Katawa Shoujo Forums

One of the things I found myself most impressed with in KS was our intrepid hero, Hisao Nakai. He had his own distinguishable personality, that even shifted and was significantly affected by each arc in different ways. The differences are some of the more fascinating parts to me about the game, and thinking of all the different Hisaos that can result is a fun exercise.

So, what did you think of Mr. Hisao? Good? Bad? Indifferent?

I've gotta say, the differences between each parallel universe Hisao is something I enjoyed.

apart from that, though, he doesn't mean much more to me than argyle sweatervests and cripplebanging.
That and he can have the empathy of a potato, at times. But that's a given, considering the need for good and bad endings.

Hisao has a hard role to fill. He has to be his own character and at the same time be the vehicle that the player views the world through. He needs a personality, but he needs to be able to be pliable enough to adapt to several completely different styles of stories.

To me, he never feels plain and boring, but works as a nice "ordinary" person's view. He has his faults here and there, and they work to help develop the narrative, and he's also got quite a few strengths as a character that many people don't seem to give him credit for. As far as visual novel protagonists go, he's one of the better ones.

Oddball wrote:Hisao has a hard role to fill. He has to be his own character and at the same time be the vehicle that the player views the world through. He needs a personality, but he needs to be able to be pliable enough to adapt to several completely different styles of stories.

To me, he never feels plain and boring, but works as a nice "ordinary" person's view. He has his faults here and there, and they work to help develop the narrative, and he's also got quite a few strengths as a character that many people don't seem to give him credit for. As far as visual novel protagonists go, he's one of the better ones.

Pretty much my opinion is this.

The best VN protagonists are the ones with their own personalities, whether that personality is neutral, ordinary or quirky.

I found him relatable. That's about it, but that's probably a good thing.

Munchenhausen wrote:he can have the empathy of a potato, at times.

*stares at monitor, quirks eyebrow, grins*

Hisao...Is often amazingly stupid but it's necessary for the story. Otherwise, he is a pretty good protagonist.

The girls hold the idiotball almost as much as Hisao if it advances the story. People are just less irked by it because they don't perceive the story from their point of view.

Guest Poster wrote:The girls hold the idiotball almost as much as Hisao if it advances the story. People are just less irked by it because they don't perceive the story from their point of view.

I actually agree with this 100%. I'm fairly impressed with how generally little Hisao gets the idiot ball over the course of the game. Most of the mistakes he makes feel organic and reasonable.

Out of curiosity, Potato, what would you consider his idiotbally moments?

Puncyclopedia wrote:

Guest Poster wrote:The girls hold the idiotball almost as much as Hisao if it advances the story. People are just less irked by it because they don't perceive the story from their point of view.

I actually agree with this 100%. I'm fairly impressed with how generally little Hisao gets the idiot ball over the course of the game. Most of the mistakes he makes feel organic and reasonable.

Out of curiosity, Potato, what would you consider his idiotbally moments?

Whenever he does irrational dumb shit. But then, the girls have their share of irrational dumb shit too. EMI, YOU STUPID CUNT, GAWD.

Potato wrote:

Puncyclopedia wrote:

Guest Poster wrote:The girls hold the idiotball almost as much as Hisao if it advances the story. People are just less irked by it because they don't perceive the story from their point of view.

I actually agree with this 100%. I'm fairly impressed with how generally little Hisao gets the idiot ball over the course of the game. Most of the mistakes he makes feel organic and reasonable.

Out of curiosity, Potato, what would you consider his idiotbally moments?

Whenever he does irrational dumb shit. But then, the girls have their share of irrational dumb shit too. EMI, YOU STUPID CUNT, GAWD.

Whoa, whoa. Calm down.

Not good for her and Hisao, yeah, but it makes sense from her position. It doesn't feel contrived, at the very least. Emotions are irrational, but that isn't holding the idiot ball.

SpunkySix wrote:

Not good for her and Hisao, yeah, but it makes sense from her position. It doesn't feel contrived, at the very least. Emotions are irrational, but that isn't holding the idiot ball.

This. From TVTropes:

Frequently, the person carrying the idiot ball is acting out of character, misunderstanding something that could be cleared up by asking a single reasonable question or not performing a simple action that would solve everything. It's almost as if the character holding the ball is being willfully stupid or obtuse far beyond what has been established as "natural" for them. Frequently, it's only because the story (and by extension, the writers) need them to act this way, or else the chosen plot/conflict for the episode won't happen.

KS is very well constructed, to the point where the conflicts and emotional issues and everything feel organic. Hisao's not perfect, neither are the women he dates, and they have misunderstandings and miscommunications that make sense. Really, the most idiot bally decision in the game for me would be comfort Misha, just because it feels utterly out of character for Hisao to do.

Otherwise, I think they're pretty good at not making anyone look willfully stupid.

Hanako does have a jump to conclusions mat that almost rivals Jigoro's jump to conclusions bouncy castle though...

The most IdiotBally moment to me is Hisao presuming Lilly's going away to Scotland and not objecting in the slightest. And I do wish the devs have given Hisao another interest or two; kinda-sorta liking soccer is not much to hang one's hat on. Other than that, I like the guy.

Atario wrote:And I do wish the devs have given Hisao another interest or two; kinda-sorta liking soccer is not much to hang one's hat on. Other than that, I like the guy.

He likes science, particularly sience fiction, reading, and seems to enjoy competing or playing games with other people (but not to win, just for fun.)

Puncyclopedia wrote:He had his own distinguishable personality

Wait, he did?

Despite the fact that I spent more time in Hisao's head than anyone else's (seeing as how he's the only one whose thoughts we get to read directly) I find them the dullest and least vibrant character in the story. Probably because he's the least defined, in that who and what he is changes a lot from route to route. Forgivable, seeing as how he has to change alongside the reader's choices.

It might also help if we saw Hisao's face more often. For the most part, he is less a character to me than he is a window.