a cum related FABLE i once overheard. it’s a fable because they are animals and there’s a moral of the story you see.
The following is a post I did for SA’s GameDev competition back in 2011. The theme was Death & Taxes. Link to all games.
I’ve been cleaning out my room and I found some toys that make a neat little Demon’s Souls scene. This is more of a test layout, I may make it more extravagant later.
toys:
mega bloks dragon
stikfas knight
dragon ball rocks (pun)
Fan art by johnreno for Forget-Me-Not. (Source)
Forget Me Not is still one of my favorite coop indiegames. Getting friends and acquaintances without any context on the game to play it is a hilarious experience.
Katawa Shoujo Review (no spoilerz)
It’s appropriate for me to review this since originally when the hype surrounding this exploded back at release I gained an interest in attempting to make a CYOA myself. Now that the hype and hysteria around the game has died down I decided to play it to get my own verdict on the game.
What I knew before going in:
It’s the cripple dating simulator, that’s all I knew really. I think I remember seeing forum avatars of Hanako and Rin back when the demo came out, but at the time I had no idea that they were from a demo of a game of all places. If anything I had somewhat of a negative attitude towards the game because of the controversy over it
After playing it (going to split this up into general and routes):
As an overall experience I enjoyed it. The soundtrack is relaxing and really well made. The artwork can vary between good to ok, and while the photograph backgrounds may contrast the anime looking characters a little too much you can eventually get use to it. The setting, that is of a high school for people of disabilities, isn’t entirely utilized and feels more like an ordinary high school setting. Though, that is probably due to a thematic choice I’ll explain later on.
The choices given throughout the game are probably the weakest point. At best they are a context reading test to see if the player is paying attention, or at worst is that they are badly worded and somewhat confusing on what the choice means. And since you can save at any screen, it’s easy to roll back decisions.
The themes of the game are strong. The main one is basically spelled out for you, that disabilities don’t define someone. Though a recurring theme throughout the game is that whiteknighting is bad. This was surprising to see in a game with such an anime presentation, but also very welcoming.
Now for each route; I talk about the sex scenes in each route since they are definitely a different beast. It’s also worth mentioning that throughout all the routes there is occasional awkward writing. And another thing to note is that the heart condition the main character has isn’t important in all the routes of the game. It’s only relevant in Emi’s and Lilly’s routes.
Emi: The narrative for this one is solid. Almost everything that happens revolves around the story, meaning there isn’t much fluff. Though the drawback is that the story and struggle the character has is cliche.
The sex scenes make sense in the context of Emi’s character, though they don’t really add anything to the story.
Lilly: This route is very much your ordinary Hollywood romance story. The end sequence especially almost seemed out of a movie. The issues I had with the route was that before the reveal near the end there isn’t anything driving the story.
The sex scenes make sense in the context of the story, though they get ridiculous.
Shizune: The worst route in the game. It is disappointing since the dynamic between Misha and Shizune is interesting, but after Act 1 that dynamic goes away. Every conflict that arises in this route goes nowhere. Well, besides Misha. Misha is the only one with an actual arc in this route so it’s basically her route.
The sex scenes just seem out of place and unnecessary.
Hanako: This route felt somewhat janky. The biggest issue is that Hanako’s character arc is really short. The relationship between her and the main character barely gets off it’s legs when it abruptly ends.
This route has the only sex scene that actually is relevant to the story though.
Rin: This route is basically a character study. It’s a look at a character who is having a bit of an identity crisis. Also having taken a lot of art classes in HS, how the character acts is believable in many ways. The route is in constant struggle, and some have rightly called it an emotional roller coaster ride. The flaw of this path to me is that there isn’t much resolution in the end.
The sex scenes seem out of place, because it doesn’t feel like there is a loving relationship between the main character and Rin.
In conclusion, for an amateur effort I think this project was successful. I don’t think it has the best writing in a videogame ever, but saying it was the worst writing ever would definitely be hyperbole. I would recommend this to fans of high school fiction who might prefer it without some type of supernatural twist.
Download the game here:
This is a joke on trap music and the term “trap” referring to someone. Inspired by the song Lunice plays at his sets.
