Katawa Shoujo is the first visual novel I ever read, and that was only earlier this year. My impression had always been that visual novels were kind of a waste of time; especially the “dating sim” ones.
To be honest I still think that’s true of most visual novels (at least as far as my own tastes go), based on the couple of others I tried on the strength of my experience with Katawa Shoujo.
Katawa Shoujo itself though, wow. It really sounds like it shouldn’t work; a dating sim where you romance disabled anime girls, made by a bunch of random 4chan users? Like most people I’m sure, when I first heard of it I was expecting a creepy, fetishistic train-wreck. I was incredibly surprised when it turned out to actually be really good. Not offensive, or exploitative or whatever else along those lines that I’d expected. It felt… genuine, I suppose.
It probably helped that I have my own lifelong issues I’ve struggled with, so a lot of Katawa Shoujo resonated with me personally. One character in particular. I identify with her a lot. On my first time through there was no need to even think about it when a choice came up; everything naturally fell into place and I ended up on her route.
Beyond that, it seemed like (almost?) every route stirred up things from my own past, so while it was sometimes painful, it was always compelling.
Anyway. As far as voting goes, I voted for Emi. That seems like a good route to start on. I think all the routes surprised me in one way or another, but the thing that surprised me about Emi’s route is how funny it was in places. I’m not sure if one part I’m thinking of in particular will show up in the LP though, since it was part of the lead-up to a sex scene. I don’t know exactly where or how the sex scenes are cut if you disable them.
No real contest here for me (at least out of these three routes). I doubt I’m alone in considering Rin’s route the most difficult. It’s the only route I got a “bad end” on. And Shizune’s route… well, it just seemed kind of flat and rushed.