Katawa Shoujo Forums

This thread is for thoughts, suggestions, complaints, complements and comments about the art of KS. This is only for in-game art like sprites, cgs, and backrounds, not fan art and shimmie stuff. Comments about in-game effects, such as the fire works and sprite animation are ok.

now for a general appraisal of the sprites in no particular order.

-Shizune: great looking overall and my personal favorite. The shading on the hair and clothing are my favorite parts. Expressions and poses are also good and fit her character well. The only slight issue is that her glasses look a bit like they were made separately and then tacked on. If any more sprites of hers are made, it might be interesting to have the glasses lenses turn white in an evil glint or something. Her sprite where she spreads her arms looks a bit off. In that one, the shoulder padding seems to extend under her armpits, her left arm is shorter than the right and the torso is tiled a bit oddly.
-Misha: ignoring any complaints about her heathy body structure, the quality of the sprites are all excellent. The detailing on her curls are especially nice.
-Rin: Good overall. There have been some complaints that she is less detailed than the others, but I think this is owed more to the fact that her boys shirt is simply less complex and form fitting than the girl's uniforms. The hair lighting is very good and she has some of the best expressions.
-Nurse: ok overall. The coloring for his clothing is not quite as well polished as the girls, but he isnt that important a character so its not that much of an issue.
-Old Emi: distinctly lower quality than the other heroines. Poses were stiff sometimes and her pigtails looked odd. she has been replaced though so its not an issue.
-New Emi: cant say for sure but she looks to be superior, quality wise. Rather different from old Emi though.
-Kenji: good overall. Design is quite amusing.
-Lilly: good overall. The folds on her arm sleeves dont seem quite as natural as the other's and her collar seems poofy for some reason. these are minor issues however. On the other hand, her right hand looks very bizarre in the sprite where she puts it up to her mouth.
-Hanako: ok, but with some issues. Hanako's face and hair look very good. Her torso becomes abnormally wide when she is holding her hand up to her chest in 3/4 view. Her arms are too thin for the rest of her body. This is especially apparent in the sprites where she faces dirrectly forwards at the player (where they are thinner than her neck), but is present in her side views as well when she holds her hands up to her chest. Her hands are, by extension rather small in her forward view.
-Old Yuuko: ok overall. while not outstanding and maybe slightly lower in quality, there was nothing really wrong with old yuuko.
-New Yuuko: excelent quality wise. She is now quite nice looking, but the change did not seem that necessary for a minor character unless she becomes more important later. New Yuuko is also severely different from her old form, making the change rather jarring.
-Muto: looks fine overall. like the nurse he isnt quite as polished as the heroines, but he doesnt show up much. His eyes give the feeling of sagging, which is an interesting effect and suits his laid back personality.
-Nomiya: about the same as the other three men. His character design is quite amusing though, so I wish he would turn up more.

-miscellaneous sprite comments:
the girls uniform bows do not seem to have any sort of attachment, such as being tied around the neck or something, just a minor issue though. The girl's sleeves do not seem to be standardized, shizune has a loose button on hers, lilly has folded back cuffs, and most of the other girls have a soft, puffy, buttonless cuff. Some of the animation done, such as the quick transition between rin's sprites when she shakes her head, look rather odd and distract more than they add.

They're all great.

Also, they all suck.

The op was actually my post but I got logged out. Anyways, I do not meant that they were all good and all suck also. I just meant that they arent without some issues. Some more than others of course. Afterall, there can be no improvement without criticism.

To sum things up, they are all good for the most part. Shizune and Lilly have one or two off sprites. Hanako is the only real problem I see right now since the problem sprites are her most frequently used ones.

I haven't looked at the sprites under a microscope, but I agree with most of your points. Overall, the quality of the game's art is excellent.

My one complaint would be that Hisao at the start (in the snow) looks pretty different from Hisao when seen sitting with Lilly.

Merlyn_LeRoy wrote:My one complaint would be that Hisao at the start (in the snow) looks pretty different from Hisao when seen sitting with Lilly.

He's younger in it :3

And he was in a hospital for months. His appearance could've changed.

Yeah, but months, not years older. He looks about 3 years older to me.

Merlyn_LeRoy wrote:Yeah, but months, not years older. He looks about 3 years older to me.

Different artist.
Sistery Molved!

He doesnt look much older to me. Perhaps the problem is with the profile view he is shown in for the tea scene. Now that I examine that cg again though, Hisao seems a bit smaller than Lilly. I am aware that he is sitting a little bit farther away than lilly is (to accommodate Hanako later) but the foreshortening should not be that severe. This isnt something that most people would notice though.

Another explanation for why Hisao looks odd might be that he is not frequently drawn and, as such, the standards for his appearance are rather fuzzy.

Shades of Grey wrote:He doesnt look much older to me. Perhaps the problem is with the profile view he is shown in for the tea scene. Now that I examine that cg again though, Hisao seems a bit smaller than Lilly. I am aware that he is sitting a little bit farther away than lilly is (to accommodate Hanako later) but the foreshortening should not be that severe. This isnt something that most people would notice though.

Well, Lilly is also quite a bit taller than Hisao too... er, maybe. How tall is he supposed to be anyway? It's implied that she's taller at least, which is quite plausible since she's a towering gaijin and all.

Hisao is 170cm tall.

Suriko wrote:Hisao is 170cm tall.

Lilly = 171cm.

D'oh, never mind.

Merlyn_LeRoy wrote:Yeah, but months, not years older. He looks about 3 years older to me.

Months are one thing. Months in the hospital when you are barely, if ever allowed outside your room are an entirely different thing.

Captain Niggawatts wrote: Months are one thing. Months in the hospital when you are barely, if ever allowed outside your room are an entirely different thing.

THIS

As far as the main character art goes I think it's looking great.
I like the new Yuuko's design but I thought the style contrasted noticeably when standing next to Lilly.
The line weights, particularly around the face.
It's like the heroines all have distinct lines defining their features where as Yuuko has sort of a gradient of blended colour.
Lilly looks like she was drawn and then coloured, Yuuko looks like she was painted. I guess that's the best way I can describe it.
It doesn't look bad, it just looks like they were done by different artists.

My 2 cents.

The art of the game is exceptional in all aspects. I would have to comment about the new Yukko sprite as I prefered the old with her personality but the art now matches overall with the others.
The good game art is exactly it's going to be difficult to match if it ever makes anime. I would suggest the devs, and us, should have a say in the style if that ever happens since we are the founding fans.