Katawa Shoujo Act 1 Preview feedback thread

[Kari]

But avoiding the others correctly without getting Kenji end is a bit difficult.

I ended up "avoiding" the others by accident (picking the choices I would myself pick, which I think ended up less of "avoiding" and more of "trying to get everyone"), which shoved me onto Rin's path as almost a last resort. Of course I wasn't aiming for her, I was aiming for Shizune but didn't know at the time I had locked myself out of her path, and said I wasn't interested in the art club. Dead end for me.

[Ayla]

That's not the Lilly/Hanako glitch. The Lilly/Hanako glitch is where you play through Hanako's route but the game acts as though you played through Lilly's as well.

You're almost certainly missing the scene... eh, I'll spoiler the rest.
...between Home Field Advantage and No Recovery. Almost everyone misses that one, because it's the hardest scene to get. If you made decisions completely randomly, you'd only have a 2.43% chance of actually winding up with that scene... assuming I did my math right. With the same assumption, compare that to something like... a 22.57% chance of ending up with Emi's festival scene.

That's the scene i'm missing. I did get the lilly/Hanako glitch. it had lilly on the library before i played through to get her ending. i played afterwards to get her ending and still have that 2% missing and that scene.

Funnily enough i did get that Emi's festival first just by picking the options i thought were true to the character. *shrugs* any hints on how to get the missing scene?

[Garlyle]

But avoiding the others correctly without getting Kenji end is a bit difficult.

Not really. I deliberately went for the Kenji end and saved before the last choice I was offered (The one downtown with Lilly and Rin). Picking the 'bad' choice here led to Kenji's end... picking the 'good' choice here led to Rin's remaining events.

[Guest]

any hints on how to get the missing scene?

Little hint:The events in the "library" menu seem to be sorted by timeline. Thus, both of the adjacent events are different things that could be happening at the same time. What's an odd combination of choices you could make that would make something interesting happen at that time?Big hint:Three pushy people are involved, though not necessarily at the same time.

If you can't figure it out from those, here's just plain how to do it:Stay on the Shizune/Misha path for most of the game, but then also agree to exercising and try to keep up with Rin.

[Kisho]

Normally, I'm not someone to play Visual Novels. However, I noticed a link on the Megatokyo home page and Katawa Shoujo piqued my interest: I downloaded it for fun, decided to play it to see what it was like. I found a wonderful story that handles disabilities with great care, while showing that just because someone has a disability doesn't mean they should be treated like a victim. Thank you for this story, and I wait patiently for the full game. Good luck with it, and I will be certain to keep a close eye on Four Leaf Studios. =)

P.S. I was gunning for Hanako first; the choices you had to make to get to her were logical. The story made sense, her reactions were believeable. As such, I was able to get her ending on my first attempt, which is good. Nothing would break immersion more than having to restart the story because you made a bad choice.

P.P.S. I hope Hisao cheers up later on. =P I can understand why he's miserable, what with the heart disease, but I hope he cheers up later in the game. Especially considering he has all these cute girls surrounding him.

[Jo-ou]

I just finished my first playthrough, Lilly's path. I aimed for it and found it pretty intuitive to achieve. I can also guess that Hanako's path is essentially the same with one small adjustment at the end.

It was very nice. I wasn't expecting an animated intro, which I thought looked really good. The music, when not glitching, is also very good.

I did hear a lot of sound glitches, like with every one of Hisao's "loud heartbeat" soundbites and at the end with the fireworks. This may or may not be because of my terribly aging computer though. Yes, it might be too old to run VNs properly.

The writing is also... curious. Strangely phrased. This is only the third VN I've ever played (fourth counting Narcissu), so I guess I'm not used to it, but it did seem like the script had been originally written in Japanese then translated into English. When I asked about it in the channel, I was met with cries of "durr hurr AUTHENTICITY" which seems only fair. Also, I'm totally not used to "maneuver" being spelled like that. Thought it was a typo first.

All in all, very enjoyable. I was expecting more broken girls, but that might still be possible with more plot. Here's hoping for epic BAD ENDs.

[PCJedi]

Well, I played through around half of the demo's routes a few days ago, and am getting around to finishing the rest now. So far though, everything seems excellent. I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being on of my favorite VNs ever if the quality remains as high (or gets even higher) in the final version as it was in the demo. The music, graphics and sound effects were all marvelously done for an amateur work, though I hardly consider 4LS to be amateurs anymore after seeing how high-quality the demo was. The storyline and characters are also very well done so far, and I'm really intrigued to see how things will play out in the rest of the game after Act 1. Perhaps it's because I'm someone who's had experience with disabilities in the past myself, but I feel most, if not all, of the characters are very well fleshed out and interesting people, compared to typical VNs, where I usually latch onto a few specific ones and don't care that much about the others.

The only real issues I can think of are that the song that plays in the lunch time scene sounds kind of weird and off towards the end, as others have mentioned, and that I sort of feel Emi feels a bit generic compared to the rest of the characters, just being sort of a typical bubbly genki girl type, and her disability really doesn't seem to impair her to nearly the same degrees as the others, which feels a bit unbalanced in some ways. (For having prosthetic legs, that girl can sure run fast)

[Kel]

Finished Lilly, Hanako, Shizune paths in Act 1 and starting Emi/Rin path now. I have to say I'm VERY impressed, I did not expect it to be this good. In fact this is probably my favorite visual novel I've ever played (and I've cleared the entire Peach princess collection and tried a few Jap. ones with a text hooker) I just hope it doesn't get too sad like YMK.
Kinda disappointed I caught this the day after it was released now I have to wait a long time for the rest based off how long it looks like it took for Act 1. I'd ask for a Estimate but I know what it is like and that I'm not getting one until it is 90-98% done.
Only complaint is Emi's sprite looks like it is still the the rough drafts stage compared to the rest of them, otherwise the art is awesome did not expect it to be this level for something free. Love Rie's unique personality looking forward to seeing how her path proceeds. I'm probably going to do an order of Shizune>Lilly>Hanako>Rin>Misha?>Emi for the full game. I would do Hanako's route earlier but I sense a sad story so I want to have some happy buffers before and after.
Keep up the great work I look forward to seeing it finished.

[Fundefined]

God I must be pretty bored, I probably am. Anyways here's a bit of game dialogue I found to be a bit wrong in usage.

His glasses are fogged up. But then, why doesn't he wipe them off? Is his vision so bad it's like he's perpetually seeing through fog?

Kenji
"You know, your room, and...Yeah that's it. Hey, I mean, I still had to get up, though. Whatever. It's not important. Can I borrow some money?"

He puts on an innocent face and looks away, trying very hard to look very casual. It doesn't work; he's as transparent as his windowpane-sized glasses.

Fogged yet transparent, glasses work in strange ways.

[vermithrx]

That's because Kenji's glasses only fog up when there's danger nearby, so as to keep him from panicking.

By the way, I would like to point out that Emi's possible height complex (or is it a jumping complex?) annoyed me a little at first because as a double BK amputee her height no longer need conform to her previous measurements. She and Hisao are obviously both ignorant of that fact in the demo.

The following isn't really feedback, but I thought this community might enjoy it since it appears that one of this project's aims is to be informing and uplifting in the way it treats disabilities. I will however warn the devs that Aimee Mullins and Emi are eerily similar in some obvious ways. Take that as you will.
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/aime ... nning.html
http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/aime ... etics.html

[Kryptik]

A lot has already been said about how good things are so far.

The only thing I'll mention here is that I was highly impressed with how the characters were written. The one thing I really noted too was how many of the characters were nowhere near defined by their personal disability. The only two I could really think of were Hisao (who is slightly excusable because his is so new, and he's such a recent arrival) and Hanako (who so far seems to show signs that it's more her LETTING it define her than anything).

And one thing I ended up realizing once I went through all the paths is how sad I felt for Hisao. Of all the characters so far, he's the only one who has a disability which directly affects his mortality. All the girls so far, (and including Kenji here too since we know his disability too) have disabilities which, while it forces them to live differently or operate differently from others, are livable. Hisao's however, isn't notable on the surface, but no matter what, it'll eventually kill him.

[Warwick]

vermithrx:

She's been mentioned on IRC before, but thanks for the links, anyway. Love TED talks.

[Arquill]

Fantastic visual novel, one of the few that I have actually had the patience to sit through and read each line of text. I'm pumped and can't wait for the rest of it. I do have a suggestion though, and it's a minor one. The soundtrack is really good, but some of the tracks are louder than the other ones. The transition between a quiet track and a loud track can be quite jarring (Rin and Kenji's themes in particular are big culprits). It's not a big deal, but if the volume on all the tracks could be normalized it would be perfect.

[Mattz]

Coming back to the discussion about how it's difficult to distinguish between Misha and Shizune, I believe the way it's handled now is superb.

It's supposed to be tricky. Afterall Misha is constantly interpretting. I can't really see the logic in doing it any other way, since it would defeat the entire concept of Shizune being deaf and mute. In this case, you still get to know Shizune well, and Misha directly saying what Shizune signs, generates a very smooth and natural feel. You might start reading it as all from Misha, yet I found it pretty easy to differentiate due to their different personalities. Anyhow, Hisao commenting on this every now and then keeps you from forgetting.
And like someone before wrote, Shizune moves somewhat when her signing is being translated. Try using your imagination, and it works out perfectly.

Sometimes it even doesn't matter who is saying what, like when they gang up on you. It shows how close friends and how good of a team Misha and Shizune are, which is an important part of their characters.

This way, you also get the brilliant ending of the Shizune act 1 route on a whole different level. Never reading Shizune say anything really enforces the idea how unable you are to communicate when Misha isn't around. Everything you know about Shizune comes through Misha, the inevitable truth in this case, yet still you can grow so attached to her.

This gives the possibility to add so much complexity and depth to the interactions of Hisao and Shizune. I've got high expectations for Shizune's arc, but I'm confident the team will even go above and beyond them.

I'm extremely impressed by this first act, and am really looking forward to the full game. Kudos and thanks to the entire team!

Just my two cents.

[Zadkiel]

Hey guys, great job on the game, enjoying it immensely, and eagerly anticipating more

Just a small typo to bring to your attention. In the scene 'Waylay' near the beginning when the Nurse berates you for not exercising, He asks you the following question:

"Can your promise me to be more serious about this from now on?"

Seems it should be 'you' not 'your'.

Keep up the great work.

Zadkliel.