Katawa Shoujo

Wallpaper Description:

Characters from Left to Right:
Emi Ibarazaki (茨崎 笑美)
Rin Tezuka (手塚 琳)
Shizune Hakamichi (羽加道 静音)
Lilly Satou (佐藤リリー)
Hanako Ikezawa (池沢 華子)

Visual Novel: Katawa Shoujo

Official Game Website:


Katawa Shoujo is a bishoujo-style visual novel set in the fictional Yamaku High School for disabled children, located somewhere in modern Japan. Hisao Nakai, a normal boy living a normal life, has his life turned upside down when a congenital heart defect forces him to move to a new school after a long hospitalization. Despite his difficulties, Hisao is able to find friends—and perhaps love, if he plays his cards right. There are five main paths corresponding to the 5 main female characters, each path following the storyline pertaining to that character.

The story is told through the perspective of the main character, using a first person narrative. The game uses a traditional text and sprite-based visual novel model with an ADV text box.

Katawa Shoujo contains adult material, and was created using the Ren'Py scripting system. It is the product of an international team of amateur developers, and is available free of charge under the Creative Commons BY-NC-ND License.

It is interesting how the development of the game started if you check out the staff section in the official website.

I have played this visual novel and enjoyed it quite a lot. It is well done and the best part is, everything about it is free.
The game and soundtrack can be freely downloaded from the official game website with no charge.
The soundtracks are fun and sweet, helping in making you feel the mood that is presented in the game.
For these facts alone, I would recommend this visual novel for anyone, especially for those who have yet to play their first VN; since it is easy to acquire, and having a small file size of less than 500MB.
There is no in-game voices for the characters, but the game is readily available in text for English and different languages.
This is a Visual Novel, so there will be plenty of reading to be done and choices to make.
There are readily available guides and flowcharts that provide choices to make for each girl, but I greatly encourage to avoid this for a genuine experience of making your own choices and seeing them through.
I followed the path of Hanako, Lilly and Emi, in that order. I have yet to attain 100% completion in the game. The game does track your progress, so it makes it easier for completionists to follow.
I would say this is one of the best Romantic Visual Novels, that is easy to get into.