Discussion - Emi Route (*Spoilers* Warning)

[Caesius]

...many players get "railroaded" into Emi's route in Act 1, which I remember Aura mentioning was a deliberate design.

Where did Aura say that? I'd like to see elaboration on this. What's it for?

http://ks.renai.us/viewtopic.php?p=17338#p17338

Seems I misremembered and he didn't specifically say that they were railroading people into Emi's route, but that's pretty much the implication.

Also I hate digging for posts from like 2 years ago and I hope I don't keep saying things that I barely remember other people saying only to have to go mining for the exact quote when someone inquires about it.


Edit:

I guess what Aura wanted to do with the "Go for it" choice was have the player realize Hisao's limits, but still know that Hisao wouldn't be comfortable letting just anyone know his condition -- so Emi's path will definitely put a lot of emphasis on Hisao's condition, whereas if there's any focus on Emi's "disability" at all it will probably only deal with the history and how she managed to come to terms with it. Shizune's path, on the other hand, is for the "stubborn" Hisao, who refuses to acknowledge his condition. Then there's the Kenji bad end, for the "angry" Hisao who is in fact so devastated by his condition that it causes him to push everyone away, leaving him alone and broken (literally).

I almost don't remember making this point, but it's interesting to go back and see firsthand the assumption I made regarding Emi and how I was right and wrong at the same time. (I was mostly just wrong though.)

[whiteflags]

That's the price you pay for reading this forum for so long though.

Me, I kind of feel bad because taking stock of everyone's emotional reaction to the stories makes me feel very inadequate. To the point where I wonder if some are exaggerating because to be honest, Lilly's route made me misty eyed and that has been all so far. Emi's route, having just finished it completely, was the most fun to read. To say nothing about the relationship, I appreciate her casual attitude towards sex and I really wanted to see what kind of body constant track meets forged. I was not disappointed.

[Caesius]

Me, I kind of feel bad because taking stock of everyone's emotional reaction to the stories makes me feel very inadequate.

Well, your emotional reaction is directly proportionate to how "into it" you are. So maybe you didn't take the story seriously enough!

[RakkaKaze]

As someone near the beginning of this thread also stated, I hopped into Katawa Shoujo simply picking what I would pick on the spot with little thought and ended up down the emi-good route.

I enjoyed it the whole way through, however my main issue here was... (especially looking at a flow chart to make sure I go a different route) the second I say yes to nurse and start her arc it's like all the other major characters aside from nurse/teacher/kenji have evaporated and are never seen again. (Aside from some... comical rin appearances)

Going a good way into the hanako route, I've still seen almost all the characters BUT emi... I'd assume this would be the other way around seeing as one is outgoing and the other... isn't... in any way, shape, or form.

[Lloonnee2]

del

[Prospektor]

Third and most obvious is the way that many players get "railroaded" into Emi's route in Act 1, which I remember Aura mentioning was a deliberate design. Many players responded negatively to that fact when Act 1 came out because they wanted to get on a different girl's route and felt that they were being punished (or at least, not rewarded) for not making "better" choices in Act 1.

Well, I don't know if that was a deliberate attempt, I certainly can and will not question the intention of the developers. But the way it plays out in the final product (I've never played the demo) doesn't railroad at all IMO. It is a natural decision based on your choices.
Remember you only get to Emi if you answer the nurse "yes" when he asks if you will exercise. Rin for example would be the first person to answer "maybe" (with a shrug, of course), and Lilly and Hanako are the types that rather shy away from too much strain (Lilly quitting the student council when it resulted in confrontation, Hanako leaving class on a regular basis). But even if you answer "yes": For the same reasons these three also wouldn't fit the "Go for it!" choice when running with Emi.
This only leaves Emi and Shizune, whose personalities are more aggressive and competitive than the other's. And if you previously got on the student council path, you stay there and have no chance to get on the Emi path.
So I wouldn't say you get "railroaded" at all, it is a rather logical choice based on your decisions which pairs you with the girl that fits them the most. If your desire to impress a girl is so strong that you disregard your health issues, you cannot complain when you end up with her.

[Caesius]

--------------------------Act 2 to come soon ------------------------------------------------

I skimmed through the post thinking that you were writing down your thoughts for the entire route and then hit this bombshell.

Please don't do this for each act.

[Xuan]

I have somewhat expected some pretty deep stuff on Emi's virginity after seeing a thread titled as such around, but the actual story was very tame on that subject. Hmm.

Emi can be considered as my least favorite character because of her sprite, and Act 1. Her story has been the blandest out of all four (Hanako a close contender, playing chess in the tea room during a festival -_-" but that's been removed in the final product) in Act 1, and her aggressiveness isn't exactly... welcomed for first impressions. It kind of worsened when I played through Rin's route, seeing her track CGs.

But after going through her actual story, there was no doubt that it deserves its praises and stood on par, if not higher in quality as compared to the other routes.

There were only two flaws I have seen in this story.

One, after choosing to talk to Meiko, got found out by Emi, and at the rooftop after Rin left they talked to each other, Emi's supposedly still defensive reaction suddenly turn 'I'msosorryIloveyouIloveyoudon'tleaveme' was a little awkward and weird. If you choose to 'Go After Her' instead of talking to Meiko the scenes later reveal a CG, so I supposed the writer was kind of lazy or blocked to write this scene? But talking to Meiko was supposedly the 'right' choice to make, so...

The second would be more of a scene placement problem. After their final sex they went to sleep, and the story should've went to credits there and then. The little talk after they woke up should've been made an epilogue, short as it is, but also much more fitting and satisfying.

All in all, Emi's route is a much, much better reference to real life romance (Yes, I don't care how awesome your partner is, at some point and subject he/she WILL push you away similar to Emi's actions, if not milder or wilder) and I believe that a lot of people could use some tips from this story. At least my experience for this route turned out more educational than I thought. Kinda funny.

[Caesius]

One, after choosing to talk to Meiko, got found out by Emi, and at the rooftop after Rin left they talked to each other, Emi's supposedly still defensive reaction suddenly turn 'I'msosorryIloveyouIloveyoudon'tleaveme' was a little awkward and weird.

I think it's fine that she had that sudden turnaround, since no matter how determined she was to keep up the facade she could only take so much before it shattered. When that happened she simply couldn't keep it all bottled up anymore, so it's fine that that singular moment turned out a little awkward -- I mean, what do you expect?

However I do feel that the scene in and of itself was awkward, but only because I think the sprite choice didn't feel "serious" enough for that moment. A CG might have worked better, although if I remember correctly the actual hug was only for that one screen of dialogue so it wouldn't have been long enough to warrant a CG. At the same time, I don't think A22 could have written the scene to have a longer "hug moment" in an attempt to justify having one. So really the awkwardness is a result of the limited resources delta had at his disposal.

[Xuan]

What I meant was for that scene, the sudden turnaround wasn't written well enough, or long enough to be precise. It's like saying, 'I like bread' and the next line 'I hate bread', it doesn't make good enough sense; people're expecting some sort of explanation to the statements.

[bradpara]

Having played this route, I have to say that when I went into this, I wasn't the biggest Emi fan, her Act 1 is by far the most, meh. However, she after playing ths route I am rethinking myself.

This is the second route that I have played, (Shizune was my first) and I have to say that while I shall defend the storytelling of the latter. I enjoyed the more conventional love story of this arc. Though the anal sex scene was abit hard to watch. I kinda guessed that Emi's father died in the same accident that took her legs rather early one but that did not make the cemetary scene any less powerful for.

Also the I did like the feel of the good end and after having played Shizune's path first it made for a good contrast since part of this path was about Emi and Hisao learing to live for the moment, while Shizune's end was very much about that fact that everyone had a solid idea of their futures

Actually the biggest suprise was just how promienent Mutou was in ths Arc epsecially since the advice he gives Hisao about how a Scientist views the world is so important to Hisao in figuring out to resolve his issues with Emi.

Note to self: Try to find my copy of "A Breif History of Time" for Mutou cosplay.

Loved it, that is all I have to say

2 down 3 to go, Next Stop Rin

[alabaster]

2 down 3 to go, Next Stop Rin

Just a suggestion: take a short break from KS, or at least clear your head before jumping into Rin's path. It's very different from the rest and honestly I didn't appreciate it that much the first time. I took it a bit too fast and was coming off the much more conventional love stories of Emi and Lilly, so I don't think I was in the right head space for Rin. Just some friendly advice.

[Prospektor]

What I meant was for that scene, the sudden turnaround wasn't written well enough, or long enough to be precise. It's like saying, 'I like bread' and the next line 'I hate bread', it doesn't make good enough sense; people're expecting some sort of explanation to the statements.

Well, I guess there's always kind of a personal viewpoint involved, but I for one was satisfied with how it played out. You could see that at first she wants to keep a friendly distance and just ignore what happened in her house, but Hisao brings it up. The friendlier and more emotional Hisao gets, the closer to her, the harder she strikes back because she doesn't want to show weakness or emotion that could be interpreted as weakness. I mean it's pretty obvious she doesn't hate him, she only hates the thought of being seen as someone who needs help. But in the end, since Hisao has figured her out, he can address exactly that:
"So I'm not going to help you because I think you need rescuing. I don't want to be a knight rescuing the damsel in distress, but even knights helped each other out, you know. I want to help you, even though I know you can do it on your own."
This hit right home, and then she asks why and he says he loves her, and that's that. So, I don't see it as a "mood change" out of the blue. But with an emotional thing like KS everybody is set to have an individual response to it.

The second would be more of a scene placement problem. After their final sex they went to sleep, and the story should've went to credits there and then. The little talk after they woke up should've been made an epilogue, short as it is, but also much more fitting and satisfying.

You're right, the very last episode could have been an epilogue, I kinda looked at it that way, too. I don't know why (only) Lilly has an epilogue after the credits, but from what I understood, a few people missed it due to not using the "skip" button or waiting for the credits to end, so maybe, in the time of shorter and shorter attention spans, it's an understandable decision to put it before the credits? It's hard to tell, in a book you can just title it "epilogue" and everybody knows where to place it, but I can see the trouble when doing it in a VN, which plays out more like a movie.

[imperial.standard]

Okay, I know I may get flak for mentioning this but I personally think Emi is the most shallow character of the five girls we get to choose (even Misha has a more complex character dilemma). Shizune as well but I get the feeling this is because once we chose her path, we aren't treated to many options until the end (maybe to emphasize the "leading" character of Shizune?)

Emi's characterization of an emotionally scarred person hiding behind a cheery facade doesn't strike me to be anything novel. Although the presentation itself is superb and I enjoyed her route far better than Rin's.

2 down 3 to go, Next Stop Rin

Just a suggestion: take a short break from KS, or at least clear your head before jumping into Rin's path. It's very different from the rest and honestly I didn't appreciate it that much the first time.

How true. Her route is the most complex and dark. I suspect she suffers something else (mentally) other than just missing upper limbs...

[alabaster]

You're right, the very last episode could have been an epilogue, I kinda looked at it that way, too. I don't know why (only) Lilly has an epilogue after the credits, but from what I understood, a few people missed it due to not using the "skip" button or waiting for the credits to end, so maybe, in the time of shorter and shorter attention spans, it's an understandable decision to put it before the credits? It's hard to tell, in a book you can just title it "epilogue" and everybody knows where to place it, but I can see the trouble when doing it in a VN, which plays out more like a movie.

It's weird to me that people don't watch the credits. I always watch the credits of something I've enjoyed. I guess I think of it as sign of respect to the people who created it. I just feel wrong skipping over that part.