< Katawa Shoujo

Katawa Shoujo/Trivia


Crud: Money would kill us.

  • No Export for You: Oddly enough, this time it's Japan that doesn't get it, as only the demo has been translated into Japanese. Also counts for most other countries, as other than English (the language the game was written in), it's only available in French and Spanish (along with Russian, as noted above).
    • Averted for Japan as of 2015. The team released a Japanese translation on April 1st, with a hard copy distributed on May 5th at Comita 112.
  • Promoted Fanboy/girl: Many developers started as fans of the project.
  • Saved From Development Hell: The project, until its 4th January 2012 release, was in development for 5 years, a period of time landmarked by at least one almost-total restart, several script re-writes, members of 4LS leaving/shown the door for one reason or another and a few art revisions. It also was very close to death within the first few months of its conception, resulting in the aforesaid restart.
    • Of the 21 or so developers at the end, only three were there from start to finish.
  • Shrug of God: They are Teasing Creators after all. They even say some Blatant Lies to troll.
  • Sure Why Not: Said word for word by Aura in response to the question of whether Yamaku's mascot was a fish.
  • Teasing Creators: The devs, especially in regard to Word of God.

delta: We've also been known to troll, lie, change our mind, and make stuff up on the spot, so good luck with that.

  • Troubled Production: Inevitable for such an ambitious fan-made project. Having to coordinate multiple programmers, artists, and 5 writers (one for each route), many of whom were working on the game only as a hobby and didn't even live in the same country contributed to numerous delays in development. There were also many internal conflicts within the team, leading to high turnover rates among the staff.
  • Urban Legend of Zelda: There's still people convinced that at one point the developers made routes for Misha and other girls, and remains of these scrapped paths can be found in the code of the game or can be accessed through some strange means. The devs never intended any other girl besides the main five to be dateable.
  • What Could Have Been: According to Word of God, there were massive amounts of content that were ultimately cut from the final version of the game. The following comes from snippets of interviews and Q&A sessions with the devs.
    • Kenji was going to have his own route at one point, but it got cut due to technical difficulties and time. Or rather, the whole route was trimmed down to a near-immediate and strangely hilarious Bad End in which you get too drunk and fall off the roof to your death.
    • One of the writer's wordpress account has some writings that were considered in early versions of Hanako's route. Among them are Hanako's father saving her from the fire (which fits in with early character descriptions that only mentioned her father being dead), as well as a Left Hanging Distant Finale involving a reunion between Hisao and a much more mature Hanako, many years after she vanished from his life following a second heart attack. Also, one of the entries involves a possible ending for a theoretical Misha path.
      • The final image of Hanako's good ending where the camera pans to inside a bakery window with two muffins sitting inside was originally meant to represent that Hanako has a bun in the oven, or in other words, is pregnant. This was scrapped in later drafts, though (Hisao very deliberately uses a condom that he happened to be carrying with him for unclear reasons), and the inside of the bakery is instead symbolic of Hanako and Hisao's future together enjoying the simple pleasures of life. This was most likely done to avoid Unfortunate Implications from seeming to promote teen pregnancy.
    • Originally, Lilly would have played the cello as a hobby, and her favorite song would have been Sarabande. However, this feature was cut and the song was instead changed to be the theme of the music box.
      • She also had a guide dog called Niji; after a while, however, the writers thought he added nothing to the story and ditched him.
      • She was originally supposed to be the oldest of 5 children in the family, with Akira being a younger brother. They eventually scrapped the other three siblings, gender flipped Akira and made her the older sister instead, although she did retain the male mannerisms.
      • Yuuko was originally Lilly's cousin, and not a librarian. Much of Yuuko's personality and role was given to Akira in the final product.
    • Lilly was originally half-South African, not half Scottish. Likewise, instead of Hanako turning eighteen, Lilly was the one that was meant to have a birthday. They have it in Hisao's room, with Yuuko coming by and bringing alcohol.
    • In a very early version of Hanako's route, one of her bad ends would have involved Hisao having sex with a heavily medicated Hanako, which would have been the equivalent of date rape. In fact, her good end would not have involved any sex at all.
      • Her route writer admitted that the first draft written for Hanako was heavily inspired by Higurashi no Naku Koro ni.
      • This wasn't completely scraped. At some point, a drunk Hanako hits on Hisao heavily, but he's Above the Influence and puts her to bed, and later, after their H scene, Hisao is horrified as he mistakenly thinks that the sex with Hanako may have not been as consensual as he thought, and that's why Hanako is avoiding him in class. She corrects him and says it was all consensual.
    • Early bad ends past Act 1 would have involved Hisao dying, but they were ultimately removed because the writers felt that having to come up with convenient accidents for each death would feel too much like an Ass Pull. Hanako's writer wryly notes that he reconsidered killing off Hisao in Hanako's bad endings because he believed that the thought of a life without Hanako worked better as a Fate Worse Than Death.
    • Misha was originally conceived to be as bland and uninteresting as possibile, so that players wouldn't miss her if she was pushed aside during Shizune's path. Very different from how she came out in the end, both in terms of personality (which also led to her popularity) and role: her presence and importance stay strong in Shizune's path. The revelation that she used to be more plain in appearance, before dying her hair pink and styling it in the characteristic drills, may be a nod to the old concept.
      • She was also originally planned to be blonde, and lacked her signature Drill Hair.
    • Miki was originally planned to have a much larger role in the game; among that, a short bonus route with her as the main character, showing some events from her point of view.
    • Several older sketches and drawings from 4LS members (both former and current) show ideas that floated around during development.
      • Two or three different school uniforms were considered throughout but the final design ended up staying close to the original sketch, even in the color scheme. One of the alternate designs (shown in the Art Evolution sequences after the good endings), with jackets and long skirts, would have been justified however, since the story originally took place in Winter.
      • Same with the hairstyles. The only heavy departure from the colored sketch is Shizune's hair color.
      • At least one dev thought of making Lilly The Ditz. However, it may have sent Unfortunate Implications (like that she was clumsy because she was blind).
      • Other sketches show Hanako having suffered even more extensive damage from the fire on the right side of her body, with a blind eye and the leg supported by a crutch.
      • A compromise for Rin wearing a female uniform and keeping decency was thought in having her wear training shorts under the skirt. She also seems to have been envisioned as much taller at first. In general, while the basic design stayed the same, she was more feminine and delicate in appearance.
    • The developers discussed giving Hisao a more interesting personality (as opposed to the generic male protagonist ubiquitous in Bishoujo games), but eventually decided to settle for an average hero with whom players could identify.
      • Hisao actually does have more personality than many Bishoujo game heroes, but not as much as the Love Interests of the game.
  • The Wiki Rule: There is one here, although it has 14 articles as of now. And the site looks a bit bland.
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