Jump to content

I think I may have found out why I liked Rin's Route (Katawa Shoujo) so much


torbin12

Recommended Posts

So, I was sitting around doing nothing the other day, and started thinking of Katawa Shoujo, and I believe I thought of the reason I liked Rin's route so much, despite it being somewhat more difficult than your average route to sit through. That WAS the reason.

It was one of my favorite simply BECAUSE it was so much more difficult than your average route. Not to be insulting or anything to any other route in other VN's, etc, but sometimes it feels like once you start making choices, the girl was already obliged to be yours, or as long as you did everything close enough to right, etc. But with Rin, sometimes even when you DID make the right choice, it seemed like you went the wrong way, there were so many times on Rin's route that I thought 'No way, I would have sworn that would be the right answer...well, bad end, here I come." Only to prove myself wrong after clawing kicking and screaming back into Rin's good (yet odd) graces. It was like, with Rin, it actually took work to get her, and I believe that may be why I liked her route so much.

*Note: I am not criticizing routes of any type in any VN at all. I love the routes that I have played, and the VNs I have played, and I am not insulting them. Please do not use this as a flame thread.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I've never played Katawa Shoujo before, and I always use walkthroughs when I play through VNs, but I do understand the appeal of a difficult route. Obvious choices kind of annoy me at times; I feel like in more serious VNs, you should have to work to get the ending you want.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Rin's route is basically what sold me on VNs. I played Emi's and just could care less, but Rin was so different from most heroines I had seen. Out of the few VNs I've played, Rin's route still remains one of my favorites, even though I'm not that big on Katawa Shoujo.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I enjoyed Rin's Route although to me personally Hanako's route felt the hardest.

Although Lilly is by far like 100000000000000000 Mile stretch the best route in Katawa :P. I just love her route so much, It's my favourite route of any VN I have ever played. It just felt so genuine. :D

Link to comment
Share on other sites

*KS Senses... Tingling*

Oh, hey! A KS thread!

But with Rin, sometimes even when you DID make the right choice, it seemed like you went the wrong way, there were so many times on Rin's route that I thought 'No way, I would have sworn that would be the right answer...well, bad end, here I come." Only to prove myself wrong after clawing kicking and screaming back into Rin's good (yet odd) graces. It was like, with Rin, it actually took work to get her, and I believe that may be why I liked her route so much

You said it best, just there. Rin's route was difficult. It's been a while since I played Rin's route, but I remember having to really push through it because of the anxiety and frustrations of good choices seeming bad. For me it was difficult because it was so cerebral, abstract, and art-brained. I felt drained playing it, and so the ending for me wasn't so much catharsis as release.

KS is neat because different writers took on each route (chapters 2-4 for each heroine), and that leads to interesting effects. Here's a quote from the KS Dev Blog (link) (one minor edit made):

Every path in KS is primarily planned and written by a different writer. We of course collaborated heavily and helped each other, but that is the basic setup. Doing this gave us a couple of advantages, at a significant cost for overall consistency. The diversity increases the likelyhood of any given reader liking at least some part of KS. Some people love the romantic ... Lilly path, others really get deep into the cerebral Rin path, and so on. Of course, the diversity also increases the probability that any given reader won't like all of KS, but there's nothing wrong with that. The primary advantage however, is the increase in focus for the writers. Being able to concentrate mainly on one story definitely improved the quality of each of them, and made each individual's writing process more independent of the rest of the writing team.

So I'm curious: what kept pushing you through? Why keep going along the route, even though it was hard? I don't remember why I kept at it, and it seems like your original point (that the Rin experience was unique and rewarding) is something that comes AFTER the trial. Can you remember what kept you playing when you were in-the-moment?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

So I'm curious: what kept pushing you through? Why keep going along the route, even though it was hard? I don't remember why I kept at it, and it seems like your original point (that the Rin experience was unique and rewarding) is something that comes AFTER the trial. Can you remember what kept you playing when you were in-the-moment?

Yeah, the 'unique and rewarding' part definitely came after finishing it, but for me, I think it was probably similar to the same reason I liked it that I kept going, because it was hard, and I thought 'Oh, you're not going to beat me, Katawa Shoujo, I make Keima look like a nervous little school girl, dangit!' lol, I just got really competitive with it, and felt like I HAD to beat it, since it was so much tougher than anything I had experienced yet (VN route-wise)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I haven't finished KS due to 1 simple reason..

I can't read through the text by pressing enter or down..

Though I really love Suzune's Route. (At least that's my opinion until I get past my own laziness problem)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...