Katawa Shoujo Forums

I thought this game had stunned me with it's quality enough times now, and I'd be used to it's exceptionally high standards... apparently not.

One of the things that convinced me to play the entire game through was the initial introduction video to Act 1 (hospital scene). The prologue impressed me, it was done better than I was expecting, but that first video really made me sit up and take notice, and realise that this was a highly polished game rather than something relying on gimmicks to get readers to download it.

Since then, I played through Emi's, Shizune's and Lilly's paths (in that order), and obviously watched the intro-videos for them. Emi's video seemed to be a bit of a short story in itself, and was enjoyable but nothing special. Shizune's was good, and showed well the relatinoship between the three main characters, before Misha starting to feel like a third wheel. Lilly's showed how a blind girl see's life, but ultimmately was the weakest IMHO. I've since YouTubed Rin's, and it shows her weirdness well, but aside from that isn't too great IMHO.

However... Hanako's video blew me away completely The dark shadowey figures at the start show her shadowy history and parents and how dark or painful it is to her. The scene in her room perfectly shows how scared and introverted she is, the scene where the camera rotates while people go past is excellently done, and the music for the first half of the video shows panic wonderfully. Even down to the scene in the library showing wonderfully in a more obvious way how she's timid. While the other videos give a little peek into what is to come, and how the story will turn out, Hanakos perfectly shows her personality.

Yet again, Katawa Shoujo shocks me with it's professionalism and high quality.

I'll have to agree with you on Hanako's intro scene. Compared to all the other scenes, this scene really delved into her feelings about the past and some of her problems (being ignored and having no one for her). The other felt more like little short stories with a bit of foreshadowing although Rin's scene does tell us a bit of whats going through her head.

Lilly's route is my second favorite, but the Act 2 animation is my least favorite. It's kinda...stiff-looking. Like someone used WAY too much starch when cleaning the uniforms (particularly Lilly's). But then again, animating accurate clothing folds is one of the most difficult things to do in animation, but the others looked fine...

Lilly's video dat foreshadowing

Yellow 13 wrote:Lilly's video dat foreshadowing

yea, I think some people were bringing up the fact that Lilly knew she was going to be called back to Scotland before she met Hisao?? In the fact that she looks troubled, or at least pensive, is only noticeable in hindsight. I didn't actually consider that the video was her thoughts until after I came back to it. I just thought it was a collection of defining snapshots, which it was, except more than that.

I agree, Hanako's video is nothing short of amazing. The direction, lights, time-lapse effect, music... it's all beautiful and easily one of the best things in the game.
I still have a hard time to believe that it was done by a lone guy in his spare time.

Suprisingly, Hanako's was the best imo followed by Rin's and Emi's.

Yep Hanako's video was definately the most powerful in my opinion, the music also helped a lot too. Emi's one comes in second
Despite Lilly being my favourite girl out of the lot, I have to agree that her video was "stiff-looking" but there some aspects that I still liked

Dear lord, I had a the same (or Similar) reaction when I played this. After the release of Act 1, I thought this was shaping up to be an incredible game. Once the full version came around though I was blown away when I saw that first video. Hanako was my first route of choice, and the moment her video came up my reaction was this:

'Are you serious?!'

It was a good kind of 'Are you serious?'. I was laughing joyfully while watching it. I was compeltely not expecting the level of detail and effort that was placed into it. That's the moment were I became completly sucked in. From there on, I truly got a great sense of how much love the developers had nurturing this project!

For me the order of favorite act 2 intros goes like this.

Hanako>Rin>Liliy>Emi>Shizune

Each video really captured the overall theme of the heroines in question. Hanako with her social anxiety and how she tries to overcome it. And Rin's theme of trying to understand her world or getting the world to truly understand her. (That's what I got form it at least.). I especially found the imagery of the mist surrounding her very striking and symbolic of what is to go on the at the route. How murky it can get. Rest of the girls were pretty straight forward, then again to me they were pretty straight forward routes so it worked either way.

XanatosPlannedThis86 wrote:Dear lord, I had a the same (or Similar) reaction when I played this. After the release of Act 1, I thought this was shaping up to be an incredible game. Once the full version came around though I was blown away when I saw that first video. Hanako was my first route of choice, and the moment her video came up my reaction was this:

'Are you serious?!'

It was a good kind of 'Are you serious?'. I was laughing joyfully while watching it. I was compeltely not expecting the level of detail and effort that was placed into it. That's the moment were I became completly sucked in. From there on, I truly got a great sense of how much love the developers had nurturing this project!

For me the order of favorite act 2 intros goes like this.

Hanako>Rin>Liliy>Emi>Shizune

Each video really captured the overall theme of the heroines in question. Hanako with her social anxiety and how she tries to overcome it. And Rin's theme of trying to understand her world or getting the world to truly understand her. (That's what I got form it at least.). I especially found the imagery of the mist surrounding her very striking and symbolic of what is to go on the at the route. How murky it can get. Rest of the girls were pretty straight forward, then again to me they were pretty straight forward routes so it worked either way.

I guess our similarities in thought is OVER 9000!!!!!

Hanako > Shizune > Rin > Lilly > Emi

Hanako's was amazing to say the least. I felt like Shizune's was well done because of the star love triangle. Rin's described her path, and herself, deeply. Lilly's had some wonderful foreshadowing. Emi's was short and sweet, much like her races.

Mike, without a doubt, did an amazing job in my opinion.