Katawa Shoujo (Disability Girls)

[Faun]

Katawa Shoujo is a bishoujo-style visual novel set in the fictional Yamaku High School for disabled children, located somewhere in modern Japan. Hisao Nakai, a normal boy living a normal life, has his life turned upside down when a congenital heart defect forces him to move to a new school after a long hospitalization. Despite his difficulties, Hisao is able to find friends—and perhaps love, if he plays his cards right. There are five main paths corresponding to the 5 main female characters, each path following the storyline pertaining to that character.

So, who are the characters involved in this drama?

Hisao Nakai (The protagnoist)
Troubled over his months-long stay at the hospital after his heart almost gave out and trying to adjust to his new surroundings, he is trying hard to find his place in world. After being thrown into a new beginning, the chaotic circumstances have forced Hisao to rethink his apathetic disposition, especially regarding things like life, friendship and future.

Emi Ibarazaki
Despite being left with legs amputated below the knee, Emi is perhaps one of the most cheery, happy-go-lucky girls on the entire globe, let alone the school. Not one to be left in despair even after the accident that claimed her legs, Emi views her disability more as a blessing, her prosthetic legs having brought her to the heights of her ability on the track team rather than becoming a permanent obstacle.

Hanako Ikezawa
At a young age, Hanako had a traumatic experience that left her life in shambles. Her father died when their home burned down in an accident, which also disfigured Hanako herself permanently. She is reclusive to the extreme, shunning from all other people to the point of actually panicking from any social contact. Her only trusted friend is Lilly, who has taken Hanako under her wing ever since the two were introduced to each other.

Lilly Satou
Blind since birth, Lilly is caring, responsible and friendly - the perfect foil to Hanako, her best friend, whom she shares an almost mother-daughter relationship with, in addition to her free time often being spent drinking tea alongside her companion. In class she is a diligent student, with her sense of confidence serving her well in her role as class representative of class 3-2.

Rin Tezuka
Since Rin’s arms are tiny stumps due to a severe birth defect and subsequent surgery, she uses her feet and occasionally her mouth to do everything, which includes painting. Because of her disability, using skirts is tough, so Rin is wearing a boy’s uniform at school. Her creativity is matched by her philosophical streak: Rin is fond of occasionally getting lost in thought and giving voice to abstract ideas about man, the universe, and other things that thoroughly confuse people.

Shizune Hakamichi
Strong willed and forceful, Shizune is definitely the leader type. She’s been the class rep, despite being deaf and mute, for as long as her class has had one, and generally takes charge in just about any situation she’s placed in. Shizune is known around the school as a fearsome taskmaster, and skilled manipulator, but also as a fair and just leader.

Shiina “Misha” Mikado
Misha is the interpreter for Shizune and a fellow member of the student council. Cheery, playful, and never one to pull a punch, she happily joins in Shizune's attempts to get Hisao onto the student council.


And then we have a few minor, recurring characters.

Kenji Seto
Borderline hikkikomori, Kenji likes to spend a lot of time in his room, planning for whatever the radical feminist movement's next move may be. He is leery of the instant attraction that Hisao seems to have brought upon himself, but nonetheless very pleased to finally have a hallmate.

Nurse
The chief of the nurse staff of Yamaku, and a surprisingly young person for someone in his position. He is a funny and jovial guy, always a good for a laugh and well liked by students. Nonetheless, he has a heart of pure gold and he is very passionate and serious about his job.

Akio Muto
Both homeroom and science teacher of 3-3, and just as much out of touch with his class as he is out of touch with reality. Probably born to be a teacher (no matter how much his students disagree), his greatest skill is the ability to ignore irrelevant things completely (no matter how much anyone who wishes he'd remember their names disagrees).

Yuuko Shirikawa
Yuuko has serious problems with managing her life, which makes her the perfect person to ask for help to manage one's own. She funds her university studies by working part time at a popular cafe. The lengths she goes to avoid being fired for her natural clumsiness bewilder other people, along with her neurotic attention to detail and frequent streaks of depression.



So, what is this actually about? I have you the summary with a few useful links in there, but sometime that isn't enough for people. Hisao Nakai, the main character that you will view the story from, has a heart attack one day and wakes up to find that he suffers from Arrythmia, a serious condition of the heart that causes abnormal electrical activity in the heart, usually to beat too fast or slow. After staying in the hospital for four months, leaving his hospital room unassisted less times then you have fingers on one hand, he is cleared to leave the hospital but is informed that he won't be going back to his usual school. Upon the recommendation of his doctor and parents, he is transferred to Yamaku High School, a school that has facilities meant to deal with kids that have unusual conditions. Hearing all this, he immediately sets himself up for disappointment and the worst, whatever that may be...

Some history of Katawa Shoujo is necessary, because it's amazing that the project is even this far into development. The game does come from 4chan, in a sense. Back in 2006, someone colored and translated a single page that was a concept design (assumingly) tossed aside by a doujin company who was publishing an unrelated manga. It was put in as a bonus along two other pages that have yet to be seen. In 2007, it was posted on 4chan's /a/ board. For some reason, /a/ went batshit for it. They started putting out ideas, drawing stuff, going all kinds of crazy for ONE page of concept art. Several people decided to take the helm of these ideas, against impossible odds of it actually succeeding, and, through events that can be read here, "established" Four Leaf Studios. While at this point they are truly a separate entity from where they once came, the name is a tribute. If you actually take the time to read that link, it's amazing the project even has a demo. It seems things are stable now and the VN is continuing onward.

Considering I wrote this much, I might as well toss out my personal opinion of it. When I first downloaded and installed it I played for three hours. I can't remember the last time I sat down and read a book for three hours. I can't say that the writing was totally gripping and had me by the balls, but it was interesting enough and most of all, I was still amazed that this as an amateur team doing something like this. While I only have one experience to go off of in terms of what is professional and what isn't in the VN world (I played through Tsukihime a few years ago), I was impressed. The art and writing were great and I didn't see any real flaws in what was going on. It was really good, and the complete opposite of everything you'd come to expect from a VN if you've been on the internet long enough.

Hopefully you'll enjoy Katawa Shoujo. I did and am patiently waiting the final product, which I'm assuming will be free because this is an amateur project. According to the developer blog, it will be [del]more than a year until we see a final product[/del] [del]coming out January 4th! It's been a long time but it releases next year.[/del]



It's released. Click the image above for a link to the blog post with the downloads. Torrent and DDL are avaliable.
Katawa Shoujo Dev Blog

Game Torrent:
Windows version: http://dl.katawa-shoujo.com/gold/%5B...5D.exe.torrent

Linux version: http://dl.katawa-shoujo.com/gold/%5B...ar.bz2.torrent

Mac version: http://dl.katawa-shoujo.com/gold/%5B...5D.dmg.torrent

Arc Flowcharts
Katawa shoujo full flowchart V2.7
Act 1 V2.7
Rin's arc V2.7
Shizune's arc V2.7
Hanako's arc V2.7
Lilly's arc V2.7
Emi's arc V2.7[/QUOTE]

Credits to Feuver.

Soundtrack Download:
http://katawa-shoujo.com/download.php

Alpha Build Screenshots
http://imgur.com/a/U0QxX

Useful links (sprites, bgm, sounds, fonts etc):
http://r-a-dio.com/ks/
http://renpy.org/
http://butsic.us.to/katawa/

Taken from Facepunch thread started by the user "Banned?".

[Krow]

Very, very interesting concept. Will definitely check this one out.

[Faun]

Can't decide which path should I choose: Hanako's or Rin's ?

Story is simply brilliant.

[Krow]

I was thinking it might be like witcher in terms of tough choices.

[Faun]

Well, for one, there are good endings and bad endings on each character's arc.

[Krow]

I am excited about playing this now.

[Gollum]

Isn't this illegal? posting torrent links of anime games

[Faun]

Isn't this illegal? posting torrent links of anime games

It's a free game. The link is from developer's blog itself.

[Krow]

Isn't this illegal? posting torrent links of anime games

It would have been better had you checked out the blog before posting. Anyway, this is a free game. 21 devs from across the world got together for one game.

[nims11]

Awesome, the game uses words beautifully. Music And Story is nice.
I wish we had more control of the character (Like Persona 3/4)

[Piyush]

gotta check it asap
thanks for the share guys

[Faun]

[Faun]

Some fan art.

Gaben Misha


Misha Pseudogiant


Misha


Kenji


Rin


Hanako Alice


Rin Necromorph

[doomgiver]

you guys read shoujo?!!?!
i prefer yuri xD

[Faun]

^^Read ?

It's a game.

[nims11]

^^ i won't call it a game either, it is a visual novel(wikipedia)

[Arsenal_Gunners]

Weirdest thing I have seen this month.Nice.

[Faun]

^^ i won't call it a game either, it is a visual novel(wikipedia)

Yeah, I forgot that.

[Piyush]

hey Faun are there more of like these visual novels
this is fun
somewhat like digital manga

[Faun]

Dunno but you might want to checkout the thread on facepunch forums, or I will have a peek at it. But AFAIK nothing comes closer to this in terms of story and the attachment with characters.

[Piyush]

Dunno but you might want to checkout the thread on facepunch forums, or I will have a peek at it. But AFAIK nothing comes closer to this in terms of story and the attachment with characters.

thanks will do
will share anything like this novel
its just too good to close in between
I only close it when my eyes starts to burn

@faun

Spoiler:

I just fell off the roof while having a drink with Kenji.I died.*credits roll*

its just 14%complete
how can i complete the whole story.Even the ACT 1 is partially completed.and rest of the 5 acts (I guess related to each girl) is locked for me.How can I unlock them?

[Faun]

@faun

Spoiler:

I just fell off the roof while having a drink with Kenji.I died.*credits roll*

its just 14%complete
how can i complete the whole story.Even the ACT 1 is partially completed.and rest of the 5 acts (I guess related to each girl) is locked for me.How can I unlock them?

Each character have their own arc, depending upon the choices you made. I got one flow chart from fp forum. I'll put the link here.

Finally found the link to flowchart after scouring through the thread in fp:

Katawa shoujo full flowchart V2.7
Act 1 V2.7
Rin's arc V2.7
Shizune's arc V2.7
Hanako's arc V2.7
Lilly's arc V2.7
Emi's arc V2.7

Official soundtrack is up for download. Link in original post.

[Piyush]

appreciate that

[Piyush]

completed Shizune/Misha Arc

Spoiler:

didnt know there were ero scenes too

[Piyush]

Completed each and every possible arc/story
Here's my honest review:

First of all this was my first Visual Novel .
So when I was installing it, I thought it was a game since I never played a VN before.But I was was shocked ( and somewhat down) to learn that its almost like a manga.So there were mixed feelings from my side, whether I play it or not.
Since it was a weekend, I thought of giving it a try.And to my surprise, this journey turned out to be remarkably good.This is going to be a permanent memory in my case .

I'll just summarize my experience with each character's story/arc to ease up things a lil bit.

Lily: A classic love story.....you cant remain dry eyed in the end
Hanako: A heart touching love story....the one I liked the most
Rin: Mysteriously interesting love story
Emi: Love story with loads of fun in between
Shizune: A normal love story with parties and festivals a lot

Thats all I can say or else I'd end up spoiling the fun
I would sincerely recommend all of you guys to give it a shot.....you wont find something like that so soon.

[Faun]

Nice, not getting time and inclination to finish any game apart from occasional Killing Floor sessions.

Will finish Emi's path this weekend. Good to see that it's larger than a game.

Spoiler:

[Piyush]

@faun
that is some nice pack of advise for all of those who either played it or not...doesnt matter

BTW if you come across something like this novel, then please do share it
I've so far managed to find only one:
Kana Little Sister

also...If you are going to finish all the routes......make sure you complete Lily's at last

[Faun]

@faun
that is some nice pack of advise for all of those who either played it or not...doesnt matter

BTW if you come across something like this novel, then please do share it
I've so far managed to find only one:
Kana Little Sister

also...If you are going to finish all the routes......make sure you complete Lily's at last

I am not sure if there are any visual novels parallels Katawa Shoujo. Will keep an eye on that,

Yep, still in Emi's arc will finish today hopefully. Leave Lily's arc for last. Any specific reason...of course do not put up spoilers

[Piyush]

Yep, still in Emi's arc will finish today hopefully. Leave Lily's arc for last. Any specific reason...of course do not put up spoilers

well for first, the epilogue follows just after lily's arc and nobody else's.
And this is the best story in terms of finishing the Yamaku journey.But still you'll feel "Oh man....I want more of this!!" after completing the game.
just make sure to finish the game with Lily's arc in last and Hanako's in 2nd last.
Please dont ask for specific reasons....I may end up spoiling the fun

[nims11]

What a pathetic ending for me

Spoiler:

Hisao spends the festival drunk with kenji and falls off the roof and dies.

I am done with this game for now.