90%PC

Just play it. The hype is not by any means undeserved, I'll say that much.

For a free game the writing is excellent, although it wavers very often in the artistic departments (the quality of the sprites between heroines is the most blatant, due to likely a team of artists with different skill levels working on it). But if you get past that little nitpick, you'll have a little gem waiting for you.

90%PC

De las mejores novelas visuales que existe, con sus clichés, pero tratando temas delicados y con delicadeza y suficiente profundidad, donde muchos se acobardarían.

60%PC

Overall score: 6/10 (mediocre)
Recommended: maybe
Time to compete story: 8 hrs
(Emi's Good ending; I read this novel slow/took my time to better interpret the story)
Time to 100%: 32.5 hrs + Rin (8 hrs?)
(Emi, Kenji, Shizune, Hanako, & Lilly routes)

Story: 6/10
~ typical high school setting
- fairly bland and sparse events (such as festivals and off-campus travel)
- very few locations, many of which are reused between routes
~ most routes follow the same formula (concerning some psychological drama), which gets mundane after 1-2 routes
Characters: 7.3/10 (good)
+ most characters have some good depth to their personalities, and a good portrayal of how they're affected by their disabilities while not being defined by them
~ the hobbies/interests of most characters are rather shallow, making them feel trope-y
Writing: 6/10
~ feels like there's a ton of "padding" to the character developments, but it also allows things to progress more naturally
~ the writing and events tend to have slow development and be repetitive in Acts 2 & 3 before diving into more interesting topics or growth in Act 4
~ the main character can be fairly introspective, hesistant to ask personal questions, and ambiguous in his feelings until the player makes a choice in Act 3/4; this can be relatable, but feels like it drags out development of relationships; an earlier player choice in the route to be more direct might've allowed things to move along quicker and with less misunderstandings
~ the personality and development of characters are sometimes not consistent between routes (other reviews have noted that the routes were written mostly independently of each other)
Graphics: 5/10 (weak)
~ the sprite quality seems low, but it may be average for the VN's release date (2012) (I haven't played enough VN's to tell)
- very limited variety in expressions/emotions for the sprites (about 8 per heroine), which greatly weakens the immersion
- items and actions mentioned in the text are very rarely represented in the scene or with CG's
- very few side characters are mentioned (and even less are drawn)
- the ages and appearances of the characters in the sprites are often somewhat different from the CG's (other reviews have have mentioned it looking like entirely different artists drew each)
- the backgrounds look like smudgey paintings or hazey pictures of real locations
Audio: 6/10
~ the OST has a fairly relaxing vibe
- the tracks are fairly short and simplistic, being painfully repetitive after a short time
‐ the OST size seems fairly small, limiting the ability to create an specific atmospheres
- emotional impact gets reduced over time since they reuse the more emotional tracks for dramatic moments in each route
Settings: good
~ Fullsceen or fixed medium-size screen options, but the windowed mode can't be resized
~ typical text speed and volume adjustment options
~ a rewind feature is present, but not a log screen option (that I've found)
+ I've made dozens of saves and haven't found a limit yet

Routes:
* "Common" route (Act 1): 7/10 (average)
~ several choices to make that affect the heroine route, rather than just one or two
~ it takes a while to get thru on replays, since the early choices an have different dialogue and an affect on the heroine route
* Time: about 3 hrs
* Emi: 7.3/10
~ the route eventually shows some depth to the heroine's interactions, but not much in terms of hobbies/events
* Time: 5 hrs for Good ending, an extra 0.5 hrs for Bad ending
* Kenji ending: 6/10
* 0.5 hrs to read
* Shizune: 6/10
- didn't feel like we got to know her as well as we should for a VN "heroine," partially due to the interactions being split with her sign language interpreter (Misha)
- fairly boring "student council" route with events and their "deep" discussions not having a lot of impact on the story
- minuscule amount of romantic content in this route
* Time: 6.5 hrs for Bad ending, an extra 1.5 hrs for Good ending
Hanako: 7/10
~ I felt the major events in Act 3 were well written, but Act 4 felt slow
* Time: 7.5 hrs for Good ending
Lilly: 7.5/10
+ I enjoyed this route the most, having some good gradual progress throughout
* Time: 8 hrs for Good ending
Rin: [skipped]

Personal thoughts: this visual novel has some good emotional and psychological points, but has felt mostly mundane and repetitive. It's taken me multiple months to slowly play through it, and I'd only really recommend the Emi and Lilly routes. It also has most of the choices presented far before the endings and with an unclear effect on the heroine, but not much dialogue is changed, making the bad endings feel like I waste of some time. Having bad endings being possible is realistic and refreshing to see in a visual novel, but they feel poorly written, unrealistic, and poorly implemented (as if an afterthought) in comparison to the good endings.

Alternate ratings:
VNDB: 7.9/10 (15,040 votes)
HltB: 8.1/10 (210)
Metacritic: 8.8/10 (210)

80%PC

One of my first visual novels that had adult themes in it. I absolutely love it, the characters are wonderful and lovable, and the unique setting is something that draws you in for sure. Very cute girls too.

100%iOS

Emi's Route - Good Ending

Last Save file was at 5:27, Screen Time usage had me at 56 minutes that night, for a total of 6:23

EDIT:
Except iPad screen time's usage seems to be more accurate and put me at a total of 8:37. Even if it doesn't account for time spent in menus, it seems to be more accurate than the in-game timer, which misses a lot

90%PC

only fucking VN Ive played and I've heard its the best, so yea. 9/10 ig

80%PC

Great game. Still think should've ended on Emi, though Lily was a good fit too

90%PC

My very first VN : Bittersweet and very well written
The beginning was slow as I did not like much of the characters there but I couldn't put it down once I got to the route for my favorite characters

100%PC

8:20 - Rin's Route
8:00 - Shizune's Route
5:10 - Lilly's Route
1:10 - Kenji's Route
6:10 - Emi's Route
5:45 - Hanako's Route

80%PC

you'd think "VN where you date physically disabled girls written by 4chan" would be an absolute recipe for disaster, but this game is incredibly humble about its premise, and actually uses it to tell an extremely emotionally gripping story. I did all the routes, and that is not really something I do for VNs. Give it a read and be surprised for yourself

10%PC

The game was boring as hell , I had to press ctrl for 25 minutes. The other 10 minutes were the cutscenes.

80%PC

A unique setting to tell a SoL, romance drama story. Comedy has a slightly different taste to Japanese VNs, the story for the most part is very novel-like in its writing and presentation while also being tact, given its setting. Each of the routes has a different writer, giving out varying impressions of the story. Music is great, with an artwork to match.

80%PC

Hanako - Good Ending

60%PC

it's not fucking bad fight me
rin is best

70%PC

Decent visual novel but nothing particularly special. Keeps you interested but doesn't really inspire much emotion.

70%Linux

DISABLE ADULT CONTENT SWITCH DOES NOT DISABLE ADULT CONTENT

100%PC

c':

80%Mac

A surprisingly good game for, what appears to be on the surface, an eroge. I was recommended that I give it a chance and it turned out to be well thought-out and executed. Writing is never bad, but some paths could use a copy editor.

100%PC

Lilly best girl!
Jugue en este orden:
Quemada, Ciega, Coja. No jugue la muda ni la manca porque no me llaman nada la atencion.

80%PC

Each one of the plot lines is tremendously fleshed out with every girl having different issues so you won't get bored until the end. Got to love that drama tho.

100%PC

Rin is best girl

100%PC

I absolutely ADORED Katawa Shoujo! I'm so so happy to of played it as my first visual novel and I found all the stories so compelling and fell so love with all the characters that I HAD to 100% complete EVERYTHING I could do! I still think about how much I love Emi regularly heheh It definitely really made me think about so much and it got me back into reading!!

100%PC

It's a free visual novel, and it's really good. Tots nsfw though.

100%PC

This game went from an amusing and humorous awkward high school love story and slowly turned into a very sad, depressing and yet somehow uplifting story. A fantastic experience overall.

100%PC

So many Feels
-Lilly
-Hanako
-Shizune (I did love the message though)
-Emi
-Rin

70%PC

Making a game like this classy had to be one of the hardest things in the world. Katawa Shoujo is an eroge visual novel developed by some people from 4chan (Yes, there are sex scenes. With one exception, they aren’t too raunchy). Don’t let that scare you off; it almost made me ignore the game too. However, after finishing all five routes after being hooked for two weeks straight, I have to say I’m glad I invested the time overall. Katawa Shoujo is definitely one of the best games I’ve played in the VN genre.

Full review here: https://jshgaming.com/blog/?p=39