Katawa Shoujo Act 1 Preview feedback thread

[Envy]

As has been said, you would not shake hands with your teacher in Japan like that. To be honest, it would be a little odd in the UK to do that although it would hardly be frowned upon.

Apart from Crud's point on localization, which should already be enough of a response to end this issue, there's the fact that them shacking hands isn't all that improbable. As I pointed out before, Yamaku is not your typical Japanese school. The school clearly has Western influences (I.E. the architecture of the whole building), probably has foreign funding and definitely has multinational students (see: Lilly - Japanese and German or whatever the fuck she is. I heard German on IRC a time ago). The idea that they would shake hands really isn't all that remakable.

Oh, and the reason you wouldn't shake hands with your highschool teacher in the UK because in there UK the isn't the same level of formality and that level of formality is not something that would just disappear inside Yamaku either, no matter how multinational it is.

[Warwick]

I think one thing that people have overlooked in the case about student/teacher familiarity is the fact that Yamaku is a boarding school. I went to one for high school where everyone lived on campus, students and faculty alike. I got to know a few of my teachers on a very personal level, and when I graduated, it was handshakes and hugs all around, with a little bit of tearing up as well.

Now, I'm not sure about the situation at Yamaku, but by virtue of being a boarding school where the faculty can maintain contact with students outside of class, it's very possible that teachers expect to develop a certain familiarity with their students (especially since Yamaku seems to adhere to the one teacher, one class structure you often see in Japan).

[Bara]

[quote="Teclo"] As has been said, you would not shake hands with your teacher in Japan like that. To be honest, it would be a little odd in the UK to do that although it would hardly be frowned upon. quote]

Localization aside; has anyone considered that the teacher Muto shaking hands on meeting Hisao might be a statement on the character of Muto? After all, in all his dialogue Muto does not give the impression he is too involved in formal teacher/student status. He seems kind of oblivious to it. Think absent-minded professor if you need a pigeonhole to classify Muto. Isn't Muto surprised when Hisao says something like "Your the Boss" to him in the hallway outside the classroom? So isn't shaking hands more in line with the character of Muto as we see him later on?

To me it appears that the handshake emphasizes that Hisao has "left Kansas" and "stepped through the looking glass" also.

Please consider that it just might not be an "error" by the devs, but a tool to move the story along. Sometimes you need to rock the audience back on their heels; to shake them out of their normal world view to get them to follow you in your story.

[Paragon]

Has possibly been mentioned before, but there's a typo in the Rin fireworks scene.

"lound bangs of the fireworks"

katawashoujotypo.jpg (48.33 KiB) Viewed 4889 times

[Astyanax]

I've just started, but I'm already completely enthralled with what I've seen of the characters' personalities and how those come out in the artwork. I'm easily looking forward to more.

There was another typo that I noticed somewhere in the earlier portion of Act I. I don't recall exactly where it occurred, but the word "surprised" was spelled "suprised". Hopefully that's enough to find it wherever it is.

Just came across this misspelling. It occurs when Lilly shows you to the library, and the librarian says, "See, I dropped an eraser under my desk and while I was looking for it a pencil dropped and when I was looking for both of them you came and suprised me..."

[Free the Bee]

I really can't praise this game enough. It surpassed every expectation I had.

A few minor quibbles, though, in order of nitpickiness...

Nitpicky! I think it's been mentioned before, but some of the dialogue choices were kind of misleading. I think the best example is when you're walking back to school with Lilly and Rin, and getting out of breath, and you have the option to say "I'm fine." This seemed like a reasonable choice to me, in a sort of "Hey, I'm okay," way, putting a brave face on things to save their worries. Instead, it turned into "I don't need your help, so piss off, accursed harpies!" or... words to that effect. I was kind of amazed to see the main character blow up at them like that... and of course, he subsequently took a drunken stroll down Bad End Boulevard. I'd also have to say that pursuing Rin is damn near impossible without a stroke of luck - All of the other girls have at least one dialogue choice that clearly pertains to them, whereas in Rin's case, the choices that lead you to her are all in scenes where she doesn't appear. Well, apart from the very last one, but just getting that far is really down to dumb luck, as far as I can see. I realise there's a line to be trodden in between making the consequences of the choices too obvious, and maintaining a sense of mystery, but I think a few of the options could be sharpened up a little.

Nitpickier! There were a few instances where I felt the script could have done with editing a wee bit more. No complaints with the dialogue (which was a thing of beauty), but a few of Hisao's internal monologues felt oddly paced. Like, he'd be in class, reflecting on something that's just happened, and then that'd be followed by a short sentence about what's being taught today. These little additions just felt like they were there for the sake of being there, so I'd be inclined to either expand them into something more meaningful, or trim them out. Just my opinion as a (thoroughly unsuccessful) writer, mind you.

Nitpickiest! Okay, this is really getting to the minor stuff, but some of Hanako's art seemed slightly off to me. One thing is that, due to how her scar contrasts with her skin, she sometimes looks a bit like she doesn't have a nose - because her nose is just a little dot on the boundary of the contrasting colours - and, as a result, it looks like her face is a perfectly smooth, curved surface. Also, in her main sprite, she's holding her scarred hand in front of her other hand, which seems odd, given the lengths she goes to to hide her other burns. I expect this is more to do with exposition than anything else (I mean, we have to see the burns to know that she has them), but it does strike me as unusual, especially as she's holding her scarred hand up in the classroom intro scene as well. I dunno, maybe she's okay with the burns on her hand, but upset by the ones on her face. I guess that could make sense.

So, sorry for boring you. I'm only nitpicking out of love, as I really want the final masterpiece to be as awesome and polished as possible. Thanks again for releasing the demo.

[EmP|ty]

Why do so many people say that Rin's ending is the hardest to get or that it is hard to find? I found it incredibly easy..
I did the Hanako route first because I wanted that ending first... then I went back and did Rin's ending first try without messing up...just one straight blast through..imo her choices were easy enough to spot if you even thought about it slightly.

That being said I like that a lot of people say that Rin's ending is harder to get because it fits her overall personality, in the fact that she is strange, unpredictable and difficult to read, so it makes sense that her route should be *ahem* "harder" to get.

[Krull]

I haven't got all of the game done yet,so far I'm liking what I see just one thing is bugging me....

Ever since I started I felt something wasn't "right" about the game and it was frankly driving me up the wall til I finally figgered out what it is:

The backgrounds are too "real" and are a bit jarring to me with the anime-like characters,mind this isn't a big thing it's just the first VN of it's kind that mixes "real" backgrounds with anime style characters (that I know of)

At any rate it's quite the well done VN and all I can say is-carry on.

[Tualha]

Don't know if you'll be willing to answer this, but: in the full game, will there be an opportunity to find out just why Shizune dislikes Lilly so much?

[Validus Razgriz]

Don't know if you'll be willing to answer this, but: in the full game, will there be an opportunity to find out just why Shizune dislikes Lilly so much?

I figure it's a safe bet you'll find out if you do either Shizune's or Lilly's routes.

[Aura]

Actually, you might end up finding evidence to the contrary. Who knows?

[Caesius]

Actually, you might end up finding evidence to the contrary. Who knows?

http://shimmie.katawa-shoujo.com/post/view/476

:M bak bak

[Linear B]

This is the first VN I've played and so far it's ace. It'd be nice if we could just have a "skip immediately to next choice" button, though. I know there's skip mode, but I'm talking about is "push button, receive choice dialogue". That, and a mute option in the options screen.

The backgrounds are too "real" and are a bit jarring to me with the anime-like characters,mind this isn't a big thing it's just the first VN of it's kind that mixes "real" backgrounds with anime style characters (that I know of).

What I'm more noticing is that some of the backgrounds seem more photoshopped/blurred than others, which kinda looks weird. For the record, I fall on the "more blurring" side, so I'd prefer if all the backgrounds were consistently that way.

-EDIT-
Seconding Caesius. I keep on going to the text history if I miss the last few words in Auto mode.
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[Caesius]

This is the first VN I've played and so far it's ace. It'd be nice if we could just have a "skip immediately to next choice" button, though. I know there's skip mode, but I'm talking about is "push button, receive choice dialogue".

Expanding on that, since F/SN was my first VN, I'd have preferred to be able to use the down arrow key to move through dialogue (since it affords me a more comfortable position), as well as to use the up arrow key to go back to the last dialogue screen (I have a "tick" of going back to read dialogue if I think I didn't quite catch the last few words).

[Blackmountain]

I'm one of the Japanese translation staff.

Is this [propranolol] though there was [propanolol] in the medicine with which Hisao was prescribed?

[propranolol]―Hypotensive drug (for arrhythmia)
[propanolol]―?

Please examine it though it is likely already to have been confirmed.

When it is poor English, I'm sorry.