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Katawa Shoujo Act 1

Ok, it’s time to talk about :

Katawa Shoujo

Well yeah, Katawa Shoujo begin to be well know around the English VN Community.But i wanted to talk about it anyway because, well, i liked it obviously ;)

For those who still don’t know about this English VN, here a little overview from the KS Official WebSite

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.

The story is told through the perspective of the main character, using a first person narrative. This game uses a traditional text and sprite-based visual novel model with an ADV text box. Katawa Shoujo contains adult content, and is created using the Ren’Py scripting system.

Katawa Shoujo is under development by an international team of amateur developers, and will be released free of charge under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND License. There is currently no release date set.

When i leanerd about KS, i was not so hot about it… I mean, it’s supposed to be an Eroge with Disabled Girl… It’s not really one of my fetish ^^
But, because of my curiosity, i tried it… And… WTF??!! It’s damn good!!!
Yeah, i liked it… I like it!

The Photographic Background are good and set really well the ambiance.The OST is good, really good.A little melancholic, calm and gentle.It suit very well the setting

The Story and the different Route are well written and are really enjoyable.You’re drawn in it.(Well, i was anyway).

Hanako SV

And the Character… The design and art are really really good.I liked it a lot, and all the girl have a different and attractive personality (But Hanako FTW :D )… I can’t explain well, but they’re all interesting and the way they cope with their disability is very well made.

yeah that’s the very very good point of this VN.The way they talk about the disability is not heavy and emo… I mean 4LeafStudio didn’t fall in the trap of the boring exagerated drama with KS.

KS is also a very good ambassador for the English Python VN Engine Ren’Py.I knew this engine for a while now, i tested some little VN made with it.But… KS use very well the feature and power proposed by Ren’Py.
The UI design is really neat and good (even if it’s missing some little thing, like icon for the Save, Load, Option menu etc… And not only using the Right Clic menu).The effect and transition are well used and timed.
Also the fact that the Ren’Py Engine is Cross-Plateform, is a good point… I mean, you have a Window, MAC OSX and Linux X86 version of the Game!

Now, the only minus i see about KS is the fact that they don’t want to add voice acting.I understand 4LS very well.I mean, it cost money and they want to make it Free.They must lock all the dialog and time the Dub well with it.It’s a lot of work and allow less freedom… And since KS have already a lof of text and dialog, it would take a lot of time to do all the voice acting.
it’s a little sad, but.. Oh well, i’ll do without it and with no problem at all!

In the end, i really recommend Katawa Shoujo.Only the demo, called Katawa Shoujo Act 1, is available and with no Ero Scene…For now(You’ll find it in the Download Section of the Official Website).They’re planning to add a option for Turning oN or Off the Ero Scene in the final version.So, like that, everybody will be happy

Now time for the Katawa Shoujo Links :

Enjoy :)

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