A game of love

This month I’m gonna point out: Katawa Shoujo

This is a completely free, in the works, visual novel / dating sim featuring the theme of disability (don’t judge, its actually pretty good). However, before I get any further, social thingies (I forgotten the word I want) require me to point out that the game is going to be an eroge and the final product is going to contain sex scenes, so make sure you are over age / have permission from parents /  guardians (There, now you can’t complain! I warned you).

Currently only the first act is out, which only contains a couple of swear words and a death (Spoiler there, sorry). So I’d say that would be ok, which is good because that is all I’ve played of it and therefore, can recommend.

You play Hisao Nakai (I think that’s right), a normal school boy until his crush confesses to him and in turn gives him a heart attack. He ends up moving to a disabled school because of his Arrythmia.
Think about that for a second: the player character in a romantic game has a heart problem which was found because of a romantic situation. Yeah, this does not bode well.

The ‘winnable’ girls in the game:

From right to left: Emi, Shizune, Rin, Hadako, Lilly (Anyone paying attention will notice I did them BACKWARDS!). Note that all the girls, while their paths are separate, have been ‘paired up’. What I mean here is that they will have a friend who you often see them with or talk to them about. These partnerships tend to either have some sort of irony (I guess?) or obviousness to them

And now more details:
Name: Lilly (I can’t remember if its double ‘l’ or not)
Disability: Blind
Notes: Lilly is the sophisticated girl of the options, coming from a private school beforehand. She acts sort of motherly / sisterly towards Hadako, who is her ‘partner’.

Name: Hadako
Disability: Physical Scarring and emotional trauma
Notes: Hadako is your shrinking violet, to the extreme (and who can blame her?). Although considered a hard girl to ‘win’, she was the first I ‘got’. I do find a sort of poetry(?) (god-damn my vocabulary) in her partnership: Physically scarred girl is friends with the only main character who can’t see at her

Name: Emi
Disability: Lack of legs below knee
Notes: Out of all the girls’ paths I’ve seen so far, Emi’s seems the one most likely to kill Hisao (the player) as it seems to follow her path, you have to willing attempt to spark a heart attack. She also lampshades her partnership with Rin: "Someone in accommendation decided to put our rooms next to each other." "Together we have a full set of limbs". Emi is also the Genki girl of the cast as she is easily very active and cheerful, if anything her prosthetics help that as she is now the fastest runner on the track team.

Name: Rin
Disability: No arms from shoulder (Just look at her picture)
Notes: Rin is a very thoughtful person to the point where her response to a kick up the backside to get her to finish her project is: "I shall think harder". For those who are wondering: she does everything with her feet.

Name: Shizune
Disability: Deaf
Notes: Shizune is the first of the girls who you meet and possibly the least friendly depending on your take on her. Student council president, Shizune can appear manipulative and definitely has a competitive streak. Shizune’s partner is her translator: Misha. Misha isn’t mentioned because you can’t ‘get’ her, and doesn’t appear to have a disability (though she does have a problem with volume control)

I’ll also mention the ‘bromance’ option (No incest):
Name: Kenji
Disability: Partially blind
Notes: Misogynistic conspirathy theorist who has his own ending (admittedly its the bad end, but nevertheless). So far the only one who appears nude (though it is censored, so its alright) and can be an entertaining character when you converse with him.

Overall, I like what I’ve experienced so far, so I’m looking forward to the final product.