Katawa Shoujo Forums

Hello fellow fans and especially development team! I have to add my thanks to the countless others who have expressed theirs on this forum. I re-installed the game yesterday and just now have finished playing through Emi's story line (she's my favorite) and it touched me so deeply. I first discovered KS several years ago and played through for every bit of story line I could get, and then i just remembered it yesterday. I feel like you did honor to the true feelings of people with disabilities which is to say, they're no different than those without disabilities. For myself, I'm not physically disabled in any way, and you probably would think nothing was wrong with me walking down the street, but this journey reminds me of my own emotional and spiritual disabilities and encourages me not to give up. But instead to keep trying to reach out. Keep trying to get past it. These characters are fictional, but they represent life, I've known people like this, they exist. People who don't give up easily and choose to feel even when it hurts. For all the other Emi lovers out there she reminds me of Kaori from "Your Lie in April" an anime that makes me cry every time and then gives rise to determination. KS got me exercising yesterday night too, my calves hurt today. To the dev's Thank You so much for your efforts! It's an awsome journey.

On this Website. https://www.ranker.com/list/all-eroges-list/reference KS is ranked #1 of all time. Pretty good!

While I'm inclined to agree, given the other titles that made that specific list that's not much of an accolade

i know some people may say some of this is melodramatic but if you understand the hard times i was having you would understand why i felt the way I did

Before i share my story i want to say some things, i never told my parents what im going through because it gives me a feeling in my stomach that disgusts me and i would rather say so to a stranger. As of right now i am 14, i am short tor the point that luckily i never got bullied but only found 2 people i was taller than in middle school, i am a freshman and its highschool so people are more mature with personal matters and plus i see alot of short girls but when it comes to guys, ive only found one...i have ADD, OCD, I am ENTIRELY sure i have Aspergers syndrome keep in mind which are already 3 things that are on the autism syndrome scale. i dont eat right due to unknown reasons even when im not depressed, ive had girls like me but so far i have had one that Just screams i like you but i never really did like her back. i am antisocial, not smart, not attractive, and all my grades have been terrible since 8th grade just one year ago. I am depressed, im good at hiding it when im at school but i always want to be away from people.

my story starts now: i would have been a lonely kid if it wasnt for how weird i am, but i wasnt the "weird kid in class" i was funny and were strangely attracted to me. 6th grade comes and i become friends with someone who is a Famous bad kid. at the time he wasnt but he did get expelled in 8th grade and left lonely. this is where it all starts realising that i was clinging on to him. he told me he never met a person like me we were so close that he would even show nudes to me that he got from girls all the time but wouldnt show anyone else, he constantly slept over at my house i did his too sometimes, i knew that in peoples heads everyone wondered why i was his best friend and its almost like he didnt care. he finally started getting too famous and had bad friends who did drugs. keep in mind i was a stupid kid with bad grades but not dumb enough to do drugs but since it was weed i didnt mind. so we did it at my place when everyone was asleep and i absolutely HATED it and told him he could keep the rest forever which he did. He brings a juul to school a few weeks later and gets expelled which is where i can ACTUALLY start my story. I was alone and i sat by myself and ate alone and people would tell me "Do you miss *****" Again and again and AGAIN" so i was correct to think that my strange attraction got me to be his best freind but people viewed it as a crazy relation ship. A year passes by and its highschool. people all over the place telling me "Brooooo guess what!, ******* IS BACK! I would just reply ik and ok and they seemed oftly confused by this. i talk to him which i havent after a while. highschool really sucked for me at the beggining and i wanted to feel whole and not lonely again. ofcourse i had plenty of freinds in every grade but they just liked me because i was funny. i thought back to the old days with him and strangely i ask him for weed and i had 40$ and his freind helped me get some. i finally have it but i have insane guilt because i was never a bad kid, the bad kids who hung out with my best friend would just give me a handshake and not even breathe on me again like i was my best friends sidekick. but my parents were away at the airport and i was alone which got me thinking that this could be my oppertunity! And i did it with no hesitation and it felt amazing at the time, i kept doing this again and again and my grades were actually good this year out of alllll my life but just like everyone else's are too "because its highschool and you take things more serious" but at the time i didnt care and i kept smoking my grades went down just a little Straight A's to B. ive gotten a bad high wich was TERRIBLE i felt people stabbing me everytime i thought of it and i couldnt stop the thoughts. but even that didnt stop me. depression follows after i realise im still lonely and my only freinds are in my periods. it doesent matter if even the smart kids like me, they still are my best friends. as of right now i have none but let me get back to what i was saying. i get depression and the weed i smoked everynight and sometimes on sundays were so strong that i felt a little every morning i went to school after and it made me feel akward and since i was antisocial it was even worse. My best friend Told me in private ( out of school at some church swings that no one goes to) that he felt bad for me because he brought drugs into my life and that if anything happens its his fault. i told him its not true but he denied it and showed me the timeline before and after we first smoked. he said hes has that guilt forever ever since i first smoked with him. Too be honest now that i look back, he was correct. As i said i am not a "bad" kid infact i was weird, cool, chill and funny which is why i say that my best freinds "bad" freinds never took interest in me because they knew i was some regular kid. katawa shoujo gets introduced in my life by someone who i highly admire as one of the nicest people if ever met online. i remember having that feeling of love and piece when i played emi's route but i stopped playing katawa shoujo and i forgot about it. So its winter break and there are 2 weeks off and I keep smoking EVERY night. Dont forget this is all happening when im 14 rn. I want you to remember what i am about to say from this point on. I Wake up to play katawa shoujo, it gave me that feeling again when i replayed emi's route and it gave me that wonderful feeling again except, hard depression kicked in. i realised what my whole life had really been and why i am antisocial now and not antisocial 4 years ago like i should have been. The same person who got me to how my life is today also ruined it. I was so messed up that i was going to do drugs again except this time... Lsd, i asked the same guy for lsd and he said okay but it might take some time. Because of katawashoujo and how it made me feel i was deepely drawn to it this time looking at every thread as old as 2007 and every artbook song and information i have to know about it. and it made me realise "What the FUCK are you doing,you are pushing yourself deeper and ruin your life you fucking idiot. you are about to let everything go to drugs and you are only 14 with good grades and a wonderful life and it all hit me at once just like when i replayed the game. without hesitation i slammed open my closet shoving and abusing the box i kept my stash hidden in. it was clear to me "I never felt this way" and i "can't believe this is happening" as soon i grab it i run out the backyard and i felt so happy knowing its going to all be over and when i opened the door i stood there not because i was afraid of it or letting go but because i know i will never feel this way again. Ive never seen anything thrown in such a fast and angry manner in my entire life. i literally said "Its all over" and the thoughts flowing in my mind were extravagant. i get my phone and message the kid i dont want to buy lsd or weed from you anymore, he says "okay so then what do you want?" so i told him "Nothing" and that was the end of it. Katawa shoujo has literally changed MY LIFE thank you so much 4LS you stopped me from losing my self and life the ones i love to drugs and clinical depression. I wouldnt have felt any of what i said if it wasnt for Katawa shoujo. "its just a game" i know that but power this game has to change a life like mine from drugs and dying to happiness and peace is fucking AMAZING! I dont care what anyone else says about this game anymore, i was going to do LSDAt 14 For fucks Sake! I smoked so much weed to the point that am reguarly losing my memories and forget what i am doing WHILE i amdoing it alongside not being able to answer questions as easily because my mom was arguing with me and it felt like my brain wasnt working, i seriously had trouble with what to say back literally stuttering as if i was scared. The feeling i have for this game is so powerful that Katawa Shoujo and all the admin at 4LS, You have just changed a teenagers life from DEATH so please i want you to know that i am forever grateful even if you never see this. I said "i want you to remember what i am going to say from this point" because i want the reader to know that everything i said right after happened today.


I say these next lines with all seriousness. Hopefully, i have not rotted my 14 year old enough to not recover. i have gained short torm memory loss and lost the feel to interact with strangers at all. last night i kept waking up every so 40 minutes, yes i mean EVERY 40 minutes. i go to sleep at 11:00 wake up at 11:40 and this happened all the way to 4 am and i i wake up at 5. the worst part is that this is only weed! The most harmless drug compared to others! Please dont do drugs i now know what it feels like to be on the "other side" telling people to not do drugs hoping some will listen knowing others won't but because of katawa shoujo i am able to feel free and longer trapped by others or harmful drugs that weed was drawing me too. I am also sorry for making this possibly the most longest thing youve read here The only reason i didnt do Lsd was because luckily the kid didnt find anyone in time before katawa shoujo came to save me from every trouble in my life even 8 years after its release!

I Will Never Feel This Way Again, So Thank you 4LS for Katawa Shoujo And Its Community For Giving Me A Second Chance To Restart In Life Unlike Some People Who Can't.
- A Tormented Teenager Saved By The Likes Of 4LS!

Edit: I teared up when I finished writing this knowing that many don't get the chance to come back from my kind of addiction and serious depression

Natzan wrote: ↑Mon Oct 08, 2018 2:53 am On this Website. https://www.ranker.com/list/all-eroges-list/reference KS is ranked #1 of all time. Pretty good!

Its #5 now

Hey!
This is not a question, really. It's just that, you know, I discovered KS exactly on this day 7 years ago and, one way or another, my life has never been the same since then.
So many many many times thanks to everyone involved with it. Really.
There are many different ways to make the world a better place. In a way, your way, you made the world a better place.

Hey! I was there in /a/'s threads back at the begging of this trip, i waited 5 years for the release back in 2012, played the game, played it some more, lived up to my hype, loved it, years passed and then it kinda went away, flew to the back of my mind.
It always was there, just not readilly available, and a visual novel dealing with disabled characters was kinda difficult to reccomend or pop up in conversation, given my friendship circle is small and mostly unaware of anime or japanese/weeb influenced stuff.

During this whole pandemic apocalypse, some days ago, in lock up, i started to think back on those times; times before the full release, with story threads, the fanart, the memes back then... And also the avalanche of content after it came out.
Looking back at the time of release, there kinda was a sense of accomplishment when i finnaly was able to smile, suffer, cry... You get the deal

I decided to download KS again to go back memory lane.
And it sure did its thing.
What 4leafs accomplished still moved me to this day, and reading again this familiar but, by now blurry, wholesome/painful/feels ridden story has really been a wonderful experience.
Now it feels as if those times when i laughed my ass off in front of my computer screen, watching threads on /a/ or actually tearing up while reading a certain scenario, are precious memories, that i get to experience again, thanks to some weeb fags(joke, please take no offense) actually doing what they set to do, and for that i wanted to thank you, for not letting go of this thing, and actually seeing it through

Just finished Katawa Shoujo yesterday but I knew I was gonna miss this game deeply by the time I was halfway through it.

This game came at a weird time in my life. I'd chosen to pause university for a whole year (though if it weren't for my family, I'd have dropped out) after a demotivating freshman year and take up an internship. I've basically not talked with anybody, isolated myself for the entire year and was beginning to feel burnt out from everything that has been happening. Katawa Shoujo has been on my gaming backlog for a while. I first heard about it 2 years ago when Reddit's r/DDLC pulled off their April Fools joke but never really got around to check it out until now and even when I did I was quite doubtful about it right from the get go. Not even mentioning I had just finished the masterpiece that was Steins;Gate.

Nevertheless, over the course of two weeks, I gradually eased into the game, noticing that the most striking thing about the game was just how simple it was. I do gamedev and I put a lot of fluff into my work i.e flashy lighting systems, dynamic music, pretty animations, eye-catching art, etc. It's like a complete paradigm shift seeing how barebones simple Katawa Shoujo is. The game is literally just reading text. Text wrapped in a box. With character sprites. The BGs are slightly touched up photographs. The music consists of simple guitar and piano melodies that you can actually play yourself in contrast to orchestral scores a lot of games have, even indie ones. And that' justs it. Yet it captivated me so much. When I finished Lilly's and Hanako's routes (best girls btw), I knew Katawa Shoujo has truly ingrained itself into my being and objectively became the best game I've played in years.

As people say, all good things must come to an end. I finished the game with Rin's route last night and the last dialogue line of Katawa Shoujo for me was Rin's legendary:

What's the word for when it feels inside your heart that everything in the world is all right?

Right after that line the game returned to the title screen. I couldn't bring myself to close the game and stayed at the title screen for a good hour.

I'm still at a loss that Katawa Shoujo will never be such a large part of my life anymore. For the past month whenever I finished working I'd happily come home, grab some food, and enjoy Katawa Shoujo for the entirety of the night. Now that it's finished I really don't know what I'm gonna do with my leisure time now... Maybe I'll just continue on. Maybe something else will come. Idk. Listening to the OST have been bringing back the feelings the game evoked with songs like Air Guitar, Concord, Sarabande From BMV1010 always managing to make my eyes a bit wet, but listening to the OST on SoundCloud while at work will never ever be the same as listening ingame to the pleasant guitar while you stroll along with Lilly and Hanako in the Hokkaido countryside.

A part of me wished Katawa Shoujo had more content, like Katawa Shoujo 2 or something, but to be honest I'm relieved to just have it come and go. I've never thought Katawa Shoujo could have been this impactful for me. It has truly been a pleasant surprise.

Thank you 4 Leaf Studios. Thank you so much.

I know this message board's mostly dead, but I'd still like to leave a thanks to the people who made the game. At first, like many people, I thought this game was a bit screwed up, judging by its premises, but as I kept reading through the story and bonding with the girl I ended up with, it became apparent that I was dead wrong. So thank you for this unforgettable experience, I wish you all well, wherever each of you are going forward.

randomInternetUser wrote: ↑Thu Nov 26, 2020 3:04 pm I know this message board's mostly dead, but I'd still like to leave a thanks to the people who made the game. At first, like many people, I thought this game was a bit screwed up, judging by its premises, but as I kept reading through the story and bonding with the girl I ended up with, it became apparent that I was dead wrong. So thank you for this unforgettable experience, I wish you all well, wherever each of you are going forward.

Still, for an indie visual novel that came out 8 years ago (a long time for anything on the Internet), the fact that there are still people coming around and making posts at times is quite extraordinary. People really do love this game even as of now, I wonder what the reaction was like at the boom of Katawa Shoujo's popularity around 2011-2012 when it released.

Glad to see you have been pleasantly surprised by the game. I wish you well too.