#Katawa shoujo kenji route full#

We get a lot of HisaoвЂ™s internal monologue and dialogue between him and other characters, but the choices rarely come up. With that said, there arenвЂ™t that many choices within the game. In another choice during the first act, Hisao encounters Hanako-another student and one of the possible romantic interests-and the player can either choose вЂњIвЂ™m sorry, I didnвЂ™t mean to startle youвЂќ or вЂњHi! IвЂ™m new hereвЂ¦ WeвЂ™re in the same class.вЂќ You can ask вЂњWhy,вЂќ or say вЂњYeah, of course.вЂќ ItвЂ™s seemingly not a very high-stakes choice. In an early choice, HisaoвЂ™s teacher Muto asks him if he wants to introduce himself to the class. Where does player agency come in? Occasionally, Hisao-and thus, the player-are presented with choices. (Yamaku High School is, reportedly, depicted by photographs of Brown University! ) There is occasional motion, including when a deaf character signs, but the visuals are mostly static. Most scenes are вЂviewedвЂ™ in the first person (except for some scenes), from HisaoвЂ™s point of view the visuals include the characters in the scene layered over stylized photographs. The core of the gameplay is clicking (or pressing the space bar) to advance the visual novelвЂ™s text, which is either HisaoвЂ™s inner thoughts or dialogue between him and other characters. The gameplay mechanics of Katawa Shoujo are, seemingly, relatively slim-but they bring up some interesting questions of visual agency. ThatвЂ™s the only ending where someone dies the other вЂњbadвЂќ endings are tragic due to the failure of Hisao and his partner to solve the issues in their relationships. There is also an alternate path where, if Hisao alienates everyone, he ends up ditching a major school festival to drink on the roof with his dorm neighbor, Kenji (who believes that this school is a вЂfeminist conspiracyвЂ™), and soon falls off the roof and dies. If he does start dating, then the gameвЂ™s subsequent acts either end with a вЂњhappyвЂќ/вЂњgoodвЂќ ending for Hisao and his girlfriend, where they stay together and work through their challenges together, or a вЂњsadвЂќ/вЂќbadвЂќ ending where they canвЂ™t overcome their disagreements and differences, and break up with each other. Based on how the player goes through the gameвЂ™s вЂact 1вЂ™-and IвЂ™ll discuss the gameвЂ™s mechanics momentarily-Hisao either begins dating one of five girls at the school or antagonizes everyone and ends up with no one. (Or a mix of all of those, depending on which character and scene in the game.) Lastly, this game does contain adult content and sex scenes, although all subsequent content and screenshots below are safe for work. Secondly, I am not an expert on portrayals of disability in media and fiction and canвЂ™t speak with any sort of proficiency to whether or not Katawa ShoujoвЂ™s portrayals of disabilities are realistic or not, or sensitive or not.

Given how the gameвЂ™s narrative is so tightly wound up with its mechanics, as IвЂ™ll discuss soon, itвЂ™s not really possible to meaningfully talk about Katawa Shoujo as a romance, comedy, tragedy, or even a game without spoiling things. Firstly, this discussion will contain some major spoilers for Katawa Shoujo. Д«efore I continue, I want to acknowledge a few points.

#Katawa shoujo kenji route full#

Even the gameвЂ™s opening credits use the usernames of the 4chan users as opposed to full names. Katawa Shoujo is defined by its official website as a вЂњbishoujo-style visual novel set in the fictional Yamaku High School for disabled children, located somewhere in modern Japan.вЂќ There are a couple of translations of the title circulating around the web, but the one thatвЂ™s on the official website is вЂњDisability Girls.вЂќ While the game credits its development to a company named вЂњFour Leaf Studios,вЂќ thatвЂ™s actually a name for a coalition of 4chan forum users, who created this game over the course of five years based on an illustration posted there in 2007.