Review>>>Katawa Shoujo_

Katawa Shoujo (transl.: Disability Girls) is a Visual Novel/Eroge game released (full version) in January 2012, developed by Four Leaf Studios. Age Rating: 15+ (Act 1)/18+ (Full). OS: Windows, Mac OS X and Linux.

Katawa Shoujo is a disaster… averted.

Never have I played something with such recipe to become one of the most sinful, disgusting and overall indicative of the weirdness of the human mind: originating from a post on 4chan, Katawa Shoujo (lit.: Crippled Girls) is a game in which you play the role of Hisao, a highschooler, and pursue a relationship with one of the choice of five girls. Teenaged. Disabled. Girls. And it somehow pulls off a surprisingly insightful and respectful view regarding disabilities.

I have to admit, I’m not very familiar with this kind of genre, and of the two visual novels I’ve played this was the only one that I’ve finished, although I still have to complete two other story arcs. So bear with me in this review.

What was good:

· The portrayal of disabled people;
· The animations;
· The options;
· The music;
· The writing.

The best thing about Katawa Shoujo is that the premise that could’ve destroyed the game is actually something that’s in its favor. The disabilities are just that, disabilities. They don’t define the characters, the way they’re used are not clichéd. Emi has no legs below the knee, but she’s the best in the track team, not because of her disability, but because she loves running and has the drive to win. Hanako has a large part of her body covered in burn scars and is extremely shy, closing herself off from people, not because she’s ashamed of her appearance, but because her friends in the past were mean and bullied her because of her scars. The problems the characters have aren’t caused by their disabilities, but by their internal struggles with themselves or how they view the world. What I learned from this game is that disabilities are just problems if you think of them as such, and helped me look past the disability, and instead look at the person. What a wonderful thing to learn from a (sort of) Dating Sim!

For a game made by amateur developers without any budget, the intro animations are beautiful, especially Hanako’s. Who would’ve imagined that a sketch on 4chan would join up such talented individuals to create a game?

I have little to compare in terms of the options in the game menu. The only other Dating Sim/Visual Novel game I’ve played was Hatoful Boyfriend, and though it seems that in these games you can usually Save/Load whenever you want, it’s still a nice feature. There’s also the option of skipping text, great for reruns through already read sections, adjusting the speed at which the text appears and disabling mature content. The Extras section is also cool and features unlocked material from the game: music tracks, pictures, animations and the collection of episodes played, as well as your overall progress through the game.

Please, pleeease disable the adult content... My eyes! I can't stand my eyes!

I enjoyed the tracks in Katawa Shoujo. They’re not mind-blowing musical masterpieces, but they fit the game perfectly. My personal favorites are Breathlessly, Innocence, Moment of Decision and Painful History. The most generic ones can be very annoying after a while, but the more emotional tracks are very well inserted in the game.

The writing is, for the most part, good and easy to read, and able to convey emotion well. The storylines are interesting, and sometimes I caught myself spending a whole afternoon reading through the story, engrossed in its progression. I’m just kind of disappointed for not been able to cry mindlessly of sadness and happiness as some players had commented on their plays of the game. Strange, I’m usually such a crybaby in games and movies; perhaps this is a guy thing?

What was bad:

· The unimportant story parts;
· The lack of choice points;
· The sex scenes.

This game requires a lot of reading, and sometimes that reading consists of seemingly unimportant (IMO) trips to the grocery shop or lunches in the café which add little to nothing to the storyline and development. I noticed a lot of this in the Hanako arc, and it was ab-so-lu-te-ly boooooring. This almost made me give up on the game completely in the first go.

There is little interactivity in Katawa Shoujo, and when there is, it’s in the form of some choice options. The problem is that there is not enough of them, and those that exist don’t help shape much the path you take after the first Act. This is especially noticeable in the Shizune arc, where there is only one choice point after it starts. This flowchart can probably explain it better.

If there is something that I could do without in Katawa Shoujo it’s definitely the *ahem*mature scenes*ahem*. Even though the writing was good throughout the game, in these scenes it is cringe worthy. Maybe it’s because it’s written in the perspective of a guy and I just can’t relate, but as I read through it I just kept thinking “Why am I reading this? God, please, let it be over soon…”. These scenes, although not degrading, made me feel like I lost some respect for the characters involved. The depiction seemed just too mechanical and unemotional for a “boy in love”, then again, perhaps it’s just I who can’t relate. Fortunately, you can disable mature content through the menu.

Other notes:

I noticed some art shifts during the game. Characters seemed more polished and refined in some parts than others.

The interface is polished, and the Main Menu screen updates according to the storylines you’ve completed, which makes me want to play all of them.

To fully understand most of the characters, it seems you need to play through all the story arcs, which is good in the sense of replayability, but annoying as you can’t comprehend some of the characters motivations.

One of my biggest downers was that I wasn’t able to relate meaningfully with any of the characters. I could understand their behavior and their feelings, but couldn’t identify myself in any of them, especially the main, Hisao. Rin is probably the girl I could relate to more.

I'm Rin Tezuka, your argument is invalid.

Final note:

Katawa Shoujo is a wonderful story that teaches an also wonderful lesson. I got out of it a more educated person and with a better insight on disabilities. If you dislike reading, Katawa Shoujo is definitely not the game for you, but I strongly urge you to play it at least once for the moral lesson. 7/10.

	Score X/10
Story
Writing	7
Characters	9
Progression	6
Gameplay
Interactivity	4
Replay Value	6
Presentation
Images	6
Sound/Music	8
Interface	7
Final Verdict	7

Here's the free download link.

Please leave your comment on Katawa Shoujo or my review. I’d love to know what you think!