Good afternoon. Perhaps someone will find it strange to write a review not of the original game, but of a fan-made plot modification based on it. Maybe you’re right, but I thought, why not?? Even those people who are not too interested in visual novels have heard about Katawa Shoujo, and the popularity of this game is well deserved, I think. In turn, the modification of Letters to Venus is very well known among those who liked the original. I myself have known Katawa Shoujo for quite a long time, but I only recently learned about “Letters to Venus” and immediately after reading it I decided to share my impressions, which, believe me, I have a lot of.
Even though today we will talk mainly about the mod, it’s still worth saying a few words about the original. Katawa Shoujo is a representative of original visual novels, where the player is given choices during the course of the plot, through which it is then determined which branch the player will end up in. Everything is according to the standard, without any additions or complications in the gameplay. To some, this approach may seem outdated, and I can understand this, because now, as a rule, developers are trying to introduce more interactivity into novels in order to at least slightly dilute the gameplay. But I want to note that Katawa Shoujo, as befits representatives of the old school of the genre, takes first of all its narrative part. Moreover, it copes with this better than more popular projects, like Doki Doki or Everlasting Summer.
The main character of the novel is Hisao Nakai. He is an ordinary Japanese schoolboy (how could it be otherwise), who lives a very ordinary life, until one day trouble happens to him, because of which the guy will be forced to completely change his life. And the name of this trouble is heart attack. It turns out that Hisao has certain problems with the pace of his heart. After spending several months in rehabilitation in the hospital, the protagonist learns that he will now study at a special school for the disabled called Yamaku. Not too happy about this news, Hisao understands that he has nowhere to go in any case, and therefore begins to gradually adapt to life in a rather unusual environment for him.
This was the premise of the original Katawa Shoujo. And it should be noted that from the very beginning the game presents quite non-trivial themes and continues to develop them as the story progresses. Hisao learns how to behave properly around people who are different from him and from those he is used to seeing. At first, the guy will often ask questions about how to properly perceive other students, relate to their ailments, etc. And while he will change his opinion about disabled people, along the way he will also change his opinion about himself. And, of course, try to start a love relationship – there’s nowhere without romance.
But now let’s get straight to Letters to Venus. I didn’t really delve into the history of the creation of the project, I only know that a domestic developer is responsible for it, to whom I am ready to express my deep gratitude for the work done. The events in the modification begin in the first days of Hisao’s stay within the walls of Yamaku. While walking around the school grounds one evening, a guy unexpectedly comes across a girl who needs help. The stranger fell out of her wheelchair, and since, as the protagonist manages to understand, she is partially paralyzed, it is not possible for her to get up on her own. Without thinking twice, Hisao gives the girl a helping hand and sits her back in the chair, but a successful conversation does not happen, since all the answers of the “saved” girl turn out to be too harsh and cold, so the guys disperse quite quickly. But only to meet in class the next day, because, surprise, this unfamiliar girl is now Hisao’s new classmate. Her name is Sonya Leonova, and yes, she came straight from Russia. In Yamaku, Sophia is known as the smartest student, a kind of young talent. However, due to her detachment and moments of even open rudeness, the girl has neither friends nor just acquaintances with whom she could sometimes communicate. And naturally, Hisao will begin to gradually get closer to her, gradually melting the ice in the heart of a foreigner who loves to read about Venus.
And I’ll immediately express my opinion about the main character of the modification. Sonya is my favorite Letters to Venus character. Yes, the “indifferent girl becomes more sensual” trope may be old, but in the game it was presented extremely well and was not at all cardboard. Moreover, we are shown the reasons why Sophia behaves this way towards others. Her character develops throughout the story. There is even a separate section in the menu where we are shown the events preceding the tragedy, after which the girl was half paralyzed. Of course, she tells Hisao himself about all this, but additional scenes of her past life, rehabilitation in the hospital, letters to her father asking him to take her back to Russia – all this allows us to better understand the heroine and experience with her the key events that happened to her long before meeting the protagonist. And the very interaction of these two sometimes involuntarily makes you smile. The dissatisfied grimaces Sonya sometimes makes look funny, and at times even cute.
Hisao, by the way, https://casinobof.uk/games/ made me happy too. Despite the fact that a situation often arises when in amateur modifications the protagonist is completely different from his original version, in Letters to Venus the authors managed to preserve Hisao as he was perceived in the original. Yes, the events here are not at all the same as in the original source, which is why the main character acts differently, but there was no impression that he was a completely different person. Hisao Nakai still remains for me one of the positive examples of short story protagonists in general. He does not behave like an idiot and hysterical like Nikolai Anokhin from LMR, and does not represent a dummy like the main character of the “Literary Club”. Hisao thinks, reacts and acts, abstracting from what is happening around him, and therefore gives the impression of not just a game character, but a full-fledged personality.
In general, it is worth noting that there are enough moments in the modification, watching which you catch yourself thinking that it looks completely realistic. In the original, of course, there were also enough sensual scenes, but in Letters to Venus they seem to be mundane and partly even everyday in nature, and that is precisely why they produce a stronger effect. I consider the most revealing moment in this regard to be the one when, by coincidence, Hisao had to invite Sonya to visit and thereby introduce her to his parents, interaction with whom, by the way, was sorely lacking in the original. While meeting and having dinner together, you can immediately feel all the awkwardness caused by the reaction of the guy’s parents to his love interest. And then they also conduct a “preventive” conversation with their son, in which such vital theses are sounded that you begin to believe that if such situations happen, then this is exactly how.
But in addition to the dramatic ones, the game also has comedic moments, although there are far fewer of them. Some of them, however, evoke very ambiguous feelings, almost on the verge of cringe, such as the scene of the trial with a local hooligan. But most of all I liked all kinds of “cranberries”. Naturally, this was inevitable, because not only is the game domestically produced, but also the main character of Letters to Venus is a native of the Russian Federation. From Sonya’s mouth every now and then curses, phrases and proverbs will slip out that are incomprehensible to the characters, but the players can grin at them. From time to time audio tracks of Soviet cartoons or songs will be played. And the events of the fourth act will completely move to the locations familiar to our eyes, but more about that a little later.
By the way, my favorite moment in this segment is when Hisao and a couple of other girls decide to please Sonya and cook for her the Russian dish that she mentioned – okroshka. No, I understand, they wanted to please their friend that she misses her homeland, and to some extent this can even be called cute. But when Japanese schoolchildren start making okroshka, and the main character has to run to an exotic drinks store to buy kvass for her, it all looks too ridiculous for me to contain my laughter.
I suggest changing the direction a little and throwing a couple of stones into the garden mod. Firstly, the biggest and main disadvantage of Letters to Venus is the almost complete absence of my favorite Hanako (if my memory serves me correctly, she only appeared in one scene). Although, as I said earlier, Sophia is designed very well to be able to outshine the other heroines of the game, especially since the mod is dedicated primarily to her.
But seriously, even if there are some disadvantages in the modification, they are quite insignificant and are easily leveled out due to all the emotions that the story gives. Somewhere, the main character may speak about a character as if they were strangers, when in fact they met several days earlier. New characters have their own sprites and potential development paths, but this leads to nothing, and they themselves have almost no special impact on the plot. Also a scene from Hisao’s dream where he meets a healthy Sonya on Venus. The dialogue that occurred between them at that moment gives the story an outline of some mystery and mysticism, but this also does not come up again.
Previously, I tried to lightly spoil the plot of the mod, but now I want to go a little through the fourth act and the ending of this story, so if spoilers are critical for you, then I advise you to scroll to the final paragraph.
So, the third act ends very abruptly: Sonya learns that her father has died and therefore the girl decides to return to Russia, despite the fact that her relationship with Hisao has already reached a fairly high level. And I honestly admit, despite such a rapid completion of the act, the feeling of loss was conveyed very well, even Lilly’s route in the original had much less influence on me. But the ending, again, is too abrupt, and without any delay we are immediately thrown into the last act, 2 years later. This time skip may be important to the plot, but even there events develop at a fast pace. Hisao graduated from Yamaku and is now studying to become a teacher. One day, driven by pleasant but painful memories, he decides to call Sonya and, to his surprise, receives an answer. Despite the girl’s words that everything is fine with her, Hisao doubts the veracity of this, and therefore turns to his class teacher from Yamaku for help, finds out Sonya’s exact place of residence and goes to Russia. If before this the story moved smoothly, then from the end of the third act it flies without the slightest delay.
The fourth part of the game is entirely dedicated exclusively to Hisao and Sonya, their reunion and the further development of their relationship. All events now take place in Russia, and if previously all connections with Sonya’s homeland were perceived as “cranberries”, now in connection with the environment this seems quite appropriate. Streets covered with snow; Sonya’s guide for Hisao on how to properly use an ax; There’s even a scene where, while walking through the park, the characters meet frolicking children, with whom they then go sledding.
I also really liked the moment in which the main character reaches her emotional peak. She brings Hisao to the place where the incident occurred, after which the girl became disabled. There she shares all her experiences and thoughts with the guy. And at this moment a phrase comes out of her mouth that seemed interesting to me. Sophia says that even though she was able to cope with all the problems that had befallen her, as Hisao himself once foretold, this does not mean that she was happy with this path. And after all, the idea is really correct and even quite basic, but in different works we are not so often shown how characters who were able to overcome all obstacles are not too happy about such a victory, because somewhere along the way they broke down or lost part of themselves.
The ending of the story, by the way, is not so tragic. It all ends with a happy ending, and I was a little upset about it. No, of course, I felt the joy that everything was fine with the characters I loved in the end. It’s just more a matter of my predisposition to sadder endings. After all, no matter how desirable a happy ending may be, a tragic ending gives much stronger emotions, leaving you alone with a feeling of emptiness.
At times the thought comes to me that I’m already burned out on impressions, since most of the stories, be it a game, anime, book, etc., hardly evoke any emotional response in me. But fortunately, sometimes I come across works like Letters to Venus – which can have a significant impact on me, give me a real kaleidoscope of feelings and stick in my memory for a long time.
Quoting a fragment from the modification, I want to say that such stories are needed to give people hope. Maybe these words are too strong, but at a minimum, I won’t argue with the fact that the game can have a positive impact. And this also applies to the original. Let’s just say that, having certain health problems, like the heroes of the novel, during my first playthrough of Katawa Shoujo I was able to extract useful advice for myself and, like Hisao, revised some of my views on my own account. Letters to Venus is certainly a beautiful creation, just like its source material. I just want to wish good luck to the development team and once again express my gratitude for writing such a “Letter” for all of us.