I played a little game called
Katawa Shoujo over the last few weeks.
Plot:Japanese high-school student Hisao Nakai suffers a heart attack and is diagnosed with the heart condition arrythmia. Because this could prove life-threatening in an ordinary environment, he is transferred to a special school for the disabled to finish out his senior year. While there, he strikes up a budding romance with one of his classmates. Which one depends on the player's choices, and each girl has not only a very different storyline, but a different writer. All of them, however, serve to hammer home a message.
The Message:In a nutshell, the message of Katawa Shoujo is this: Too often in society, people who have disabilities are treated as either freaks or as poor little helpless things who need to be "fixed." In reality though, they have exactly the same hopes, dreams, fears for the future and even character flaws as anybody else. I can't remember the last time I played a game that had a message at all, let alone such a great and important one.
CharactersSpeaking of characters, they are where KS really shines. Almost all of them besides Hisao have learned to cope with their disability in one way or another, either by working around it or by saying "screw it, I'm living my life anyway." The local track star, Emi, has no legs but tsught herself to run on prosthetics. A girl named Rin is a painter despite being born armless; she simply holds the brush between her toes. All of them are extremely well fleshed out beyond simply "the blind girl," "the deaf girl" et cetera.
Gameplay:There isn't any, really. KS is a "visual novel," meaning that it consists mostly of reading text and making choices every so often which determine which branch of the story the player will follow. Essentially, a Choose-Your-Own-Adventure book with visuals and background music. The art is overall very good, and the music is memorable.
Overall Verdict:Play it.
IT'S FREE. Fantastic characters, phenomenal writing, and a heartwarming message about empathy. Plus IT'S FREE.
CAVEAT: There is a small amount of sex in this game. It is handled quite tastefully for the most part, and if you don't like it you can censor it in the Options menu, but be aware it is there.
