealt with anxiety and depression to the point of being suicidal and mediated since 5 years old. I am now 24 and in the past months of dealing with the drifting away of friends and a hopelessness about my future I have been steadily returning to thoughts of suicide that I hadn't had for several years. These stories, this art, this music, and looking at the history of the project and people involved have inspired me to reach back out to people and help I need. Thank every you everyone who worked on this. Never forget people really loved your work and it meant something.

[Yuki]

I'll keep this brief, but I just wanted to thank the developers for taking on such a delicate subject matter and giving it the care and work that it deserved. These stories are largely realistic and very emotional. I have enjoyed animes for many years, but this is my first Dating sim, and it really drew me in and affected me .

My wife is severely handicapped, essentially paralyzed, unable to speak or move. Her mind is intact, but it's hard to communicate with her, and even more difficult lately to connect to her on a personal level. I played this in hopes that I might find some common ground with the protagonist, and ways that I myself might cope with a loved one with severe disabilities. I had no idea how profoundly this would affect me. Following the stories brought out real emotions in me that hadn't been used in years due to the disability.

My love for my wife is still strong, but it is so difficult to take care of her basic needs, our emotional connections gradually fell by the wayside. Katawa Shoujo has refreshed my resolve to engage her at a higher level--as her husband and not just a caregiver-- and I cannot thank you enough for that. The length of time it took to complete this shows in the quality of the stories and character development. These are not people defined by their disability, they are people who deal with their disabilities just as some of us deal with more pedestrian concerns like depression or coming from broken homes.

In short, this is work that all the developers should be proud of. It is making a real difference in my life, and likely hundreds of other lives of people who deal with real people who have disabilities. Thank you so much!
-Yuki

[Yuno]

This game affected me on so many levels too. I just want to tell you, I'm proud of you, OP

Good job for not giving up on your wife. Good job for being there and loving her. You're a strong person.

[luisedgm]

I just made this thread to thank the all the developers and any community member that helped in the creation of Katawa Shoujo.
It was the best Visual Novel i ever played, even if i haven't played many, and maybe there are better ones out there, but its clear to me that this is product of great passion and hardwork.
I wish great luck in future for you all.

[Phase6Macha]

Hi there,
this is the main reason I came to this forum, though I ended up reading and writing a lot more in the process.
Guess that's not a bad thing though.

I was interested in this game after someone reccomended it to me (this was long ago, I googled and found out the game wasn't finished so I didn't further look into it) and started playing right after it was released.
On January the 11th, at 8:12 AM CET I was able to 100% finish the game, overthrowing my sleep schedule for the past 3 days.

I love your work.
This goes to everyone involved in the production of KS.

Especialy after hearing that this is pretty much the indie game of virtual novels, writing, artwork and animation really surprised me.
I can't say I've ever gotten so passionate about playing any other vn and I never was much a fan of playing these games a second time after finishing a/the main storyline.
However, with this game it was different. I really wanted to see the other stories, I wanted to know what happenes, it's not one of those "Oh well, generic story, where is my H-scene, thanks, bye." games.

To see that all this was a non-profit project of a few people from the internet is really one of the rare little wonders in our modern days.

Of course I have my personal favorites and preferences but I can't say that I didn't enjoy every line of dialouge, artwork and music in this game.
I'm sure I'll remember it for a very long time.

You know this short feeling of emptiness you have after finishing something you really loved, like a great game, a good book or a complex project? The moment you realize you're done and it can't be undone?
Congratulations, this is the first vn causing this for me.

If the SDA charity marathon hadn't been silently running on my second screen most of the time while I played, I think I would've actualy cried at a certain point in the game, not just tear up.
I'd donate to you guys if you'd take donations but following your FAQ I opted for the SDA charity marathon instead.


In case you ever decide to start a project like this again, I'll definetly follow it all the way through.

Greetings
Phase

[Maximus]

Meningitis... That's what happened to me few years ago. From that moment my life has changed and pain became my companion. Some virus damaged my organism beyond fixing it. Strong headaches, pain in right inguinal ligament (which makes me cripple a little bit) and vertebral column (which makes me unable to move for few minutes), insomnia, problem with memorizing things... All of this became part of my life as doctor's said that, well, this things will stay with me through entire life. At the beginning it wasn't easy but I somehow learned to live with strong random attacks of pain that happen usually every day.

Friends who supposed to be my friends stopped talking with me. Other people seemed to look at me with pity in their eyes. I wanted to be treated as a normal person but that never happened. I was lucky that I found new friends which accepted me the way I am. Near them I could feel like I'm just a normal guy without any problems. However after my illness I never had a chance to have a girlfriend. Why? Well, usually at some point when I told a girl that I have some health problems everything ended. Always. Maybe I should not say anything at all but I want to be honest about my state. And at some point I just stopped having any hope for finding someone.

I just want to say thank you to devs for restoring my hope in finding someone. After going through all stories in Katawa Shoujo I just kinda restored my hope which I gave up some time ago. Reading this novel made me realize that I shouldn't give up on hope and one day maybe I will finally meet someone who won't reject me. Again... thank you devs.

PS: I do realize that my health problems are a joke in comparison with other people. I do know that and I respect them for not giving up and having the strength to live against many problems which they encounter.

[flomu]

for everything.

[SperSpy007]

Long ago I used to like dating sims and the sort, so seeing such a novel approach made me want to give this a go.

I haven't really slept at all for the last 3 days.

I got all the girls good ending on my first try (rin being the hardest to figure out to get to from act 1)

I almost want to go back and see the other "worse" endings, but I'm so emotionally attached to the characters I think it would be too sad.

The creators rock, thanks for this story I wont soon forget.

[Ockbald]

I was this game biggest skeptic. I would rant to no end about the lack of interactivity of it.

But just as I finished 3 routes, and spend about over 10 hours with it...I cannot complain about anything. This game has a special place in my heart, and the silence from the devs is kinda hurting me. 5 years is a very, very long time but to capture the minds of so many people means they are a winning team. I wish I could see more vns written by then, not related to Katawa Shoujo (I wouldn't mind if it was though).

[Bix]

Seconded!
Thank You!

[Bix]

I have been having trouble sleeping for the last 3 days,
and after finishing the Emi route I have decided to finally start dieting and exercise, Guess I just needed the company (That came out creepier than I intended)