@TehFlan said:

@Narx said:

Think of it as a choose your own adventure book.

This does not sell me on the quality of the game.

@Hailinel: While I will admit to my ignorance having not played the game, I am somewhat curious as to which part of my statement is incorrect. Is your goal in the game not to hook up with the high school girls?

The ultimate goal of the game is to form a relationship with one of your classmates, yes. But the sex is secondary to the overall experience of the story, and as I said before the girls' disabilities are not fetishized in any way. Simplifying the game down to "durr hurr cripple porn" is completely off base. Further, the main character becomes attracted to the girls not because of their disabilities, but because of who they are as people.

Has anyone collected all of the "ending" scenes yet in one place? Google finds me nothing so far.

@LordJezo: Am I doing something wrong? I've gotten the good ending for Emi and I think the good ending for Hanako and I don't have an "ending" scene. What are you talking about?

Never before has the Giant Bomb forums been so erupt with discussion of visual novels! This is really a great one though, with an incredibly engaging and believable cast.

It's pretty sweet. Especially for a free game made by the internets.

@BabyChooChoo said:

@Ravenlight: Clannad is the only one that immediately comes to mind. I tried it out after I watched all of the anime/specials so since I knew most of what was going to happen (regarding what could be called the main heroine), I never could get into it. That said, if you wanna talk tasteful, then it doesn't get much better than this as it's main purpose is story and characters and nothing else. No ecchi bs and no pointless sex scenes (or any sex at all for that matter). Just good ol' VN greatness.

edit: oh yeah, Rumbling Hearts was another good one. i'll just say right off the bat, it feels a lot more 'soap opera-y' due to a few key events, but I still enjoyed it. It has a few sex scenes as well, but they actually made sense in the context of the story

edit2: uhhhh be careful if you decide to go with Rumbling Hearts lol. Apparently it has quite a few really bad, really disturbing endings that I didn't even know where there. I still think the 'good' endings are still good, but damn...after reading about those bad ones I'm just glad I managed to avoid em.

@Zenaxzd said:

@Ravenlight: If you want something outside of the hentai stuff the most obvious choice is the Ace Attorney series, I mean boiled down they are just Visual Novels with a bit more game to them. 999 as well, can't speak for it myself but I have a friend who really dug the game.

Followed. Thanks for the recommendations, duders!

@Wes899 said:

@LordJezo: Am I doing something wrong? I've gotten the good ending for Emi and I think the good ending for Hanako and I don't have an "ending" scene. What are you talking about?

I mean nude scenes.

@LordJezo said:

@Wes899 said:

@LordJezo: Am I doing something wrong? I've gotten the good ending for Emi and I think the good ending for Hanako and I don't have an "ending" scene. What are you talking about?

I mean nude scenes.

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

@TehFlan said:

@Narx said:

Think of it as a choose your own adventure book.

This does not sell me on the quality of the game.

I can understand the lack of appeal and I am not trying to convince you but just to give you what I think is the game really.

In the end, you read stuff, you make choices, I personally like the story and think that it'be a shame for people to miss it but if it ain't you cup of tea...it probably ain't your cup of tea :)

@BabyChooChoo said:

@Ravenlight: Clannad is the only one that immediately comes to mind. I tried it out after I watched all of the anime/specials so since I knew most of what was going to happen (regarding what could be called the main heroine), I never could get into it. That said, if you wanna talk tasteful, then it doesn't get much better than this as it's main purpose is story and characters and nothing else. No ecchi bs and no pointless sex scenes (or any sex at all for that matter). Just good ol' VN greatness.

I will try to find it and give it a try, the amount of visual novels that I have enjoyed is not much. Would you say knowing a bit about the anime helped you out or the opposite?

@Narx: I would probably say it hurt my experience with the VN more than anything because I couldn't bring myself to finish it. I guess now that I think about it, my real problem is that after watching both seasons, it's hard to imagine the story ending up either way because as far as I'm concerned the anime chose the saddest, but still best ending for my favorite heroine. There were a few special episodes in the anime with alternate endings and I read (on Wikipedia) a few of the other possible outcomes for the VN, but none of them could, in my opinion, match the 'true ending.'

That's just me though. Clannad is easily in my top 5, if not top 3, anime ever. If you haven't seen the whole thing, didn't like anywhere as much as I did then, or just straight up haven't seen it then I say the VN is well worth a shot.

Finished the Emi route, I'm now on the Rin route. The Emi route was absolutely beautiful, I'm surprised the Rin route is so different. It's a lot more introspective and philosophical. I really like this game. They take this subject very seriously and respect it enough not to sacrifice the humanity of the characters.

wait its a porn game??

@BUCK3TM4N said:

wait its a porn game??

I turned the porn off but there are sex scenes apparently

also I was pretty down on this game until I heard that saxophone track and now I am on board

@Animasta: What? A sax track in an H visual novel with disabled heroines? I find this hard to believe.

@BUCK3TM4N: Not really. It's a character driven visual novel and the completely optional sex scenes are certainly its weakest aspect, but that's only like, 20 minutes of an average 4-5 hours per route.

I encourage everyone who'se on the fence due to the (tenuous and meaningless) 4chan connection, the "porn", or the whole disability aspect to download it and try it for themselves. It's free, 'yall, you've got nothing to lose. And I seriously doubt any of the detractors in this thread would retain their opinions if they actually played the thing they're bashing with an open mind.

For my part, Hanako's story was deeply moving and rather tragic... I've yet to tackle any of the other four, but that single route alone justified the cost in bandwidth and time.

Anyone else noticed a lot of review sites just aren't giving this game a chance? The Escapist had an article about its release, and constantly kept implying this game was some sort of taboo against the our ethics or something. Has anyone from a somewhat mainstream review site even played the game? It's not like it's some kind of sex-fantasy game, hell, I'd go so far to say there's more sex in Mass Effect than in this game. Honestly a bit ridiculous how fast a lot of sites are shooting this one down going solely by the premise of "disabled girl romance simulator". Really gets me peeved.

Has anyone else got the "bad" ending yet?

Hilarious.

@Ravenlight said:

Has anyone else got the "bad" ending yet?

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

If you haven't made enough progress down any of the ladies' respective tracks by the festival, you end up dead.

Hilarious.

Yeah, that works, or...

I don't really know, Kenji is probably my least favourite character in this whole game. Don't ask me why, him and Misha get on my nerves.

@Ravenlight:

No, but how do I go about getting it on the...*sigh*...Act 1 Cripple Walkthrough?

am i the only on who likes Shizune? I totally relate to her, being deaf myself.

@Bam_D_Leprechaun:

I personally enjoyed Shizune's character the most out of the girls. Her competitiveness and blunt attitude are attributes I both appreciate and would like to think I share as well.

@Video_Game_King:

A possible route:

Though I believe there's several different ways to get similar results.

@Aus_azn said:

I don't really know, Kenji is probably my least favourite character in this whole game. Don't ask me why, him and Misha get on my nerves.

They're both kind've written that way. Though, I wish there were more dialogue options to humor Kenji's insane rants. Some of them are pretty great.

@Rehtayne said:

A possible route:

SPOILER WARNING: Click here to reveal hidden content.

1) Yeah, of course. / Why? (Doesn't matter)
2) Ask about Shizune's deafness.
3) Play defensively.
4) Introduce yourself.
5) Not cute.
6) Maybe. (Don't train)
7) Give me and Lilly a break!
8) Don't talk about your heart condition.
9) Dead.

Though I believe there's several different ways to get similar results.

I picked pretty much the opposite of most of those and got the bad ending. I wonder which one/combination is the key here.

Just finished replaying Shizune's path for a third time. Still has to be my favourite character and route, though from reading the forums and opinions on her particular path, it's quite polarized into those that loved it (like myself) and those that really disliked it (which is totally understandable, as she's a hard character to figure out) Think I might change it up and see how Rin or Hanako's story might play out (Unless I get ninja'd by Shizune...again) any suggestions/opinions on those two?

@Ravenlight said:

I picked pretty much the opposite of most of those and got the bad ending. I wonder which one/combination is the key here.

I think most of the the choices are just geared towards you picking which girl's story you want to follow. But there's usually one question right before the festival at the end of Act 1 that gives the option for Hisao to act in an anti-social manner. If I had to take a guess, it's only that last option that leads to the bad ending, like a sort of last minute confirmation screen asking you if you really want to keep going on a particular character's path.

@ThePencil said:

Just finished replaying Shizune's path for a third time. Still has to be my favourite character and route, though from reading the forums and opinions on her particular path, it's quite polarized into those that loved it (like myself) and those that really disliked it (which is totally understandable, as she's a hard character to figure out) Think I might change it up and see how Rin or Hanako's story might play out (Unless I get ninja'd by Shizune...again) any suggestions/opinions on those two?

Rin and Hanako both have story lines with plenty of emotional highs and lows, and are definitely worth your time. If the lack of choices in Shizune's story frustrated you at all (her path has the fewest of all the girls), you'll probably enjoy either of these a lot more. Rin's in particular has quite a few branching paths to it, if my memory serves me correctly. That said, Rin's character also really annoyed me, so I probably didn't take as much from it as I could have.

Downloaded it and played for about an hour last night. Got bored of it because I was tired playing as an extremely verbose emo kid. Maybe I'll come back to it, but at least some of you guys are having a good time with it.

@Rehtayne said:

@ThePencil said:

Just finished replaying Shizune's path for a third time. Still has to be my favourite character and route, though from reading the forums and opinions on her particular path, it's quite polarized into those that loved it (like myself) and those that really disliked it (which is totally understandable, as she's a hard character to figure out) Think I might change it up and see how Rin or Hanako's story might play out (Unless I get ninja'd by Shizune...again) any suggestions/opinions on those two?

Rin and Hanako both have story lines with plenty of emotional highs and lows, and are definitely worth your time. If the lack of choices in Shizune's story frustrated you at all (her path has the fewest of all the girls), you'll probably enjoy either of these a lot more. Rin's in particular has quite a few branching paths to it, if my memory serves me correctly. That said, Rin's character also really annoyed me, so I probably didn't take as much from it as I could have.

I'm one of those who really likes Shizune's route. I'm trying Hanako's route next; as of right now, Rin is the one I have the least interest in, I find her annoying too.

I don't know why, but I played this for a few hours last night and it was pretty enjoyable. Hm. Quite a surprise for sure.

Football is on, Jesus vs. NE.

And here I sit trying to get close to a girl with a burned up face.

Awesome.

This was my first venture into Visual Novels and I have to say that I am really digging it so far. I'm surprised at how much I like it, I'm kind of disappointed that Visual Novels have such a negative stigma about them. It'd be nice to introduce others to this type of game but even I was a bit hesitant to play it. So I guess that it's not for everyone, but I really really like it. If anyone could recommend some other awesome VN's to me(I'd like them to be a little light on the hentai though please.) I'd be grateful. Thanks giantbombers for introducing me to this wonderful game :D

@Mrsignerman44: Don't take it personally is worth a look (it's from the same developer as Digital A Love Story which is pretty good too). Clannad is another excellent one though you'll need a Japanese copy and an English patch (though the anime is just as excellent so watch that instead.) Both have zero sexual content in them. I haven't played much VNs but those are some of more enjoyable ones I've played.

@eroticfishcake: Clannad sounds cool but I've basically had the whole thing spoiled by a friend. The other one however, seems kind of how do I put this...childish? I don't know if thats the correct term but all of the "facebook" melodrama and internet speak in conversations doesn't really look appealing to me unless the story is really amazing. Plus the artstyle is lacking a bit, I like KS because everything is kind of round and not as generic. Thanks for the recommendations though.

@Mrsignerman44: VNs aren't exactly my area of speciality but there's a thread on the KS forums here which are centered around your question. I don't know if they're good since I've never played them before (though Narcissu was relatively interesting) but hopefully you'll be able to find something worth reading through.

@eroticfishcake: Oh, thanks alot. In the past few days though I've spotted pretty much the exact same thread in gamefaqs(I got desperate lol) and I found some pretty good ones. Currently going through Ever17 and Kirakira the former being completely H-less and the latter only having a spot of it at the end from what I've heard. I'm still finishing KS but thanks so much for the thread link and reccomendations, I really thought that all or most VN's were just for hentai and hentai only but I'm glad to see that I was completely wrong. It never felt so good to eat crow ;)

All hentai games are illegal in Canada (it can actually get you on the sexual offenders list) I wander if that game is considered as a hentai game?

@SmilingPig said:

All hentai games are illegal in Canada (it can actually get you on the sexual offenders list) I wander if that game is considered as a hentai game?

If a Canadian company like Bioware can produce games with sex scenes, then Katawa Shoujo should be perfectly legal there.

@SmilingPig said:

All hentai games are illegal in Canada (it can actually get you on the sexual offenders list) I wander if that game is considered as a hentai game?

Well, it involves depictions of minors in sexual situations (?). Canadian law isn't cool with that.

@Zomgfruitbunnies said:

@SmilingPig said:

All hentai games are illegal in Canada (it can actually get you on the sexual offenders list) I wander if that game is considered as a hentai game?

Well, it involves depictions of minors in sexual situations (?). Canadian law isn't cool with that.

The characters are all 18 at minimum.

@Hailinel:

Ah, Japanese 18. Draw a little girl getting gang banged, then make it 'okay' by saying she's actually 18 and just looks really young for her age.

@ick_bop said:

@Hailinel:

Ah, Japanese 18. Draw a little girl getting gang banged, then make it 'okay' by saying she's actually 18 and just looks really young for her age.

Japanese? The game was developed by westerners.

Who's path features the gang bang scene?

I don't recall any of the story routes having any such thing. Though my memory isn't exactly the best.

In other news, Four Leaf Studios has made the game's soundtrack available for download.

This is an amazing game. Nothing has ever surprised me as much as this did. I was fully expecting to hate it.

@Swoxx: You're just posting in every Katawa Shoujo thread you can, aren't you?

ARE THEY PAYING YOU? LET ME IN ON IT,

Did you have to bump this one too >.>.

Yes i know what I'm doing right now.

@Cloudenvy said:

@Swoxx: You're just posting in every Katawa Shoujo thread you can, aren't you?

ARE THEY PAYING YOU? LET ME IN ON IT,

The game is free silly, and I didn't post in any of these threads earlier cause I thought this was a stupid hentai game.