Released by Four Leaf Studios back in 2012, Katawa Shoujo needs no introduction as one of the most popular English VNs ever released. Most of you know have probably seen 2022’s release of Katawa Shoujo: Re-Engineered from Fleeting Heartbeat Studios, an (un)official open-source remaster of the VN with many accessibility options and overall quality of life improvements.
You can read our Q/A with them here!
It’s been over a year since the release, and we’ve had many improvements and updates—not only to KS:RE itself, but Fleeting Heartbeat Studios itself has made major contributions to the community.
Let’s take a look, shall we?
Updates/Fixes
- Numerous bugfixes have been made: The initial transition to the latest version of Ren’py wasn’t a smooth one, but the current KS:RE is in a much better state.
- Translations: Spanish translation added. The Portuguese translation is in the works. Translations can’t be ported over from the original directly: they need to be re-translated, or added in via unconventional means. More translations (Japanese, Italian, etc.) will be coming at some point!
- Re-Encoded cutscene videos.
- Colorblind filters.
- Modding framework: Mods can be loaded from the game itself.
- Corrections/hotfixes from a 4LS developer.
You can find a more comprehensive list of changes here.
New versions
There have been many different versions for this VN:
- A browser version has been released, though currently buggy.
- A Flathub (Linux) version.
- A SFW version on F-droid.
- Updates to already existing mobile versions.
Community updates
- An official Steam community for Fleeting Heartbeat Studios has been established.
- FHS have worked with Ren’pytom and 4LS to host the official Katawa Shoujo forums, add improvements, and fix the long-broken forum theme!
- Improvements to the FHS Discord.
The modding aspect has enabled the creation of projects like the Grid1 Remastered mod. Keep your eyes peeled on Katawa Shoujo’s ModDb page for more community projects!
That pretty much wraps up the updates and improvements for Katawa Shoujo: Re-Engineered and the FHS community! Big thanks to FHS and 4LS for keeping the dream alive.
If you enjoy our work, please follow us on Twitter for more visual novel news and join the community in our forums and discord server: we’re pretty active there!
In addition, you can also support us on Patreon or by buying us a Ko-fi.
