I’m actually several hours ahead than these parts of the commentary. (The editing takes all the time. I can type faster than I can edit and place HTML.) I just ran into Yuuko in the teahouse today in my own playing. It’s pretty obvious now that she has two jobs and does not have a disability.

I did a bit of research just now — which, I admit, I didn’t do last night — and see that “Light Novel” is a Wasei-eigo, a “Japanese term formed from words in the English language.”

Its usage confused me in the game. For a short novel (novella), the term should probably be “Lite Novel,” yet its homophone “light” was used instead. I can see though how the term could make the transition from “lite” to “light” and then be the literal translation from Japanese into English.

Learned something new today.

“Maybe its easier if you just write down the events in general and your thoughts about it rather than typing everything over from the visual novel.”

I thought about that, but the project is more interesting if I am looking at this scene by scene. Most of the game experience is based in this moment to moment play as the player reads the dialogue and then make an interpretation of the events as they understand them so far.

“They probably don’t mind giving you the script if you explain why you need it. They are very supportive of the community and they also gave the script to third party groups who wanted to translate Katawa Shoujo in to different languages.”

Some of my early stuff was rather harsh on them. I don’t think I would want them to look at those comments. Plus, I am trying to limit how much I know about the game. It’s actually been pretty interesting to see the game as I’ve been playing it. Having the script would ruin that for me.

Once I have finished this, I might see about trying to find the whole script and then look through it to see what other paths I could have taken and other dialogue I might have seen.

Website:
http://katawa-shoujo.com/

Or you could find a way to hack the script files. It would give you the option to copy past the text. There’s probably away to do this floating around the web.

The last and easiest option is sending and email to Four Leaves, the developers of Katawa Shoujo. They probably don’t mind giving you the script if you explain why you need it. They are very supportive of the community and they also gave the script to third party groups who wanted to translate Katawa Shoujo in to different languages.

I will be finishing it, yes, but it was becoming almost a part-time job to transcribe all the dialogue boxes every single day. I’m going to take a break from the blog and, within a few days, post the next part.

“With both choices you lose, but attacking shows you are daring which is a quality Shizune likes.”

Really? That’s not good. I was hoping to go after Shizune too. I’m interested to see how they explain the communication issues and if Hisao can learn enough sign language to ‘talk’ to her or not.

I’m generally liking the inclusion of a deaf person in the game. I’m not happy about the translation process (and lack of grammar in places) but really like that we, as audience, often see her ‘talk’ too. Even if it is just a quick movement of her arm to signify that she is making a sign, I think it’s neat and that it shows Shizune is as much part of the conversation as Misha and Hisao.

If nothing else, this game has me thinking about ways to include deaf and blind characters in my own works. What ways are there to highlight not a disability but an adaptation? What struggles do many have that go unnoticed for “normal” people? What ways are there to give a greater emphasis while also not giving them superpowers to compensate for the perceived “loss” of a sense or type of mobility? Like I said, it’s got me thinking. Which, I guess, was the whole point and, of course, the power of games like this.