Kara No Shoujo single play through acceptable?

[InvertMouse]

Hello there . I have been playing Kara No Shoujo and just got my first bad ending. If I want to focus on enjoying the main story and not stress about collecting the h scenes too much, is it reasonable to go through just the true ending choices right away? As in, will this branch make less sense unless I have explored all the other paths first?

Even after asking this, I might still end up going through all the routes anyway, because the game is really great so far .

Thank you!

[Down]

There are various endings and they don't differ all that much, but most of them are worth seeing. I don't recall the minute details but at least 3 or 4 of the different endings bring something new.
In order to see the last ("true") ending I think you need to have done some of the previous endings first, too.

You can ignore the h-scene collection though, they're just pretty bad anyway.

[Eclipsed]

4 hours ago, InvertMouse said:

Hello there . I have been playing Kara No Shoujo and just got my first bad ending. If I want to focus on enjoying the main story and not stress about collecting the h scenes too much, is it reasonable to go through just the true ending choices right away? As in, will this branch make less sense unless I have explored all the other paths first?

Even after asking this, I might still end up going through all the routes anyway, because the game is really great so far .

Thank you!

What was the bad ending you got

Ye, it's fine to go for true end right away, though you need to get one of the normal ends to unlock it. The endings themselves pretty much differ on what happens to certain characters ranging from bittersalt to fk life

[InvertMouse]

Awesome, thanks! I will keep this all in mind .

[Silvz]

Actually, in both kns games you have to replay the game at least for a second time, since your first playthrough is going to be only the bad ending. And believe me, without reading the true ending, you'll lose important information about the game and KnS2. In the first game, you can save at some point [follow a walkthrough] to, after the normal ending, to read the true one. However, on the second game, you get some new "answer" scenes through the story, so it's recommended to start from the beggining [you're actually forced to restart it, for what matters]

Besides that, some revelations or character developments are done in the bad endings, so I really recommend you to follow the walkthrough order, skipping only that optional scenes [usually in the WT you have "scene get" or something like that in those parts]

[CeruleanGamer]

You shouldnt waste money on VNs if youre only playing 1 route.  

[ChaosRaven]

11 minutes ago, CeruleanGamer said:

You shouldnt waste money on VNs if youre only playing 1 route.  

Well, KnS is pretty much a kinetic novel in disguise. It's not that there would be long heroine routes like in most other titles. I also skipped the true route in KnS1 since it was simply not worth a complete replay just for some minor differences.

Did the same with KnS2 and skipped the second playthrough with the normal and the two true endings completely since I don't think there's enough new content to be worth the replay. If you could just skip to the new content, then maybe, but the whole location selection make that pretty much impossible.

[Vorathiel]

^ wow, seriously?
KS1 made me want to clean 100% of encounters and bad endings, because it's simply that good. And I heard (pleae don't spoil it's content to me) that true ending in KS1 is directly connnecting to KS2.

[Silvz]

16 hours ago, ChaosRaven said:

Well, KnS is pretty much a kinetic novel in disguise. It's not that there would be long heroine routes like in most other titles. I also skipped the true route in KnS1 since it was simply not worth a complete replay just for some minor differences.

Did the same with KnS2 and skipped the second playthrough with the normal and the two true endings completely since I don't think there's enough new content to be worth the replay. If you could just skip to the new content, then maybe, but the whole location selection make that pretty much impossible.

So you simply lost everything that closes the story to this point. The 2nd game's ending has very important information about what happened both in KnS and KnS2.

If you feel happy pretending you've read a 20h VN just to skip some of the most important parts, yeah, you can totally skip the true endings.

[CeruleanGamer]

Yeah I do routes and endings including bad endings. Because sometimes, killing off people is fun and show us potential what-if scenarios and KnS is actually a series where bad ends go into detail with its outcomes and sometimes even do character development which is very rare in VN bad ends. Bad ends are actually more realistic because a single mistake can cause you your life as a protagonist or do something irreversible which always happens in real life.

VN true ends/good ends/normal ends happen because of things going the protagonist's way, obstacles/conflicts being cleared or solved, or plot armor protecting the protagonists/heroines from death or failure. Although there are exception to this with normal ends being somewhat looking actually like bad ends in some games. 

[ChaosRaven]

9 hours ago, Vorathiel said:

^ wow, seriously?
KS1 made me want to clean 100% of encounters and bad endings, because it's simply that good. And I heard (pleae don't spoil it's content to me) that true ending in KS1 is directly connnecting to KS2.

I got absolutely every other ending KnS1 had to offer, I just skipped the true ending since it required a complete replay. I read enough from the walkthrough and spoilers to know that it's almost identical with one of the other endings. And a complete replay just for 'another' bad ending?! Figuring out the master mind was enough, that was the important part. I didn't really care about some icha icha with Toko because I was never really interested in her.

2 hours ago, Silvz said:

So you simply lost everything that closes the story to this point. The 2nd game's ending has very important information about what happened both in KnS and KnS2.

If you feel happy pretending you've read a 20h VN just to skip some of the most important parts, yeah, you can totally skip the true endings.

Maybe I might have played the final endings in KnS2 if the VN would have been more interesting. The events in Tokyo were still kind of okay, but this village... *sigh* ... it was so boring it was pretty much hell. No, hell is the wrong word since in hell there's at least 'some' entertainment - a few demons are flying around, a bit of torture here and there - but this village wasn't llike hell it was like limbo or the void *shudder*. I thought the common route in Princess Evangile was boring last year, but compared to the village episodes in KnS2 it was almost an action thriller. Only the Tokyo events kept me going, and even those were mostly slice of life. And the culprit of the village murders was also far too easy to figure out.

Still, I might have forgiven that, but the second story arc around Yukiko was just bogus and so underdeveloped that it completely runined my motivation to read any further. Yukiko was on the cover but she was barely a side character - the title is called KnS2 but the story had barely anything to do with KnS1. And why was Reiji the protagonist and not Masaki - it was HIS story after all?! Why the whole double protagonist nonesense?

Anyway, simply too much 'business decision' for me to force 'Kara no Shojo' into the title to increase sales numbers. KnS2 was supposed to be a mystery thriller, but there was nothing mysterious about it and no tension at all. It felt more like a slice of life VN with a slightly more mature story than usual. It wasn't bad, but Cartagra and KnS1 were way better. I'm not even sure if I'm still interested in KnS3 anymore. I'd rather read another title from their program like Caucasus, Flowers or Pianissimo. Well, we get Flowers... someday (It's Jast after all).

[Silvz]

1 hour ago, ChaosRaven said:

I got absolutely every other ending KnS1 had to offer, I just skipped the true ending since it required a complete replay. I read enough from the walkthrough and spoilers to know that it's almost identical with one of the other endings. And a complete replay just for 'another' bad ending?! Figuring out the master mind was enough, that was the important part. I didn't really care about some icha icha with Toko because I was never really interested in her.

Maybe I might have played the final endings in KnS2 if the VN would have been more interesting. The events in Tokyo were still kind of okay, but this village... *sigh* ... it was so boring it was pretty much hell. No, hell is the wrong word since in hell there's at least 'some' entertainment - a few demons are flying around, a bit of torture here and there - but this village wasn't llike hell it was like limbo or the void *shudder*. I thought the common route in Princess Evangile was boring last year, but compared to the village episodes in KnS2 it was almost an action thriller. Only the Tokyo events kept me going, and even those were mostly slice of life. And the culprit of the village murders was also far too easy to figure out.

Still, I might have forgiven that, but the second story arc around Yukiko was just bogus and so underdeveloped that it completely runined my motivation to read any further. Yukiko was on the cover but she was barely a side character - the title is called KnS2 but the story had barely anything to do with KnS1. And why was Reiji the protagonist and not Masaki - it was HIS story after all?! Why the whole double protagonist nonesense?

Anyway, simply too much 'business decision' for me to force 'Kara no Shojo' into the title to increase sales numbers. KnS2 was supposed to be a mystery thriller, but there was nothing mysterious about it and no tension at all. It felt more like a slice of life VN with a slightly more mature story than usual. It wasn't bad, but Cartagra and KnS1 were way better. I'm not even sure if I'm still interested in KnS3 anymore. I'd rather read another title from their program like Caucasus, Flowers or Pianissimo. Well, we get Flowers... someday (It's Jast after all).

Couldn't agree more on your thoughts about the village segments. KnS2 has a lot of flaws, but believe me, if you've read it until now, you really should get the True Ending, at least on the second game.

 

Let's spoil a little, but you find out what happened to Toko, for example.

[Tyr]

I'm currently reading Kara no Shoujo 2 and the first few hours in the village is the best thing I have read in a long time.
Lost my motivation after the POV was shifted to Tokyo again, though.

[ChaosRaven]

3 hours ago, Silvz said:

Couldn't agree more on your thoughts about the village segments. KnS2 has a lot of flaws, but believe me, if you've read it until now, you really should get the True Ending, at least on the second game.

Yeah, I might still give it a try. I didn't really rule it out completely anyway, but after the first play-through I simply needed a break from it and read something different.

2 hours ago, Tyrosyn said:

I'm currently reading Kara no Shoujo 2 and the first few hours in the village is the best thing I have read in a long time.
Lost my motivation after the POV was shifted to Tokyo again, though.

You're not the only one liking it. While I'm not the only one who dislikes the village parts, there's also a fairly large group who seems to like that part in particular. So there's certainly something special about it that seems to cause those split opinions. I do have a hunch though. The section has a very slow pacing and I seem to struggle with those. In general I seem to enjoy VN's with a fast pacing more than others and VN's with a slow pacing less than others.

The problem is most likely that I have a rather slow reading speed, probably caused by the fact that English isn't my mother language although it's probably more than just that. Actually, Clephas wrote a blog a few weeks ago where he directly linked reading speed to enjoyment of a visual novel. It was quite enlightening even if it wasn't particularly long. It actually made me remember that it took me about 2 - 3 days to finish Eden while another guy apparently finished it in just a few hours. I also have to reduce the auto reading speed in VN's almost always since it's way too fast for me with the default setting. So I'm pretty sure that it has something do with that.

Unfortunately, I can't exactly snip with my fingers and double my reading speed. So I'm probably doomed to be not be able to appreciate highly descriptive text like a faster reader. It's a bit frustrating, but since I seem to enjoy most stuff like normal, I can probably live with the few problematic VN's which are written for more advanced readers.

[Vorathiel]

I also have a question - is it possible to omitt every h scenes?
So far from what I have seen - it almost is. Only one inevitable seems to be

Spoiler

in retrospection, with Rejis' girlfriend

But every (fuckin!) walkthrough is focused on 'collect all the p*ssy' type of gameplay, which angers me greatly, because we all know how h-scenes can ruin great mood in story driven VNs.
Did you know walktrough which is story focused and omitting unnecessary sex? Because I wanted to be 'pure' and have sex only with girl I love, after eventuall love confession or non at all.

Also - does Stella have some CG with her? While playing on my own I developed some bond with her, I had a scene when Reji found probably her pendant, but never had a chance to return it to her (cause bad ending happened before I could). And is any walkthrough, which I couldn't find, 'collecting' all of her random encounter scenes? Right now I'm on rout to Normal Ending, and while visiting Stella on one point, they barely know each other at end of April, which was sad.

[Tyr]

31 minutes ago, Vorathiel said:

I also have a question - is it possible to omitt every h scenes?

One scene with Shugo's sister is not missable because it's a reward for solving the first half of the game. Without it, you don't get to the second part.
After that I think you can get a normal ending without another scene. I know this because I played like this too the first time. I like to play my protagonists as loner. Their tragic background story is more engaging that way for me.

I don't know about the true route though. It's possible that you need to H Toko for it.
Everything else is a side dish or a bad end and not necessary to collect.

I'm reading Kara no Shoujo 2 at the moment and it has definitely more forced hentai scenes. It kind of bothers me lol.

31 minutes ago, Vorathiel said:

Did you know walktrough which is story focused and omitting unnecessary sex? Because I wanted to be 'pure' and have sex only with girl I love, after eventuall love confession or non at all.

Same. ^^
Just don't gather character points with map choices.

31 minutes ago, Vorathiel said:

Also - does Stella have some CG with her?

Yes. It's a variation of the normal/true ending. It's not a hentai scene though.

[Vorathiel]

12 minutes ago, Tyrosyn said:

Yes. It's a variation of the normal/true ending. It's not a hentai scene though.

Yay! ^^

13 minutes ago, Tyrosyn said:

I'm reading Kara no Shoujo 2 at the moment and it has definitely more forced hentai scenes. It kind of bothers me lol.

Can you compare to that piece of nicely dark and moody, but inconsistent and overly porn-y crap, imitating detective story, called Cartagra?
[after I wrote that, I checked your vndb, and seems like you really liked it, sigh.]

[Tyr]

4 minutes ago, Vorathiel said:

Can you compare to that piece of nicely dark and moody, but inconsistent and overly porn-y crap, imitating detective story, called Cartagra?

No, I can't, because I haven't yet finished reading Kara no Shoujo 2, so I can't make definite statements.

However, I can say what I saw the first few hours. A big chunk of the game is not from Reiji's point of view. In fact, the point of view shifts constantly and it's often just a third person narrator. There are some non-skippable hentai scenes in the beginning and I found them to be awesome because they really enhanced the characterization of some secondary characters. That's exactly how I like my porn.

On the other hand, there is some development with Reiji's character I'm not particular fond of. But to be honest, nothing is really out of character and just because I don't like it doesn't mean it's not a perfectly legit way to develop this character. I do however find it strange when Reiji suddenly decides to porny talk his way through a scene. Well, that's a Mangagamer translation for you, haha. But nothing mood breaking, really.
Well, at least as far as I read. I hope it doesn't get worse, haha.

12 minutes ago, Vorathiel said:

[after I wrote that, I checked your vndb, and seems like you really liked it, sigh.]

Just because I had fun with it doesn't mean I don't acknowledge its flaws. It's a bad detective story, I would never argue against that. Kara no Shoujo 2 is objectively better in every way. It's also much better than Kara no Shoujo 1, I think.

[Decay]

Cartagra was fun but kind of a mess, they failed at making the protagonist seem intelligent or capable in any way and it's frustrating how they had other characters solve the mystery for him. Kara no Shoujo was barely even detective mystery. It was more of a suspense/thriller, complete with a high-stakes game of cat and mouse as they're desperate to find the killer. I still liked it a lot, Kara no Shoujo 2 is almost pure mystery, and it's really freaking good. It just seemed more high-brow and intelligent than KnS1 while still keeping you engaged in the story and ongoing murders. The way they develop and solve the mystery is really well done, in my opinion. 

I can't wait for Kara no Shoujo 3 with how much IG has grown over the years. I really want to see if they find a way to top KnS2.

[Scorp]

KnS2 is the best one in terms of scenario of all 3 in the series. While Reiji became much more cynical bastard than he was in original KnS (well, having in mind what he had in KnS1 it is only natural), the story is more logical (well, only comparing to KnS1, as it still have plot holes).  Actually there is very limited number of mystery/detective stories in translated VNs (really, it is just IG, Uchikoshi and Looseboy all the time), and KnS2 is one of the top.

[VirginSmasher]

I think it's best to get the true ending before going to collect all those h scenes. Trust me, that ending is worth it and so are the "endings."

[Vorathiel]

Great to hear about KnS2 superiority.

But. 'System' in KnS1 is overlly convoluted. I got to the 'endings', which are really at the almost end, case closed, most of the  things revealed, but they wasn't a 'normal ends', because much earlier, while playing with walkthrough I went to a different place, cause my eyes slipped one day (choose school instead of moon world, or something like that). One choice and I have to once again spend over an hour of skipping to get to a normal end. It's frustrating.
And I'm not even starting about how much it takes you out of the story. Kinetic novels, or simple branching plot FTW.

[Tyr]

The problem with Kara no Shoujo 1 is that some of the flags are ridiculously hard to trigger. I remember the last investigation scene where you had to click on a pixel which is not in any way highlighted from the rest of the picture before you click on another more obvious spot which ends the investigation. (Kara no Shoujo 2 lets you decide for yourself when to end an investigation scene which seems more fair to me.)
The detective gameplay wants you to think for yourself to solve the case ... but you can't because of random flags everywhere. So you need to consult a guide. Which kinda breaks the immersion.
Without I guide I could get some of the normal endings... but the true end? No way. Following the guide to get 100% showed me how stupid this game is designed at some parts.

Well, this thread motivated me to continue reading Kara no Shoujo 2. Now I'm at chapter 4, second village flashback. This got good again, haha.
I'm honestly surprised how good this as a mystery novel is. This is certainly a level of quality I would not expect a visual novel to have.

[Stormwolf]

8 hours ago, Decay said:

Cartagra was fun but kind of a mess, they failed at making the protagonist seem intelligent or capable in any way and it's frustrating how they had other characters solve the mystery for him. Kara no Shoujo was barely even detective mystery. It was more of a suspense/thriller, complete with a high-stakes game of cat and mouse as they're desperate to find the killer. I still liked it a lot, Kara no Shoujo 2 is almost pure mystery, and it's really freaking good. It just seemed more high-brow and intelligent than KnS1 while still keeping you engaged in the story and ongoing murders. The way they develop and solve the mystery is really well done, in my opinion. 

I can't wait for Kara no Shoujo 3 with how much IG has grown over the years. I really want to see if they find a way to top KnS2.

Yep, i felt the same about Cartagra's protagonist. But i liked Kazuna and the general story enough for it to be worth the read!

[ChaosRaven]

14 hours ago, Decay said:

It just seemed more high-brow and intelligent than KnS1 while still keeping you engaged in the story and ongoing murders.

While Kara no Shoujo 1 certainly had it's flaws, I've no idea in what way its brilliant web of madness with all its connected murderers and master minds should be inferior to Kara no Shojo 2's... (Heavy spoiler!!!)

Spoiler

'I love my onii-chan so I kill all his marriage candidates' or Yukiko's consuming nonesense which was more fantasy than reality anyway.

It took me a while to really understand all the connections in KnS1 but the resolutions in KnS2 are so generic and trivial that it's pretty much impossible not to understand them.