The game's website features a well-written 'about' section that describes what you're getting into, but for those unwilling to click the link, I'll give you a quick rundown. For starters, Katawa Shoujo is told from the perspective of a high school student who discovers he has Arrhythmia: a dangerous heart condition that can be fatal if not properly treated. Unable to return to being a normal student, he finds himself enrolled at Yamaku high school: a school designed for the disabled. Rather than your usual cast of schoolgirls, KS features amputees, the blind, and a number of students with their own set of quirks. The characters are easily KS's strong suit. They're by no means a complete departure from standard harem tropes, but their disabilities present a unique twist that keeps you guessing. In fact, getting to know each of the game's five main 'route' characters is an engaging and enjoyable experience. Even the non-route characters have their own interesting tales to tell. From the comical Kenji to the obnoxiously fun Misha, there is just enough variety to blend together a cast that doesn't feel completely cookie-cutter.
The disabilities are a constant theme in KS's story. There's a lot of interesting dialogue here about how people deal with their lack of arms, sight, or hearing. Some of its is purely mechanical, but every so often the writing really comes through and presents a unique look inside of these characters. Everyone deals with their circumstances in various ways, and it's up to the main character to sift through them and discover how he'll deal with his own situation. The reader is privy to his thoughts as he contemplates his both his new-found home, and the prospect of his life even after high school. Again, some of this stuff is very interesting and makes for a great discussion on themes like self-identity, personal independence, and understanding your limitations as well as overcoming them.
Like 'choose your own path' books of the past, visual novels allow players/readers to shape their experiences via the occasional choice. Which choices you make affect how the story plays out, giving you a bit of ownership in the plot's eventual direction. If you make someone mad, or perhaps gain their trust instead, you'll have to deal with the consequences of your actions. For this reason, replayability is huge. The game's Skip Mode allows you to skip previously read text in a fast-forward state and quickly reach choice scenarios again. Because you can only take one route per play though and could potentially even fail, you're going to have to try again if you want the full experience. It's an interesting way to tell a story, and the game's built-in save state feature compliments that nicely. While not unique to KS, I believe it's worth pointing out how the routes work before we jump to the next section.
By the end of Act I you'll be forced into the route of one of the five main girls, depending on your previous choices. You'll be able to tell which girl you're about to get 'locked into' by how the end of the act plays out. Following an animated scene, you'll find yourself in an Act II specific to that character. From there, it's all about how you interact with her in an attempt to 'win' the route. You can make choices to either succeed or fail in this state, and there's always the looming threat of the main character's heart condition putting him in the hospital...or worse. Anyways, looking back to the game's victory conditions we can see that there's basically only one end goal: sleep with the girl. This is, unfortunately, where the game--and the genre as a whole--takes a turn for the worst.
After finishing Act I my immersion was broken. Before this I was completely engrossed in the life of this high school student and his rather peculiar situation. Again, the themes in KS are fairly strong. If you don't feel something while playing it I'd wager that you're some sort of robot who is missing the ability to sympathize with others. Sure, it's entirely fictional, but it's hard not to become a bit attached to the characters. Act I did a great job of introducing them, and giving the player just enough of an insight into their life to generate some initial interest. However, as the curtains came down on Act I, I felt that I had been mislead. Well, 'mislead' might be the wrong word to use here. It was more the case that I had tricked myself into forgetting what this game was: a visual novel. Finding love is a key component of these games, where routes typically represent a relationship with either a good or bad end. There's no denying that VNs rarely deviate from this structure, and KS is no exception.
By now you're thinking, "Okay, so you don't like the romance. Big deal. It doesn't make the game worse." That's just it though: it did make the game worse. As you head down a character's route you'll start to forget about heart problems or the fact that the story is set in a school for the disabled. Instead, you become increasingly focused on how to achieve a good end with the girl of your choice. Questions about society and independence are thrown aside and replaced with the single most overdone theme in human history: love. That might sound spiteful, but it was something of a surprise for me to realize--all too late--that I was playing a dating simulator and little more. There was such a good opportunity to have a meaningful dialogue on the subject of disabilities, but instead we're presented with a cheap cut & paste straight out of 'how to make a visual novel 101'.
Act II replaces the carefully structured and very honest feeling of the story with a contrived narrative. The MC is seemingly oblivious to the nature of his interactions with the other girls. That much might not be too surprising if you're at all familiar with the harem genre; male main characters are defined by only three points: strong looks, dismissiveness, and obliviousness. Unconcerned with the group of girls following him around, the story's hero picks one girl to start hanging around a bit more. Then a bit more. Repeat this a few times and, despite clear signs of where things are going, our adorably dense narrator still can't figure out that this girl totally digs him. This harem trope is moderately successful in an anime setting, but it's completely contrived here. The player knows what's going on, and he's guiding the main character through these hoops. What results is a strange disconnect between the player and the character he's guiding, and a complete shattering of the beautifully crafted immersion in Act I.
Katawa Shoujo tries to say something meaningful, but the context of its second and third acts overshadow its otherwise thoughtful approach to a very serious subject. I started the game fully aware of how things would turn out, but the excellent storytelling lead me away believe that I was playing a KS that didn't exist. Act II brought me back into reality, and Act III ultimately forced me to stop playing entirely. I can only walk away thinking to myself, yet again, that the solutions to all problems in life is to get a girlfriend. If that sounds shallow, then you'll probably find yourself shrugging at KS's halfway attempt at being a serious work of art. It's amazingly impressive that a team of amateurs put this together, but rather than use this as a kickoff point to investigate more visual novels, I find myself now turned off more than ever.
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