Review: Katawa Shoujo

Yay, cripple porn.
Now let’s see the weirdos post the usual excuses in 3,2,1…

 It is quite a ride. I’ve only done two of the routes so far, but they have both been emotionally trying. Perhaps my biggest complaint so far is the lack of an epilogue for the stories, which I feel would’ve made things more satisfying, but the endings I’ve seen so far have been nice and fitting, so hey.

Also, I won’t try to defend it in anyway or convince people to get it. If you don’t wanna play it, that’s fine, different people different taste. But if you’re willing to give it a chance, you’ll find some well written stuff in there, tugging ‘em heart strings. Not anything as crazy as To The Moon I admit, but not bad.

Alas, let the arguments begin.

 This again? But this has already been on the front page…

You know, I actually downloaded this game just to see what the hype was about; it seems like everyone is talking about this game. First of all, the whole thing was TL;DR. But I’ll admit that when it comes to reading in games I draw the line at RPGs; I’m not one for heavily text-driven games. The art was… Well… The characters looked nice but very “moe” or whatever… I really can’t stand that. As for the backgrounds, I was not only surprised but disappointed to see they had opted for such a lazy route of just applying a filter to photographs. I would have been a LOT more interested in playing this game if the backgrounds were actually hand-painted, which is a huge draw of anime for me in general. Instead, we have something that’s strictly about the characters; a strange and somewhat creepy girlfriend simulator.

No excuses, just pity that you can be such a closed minded individual. It’s quite a shame that people like you still permeate in our wonderfully creative industry.

Does it pass the Bechdel test?

Yes.

There’s a post on their blog about why they didn’t go with drawn backgrounds. http://goo.gl/Xe1v5 

Thanks for posting that! Though yes, the non-drawn backgrounds are a disappointment, I understand having to skimp on certain aspects for the sake of completion. It’s really quite impressive that they managed to finish a project of this magnitude at all, especially over the internet. Major kudos.

A video game about having sex with vulnerable cripples is pretty darn creative! I SHOULD be looking for girls with disabilities, never would I have thought to do so, I mean if they don’t have legs they can’t run from me! Personally I think they should be covered in feces too, and if you were open-minded you’d agree to this. We can all share our disgusting fantasies and indulge within them, it’s fantastic that we can all share and express ideas in this medium.

If you sad miserable lowlifes cannot appreciate this piece of fine art, you can turn off the sex scenes. I mean they’re the whole reason anyone would play, but the characters are really deep. See they say a lot of words, stuff about emotions, lots of words I skimmed just to get their clothes off. Good stuff.

Overall Katawa Shoujo is my favorite trend I ever hopped on, and even with the porn off if you can’t appreciate it, whatever! If you don’t like it why are you saying anything? It’s 2012, you’re supposed to keep conflicting opinions bottled so things like cripple porn can be widely appreciated since nothing negative is being said on it. Ponies, cripple girls, furries, what a fantastic world we live in today. Katawa Shoujo gets a solid 10/10, it’s a must read!

The Independent Visual Novel Source.
The reviewer almost had it, calling this what it is – a visual novel – but ruined it in the very next sentence with the word “game”. So close.

Jesus…I think you might need help.

Katawa Shoujo sounds about as porny as Night Slave:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VybrBZJAwY4

What do you think? Run n’ gun with a few hentai cutscenes or straight-up lesbian porn? What should we call it?

See it’s unfair to make that comparison, one at least has a game in there somewhere, the other is just a book building up to a money shot onto a girl who can’t even see it. I would have no issue with all the fascination around Katawa Shoujo if people were honest about what it is, that being a cripple-fucking simulator. Preaching about it and having to type paragraphs to try to steer people into thinking it’s not smut, if you’re so defensive about this game it’s clear what  you truly think about it. Just man up and say that either you hopped on this since everyone else was or because you want to fuck vulnerable crippled girls. You’re a disgrace to humanity, but at least you’re honest about it.

 Holy shit, are you part of my consciousness that has broken off and gained independent sentience on the Internet?

 WTF… I scrubbed through that whole video and didn’t see any hentai cutscenes… I’m disappointed. My penis was out and everything :(

It’s the other way around, it’s a love story interactive novel under the pretense of being a cripple fucking simulator.

“The Independent Cripple Fucking Simulator Source” doesn’t have the same ring to it, unfortunately…

 ”Make the cripple fucking simulators you want to make!”

My apologies, I meant cripple UNDERAGE porn, beccause those characters are obviously not older than 12.

”
 is closer in feel to Evangelion”

Uh, no. Have you ever seen Evangelion? That series is dark, hopeless, and obscure, KS is nearly the opposite.

And I think, in general, you’re treating the game with a lot more gravitas than necessary. You portray Kenji as a miserable, isolated character, where in the game he’s a comic-relief goofball. You talk about emotional trauma, and while that is a significant factor in the various storylines, the game is a lot lighter and softer then the angst-fests that usually come out of such ponderings. I’ve played most of the game, and the tone you’re taking here really doesn’t match up with how it “felt” to me.

That’s just ANIME. They are, canonically, 18, seniors in high school. Emi’s actually 19.

what does this mean

peanut gallery dweller

It’s not just anime, I heard from Klasky Csupo that the Rugrats aren’t actually babies? Canonically they’re all 18 except for Angelica who is 21 and Chuckie who is 20. It’s alright to be attracted to them now.

Why can’t we be friends, why can’t we be friends~

 Yeah, he’s the one that needs help. Not the nerd culture that jumps from swarmy pedophile-ish trend to trend. But you guys are in it for the story right? It’s a good thing western culture doesn’t have thousands of years of literature to read so that you have a totally legit excuse! Ponies forever, right man??

 Oh, well if it’s just anime! Don’t worry Dad, it might look like I’m jacking off to babyfuck but that’s just ANIME, nothing for me to be ashamed of here.

I actually agree that criticism of KS is hamstrung by its inability to mention that it is a porn game. Which it is, unless you’re splitting hairs on “porn” and “game”, in which case it’s an interactive piece of software with win/lose conditions that borrows its structure from a genre infamous for pornography, so you shouldn’t be splitting hairs. Unfortunately it’s impossible to sensibly discuss KS without bringing up the fact that it’s porn, and once you bring up the porn it becomes impossible to sensibly discuss, because once the PC puts his dick in a schoolgirl there isn’t really any mature response to that.

On the other hand, if you’re talking about keeping conflicting opinions bottled, being all EWWW DISABLED PEOPLE YUCK about the game, sprinkling the word “cripple” all over the place, and going on about how disgusting the game’s players are is a pretty good way of doing that. Which is I guess why you’ll see decent criticism of the game that doesn’t mention the fact that it’s porn – because there are people interested in discussing the game and its numerous faults but want to have some kind of maturity about it.

I am sorry but you can’t argue that it was immature of me using the word cripple when the title of the game is Katawa Shoujo, the term Katawa directly translating to cripple and being considered a heavily derogatory term over in Japan. I’m also not going to overlook that this is a game appealing to individuals with a weird fetish for disabilities because I don’t consider welcoming all bizarre fetishes a “mature” trait to have. An individual who can’t get it up unless his love interest was horribly burned is not something I can respect. If you want to defend the deep backgrounds and emotional aspects, you’re looking at heavily sexualized girls with disabilities that in the end you’re trying to fuck regardless of their background, there is nothing to respect there. Lastly there is nothing to respect about people who defend this game trying to OVERLOOK the sexual aspect and pretend it is much more than it really is, trying to pretend it is “honoring” people who were maimed or deformed despite the title and the fact that the goal is to fuck them. The review here says it should be used for educational purposes. Seriously what the fuck is that? I’m sorry you find my vocabulary to be immature since I was just being very blunt, but maturity is up in the air on a game like this. Sex may be an adult subject, but by no means do you have to be “mature” to discuss it. If you’re defending this garbage you’re probably the LEAST mature out of anyone since you can’t accept yourself for why you honestly enjoy a game like this.

For those in support of this game/whateverthefuckitis – I bet you couldnt actually explain it to your girlfriend / partner and get them to understand without them thinking you just earned a place on the sexual offenders list.  Better yet, the mother test.  Explain the idea to her and actually digest what she says.  You know damn well the response wouldnt be good

How are the girls in these screenshots “heavily sexualized”?

I get slight kicks out of the thought that this isn’t the case in my situation. My partner knows I love this game and my mother is… well, a rather acceptive person. Of course, there’s no way I can prove this, but just to let you know anyway.

In little anime girl terms I weigh them in by the size of their eyes and how underage they look. The visuals are typical anime schoolgirls but from the text I’ve seen in screenshots, there’s plenty of moments where they just explain in great detail how attractive they are and setup for numerous occasions for boner material. It’s not like it’s a nice little romance story with a sex scene at the end, it’s constant cock teasing and sexualized imagery and descriptions to get your cock nice and buttered before it’s game time. Considering how everyone says the plot is dark and emotional, that first screenshot up there sure doesn’t show girls who look anguished at all. They’re all bright and bubbly with designs catered to hentai-aficionados who’d want to go to town on them without a moment of hesitation.

LOL

sorry for you lots

I imagine it’s mostly Americans posting here because you’d never see this level of venom  thrown at the latest Call of Duty / Battlefield war-porn.  I get it.  Violence and murder is teh awsum but, 
as Goodbye Standards points out, sex is filthy and evil and the human body is smut.  Now go read your bibles and beg your spaghetti monster in the sky for forgiveness!

Switching gears…yeah, this isn’t a game.  Unless you get a woody from the epic “gameplay” of Choose Your Own Adventure books (which are written for 8 year olds, I might add) this is the gameplay equivalent of a TV test pattern.

The only way it could be less of a game is if Tale of Tales developed it (woot!  sick burn!) so I assume the only reason is was posted to TIGSource was because of the molest-a-cripple angle, which isn’t cool.

 if the game was about shooting little malformed girls you would probably get the same response but thanks for trying to insult 300 million people because of your own misconceptions internet person

 Why the hell is there so much trolling in TIG’s comments?

private/public distinction

Again, I don’t disagree with the majority of what you’re saying, but I think you’ve mistaken what I mean by criticism – by which I mean not you’ve taken it literally enough. There is some highly intelligent criticism of the game out there that completely dismantles what it is doing in terms of fetishising disability, and how the story and character exist to serve necessity for a sexual relationship, rather than the other way around. But the argument is hamstrung because the author, for one reason or another, does not point out that the game is porn.

Perhaps this is because it’d be stating the obvious, or it’d make the preceding argument a statement of the obvious, but without being able to engage with where the actual problem, there’s no way to work your way towards a solution. I mean, there’s clearly an interest in this game, and it just as clearly not all prurience – people WANT to think that there could be something interesting underneath it all, and to claim that everyone who’s played it is trying to achieve an erection is projecting a whole lot. There’s something there, and people want to know what it is. Could the game be rehabilitated if it wasn’t very deliberately trying to take its place in a porn game genre?

Unfortunately, at the point you do mention that the game is porn (and, let’s reiterate, it definitely is), that becomes a way to shut down the conversation, because at that point CLEARLY the only reason to play it is because that is the ONLY way you can achieve an erection, and lol cripple girls they can’t run away wanna fuck the burn victim I’m being totally ironic honest. At least the developers have the excuse of not actually knowing what Katawa meant by the time they released the demo. The people saying this shit know exactly what they’re doing. Impossible to discuss.

This isn’t directed specifically at you, and it definitely isn’t a problem unique to Kawata Shoujo - it meant that, when Christine Love made a genuinely intelligent and highly critical deconstruction of the japanese high school visual novel, she was actually accused of being a paedophile in some quarters. Even though there is an in-game conversation where a forum poster is ridiculed for trying to justify playing a pornographic VN, which the player is forced to read before continuing! There is literally no way to miss what she is doing in-game, but people managed to do it anyway.

Like I said before, I genuinely don’t think there’s a way at the moment to talk about these games from the point the PC puts his dick (or even tongue) in a schoolgirl. I kind of think the only way to rehabilitate in the public eye at this stage would be to go full-on Nintendo with it – high quality story based VNs for children with no sex, no blood and a find/replace on “beer” for “root beer”. But who would want to make that game?

Looks like somebody didn’t even give it a chance.  

JUST IN FROM THE DEPARTMENT OF FACTS:
(1) Disabled people are people.
(2) Disabled people have sex lives.
(3) Disabled people also read books.
(4) Disabled people also play video games.
(5) Disabled people also watch porn.

The assumption that the game is shocking (or intended to be shocking) because all of the protagonists are physically disabled is false.

The assumption that the characters in the game do something perverse or shocking because they do such things as (e.g.) studying for their exams, complaining about their parents, compete in sports, and awkwardly attempt to date one-another, is also false.

The game depicts disabled people living normal lives.  The abnormal thing about it is simply the setting: it is an idealized school (with unlimited funding, etc.) very different from any disabled peoples’ institution you’re likely to visit in this world.

The assumption that disabled people themselves don’t play this game (or find it offensive) is false.

The comments on TIG seem to reflect the fact that Americans (whose lives revolve around video-games) have even more warped ideas about physical disability than the Japanese do.

Grow up.

Think again:

Imagine that you, yourself, are a disabled teenager, who does all the things that other teenagers do, but who rarely sees/reads fiction that actually reflects on the issues that you deal with in your life.

Then you play this game.

You might discuss it really openly with your parents: it’s a game that really reflects on the difficulties that disabled people have in coping with their own conditions, and each other, and in planning for the future, and in dealing with things like writing high-school exams… when you know that you might die before age 30 (because you’ve got a fatal heart condition, in the protagonist’s case).

Plenty of disabled people have to meditate on their own mortality; they have to meditate on what options they’ve got, and what options they never have.  Disabled people also have sex.

Grow up.

 Because it’s not a game, and you’ve got normal people who are calling it out for what it is, and the pseudo-intellectual, artsy, film-school dropouts who disagree.

 Yeah, GROW UP and play a animeporn cripple schoolgirl jerk off dating sim made by 4chan like a real man would. Typical Americans. Thank God the Department of Facts was deployed by the Anime Defense Force to teach us the TRUE and honest opinion we should have.

 Also I don’t think anyone is arguing that disabled people aren’t playing the game. It’s pretty evident that the target audience is severally socially disabled.

So are you actually disabled or just using this argument as an excuse for your fetish? Of course disabled people are sexual, and usually with other disabled people, but do you think this is the result of what they sexually after? Or is this the result of what they’re limited to? Hey, not my rules; blame society.

But do you actually think that a disabled person would truly opt to immerse himself in a fantasy simulation about being a disabled person when games mean you can go beyond your physical limits? No… I don’t buy that for one instant. Sure, I can see a disabled person seeing this game and being able to relate to it because it poses a similar situation (though the protagonist’s arrhythmia is not on the same level as being paraplegic IMO, but that’s another debate)… But I also think just as many disabled people would also be leery of the fact that this game is also exploitative and fetish-focused: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Attraction_to_disability

In summation, I don’t think you are disabled or know anything about having a disability, and I think you’re pretty low for trying to rationalize your argument with this sort of comment.

It’s funny how much I agree with you, yet want to break your jaw for the way you said it.

Again, you sound less like a genuinely disabled person who’s pleading for clarity on the subject than you sound like a creep who wants to rationalize his fetish of wanting to fuck disabled girls by using a strawman about disabled people being sexual.

Your argument would be valid if the game was presented as an RPG where you chose your IRL disability at the start, and then navigated a world where you were limited by your disability, and just as many non-disabled girls to interact with (because what are you saying? that only disabled people can fuck other disabled people? That shows how little you know about disabled peoples’ sexuality, which is why I think you’re full of shit)… How fun would that game be now? How popular would it be? How controversial would it be? Do you see my point?

The fact that you, someone who is probably not physically disabled (though undoubtedly mentally so) would use disabled people’s sexuality to defend your argument for this game is nothing short of disgusting.

I tried to be open-minded… But all the rationalization in the world isn’t going to change the fact that this is virtual crippled child porn and is highly disturbing.

In the end the real handicapped person…is the player!  If only the game were actually that clever!

 I’m just happy to have given so many people pleasure, even if most of it is the pleasure of self-righteous anger. In a different context, I’d defend my decision to consider this visual novel (and that genre is general) to be a game.

I also have a few things to say about sex in games, and about the particular history of erotica and pornography in manga (anime, games, et. al.) This review is part of a larger project for me, on the related themes of romance and sex in games. I’m not going to go into detail here, because I figure those who care may check out my site (tofeklund.net), and those looking for a fight aren’t going to listen regardless.

At this point, I’m playing a new game: I’m trying to see how many comments my humble review can attract (not counting my own, of course). It’s good publicity for me, and for the game. With any luck, this post will inspire fresh attacks, and if I get any death threats, I’m counting those double.

We’ve already got more comments than anything else on the front page, but I’m sure we’re nowhere near the record.

 You’re so smug. No one is going to give you any death threats. The gap between death threats, or even hate, and the deep, abiding pity and revulsion for disabled schoolgirl dating sim ‘players’ is rather large and looming.

But keep thinking you are some kind of hero because you can inspire controversy. A kid eating his boogers can spark a few remarks too. Maybe booger kids should get internet domains so they can feel good about their hobby too!

Literature and visual novels are not two sides of the same coin. They’re entirely different works of art, one allows you to experience the consequences of your choices (as narrow as the options are) and the other lets you experience the consequences of others like an outsider looking in.

Not to mention that, for the most part, this literature can’t be related to by a majority of people. I don’t understand what it was like to live in the times of Shakespeare, his literature is an interesting window, but it’s entirely subjective to my interpretation of his writings, and interpreted without proper context too.

You don’t have to agree that Katawa Shoujo is something everyone or anyone can relate to. But if you’re going to say that, you also have to admit that most literature suffer the same fate.

All that really matters in the end is if you enjoyed it, and being honest to yourself about why you enjoyed it. Having played this game, and recommended it to many people I know with full knowledge that I would get looks of disapproval by… well, everyone. I can say with pride that yes, I did enjoy the writing, and so did everyone I recommended it to — both younger and older than me, and both male and female, both “able” and disabled.

My girlfriend played along. She didn’t like the same girl I did, but we enjoyed the stories together. But then again, females never drift into the realm of manly stuff like video games.

I hate to break this to you, but based on the responses to this thread, ‘normal’ people are excessively judgmental twits who deride anything that doesn’t fit into their white bread, lime jello worldview.

/b/ is in no way representative of 4chan as a whole. Sheesh.

Also, get the fuck over the ’4chan made this game’ angle already. That bullshit statement is like saying that a dating site made babies
because people happened to find their partners through the damned thing and settled down to start families.

hei gais
i didnt no dis was a line for teh TROLLER COASTER.

“wah wah wah not 4chan”
Tags: 4LeafStudios
At least put in a little effort, jabroni. Your ball.

 Can’t be normal and excessive, that’s just a simple contradiction. Maybe you should have spent more time studying debate and less time spewing sperm over pretend handicapped children. I’m sure NAMBLA shares your sentiment that the ‘white bread’ crowd just isn’t accepting enough of your sick, damaging fetish though – maybe you should reach out to them. I’m not sure there’s enough hand sanitizer in the world for such an occasion though. You sick germy fuck.

I’ll break it down for you.

People meet on dating sites. They get along, settle down and have a family. Does this mean the dating site made their children?

It’s the same deal with Katawa Shoujo. The (independent) development of the game is several degrees removed from 4chan.

There’s also nothing inherently wrong with something being produced by 4chan. /tg/ in particular has churned out high-quality fan productions, and I’m sure regulars of other imageboards can cite examples from the ones they frequent.

Nonsense. That’s like saying that the normal American can’t possibly be fat.

Maybe you should spend more time poking holes in your own arguments before spewing your particular brand of bile and vitriol all over the internet.

Damaging? These are fictional characters.

The hilarious part about this argument is that a significant proportion of the people who played the game found themselves unable to masturbate for days from emotional exhaustion.

 Did the couple change their family name to http://www.match.com? Did they use http://www.match.com as a sort of turkey baster to inseminate the lady’s parts and make a baby for internet people to jack off to? Does this metaphor work on even the flimsiest basis?

ex*cess*sive – from the Middle French: more than is normal, immoderate

So you’re like 0 for 5 now.

The image of a person so pathetic that a cartoon jerk off sim sapped their very virility is hilarious by the way. I’m sure it was the ‘emotional exhaustion’ that caused it and not the rubbing of their parts of privy red to this awful fetish for handicapped children. Don’t you have any shame?

By the way, all the anti-American snipes are bordering on pathological. I’m not sure what ANY of this has to do with Americans being fat/dumb/lazy/whatever. Did a tourist hook up with the ham-beast you have a crush on or what? Mind saying where you are from?

It does if you aren’t being deliberately obtuse and trying to stretch it. The original idea was supplied fully formed by RAITA, there’s nothing that translates to your take on the analogy.

There’s a line the size of a six-lane highway dividing ‘made by 4chan’ and ‘made by a bunch of people who met on 4chan and set up a studio to make a game’. How are you missing this distinction?

I notice you’ve never addressed the other point as well. Throwing around ‘made by 4chan’ like it’s supposed to mean something about the quality of a production says more about your preconceptions than it does about said production.

The last I checked, that was exactly what fat meant.

Adjective: (of a person or animal) Having a large amount of excess flesh.

Stating established fact is sniping now? I used the comparison because it was a very clear example of ‘normal’ and ‘excessive’ coexisting. Would you prefer that I use Koreans and their studying habits, or Scandinavians and their tax rates? It applies equally.

Don’t knock it until you’ve tried it. The ITG act is cool for your ego and all, but there’s nothing wrong with being human.

To be fair, that probably describes the average shut-in, basement-dwelling, nerd/geek/gamer. Most of them (us) have little capacity to deal with emotions other than rage and entitlement.

/taking the piss

Perfectly healthy adults have derived enjoyment, inspiration and catharsis from this VN after getting past the initial impression. Make of that what you will. People are allowed to like what you don’t like, and from what I’m seeing the world is a better place for it.

Deliberately misrepresenting the premise and origins of this game and appealing to gut-level revulsion of paedophiles doesn’t make your argument any stronger.

There is plenty of literature with graphic sex in it. Ever read Gravity’s Rainbow? I’m not sure why you think that the presence of eroticism nullifies value.

 Did you really just say that how sexualized the characters are is determined by how underage they look?

If you think that the writing in the game is poor, or the art is unimaginative, those are perfectly legitimate criticisms. I haven’t played this game, because I usually find visual novels boring, so I don’t know whether it’s any good. But criticizing it simply for being pornographic is like saying The Birth of Venus is a bad painting simply because Venus is naked, and someone might get turned on by it.

If the game is already bad, it’s quite possible that people will play it simply for the pornography. And if you have some moral objection to pornography, then perhaps you have an excuse to look down on those people. But if the game is good, then how does the presence of pornography negate that? Very few people say a movie is bad just because it has a sex scene in it. Every opinion on this that I’ve seen, whether for or against, has been based on the assumption that sexuality is something to be ashamed of. If that’s the basis of your thoughts on this subject, you might want to take a step back and wonder where that’s coming from.

Let me bring to your attention that the guy you’re replying to is named “buttfaggotflipdick”. He is not for real. He is trolling. Don’t feed the trolls, for Christ’s sake.

Also, Derek, how about we get some moderation going in the comments, eh? I was under impression that this isn’t, or at least is not supposed to be, /v/.

Damn. I was going to offer writing a guest review but I’ve been beaten. Would have been fun :p

Regarding this review, I’ll just say I agree with Bellos’s criticisms: too much credit is given to the character of Kenji, he would be the same paranoid reclusive even if his sight was perfect. The comparison with Evangelion is inappropriate and really misses the mark [says one whose usual nickname on the net is "Gendo Ikari" XD]; if there’s one thing I’m grateful to the devs of Katawa Shoujo, is that they avoided the other risk (beside gratuitous fetishizing) associated with using the disability theme: making all into an angsty, overwrought melodrama, like there can be only darkness in the life of disabled people. There _is_ drama but it’s always kept in check.

About the game itself, of course there are legitimate complaints. The title is taken straight from the sketch that inspired all, which was little more than  ajoke, and is very unfortunate. For all the classic Visual Novel tropes that were avoided or subverted, some elements are still idealized (a school for disabled people too good to be true, and even girls appearing just in backgrounds are no less than at least cute). The writing quality is uneven, also a result of having a different writer for each girl’s path, reflecting in the routes themselves – one of them has just one choice, making it more boring than it should be, while a negative ending of another route is indeed powerful but triggered by making the main character suddendly act like a complete idiot. The art quality is inconsistent as well, although several steps better than most if not all other VNs produced in the west.

I was wary myself when I first heard of Katawa Shoujo in 2009, after the release of Act 1. I have a disabled friend so it hit close to home for me. It’s natural to get bad feelings at first sight because it’s hard to think what is still, at heart, a high school story with some sex scenes (which, back then, weren’t present but explicitly planned) could get such a sensible theme right.
I was surprised at how actually good it was, yet I was still doubtful. Would the developers have kept the excellent premises, or would have the final game degenerated, especially when it came to the sex scenes? Luckily, the latter hasn’t happened. It’s almost amusing to think those scenes may be the “less hentai” ones I’ve seen in years: few and devoid of any porn-flick style visuals and dialogue.
Seems the developers had fun in demolishing what players assumed or expected. The best case is with Hanako. “Oh, she’s so cute and frail, I’ll always protect her…” Go on, white knight. Treat her like a pitiful creature made of glass that will have no choice but always cling to you, the hunk who came to save her. She’ll HATE you for that.

I can’t deny part of the fanbase gathered by Katawa Shoujo is quite obnoxious. Then again, it’s not like their writings are better than some stuff I’m seeing here. The more I read these tirades from people who haven’t obviously even tried KS, and describe things that aren’t actually in there (or they know they aren’t but doesn’t matter), the more I laugh. “Vulnerable cripples”, yeah right.

That said, I’m generally surprised by the wide range of reactions it has gathered, which has led me to pose some questions about the videogaming scene, especially the “mainstream” one. Given how many players were attracted by morbid curiosity and were eventually surprised at how their expectations were subverted, I’m inclined to think videogaming is still not ready to accept some themes, difficult to handle as they may be. I’m also questioning the average quality of videogame stories, at least with the games that want to put their plot as a prominent point. KS is nicely written but the quality is inconsistent and is far from high literature. Yet, many people discuss about how some parts were emotional for them. Is the average quality of writing in games still so low? That would be for a much wider discussion, however.

Final nitpicks:
- At this point, I’m inclined to think that calling this “the dating sim made by 4chan” is not out of honest ignorance but rather willful ignorance. Yes, it originated on 4chan. Yes, the name “4Leaf Studios” is sort of a homage to such origin. However, after the project started for real, they detached from 4ch. Only three developers stayed until the end and most of the newer ones have nothing to do with 4ch. Do your research.
- Why the “Interactive Fiction” tag and not a “Visual Novel” one? Although I understand the genres have common roots (predecessors to the current style of VNs had text parsers and not predefined choices).

Consider this: Video games are completely saturated with violence, gore, and all sorts of horrible things. I’m not criticizing them for this, many of my favorite games are violent, to some degree.  Assassin’s Creed is a good game, but it is clearly glorifying the act of murder. Grand Theft Auto is a game that is only about doing things that no person should ever do. One can have sex with a hooker, then beat her to death with a baseball bat and rob her (the only part of that you don’t really see is the sex). Gratuitous depictions of dismemberment and flying body parts have been a staple of the medium. The original Fallout games allowed you to murder children in extremely gruesome ways. In Gears of War, people saw each other in half with chainsaws. Duke Nukem is one of the most beloved games ever, and featured guns, strippers, and plenty of innuendos.

But a game that depicts consensual sex between two crippled people is immediately heaped with scorn. Why is that? It could be that there is a legitimate reason for the bias. It’s possible that, since the vast majority of sex games are horrible, then people assume that they must be bad, or have no purpose beyond being pornography. (Though there are plenty of really bad violent games, too). Are they just inherently bad? If there is a lack of well-made games in this genre, what it indicates to me is that the people who might have the capacity to make them good or worthwhile won’t touch them. Eroticism is anathema in our culture (and many others). Sexual desire is something to be ashamed of, and thus kept hidden, while media about war and violent criminals is everywhere.

Mainstream Japanese culture is especially ashamed of sexuality, which is probably why deviant, perverted, and sadistic behavior are so common in their representations of sex. The result is the (possibly well-deserved) reputation of anime, manga, etc, as perverted, which in turn results in even more scorn, like the sort of comments seen here. That’s my theory, anyway.

So I guess my point is this: Why is someone enjoying a depiction of sex in a game so shameful, while someone enjoying decapitating people in a game is not?

 Well-written.

Which parts of the fanbase are obnoxious, if I may ask?

I’m extremely annoyed by ponyvangelists, so I’ve tried to avoid doing the same thing with Katawa Shoujo. I just tell my friends to go in with an open mind and leave it at that.

 Post a picture and a brief bio and let me decide for myself how healthy you are.

WILD GUESS:
* white male
* single
* mid to late 20s
* unemployed, student, or works in IT
* dependent on someone else
* social anxiety
* has a fear of Americans stemming from a complex

At least a 5 out of 7 is a B-I-N-G-O for me and you have to admit that this a creepy game for tomorrow’s would be rapists, were they not so weak in the arms.

 You are missing some very basic understanding here. If everyone was fat, what the hell would that even mean? You can only derive ‘normal’ as a meaningful word if you take it to mean the average situation. You can’t be excessive and normal (let me break it down since you seem pretty feeble here: you can’t be abnormal and normal), but alas you can be excessively normal. I think what you actually meant was that the average American would be disgusted by your fetish for handicapped children and I have to agree with you there. However I wouldn’t call that excessive. Natural comes to mind, or decent, wholesome, upstanding, capable of engaging in conversation without a computer apparatus, etc.

ITG? What do stocks have to do with anything?

 Ooh, ooh, I thought of some more, give me a few more please kind sir:

* thinks Ron Paul can ‘save’ America
* carries a handheld gaming device on a regular basis
* watches anime at a fairly adult age and doesn’t see anything odd about that either

I see that you posted Tof Eklund’s review, but did you actually go through a route yourself?

So, by your own admission you didn’t even play the game in its entirety?  Not even one complete route? 

 You didn’t read the other comments I see.
“if the game was about shooting little malformed girls you would probably
get the same response”

There’s a pretty inscrutable leap you’d have to make between shooting people shooting at you and trying to manipulate and fuck handicapped children. Good God, just read that sentence and consider what you guys are defending!

I’m pretty sure no one ever considered Duke Nukem or GTA ‘emotionally shattering’ or whatever else people are posting about this pedophile dating sim. In fact those games attracted quite a bit of derision and controversy.

Please try and think about all aspects of the argument so I don’t have to waste time clearing up perfectly obvious things. I think what you really want is to rant about society when most of what you are saying isn’t even true. Western culture is pretty sexual. Most of the internet is pornography, lots of movies, shows and music talk openly about and show sex etc. People that want to claim Western culture or America specifically is ashamed of sex usually have a pretty powerful confirmation bias that filters out anything that might halt their attack on some Midwestern housewife strawman. Someone like Lady Gaga doesn’t exist in their vision of western sexuality.

Crippled girls, under age sex, the limited format of Visual novels , all talked(and trolled) about here. I don’t really have any problem about any of these things in games. But why is no one talking about the largest flaw which is the terrible writing? The god awful, tedious, cringe inducing, pathetic attempt at stringing words together. Feckin hell has no one here ever read anything decent? John Walker and Leigh Alexander and  gave it a good going over on RPS a while ago.

 You’re insulting him about how he’s just trying to inspire controversy and yet half of the comments are you doing what he wants….

DANCE PUPPETS DANCE!

 No, I’m insulting the idea that inspiring controversy is somehow difficult or noble or worth doing. If someone shat on your head you’d probably have a lot to say about it too but that doesn’t make them a poo martyr or a poo journalist or whatever this guy thinks he is.

“Yes, yes, dance puppets!” – Professor Chaos

Nice try and fail at a very basic trolling technique or either the inability to read and grasp basic English. Either way kudos and stay strong my brotha.

 In response to how many people get emotional towards the game;

personally I can’t say I cried or anything dramatic like I’ve heard many other people do. I did really care for the characters though and hoped for the best, like a tv show or a novel would. But I think the main reason people got so emotional is how different the delivery is from a video game to a book. You’re so much more immersed in this fictional world than you would a book where you’d have to imagine everything yourself even characters. In games the world is already there, a believable world and with characters who have set appearances. And not to mention, depending how you play, we become the main character and we get further attached to the story and the characters troubles.

Though I would have to agree with you that writing in video games isn’t anything jaw dropping. All too often games are way too melodramatic. Personally I was comparing KS’s story and writing compared to other video games and if you look at it that way, it seems a lot better.

 Oh, and here we go again!

I’ve read those. I disagree with several points (or I agree with some only to a certain extent) but I have high respect for them anyway, because they _played_ it.

There are indie games I liked but still left me some with some sour aftertaste because their stories were not important but what there was, was riddled with ridicolous writing. It’s a matter of tastes, but I especially dislike sophomoric humour and characters acting constantly like jackasses that don’t add nothing to the game beside seeming poor attempts at “edginess”.

Cringe-worthy?  At a few points, okay.  But overall, I’d just describe it as “not spectacular.”  Taken objectively on its own merits (ignoring the fact that it is a fan project written by 5 different people), how BAD is the writing, really? 

It is not going to be winning any awards for its excellence in prose, that’s for sure, but at the same time it is still wonderfully written by virtue of the fact that while it might not be able to manage the micro scale, it absolutely nails the macro stuff – the structure of its narratives and the build of its characters are spot on.  In my own opinion, those elements take precedent over stuff like finesse and flourish. 

I mean, look at Harry Potter.  Compare J.K. Rowling’s prose to that of…oh, I dunno, Toni Morrison.  It falls flat.  But I enjoyed The Deathly Hallows just as much as I did Sula because despite that lack of style it still invested me in the story and its characters.

Indeed.  RPS are by far some of the most professional/well-written games journalists this side of the interwebz.  Some valid points, certainly, but it’s a shame that they couldn’t look past the elitist lense and appreciate the grander scale of KS.

Basically all the ones that, even after realizing KS is not “cripple porn” (apparently some even hate it because it didn’t offer them the fapping material they expected :p), still seem to have not viewed it beyond the girls and basically obsess over them. It may be a tribute at how, while flawed, the writing managed to bring life to the characters, but when I see people lamenting that “I’ll never find a girl like X” or “I cannot play another route after X’s, it’d be like I’m cheating on her”… Whoa. Not to speak of who considers one of the girls “a slut” because, though not explicitly stated, she’s probably not a virgin. Beside really needing to know the world outside their rooms (as one still dogged by several socialization problems, I can safely say it), they missed messages like the wider theme of appreciation for life. Here: http://d.localhostr.com/file/OJ88dRF/498735389.png I don’t know from what of the 4chan boards it originated but it’s a nice text aimed at those people. The second-to-last paragraph also hits the mark about the still-idealized elements of KS.

Excellent point.  Thank you.

You know, I don’t bother to draw a distinction between people who are genuine idiots, and people who are only pretending to be idiots.

Idiots in this thread: Goodbye Standards, OOOOOO, Armada, Paul Hubans, Buttfaggotflipdick

Asian male.
Attached.
21.
Conscript. Student-to-be.
Financially, yes. Military service doesn’t pay enough for financial independence.
Socially competent, mild introvert. MBTI vacillates between INTP and ENTP.
Nope. Just a mild contempt for the more ignorant examples. The Americans I’ve interacted with (and consider friends) online are bro-tier.

(cont’d)
Hah, you wish. This election is Obama’s to lose. I have no idea how the GOP gets Americans to vote against their own interests every damned time.
The standard model Kindle. I’ll give you that one though.
Have never watched anime or anime-derived productions, unless you count the live-action film of Space Battleship Yamato. Which was pretty terrible.

I’d be a pretty scary rapist then, since I box, fence and can bench 240 lbs for reps at 180lbs. Oh wait, I don’t think of women as cumdumpsters.

Done?

Normalcy as you’re defining it is based on conformance to a cultural standard. ‘fat’ is a descriptor that uses an anatomical baseline as a standard. You can be normal in the US while being abnormal by said anatomical standard.

Do I need to use smaller words or explain that further?

ITG – Internet Tough Guy.

 Great argument there bud. You can’t refute anything I’m saying so you just get mad and insult me. Best of luck with your handicapped child porn game.

 Uh, I can fence as well (sabre) and I don’t think it is a particularly intimidating life skill. Or did you just make up a profile based on Sulu just now?

So assuming all of what you just said is actually true, why take such an interest in defending fans of virtual child abuse?

Hah. That’s a silly reason to dislike the game if I ever heard one.
The people I know who played the game were slightly surprised because the
game gave them ‘katawa dick’ for a week on average, but I don’t recall anyone expressing hatred at the game for not delivering the expected fap material.

Like you said, I think that speaks of the quality of the characterization. Intense attachment to a video game character doesn’t seem to be unusual in my experience. Just take it at face value and don’t read too much into it.

I don’t think it matters that they’re pining for an imaginary construct, as long as that motive force is channeled towards something productive it’s all good. There are people who’ve committed to adopting a healthier lifestyle after Emi’s route, and there are players who’ve derived massive catharsis from Rin’s and Lilly’s. Others have been shaken out of their torpor by Shizune and done some serious reflection on the reasons for their social ineptitude after going through Hanako’s path.

These girls are meant to be appealing to some extent, and I think most
players are self-aware enough to recognize exactly why they like a
particular girl(‘s route).

I facepalmed at those complaints. Double standard much? I’m not feminist, but if this shit is still around, the movement still has a long way to go.

I have never seen anyone talk so heatedly and so defensively about absolutely nothing before.

http://katawashoujo.blogspot.com/2008/11/name-of-game.html

Play the game before you spout more nonsense, please. Everyone will be happier for it.

It isn’t, but it’s a suitably demanding athletic pursuit that is fundamentally incompatible with neckbeardery. Thought I’d throw it in just for that.

Nope, I’m not homosexual, I don’t do any form of horticulture, and I’ll never be as awesome as George Takei.

Because it isn’t? And I get annoyed when people speak from ignorance with authority.

Honestly, despite our disagreements and my (obligatory) sniping, you’re clearly an intelligent  and well-spoken chap. Why are you so bent on misrepresenting this game? Give it a chance.

 *fundamentally incompatible unless you’re in the SCA.

I never thought I’d see whales lunge. And I’ve never felt more afraid for knees that weren’t mine.

“Great argument there bud.”

No, it isn’t an argument.  But then, you’re an idiot.

“You can’t refute anything I’m saying”

Of course I can’t; you’re completely ignorant.  Like Harlan Ellison said, everyone’s entitled to an INFORMED opinion.  I can’t possibly refute any of your babble since it’s hidden behind an invicible wall of stupid.

Now, if you weren’t an idiot, you would try Katawa Shoujo for a few hours so you could write about it in an intelligent manner, instead of pig-ignorance.  If you did that, THEN I could 1) present an argument, and 2) refute statements of yours with which I may disagree.

But you’re either a genuine idiot, or a person pretending to be a genuine idiot (i.e. a troll), so in either case, you’re just an idiot, and it’s impossible to have any sort of actual conversation; all that’s left are insults.

Neener.

Neener.

Hm, interesting…pretty good review.

Wow. Your way of repelling arguments makes it quite apparent, that you are not willing to accept that people may express their thoughts without having to ask you first. I wish luck to anyone, who wishes to gain insight into anything by arguing with you.

 wow that sure is a lot of words to have not said anything

Yes because it is sooo *disgusting* to sexualize disabled people. This game in no way seems to support the idea that disabled people can only date other disabled people. It is a school setting, and just like any school setting there is probably normal teenage drama and attraction, just like at any other school.

I don’t have a disabled fetish. I also haven’t played this game. But i find the comments on this article more offensive and disgusting than this game could possibly be, no matter how much it may cater to disability-fetishists.

It’s quite ironic that you’re the one complaining about other commenters trolling.

So sue me, I’m a stubborn bastard.

What?? Are you putting words in my mouth or do you really fail this much at reading comprehension? I was saying his behavior of using the sexuality of disabled people to defend his creepy fetish is disgusting, since he equates disabled people to only being able to have sex with other disabled people. Are you like 18? Please, read more carefully before replying to someone on the Internet.

French people surrender!
Irish people drink!
Brits have bad teeth!
Stereotypes are so much fun aren’t they?
So persuasive and full of wisdom.
The tools of the expert debater.

But you have no basis to say anything, since it’s painfully obvious you know nothing about Katawa Shoujo.

Yeah, I’ll be honest… I only played the game for about 20 minutes with my girlfriend. The writing was really poor, then again, we’re adults aged 28 & 30, so we probably have a higher standards for writing than this college-level tripe.

At one point I stopped caring about the boring, obtuse, and predictable story and started skipping through the text just to see the “good parts”… I eventually gave up after 20 minutes of endless text I didn’t care about, really dull backgrounds that were lazily photo-sourced and filtered (see my first post here) and really stupid moe-looking anime characters that look just like every other nerdy otaku anime bullshit you see these days.

So wait, are you telling me that this game actually gets interesting??

sensitive guy convention

pretense says otherwise

butthurt nasally panderer

 I’m not saying sexuality is not present. It absolutely is. It’s the way in which people think about it that I’m talking about. One could never market a game depicting sex to any mainstream audience. We can have games out the wazoo with big-breasted characters. Sexuality is everywhere, but sex itself is confined to pornography. This is changing somewhat in many areas, like film, but not so much in video games. Also, I would say that Duke Nukem was considered controversial exactly because of the sexuality, and not the graphic violence.
I haven’t played enough of this game to know, but I’m not sure why you think the game is about manipulating people. I suppose if the stated goal is simply to have sex, then as a player, you could say that you are just trying to find the right combination of responses to reach that point. But the character in the game is not a pedophile trying to have sex with crippled children. The character is a crippled student, and from what I’ve seen of the game, has more interest in whining about his situation than in trying to get laid. I think you’re overstating the case with this whole pedophile thing.

ITT: people who can’t accept the fact that the disabled also date and have meaningful relationships, which include sex. To play a game about the disabled and not be able to see past the fact that the characters are disabled says volumes about many peoples’ level of tolerance.

Thanks for the review, especially considering this seems to be quite an controversial title.

Indeed, and as Hubans has said, above and below, he hasn’t actually read the novel: he is just judging a book by its cover.

My own comments haven’t praised this as a “good” book, they’ve simply said that it’s a book that can be evaluated as a book.

The arguments attacking K.S. seem to presume that it can’t be evaluated on the grounds that it is porn; well, it isn’t more pornographic than a lot of what passes for high literature (less pornographic than plenty of high literature…) but that is entirely spurious: inasmuch as this is porn, it can still be evaluated as porn (good, bad, or indifferent).

The attitude of Hubans and many of the other people screaming that this novel has no right to exist (again, without reading it) is to presume that anyone who has read this thing and hasn’t immediately turned themselves over to a confessional booth is a sexual fetishist (who reads it for that reason).  That, also, is a weak and self-defeating argument.

One of the plots is pretty much a constant monologue on the philosophy of art (no, I’m not kidding… you can tell that the writer is an illustrator…) with lengthy reflections on the meaning of painting, creativity, etc. etc. –and I’m not saying that’s “good”, but I’m saying that it can be evaluated like any other piece of writing.

As with a film review, a more interesting question to ask would be “for what audience is this interesting?”  The answer to that would probably be the type of people who have a longstanding interest in either Japanese pop culture, or in the representation of physical disability (East vs. West), or, indeed, the small but stable market of people who are regular fans of the translated Visual Novel genre (numbering a few thousand, but not all that many in total).

On the internet, anyone looking for porn will find porn; anyone looking for it is extremely unlikely to read through a monologue (of many hours) on the meaning of Art (etc.) to see a few hand-drawn illustrations (that the vast majority of people would not find erotic… and that’s why the vast majority of people prefer photographs of models, etc.).

The subject of being born with a heart condition that is likely to kill you before you turn 30 is worth dealing with, and, yes, I did know someone who lived through this precise scenario, and who is now deceased (before reaching 30).  Yes, it makes graduating from high school (and applying to go to university) rather surreal.  No, I don’t think it turns anyone on.

I don’t think that K.S. is a masterpiece, I don’t even think it is “good” (if I were to write a review, I would generally judge it to be “bad”, but not for the reasons that are being ranted about on this website) –however, the reason why it is worth talking about is precisely that it broaches themes and issues that other forms of pop-culture or the media neglect.

In terms of my own disappointment with the novel, I was hoping that there would be more reflections on the public perception of disability in Japanese society, including religious attitudes, the impossibility of “normal” employment in the workforce, and so on.  The book is lacking in this type of “cultural critique”, and is instead (as everyone has said) strictly based on the (sentimental) development of the characters.

I genuinely think that Derek Yu will need to reconsider the commenting policy on this website (unmoderated and anonymous posting is not working out very well).

 Lark, genuinely, I think your own website (if you’ve got one) would be one hell of a lot more interesting than TIGsource.com

That line about the “lime jello worldview” was solid.

Link to your blog (or equivalent) if you’ve got one.

ITT: Creepy perverts pretending to be disabled so they can rationalize defending their statutory rape simulator.

Do I actually care what the game is about? No. Am I calling bullshit on people who are being dishonest and using not-so-clever strawmen? Yes.

Yes, it is disgusting to pose as a disabled person just so you can rationalize a fetish towards disabled girls. Just be honest about what you’re in it for, for fucks sake.

 For example, I’d have a lot less of a problem if it came straight from the horse’s mouth, instead of being implied as such:

“Hey, just so you know I’ve lost the use of both of my legs and I haven’t had much luck in dating non-disabled women… So this game was like a breath of fresh air for me; I can relate to being in a situation where my only option at romance is other disabled women-”

No, wait; I don’t think any person, disabled or otherwise would ever say something that stupid. How about this?

“You know, I’m not disabled, but there’s something alluring about disabled girls to me. Truth is, I’m not very confident when it comes to women. With disabled women I feel a slight advantage; I mean, society by large would look at one of these otherwise beautiful women and shrug them off because they’re in a wheelchair… But me? No way; as long as she’s got a hot face and some nice tits I can work with that. Plus, I’ll be like a knight in shining armor to her by being the only guy who appears kind enough to notice her. I’m such a good guy.”

See, now that’s a lot more honest but it reveal the true intent, which is fucked up, but the honesty is far more admirable than pretending you’re not like this and claiming to be more like the person from paragraph one, who is actually disabled, but doesn’t have to feel limited to other disabled people in choosing a sexual mate.

That’s the point I’ve been trying to make; that it’s fucked up that people are posing the argument that this game is acceptable because it’s by and for disabled people, not creepy, opportunistic vultures like the case mentioned in the second quoted text. If you find a girlfriend and she happens to be disabled, then good for you… But relationships should form organically, not based on some weird standard that involves having a certain prerequisite like, “Well that girl’s not disabled, she won’t like me.” or “That girl’s not Asian enough for my tastes.” or “Her tits aren’t big enough.” etc. That’s really narrow-minded and short-sighted.

If thinking this makes me an idiot, then so be it. I’d rather be an idiot than a creepy, dishonest sex-pest any day.

”
Plus, I’ll be like a knight in shining armor to her by being the only guy who appears kind enough to notice her. I’m such a good guy.”

The game challenges (English not being my first language, I think it should mean “goes against”) this mindset. Trying to do the white knight with the girl who seems the most frail, ends up with her hating the main character.

“Do I actually care what the game is about? No.”

Do you actually KNOW what the game is about?  No.

“Am I calling bullshit on people who are being dishonest and using not-so-clever strawmen? Yes.”

But you can’t call bullshit, since you have no fucking idea what the game is like.  Your entire argument is made up of straw men.

“If thinking this makes me an idiot, then so be it.”
What makes you an idiot is writing about a game that you’ve never played.

I’m not nasal, Mr. Sockpuppet.

“Yeah, I’ll be honest… I only played the game for about 20 minutes with my girlfriend.”

Stop lying.  You have no girlfriend.

“So wait, are you telling me that this game actually gets interesting??”

No, I’m telling you to fuck off and die, moron.

Ahahaha look how mad you are about someone not liking a video game. You seriously told him “fuck off and die, moron” because he didn’t enjoy an anime dating sim. If I ever caught myself doing something this sad I would reevaluate my entire life. What’s it like to be a “fan” of something internet user westley?

“Ahahaha look how mad you are about someone not liking a video game.”

No idiot, he can’t have a credible opinion of a video game, because he hasn’t played it.  But that doesn’t stop him from vomiting out worthless reams of text.

But you’re just a sockpuppet anyway.

 You’re saying people can’t have opinions about things they haven’t done. Uh-huh ok well I don’t really know what to say to that except to laugh at such a stupid thought.

Ever shot yourself in the dick?? Then how do you KNOW it isn’t good for it? Heh, got you there. I’m a master of internet debate.

Also not changing the fact that you told someone to fuck off and die over a dating sim which probably is linked to you being the sort of person that is playing dating-sims in the first place.

The story does sound good, too bad the developer thought the addition of porn would add something to the story rather than take something away from it.

Sure are a lot of people arguing about nothing in here.

Thanks for the suggestion, guys. I started playing KS when Derek posted about this and probably logged about 7 hours. I don’t really think the writing is anything magnificent so far (Except for the Rin path, props to the writer) but I definitely got a ton of feel-good vibes and was quite entertained. I feel bad for anyone who goes in this for the erotica though simply because they’re in for some heavy disappointment; 2 plotlines done (Emi and Rin) and I’ve yet to see genitalia of any kind.

It’s just really insulting that a lot of people are brushing this off as a “fetish porn” game or a “statutory rape simulator”. That’s extremely offensive, not to the people playing, but to the subject matter. What that suggests is that disabled people cannot have meaningful relationships, or be genuinely loved. To say anyone who would be interested in this game is probably just a fetishist is to suggest that any interest in the disabled simply boils down to indulging a fetish. Disabled people are humans, too. They date and have sex, and are capable of loving and being loved. So it’s fucked up to suggest that this is “fetish porn”. It’s a dating sim about humans, just like any other dating sim. These humans just happen to be disabled. Does that mean they’re any less genuine or lovable? No.

That’s like saying I date my 4’8″ girlfriend just because I have a midget fetish, not because I genuinely like her. Because it would be impossible for our relationship to be anything more than sexual indulgence, right? Ugh.

 Haha, you sound really, really mad. Given the context of what you’re arguing in favor of, I’m not surprised the concept of having a girlfriend is inconceivable to you. [laughing_out_loud_smiley.gif]

sockpuppet identify phail

Depends how wide your definition of “porn” is. Mine fits with “hardcore sex”, something the sex scenes here are not. Only one has visible genitalia and it’s still quite tame. Many others seem rather out of a R-rated movie – a certain scene in Watchmen was probably more “porn” than these! – and are quite short, even more compared to the long time it takes to reach time (sex is part of a romantic relationship but… not so fast :p)

I agree it can be argued if they were really necessary firsthand; on the other hand, that the story works also without them says a lot about how they aren’t treated as the center of attention, or some ultimate goal.

You spelled “phial” wrong.  HTH.

Phial:
1. A glass vessel or bottle, especially a small bottle for sockpuppets.

Glad to see you aren’t bothering to deny your lack of a girlfriend.  Confirmed.

”
You’re saying people can’t have opinions about things they haven’t done.”

No, I’m not saying that, but you can’t read.

What I said was that people can’t have a CREDIBLE opinion of a video game if he hasn’t played it.

However, given your piss-poor reading skillz, you may as well not bother playing it either, since it involves a lot of reading.

 So you can’t have a CREDIBLE opinion of shooting yourself in the dick unless you’ve popped off a metal slug into your crouch. EXCUSE ME for that very important distinction.

Also pretty sure my lack of being able to jerk off to cripple little girl porn is much more of an obstacle to my playing this game than my reading “skillz” (turn on speel check pleacse, that is jusyt a reallly revealring mistake, Mr. Friendly Atheist).

 Did a little Google-fu – if you’re the guy I think you are (and I’m pretty sure) then I’m feeling awful. If you had just said at the start that you were a lonely old man whose life is INTERNET DEBATE and ATHEIST OPERATIONS, like attempting to shut down local Boy Scout units for your spaz of a son, then I’m sure everyone would let you ‘win’ and we’d all shuffle off.

No, moron.  You can’t have a credible opinion on a visualnovelwithout reading it. Your fantasiesabout shooting yourself in your dick is your own problem.

Well, I see your lack of reading comprehension extends beyond this page; what I did was stop the national Boy Scouts of America from issuing charters to government entities like public schools, since the BSA requires that they break the law and exclude atheists.

Sorry if you don’t like first amendment rights, but you don’t seem to be the brightest bulb out there.

MUH DIK MUTHAFUCKA

victim complex whiner

MUH DIX MUTHAFUCKA

Oh, and your right hand is your “girlfriend”?

No, no, a “whiner” only complains about things; I stopped unlawful constitutional violations.  I get shit done.

And i though that only japan would freak out about games like theres guess i was wrong lol

 lol A true hero of the internet age, Percy Shelley wishes he could have accomplished half your storied atheist feats. Wherever faith lies in the heart of man BRIAN WESTLEY, DEFENDER OF FREEDOM will be there to post text that can only be read in Woody Allen’s voice, if anyone actually bothered to read it.

I’m sure with a name like “flaps” you’ll go far; at least with your fantasies about shooting your own dick off.

literally just got through explaining this to my girlfriend of four years. We’re having a sparkling discussion about the game and its various points, each resolving to play it and come to a conclusion

It’s really a shame that people are dismissing Katawa Shoujo on the basis of it being “cripple porn”.  Not because it’s good, but because people should be dismissing it on the basis of it having horrendously uneven and lazy art in a lot of places, pretty much no gameplay whatsoever, and some of the worst writing I’ve ever seen in a plot-driven game.

Really, I wish less people were focusing on the cripple sex… so that fewer people would rush to its defense and ignore the fact that it’s a pretty shitty game in general while they do it.

phallicly phixated phreak

 lol, I don’t really give a fuck if you believe whether I have a girlfriend or not. “Oh shit, some lonely pathetic nerd virgin who faps off to girlfriend simulators doesn’t want to consider the fact that someone who’s calling him out on being pathetic actually has a girlfriend!” Let me show this to her so we can laugh at your level of immaturity.

So… this game has nipples?

Are we playing the same thing here? I take it that disliking KS for ‘bad writing and art’ is now the anti-conformist conformist thing to do.

Sure, the writing is not as consistent and it could be and there’s plenty of bloat (more a fault of the genre i.e. telling is easier than showing), but it does its job. The characterization is generally excellent and there is an organic feel to the development of the protagonist. Taken as a whole, the VN is wonderfully evocative and emotional.

“lol, I don’t really give a fuck if you believe whether I have a girlfriend or not.”

Your right hand doesn’t count. Except to five.

Go NOT play a game and whine about it, that’s real maturity there.

If there are sex scenes, it must be porn. Puritan sexophobic much? Put on some pants on that David shit.

i just read all 200+ comments. was pretty entertaining (but that’s usually the case when phubans is involved in a discussion)

i think i agree most with jabberwok as far as thoughts on the topic go. i think in 50 years we’ll look back on games like this and think ‘why was this even controversial’, just as we do now with stuff created in the past which was controversial at the time but is pretty tame by today’s standards (e.g. 60s and 70s horror movies or sex scenes). if you look into stuff that was banned in the past, it’s usually extremely tame compared to what is standard now — not even tame compared to what is extreme now, but tame compared to what is *standard* now

HELP I NEED SOME AIR.

People in the game have nipples, but they all seem to be mammals, so it shouldn’t be a surprise.

So if there is sex scenes in a movie, does that make it a porn movie too?

I’ve never seen such a large congregation of retardation.

This is great.i love you guys

funger my binghole

Yes, Katawa is a derogatory term in Japan, but since neither you nor I nor the developers are japanese it doesn’t-

Wait… Where did you learn that? Surely not from the developer’s blog? The discussions that people have on the games?

Well, I may be four days late, but you’ve been found out.

Four days late?  Are you pregnant?  Can you still handle second base?

I actually did, back when the first act came out, I explained what it was.
a book with pictures and an input to influence what ending you got.
I’m not some average american wanker whom claims seeing a nude women back in eighth grade fucked my head. sex and violence are natural parts of life. doesnt mean i go around raping and killing everything I see because I saw it on t.v. and i told her how much i liked the characters and the like when the full version came out. your words and overall tone just reek of ignorance.  Ignoramus the name of someone who is willfully ignorant. so by definition you are an Ignoramus. people like you were what got books burned

It’s only controversial because people are failing to recognize the disabled as normal human beings. That’s really what the issue is here. Without thinking about it, they’re relegating the disabled characters to a limited set of activities, excluding ones that “normal”, non-disabled people typically partake in. So even though fully able people dating and having sex is okay, disabled people doing it is somehow vulgar. It’s really just discrimination. Nothing more, nothing less.

Haters gonna hate.

I’M BEING WARPED BY A BLACKHOLE

“rationalize his fetish of wanting to fuck disabled girls by using a strawman about disabled people being sexual”
I played a few VNs before. Never ever jerked off, or thought about jerking off while I played, even during the erotic scenes, which I always skip, since sometimes the transition is so abrupt that the scene would feel out-of-place even.

People against this game seems to have many misconceptions about VNs in general and the people who play them.

Man, Christine Love should update “sorry babe, it’s not your story” by just copy pasting all these comments into those ’4chan parody intermission’ segments. I could’ve spent all the time reading these (and I assume you could’ve spent the time writing them) doing, oh, I don’t know… Making the games you want to play?

to a degree, but it’s also that it’s a visual novel about relationships, which would have gotten trolling comments on tigsource even if it weren’t about disabled people

かたわ少女

Katawa Shoujo is not about fucking crippled girls. If you think it’s about fucking crippled girls, you haven’t played the game/are a heartless monster.
You can’t form opinions on this without playing it precisely because the subject matter is so… touchy. But believe me, everything is handled tastefully, and the explicit scenes are rare and fitting. A fetishist would be disappointed with this product.

Saying this is porn because it’s a visual novel is like saying every video game with jumping is a platformer.

Are there other commonalitiers between 4 leaf studio and 4chan ???

Thanks, TiGSource for actually playing/reading through it before making any judgements… unlike 90% of all the commentators/trolls on here.
And thanks for not falling to the level of RPS for outright hating it for being a Visual Novel.
In truth, Visual Novels don’t get fans for their deep gameplay, but for their writing, art, and characters. That’s the exact reason why you see so many anime adaptations of them(e.g. Kanon, AIR, Clannad, Fate/Stay Night).

I am feeling sqeezed into a certain pattern here

If anyone who is complaining about it has actually played the game, they will see that the “sex scenes” only show breasts, and that there are very few that actually pop up during the story.   Maybe one or two depending on what girl you are going for.

The story is actually about showing acceptance for individuals no matter what they look like on the outside.  

First of all, and I know I’m just inviting trolls and pretty much everyone else on the internet to bad mouth me (that’s what it was made for wasn’t it?), I actually played through this and thought it was a rather touching story about relationships and growing up. The sex that is in the game is very minimal, I only remember at the most maybe three scenes that added up to about 10 minutes in my entire play through. 

I was never and have never been a frequenter of 4chan so I’m not sure what the debate surrounding the creators of this so called “anime cripple rape sim” but I gave it a chance and thought the story was genuine interesting and sweet. 

Thanks, everyone. I appreciate the relevant elements of the discussion, and I figured I’d respond to some of those.

The issue of whether Katawa Shoujo is as dark as I seem to be painting
it is a good one. My comparison to Eva was intended to explain how
serious, and even (at a few points) dark the game is. There are tragic
tradeoffs in some of the “happy” endings, and many (not all) of the
“bad” endings are written with considerable credibility and pathos. The
only thing that marks out the “good” endings is a difference in the
style of the credits.

I’ll accept criticism of the caliber of writing in the game, but
respectfully disagree. Others have pointed out before me that the
writing is somewhat uneven, coming as it does from multiple authors, and
that not all paths are as varied or detailed. I do think that, within
it’s genre, and within the broader scope of games writing, Katawa Shoujo
is written in an appealing, accessible style that captures the
characters well. I’m not comparing it to Gravity’s Rainbow, but I think
the writing generally accomplishes its own goals. The game’s title seems
unfortunate, but is interesting for the same reason, as a large part of
the game is about taking the stigma out of disability.

Someone raised the issue of whether Kenji was simply intended to be
comic relief. Perhaps. What I saw in the character was tragic, because
his primary disability is psychological, not physical, and he is evading
treatment.  It reminded me of accounts by people who live with paranoid
schizophrenia about how their paranoia made it impossible for them to
seek treatment, and the legal dilemma over when and whether treatment
can be forced upon someone whose condition renders them unwilling to
consider treatment (though almost always appreciative of help, if they
get onto a successful treatment regimen).

That may or may not have been what was intended, but it’s what I found
in the character. Certainly other characters in the game have
psychological issues that cannot be cured, only lived with, including
Rin’s dissociation and Misha, who I saw as Aspergers (high functioning
autistic), though Misha might well have just been written in accordance
with a particular anime archetype.

I won’t even dismiss the criticism of anime style as very young looking,
but that is a much broader issue, having to do with a lot of factors,
none of which are particular to Katawa Shoujo. Simple, clean style that
eliminates the marking of age, the combination of prewestern manga with
WWII-era American cartooning style (early Disney and Fleisher – think of
Betty Boop), and the peculiarities of Japanese censorship law in those
formative years have had a huge influence on a style that has become
internationally popular. Then there’s the American and International
obsession with youth that permeates the entertainment and fashion
industries. I’ll be blunt and state that the character I found most
visually appealing in the game was Emi’s mother, and I wish there had
been more to the subplot about her involvement with a member of the
school’s faculty: I think they make a cute couple.

Since identity issues have been made a part of this discussion, I’ll lay
may cards on the table. I’m a University Professor, white, male,
30-something, married with one child (so far). My politics are liberal,
my beliefs are alternative, and I consider myself to be a feminist –
which may be part of why I wasn’t able to laugh at Kenji. My wife is
interested in playing the game, but she’ll have to drag herself away
from World of Goo first.

Oh, and for the trolls out there, my current score is 180. I’d like to break 200.

 ”Adults” “aged 28 & 30″

*snicker* 28 and aspie on an Internet comment thread qualifies as adult these days?

(Sorry, sorry… the bait was too good not to take it.)

Hello, my text is really thin and insignificant, just like your nested opinions.

I’m willing to bet you couldn’t even get a date from a disabled girl. Being a cocknugget who can’t overlook the fact that someone has no arms is a lot more of a turn-off than, well, someone with no arms! You’re boiling down a visual novel into a game people play to take advantage of handicapped females. I am not sure I want to know how much thinking you have done about this to come up with that conclusion, honestly, and I think someone should keep you away from anyone with missing limbs or disfiguration of any kind.

Stuck in a 12 year old mindset, perhaps, and assumes everyone is the same? Because anyone with an ounce of maturity can realize how powerful emotionally sex can be. It’ s not -just- something people do because it feels good.

Hang on, who says we’re getting off on them for being crippled? We’re able to look past that and enjoy them for who they are, unlike you.

Because Lilly doesn’t POSSIBLY look like she could be 19 at all…

I am just terribly shocked by the whole thing.

Holy shit
There are so many people, projecting, in these comments
I loved the noevl, but I don’t have any fetish, nor am I that socially inept

Of course, the premise was school for disabled people, but if you seriously think the point of this game is to fuck disabled people, you need to either 
a) shut the fuck up and stop being retarded 
or 
b) play it

This.. is just insane. Why the hell do people get so upset about this? People have OPINIONS. They DIFFER. There is no one opinion that is TRUE, because that’s the whole POINT. You may say that this is just for fetishist or whatever you think, but that doesn’t mean at all that you should shove that ‘truth’ of yours up everyone’s throat and suppose everyone is just going to accept that! There’s other things you can do by speaking than trying to convince people you’re right, like sharing your opinion so that other people’s opinion may become more complete. Nothing’s going to happen if you’re only trying to aggrevate people. Here you are, speaking badly about /b/ when you’re doing the exact same thing as they are doing… 

Why the hell is today’s society so hypocritical? I even have to watch out for posting something like ‘god dang it’ because there might be people who take offense on that when the same people are trampling things that other people believe in…

 Huh, I haven’t read all comments, this ‘visual novel’ has been in development for 4 years and all discussion always end up like this, whether the girls disabilities are exploited or not.  The article makes it pretty clear they’re not.
As for their childish looks, well

1. it takes place in their last year of highschool, so they are probably 17~19, yes shockingly enough real life 17 year old girls do have sex,  take some time to let your brain process that. Their appearance is just a stylistic choice, hell Twilight is a million times creepier than this and the female protagonist was 16 in love with what seemed like a 20 something guy, and teenage girls actually bought that. No one called that book pedophilic or sick even though it kinda was. Just because this is anime style there’s a lot of prejudice going on.

2 The game actually takes place in a  Japanese school, girls there actually do wear sailor uniforms, and asian women usually do tend to look younger. None of the characters were  sexualized or cock teasing, girls actually do dress like that in real life Japan.

3 You might disagree but I don’t consider this porn. Erotic maybe, but not porn. Porn is about getting off exactly how you want as fast as possible, cleaning up, then entirely forgetting all about it. To get to to a  sex scene, which in this game is really just 1-2 slightly censored screens and lots of text, you have to play at least 15 hours.  One could easily find all porn screens easily on the net if you know how to use google so if you’re just looking for that do that instead. Your opinion may vary but this is a bit annoying, people are so politically correct these days even mentioning that two young people might consent to have sex throws them into an outrage.
Thank god I live in a country where admitting that a 19 year old looks good isn’t considered a sex offense.

4 Mainstream movies with attractively young characters with sex scenes in it get made all the time. Yet  I don’t see anyone complaining.

Feel free to disagree with me and tell me I’m a sick perv, the fact is, if you really wanted weird cripple porn there are plenty of places to find it on google. Anyone who plays this skipping all text just for the sex scenes is wasting their time and completely missing the point. It’s just 2 screens people.

And finally, goddam it at least they had the balls to try something different. Go back to coding hard abstract 8 bit platforms with chiptune music about having a midlife crisis, or maybe you can make a voxel engine to build a spaceship with blocks, that’s what real creativity is about. 

i think the story was amazing

Excellent game. Excellent writing. I fell in love with all the girls (except Shizune). Mature sex, mature content. Sensible feelings. Not all the answers make sense, but most do (Rin route is tricky). If someone asks me which are the best love stories in videogaming, I’ll answer “the 5 stories in Katawa Shoujo”. 

Holy shit you are the biggest asspained faggot I have ever witnessed in my entire life. You are the definition of the “stop liking what I don’t like” douche bag that plagues Internet communities. Not only that but you take it to the next level of faggotry. You get so butt-troubled over a game that you have never played that you write fuck-huge walls of incomprehensibly stupid text full of ad hominem fallacies. It is painfully obvious that you are seeking attention by replying like that.

So here’s the run-down, you’re a massive butt-lusting crybaby bitch. Please set yourself on fire and die.