Damn it you guys, I didn't expect this to get a thread on the forums. I thought stuff of this subject matter was usually restricted to Psycosis' blog, haha.

So, when I first opened this thread, I downloaded this game, "for the lulz." I immediately turned off adult content because I have dignity. So far, this game is boring and creepy. Boring because it's just portraits and text and more portraits and text. Creepy because... they're all crippled. That's just odd. The picture in the beginning is deceiving. One of those girls is burned, one is blind, one is deaf, on has no legs. I mean, I have nothing against handicapped people, but this game is just creepy. The other strange thing is how darn attractive all these handicapped girls are. I mean, that legless girl has great legs.

the main character seems to be a really big creep, only being attracted to disabled girls

a cripple chaser, if you will

@BoG said:

So, when I first opened this thread, I downloaded this game, "for the lulz." I immediately turned off adult content because I have dignity. So far, this game is boring and creepy. Boring because it's just portraits and text and more portraits and text. Creepy because... they're all crippled. That's just odd. The picture in the beginning is deceiving. One of those girls is burned, one is blind, one is deaf, on has no legs. I mean, I have nothing against handicapped people, but this game is just creepy. The other strange thing is how darn attractive all these handicapped girls are. I mean, that legless girl has great legs.

That's the whole point of the game. Katawa Shoujo literally means disability girls or disabled girls. The goal of the team that developed the game was to create a dating sim with hentai elements that could depict the characters with a level of class and dignity, as opposed to just objects of amputee fetishization.

@Animasta said:

the main character seems to be a really big creep, only being attracted to disabled girls

a cripple chaser, if you will

He isn't only attracted to crippled girls. He is crippled too, in fact discovering he has Arrhythima when a girl from his old high school tried to confess to him causing him to have a heart attack. This lands him in a hospital bed for several months and eventually has him being forced to attend a school specifically built to cater to disabled students with a 24-hour nursing staff on campus.

If there is any specific attraction it is through the common struggles they share as being outcasts from regular society, the protagonist perhaps even more so considering his condition is so fragile and incredibly life threatening.

So for those who have played a fair amount of this (I know @LordXavierBritish (as he was playing this game a minute or two before I made this post) and maybe @Psycosis ), about how long is it? Does anybody have a general estimate on that?

@ccampb89 said:

After I read the post I thought this was an elaborate joke, than I read the rest and felt sadness.

This pretty much sums up my experience.

@Video_Game_King said:

So for those who have played a fair amount of this (I know @LordXavierBritish (as he was playing this game a minute or two before I made this post) and maybe @Psycosis ), about how long is it? Does anybody have a general estimate on that?

I've played through two paths and a full run is about 5 hours. There is a skip function though to quickly get through text you've seen before so each consecutive run is significantly shorter.

@Xel said:

More than a decade? This game was in development for 5 years...

That is more than a decade in disabled years.

@LordXavierBritish said:

@Video_Game_King said:

So for those who have played a fair amount of this (I know @LordXavierBritish (as he was playing this game a minute or two before I made this post) and maybe @Psycosis ), about how long is it? Does anybody have a general estimate on that?

I've played through two paths and a full run is about 5 hours. There is a skip function though to quickly get through text you've seen before so each consecutive run is significantly shorter.

Though having said that the common route is only act 1, out of 4 acts per route. Meaning there isn't a lot of same text in each route. Skipping that brought me down to around 4 hours for each of the six five routes.

I'll just leave this here.

@Video_Game_King:

Lilly's route took me about 6 1/2 hours, though I skipped the majority of Act 1 since I had already played it.

I randomly stumbled over this, I got to the part where I was railing this under aged girl with no legs in a gym supply closet with lemon scented lube, and decided that I needed to play more of it.

Also, good art.

I would have thought that someone would have started the article in the wiki by now. MUST I DO EVERYTHING MYSELF?!

@Hailinel said:

I would have thought that someone would have started the article in the wiki by now. MUST I DO EVERYTHING MYSELF?!

I was going to do it but seducing this armless temptress is harder than I thought.

Didn't the first chapter get released as a demo a few years back, and everyone that played it were delightfully surprised at the quality? 

@Turambar said:

Didn't the first chapter get released as a demo a few years back, and everyone that played it were delightfully surprised at the quality?

Yes. Act 1 was released around 2009 and from what I can tell was mostly retained in the final game.

@Jimbo said:

@Xel said:

More than a decade? This game was in development for 5 years...

That is more than a decade in disabled years.

I think you just won this thread.

@LordXavierBritish said:

@BraveToaster said:

Disabled women are just easier, yo.

I'm going for the burn victim first. I like my ladies well done.

You just made my day

This thread makes me miss KaosAngel. Sort of.

This thread makes me miss KaosAngel. Sort of.

@Zenaxzd said:

@ThatFrood said:

This thread makes me miss KaosAngel. Sort of.

Really, even sort of? The frown on my face is large.

Yeah, not really.

@ThatFrood said:

This thread makes me miss KaosAngel. Sort of.

No. Don't even joke about such a thing.

Sup fools! I was eating a *insert food item here* and thinking about how much I hate my neighbors when I decided to post on this interwebs. How should we make Hentai games more appealing to the west? I'm into them, so obviously, everyone else is too!

@LordXavierBritish said:

@Animasta said:

the main character seems to be a really big creep, only being attracted to disabled girls

a cripple chaser, if you will

He isn't only attracted to crippled girls. He is crippled too, in fact discovering he has Arrhythima when a girl from his old high school tried to confess to him causing him to have a heart attack. This lands him in a hospital bed for several months and eventually has him being forced to attend a school specifically built to cater to disabled students with a 24-hour nursing staff on campus.

Just saying he has arrhythmia does not make him crippled, I have one and it's never affected me for example (though arrhythmia is a large bubble of conditions really)

Just got it on with Hanako, but I'm not done with her route yet. I assume I'm at least somewhat close to the end though.

Surprisingly, I'm having a lot of fun with the game. I don't think it's world class work or anything, but it's one of those projects where you can feel all the love and effort put into it and that makes you appreciate it all the more. My only gripe though is that I wish there were more choices, but this being a visual novel and all, I can't complain too much.

@Animasta said:

@LordXavierBritish said:

@Animasta said:

the main character seems to be a really big creep, only being attracted to disabled girls

a cripple chaser, if you will

He isn't only attracted to crippled girls. He is crippled too, in fact discovering he has Arrhythima when a girl from his old high school tried to confess to him causing him to have a heart attack. This lands him in a hospital bed for several months and eventually has him being forced to attend a school specifically built to cater to disabled students with a 24-hour nursing staff on campus.

Just saying he has arrhythmia does not make him crippled, I have one and it's never affected me for example (though arrhythmia is a large bubble of conditions really)

The arrhythmia that affects the protagonist of the game is severe enough that he had to spend several months in the hospital following a heart attack and once he gets out, he needs constant care. His health is incredibly fragile.

@Hailinel said:

@Animasta said:

@LordXavierBritish said:

@Animasta said:

the main character seems to be a really big creep, only being attracted to disabled girls

a cripple chaser, if you will

He isn't only attracted to crippled girls. He is crippled too, in fact discovering he has Arrhythima when a girl from his old high school tried to confess to him causing him to have a heart attack. This lands him in a hospital bed for several months and eventually has him being forced to attend a school specifically built to cater to disabled students with a 24-hour nursing staff on campus.

Just saying he has arrhythmia does not make him crippled, I have one and it's never affected me for example (though arrhythmia is a large bubble of conditions really)

The arrhythmia that affects the protagonist of the game is severe enough that he had to spend several months in the hospital following a heart attack and once he gets out, he needs constant care. His health is incredibly fragile.

sure I'm just saying that they should call it extreme arrhythmia or something, but I'm just being silly so

also instead of going to this school where anything could startle him into another heart attack, why doesn't he just get home schooled?

@Animasta said:

@Hailinel said:

@Animasta said:

@LordXavierBritish said:

@Animasta said:

the main character seems to be a really big creep, only being attracted to disabled girls

a cripple chaser, if you will

He isn't only attracted to crippled girls. He is crippled too, in fact discovering he has Arrhythima when a girl from his old high school tried to confess to him causing him to have a heart attack. This lands him in a hospital bed for several months and eventually has him being forced to attend a school specifically built to cater to disabled students with a 24-hour nursing staff on campus.

Just saying he has arrhythmia does not make him crippled, I have one and it's never affected me for example (though arrhythmia is a large bubble of conditions really)

The arrhythmia that affects the protagonist of the game is severe enough that he had to spend several months in the hospital following a heart attack and once he gets out, he needs constant care. His health is incredibly fragile.

sure I'm just saying that they should call it extreme arrhythmia or something, but I'm just being silly so

also instead of going to this school where anything could startle him into another heart attack, why doesn't he just get home schooled?

His parents thought his attending the school would be the best thing for him. Enrollment there was not his idea. On the other hand, the campus has a twenty-four hour medical staff to watch over him and the other students.

Downloaded it, looked in PDF, checked out options.

Disable Adult Content

God damn just put the kids to bed, would ya?

And by the way internet, taking a handful of real life diseases and pasting cliche anime stereotypes over them like nerdy glasses guy and shy librarian girl and bubblegum princess in short skirts and some pretty hefty knockers is not tasteful. That's even before considering that your choices influence which one you're going to fuck in a cupboard. The writing is not good; it's the same as every other paint-by-numbers Meet 'n' Fuck, and even the one with burnt up skin is pretty hot.
 
I know nobody here is out-of-their-minds crazy enough to argue that it's a serious game, but I'm just sayin.
Just so we're all on the same page.

@BraveToaster said:

Disabled women are just easier, yo.

I'm going for the burn victim first. I like my ladies well done.

The only Visual Novel I've ever had the pleasure of playing was this quaint little title by the name of "A Drug THat Makes You Dream", or something like that, and I thought it was really quite fantastic. How does this compare to that?

@I_smell said:

I know nobody here is out-of-their-minds crazy enough to argue that it's a serious game, but I'm just sayin. Just so we're all on the same page.

Challenge accepted.

@chrismafuchris said:

The only Visual Novel I've ever had the pleasure of playing was this quaint little title by the name of "A Drug THat Makes You Dream", or something like that, and I thought it was really quite fantastic. How does this compare to that?

I played one other anime dating sim game. After finishing "Digital: A Love Story" I looked up its creator and her other works. I found "Don't Take it Personally Babe, This just aint your story." It was so gay that I just stopped playing.

@I_smell said:

And by the way internet, taking a handful of real life diseases and pasting cliche anime stereotypes over them like nerdy glasses guy and shy librarian girl and bubblegum princess in short skirts and some pretty hefty knockers is not tasteful. That's even before considering that your choices influence which one you're going to fuck in a cupboard. The writing is not good; it's the same as every other paint-by-numbers Meet 'n' Fuck, and even the one with burnt up skin is pretty hot. I know nobody here is out-of-their-minds crazy enough to argue that it's a serious game, but I'm just sayin. Just so we're all on the same page.

The game was designed with the design and tropes of the typical visual novel dating sim in mind. That its characters fit into common archetypes should not come as a surprise. Also, your screenshots do little to help your argument without the context in which they're set. It's easy to take a snapshot of anything and use it to paint its subject as an absurdity.

Ok well that first screenshot was in the context of this scene:

@I_smell: Deaf AND Mute.

@I_smell: She is definitely mute.

@I_smell said:

And by the way internet, taking a handful of real life diseases and pasting cliche anime stereotypes over them like nerdy glasses guy and shy librarian girl and bubblegum princess in short skirts and some pretty hefty knockers is not tasteful. That's even before considering that your choices influence which one you're going to fuck in a cupboard. The writing is not good; it's the same as every other paint-by-numbers Meet 'n' Fuck, and even the one with burnt up skin is pretty hot. I know nobody here is out-of-their-minds crazy enough to argue that it's a serious game, but I'm just sayin. Just so we're all on the same page.

The fact that it's cliched doesn't make it not tasteful. I was amazed how well they handled the whole disabled thing, particularly considering the source of this project. They do a really weird thing here in trying to defetishize the fetishes that the game is clearly built upon, and I say good on 'em. And certainly, the writing is bad, but by about a third of the way through, the disabilities took a backseat and I never noticed them again. That, to me, shows that cohesion, vision, and some decent skill were present in making this game. There's a strong and noble message of acceptance here that I was completely amazed to find. There is, in my mind, no better suited word to apply to this game than tasteful, given the subject matter it's tackling.

But yeah, if you want to call this game distasteful for the sex, I can't really fault you on that one. As a whole, pornography is certainly distasteful. But at the same time, there are always shades of grey. Within the range of pornography, what Bocam posted is distasteful. What is actually present in this game is not. Personally, I found the scenes to be fractional to the whole, out of place, and ludicrously unsexy (But maybe I'm just not into this 'Hentai' thing on that one). They're totally unnecessary.

@chrismafuchris: If you liked that game you should try Cross Channel, It's written by the same guy and is considered one of the bests

@I_smell said:

@Akrid: Would you agree that this game would be a lot better at doing what it (supposedly) aims to do if it were a book, and not an anime hentai dating sim? Cos I think that'd be the same subject matter handled the same way, but without the upskirt shots. ...To be honest I'd still think it was boring cut-n-paste anime writing even at that point, but it'd make the whole thing less embarrassing, right? And probably (although this is a tangential point) about 90% less popular.

That would be missing the point of the project. Yes, the writing could be better, but given the circumstances under which the game was created, it's remarkable how well it turned out. And if you're embarrassed by playing this game, then that's not the game's problem.

What circumstances? Some 4chan dudes over like 8 years?

Incase you didn't know, MOST games on the internet are made by people who haven't met in real life. The whole web game community is like 90% people collaborating on forums, nothing about this is remarkable.

@I_smell said:

What circumstances? Some 4chan dudes over like 8 years? Incase you didn't know, MOST games on the internet are made by people who haven't met in real life. The whole web game community is like 90% people collaborating on forums, nothing about this is remarkable.

Define most. Seriously, where are your statistics? How big is the average indie development team? How are they organized? What is their funding like? If you can't back up this assertion with hard facts, then you're just being foolish.

@I_smell said:

The whole web game community is like 90% people collaborating on forums, nothing about this is remarkable.

If you can't back up this assertion with hard facts, then you're just being foolish.

Thanks for posting! Downloading it now.

Never played one of these before. It's pretty fun.