Katawa Shoujo: The Reviewening

I'm a huge fan of Katawa Shoujo. If not for the fact that I don't feel like it can be called a game it'd definitely be my favourite game of all time - above already gloriously good games like Persona 4 or The Walking Dead.

But I don't think it's a game, and thus, I feel it's unfair to put it up against those. Katawa's success comes largely from its blending of game and not-game. Only by playing on the conventions of game narrative does it reach the heights that it does.

This would require tonnes of words to explain - more than I feel comfortable putting in one post (said the guy with several thousand words on Persona 4). Which is why I'm nervously launching... Katawa Shoujo: The Reviewening, a series of posts where I ramble on, heaping praise on something that, by all rights, I should be ashamed of admitting I ever read, yet alone loved this damn much.

This first post will serve as a bit of an intro, explaining the format and reasoning behind it.

The series will be updated irregularly, just as this blog has come to be. First, there'll be a series of posts explaining Katawa Shoujo: what it is, how it works, etc... These will be as spoiler-free as possible.

Then, the review section comes in, where I'll review the routes one by one, starting from my least favourite and ending with my favourite. These will be score-less reviews, as I don't feel able to review this weird a product. The reason for this order is that I'll be reviewing the whole route, including act 1, which is largely shared between routes. This way, I avoid the repetition grating on me and becoming too negative on the worse routes (which are all still absolutely phenomenal). Since KS is pretty much all plot, these will be full of spoilers.

The review section may be interspersed with random thoughts about aspects of the game: the music and graphics and their effect on the experience is a big one I want to talk about, and I'm sure more random things will pop up. These will depend on what I talk about as far as their spoiler status is involved , as sometimes l'll want to go in-depth about certain plot-points, as either examples or discussion of their effect.

Finally, there'll be a comparison and final thoughts sections, where I do what it says on the tin.

Also, no, I'm not doing that thing I teased at the end of the Persona 3 review. Turns out I don't have much to say about Metal Gear Solid.