Congratulations on an extremely well polished game.

[Althamus]

Firstly, I'd like to say that I've never played a game of this type before. I'd heard about Katawa Shoujo over the last couple months through the grapevines (hey, it's getting quite a bit of press for being about a touchy subject), but still thought no more of it.
Then yesterday, I was feeling bored, and was scanning Facebook, and a friend had posted a link to a news topic about the game. On impulse, I downloaded it to have a look at it because, y'know, it'd occupy maybe 20 minutes or something before I got bored, and I could see just how tacky the thing really was.

About 5 seconds into the hospital video, I realised that actually, this game friggin' rocked and had some merit beyond simply being a riské game which would get press and attention based purely on that factor.

I first played through Emi's arc, and think that the writer did an exceptional job with it, he really succeeded in bringing the characters to life, and making me emotionally involved with them. I loved with them when they got closer together, and when Emi starts being distant I cried and really felt that my heart was breaking along with Hisao's. Considering when I was downloading it, I was fully expecting to play something of poor quality which I would get fed up with after about an hour, I started playing it at 10pm, and finished about 4:30am - really not something I was expecting to do, and decided I was going to play through the other 4 character arcs as well. If that doesn't show how much I believed in the writing of Emi, I don't know what will.

I also played through the Shizune arc as well, although wasn't as taken with that, feeling that it didn't pull the reader through in the same way as Emi's arc did. I did start enjoying it more towards the end though, when the plot arc of Shizune/Misha/Hisao + third wheel started to come into it, I could really relate to that and thought it really made the characters real.

In terms of the visuals and music though, I was also incredibly impressed with the quality of both. The whole game felt really polished, and I would have no qualms about paying money for the privilege of having played it - the hallmark of a professional game after all. The visuals, art style and photographs really felt right and fitting in with the style, and the music is exceptional. I rarely pay much attention to music in games or media, understanding that it has probably been there, but unable to actually describe what it was like afterwards. The music in this is IMHO exceptional in that it is simple, yet perfectly puts across a sense of optimism and makes me feel better for just listening to it. I'm also enjoying just listening to the soundtrack in the background while I'm doing other things, and strongly urge you to release it as an OST at some point.

But overall, I think this is a truly excellent game (even more so because I started playing as such a skeptic), and really congratulate the whole team on their hard work and exceptional result.