Katawa Shoujo Forums

Best solution: waste your life away refreshing the fanfiction forum over and over again. No this is terrible advice it has ruined my life don't do it. ;.;

At the very least, you should get Hanako's bad ending; it carries a certain importance.

Well... I've left Lilly's path for last because I've been hearing that it's the new messiah, and I'll probably set out on that one soon enough, now that I've finished the others... Yeah, Rin still holds my number one, and getting past the fact that it somehow managed to make visual novels even less interactive, I did thoroughly enjoy Shizune's path as well. Now, what other thoughts do I have... Hanako's was overhyped, not bad, but certainly overhyped, and Emi certainly wasn't bad. None of them were bad. But Emi's path DID manage to legitimately piss me off at one point so she gets to face the corner in last place and think about what she's done.

The different paths really do have different emotional overtones to them, and different personal conflicts that all offer a different worthwhile storyline and a different development path for Hisao as a character. Rin's story is definitely the most up-and-down emotional-rollercoaster of the bunch, in part because of how hard it is for both the player and the protagonist to understand where Rin is coming from at any given time. Some of the stories are calmer or more upbeat and playful, although this is always more a front for what's really going on underneath it all with the characters.

Each one is worth it on its own unique merits. That's part of the charm of having multiple romance paths, I suppose.

If I had to cherry-pick a path that doesn't hold up as well as the others it would probably be Shizune's. Setting aside that her pushiness doesn't really endear her to me on a personal level, the relationship and Hisao as a character don't seem to make as much progress during this one and the supporting characters introduced during the course of it (Shizune's brother and father) don't get enough screen time to amount to much more than two-dimensional caricatures with odd aesthetic sense and bizarre personalities. I think more could have been done with this path, but it didn't come out bad by any means, just a tiny bit less "polished." The fact that there is literally ONE choice to make and nothing else after the end of Act 1 doesn't help matters much, especially since the choice itself is such an obvious one that you have no excuse for tripping it up. In fact if you do trip it up you probably deserve the bad ending.

Heartless Wanderer wrote:If I had to cherry-pick a path that doesn't hold up as well as the others it would probably be Shizune's. Setting aside that her pushiness doesn't really endear her to me on a personal level, the relationship and Hisao as a character don't seem to make as much progress during this one and the supporting characters introduced during the course of it (Shizune's brother and father) don't get enough screen time to amount to much more than two-dimensional caricatures with odd aesthetic sense and bizarre personalities. I think more could have been done with this path, but it didn't come out bad by any means, just a tiny bit less "polished." The fact that there is literally ONE choice to make and nothing else after the end of Act 1 doesn't help matters much, especially since the choice itself is such an obvious one that you have no excuse for tripping it up. In fact if you do trip it up you probably deserve the bad ending.

Although I do have to agree that so far Shizune's route has seemed like the least polished (I have yet to do Hanako or Lilly's routes), it was still a very good story. While Hisao does definitely feel like he doesn't develop a lot past Act 1 and part of Act 2, the relationship between them is definitely explained well in my opinion. I quickly picked up that being Student Council president was something she had always wanted to do, and she wanted to do it perfectly, leaving less time for an actual relationship. While I did pick up on this, I do definitely think there could have been at least one or two more actual "dates" or at least something that didn't revolve entirely around Student Council work.

As for her dad and brother, their place in the story made perfect sense to me after the vacation. Neither her father or her brother bothered to learn sign language or an alternative to talking to her aside from writing notes, giving the impression that she felt isolated from them her entire life. Her mother is also never seen the entire game or mentioned aside from once during the trip. Also her reactions every time her father shows up and she talks to Hisao afterwards point to more disconnect. Even though she felt distant from her family, she does seem to have taken some of her father's personality, of trying to be the best and do everything she can, which explains her motives behind doing as much work in Student Council as she can get.

Only having one choice during her entire route (Acts 2-4) did feel a little strange, but then I realized that I didn't even notice the lack of choices until it actually popped up. It was a good change of pace (Having done Rin's just before Shizune's) and let me just kind of get into the story. I do have to agree that the choice you do have to make came completely out of nowhere, and was pretty obvious what the outcome of them were. Although there was the hidden Misha route everyone wanted, even though it only lasts a few scenes.

So far Shizune's route isn't my favorite, but Shizune herself is my favorite (tied with Emi). Also, at the very end of her good ending I would have cried buckets if she had actually said "I love you" back to Hisao (with words). The way it did end was kind of a let down, but it still made me get quite a bit of feels.

Oh, don't get me wrong, I understood why Shizune's family was there, they were just really underdeveloped as characters. Even Kenji struck me as a deeper character than them, and that's kind of sad because I don't think he's really supposed to be despite the amount of screentime he gets.

I did enjoy Shizune's story, it just doesn't hold up as well by comparison.

That was probably my biggest problem with Shizune's route, was that it felt like Kenji had too many scenes. It got to the point where I just started skimming through it because I was getting real tired of his shit. Although he is a good side character, thats what he should have been, instead of what felt like a main focus during her route. I had almost no encounters with him during Emi or Rin's route, so I feel like Kenji was just thrown into Shizune's a lot for some filler, which could have been better used for a non-student council related encounter with Shizune.

As for her family, I felt they were developed enough to do their job, and thats exactly what they did. The conversations with her brother were a bit awkward, but to me they did what they were supposed to without doing too much.

kuranyll wrote:That was probably my biggest problem with Shizune's route, was that it felt like Kenji had too many scenes. It got to the point where I just started skimming through it because I was getting real tired of his shit. Although he is a good side character, thats what he should have been, instead of what felt like a main focus during her route. I had almost no encounters with him during Emi or Rin's route, so I feel like Kenji was just thrown into Shizune's a lot for some filler, which could have been better used for a non-student council related encounter with Shizune.

I can agree with that. Sometimes Kenji's shenanigans had a purpose (when he shows up at one point during Lilly's route he inadvertently triggers something that provides one of the first hints that not all is well in paradise), but a lot of the time he's there more for comic relief and while that's all well and good, he was overplayed in Shizune's path.

As for her family, I felt they were developed enough to do their job, and thats exactly what they did. The conversations with her brother were a bit awkward, but to me they did what they were supposed to without doing too much.

They did their job but not much else, so they measure up poorly next to other support characters--Akira, Kenji, the art club teacher, heck, I even felt like that woman at the art gallery had more character than them, somewhat. Or maybe I only think that because she acted more "human." Meh, whatever. The upshot is, I always look forward to learning something new about those other characters but Shizune's father and brother don't really leave me feeling quite as curious. Hideaki seemed like he might get interesting, but the story just sort of stopped before that had a chance to happen.

Please...save Rin's neutral for last. Right before that I'd say Hanako's 2 negative endings and Emi's bad ending. Other than that you can probably choose.
And yeah, finish up with kenji's ending to wash over the other ones a little.

Heartless Wanderer wrote:

kuranyll wrote:That was probably my biggest problem with Shizune's route, was that it felt like Kenji had too many scenes. It got to the point where I just started skimming through it because I was getting real tired of his shit. Although he is a good side character, thats what he should have been, instead of what felt like a main focus during her route. I had almost no encounters with him during Emi or Rin's route, so I feel like Kenji was just thrown into Shizune's a lot for some filler, which could have been better used for a non-student council related encounter with Shizune.

I can agree with that. Sometimes Kenji's shenanigans had a purpose (when he shows up at one point during Lilly's route he inadvertently triggers something that provides one of the first hints that not all is well in paradise), but a lot of the time he's there more for comic relief and while that's all well and good, he was overplayed in Shizune's path.

They did their job but not much else, so they measure up poorly next to other support characters--Akira, Kenji, the art club teacher, heck, I even felt like that woman at the art gallery had more character than them, somewhat. Or maybe I only think that because she acted more "human." Meh, whatever. The upshot is, I always look forward to learning something new about those other characters but Shizune's father and brother don't really leave me feeling quite as curious. Hideaki seemed like he might get interesting, but the story just sort of stopped before that had a chance to happen.

Well, everything's overplayed in Shizune's route. Every aspect of the story was drawn out.

And I totally agree with that bit about Hideaki at the end. It felt that way with nearly everything about Shizune's route.

I beat KS and 100%'d it quite a while ago (Evolve has my last play date at January sometime), and would sort of want... more of it I guess lol. I have thought about replaying it quite a few times, but then I figured "why?", since I already know the outcomes :/

Is there perhaps some extras to KS I just don't know about, maybe some extra chapters or something somewhere, or maybe even similar VN's out there (although I believe I saw a thread already with similar VN's)?

Also if there is a similar thread(s) already about this, sorry. I didn't exactly know what to even search to verify if such a thread already existed.

All you can really do now is find some fanfiction, or some other VNs. Can't really help you with the former, but this thread (http://ks.renai.us/viewtopic.php?f=13&t=3178) is probably a good start to finding a VN.

Espionage724 wrote:but then I figured "why?", since I already know the outcomes :/

Why rewatch movies you enjoyed? Why reread books? Why ever eat food you've eaten before?

Yours is a confusing and irritating mindset...But there are no extras. There is fanfiction and there are other VNs. The thread for the latter was already linked so I won't bother, but give it a look.

Xanatos wrote:

Espionage724 wrote:but then I figured "why?", since I already know the outcomes :/

Why rewatch movies you enjoyed? Why reread books? Why ever eat food you've eaten before?

Yours is a confusing and irritating mindset...But there are no extras. There is fanfiction and there are other VNs. The thread for the latter was already linked so I won't bother, but give it a look.

Hmm, you do have a good point there. Perhaps one of these days I might just playthough KS again

I've also skimmed the last few pages of that VN thread (thanks for the link btw Flutterz); Scarred and narcissu seem to be mentioned a bit, and I have both downloading now.

Espionage724 wrote:

Xanatos wrote:

Espionage724 wrote:but then I figured "why?", since I already know the outcomes :/

Why rewatch movies you enjoyed? Why reread books? Why ever eat food you've eaten before?

Yours is a confusing and irritating mindset...But there are no extras. There is fanfiction and there are other VNs. The thread for the latter was already linked so I won't bother, but give it a look.

Hmm, you do have a good point there. Perhaps one of these days I might just playthough KS again

I've also skimmed the last few pages of that VN thread (thanks for the link btw Flutterz); Scarred and narcissu seem to be mentioned a bit, and I have both downloading now.

A rule of thumb that I've found works great is that anything remotely high on vndb.org's list, either by popularity or rating is pretty much guaranteed to be good. Of course there's the matter of personal preference, but that's unavoidable.