Visual novels have never been as popular in the rest of the world as they are in Japan, so for those of you that don’t know, A VN is a lot like a graphic novel or a picture book, yet the player makes decisions at key points in the story that affect both the direction and outcome. This particular VN is called Katawa Shoujo,「片輪少女」and quite insensitively means “Crippled Girls” in Japanese. The game is made by a group called Four Leaf Studios and come from 4chan’s /a/ board, work having started back in 2007, only making it to a release on the 4th of January this year for the amazing price of nothing. If you don’t know what 4chan is, you’ve been warned; the site has a tendency to melt people’s brains and disgust people one multiple levels simultaneously.
Now, I don’t usually play VN’s, but when I do there’s usually some big, single driving force behind it. This time, that driving force was the music, tracks like these are exactly the kind of music that inspires my love for the piano. Some tracks are simple, but catchy, while others are more complex, deep, and force you to feel what the protagonist is feeling remarkably well. Music that makes you feel is something I think is a rare thing these days, and I can never get enough of it.
The thing with games like this is there is always a chance that there is adult content, not exactly something you want to see unless you are really into this kind of thing. Fortunately there is an option to disable adult content in the options menu, but I doubt adult content is a problem until you get well into the story, and from what I’ve managed to play in two days, this game looks long. I mentioned the menus, oh the menus! Kya! They’re so adorable! Why does something so out of place in my collection, fit in so well?!
Oxymoron’s aside there is an unfortunate lack of voice acting, but that was to be expected from a production such as this. While 4chan is a regular hang-out for some remarkably creative people, voice acting is definitely not one of their forte’s. It’s quite strange though to play a VN and not have, even Japanese, voices speaking as dialogue appears.
Oh the dialogue, there’s a lot of conflict right there. Some people I know have said there’s too much text (me being one of those people), while others have said they love the dialogue so much they wish there was more. I can’t deny that most of the conversational text is good, but monologues get boring. Fast. Look game, I don’t want to read ten lines of monologue explaining how amazingly cute someone supposedly is. Get on with the conversation already! The problem with this is though, is if you get tired of surplus text, you start skim reading, and the pace just escalates. I found myself rampantly tapping at the screen either skimming or skipping monologue, only to skip speech. Granted you can scroll up with the mouse wheel, but I really don’t think that’s the point.
Have any of you seen a generic anime or manga opening? I’m sure there’s a similar problem with some western media too, just not as often. There are times when the opening elements of a story are weak. The protagonist here apparently has Arrhythmia, but is sent to a school for people who are disabled, or have special needs of some sort. I may well be under interpreting the dangers of Arrhythmia after a quick Google search, but he has a heart problem that can be kept in check with appropriate medication and a bit of exercise; so there’s a change that if he exceeds his limits and forgets medication he could die, but you could say the same for someone with diabetes couldn’t you? Again though, I may just be under interpreting how dangerous Arrhythmia is. At least there’s some consistency there though. His condition does play up if you make stupid choices.. or a pink haired girl slams into his chest.. which is more than I can say for some stories where the cause of the story is pretty much forgotten about 30 minutes in.
My rants about dialogue and story aside, this VN is pretty in its own way; if not weird, with quite a variance in social interactions. If you’re into chick-flicks and awesome music, this is probably for you. Personally, I’ll likely complete the story arc I get as quick as I can before never playing it again. I like the art and the music, I have little other reason to play it in all honesty.
I don’t get where the “insensitive” part of your title comes in after reading your review, since it’s very misleading. Having played the game myself though, there’s nothing “insensitive” about it, asides from any initial knee-jerk reactions to the premise.
It’s solely a reference to the title and first impressions of art.
Nice article, to think I was worried about light swearing and more adult metaphors creeping into my writing style. I’ve never played these sorts of games, and I’m not really sure I want to I just don’t see them appealing to me, I like narratives but from what little I know about these games there often about subjects I’m not really interested in, teen romance, friendships and sex. In a way I am actually pleased a game like this does exist though, speaking as someone who knows a lot of disabled people they do still have the same desires as the able bodied, they want relationships, love and intimacy and to be seen as fully human.
Mainstream society though is more then a little squeamish about this, so anything that can help break a stereotype is welcome.
“Google search, but he has a heart problem that can be kept in check with appropriate medication and a bit of exercise;”
I may be mistaken but I believe that since Arrhythmia often flares up during stress and energetic activities, this often stops those suffering from it from developing physically as too much exercise can trigger an attack, medication helps but would you want to risk it everyday? This would mean that he would be excluded from many activities in a normal school as a precaution. And many psychologists will tell you alienation in youth is always trouble. So it might be better for his social being to be grouped with the other disabled as they are also unlikely to be doing anything too strenuous either.
That’s also the reason why students with learning difficulties are often grouped together even if they have completely differing conditions so that they aren’t constantly reminded of there “shortcomings” and can work out there problems amongst friends.