In 2023, I came back to the game and community after a decade and started a review series on the subreddit. I had eventually hoped to upload them here once registrations were allowed (they were closed to ongoing renovations at the time, IIRC). In the end, I ended getting sidetracked and forgetting about it for a while, even after being able to register on here. Earlier this year, I deleted my Reddit account (because social media is crap), but I forgot to download them first. Fortunately, I was able to recover them with the Wayback Machine (which is why I donate to Internet Archive 
), so here they are! As mentioned below, I am working on Emi's route and will finish with Rin's. For now, here are the first three I already finished:
Just Came Back to the Game After 10 Years
I found the game through Chilled Chaos' LP a few months to a year after release and enjoyed it. But life goes on, so I moved from teen years to adulthood.
Cue the pandemic, which gave me a lot of time to think about life and the things I enjoyed when I was younger. So I re-downloaded the game, and played through my first and favorite Route: Hanako. As of today, I have finished it.
To summarize, a lot of my old feelings have come rushing back to me, but at the same time, I feel a renewed appreciation for the game. The art style, music, and writing all hold up after a decade. Hisao isn't as proactive at self-improvement in Hanako's route as others, but I think it's an interesting highlight that Hisao himself is in need help as much as Hanako. The realization at the end that they're both screwed up, they don't understand each other, but that's okay because they will move forward together.
More importantly, completing the game today did something I wasn't expecting at all. It lifted a weight off my shoulders. For the last few years I'd been clinging to nostalgia for the internet I knew of the 2000's and early 2010's; when I could go online and find communities or works that really clicked for me. As time went on, these became either lost in the noise as the internet "grew up" (if you can call becoming a sanitized commercial husk "maturity") or simply lost their magic.
But all that changed today. I realized there are still corners of the internet where that magic that defined that keystone part of my life lives on. Seeing the KS community still active after all these years, even if not with the same intensity as before, is like coming home again. Coming home to a place where creating something together is more important than pleasing some godforsaken algorithm.
XXX
Part 2 of My Revisit to Katawa Shoujo: What's Old Is New
Hey y'all, me again. So, following off from my last post, I decide to tackle Shizune's route since it's one of two routes I never got around to when I originally played it back in 2012/13 (the other being Emi's).
Having never played her route, I had always looked on Shizune and Misha as the "antagonists" of the game (alongside the likes of Kenji). Certainly the memes of the community do nothing to dispel that aura. Given the task of shepherding our newly-transferred Hisao into the rhythm of the school, Shizune and Misha waste no time trying to press Hisao into the student council. Hisao himself quickly makes it apparent that he doesn't consider them an impartial source on the issue of clubs. Their interactions with the other girls in Act 1 also seems rather hostile and authoritarian in most instances.
So, do I think it's a terrible route? Not really. You definitely interact with Shizune less than with others on their routes, even after learning sign language, which is kind of a downer, at least at first. The trip to Saitama is not too interesting, since Hideaki is boring, while conflict with the conversely entertaining Jigoro feels anti-climatic. I found myself shaking my head when Hisao doesn't call Jigoro out for not learning JSL when he talks about trying to make Shizune "normal".
So what does the route have going for it? Let's be honest, it's Misha. Misha, of course, is the MVP when it comes to comic relief. But more importantly, her conflicts and depth make her a more interesting character. If you only interact with her in Act 1 and other routes, you would probably be tempted to dismiss her as Shizune's airhead minion. But she is one of the few characters who actually seems to know what she wants to do with her life, as a sign language teacher. She struggles with still wanting to support Shizune even after her rejection. She even becomes suicidal at one point and vocalizes it to Hisao, feeling she isn't even worth anything now that Shizune has him. Most importantly of all, almost losing her makes Shizune realize that she herself was rudderless. She of all people didn't know what she wanted to do in life, while Misha did.
So, Shizune's route is a mess, but an important one that made me really rethink these characters I usually viewed as antagonistic and shallow. They are anything but. They are people. They have their own wants, needs and regrets. And that's what's most important of all: understand that other people are human, just like you, and even if it just looks like they're trying to be pushy or jerks, they are doing it because they genuinely believe it's the right thing to do, at least at the time.
Wrapping up, I've decided to alternate between Routes I have and haven't already done, so next up is Lilly, then Emi, and Rin for the "Grand Finale."
XXX
Return to KS Part 3: Learning to Appreciate
My my, last month's been busy! But midterms are over, so I've been able to wrap up Lilly's Route, so here we are.
Ah Lilly, the fan favorite. I read through this game out loud, so I had fun with Scottish accents over the last month. Yes, even though canonically she and Akira are native Japanese speakers. Getting back on track, I remember her route being my second favorite, though the details are a bit blurry. That said, after playing through Shizune's Route for the first time, it was nice to come back to familiar territory. Like I mentioned earlier, last month was rather hectic, so this playthrough had some stops and starts.
As you're probably aware, you basically branch off to Lilly or Hanako's route based off of a single choice, so it was relatively straight-forward. From there, it gets a little complicated, since half the choices you get matter and half don't. But, enough about mechanics, let's get to the actual feels.
Lilly feels like the conventional "perfect" partner. She's classy, beautiful, caring, intelligent, yet also independent and willing to take charge. As Hisao says himself, a very motherly attitude. Of course, my reaction to that, replaying as an adult was, "whoa, slow down there Oedipus!" Still, it is nice to have such a caring and dedicated partner. Someone who cares about you, is dedicated to you, and would do anything for you. For lack of a better term, this route is essentially comfort food for most of it's duration.
Of course, the true meaning is lurking there, in the shadows. It reveals itself piece by piece; Lilly blowing up after the accident with Kenji, for instance. More, generally, the growing feeling of distance. Akira, who is already mentioned to be leaving for Scotland, drops the final bombshell: Lilly is leaving as well. Everything you've enjoyed up to this moment, taken for granted, is all snatched away. This great fairy tale won't have a happily ever after, after all. Of course, in the good ending, Hisao does save the happily ever after. After all, why should Lilly return to the parents that left her behind as a burden? (If Akira's to be believed, anyway.)
But therein lies the great theme of this story: you don't truly appreciate the people and things you have until they are gone. Relationships are about give and take, and it's important to not let the "emotional labor" of a relationship fall disproportionately on one partner or another's shoulders. Both Lilly and Hisao learn that lesson the hard way: Lilly tries the carry the load of choosing between her family (who she evidently doesn't entirely share Akira's feelings towards) and her true love by herself, and only ends up making the situation more difficult, while Hisao is so used to Lilly's "take charge" attitude he doesn't fully comprehend the weight she's carrying until it's almost too late.
In the end, it's important to appreciate the people in your life. Even if they put on a brave face, everyone has their own struggles. It's important to pay attention to the people around you, and be there for them. Additionally there is the lesson from Lilly's perspective, which is to never be afraid of facing your problems when there are people in your life who can help share that emotional labor.
Alrighty, next up is Emi, the other route I didn't do when I originally found the game, and then on to our grand finale with Rin! Same Bat-time, Same Bat-Channel, or something like that. Till then, folks!