The View From 100% - Lessons And Reflections From The End

[N. Bekkler]

Recently I finished my fifth and final route. I have not been as active in the Katawa Shoujo community as I would have liked. Aside from wanting to avoid spoilers, by the time that I finished a route all that could be said about it had already been said many times over and I did not want to bore you with a redundent perspective. Instead, I wanted to reflect on the game as a whole before going into detail about my thoughts. Now at 100%, I am able to do so.

When Katawa Shoujo was first gaining traction much of the buzz was about the stories and the now proverbial 'feels' that they evoke. Because the majority of the narratives take the form of a love story it is reasonable for people to grow involved in the story and attatched to the characters involved. There is nothing wrong with this - it is natural and allowes the game to be engrosing in a way that I have not seen in recent years. There was quite a bit of predjudice to get past, however - given the visual novel's tendency to be used for pornography this is understandable. But as I progressed through the game I eventually realized that much of what I had assumed was incorrect. I am not refering to the obvious lables of 'waifu simulator' or 'cripple porn,' these notions are easily dispelled after one playthrough. As moving and impressive as it is, Katawa Shoujo's strength is not in its quality as a love story. Rather, it is its ability to force you to examine the perspectives of people outside of your own experience. The disabilities are almost inconsequential to this; while they are ever present, they do not define the main characters. The circumstances of their enrollment at Yamaku quickly become irrelevant in light of who they are as human beings, and this is as it should be. As Yuuko and Mutou said, these things are only an issue if you make them one.

This perspective is not just external but internal as well. People who play Katawa Shoujo frequently go through some period of introspection and selfevaluation that drives them to improve their lives. The briefest of glances at the community confirmes this - people have started jogging regularly because of Emi, learning sign language because of Shizune, drawing because of Rin, and countless other personal changes. Because the characters are so well written and developed it can be very easy to see you own ambitions and flaws reflected in them. I think that this is why Katawa Shoujo has garnered the following that it has - no matter what you have experienced in life there is at least one character in this game that you can identify with.

Where you go after playing Katawa Shoujo varries from one person to the next and depends largely on what what you were before and what you want to be afterwards. I have been inspired to take my experience and apply what I learned to my own life - Emi taught me to recognize my own shortcomings and to ask for help when I reach my limit; Lilly taught me the benefit of restraint, that a measured and gentle approach will often prevent conflict and promote harmony; Shizune taught me to examine my goals and priorities carefully and to fight for them with every fiber of my being, while Misha taught me to be conscious of the effect my actions have on others; Hanako taught me to make no assumptions about the motivations behind the actions of others; Rin taught me that words are sometimes not enough to express what is in your mind and heart, and to acknowledge this in myself and others. As strange as it may sound, Katawa Shoujo has helped me to understand myself better. I see more of myself in Rin and Hanako than I could have recognized before, and this has helped me understand where I am, where I have been, and where I am going.

There will come a day when /r/KatawaShoujo grinds to a halt, when KSG disapears from the pages of /vg/, and when the Internet at large forgets about this game. But I do not think that we will. After reading the stories of how this game has impacted people in ways that I too have felt, I simply can not believe that we will forget. It may be just a game, but damn it this means something to me. And I know that I'm not the only one.

Everyone is broken. If we can acknowledge this in ourselves and others then maybe there will be a little less pain in this world. God knows that there's too much as it is.

Thank you Four Leaf Studios for giving us this gift, and thank you to everyone here who has gone on this journey with me. I owe you all a debt that I can never repay.

[Sk3tch]

You hit a bull's eye talking about that introspection bit. For myself, I have started jogging and playing piano much more. Mostly because KS led me to see my own shortcomings and made me want to improve on them. I also look at people in general different, KS made me ask questions that I would not have thought about before. Overall I would say that KS became a positive change in my life and I am glad I found it.