Katawa Shoujo

My first foray into visual novels definitely wasn't bad. Katawa Shoujo is surprisingly tasteful considering how most visual novels written in this time period are just shameless eroges. That isn't to say this one isn't, of course it is. Eroges sell well and people like reading them, myself to an extent. But, in a similar vein to Fate in my opinion, the erotic parts of this eroge isn't really what sold me on it from the first part. To start with the bad things, the art is definitely subpar and I have seen better. Of course, that's mostly because this is a passion project by a bunch of anonymous people who wanted to tell a story. I'm not so shallow that pretty art would win me over or poor art would make it unreadable, but it is somewhat jarring at times especially with Emi and Rin. I also think there is a big difference in quality with the routes. Shizune's is linear and quite mundane especially compared to Lilly's (my own favorite) and Emi's. But, that's to be expected with a lot of different writers with different objectives and goals based on what story they want to tell. Lilly's route is the best, at least in my opinion. I've always had a soft spot for that kind of heart wrenching romance especially when it seems inevitable. Surprisingly, my least favorite was Hanako. It just felt boring, and I didn't like her character that much because it seems so archetypal. Nobody really acts like that in real life. Her scene was also super weird, but it makes sense for her character. It isn't the greatest thing in the world, but it definitely is worth experiencing especially considering its free.