Katawa Shoujo Forums

Well, to be honest, I believe it is best to have less involvement of the PC in the early CG as what the true depth of a visual novel like this is to get yourself absorbed in the main character. You want to experience the emotions he does, as in reality this is an extension of yourself in the game. A true VN can envelop you so much that don't need the physical depiction to relate yourself with. I just think this is easier to accomplish early when not showing the PC's appearence.

Disclaimer: my theory really doesn't work as well if you are a girl playing this game.

neumanproductions wrote:Well, to be honest, I believe it is best to have less involvement of the PC in the early CG as what the true depth of a visual novel like this is to get yourself absorbed in the main character. You want to experience the emotions he does, as in reality this is an extension of yourself in the game. A true VN can envelop you so much that don't need the physical depiction to relate yourself with. I just think this is easier to accomplish early when not showing the PC's appearence.

Disclaimer: my theory really doesn't work as well if you are a girl playing this game.

We could just go by the usual 'Constant protagionist showcasing impedes complete escapism to a place where you aren't a complete faggot' reason, no need to swamp with text.

All things told, actually showing Hisao in those few scenes helps to set the mood without making it come off as more of an actual novel trying to describe the situation. Consider:

In the opening sequence, we see Hisao when he firsts meets his "secret crush," Iwanako. You can see on his face the confused, and almost shocked, expression upon figuring this out. It would be rather clunky to have your character say "I was surprised" in more than the sense of a basic flashback.

In the first "Tea Party" scene with just Hisao and Lilly, you can see on Hisao's face the awkwardness of the situation. He doesn't exactly know what to do or say. On one hand, he's with a blind person, but on the other hand, she's a very "proper" girl. Near the end of Hanako's route, however, when we have a second Tea Party scene, you can see he's a little more relaxed than he was before.

For the Manly Picnic scene, the mood is set by seeing Hisao stone drunk.That's all there is to say about it. There's no way to make it obvious he's drunk without him either saying it or going overboard on the drunkin' *hic*s.

All of these scenes have the tone and mood set much more effectively than straight text could have ever done.

I don't think Hisao was that blasted. Not from appearances, at any rate.

Just looked back at it - fair enough, he wasn't stone drunk, but you could tell he was buzzed at least a little.

...

Or did he jump on purpose to get away from Kenji?

Hisao is probably taking beta blockers, and possibly other drugs that don't mix well with alcohol. Dizziness is one possible side-effect.

Personally, I'd like it if Hisao got some of the rarer beta blocker side effects, like vivid dreams, nightmares, and hallucinations...

That, or he forgot there was a wall in his mad attempt to retreat from Kenji's homolust.

darkblade986 wrote:All of these scenes have the tone and mood set much more effectively than straight text could have ever done.

One could also argue that that's one of the advantages of VNs in general.

Oh absolute Csihar. It doesn't even have to be with the PC either. Seeing one of the characters you're interacting with in the kind of emotional states they're supposed to be in makes the descriptive bits less forced.

Because honestly, given the dialog we had at the first school scene, who wouldn't think Muto was one of those overly happy-to-see-you kind of teachers without seeing his utterly careless expression to change the mood?