How'd you find yourself here?

[¥Mderms¥]

Gelbooru brought me here through random tag lurking. Thought the idea of a VN based on girls with disabilities was ludicrous, downloaded the demo six months ago, and am just now making the time to make a first post, as a quest no less. Woohoo!

[Lndbcn]

I had always been intrigued by the idea of visual novels. I figured that the medium could be used to tell stories impossible to tell in a book or movie (I've discovered just how right I was; for instance, the story of Ever17 just wouldn't work in another format).

However, I never played any for two main reasons. The first was that I'm not a big fan of anime-style art. The second reason is that I got the impression that most if not all visual novels limited themselves to being porn games. Hentai doesn't really do anything for me.

However, my interest in the genre returned when a friend told me about Katawa Shoujo. When he said it revolved around romancing various crippled girls, I assumed he was just trolling me. However, he went on to talk about how surprisingly sensitive and well-researched the game was, especially due to its emphasis on how the girls adapt to their disabilities, instead of focusing on the disability itself. He also said that I should have no problem sympathizing with the main character, since one route involved romancing a hot tall blond blind girl who's way too kind, gentle, and classy for him, just like my fiancée (now wife). I'm still not sure whether that was a compliment or insult to me.

Intrigued by all of this, I gave it a try. I was impressed by how good the writing actually was, and the sympathetic way some difficult subjects were handled. I enjoyed the LIlly route most, for obvious reasons. My wife actually tried the game as well, though she enjoyed the Hanako route most. She didn't finish the LIlly route, since according to her, it felt "a bit unsettling and 'Twilight Zone'-ish to romance a character who's pretty much myself".

I really want to thank the devs for creating a game that served as a gateway for my wife and I into the world of visual novels. She may enjoy them even more than I do, since as long as the text is read to her, she can actually share enjoyment of a computer game with me. After trying KS, we completed Narcissu, Ever17, and just finished G-Senjou no Maou. We're planning on trying Sharin no Kuni next, followed maybe by Fate/Stay Night.

Sorry about the outrageously long first post.

[phailosophy]

Lndbcn you are one lucky bastard and your story is actually pretty sweet. Thanks for sharing!

[J4ck]

Lndbcn you are one lucky bastard and your story is actually pretty sweet. Thanks for sharing!

I concur whole-heartedly

[Normal Deviant]

That is a touching story. I haven't run into many girls I'd classify as "kind, gentle, and classy". Maybe that's just because I have no game.

[Brogurt]

I haven't run into many girls I'd classify as "kind, gentle, and classy". Maybe that's just because I have no game.

If you can't find a girl worth having a lasting relationship with, your problem is probably that you have too much game, if anything. Unless you and I have very different definitions of "game".

[WoopSlim]

Gurochan. Yeah. About 2 years ago.
I was looking through the weirdest shit I've ever seen and there I found in-game screenshot with Hanako. I thought "Is it some kind of creepy porngame where you date with monster-girls?" I thought in that way coz Hanako remembered me the girl from "The Call"(this film is soo creepy). But when I found the act 1 demo I was surprised, that stuff was good.

[Matthew72]

I first heard about KS while scanning though the VN page on TvTropes. I was searching for a certain Visual Novel, which I couldn't remember the name to and stumbled upon this.

At first I thought, "There's no way this game is any good. It's a non-commercial eroge, with all the love interests greatly disabled. One of them doesn't even have any arms!" So, I ignored it. A few days later I came back to the page, mostly by accident and I, feeling a bit more open minded that day, decided to at least read into the game a bit, before finally giving in and downloading it.

Now, I this is one of my top three VNs and the "one without arms" is my favorite character in the game.

I never did find that visual novel I was looking for before then.

[Normal Deviant]

the "one without arms" is my favorite character in the game.

It was the opposite for me. I expected her to be my favorite, since we're both artists. But I like her the least now.

Also I'm into amputees so I guess I'm a sick fuck.

[Worthington]

About a year ago my friend was talking about a "cripple dating sim" and I just dismissed it as the weird animu hentai stuff he usually likes (Said friend has over 12 gigs of zipped H-doujins on his hard drive and was telling me about Schoolmate that same day). Later I heard it about Katawa Shoujo (by name only) from the Escapist and tried it out. I only realized what it was after playing the game, and was actually presently surprised by how amazing it was. I was also thinking i'd go for the most "normal-looking" girls (Shizune or Lilly) but upon my first playthrough my initial favourites were Rin and Emi.

[Yukimi]

My brother told me about it 3 years ago aproximately and I find it curious ("wow what those 4chan guys can get to doing" kind of interesting) and I thought I would check it out but I forgot.

Two years ago I remembered it again and started lurking but it seemed like a faraway venture so I didn't want to get so frustrated waiting and get dissapointed when it finally was dumped.

Finally, one friend who had never played any VNs before told me about this "new cute PC game demo" he had played and linked it. My eyes went wide when I realised it was Katawa Shoujo and I returned to my lurking habits before finally signing up and to join the "fun" of waiting with eveybody else on the forums (I delurked just to comment in the topic of the KS progress ).

[Galandar]

About half a year ago I stumbled upon the "games" section of a hentai site...well, and there was Katawa Shoujo with the most downloads and best ratings, so I though, well, give it a try.
I ended up playing the whole demo in one day and craving for more.
KS is to be blamed to get me into VNs in the first place, I've never played a VN before, but many after that experience. Thank you! And I'm so looking forward to the release of the whole thing...

[jackdarktemplar]

I've read the readme in the game, and then I went to katawa-shoujo.com and then I found this forum

[Whammy]

Figured that since I just joined this is a good place for a first post . I'll admit, my story can be pretty much summed up in two words: TV Tropes. XD. But seriously, I found this through TV Tropes. I was wanting to try out some free visual novel games, knew TV Tropes had some pages on them, and this was the one that caught my eye the most. Still working through it (about 80% completion), but have instantly fallen in love with it ^_^.

[phailosophy]

It was last year in February, on Lilly's birthday actually that I came across Kotaku's article on KS and the theme of it was so absurd that it had to be "good". Now at that time I didn't like anything anime related at all and had even come to the conclusion that I hated it but luckily those feelings didn't stop me from reading KS. After reading it I realized how good this genre could actually be. It got me onto reading other great vn's like Yume Miru Kusuri and Kana Imouto. (The latter ending up having a huge emotional impact on me) With that I went onward, slowly creeping my interest in Otaku related things since. I often ask myself why I like this sort of stuff and I usually answer "...ever since I read Katawa Shoujo...".