Katawa Shoujo

The Good
Story filled with surprises and twists.

The story is remarkably respectful towards the subject matter and never goes "lol, you no have legs" or anything along those lines.

Amazing visuals with a number of full-motion animations.

Simulation that is not afraid to display the commitment that comes with having a relationship.

A total of five different girls to pursue.

The Bad
Incomprehensible choices that can completely make or break your relationship.

Characters tend to disappear from the story.

The Bottom Line
Story

Katawa (and I am going to keep calling it that, since I always misspell the whole title) is a visual novel in which you play through, or at least experience, a few weeks of the life of Hisao Nakai. The introduction shows him briefly meeting with a girl until the situation becomes too romantic and his hearth-rate propels. This wakes up a dormant disability that leaves him bound to a hospital for some weeks. Once he has recovered, however, he is told he won’t be able to function on a normal school and thus has to be transferred to a school for handicapped children.

This is a setup the writers created to present us with a cast of characters that are immediately interesting. Have you ever been in a class where one of the students suddenly comes in with a wheelchair or stilts? The first thing you or somebody else does is ask what happened, you are naturally curious as to why they have slightly stepped outside our perception of how a normal person functions. I’ll however also admit that the writers did a genuinely good job at characterizing their various anime school girls and it becomes very clear early on that a person’s handicap doesn’t have to define their personality.

The game also deserves some respect for tackling the subjects it does with a sense of respect and dignity, I even think it’s safe to assume that the designers thoroughly researched the material they were working with prior to writing (unlike what I am doing here). The story I ended up following first was Emi’s and it has to be said that, for a Dating Sim, it displays a shocking level of detail that is not just related to the positive side of a relationship. I am hardly an expert in the field, but I deduced from logic that a Dating Sim would seek to give the player a feeling of accomplishing social interaction without the commitment and risks that come with that. Some scenes however genuinely start to feel heavy when you take a moment to absorb all the events that happen around you. Heck, the game even features Bad Endings!

I have an immense amount of respect for a simulation that actually dares to show the whole picture and, without mentioning which character this involves, I was surprised when one relationship ended up feeling like both participants were upholding a façade of wholesomeness; the various compliments, jokes and acts of romance slowly descending into generic pleasantries and procedures with no actual meaning until the issue was resolved. That example is just one of the many different storylines available to you and after replaying it multiple times I noticed that almost every scene would be altered in a subtle way, which does a lot of wonders for the replayability.

The first of my only two complaints with the story is that the choices are difficult to interpret when looking at the game as a whole. You see, in the first act of the game it determines which of the many fine ladies you will end up pursuing based on a series of dialogue choices. This act is very long, but the tree that determines how this all plays out is difficult to grasp. For the particular girl I was interested in, I had to replay the game three times just because she is only available if you didn’t have to good a standing with two other characters and make some specific choices that can even end up killing you. Along with getting the good endings, I wouldn’t blame anybody for turning this simulation into just a visual novel by keeping a walkthrough close at all times.

The second problem is that, after the intro, the story starts to focus on just a single person and all the other interesting people fall by the wayside. It was five hours into my first playthrough that I suddenly ran into one of the core characters that I hadn’t seen in the past three hours of gameplay and after a brief conversation she disappeared from the remaining three hours of the story. The only real excuse for this is that, besides binding you to different girls, the various plotlines also develop vastly different versions of Hisao. It’s kind of neat that in one session he can become a star pupil and in the other an isolationists without any of it feeling forced or unnatural, but I would still have preferred to see a more active cast of side-characters.

To summarize my feelings toward the story, I’d say that it’s very interesting and absorbing to read, though not always pleasurable. Especially the Rin storyline is enormously depressing and if you go into this game expecting a lighthearted dating sim, then you are likely to come out crying. I was one of those people myself, but even after letting it rest for a while, I still think the game could have benefited from slightly toning down the depressing themes and emphasizing humor a little more (which was the reason I initially thought the Rin storyline would be the most hilarious).

Gameplay

The gameplay aspect is naturally shallow for this game, though I would argue that the dialogue options are at least a form of player interaction. Sadly I already explained my position on these, so this aspect of the review doesn’t count.

Presentation

The game uses a very standard setup for visual novels; dialogue boxes at the bottom of the screen and sprite-art over backgrounds that help visualize the events of the story. As far as visual novels go, however, this game is downright revolutionary in its visual aid. Not only does the game use basic animations and scrolling backgrounds, but also full-motion animation sequences that are remarkably beautiful. I am not exaggerating when stating that the animated sequences are some of the highlights of this entire game.

Just like with Persona 4, however, these are extremely rare and thus the game tends to rely on the sprites to get the job done most of the time. Unlike Persona 4, however, the game pulls this off marvelously. I am, once again, not lying when I say that there were images I just paused on for minutes while I observed the art on screen. It’s safe to say that Katawa takes you all over the place in terms of emotions, from joyful conversations to the most shocking of breakdowns.

Replay-Value

There are a total of five different characters who you can become romantically involved with and among those there are a number of different endings with different levels of romantic success. Combine that with the fact that each dialogue options alters the plot-line ever so slightly and you got a game you will find yourself wanting to replay a few times.

However, I did find that only the best endings really gave me an incentive to return to this game, since the Bad Endings are just that. Katawa does a great job at drawing you into the story and characters, so you really want to see them become as happy as possible, making it difficult for the player to consciously sabotage this for the sake of seeing a scene or two. Five is not a bad number however and this should increase the time spend with this game from 8 hours to roughly 40.

Why should you get it?

Because the game is not only absolutely free, but it’s also a very interesting experience, even if you are not invested in either Japanese anime or dating simulations. The game vastly surpasses the status of jerk-off program and becomes a downright gripping tale that is guaranteed to immerse you. Each individual storyline is also good for 7-10 hours, which means it never quite overstays its welcome nor feels too short.

Why should you skip it?

The game is deceptive in its appearance, like any good predator. From the outside it looks like a cheery and quirky story, but on the inside it is confronting and serious. Going into this if you are in need of something lighthearted is unadvised. Additionally, it comes recommended that you find one of the many maps that detail the choices you’ll be making, as you are unlikely to achieve the desired result solely on your own.