Katawa Shoujo Forums

Question: While reading Katawa Shoujo, Do you read it aloud?
Because that's what I'm doing in my second playthrough. It was a good exercise to my mouth.

I find that actually saying the lines doesn't leave my imagination to do much. Lilly talking in a deep manly voice isn't the most immersing experience...

Whenever I try to read something out loud I stumble over the words and end up skipping lines. Reading everything in my head keeps me from throwing off my groove.

Maybe I'm just weird, but whenever I read something out loud I can't actually concentrate on what I'm reading. After I'm done, I have almost no Idea of what I've just said, which means I have to read it again silently so that I can comprehend it.

I found myself settling into a very upsetting pattern;
I would read aloud Hisao's lines and his internal monologue, but imagine in my head the voices of the girls and other characters.
Looking back, that makes me feel a little weird.

Lilly talking in a deep manly voice isn't the most immersing experience...

I agree I find that reading the story out in my head is a much better experience. Imagining a realistic feminine voice in my head is much better than listening to a deep, monotone voice for a few hours. That would probably give me a sore throat and whoever walks by my room would be asking a lot of questions...

TheMaskedWriter wrote:I found myself settling into a very upsetting pattern;
I would read aloud Hisao's lines and his internal monologue, but imagine in my head the voices of the girls and other characters.
Looking back, that makes me feel a little weird.

I understand how as it seems a bit weird but a visual novel is a novel right?
Shouldn't be read like novel?; I thought it would be a good enhancement to the experience.

I guess there is a strong difference to reading silently as opposed to reading out loud.

ShadeHaven wrote:Maybe I'm just weird, but whenever I read something out loud I can't actually concentrate on what I'm reading. After I'm done, I have almost no Idea of what I've just said, which means I have to read it again silently so that I can comprehend it.

I'm the same way.

Plus I have a really deep voice. As others have said, it'd be weird to speak out loud as Misha or pretty much any female character. (Only person I can see myself doing my own voice as is Mutou)

I've already established a voice for all of them in my head anyway. Even Shizune.

While it would be interesting, I just don't like reading anything aloud. Plus, I don't think I could some of the expressions sound convincing to myself, and I doubt the rest of the my family would appreciate hearing me yell an awkward WAHAHAHAHAHA~ every two minutes for an hour.

I have read half aloud Hisaos actual said lines, to make a more distinct separation on what actually gets said, and what is just thought of.
But I'm in an easy position here, even if someone wold hear what I'm saying none would understand, since they don't speak English.

I only read the male lines and I'm trying to practice some voice actin' or something. But I suck at it. Hard.

But nope, can't really have too much heart to read the H-scene lines, yo.

Ivan The Mouse wrote:I only read the male lines and I'm trying to practice some voice actin' or something. But I suck at it. Hard.

But nope, can't really have too much heart to read the H-scene lines, yo.

Oh god, this. H-scene, can't read aloud.
Nopnopenope.

I read many times faster than I can speak.

If I were to read out loud, I'd have to slow myself down a LOT. Plus, I haven't read out loud for years, it would probably take my some time to get back used to it, as my mind reads as fast as it can, but my lips trail behind and I'd stumble over words.

Althamus wrote:I read many times faster than I can speak.

Same for me. However, I have recently been watching ChilledChaos's Youtube playthrough of KS (in which he reads all of the text aloud), and I have found it surprising how much "fluff" text you skip over while reading quickly in your head that turns out to not be so fluffy. Giving the weight of a deliberate vocal utterance to every word seems to make the story considerably more immersive. Not only that, but it gives you time to consider the connotations and nuances of every sentence that is used. It creates little hills and valleys of suspense and resolution between distinct thoughts, pieces of dialogue, separate text boxes, that you just gloss right over if you speed-read.

I'm considering forcing myself to read everything aloud the next time I play through the game myself.