Visual effects in Katawa Shoujo

[Tempester]

I'd like to show my appreciation for the wonderful visual effects used in this VN. I feel that, despite the limited budget, the visual effects in KS managed to have a striking effect that makes many VNs with larger budgets seem less exciting in terms of presentation.

First of all is the obvious: the character sprites move. Yes, it's just a sliding motion with no real animation, but it is much more lively than simply having characters appear and disappear on the screen with an occasional sprite zoom-in. Great examples would be Shizune and Misha closing in to corner Hisao (and sometimes other characters), Emi bouncing up and down on her legs, and Hanako sneaking in shyly from the side of the screen.

But that's not all. Many other scenes make a visual impact without moving sprites. Perhaps the most visually spectacular scene I've gotten yet was the extreme zoom-out to show a view of the night sky at the end of Act 1 with Shizune. Other great moments include

General:
Any of the variations of the end of Act 1 with fireworks, really.
Rin's route:
The camera spinning slowly during the smoking scene. Of course, the dandelions at the end.
Hanako's route:
The zoom-out with the kiss at the end.

Of course, technical visual effects aren't very important when you aim to tell a story, but for KS, they really helped to put the cherry of satisfaction on top of the great stories. Thank you, Four Leaf Studios, for putting such amazing effort into the visual effects of this VN.

[megiddo]

Ooh, yes. I really like the scene at Shizune's house where Misha, after getting her hair cut, runs a wide circle behind all the characters and then reveals her new hair cut. I thought it really fit her personality and it even fit the text. Nice job!

I also liked how the Emi sprite gets closer to the screen for a moment when she steals part of your pie at the Shanghai. The knife sound effect really completed the scene.