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Katawa Shoujo is a visual novel created by Four Leaf Studios. The idea was born out of a thread originally started on the /a/ board of 4chan, years ago. The basic idea behind the novel is you are a high school senior who just found he has cardiac arrhythmia. This causes you to transfer to a school specifically created to deal with disabled students. The premise is that you meet the cast shown above and decisions you make in the first act choose the path you follow.

The character lineup is, as follows: (I'll take this from Wikipedia, as it will do a much better job to sum them up than I)

Hisao Nakai (中井 久夫 Nakai Hisao)
Hisao is a male high school student diagnosed with chronic cardiac dysrhythmia and congenital heart muscle deficiency. In the prologue, he collapses from a major heart attack after receiving a confession from a girl on a snowy day; they break off relations during his long stay in a hospital
Emi Ibarazaki (茨崎 笑美 Ibarazaki Emi)
Emi is an energetic, extroverted blonde girl with twintails and forest-green eyes. She has prosthetic legs, having had her original legs amputated below the knees as a result of a car accident. She considers her misfortune a blessing, however, as she is a track star, although she is somewhat self-conscious of her short stature. She values good diet and exercise, and is on friendly terms with the head nurse of Yamaku; she promises to keep tabs on Hisao's exercise in exchange for having him as a running partner.
Hanako Ikezawa (池沢 華子 Ikezawa Hanako)
The right side of her body is heavily scarred from the incident and has left her traumatized. Her long, dark purple hair hangs down her back, and her bangs cover the right side of her face, which hides much of her scars.
Lilly Satou (佐藤リリー Satō Lilly)
Lilly is the class representative of 3-2, a class composed of blind and partially blind students (including Kenji); she has been blind since birth. The tallest member of the main female cast, she has long blonde hair and blue eyes — her father is Japanese and her mother is Scottish with family in Inverness. She is very polite and ladylike with a motherly demeanour, not wanting to intrude on others' private life (including Hisao's reasons for being at Yamaku).
Rin Tezuka (手塚 琳 Tezuka Rin)
Rin, a girl whose arms were almost entirely amputated due to a birth defect, uses her feet to accomplish everyday tasks with surprising dexterity. She has short red hair and dark green eyes, and wears a boy's uniform to avoid the awkward situations that would arise from using her feet while wearing a skirt.
Shizune Hakamichi (羽加道 静音 Hakamichi Shizune)
Shizune is one of Hisao's classmates who serves as the student council president and class representative of class 3-3. This bespectacled girl has short dark blue hair and eyes; she is both deaf and mute, communicating primarily through sign language. Her friend, Misha, is almost always at her side, translating everything from and to Shizune, allowing for communication with other people.

Now, I know what you're thinking... Visual novel? You mean cripple dating sim.
NO. It is much more than that. You build emotional connections to the game unlike that of which anything you've experienced, other than those of real life. I know the kids here are going to reply with stuff like, "GAY." But say what you will, I can honestly say that it changed me mentally.

The writing style of it is superb. The story flows so well from point one to the end. There was a different writer for each path, so no path has a similar style. The connections you can make between the stories in the VN and relationships in real life are astonishing. Everything from abusive relationships to self-destruction to emotional distance to facing your fears.

The music is all created by amateur composers, most of which are 18-ish. Just to display something from it, here's my favorite piece. (That I loved so much I transposed into guitar music)

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Now for the cutscene animations. They aren't the best animation you've ever seen, but then again, remember that this is all being done by amateurs for no profit at all. They did this for pure joy and to share. They even declined marketing deals.

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Before you judge this and call it shit, please do try it. It will take 3 hours of your time.

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Rin was best girl, I'd lay on the ground and talk about how clouds taste all day with her. I made it 3/4 through Shizune's route before I stopped playing the game. I'll one day get through all the routes but I don't really like VN's. (I played it last year just after it was released, not recently so I can't remember all the details of the routes I played) Infact I'm very surprised anyone on this site has even heard of the game.



Best track from the OST, though Letting my Heart Speak, Friendship, Wiosna and Three Stars were also great... Infact most of the OST was great except for jitter and 2 other tracks.

Also if you like VN's try:

Yume Miru Kusuri
Saya No Uta (Gen Urobuchi did this AKA the guy that did Madoka, expect suffering)
Kana Imouto (This gave me a chronic dose of feels and depression for a week or two after I finished it, far more sad than Clannad and Angel Beats)
Narcissu
Swan Song
Planetarian

I don't think I'm forgetting any.

Shizune's route is shit compared to the others. Should have done a Misha route instead of Shizune.

Played Kana, replayed it after grandmother died, fell into two week long depression. Fucking damn, that VN hit me hard.

I only went for Shizune because she was the one I considered second most attractive after Rin. I knew her route was suppos to be pretty shit though and in regards to Kana Imouto. Yeah man that one hit me fucking hard too, I only played one route on it and needless to say she didn't survive "I hope it snows again next year" etc. FUCK it felt like I'd lost a close member of my family after playing it, I honestly can't bring myself to play it through again.

You should play Saya no Uta if you haven't already, it's pretty short and doesn't have many choices but it's a great story.

fuck fuck fuck that part got me. i had to go have a cigarette outside my dorm and i just sat down on the sidewalk and fucking cried. probably looked stupid but man it was so fucking sad.

i'll play it this summer when i have free time :y: exam week here, so i play KS to stop feeling depressed and like a failure haha