Wednesday, February 22, 2012

Emi at it's Emi-est - Emi's route review at Katawa Shoujo

"Can you stand up for yourself?"

The third route i chose on my Katawa Shoujo adventure was Emi's. Originally one of the least appealing to me on act 1, despite her loli charms, in the end it turned to be pretty nice after Shizune's disappointment.

Emi, unlike Shizune acts like one would expect from a girlfriend, overall making her story more aproachable. Kissing becomes a playful part of the conversation with her and people in Yamaku are aware of your relationship early during the path. Personal acomplishment and expectations also become a part of the story as the teacher tries to guide Hisao to his future career in the field of science, and Hisao strives everyday at the track field to overcome his weakened heart.

Thus the story of Emi's arc is not one of finding love but instead finding the confidence to trust one another in a relationship, as secrets of Emi's past fly like vultures overshadowing every conversation and become a passive threat of early breakup now and then.

Unlike Rin, she has arms to hug you with.


A little help of my friends
One of the things i like the most about Emi is that she is not the typical hopeless loli needing for a white knight (fact that she will voice angrily several times at you). Emi is sure carefree and childish, but she does not let others mess with her life, and is always convinced that she can overcome every obstacle on her own,

Managing personal space and confort zone is thus the key to suceeding here and getting to get Emi's confidence without making her feel threatened, and the secondary characters play an important role on this one. Through them you get the feedback and valuable bits of info that unlike the other stories make this look like an actual "game".

The second most prominent character in the story will be your friend, The Nurse. Nameless as he is, hilarity ensues as he presses some homo insinuation jokes on Hisao in front of her girlfriend. But don't ignore him just for being a jester, as he will become one of your most valuable informants.

Yuuko and Kenji get a kind of sidestory that makes you aware that is not only the girl that's happening around (unlike Rin's path which was a cry of antisocialism). You also get to know Emi's mother, and not only she is a pretty nice person, probably the hottest character in the whole game. If Emi is to age like her we should feed some serious envy rage at Hisao now.

The route is full of memorable quotes and nice characters. 

Oh I forgot you also get some nice share of Rin on this path for you to enjoy if any of your sanity still resisted through her mindfucking trail of thought. Crash-landing at Emi's room in the middle of a sex scene is the epitome of her awesome character career in this game (XD)

Getting sexy
One thing i heard the most from KS fans on this path was about the large amount of sex scenes on this path. Well, it's not like there are so many, maybe one more than other paths, but sex here fits naturally like part of a relationship, instead of being a climatic event not to be spoken off (in facts it gets pretty anticlimatic sometimes). Hisao and Emi spend some frequent sexy time and this slips on to their more mundane conversations, but this is perceived as something natural on the flow of events and doesn't strike as a forced inclusion, like in Shizune's path.

I had a dejavu here...

Overall i found this route to be nice, and i surprised myself reminiscing of my previous relationships as i could see them mirrored by Hisao and Emi. That i think, feels right. It feels like the writer managed to convey to me the feeling of an actual relationship, which was, i hope, the goal.

In conclusion, despite not being the rollercoaster of emotions Rin's path was, this path is fun and has some memorable moments, so you should definitely give it a try.

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