The visual novel Katawa Shoujo which came out over a decade ago in 2012 will be making its way to both Steam and Itch.io on August 16th. Developed and published by Four Leaf Studios after meeting on the website Four Chan, Katawa Shoujo is a popular visual novel made in the West where the main character who is disabled can also date disabled women. Katawa Shoujo handles its portrayal of people with disabilities pretty well and serves as a pretty good representation of what life can be like for someone with a disability.
Steam Release Of Katawa Shoujo
As was announced by one of the developers named Suriko over on X/Twitter, Katawa Shoujo will be released on both Steam and Itch.io on August 16th. In another tweet, Suriko also announced that Itch.io will be getting the original version of Katawa Shoujo while Steam will be getting the non-erotic version. The adult patch for the erotic scenes in the visual novel can be obtained on Itch.io after release.
It’s been well over a decade since Katawa Shoujo was first released in 2012 with Four Leaf Studios the VN away for free. Katawa Shoujo became quite popular due to its unique premise of taking place at a school for special needs students as well as being a visual novel that was made in the West. The VN centers on 18-year-old Hisao Nakai after he suffers a heart attack and is transferred to Yamaku High School where he learns to adjust both to being at a new school but also living life with a disability.
Four Chan And Katawa Shoujo
Anyone who has been on Four Chan knows just how chaotic of a place it can be which is a testament to how lightning in a bottle the Katawa Shoujo project was. The way Four Chan factors into all of it is due to someone sharing a sketch from a doujinshi artist named Raita on the site with pictures of the women the VN is based around. The people who would go on to create Katawa Shoujo were inspired by it and in turn, created Four Leaf Studios and worked on the visual novel from 2007 through 2012.
After five long years of development, Four Leaf Studios released their hard work online for free. Some of the many people who worked on the VN include Anonymous22 who was the writer of Shizune’s route, Aura who wrote for Rin’s story, cpl_crud who served as the first writer for Hanako’s route along with being the first producer too. Eventually, Suriko would take over as producer and also wrote Lilly’s story and some of Hanako’s story as well, with TheHivemind working as a writer for Emi’s route.
The Women Of Katawa Shoujo
For anyone who hasn’t played a visual novel before, there are some that are linear and some that aren’t linear which let the reader/player make choices to influence the story. Katawa Shoujo is one of the latter ones and each woman that Hisao can fall in love with each has their own route and disability. The five main women of the VN include Shizune who is deaf and student council president, Lilly who is blind and class representative, Hanako who suffers from extreme social anxiety, Emi who is a runner with prosthetic legs, and Rin, an artist who paints with her feet.
The writers have received praise for not only how they handled the different disabilities that each character has in the game but also how they wrote the characters. While it can take upwards of 30-40 hours to complete all five routes, seeing each woman’s different story and the hardships they have to deal with is really rewarding. If you haven’t heard of this game or have been wanting to play it, now seems like the perfect time.
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