I played Katawa Shoujo, I have known about it since 8 years or maybe 9, but never picked it up until now. This is because I often stumble across something on the Internet that makes me think I could enjoy it, but then it slips my mind a few hours later. Luckily I have encountered it again and had free time too, so I finally gave it a go. After having seen all scenes and endings I have no idea what to think. Media that makes me think and feel is my thing, quite a few things gave me stuff to think about, made me cry, helped me coming to terms with something and much more. Until now Va-11 Hall-A was what touched me the most, but Katawa Shoujo, damn.
While the game itself has hentai, it can be turned off. I had it on because I entered it blindly, afterwards I got the feeling that it is out of place though. On the wiki someone called the hentai even awkward and the game being better without it. Sooner or later I will surely play it once more to see for myself if this is the case, I imagine this being true, because the hentai didn't add anything of value at all. The characters will talk about the h-scenes now and then after they happened, but during the scene itself nothing of value is being added and it is enough to know that they took place. Furthermore the stories are so touching that wanking to them feels straightforward wrong. My guess is this is why I considered them out of place, even though they get mentioned a few times and even drive the story forward in a few cases.
The strong points of the game are the characters and the stories about them. Every route hits hard, I was especially left with a lot of feels after Rin and Hanako. So much about it were exactly things that I have already thought about, that I went through too or I am still going through now. Hanako's statement of having given up on friendship even made me flinch, then this is something I did subconsciously too. After all those years with countless of experiences, feelings, decisions, ups and downs, somewhere along this I grew tired of reaching out. Tired of making people like me. Tired of sustaining a friendship. Tired of the exchange of giving, taking, hanging out, talking. Just like her I yearn for more. What good is it when they live their life and you yours, you still sitting there, being alone, only sharing an evening or a day now and then. Yearning for something deeper, closer, more intimate. With more interactions with each other, more affection, tied so close to e
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