Katawa Shoujo, the queen of homemade VN

[giatam86]

Anyone loves katawa shoujo? Wich favorite character?

I love so much Lilly because she's my first route and my first happy ending. I've found very interesting her story, maybe not the best, but very similar to my personal life ♥

Thank you everybody will answer

[mitchhamilton]

katawa shoujo was a lot of peoples gateway visual novel and was for me a way to see visual novels as more than just nukige stories. i consider it vn of the decade because of how influential it was and its strange background. a vn from 4chan could've been terrible or great for meme reasons but it turned out to be a genuinely heartfelt story with a lot of passion put into it.

 

as for favorite character i gotta go with hanako. lily is realy great and i loved the story but hanako is my absolute favorite.

[rimvydasm]

I love Katawa shoujo,it's one of the first vn i ever read and after all these years it's my favourite visual novel.my favorite character is Lilly,i love the way she looks( first time we met her in game,i was thinking how beutiful she looks) and her personality:she's caring and friendly person.2nd favorite is Emi,i love how determinated she is,even accident couldn't stop her keep running. I also like Misha,i wish she was romancable(maybe switch places with Shizune-she my least favorite person in vn). Katawa shoujo is very important visual novel to me,it's teaches very inmortant lessons like,never give up,importance of friendship and so on.

[Plk_Lesiak]

I'm, strangely enough, in the process of slowly going through Katawa Shoujo for the first time... But I'm already pretty sure nothing's going to beat Hanako route for me, and Hanako as a heroine. While I think Lily's is plenty enjoyable, it just didn't have the same impact and strong theme. Seeing parts of Shizune's route now, I like its flow and the kind of ambivalent character Shizune herself is. I wonder if something is going to make me hate her like so many people do later on... 

Edited May 29, 2020 by Plk_Lesiak

[rimvydasm]

1 minute ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

Seeing parts of Shizune's route now, I like its flow and the kind of ambivalent character Shizune herself is. I wonder if something is going to make me hate her like so many people do later on... 

i personally just not a fan of her personality,also   Shizune's good ending is kinda disapointing,but her bad ending is pretty emotional.

[Spooky Saint]

I loved every route except of Shizune. She just doesn't sit well with me. I don't usually say this for VN heroines but...I really hated Shizune as a character and my hate became much worse when I found out that there was no Misha's route except that affair part which leads to bad ending. I could have easily chosen Misha over Shizune. As far as my favourite routes go its Emi>>>Hanako>>Lily>Rin. I don't even consider Shizune's route to give it a rating but it's just my personal feelings about her. As for other people who do consider her as a good heroine, I can understand why? Its not like her personality is bad, but I just hate her personality (though my tastes in good personality can't be termed as decent one either considering my fav Grisaia heroine was Makina). 

But yeah...Katawa Shoujo, a game which I love more than many Japanese ones. Tbh I never considered a western VN to be so mesmerizing because when I looked at a vast majority of games made in Ren'Py, only a handful of them were decent enough to be called a "professional" VN. I didn't even knew it was made by a bunch of people on 4chan, though I was somehow intrigued by "4 leaf clover studio". And what they achieved was monumental? For a freeware, this game had everything of top notch quality. And I think this is the only english Visual novel that even Japanese people know about. 

[Plk_Lesiak]

1 hour ago, Spooky Saint said:

And I think this is the only english Visual novel that even Japanese people know about. 

...other than DDLC.

[duhu]

I didn't care for it much myself, but it's free and every VN fan should experience it.

[Formlose Gestalt]

A few years back I read Hanakos route and from my first impression she was by far my favorite character in the game. I ought to read the whole VN at some point. In any case even now I still have good memories and a high opinion of the game. ( At least the parts I read anyway.)

[Maquia02]

From the first time I played Katawa Shoujo I completely fell in love with the Novel, it has a touch that I cannot find in any other, of course I admit that it is not the best novel that has been created but I have no doubts that it is my Favorite Novel.
I think Lilly's route is the best, since our character gets a much deeper and more significant relationship with Lilly than with any of the other girls, and we are also shown that he is willing to risk his life for Lilly, which we do not see. at another time.

[adamstan]

As for my favourite routes and heroines - definitely Hanako and Lily. I also loved the atmosphere created by soundtrack.

[nihilloligasan]

I highly recommend anyone who likes Katawa Shoujo to check out the development blog. It made the experience of playing the game a lot more enjoyable and interesting.

[Zidan209]

I am someone who hasn't even read Shizune's route, because it was kinda too boring for me and I stopped soon after entering the route.

The other routes were pretty fine though. I read Hanako's route first because it intrigued me to see what's up with that shy girl stuff, but in the end Lilly became my favorite heroine. In my opinion, Rin's route was the most interesting.

I've read this a while ago, maybe as my 3rd or 4th VN. If I was to read it later, like now for example, I probably wouldn't be able to enjoy it as much, as the drama is too tame in comparison to most of what I've read and comedy is not its strong point. But it was a solid experience nonetheless.

[Silvz]

1 hour ago, Zidan209 said:

I've read this a while ago, maybe as my 3rd or 4th VN. If I was to read it later, like now for example, I probably wouldn't be able to enjoy it as much,

This is exactly what happened to me. I did enjoy the beginning of the VN, and the characters, but it was so "common" after reading dozens of other VNs that I simply could not find the motivation to keep reading. I plan to someday return to it, but as for now, I have never finished Katawa Shoujo.

[Nekopie]

Yes, I love the game. In fact, I’m currently using the Japanese translation as my first serious attempt to read in Japanese. I’m not sure if it’s fine to read translations instead of Japanese VNs for actual learning of the language though.

On 29/5/2020 at 3:33 PM, Plk_Lesiak said:

I'm, strangely enough, in the process of slowly going through Katawa Shoujo for the first time... But I'm already pretty sure nothing's going to beat Hanako route for me, and Hanako as a heroine. While I think Lily's is plenty enjoyable, it just didn't have the same impact and strong theme. Seeing parts of Shizune's route now, I like its flow and the kind of ambivalent character Shizune herself is. I wonder if something is going to make me hate her like so many people do later on... 

I hate to break it for most people, but I actually prefer Shizune over Hanako, perhaps because I finished Hanako’s route with her bad ending, which to be honest, was actually more interesting than her good ending, and also because she embodied in my mind the kind of personality I don’t want to have nor see in people I would meet. I’m not sure what did you found appealing of her, but for me, it felt much like I was a psychologist rather than a boyfriend, up to the point I seriously wanted to end this quickly, no matter the cost.

In short, she’s a awesome friend and a terrible girlfriend.

 

Regarding Shizune, I guess you need to finish the route in order to understand her. Unlike Hanako, you are supposed to learn to love yourself in order to love Shizune, which is essentialy the opposite people often expect for other heroines. I believe people fail to bond with other people because they hate themselves. Aside from Shzune, and Emi to a certain extent, no other route actually pointed this.

For me, feeling in an equal relationship feels better than healing the other in my relationship.

 

However, this is just my opinion. I don’t expect people to suddenly change their minds, to be honest.

I have a headcanon regarding her unpopularity, but it requires spoilers to understand it, so I will end my rant here.

[Mago Ivo]

Katawa Shoujo is a masterpiece for me. Every route is beautiful in its own right (except for Shizune's maybe ) .

My favorite routes are probably Hanako's and Lily's. I remember that I liked Rin's route, but I was disappointed by it at some point (don't remember why).

[Spooky Saint]

23 hours ago, Plk_Lesiak said:

...other than DDLC.

DDLC is good tbh but still its kinda rip off. On the other hand though Katawa Shoujo was filled with some cliche it was truly on OG story. DDLC has its fanbase but its nothing compared to Katawa Shoujo

[Maquia02]

11 hours ago, Mago Ivo said:

Katawa Shoujo is a masterpiece for me. Every route is beautiful in its own right (except for Shizune's maybe ) .

My favorite routes are probably Hanako's and Lily's. I remember that I liked Rin's route, but I was disappointed by it at some point (don't remember why).

I also think that the Shizune route is perhaps the one that lacks the most significant link, for example. Do they  want to tell us that the relationship with Shizune was just another courtship that ended when you graduated?
On Lilly's route, she places Hisao above her own family, and that's not something you would do for any boyfriend, as I already said, I think the couple that really complements herself perfectly is Lilly and Hisao.

[Zalor]

On 5/30/2020 at 4:25 AM, Spooky Saint said:

And I think this is the only english Visual novel that even Japanese people know about. 

True story, I remember talking to some guy in an izayaka and some how the topic of VNs came up. He had only read a couple, but among them was Katawa Shoujo. So I can confirm, Katawa Shoujo is even well respected in Japan. 

[Spooky Saint]

5 minutes ago, Zalor said:

True story, I remember talking to some guy in an izayaka and some how the topic of VNs came up. He had only read a couple, but among them was Katawa Shoujo. So I can confirm, Katawa Shoujo is even well respected in Japan. 

Lmao and the only Western VN to make a mark there. There are some good ones from western developers but none has reached that level of Katawa Shoujo(DDLC maybe but it's still a ripoff despite being well polished). Tbh even after completing it, I didn't realize that it was a western VN for a long time. Not to say Western VNs are bad, but good ones are very few like Everlasting Summer(these devs are particularly top-notch), The letter, etc 

[littleshogun]

I remeber that my old roomate did try Katawa Shoujo back at 2010, and back then it's just a trial. As for the VN, well it's popular for sure and also it show that 4chan can make an OELVN that dod resemble usual charage if they want, and that it's often said as the good starter VN. While I say that it's a nice VN, too bad that I can't add it to my translated VNs list for obvious reason, but at least it's nice to know that Japanese did appriciate Katawa Shoujo.