Katawa Shoujo is a bishōjo-style Visual Novel developed by Four Leaf Studios. The player takes the role of a boy, Hisao Nakai, currently studying in a school for disabled children. Hisao needs to learn how to cope with his recently discovered illness while also getting to know some of his new classmates. Among them, there are five girls that he can interact with in a dating-sim style.
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Pros
Pro Well narrated hooking story
The pacing of Katawa Shoujo's narrative is quite great, like a good book. You won't be jumping from one exciting event to another, but this realism in pacing is what makes it so good. Every non-important scene helps building up the atmosphere of the story by mixing trivial and important bits of information, and adds to the feeling of being a regular student in the school. Being a normal boy with no extremely special traits is an interesting, uncommon approach to the main character of a visual novel, and keeps the story stimulating.
When talking to any of the five main girls, you will slowly get to know them and their feelings and thoughts. Just like in real life, you can't rush this process. Digging depper into each girl background and mind takes time, but their stories are quite interesting so they will keep you hooked. In addition to that, the girls will trust you more as you progress through their arc, and so the conversations will become deeper, more meaningful and more interesting.
If you enjoy reading books (you definitely should!), chances are you will enjoy reading through the story of Katawa Shoujo. You will be eager to know what happens next in the game, but also take some time to appreciate how well-written this game is. It really does a great job describing thoughts in a clear but beautiful manner. Characters' expressions and pauses are realistic too, giving them a good human-like feeling.
Pro Deep, yet subtle, psychological foundation
The game takes place in a school for disabled children. Being a child with a disability is not easy, neither physically or psychologically, so everyone in the school has a traumatic background one way or another, and that reflects on their personality and how they interact with you. All five main girls have their disabilities too: Emi has no legs, Hanako got disfigured for life by fire, Lilly is blind, Rin has no arms, and Shizune is deaf and mute.
The writers did a great job making each character unique in the psychological aspect, and therefore adding depth to the game's story while still being subtle. The main girls themselves are a subtle lesson to overcoming handicaps: Emi, the girl that has no legs, loves running, and Rin, the girl with no arms, is an amazing painter. While we progress through the story and learn more about each girl, we will dig deeper into their feelings and how their minds work, discovering the strong psychological foundation of the game.
Pro High replayability: decisions matter!
You are presented with different choices while playing through the story. Some of your decisions are important, some don't, but you won't know which of them matter. Choosing to go to the backyard instead of to your room might be a trivial decision, or might change the entire storyline, because you were (or weren't) at the right place at the right moment.
The final outcome of the game will be based on the important decisions you take during your story. There are good endings, bad endings, and somewhat neutral endings, but playing through all of them and ejoying each story arc is definitely a satisfying and entertaining experience.
Beware! If you want to fully experience the game, you will find yourself spending long hours replaying it again and again, as there are 13 different endings.
Cons
Con May be a little too dense
Although the writing is great and you can usually read through the story like a breeze, the style can get a little bit dense for some people, specially if you play the game for long hours.
Some conversations and interactions are long (even non-important ones) and tedious to follow. Others are filled with deep psychological and philosophical reflections that may be hard to follow, although usually easy to understand.
This shouldn't be a problem if you slowly enjoy the story and narration, taking your time to do pauses and reflect on what you have played so far. But if you like rushing games and finishing them quickly, you might not enjoy the full experience of Katawa Shoujo's story.
Con Replaying it may be boring at the first stages of the game
The first parts of the story are always the same, since you haven't taken any decision yet. This part can be a little bit boring until you get to take some real decisions and your story starts changing from your last playthrough.