At last, a dating sim in which you asked crippled girls out; introducing ‘Katawa Shoujo’

Matt Hawkins Contributing Writer, Video Games

After four years in kitchen, Katawa Shoujo is finally complete. So here’s the deal…

ksbig At last, a dating sim in which you asked crippled girls out; introducing Katawa Shoujo

Katawa Shoujo is what happens when a bunch of folks online, in this case the “internet hate machine” known as 4chan, decide to get together and make a video game. Not just any video game, but a dating sim/visual novel. And not just any dating sim/visual novel, but one in which all the girls you try to get good with are handicapped in some form of fashion.

A collective was formed among these individuals, Four Leaf Studios, which would account for 21 participants when all was said and done. Who worked on the game, which translates to “Disabled Girls” in Japanese, according to Siliconera, and over the course of four years. Last night, the finished product was finally released.

So what’s it about? Well, like virtually all games of its kind back East, you’re a dude who finds himself in an environment surrounded by nothing but girls, all ready to be romanced. But instead of being the only guy placed in an all girl school due to some wacky clerical error (or some other mystical/extra terrestrial means), you’re a teen with a congenital heart defect that is forced to live in a hospital.

There you’ll find all sorts of girls. Like the one girl who’s blind. And the other that’s deaf and mute. There’s also the burn victim. And another who has no arms. Don’t forget the one with the prosthetic legs (and is a track and field star as a result)! And the most important thing is that they’re all single.

I actually played the demo when it first came out, about two years ago, and found it rather enjoyable. Enough to recommend it to anyone else who has even a passing interest in the visual novel genre (and I’m sure there’s plenty of folks who comprise Guyism’s audience that qualify, I’m sure of it). At the very least, and perhaps this isn’t saying much, but it blows away virtually every other game of its kind (which are all pretty dreadfully boring).

Think of it this way: instead of trudging through a mountain of text to see pictures of your character banging some run of the mill, anime babe, here you can do the same, but the story and interactions are far more interesting (as well as quite sensitive to the subject matter), plus you get to bang an anime babe with no arms! And that has to count for something, right? For those actually interested, a copy (which is free, btw) can be nabbed here.

What'd you think of this?

Cast My Vote

Other Stories You Might LIke

comment on this story

blog comments powered by Disqus