Katawa Shoujo
Katawa Shoujo
Katawa Shoujo, développé et publié par Four Leaf Studios, est un visual novel indépendant sorti le 4 janvier 2012 sur PC, Mac et Linux. Il se déroule dans la fictive école Yamaku pour enfants handicapés, située dans le Japon contemporain, et suit Hisao Nakai, un garçon dont une malformation cardiaque congénitale bouleverse la vie et l'oblige à intégrer cet établissement après une longue hospitalisation. Le récit, narré à la première personne, propose cinq routes principales correspondant à cinq personnages féminins, chaque parcours suivant le scénario lié à l'une d'elles, dans un modèle textuel avec sprites et boîte de dialogue de style ADV utilisant le moteur Ren'Py. Le jeu est estimé à huit heures pour l'histoire principale et trente-sept heures en mode completionist, avec une note agrégée de 76,42.
La presse a salué la chaleur et l'honnêteté de l'écriture portée par les illustrations et la musique, tandis que certains joueurs se sont dits agréablement surpris par la sincérité du récit et par des personnages forts offrant une expérience émotionnelle, notant toutefois que le titre relève davantage du livre interactif que de la simulation de rencontre classique.
Médias
Avis des critiques et joueurs
Critiques de la Presse (Metacritic)
« The writing isn't lyrical, but it's warm and honest enough to be carried by the character art, photographed settings, and music that surround it. »
« Katawa Shoujo is more of an interactive ebook than a full fledged dating sim, but by using a faire, smart, and humourous tone in dealing with its disabled characters, it takes by surprise all those who could have tagged Four Leaf Studio as a band of pervs. »
Avis des Joueurs (Metacritic)
« I went into this a bit nervous because of the premise, but I was pleasantly surprised by how much heart it has. It’s a very down-to-earth story about living with disability and navigating high school life, and it handles those themes with a lot of grace and sincerity. Some of the routes are definitely stronger and more emotional than others, but the characters feel like real people with real struggles. It’s a bit of an older game now, but it still feels very special. »
« Great characters and a genuinely moving story. It tackles its subject matter surprisingly well and delivers a really emotional experience. A totally solid and memorable visual novel. »
« Este juego es una absoluta obra de arte, los personajes, su historia, narrativa y mensaje son preciosos »
« Es una de las mejores (si no es que la mejor) historia y desarrollo que una novela visual puede ofrecer. Los personajes son tan memorables que estoy 100% seguro de que te memorizarás el nombre de al menos 3 personajes en menos de 2 horas. La historia es larga y rica, con escenas que te pueden hacer sonreir, reir, o sentir que se te metió algo en el ojo, incluso las escenas +18 que tiene, ofrecen aportes bastante grandes a la historia, por lo que dudo que quieras saltártelas. La cantidad de finales que tiene hace que la historia nunca quede corta, y de seguro que querrás tener al menos 10 saving slots preparados en caso de tomar una decisión de la cual te puedes arrepentir un chingo. Sin duda, junto con Class of 09, la mejor novela visual que he probado. Pero claro no todo es tan bueno, a pesar de que solo es una minima cosa, sigue siendo algo malo. En la ruta de **** (tranquilos, no hay spoilers) se siente un poco apurado el desarrollo de la historia. Se que se quiere ofrecer una amplia variedad de personajes, pero por favor, introducir personajes con actitudes exageradas para desarrollar mas fácilmente una trama (sabran de que personaje me refiero) me parece una decisión de cobardía o de pereza por desarrollar una trama con paciencia. Creo que es lo único malo. (Ah, y no esta de mas añadir que Kenji es un rompe bolas tremendo, no me arrepiento cuando le doy skip a todos sus diálogos) »
« I learned about KS when YT recommended me those -Matty interviewing the KS devs- videos. I ended up playing KS for the 10 year aniv of the game. It was weird. It was strange. It was really good. What's great about KS is that as the stories evolve, they bring you with them. The characters grow, and a part of you does too. I've recommended KS to people that have never played a VN, that's the highest praise I can think of. I just played OmOneko, the other game some of the KS devs helped make, It's brilliant. »
« This was one of the many visual novels i have played, and out of all them this one shines past the rest. This game had me wanting more, it was an amazing and everlasting story that i couldn't put down. Who knew a game could make you feel genuinely like your the main character, i felt like i was going through his emotions will playing, the grief, sadness, happiness you name it. I was never into reading but this game had me hooked instantly and brought me back daily to play even for minutes. I would say this game is a must play, it brings out some unseen scenes, that most of us wont experience which was cool. Overall this game was amazing, its one of the only games where i want a sequel or just another scene to play, even if it seems slow at the start wait, trust me. »
« It's an interesting visual novel with novel and creative characters, and the writing rarely feels immersion-breaking. It's ultimately not that memorable and its adult aspects do end up feeling like they hold it back to some degree, but if you're into visual novels this one is still worth your time »
« the best game I've ever played brings out a lot of emotions. I simply have no words, I advise everyone to play this wonderful game »
