Katawa Shoujo

Katawa Shoujo… I’m about to give up on this one.

These days everyone in Japan is naming their stuff with western names, while the gaijin are bending over backwards to sound Japanese. Fine, the names are all romanized, whatever — but then it’s -chan this, -chan that, -kun this, -kun that. If you’re so committed, why doesn’t your teacher get called sensai instead of teacher! Did they even finish translating this game into Japanese? Doesn’t it feel weird, jerking yourself off with the English version?

The music, though — no complaints. It’s listenable. Way more listenable than some games out there…

I don’t judge on character designs, I’m here for the story. And the story — let me put it this way. Whoever wrote this script is so, so pure. Clubs, festivals, student council — they copy-pasted all the usual anime staples and called it a day. The rest is plain boiled water: you chat, you fall in love; you’re in love, you bang. And what’s even dumber is the gaijin’s edgy streak — they wanted to show off how deep and meaningful they are, so tons of the choices are these braindead traps. Pick wrong and the protagonist gets ED during the H scene. Pick wrong and he has a heart attack and dies. Creating bad ends just to have bad ends — fun? Healing? Are you stupid?

The choices have their own problems too. Near the start you’re asked whether to introduce yourself. I picked “why?” — i.e. I’m too cool to bother introducing myself. Then afterwards he keeps muttering “Maybe I should introduce myself, that would be better” over and over. Muttering about what, exactly?!

The dumbest part is the heroine has basically no personality at all… while the protagonist got plenty of characterization: he never shuts up with the negativity, going on about how everyone around him is an idiot, how nobody cares about his condition, how nobody cares how much pain he’s in, how even giving him his meds is just duty.

**Honestly, protagonist, just die already!**