And while I find the music to be somewhat “generic” in sound - specifically in that it lacked any aural hooks or recognizable style to its composition - it was not at all harsh on the ears. It was not marred by problems of music or art - it can be safely said that the art for Katawa Shoujo is fully deserving of praise and respect. Shizune Route didn’t live up well enough.

Naturally, everything under this cut is prone to spoilers. And we’ll see if the final product lives up to the promise.

So, I’ll play through it, route by route. The initial alphas were extremely shoddy, sure – the dark viridian school uniforms and blocky interfaces were more revolting than the already questionable base concept of overtly seducing a disabled female student, but the changes in artists and luring in of more talented programmers and writers finally presented a beta demo worth paying attention to.

Umineko no Naku Koro ni, arguably more popular here than on its own native soil, was infamously plagued with bad art - characters were literally ham-fisted, blocky, and awkwardly rendered, though the series enjoyed sustained infamy via its convoluted and brain-wracking metaphorical writing and often jaw-dropping orchestral arrangements.īut the demos for Katawa Shoujo suggested that its rather large staff was uniquely earnest in their attempt, and at the bar they’ve set for it. That is, of the more popular Japanese releases - honesty compels admission that visual novels, and especially doujinshi VNs, are as subject to Sturgeon’s Law as any other form of media.įurthermore, and as a note of embarrassment to the American attempts, even the most popular VNs had numerous flaws. They were generally marred by the use of rudimentary engines, amateurish writing, cheap art and crappy music - and when the entirety of the game is its UI engine, its writing, its art and its music, scoring so low across the board would’ve suggested that the American VN fan community simply didn’t have what it took to produce something on the level of a Japanese release. And by distant, I mean it took them five years from the initial idea to the final production of the game.īut was it worth it? Other OELVN projects were… somewhat on the derpy side. It was the Original English Language Visual Novel That Could - one of those rare times when the stars aligned right, the auras were attuned, and there were just enough people to spur each other towards a distant finish line. So, last week, Katawa Shoujo finally had its full-version debut.

Katawa shoujo shizune route