Katawa Shoujo Forums

This is a weird question but: Have any of you played, read or seen Higurashi before or after making KS? I learned recently that some of the images used for KS backgrounds were taken in the same area as that VN. Other VN's tend to reference or draw inspiration from it, or so they say, did it have any influence on KS? And whilst it's a side note and not relevant to KS, why do you think it has made such a big impression on the VN community?

I have only seen a few clips from the anime and people/games reference it so my personal knowledge about it is limited.

ArcCain wrote:This is a weird question but: Have any of you played, read or seen Higurashi before or after making KS? I learned recently that some of the images used for KS backgrounds were taken in the same area as that VN. Other VN's tend to reference or draw inspiration from it, or so they say, did it have any influence on KS? And whilst it's a side note and not relevant to KS, why do you think it has made such a big impression on the VN community?

I have only seen a few clips from the anime and people/games reference it so my personal knowledge about it is limited.

Yes, that would be my fault. Higurashi is one of my favorite franchises. It did influence my earlier paths for Hanako but they were all safely removed before we went to the "real" release.

From memory, only the "Road To School" background is from that area, but I took a lot more photos in Shirakawa-go (the village that became "Hinamizawa"). In a way you can say that the "photo-filtered Backgrounds" is something that we did that Higurashi did as well.

If you've seen the series or played the games then these photos will be familiar:
http://cplcrud.deviantart.com/gallery/1 ... izawa-Tour

Here are some blog posts about Higurashi's influence on me:
https://cplcrud.wordpress.com/2013/08/0 ... f-history/
https://cplcrud.wordpress.com/2013/09/0 ... l-of-what/


I guess you could probably say that my newer stuff is also very much more on the Higurashi side of the fence than the KS side.

ArcCain wrote:This is a weird question but: Have any of you played, read or seen Higurashi before or after making KS?

I hadn't read Higurashi at the time, but I heard the soundtrack by dai and that directly inspired me to seek out a visual novel to work on. I think it is still probably my favourite visual novel soundtrack.

cpl_crud wrote:My original thought was that the Rin “Good” end would result in her metamorphosing into a dolphin and swimming away into the sunset.

Hehe, that was an interesting read. I guess I will have to watch or play Higurashi at some point. All I have heard about it is that it is a) amazing and b) pretty damn violent. But if it has a good soundtrack I might look it up just for that.

(Hey, looks like its been a while since i last come)
Good day! I have a one minor question: were Saki and Riki going to be released really or you made them like "hey we need more ideas for april fools"?

With love, Richter

They were just for April Fools.

Aura wrote:They were just for April Fools.

Keeping this in mind, how much thought went into their character designs? Were you surprised to see that even Saki and Rika developed their own, small fanbase?

I for one have learned that fans will ALWAYS surprise you. So it's become unsurprising to be surprised, I guess?

Not much effort was put into the designs. I made the concepts in maybe 20-30 minutes a piece with no feedback and the first visual designs the artists came up with were also the final ones because actual development for this was pointless.

Hey Devs!

I had just spent the last 6 months or so reading through this amazing thread every now and then. I was very surprised to see that thread is still active despite all the years that have passed since the release of KS. I just wanted to say that KS was the first story that had such a huge impact on me, I felt feelings that I never knew I had when I played some of the routes. This was the perfect VN for me in many ways, I loved the characters, the story, the setting and the music all together. Right after I completed 100% of the game, I felt so empty since I didn't want it to be over. I went on the internet and looked for anything KS related, and stumbled across this forum, and I've been reading it ever since. I have learned so much about the making of the game and the story of the devs, and I can never thank you guys enough for it. Im sure the story of Katawa Shoujo will stay with me for my entire life.

Onto the questions then!

Aura- Can I see a pic of your eyes? I've never seen anyone with heterochromia before

CplCrud- I have also read through your blog during my search of anything KS related, and I really loved your KS fan fics(Runner's afternoon, Final Finale)! And after realising how good you are at writing, I subscribed to your blog and read through Daydream, Run and Arctic Gale up to chapter 26. I have enjoyed all your work very much!
I understand that you have quit the 4LS team before the game was finished, and that the paths you wrote for Hanako were never used in the final release. How do you feel about that?
Also are you going to make Arctic Gale into a paperback book? I would love to have a hard copy.

Suriko- Can you please shed some info on the VN you are working on, even just a little bit? I cannot access the KS Blog or Twitter where I live and I am really excited about it!

Nicol Armarfi- The music of KS was one of the bigger reasons why I loved the game soooooo much. Each song captured the mood so perfectly that I get them feels every time I listen to the Enigmatic Box of Sound. Recently I found the Piano Collection: Katawa Shoujo on your band camp page and I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT! It's too bad I don't have any online currency to purchase the album, but I want you to know that I think you are an amazing musician.
Are you going to possibly remaster the OST with real instruments? I know this will probably be a hell lot of work, but I am willing to wait after hearing Red Velvet with a real sax(SOUNDGASM!!!).

After diving through countless layers of the internet, I have discovered that katawa-shoujo.com has some secrets...
http://www.katawa-shoujo.com/secret/paritytime
A mp3 file named Daylight Like it's Hot
Another mp3 file named Parity Jam (lost both the links to the files )

I laughed by ass off listening to snoop dogg rapping with Daylight in the background since it matched perfectly! Who was responsible for this epic remixing?
Also are there any more secrets in your site?

Sorry for the long post, but I assume you guys have time to kill when you read this thread?

tl;dr: YOU GUYS ARE AWESOME THANK YOU FOR EVERYTHING!

D0lan wrote:Nicol Armarfi- The music of KS was one of the bigger reasons why I loved the game soooooo much. Each song captured the mood so perfectly that I get them feels every time I listen to the Enigmatic Box of Sound. Recently I found the Piano Collection: Katawa Shoujo on your band camp page and I ABSOLUTELY LOVED IT!

Thanks!

Are you going to possibly remaster the OST with real instruments? I know this will probably be a hell lot of work, but I am willing to wait after hearing Red Velvet with a real sax(SOUNDGASM!!!).

I already did this actually. I wrote most of the music between 2007/2008 and then came back again in 2011 and remastered it (and in a lot of cases rewrote the music from the ground up), so I have no interest in doing it again. I don't have any plans to make more KS music at this point, especially considering the Piano Collection alone was nearly the length of the entire OST.

Nicol Armarfi wrote: I already did this actually. I wrote most of the music between 2007/2008 and then came back again in 2011 and remastered it (and in a lot of cases rewrote the music from the ground up), so I have no interest in doing it again. I don't have any plans to make more KS music at this point, especially considering the Piano Collection alone was nearly the length of the entire OST.

Thanks for the fast reply! I understand that you may be tired of KS music for now, Im more than happy to stick with what I've got already!

Here's a question for Hivemind and Suriko: did the two of you ever discuss having Miki appear in Emi's route? It just seems like such a shame that Yamaku's fastest and second fastest never share any screen time.

Valjean Lafitte wrote:Here's a question for Hivemind and Suriko: did the two of you ever discuss having Miki appear in Emi's route? It just seems like such a shame that Yamaku's fastest and second fastest never share any screen time.

They do, in the sports meet CG.

brythain wrote:

Valjean Lafitte wrote:Here's a question for Hivemind and Suriko: did the two of you ever discuss having Miki appear in Emi's route? It just seems like such a shame that Yamaku's fastest and second fastest never share any screen time.

They do, in the sports meet CG.

Okay, so technically they do share some screen time, but you know what I mean.