Katawa Shoujo Forums

It's easy to see how the different paths affect the girls; they either become quite close to Hisao or they don't, but how do the divergent realities affect Hisao?

Specifically, I'm wondering how each path affects Hisao's perspective on his condition. With Shizune, it's like "I won't let this beat me", with Emi it's "I'm going to deal with this", with Rin it's "what, me worry?", and with Kenji it's "shit sucks lol"(which demonstrates that he's incapable of dealing with it alone, meaning he owes a great deal to whichever girl is the center of any other path).

I don't really see how Lilly or Hanako's paths affect him, unless the latter is "there are others who are worse off".

He seems to become calmer, more relaxed, and I can't think of what else... you know this is hard.

Lilly's effect seems to be "theres a bright side to everything".Something along the lines of "I came here and met all these nice people, life goes on and i might as well enjoy it". Hanako is kinda hard to say considering you don't really have much interaction with her directly in her path; You mostly act with Lilly.

In the Lilly + hanako path he becomes calmer and starts choosing his words more carefully. I mean, he has to around Hanako, one bad look and she runs away.

I imagine an effect of all the routes is that he's going to be more open to people. From the demo I got the impression that because of his time in the hospital, Hisao had become a pretty private person, and even to some extent forgotten how to interact with people his own age or who weren't there because of a job. I reckon that this is another reason why he's so uncomfortable at first when he goes to Yamaku, not just because of the people around him being disabled/having disfigurements. I'm rather looking forward to see how Hisao is handled in the full game.

It is interesting to see how Hisao's development contrasts itself depending on the route. With Shizune he is using his mind actively rather than passively. With Lilly, he's becoming a bit more observant and serene. Hanako has less of a direct influence, but more a kindred spirit "we can be alone together"-type feeling. Rather than mentally, Emi's influencing Hisao physically, giving him a little more reign over his own body compared to the pills. And with Rin he gets to think about his situation in a roundabout existential way.

Is it usual for a VN to feature the protaginist, rather than just the girls he can bed, being so different from path to path?

Fronzel wrote:Is it usual for a VN to feature the protaginist, rather than just the girls he can bed, being so different from path to path?

From my experience, the main character more or less stays the same in whatever route is picked apart from on one or two routes; though it often depends on far the game goes. i.e., end the game early with a choice, and no more developement. One or two routes may make the character change, and a character does interact differently with different people, but for the most part the character stays as who he is.

Hisao is an interesting case in that he appears to develop differently depending on which girl is chosen. Again, I'll state my idea of Hisao having to rediscover how to talk with people who aren't there because it's there job or his parents because of his long stint in hospital. In that regard I suppose it makes sense that Hisao would have more noticeable differences in each route.
You could also take it that each route lets Hisao discover a different part of himself. A devious device to compell us to play all the routes? Well, besides certain... other things.

I'd actually say that some of the paths almost have a bad effect on him. It seems like with Hanako he really doesn't interact with anyone except for her, and does very little exercise, just sitting around and reading/playing chess. Maybe it's just me, though. The obvious positive one I see is that with Emi he actually takes steps to getting back in shape slowly so that his condition doesn't have such a huge restrictive hold on him.

bah, Arrhythmia isn't THAT bad. People can live normal lives with it.

Srikali wrote:bah, Arrhythmia isn't THAT bad. People can live normal lives with it.

Wasn't it said that arrhythmia is usually a symptom for other underlying heart conditions in another thread? I still find it odd that he is diagnosed with that and has to take a pile of pills every day. An aunt has that and she doesn't have to take a shitload of those things.

Anyway, I agree with SirMax. Lilly would at least take him to walk sometimes and make him get in better shape a little, Shizune could probably cause him a heart-attack due to so much stress because of all the competition between them, Rin could be also somewhat harmful since she doesn't appear to care much for others but herself.
That's the idea I've got after Act 1, we'll have to see later on the game. Hope Shizune calms down that part of her for his sake and Rin pays attention to the dying man at her side.

Srikali wrote:bah, Arrhythmia isn't THAT bad. People can live normal lives with it.

well, since he apparently runs a risk of having a heart attack throwing less than 12 whiffle balls (according to Shizune's ending), I'm thinking he'll have trouble with the normal life thing without some good exercise...

abscess wrote:Rin pays attention to the dying man at her side.

"HNNNNGH"
"Clouds are pretty, aren't they, Hisao. I wonder if I could paint clouds..."
"HNNNNNNNNNNNgh"
"I'd need a tall ladder..."

Arrhythmia is such a general term. It all depends on the specific condition he has. A 'normal' person can have some arrhythmia, like their heart missing a beat or something, but a whole host of conditions can cause Arrhythmia, in your aunt's case, she has a mild form, while Hisao, well he drew the short stick.

This is the main reason the Hanako ending left me with a "wat" feeling. I eventually grew to accept it though. I figured that Hanako was very shy, so it'd take some time before anything monumental occurred. I really loved Rin's and Shizune's endings, but they both had major impacts on Hisao.

Hypothermia wrote:This is the main reason the Hanako ending left me with a "wat" feeling. I eventually grew to accept it though. I figured that Hanako was very shy, so it'd take some time before anything monumental occurred. I really loved Rin's and Shizune's endings, but they both had major impacts on Hisao.

Well if "major impacts" is the same as Near Death Experiences then Emi is the winner. After all; she is to die for.