The Part About Piracy

It's incredibly ironic that almost as soon as SOPA and PIPA are shot down I start pirating. Now, I'm not some sort of asshole who never pays for anything online. I have too much respect for developers to do that. So far the only thing that I've actually pirated are Microsoft Office Suite and Photoshop, and only that because I'm poor. I have no qualms about actually paying for software, it's just that my cash influx leaves me little room for expensive shit like that. Also, I needed to use those programs really badly at the time, and pirating them was my only truly viable option.

I've tried pirating before in the past actually, when I was younger and didn't understand the internet and computers as well as I do now. When I think back on it I realize that the only reason I didn't become a chronic pirate is that I didn't understand how torrents worked and I was too lazy to figure it out. It was easier just to pay for whatever it is that I want. And so the internet was saved from the greatest pirate the world had ever known because he was a lazy teenage prick. At least, that's how I like to think about it. Obviously that's something of a massive exaggeration, but still. In my zeal for pirating I would destroyed my computer a hundred times over from viruses I would have unwittingly downloaded, and my mother would have flayed me for it...

Actually, the more and more I think about it, I'm really glad I was a lazy asshole. As I've gotten older I've become far more appreciative of the work that developers do to get their product out there, primarily in the video game field, although of course that's not restricted to that only. Actually, about a year ago I pirated Plants vs. Zombeis. It left a horrible taste in my mouth. I deleted it from my hard drive the next day, and promptly bought it myself. It made me feel better, but I've never forgotten who guilty it made me feel, and since then I try not to let myself pirate, unless, in this case, my school career is on the line. Also, it makes me feel better knowing that had I actually bought the software, it would have set me back about the amount of money I make in an entire year.

Well, when I sat down to write about pirating, in my mind I saw page after page about my experiences with pirating, but that has yet to materialize. I doubt it ever will. Still, it feels good to get my thoughts down in writing (okay, fine, typing). Anyway, that's my own personal battle with piracy. I'm not trying to influence anyone, but if I do, I won't count it as a loss.

The Real Reason I'm Writing This

I just finished Katawa Shoujo. It was possibly the most powerful thing I've ever read before in my life. Let me put that in a bit of perspective. I have been reading since I was old enough to comprehend language. I have no clue how many books I've read in total, but I'm never far from something to read, and I constantly have as least three books sitting on my desk waiting to be read. So, for a Japanese visual novel written by a group of (supposed) twenty-somethings to affect me so profoundly, it has to be pretty fucking fantastic.

I had never heard about it until a few days ago, and that was caused by my own boredom as I waited for my Photoshop torrent to finish downloading (see first section). I had been puttering around on GB for a few minutes before I stumbled upon the main page for the Katawa Shoujo. I'm not going to lie, when I saw the word eroge in the description I became somewhat excited, and promptly started downloading it. I'm not ashamed to say that the reason I started reading this masterpiece was because I was horny. I had not read any of the blog or forum posts about it, and had no prior knowledge of how good it was, and I maintain that it was thanks to this that it had such an effect on me.

I started reading, and was impressed by the artwork and the music, but only half payed attention to the actually dialogue, expecting the already mentioned eroge elements to kick in immediately. I was quickly disappointed, but as I became bored, I started to actually pay attention to the writing itself. As I slowly realized what I had been missing I jumped out of that game, and started again fresh, not wanting to deprive myself of any of the skillfully written dialogue. The more and more I read, the more I wanted to see. I spent a approximately four hours reading before my hubris got the better of me. I was so confident in my computer (or something), I had been neglecting to save regularly, and because I have my computer set to restart on that night, it shut off on me. For a few seconds I stared at the blank monitor that had held my attention so raptly not a moment before. It was then that I screamed. It was a sound of anguish and misery, one which I had never heard issued from my throat before. It took every ounce of my not inconsiderable willpower to keep myself from putting my head through the screen.

As I waited for my PC to reboot I realized how invested I had become in the story. I was shocked that something I had picked up for a very different reason had come to mean so much to me that the loss of it had caused me to scream out in anguish. When my computer started back up and I was looking at the main menu for the game that realized my true folly. It wasn't until then that I had realized I had completely neglected to save my game. It was with immense frustration and sadness that I clicked on New Game, and hit the Auto Skip option on the pause menu. Now, it really only took me about ten minutes to get back to the part at which I was at, but simply the fact that I was interrupted while reading this beautiful story bothered me greatly. It was with difficulty that I forced myself back into the story, but it wasn't long before I had completely blocked out the world around me once again. With renewed fervor I dove into the story.

Now, before reading on, keep this in mind: I do not cry. I have not truly broken down and cried in years. I am an extremely stoic person (or so I like to think). I have always thought that crying about something was pointless, and not worth the loss of liquid. I'm something of a heartless asshole in some respects. Anyway, I don't cry. Keep that in mind.

On my first play through of the game I had been going with Lilly's story-line, since her character appealed to me much more than any of the others, except for maybe Hanako. Also, I have a thing for blondes. So, I was pretty far along in her story, and it had been very touching, and I had long since started to really care about the characters. However, the most poignant moment in the game, emotionally at least, was when she is about to go home. It was then that I, confronted with the loss of a character I had come to care about, and almost love, began to sob. I was so invested in the story that I began to cry as the scene played out. As it concluded I felt like I had lost a piece of my heart. I realized I had stepped into the shoes of the main character so completely that I too felt his plight, and I daresay it affected me even more than it had affected him.

Although despite this shocking development I continued along in the game, refusing to accept that ending, hoping against hope that it was all a big trick, and the bliss that had been would be restored. As the main character chased her, I could feel my own heart beating in anticipation of what was to come, and when it did, I almost screamed aloud again. However, when the real resolution was finally achieved I once again began to cry, although this time not out of sadness, but a powerful sense of happiness, knowing that the choices I had made had led to what I had been hoping for. I'd gotten a truly happy ending.

The Part About Piracy

It's incredibly ironic that almost as soon as SOPA and PIPA are shot down I start pirating. Now, I'm not some sort of asshole who never pays for anything online. I have too much respect for developers to do that. So far the only thing that I've actually pirated are Microsoft Office Suite and Photoshop, and only that because I'm poor. I have no qualms about actually paying for software, it's just that my cash influx leaves me little room for expensive shit like that. Also, I needed to use those programs really badly at the time, and pirating them was my only truly viable option.

I've tried pirating before in the past actually, when I was younger and didn't understand the internet and computers as well as I do now. When I think back on it I realize that the only reason I didn't become a chronic pirate is that I didn't understand how torrents worked and I was too lazy to figure it out. It was easier just to pay for whatever it is that I want. And so the internet was saved from the greatest pirate the world had ever known because he was a lazy teenage prick. At least, that's how I like to think about it. Obviously that's something of a massive exaggeration, but still. In my zeal for pirating I would destroyed my computer a hundred times over from viruses I would have unwittingly downloaded, and my mother would have flayed me for it...

Actually, the more and more I think about it, I'm really glad I was a lazy asshole. As I've gotten older I've become far more appreciative of the work that developers do to get their product out there, primarily in the video game field, although of course that's not restricted to that only. Actually, about a year ago I pirated Plants vs. Zombeis. It left a horrible taste in my mouth. I deleted it from my hard drive the next day, and promptly bought it myself. It made me feel better, but I've never forgotten who guilty it made me feel, and since then I try not to let myself pirate, unless, in this case, my school career is on the line. Also, it makes me feel better knowing that had I actually bought the software, it would have set me back about the amount of money I make in an entire year.

Well, when I sat down to write about pirating, in my mind I saw page after page about my experiences with pirating, but that has yet to materialize. I doubt it ever will. Still, it feels good to get my thoughts down in writing (okay, fine, typing). Anyway, that's my own personal battle with piracy. I'm not trying to influence anyone, but if I do, I won't count it as a loss.

The Real Reason I'm Writing This

I just finished Katawa Shoujo. It was possibly the most powerful thing I've ever read before in my life. Let me put that in a bit of perspective. I have been reading since I was old enough to comprehend language. I have no clue how many books I've read in total, but I'm never far from something to read, and I constantly have as least three books sitting on my desk waiting to be read. So, for a Japanese visual novel written by a group of (supposed) twenty-somethings to affect me so profoundly, it has to be pretty fucking fantastic.

I had never heard about it until a few days ago, and that was caused by my own boredom as I waited for my Photoshop torrent to finish downloading (see first section). I had been puttering around on GB for a few minutes before I stumbled upon the main page for the Katawa Shoujo. I'm not going to lie, when I saw the word eroge in the description I became somewhat excited, and promptly started downloading it. I'm not ashamed to say that the reason I started reading this masterpiece was because I was horny. I had not read any of the blog or forum posts about it, and had no prior knowledge of how good it was, and I maintain that it was thanks to this that it had such an effect on me.

I started reading, and was impressed by the artwork and the music, but only half payed attention to the actually dialogue, expecting the already mentioned eroge elements to kick in immediately. I was quickly disappointed, but as I became bored, I started to actually pay attention to the writing itself. As I slowly realized what I had been missing I jumped out of that game, and started again fresh, not wanting to deprive myself of any of the skillfully written dialogue. The more and more I read, the more I wanted to see. I spent a approximately four hours reading before my hubris got the better of me. I was so confident in my computer (or something), I had been neglecting to save regularly, and because I have my computer set to restart on that night, it shut off on me. For a few seconds I stared at the blank monitor that had held my attention so raptly not a moment before. It was then that I screamed. It was a sound of anguish and misery, one which I had never heard issued from my throat before. It took every ounce of my not inconsiderable willpower to keep myself from putting my head through the screen.

As I waited for my PC to reboot I realized how invested I had become in the story. I was shocked that something I had picked up for a very different reason had come to mean so much to me that the loss of it had caused me to scream out in anguish. When my computer started back up and I was looking at the main menu for the game that realized my true folly. It wasn't until then that I had realized I had completely neglected to save my game. It was with immense frustration and sadness that I clicked on New Game, and hit the Auto Skip option on the pause menu. Now, it really only took me about ten minutes to get back to the part at which I was at, but simply the fact that I was interrupted while reading this beautiful story bothered me greatly. It was with difficulty that I forced myself back into the story, but it wasn't long before I had completely blocked out the world around me once again. With renewed fervor I dove into the story.

Now, before reading on, keep this in mind: I do not cry. I have not truly broken down and cried in years. I am an extremely stoic person (or so I like to think). I have always thought that crying about something was pointless, and not worth the loss of liquid. I'm something of a heartless asshole in some respects. Anyway, I don't cry. Keep that in mind.

On my first play through of the game I had been going with Lilly's story-line, since her character appealed to me much more than any of the others, except for maybe Hanako. Also, I have a thing for blondes. So, I was pretty far along in her story, and it had been very touching, and I had long since started to really care about the characters. However, the most poignant moment in the game, emotionally at least, was when she is about to go home. It was then that I, confronted with the loss of a character I had come to care about, and almost love, began to sob. I was so invested in the story that I began to cry as the scene played out. As it concluded I felt like I had lost a piece of my heart. I realized I had stepped into the shoes of the main character so completely that I too felt his plight, and I daresay it affected me even more than it had affected him.

Although despite this shocking development I continued along in the game, refusing to accept that ending, hoping against hope that it was all a big trick, and the bliss that had been would be restored. As the main character chased her, I could feel my own heart beating in anticipation of what was to come, and when it did, I almost screamed aloud again. However, when the real resolution was finally achieved I once again began to cry, although this time not out of sadness, but a powerful sense of happiness, knowing that the choices I had made had led to what I had been hoping for. I'd gotten a truly happy ending.

Them feels, bro.

If you've only done one route the others are still all really good. Glad to see a lot of people are enjoying the game.

@benjaebe said:

If you've only done one route the others are still all really good.

Exactly. Just you wait until you tackle Hanako's route. Yea, you have to deal with Hisao (I believe I've made my opinions on him more than clear), but Hanako's character and story are so compelling that she easily launched into second place for best route in the game. (Rin still gets the best route.)

Im sorry, I read that as:

Argh, I be a Huge Cunt! Oh, and a visual novel connoisseur.

@Dagbiker said:

Im sorry, I read that as:

Argh, I be a Huge Cunt! Oh, and a visual novel connoisseur.

I read it as:

Argh, I be a huge cunt! Oh, and a cunt connoisseur.

@Dagbiker said:

Im sorry, I read that as:

Argh, I be a Huge Cunt! Oh, and a visual novel connoisseur.

I read it as:

Argh, I be a huge cunt! Oh, and a cunt connoisseur.

I don't get the mass love for Katawa Shoujo. As someone who has played way too many visual novels, Katawa Shoujo doesn't do anything to really stand out - other than be about disabled girls. Which isn't enough, really. It isn't as well written as it thinks and its protagonist is godawful.

@EuanDewar:

Ah, but they do. For example, they all know that the penis goes in the vagina. (Except for Emi, maybe, but she learns in time.)

@DonChipotle said:

I don't get the mass love for Katawa Shoujo. As someone who has played way too many visual novels, Katawa Shoujo doesn't do anything to really stand out - other than be about disabled girls. Which isn't enough, really. It isn't as well written as it thinks and its protagonist is godawful.

I agree, though I have not played many VN's (at least, japanese ones) but the ones I have played have been better than KS.

no one agrees with me about don't take it personally though ;_;

@DonChipotle: I think one thing it has going for it is that it's easy to obtain since it is free. The barrier for entry is low, unlike a lot of VNs that you need to find a patch to get translated which may or may not be any good.

@Animasta said:

@DonChipotle said:

I don't get the mass love for Katawa Shoujo. As someone who has played way too many visual novels, Katawa Shoujo doesn't do anything to really stand out - other than be about disabled girls. Which isn't enough, really. It isn't as well written as it thinks and its protagonist is godawful.

I agree, though I have not played many VN's (at least, japanese ones) but the ones I have played have been better than KS.

no one agrees with me about don't take it personally though ;_;

I'm with you guys, Katawa Shoujo doesn't really stack up if you're an avid VN player.

@Animasta: @Cloudenvy: Would you be willing to recommend some for me? I'd like to compare them for myself.

@MisterDunlap: hrm mostly western ones; don't take it personally, babe, it just ain't your story is free, and also (IMO) quite amazing; it's about a school teacher in canada who reads his students (basically) facebook during class and shit (it's better than it sounds). I just finished one, a little costly but it was fantastic; MAGICAL DIARY, which is set in a magical school in scotland new hampshire and is all about a girl who knows nothing of magic, and it has some weird puzzle elements and going to different classes on different days (somewhat like persona 4) Also Digital: A Love Story maybe, though it is quite different than the others and might be a bit polarizing to you (all about BBSes and hacking and love).

@MisterDunlap: Well, there's always the classics. Clannad, Fate/Stay Night, Umineko, Ever17, Saya no Uta.

I'm just blindly recommending stuff.

@Cloudenvy said:

@MisterDunlap: Well, there's always the classics. Clannad, Fate/Stay Night, Umineko, Ever17, Saya no Uta.

I'm just blindly recommending stuff.

I still haven't even started Ever17, and I have it all set to go already. I'll do that now. Swan Song might be of some interest, as well.

@TwilitEnd656 said:

@Cloudenvy said:

@MisterDunlap: Well, there's always the classics. Clannad, Fate/Stay Night, Umineko, Ever17, Saya no Uta.

I'm just blindly recommending stuff.

I still haven't even started Ever17, and I have it all set to go already. I'll do that now. Swan Song might be of some interest, as well.

You better! and yeah, Swan Song is pretty good.

@DonChipotle: @Cloudenvy: @Animasta: Guys, consider the circumstances, the majority of people who played KS on this site, are not people who has played or normally would play a VN "including me". Ks got a good reputation around here, it's readily translated and it's free. So it's quite likely the first VN for a bunch of people, factor that in with low expectations on the genre and voila, it looks fucking amazing from my point of view.

Even if I get around to more VNs in the future, this will have that nostalgic feel of "best game ever", just because it was such a surprise.

Bagged and tagged, welcome to the feel brigade.

Real men do cry.

@Cloudenvy:

Currently about 5 or 6 endings into ever17 , can't reccomend it more, you can also get a translation for remember11 i think , and http://tlwiki.tsukuru.info/index.php?title=Never_7 there is the translation progress for never7. No idea how they stack up to ever17 though having not played them yet.

Games are almost free when Steam sales are on. But I'd say it's OK to try before you buy. Pirate if there is no demo, play it and buy it if you like it. Uninstall it if you don't like it.

@TobbRobb said:

@DonChipotle: @Cloudenvy: @Animasta: Guys, consider the circumstances, the majority of people who played KS on this site, are not people who has played or normally would play a VN "including me". Ks got a good reputation around here, it's readily translated and it's free. So it's quite likely the first VN for a bunch of people, factor that in with low expectations on the genre and voila, it looks fucking amazing from my point of view.

Even if I get around to more VNs in the future, this will have that nostalgic feel of "best game ever", just because it was such a surprise.

I think it is kind of bullshit that KS gets a pass while other games within the same genre don't. It's seen as 'creepy' or 'weird' for someone to like VNs/eroge yet KS comes along and suddenly it's a-okay.

KS has Kenji. That alone makes it bad.

Ehehehehe,,,

Another to the fold.

Yeah, I've played story-driven VNs before, but nothing labelled as eroge. I'd still consider Katawa Shoujo as more of a story-driven visual novel with a couple of pretty great morals/messages, but also has some incredibly awkward, yet mostly contextualized sex scenes. Lilly's is probably the most romanticized and least awkward of the bunch.

I'd encourage you to see all there is to see, if you feel that strongly about it. Every route has something to offer.

@DonChipotle: And once again, The concept sounds creepy on paper, but people actually gave KS a shot and saw that it wasn't. I never said it was better or different at all, I just said that it was more accesible. No one who thinks it seems creepy will go through the trouble of language patches to see for themselves.

@TobbRobb: that's probably the main reason people are so crazy for it, is because they had terrible expectations due to the premise and the one thing about it is that it's not super offensive

@Animasta: That's what I think at least. It was a nice suprise for people with negative expectations. So the joy was inflated through the roof.

@MisterDunlap: I just finished this game too, thanks to VGK's blog too. I can't believe how much I enjoyed it, I must have put like 6 and a half hours into my first run.

Went the Shizune route first as she interested me the most, and you spend a lot of time with her at the beginning. I'll put the rest in spoiler tags in case you want to play that route still.

@Video_Game_King: Thanks for the RISK tip in your blog, probably would have failed my first run if it wasn't for that. What were your thoughts on the Shizune route though? Mine are above in the spoiler tags. I'll probably go back and try some of the others, how far in do you need to skip to get to the first choice that matters?

@TobbRobb said:

@DonChipotle: And once again, The concept sounds creepy on paper, but people actually gave KS a shot and saw that it wasn't. I never said it was better or different at all, I just said that it was more accesible. No one who thinks it seems creepy will go through the trouble of language patches to see for themselves.

I would hope that this widespread acceptance of KS would be like something of a revelation for the masses. If they can see that this game about disabled girls is not creepy, maybe the one about a teenage boy fusing with his friend to become a princess who fights other princesses would also not be creepy or the one with the robot girl who lives in a planetarium and the relationship that blossoms when a dude stumbles in by accident could also not be creepy.

Viva la VN

@DonChipotle: wait in which one do they fuse? sounds amazing

@Animasta said:

@DonChipotle: wait in which one do they fuse? sounds amazing

Princess Waltz. A pretty good VN that has an actual battle system so it isn't just clicking and making choices, though there's that too.

@Chavtheworld:

I thought she had a pretty interesting route. Yea, it wasn't as good as Rin's route (even though she has the benefit of being far the fuck away from Nomiya), and she didn't really have any problems, but there are enough fun moments to make it good enough.

@Video_Game_King: Yeah, I your quote about Hisao forcing himself into all the girls problems interesting when Shizune doesn't seem to have anything that serious for Hisao to try and get involved in.

@DonChipotle said:

@TobbRobb said:

@DonChipotle: And once again, The concept sounds creepy on paper, but people actually gave KS a shot and saw that it wasn't. I never said it was better or different at all, I just said that it was more accesible. No one who thinks it seems creepy will go through the trouble of language patches to see for themselves.

I would hope that this widespread acceptance of KS would be like something of a revelation for the masses.

I'd hope so as well. Having everyone suddenly accept VN's and discover the great stuff that's out there would be awesome.

A neat side-effect would be people not thinking I'm crazy when I mention that there are better VN's out there than KS!

@Chavtheworld:

She's the exception, though. It's most noticeable in Emi and Hanako's routes, but you also see it in Rin's route when he's a huge dick to her (and it's made even worse when you see that she's not really capable of anger, at least not on the levels that any of the other girls reach), or when he dashes off to the goddamn airport to get Lilly back.

@Video_Game_King: I think I'm going to go through Emi's route next, so I'll know what you mean soon enough then.

@Chavtheworld:

Let me just post this relatively spoiler free picture as a preview of things to come:

@Video_Game_King: Someone had to put him in his place.

@Chavtheworld:

Except that doesn't happen.

@Video_Game_King said:

@Chavtheworld:

Let me just post this relatively spoiler free picture as a preview of things to come:

There's a reason I never take that path during Emi's route, and it's precisely because of that. Hisao goes full on MASTER OF ROMANCE mode and completely ignores everything everyone has been telling him for the latter half of the game. Much prefer staying and talking to the mom.

@benjaebe said:

Much prefer staying and talking to the mom.

Same here, since the other options forces her mom to think one of two things:

• Emi's taking a dump, or
• She floated a keg of Gatorade earlier that day.

I doubt that Hisao wanting to be there for either of those things reflects well on his character.

@AndrewB said:

I'd encourage you to see all there is to see, if you feel that strongly about it. Every route has something to offer.

I'd like to ask some advice about this, I want to go back and see the other routes, but I don't know whether I should use the skip function on all the text I've seen before and then just read the new bits, or go through it all as a whole again. Because I chose Shizune as my first path, that still feels like the "true" story to me, so any way I go about it feels wrong at the moment. Heck I saved after every day so I could probably just reload and choose different options that way.

@Chavtheworld: Had the same feeling myself. Gave it a little while before I started feeling eager to see the rest of the paths.

My advice is to selectively skip. Skip the parts you know you're familiar with and don't need/want to see again (all those damn Kenji dialogs...). The only common route is chapter 1, and once you've seen everything there is to see there before you've "locked in" to a particular girl, you can skip through it all. Obviously, the skip function will stop if it reaches text you haven't seen before, anyway. If you don't care about spoiling the structure of the story, I can link you to a flow chart that will get you down any route you desire. I ended up using it as another method to speed along the process after making it through a couple of times.

Just be sure to take your time with the rest of it, and enjoy.

@AndrewB: Thanks for your thoughts, I had just realised the skip thing stops. At the moment I'm using CTRL, and releasing it if I feel I need a reminder of what was going on.

With regard to the flowchart, I'll pass for now as I think I know what choices I need to make to see Emi and maybe Rin's, but later on I might need it. I really want to see this Kenji ending I keep hearing about too ahahah!

@MisterDunlap said:

The Part About Piracy

It's incredibly ironic that almost as soon as SOPA and PIPA are shot down I start pirating. Now, I'm not some sort of asshole who never pays for anything online. I have too much respect for developers to do that. So far the only thing that I've actually pirated are Microsoft Office Suite and Photoshop, and only that because I'm poor. I have no qualms about actually paying for software, it's just that my cash influx leaves me little room for expensive shit like that. Also, I needed to use those programs really badly at the time, and pirating them was my only truly viable option.

Here's the thing, downloading office and photoshop for free kind of does make you an asshole. There's no real excuses here, if you don't have the money then you shouldn't use the service or try to obtain the product. If you really needed them badly at the time then you find cheaper or free alternatives.

@benjaebe said:

Them feels, bro.

@Chavtheworld: No problem!

You may as well see Kenji's right off. It's definitely the shortest...

People still haven't finished playing KS yet? Baffling.

@Ravenlight: some people might still have trepidation playing a game about dating disabled girls

that feel.

@Animasta said:

@Ravenlight: some people might still have trepidation playing a game about dating disabled girls

What could you possibly mean?

@Ravenlight: I hadn't heard about it till like, less than a week ago. I also had never even heard of the genre till KS.