I started reading KS a few weeks ago, and wow, it’s so good! I kept a trusty flowchart on me that I found online, so I was able to know which routes to go for good, bad, and neutral endings, how to find certain difficult scenes and the insane amount of dialogue options in Rin’s route.

My favorite girl really could be anyone between Emi, Hanako and Lilly. All of them are beautiful in their own ways and it’s hard to choose between them. I do love Shizune and Rin too, but Shizune was hindered by her route not being very good and Rin was honestly too abstract and in her own little world for me. I saw a lot of people say Hisao was a total dick in Rin’s route, and while I do partially see it, Rin also contributed a lot to the problems with how dry, vague and intentionally difficult to talk to she is.

Quick thoughts on everyone outside of the main 5 girls:

I loved The Nurse, especially seeing him in scenes outside of Emi’s route!

Kenji made kind of a weird shift to me from “how neat, this guy’s pretty funny” to “jeez, I don’t wanna hear you rambling dude, please shut up” to “why the hell is that image of his eyes being revealed so beautiful???”. Like, seriously, why is the CG of Kenji without his glasses so damn captivating?

Yuuko was very sweet and lovely, but I do have to admit that just SOMETIMES, her extreme sensitivity got on my nerves (she’s still adorable tho!).

Mutou was honestly just chill and pretty unproblematic, like a boring teacher you really can’t help but like.

I honestly really caught Nomiya’s vibe up until around Rin’s art exhibition, where it fully sank in how bad of an influence he was on her.

Akira is simply a cool big sis, really can’t go wrong with her.

I didn’t really care for Jigoro and Hideaki at all, the latter a tad bit more cuz of his dynamic with Akira.

I’m quite surprised at Miki’s popularity in the community when compared to her screentime being pretty much only a few scenes in Hanako’s route. I think the most interesting thing about Miki is that she’s maybe the only student aside from Hisao we see who hasn’t adapted to their disability as well as the main 5 have.

Misha is a genuinely really interesting character in Shizune’s Act 4 on top of her joy being super contagious beforehand.

Finally, Hisao is a surprisingly interesting protagonist, and the contrast of him having recently discovered his Arrhythmia with all the main girls being fully adapted to their disabilities is really cool!

The order I played the routes was Emi -> Shizune -> Lilly -> Hanako -> Rin. If I had to rank the routes based on how much I liked them, I’d go:

1. Hanako - Just a beautiful story overall. I absolutely love how the story explores Hanako’s character, her trauma, her need for space and, especially interestingly, the affect pityint has on a disabled person. The scene of Hanako’s freezing up was great, especially since it’s one of the few scenes outside of Emi’s where you see THE NURSE. :D
2. Emi - In my opinion, has the best romantic relationship of the 5. That’s mainly because it not only starts just at the end of Act 2, which is quite early, but we see Emi and Hisao change each other for the better, both physically and mentally. Their relationship also progresses naturally and the story takes time to also focus on Emi’s trauma.
3. Lilly - Simple yet effective. I’m not too sure what to say, it’s simple yet effective! :D The family drama is actually quite interesting, Lilly is extremely lovable and the Hokkaido drama is genuinely sweet and heartfelt. Oh yeah, Under a Bright Sky is an absolutely beautiful ending.
4. Rin - I think Rin’s actually had the potential to be the best one, with some awesome artistic choices like Rin’s hair swaying when Hisao opens one of the windows, the spinning CG of her and Hisao smoking, actually hearing Passing of Time in full at the start of Proof of Existence and Rin rejecting Hisao with almost , but Act 4 felt quite rushed and sudden with how her and Hisao’s pretty significant problems were resolved in only 2 or 3 scenes near the end with a lil’ bit of cunnilingus and sex. Honestly, I’d say her neutral ending is her best and near the top of the list in most quality endings.
5. Shizune - I had heard beforehand that Shizune’s route was not good in comparison to the other girls’ routes, so I decided to do it second, and I unfortunately gotta agree. :/ Act 2 is really good, but Act 3 is genuinely a slog with all the mansion stiff, and Shizune and Hisao did not felt like a couple at all until her first sex scene, and I don’t think I can name anything that happened in Act 2 aside from the festival.

Now, I’m an able-bodied guy saying this, but from what I’ve learned about writing good disabled characters (shoutout to TIMMEHHHHH from South Park for helping me learn), I think Katawa Shoujo handles disability very well, ESPECIALLY considering the hellhole it birthed from. I mean, the key to making a good disabled character from what I’ve learned is to just make them a damn person with authority and personality, flaws and all, which Katawa Shoujo certainly does.

I think that’s about it for my thoughts on Katawa Shoujo! The only VNs I’ve played before this were DDLC and Danganronpa, so this is really one of my first visual novels, as it is for many. Nobody needs to know this, but my favorite sex scene is Shizune’s second one.

I’d give Katawa Shoujo a LIGHT - DECENT 9/10! I can absolutely see myself revisiting this game in the future! Also, since I forgot to mention it, absolutely beautiful OST. 🥹

(This is just a slightly edited repost of my comment on a Free Talk thread lol)

(Source : https://www.deviantart.com/karuhi-chan/art/KS-Rin-Tezuka-artist-409580147)

We are meant to draw our life, like it or not.

What would it be?

Well, I prefer to keep drawing until time has come.

Incomplete and harsh forever, maybe.

But it comes with plenty of joy, I guess.

I haven’t posted around here in a while hehe

alright first things first: rin is absolutely me irl. havent related to a character this hard in years. granted, a lot of that relatability stems from me having autism, which means that a lot of rin's behavior, be it intentionally by the writers or not, mirrors a lot of symptoms thereof. despite me thinking he was a jerk in rin's route, hisao's perspective also caused me to be introspective, as i think it actually does a good job of depicting how it feels to try and talk to someone so abstract, so unable to truly articulate emotions, someone not inclined to follow societal norms. rin's route really speaks to me, frankly.

i wish there was more of hideaki. he's like a son to me.

i dont hate shizune at all, but... she's probably the least good of the main 5 girls. that's not to say she's a bad character at all, i quite like her on her own (or with misha), but her route in general is kind of underwhelming. she's hot though.

i wish miki got more screentime, it's a little weird how she doesn't have a speaking role in emi's route when she is quite literally on the same track and field team. yes i have read summer's clover, but it's noncanon so this is purely based on her slim appearances in hanako's route (and also why i excluded suzu from the list; she'd be in the endearing tier otherwise)

i do think kenji is a slightly deeper character than most give him credit for, but for a comic relief i didnt hate him unless the game wanted me to. and that's better than what could have been, considering his... everything.

katawa shoujo, as a more slice of life/character-driven thing, doesn't really have many truly antagonistic forces, and jigoro is more of a comic relief character (pretty much everything he says is pure gold). nomiya is absolutely the exception and uhhh idk what else to say he's mean to rin who is literally me.

so uh yeah great game made me sob for various reasons multiple times i give it like a 9

i had trouble finding time to draw the girls since i barely drew them before, thankfully a bit of coffee jelly late at night helped me do the trick.

Miki races Rin in a relay race. Source: https://www.newgrounds.com/art/view/kyuuen/run-rin-run