Katawa Shoujo Forums

it's no doubt that KS was a successful game. The stories and characters ended up being inspirational to us all, is it possible that this kind of story and VN could make other VNs pop up?

So far it's success have inspired more VNs to be made that have the same idea.
First we heard about Missing Stars which is like KS but with mental disabilites, and then another VN like KS has begun called Chord Progression, which seems to focus more on toubled people.

I noticed that in the past there have been other trend setting VNs, fate/stay night sort of started dark fantasy VN, and key essentally invented the crying VN.

It seems that KS has it's own thing going on where instead of a main character getting a harem, the story focuses on human emotions and human nature, to make a story that is touching.

Could this catch on? In a year will there be a VN in japan that is like KS? What do you think?

I honestly hope so. I don't know about trends in Japan, but I for one would love to see more VNs of the quality of Katawa Shoujo in the West. I don't really have any experience with other VNs (I learned about KS after playing Analogue: A Hate Story on Steam), but I wonder if KS has spoiled me for them, because I want to see the same degree of emotional depth and "realism" in the depiction of romantic relationships. Many times I've read how KS subverts or avoids a lot of the cliches found in other VNs, and I fear I would be disappointed going into a new one hoping for a KS-like experience.

I really hope Missing Stars and Love Despite can at least live up to KS in those terms. I don't see how KS could not inspire imitators at the very least, so great is its impact on most of its players.

While we can't deny Katawa Shoujo has inspired many people in terms of creative and entertainment media, what good is that inspiration if folks are not fully kick-starting their projects and goals and making that push to be notice?

maybe ... i think it go in a group of vn's ... true love , Kana LS , YMK , KS and Clannad are all trend setters in this part of the world ... its just ks has the most popularity out of all of them ...

Without true love popularity in the 90's ... no future vn would have made it big
Kana was really the first one the focus on story ( that i know of )
Clannad do i really need to explain lol
YKM was the really first non cult hit ( very over rated IMO ... i use to defend this game lol )

KS is really the first one that is aim and created for a western gamer which we really didnt have b4 and ppl are eating it up ... and its perfect ( even though i like Kana better ... i have to agree that KS is an all around better VN )

really kana a trend setter? I wouldn't have thought that.

and clannad isn't the first crying VN, i can't remember that the name but the people that made it eventually formed key.

ubergeneral wrote:really kana a trend setter? I wouldn't have thought that.

and clannad isn't the first crying VN, i can't remember that the name but the people that made it eventually formed key.

yes kana was really the first semi popular VN that focus on story ( in North America )

And clannad is more popular for the anime i know

ubergeneral wrote: and clannad isn't the first crying VN, i can't remember that the name but the people that made it eventually formed key.

It's not a crying VN unless one of the choices has a cock.

Fart jokes could be considered trend setting. Doesn't mean emulating it will produce anything of worth.

I suspect history will look back and pinpoint KS as pivotal in the genre, and in "entertainment" as a whole. I would not be surprised to see Nakige become even more popular, and for there to be a lot more willingness for Japanese companies to translate their VNs to other languages and to see more Western produced VNs. I think that artists will see that the market is not as niche as it might appear, and this kind of thing will become more mainstream.

ravenlord wrote:I suspect history will look back and pinpoint KS as pivotal in the genre, and in "entertainment" as a whole. I would not be surprised to see Nakige become even more popular, and for there to be a lot more willingness for Japanese companies to translate their VNs to other languages and to see more Western produced VNs. I think that artists will see that the market is not as niche as it might appear, and this kind of thing will become more mainstream.

It would be nice if some of the big name VN companies were more willing to let their VNs be licensed and let VN translation companies like JAST and MangaGamer become more popular and sell more. I feel downright sorry for them and their pathetic sales figures. How do they survive with triple digit sales figures per VN? The best selling VN for Mangagamer only sold 2000.

ubergeneral wrote: It seems that KS has it's own thing going on where instead of a main character getting a harem, the story focuses on human emotions and human nature, to make a story that is touching.

Could this catch on? In a year will there be a VN in japan that is like KS?

Wait, hold on. You act like there aren't any VNs that focus on human emotions and human nature. Sure the ones I know (except for Katawa Shoujo) that do focus on human nature in particular are psychological horror like Saya No Uta, there are plenty of VNs that explore human emotions and other aspects of humans. For example, Clannad is explores family love and Little Busters is explores friendship. Shikkoku No Sharnoth is all about romantic love and Kikokugai is about vengeance. Kira Kira is about the rock soul and Dear drops is ... more about the rock soul. Fate Stay Night is all about the nature of heroism and Forest is about the intimate relationship a storyteller has with his listener. And so on.

I just adore Katawa Shoujo, but I think you're overestimating it's uniqueness a little.

At least KS doesn't give you three choices that made your entire effort gone to waste in the last five-minutes.

Blue explosion, Green explosion, or Red explosion?

one other thing ... is this game/VN wasn't free how popular would it be ... if we had to pay lets say 30 bucks for it

rydiafan wrote:one other thing ... is this game/VN wasn't free how popular would it be ... if we had to pay lets say 30 bucks for it

Probably not nearly as popular, but still rated just as high. I'd pay $60 for this in a heart beat, compared to the crap on the market nowadays.

ShadeHaven wrote:

rydiafan wrote:one other thing ... is this game/VN wasn't free how popular would it be ... if we had to pay lets say 30 bucks for it

Probably not nearly as popular, but still rated just as high. I'd pay $60 for this in a heart beat, compared to the crap on the market nowadays.

i wont disagree with that ... all ks did is made VN's more a cult classic ( for lack a a better term ) and made for a north american crowd ... in the world of VN's i have to say it didn't start anything new ... it just took the ball and ran with it ... it took old ideas and made it better ( which is not a bad thing , if KS takes VN's main stream i don't see a problem there )