QCF: Katawa Shoujo

On a typical winter evening, one that wasn’t very different from any other, a young man stands beside a beautiful woman. As he tenses up, his heart is overwhelmed in such a bitterly ironic way through such a sad turn of events. So beings the first act that sets the stage up for the controversial indie visual novel dating-simulator known as Katawa Shoujo.

Stemmed from a concept derived from an image board from the infamous 4Chan forum, Developer Four-Leaf studios brings a bishōjo tale catering to more than just your standard Japanese audience, but can this game appeal to western gamers beyond it’s questionable premise? Prepare to be surprised.

It’s a tricky approach to discuss this game to be honest; I mean the allure of the genre is almost entirely supported by its narrative alone. However, Katawa Shoujo is a labor that embraces its conventions just as much as it works to excel beyond the limits of said conventions. Expectations towards a simple presentation are immediately broken as you begin your tale. The special care towards the graphics both from the setting to the characters involved and every aspect of their moods or actions demonstrated through play are excellently drawn. The humble beginnings are incredibly deceptive when contrasted towards the produced result, as you aren’t simply taken through repeated back drops and character models, the additions of animation, additional backdrops of scenery, and animated cut scenes do help distinguish it from its other bishōjo visual-novel peers.

The core fundamentals provide an ample amount of customization, which is surprising considering the linear nature of the game. When initiating your subsequent plays, you’re given an opportunity to skip past the familiar scenes and text, which help adapt that particular play into feeling a sense of refreshment of the previous one. Anytime during game play, if you feel like you’ve reached a particular scene or moment in the game, you’re more than welcome to just enter menu and simply eliminate the game HUD and freely print screen the image. Finally, there’s a text history of everything you’ve done prior to assist you in making the pivotal decisions that you’ll encounter as you progress the game. It’s features like this, though somewhat inconsequential to the overall quality of the game, still manage to add to the charm in the game’s framework that shouldn’t be ignored.

So here’s where things really get interesting, the premise of Katawa Shoujo, you play as Hisao Nakai, a young man who has become afflicted with arrhythmia and pushes him to enroll into Yamaku High School for the disabled and challenged. It’s here where you’ll encounter many characters and begin to choose your path of dating one of them near the end of the game, typical bishōjo fare by its structure, but the execution is where the game truly exceeds your expectations. The concept is a bit brusque, to say the least, given the ease of crossing the line of insensitivity is a thin one. But even at first glance, the characters possess a care put into their design that portrays the different lifestyles and hardships one could imagine with their given disability, be it a physical or traumatic one, and does so all in such a tasteful way. The writing for the dialogue and narrative is handled in such an immaculate fashion, between Hisao’s inner monologues playing the role of narrative to the social interactions encountered; the game becomes self-aware of its provocative undertones, but never plays on them for the sake of easy shock factor. Instead, it delivers a gripping presentation that can appeal to so many different ways to feel.

The one trait that stands out is the actual protagonist himself. In many different dating simulators, the protagonist is more less a shallow cipher used simply as a passport to get to the heart of the game (the female characters you encounter). But Nakai manages to balance this formula in where he’s only a cipher in areas where it appropriately draws you into the immersion of the story, and then simply fleshes himself out more and more; it only works more to the benefit of delivering such a compelling story.

The branching paths that you take are very subtle, never being quite too clear on what consequence they may hold, and manage to keep each play through more refreshing than the last. The only gripe I really have is how gaps in which you make these decisions are the only form of interaction you have, which could have been supported by more minor decisions that could have been laid just to keep the player’s interest through simple interactions. But again, this isn’t a very large gripe due to the outstanding pacing of the script and its content.

I guess as a game, Katawa Shoujo doesn’t do anything to break the mold, but just being able to make me feel the way I did is something I don’t think anyone should pass up. Embracing very few conventions that would qualify Katawa Shoujo as a game didn’t prevent the interaction I had to where I was emotionally invested into a form of media that I had influenced and controlled to a certain extent. If that’s not playing a good video game, then I don’t know what would be.

The torrent file for the game has been made available free to anyone who wants to play, so there isn’t really any excuse for you, is there? Go play something that will question the way you thought you could feel.