Katawa Shoujo Forums

So, we finally have an amazing visual novel being written by an English-speaking crowd. I'll be unoriginal and just blurt out that I absolutely love the characters, humor, and 'the everything' in this game. I like people with "imperfections".

However, because this is such a humongous achievement [in my opinion] for the western world, why don't we go all-out here? Go for broke. Reach for the cosmos. What I'm trying to say is that I'd like to see a lot more information regarding the females in this game.

Sure, we need to save a lot of things to be discovered in paths and dialogue in-game, but why not expand on some lesser-known things about them? For example, I personally think tickling is really cute. I'd like to know if some of them are ticklish or something. I'd also like to know what kind of websites they'd surf if they spent some time on the Internet. Hanako likes books, correct? What genre does she normally read? Who is Rin's favorite artist? Does Emi have an athletic model that she admires?

Just little things like these fascinate me, and some of these things are often too little to include in an in-game path [they can waste time]. Tastes can change just from knowing little tidbits about a person.

Any input?

"Extended bios" for each character would be cool to have as unlockable extras IMO (and by "extended" I mean longer than the two-sentence description on the web site ). They could include a basic history of the character as well as incorporating some of the little details like you mentioned.

Of course I'm sure we'll find out about each character's history throughout the game itself, but for some reason I always like having character profiles/bios anyway.

Very good idea!

I hope such things will be included in Omake bonus scenes or something like that, which I hope the game will have. I hope for a really rich omake section!

The extended information would probably make a great omake piece. Hell this should be a contest.
Heck, I'm going to start making a Rin and Lilly extended profile just because and post it some time on the omake board. Maybe I'll be included in the game credits if my extended profile gets accepted

I wouldn't mind it as part of the game, either. Something like... maybe getting 100% in the game unlocks an extended bio gallery with a little bonus artwork, the information about them, perhaps some developers comments... stuff like that. That would be good.

I've been desperately trying to sit myself down and write up a short Shizune/Misha backstory, but for the life of me, I can't seem to get in the mood to write.

I mentioned it because a lot of visual novels stop short of "FAVORITE FOOD" or something very vague and common.

Given that we can openly communicate with this public, English-speaking development group allows us to go way past that potential and be extremely descriptive about the characters.

Rednal wrote:I wouldn't mind it as part of the game, either. Something like... maybe getting 100% in the game unlocks an extended bio gallery with a little bonus artwork, the information about them, perhaps some developers comments... stuff like that. That would be good.

I second that, developer comment would be awesome. Even just little snippets of what they were thinking as they were making the story would be win. Obviously it would be things they couldn't share in the forum or blog that would spoiler filled. Or would it be?

We thought of doing that for Act 1 release actually, but then everyone realized that we are actually less interesting than the story is.

Aura wrote:We thought of doing that for Act 1 release actually, but then everyone realized that we are actually less interesting than the story is.

I haven't been here that long but you all seem interesting to me (did that come out right?). Personally, I love director cuts w/commentary or little bonuses on the creative process because the creators are just as much a part of the project as their story. To me at least.

I don't like descriptive details same reason I don't like narration, I prefer when a show (or for this matter a visual novel) shows you what the character is like, rather than tells you. I mean do you need a blurb telling you Hanako is shy or Lilly is elegant? Wouldn't you prefer to see that yourself just through the characters' dialogue?

Jake Fuyou wrote:I don't like descriptive details same reason I don't like narration, I prefer when a show (or for this matter a visual novel) shows you what the character is like, rather than tells you. I mean do you need a blurb telling you Hanako is shy or Lilly is elegant? Wouldn't you prefer to see that yourself just through the characters' dialogue?

Some things you simply can't show do to the structure of the story or time restraints. I don't need a blurb telling me "Lilly is elegant", I can see that in how she behaves in the story and you are right about that. I'm talking about little extras like "what is her favorite brand of tea" or "What made her take an interest in tea in the first place?" "Did her sister Akira (IIRC) drink tea with her before she moved to Yamaku?". Those are bad examples I know but I'm only running off of 3 hours of sleep...

Actually, yeah, that would be fairly nice. XD Things that we'd like to know about the characters, but might not come up in the game itself.

Anybody want to help start a list of questions?

A Simple Fox wrote:

Jake Fuyou wrote:I don't like descriptive details same reason I don't like narration, I prefer when a show (or for this matter a visual novel) shows you what the character is like, rather than tells you. I mean do you need a blurb telling you Hanako is shy or Lilly is elegant? Wouldn't you prefer to see that yourself just through the characters' dialogue?

Some things you simply can't show do to the structure of the story or time restraints. I don't need a blurb telling me "Lilly is elegant", I can see that in how she behaves in the story and you are right about that. I'm talking about little extras like "what is her favorite brand of tea" or "What made her take an interest in tea in the first place?" "Did her sister Akira (IIRC) drink tea with her before she moved to Yamaku?". Those are bad examples I know but I'm only running off of 3 hours of sleep...

I don't think I quite get you, those examples sound more like miscellaneous information. I suppose though that having like a 'character featurette' (like within the visual novel menu like extra content) of every girl might be interesting, having like just an art image of the character with text of them as if they were talking to themselves (or thinking). If you've seen the Mai-HiME DVD you'll see this done pretty well.