According to the Katawa Shoujo Dev Blog, the highly-anticipated 4chan-made hentai game, Katawa Shoujo, is completed. After five years of development, the game is now available to download for free on their site and blog. The development group, named Four Leaf Studios, consisted of twenty-one volunteers from across the globe, in addition to innumerable contributors throughout the years.
The idea for the game came in January of 2007, when a sticky in the 4chan anime board sparked interest. A sketch of the game had been included in the pages of the extras section of the doujin Schuppen Harnische, released by the artist RAITA of the circle Zettai Shoujo.
The idea was for a game about disabilities set in a Japanese high school, but with nothing having come of it in seven years, members of the /a/ community decided to take it upon themselves. By April, a core development team was formed, going by the name of Four Leaf Studios. For the next five years, Four Leaf Studios created the story, art, music, programming, and direction for the game. With the release of their brainchild, the story of Four Leaf Studios has come to a close, with no planned future projects.
The story follows protagonist, Hisao Nakai, after he is forced to move to a new school after a congenital heart defect hospitalizes him for a long time. There are five main paths the player can take, corresponding to the five main female characters, each path following the storyline pertaining to the character.
According to the blog, “The story is told through the perspective of the main character, using a first person narrative. The game uses a traditional text and sprite-based visual novel model with an ADV text box.”
Your five potential soul mates are:
- Emi Ibarazaki, a happy-go-lucky girl who had her legs amputated below the knee after an accident, but finds that her new prosthetic legs have helped her reach new heights of abilities on the track team.
- Hanako Ikezawa is extremely reclusive with severe social anxiety. A traumatic fire when she was young burned down her house, killed her father, and left her physically and emotionally scarred. She is, however, very close friends with Lilly.
- Lilly Satou has been blind since birth, and is extremely responsible, caring and maternal, especially towards her best friend, Hanako.
- Rin Tezuka is creative and philosophical. A birth defect and subsequent surgeries left her arms tiny stumps, making it difficult for her to do the things she likes, such as painting, but she makes do with her mouth and feet.
- Shizune Hakamichi is deaf and mute, but still manages to be a fearsome taskmaster, skilled manipulator, class representative, and a fair and just leader.
Sounds like a pretty typical harem H-game, with girls who have polarizing personality traits and the vulnerable, new-comer male protagonist who can woo them. Since it’s made by 4chan, I would advise readers to proceed with caution, but early players have given it good reviews, commending the writing and art. Check out the video below, and decide for yourself.
Really, the only people saying that it’s a typical H-Game, Harem Game, Hentai Game etc., are those who haven’t actually played it. I myself went into it thinking the same thing.
After having played through several of the paths within the game, I can solidly say that it’s not. The writing is fantastic, and genuinely makes you feel for the characters in the story. The characters are not defined by their disability, and have overcome their ailments in interesting ways, each having fairly unique and dynamic personalities. The actual sex scenes in the game are miniscule, they can be disabled, and honestly, if you’re involved in the story (for me at least) it’s nigh-impossible to pleasure yourself to, it just feels wrong.
It’s also made me re-evaluate my perception of the Disabled. Where once I saw a Man in a Wheelchair, and felt pity for him, all I see now is a Man, and his disability is somewhat of a curiosity, why is he confined to a wheelchair? How has he adapted in his everyday life?
Honestly, this game is nothing like the typical sex-focused H-games out there. I’d even say it’s a stretch calling it a H-game in the first place, but that’s just me.
I’d recommend it wholeheartedly to any fan of the VN genre.
I agree. I hadn’t played the game, I was only reporting on its release, but I played last night and it definitely isn’t a game you should go into with the intention of “getting laid”. But Four Leaf Studio’s site and blog have it labelled as an H-Game, and the bios they gave for the girls just kind of reinforced that.
I agree it is more about going through the stories of the students at the school, and makes a lot of really interesting and unique insights into the lives and circumstances of those with disabilities.
“Sounds like a pretty typical harem H-game, with girls who have polarizing personality traits and the vulnerable, new-comer male protagonist who can woo them.”
Except it’s not. The game intentionally sets you up to feel this way – and then promptly smacks you on the face, shows you exactly how poisonous having too much of this attitude can be, and sends you off on a horrific bad end if you keep it for too long.
Yes, I started playing after writing the article. I was going off of the website and blog, which has it set up to look like a pretty typical H-game. But I agree. Going into it expecting to just pick some options and then get laid is a very very bad way to go into it.
Also (sorry for commenting twice) – it’s not a 4chan game. It has its origins in 4ch, but Four Leaf Studios is an entirely separate entity, to the point where 4ch promptly booted and occasionally banned people who mentioned KS in their threads.
I’m sorry, but what’s 4Chan’s logo?
Not hatin but didn’t you write a couple of articles that are against these types of games? Like isn’t sex going to be the selling point of an H-game?
My articles are against the presentation of women as sexual objects to be ogled at, yeah. And yes, H-games fall squarely in the center of that, because at the core it’s the exact point of the game — the girls are sexual objects to be had. But since this is a news article, I’m just reporting on the release of the game, I can’t really go into it. Also, in the case of this game, I think it does a really good job of presenting the girls. I mean, as much as a game like that can… Where in some H-games you make options with the “end goal” being to get to the sex scene, in this game the end goal seems to be to learn more about the girls and their past, their story. They have unique (albeit polarizing and stereotypical) personality traits, a history, they have problems that they are working to overcome, and you can find yourself caring about them as friends. Sometimes you can forget it’s an H-game. So idk. The idea of an H-game in general is something I will have to think more about. There is something weird about a man trying to write as if he were a sexually active 18 year old girl… But then, it is really like an analysis of pornography, and women in pornography, although in video games the developers have complete control over how the girl looks and dresses… I will have to think more about it. I didn’t make an opinionated comment in the article because it was just news. But maybe an article on H-games will come later.
“4chan H game”? Don’t be so inflammatory. The only relation to 4chan it has is the single art post it was based off of. And if you play it for the hentai… you’re doing it wrong.
I’m glad to see in the comments that you did try it out instead of just going on first impressions forever, though.
Visual novels seem to be a taboo of sorts, in the US even moreso than Japan. The hackneyed old idea of LUCKYJAPANESERAPEPORNTIMEDATINGSIM is the only way people think of it, but the porn and objectification are a miniscule portion of the whole, and most of the time, are looked down upon by those of us who read VNs. While a lot of the quality ones DO include sex scenes, that’s not the focus. I’d say that MOST of the time, skinny, pretty characters and H-scenes are only there because it’s an established theme of the genre, and appeals to the lowest common denominator, allowing a novel to sell well and support the studio. Story is what matters, and occasionally, it’s done extremely well, and it’s those occurrences that “enthusiasts” like me laud.
If multiple VNs can make me rethink my outlook and/or cry full on tears when movies haven’t done such in years, then there’s a bit of substance there.
“Typical Harem”? “4chan H-game”? This prevalent bias is just another example of the feminist conspiracy!
looks good, nice write up hopefully i can find some time to play it