Katawa Shoujo Act 1 Preview feedback thread

[Quitch]

This game maintains a consistently high quality in the art, and it's not really a quality issue I have but rather one of inappropriateness.

Both Lilly and Shizune are clearly strong-willed characters in their own way, so naturally they get into a row, and I love how it starts out as one of subtle thrusts before turning into a flame war. So what I don't understand is why one of the artists decided that a up-skirt short for Shizune was the way to go here. Really? Up-skirt?

It just feels a rather crass way of handling the character, doesn't fit the mood of the scene and is just generally out-of-place, seemingly belonging to an entirely different game.

[Mirage_GSM]

If you think an upskirt is crass character treatment, I wonder what you are going to think of the sex scenes...

[Juno]

There are sex scenes!? BURN THE HEATHENS!

[traitor]

one tiny bit of Act 1 that bothered me was how Hisao can be so snarky and whiny at times
you'd be immersing through the story and then suddenly your plot device starts HNNNNNNGing, then Hisao monologues about how fucked up he is. I hope Hisao doesn't fall into despair too often in the later chapters, since the game is really more about the girls.

[Bara]

one tiny bit of Act 1 that bothered me was how Hisao can be so snarky and whiny at times
you'd be immersing through the story and then suddenly your plot device starts HNNNNNNGing, then Hisao monologues about how fucked up he is. I hope Hisao doesn't fall into despair too often in the later chapters, since the game is really more about the girls.

Yeah, maybe it is not all that enjoyable to read; but it is some of the kind of stuff that passes through the heads of people who discover that life is dumping a crap-load of shit on them. Not reading about Hisao's being depressed and indulging in a Pity Party with himself as the guest of honor would be MORE disconcerting and less true to creating a well rounded fictional character that can move the story ahead. He is the character with the "freshest wounds" so to speak. All the girls have had at least a few years to deal with coming to terms with their own situations.
Maybe the full release will show the girls demonstrating to Hisao that despite all the problems he faces there is also the chance to find some happiness at the same time.

[Mercutio]

Yeah, maybe it is not all that enjoyable to read; but it is some of the kind of stuff that passes through the heads of people who discover that life is dumping a crap-load of shit on them. Not reading about Hisao's being depressed and indulging in a Pity Party with himself as the guest of honor would be MORE disconcerting and less true to creating a well rounded fictional character that can move the story ahead. He is the character with the "freshest wounds" so to speak. All the girls have had at least a few years to deal with coming to terms with their own situations.
Maybe the full release will show the girls demonstrating to Hisao that despite all the problems he faces there is also the chance to find some happiness at the same time.

exactly, man. Hisao's, what, sixteen or seventeen? if you're that old and you find out that you've got a heart condition that could kill you if you get too excited and you've got to be on meds the rest of your life, and you don't get angsty and pissed off, there's something seriously wrong with you. hell, I'm older than that (though not by much) and I'd probably act a lot like Hisao does if it happened to me. and it really seems like, for whatever path he takes, Hisao does learn to get involved with something else or take better care of himself or whatever, so act 1 is as much about him dealing with his new life as it is about finding a girl.

and then there's the bad end, which is all about what happens when he doesn't deal with his new life.

[Yatta99]

Katawa Shoujo Mondo Review

I first heard about this program back in November last year. I played it through twice (without a walk through); first time through I got the Emi ending and the second time I got Kenji. Computer did some nasty crashing stuff and I forgot about KS for a while. Last month I got the new version, the walk through map, and did all the routes over the course of several weeks. For comparison I played through the 'normal ending' route of Kana Little Sister to get a fresh feel for a 'professional, commercial release". All comparisons will be made wrt Kana.

General
- I used the Linux version of KS on Ubuntu 10.04.
- My recent upgrade to Ubuntu 11.04 broke KS, though I don't think it's a KS problem (other things broke on me too).
- Except as noted below, all standard interface features (load, save, manual, auto, jukebox, etc) worked without any problems.
- Play-through of all characters once does not give 100% completion. There are two scenes on Shizune's route that are mutually exclusive resulting in 98%. Not a big deal since this is only a demo.

Graphics & Sound
- KS graphics are very well done. Both the drawing and the photo work turned out nicely. The moving character sprites added nicely to the story, something which was not in Kana.
- Minor complaint about the Shizune sprite, she appears (at least to me) to be afflicted with Droopy Boob Syndrome. All the other girls look ok, but she has one boob that droops and another that's perky O.o
- Really liked the sound and music, although several pieces got way more use than others.
- The first time I heard it, "Daylight" reminded me of the ball room scene in Labyrinth with David Bowie singing "As the World Falls Down".
- Although the opening credits with the clock and IV drip were top notch, using screen names seemed to cheapen it a bit.
- You need to make Rin's mural available as wallpaper.

Dialog
- Dialog itself was top notch. Compared to the dialog from Kana, I'd say that it was written at at least three grade levels higher.
- I liked the use of the text window rather than just overwriting the picture on the screen. It looks cleaner and more professional that way.
- There were several glitches in the text renderer that would clear the text window and continue displaying new text without player input.

Other
- I like the cohesive background story lines. Certain events take place no matter what choices the player makes but those choices influence the event outcome or point of view of the event. Such as the first meeting with Emi. Depending on choices made you are either with Lilly and Hanako or Misha and Shizune when Emi shows up.
- Big plus: A bad early choice doesn't automatically kill of routes. It takes multiple choices to select/abandon the routes.
- Rin has a very interesting route in that it isn't a true route but more of an anti-route.
- Just a weird personal opinion but I don't like Hisao's name.
- Whoever did the dialog for Kenji is freaking brilliant! Many LOL moments with his comic relief.
- A few of the 'endings' felt a bit weak. Not a big deal since these are just temporary 'endings' for the demo.
- Not quite as moving as Kana but we'll see what the full version brings.
- Much more enjoyable than "Lets go out and screw the brains out of a bunch of cat girls"... or whatever the name of that thing was.
- The title of Hanako's ending, nc5xb3, only makes sense once you get there and still may not make sense to some.
- Unlike a few other VNs I've played, I'm interested in seeing how all the routes turn out in the final release.

Overall I'd give it a B-. Fixing the few problems and keeping the same quality I can see giving the final product a B+, possibly higher.
As for how I'd rank the girls: Lilly, Hanako, Emi, Rin, Shizune. Which is a bit odd since the both times that I did a blind go through I ended up with Emi. Probably just another part of the feminist conspiracy.

[Mercutio]

- Play-through of all characters once does not give 100% completion. There are two scenes on Shizune's route that are mutually exclusive resulting in 98%. Not a big deal since this is only a demo.

can't tell if this is supposed to be a plus or a minus. there's a lot of scenes, even in the demo, so why should only one playthrough of each route give you 100%?

- Although the opening credits with the clock and IV drip were top notch, using screen names seemed to cheapen it a bit.

...dude. it's a project made by a bunch of people who got together on the internet. using fake names is pretty standard. I really hope your real name isn't Yatta99.

Overall I'd give it a B-. Fixing the few problems and keeping the same quality I can see giving the final product a B+, possibly higher.

all that good stuff you said, and you give it a B-? you are one hard-to-please individual, aren't you?

[Mirage_GSM]

- Play-through of all characters once does not give 100% completion. There are two scenes on Shizune's route that are mutually exclusive resulting in 98%. Not a big deal since this is only a demo.

can't tell if this is supposed to be a plus or a minus. there's a lot of scenes, even in the demo, so why should only one playthrough of each route give you 100%?

You can get that scene on Emi's route, so it should be possible to get 100% with six playthroughs.

[Yatta99]

- Play-through of all characters once does not give 100% completion. There are two scenes on Shizune's route that are mutually exclusive resulting in 98%. Not a big deal since this is only a demo.

can't tell if this is supposed to be a plus or a minus. there's a lot of scenes, even in the demo, so why should only one playthrough of each route give you 100%?

- Although the opening credits with the clock and IV drip were top notch, using screen names seemed to cheapen it a bit.

...dude. it's a project made by a bunch of people who got together on the internet. using fake names is pretty standard. I really hope your real name isn't Yatta99.

Overall I'd give it a B-. Fixing the few problems and keeping the same quality I can see giving the final product a B+, possibly higher.

all that good stuff you said, and you give it a B-? you are one hard-to-please individual, aren't you?

OK, fair enough questions. (Gonna answer down here because I'll only bork the nested nested quotes )

1. I just thought it was a bit odd (not good or bad) that I got all but 1 scene by doing each path once. HOWEVER, after further reading of other posts, I find that each girl will have more than one ending. Ultimately, in the finished game, it appears that it will need about 12 play-throughs to get all scenes. Again, not good or bad, just an observation.

2. No, my real name isn't Yatta99 (mom wasn't quite that crazy ), it's Tom. Yoroshiku ne. It just seemed odd that so much work went into the project to make it seem professional. My posts are limited to just the few here whereas the demo has already hit one major convention and I would assume that the full version would probably hit a few more. I just thought the credits would look better if you saw (for example): Ivan P., Mark D., and Yuko A. rather than: DaKidd, Anon42, and Yomama. Again, just my opinion.

3. Yes, I can be hard to please at times (I have German, Dutch, AND Irish in me... heaven help us all ). Though I should have included my rating for Kana since I was comparing other thing to it. I rate Kana as a B. Realize that Kana is also a finished and released product. KS Act 1, as has been stated, is only about 20% (IIRC) of the whole project. So, in that light, look at the B- as a temporary placeholder grade that is already Above Average. I also state that the finished product would likely get a B+ or higher. Rest assured that if it makes me coffee and walks on water when it's done I'll grade it as such

Not that it directly relates, but I went through my Netflix rating history today. And, yes, I guess that I do grade a bit harshly. There were 393 ratings:
5 star - 15 (3.8%)
4 star - 140 (35.6%)
3 star - 186 (47.3%)
2 star - 46 (11.7%)
1 star - 6 (1.5%)

It takes a lot to get that 5 star rating just like it needs to suck major ass to get the 1 star rating, but I do give them out

[luinthoron]

2. No, my real name isn't Yatta99 (mom wasn't quite that crazy ), it's Tom. Yoroshiku ne. It just seemed odd that so much work went into the project to make it seem professional. My posts are limited to just the few here whereas the demo has already hit one major convention and I would assume that the full version would probably hit a few more. I just thought the credits would look better if you saw (for example): Ivan P., Mark D., and Yuko A. rather than: DaKidd, Anon42, and Yomama. Again, just my opinion.

If you'd look at the staff lists of professional VNs, you'd see pretty similar names there, actually.

[SBSam]

Katawa Shoujo Act 1...

I had recently heard about the game via the Random button on TvTropes. Guess who's not turning back. XD

Anyway, my thoughts.

In general, I LOVE this game. The storytelling and plot and both top notch, the characters are believable and rather funny at times, the dialogue ranges from heartwarming to dramatic to funny to gripping...and the characters...well, when my girlfriend mentioned that "You can go on and on about that game, can't you?", she's 100% right. I then happened to respond with "And this is only the first act. Just wait until the full game's released.".

(Oh, and the artwork is AMAZING.)

...In short, I love this VN (Understatement), and I cannot wait until the full game is released.

[viper_pred]

Wow, I accidentally stumbled upon this site... and it made my day.

I'm probably the nth person to say that, but I want to tell you guys: GOOD JOB! It's really amazing how just a bunch of people managed to create such a VN. I've been playing Act 1 for some time now, and I'm still not finished. Definitely more entertaining than all those trial versions of modern games, which last only a couple of minutes. I love the characters and the story so far. I'm looking forward to playing the full version whenever it comes out.

Keep up the good work, you've just gained one new fan!

[M46NU2]

One day I was extremely bored I was browsing around on 4chans forums, and found this eroge link. Inn my mind I thought that this game would be some sort of pervers eroge, but boy was I wrong! I read abit about the game, people saying it was nothing like you would think it was. So, bored as I was I gave it a shot. And 1 minute into the demo, reading the backstory, I found myself getting caught inn the game. I kept playing for a couple of weeks to see all endings, (yes I am a slow gamer cause I take time to read everything), and I got no word to describe what I felt. I have played a few eroge games, and had given upp on the genre since almost all modern eroge is mass produced overprised crap made to make money. Then Four Leaf Studios came, a bunch of people using their own talent and time to make a FREE game. I admire your courage to start such a project, how you have made this idea your own. You can feel the dedication as you play the demo, how everything is thought out. I cant wait to see how the full game turns out, maybe this will be the fresh breath that the eroge genre needs to bloom once more.

Good luck Four Leaf Studios!! Even people inn cold northern norway has heard about you! Keep it upp!

[salient]

No really, thats all i had to say