What Could Have Been examples for Katawa Shoujo.
Design changes:
- Two or three different school uniforms were considered throughout but the final design ended up staying close to the original sketch, even in the color scheme. One of the alternate designs (shown in the Art Evolution sequences after the good endings and used in the earliest playable version of the game), with jackets and long skirts, would have been justified however, since the story originally took place in winter.
- Sketches show Hanako having suffered even more extensive damage from the fire on the right side of her body, with a blind eye and the leg supported by a crutch.
- In her earliest designs, Misha was blonde and lacked her signature Drill Hair.
- Originally Rin was a Huge Schoolgirl and wore Modesty Shorts under her female uniform. Her reason for lacking arms was originally meant to be due to Thalidomide, but the final product changed that because it wouldn't fit a modern-day story. In general, while the basic design stayed the same, Rin was more feminine and delicate in appearance.
- Emi's art was redrawn at the last moment because it was thought she looked too young.
- Akira was originally a man instead of a bifauxnen woman.
Emi Route
- Emi and Rin were meant to pop up a lot more in other arcs, especially Lilly's.
- Emi and Misha were at some point intended to have been close friendsnote . There are still some remnants of this visible in the script, such as Misha being the one who helps Hisao avoid the bad end in Emi's path.
Hanako Route:
- An older version of Hanako's story would always be a Downer Ending and was inspired by Higurashi: When They Cry. In Hanako's arc, Hisao had a heart attack and Hanako would try to help him through CPR. She has a panic attack and gets put into a mental ward at the local hospital. When you visit her she's noticeably out of it, sitting there and mumbling "I killed them all" to herself. When you interact with her she freaks out, shoves you, and you die. If you don't visit her, you can eventually get a sex scene with a heavily medicated Hanako, but afterwards she freaks out which causes you to get up, slip, and break your neck. If you don't have sex with her, she recovers but ends up committing suicide by throwing herself in front of a train. This was scrapped due to being way too complicated to write and program, as well as a general desire to have the game develop in a more lighthearted direction. The only way to get the Good Ending was to play Hanako's route, then play Lilly's route. Midway through Lilly's route you get an option that lets you switch to Hanako's Good Ending.
- Cpl_crud's Wordpress account
contains some writings that were considered in early versions of Hanako's route. Among them are Hanako's father saving her from the fire (which fits in with early character descriptions that only mentioned her father being dead), as well as a Left Hanging Distant Finale involving a reunion between Hisao and a much more mature Hanako, many years after she vanished from his life following a second heart attack. Also, one of the entries involves a possible ending for a theoretical Misha path. - The final image of Hanako's good ending where the camera pans to inside a bakery window with two muffins sitting inside was originally meant to represent that Hanako has a bun in the oven, or in other words, is pregnant. This was scrapped in later drafts because the team didn't want to make light of Teen Pregnancy, though (in fact, Hanako's H-scene is the only one in the whole game in which Hisao uses a condom),
- Cpl_crud's Wordpress account
- Originally, Hanako had childhood trauma involving a boy who asked her out getting hit and killed by a car.
- One of Hanako's scrapped good endings would have them Happily Married and with a daughter named Karen.
Lily Route
- Instead of Hanako turning eighteen, Lilly was supposed to during her arc. On her birthday her cousin Yuuko irresponsibly bringing over alcohol for her, Hanako, and Hisao to drink together. The scene involved them getting drunk and passing out, only for the next day Hisao to worry about rumors if people learned he slept in a girl's room overnight.
- Lilly originally had a guide dog called Niji; after a while, however, the writers thought he added nothing to the story and ditched him.
- Originally, Lilly would have played the cello as a hobby, and her favorite song would have been Sarabande. However, this feature was cut and the song was instead changed to be the theme of the music box.
- Lilly was originally half South African, instead of half Scottish.
- One dev considered making Lilly The Ditz but it was opted out due to the awkward implications of her being ditzy due to her blindness.
- At one point Lilly had four siblings, including the then-male Akira. Eventually they scrapped everyone but Akira.
- Akira was given several of Yuuko's early character traits. Originally, Yuuko was Lilly's cousin. She didn't work as a librarian, instead exclusively working at the Shanghai. Yuuko had a moped that she drove around (badly).
Shizune Route:
- Misha was meant to die. After being depressed for most of Shizune's route, she would stop in the middle of traffic and get hit by a car while out shopping with Shizune. In the final product this was heavily downplayed with only a few lines implying Misha's had suicidal thoughts.
- Shizune's arc was completely different in earlier versions. The player had more choices than the two the final product had. The arc also had both more comedy and more drama.
- Shizune's arc had different endings than in the finalized version. At the end of her arc, if you got the Good End, Hisao and Shizune would discuss their future and mention naming a daughter after Misha. If you got the Bad End, Shizune would have a Death by Despair. She had been enclosed in her room ever since Misha's funeral and wouldn't interact with anyone. One day her family finds her faint and she's taken to the hospital, where it turns out she's suffering from dehydration and starvation. If you decide to go home from the hospital it's revealed she had taken out her IVs and was hiding it the entire time Hisao was there, which results in her death. The arc was rewritten when the original writer left 4LS due to internal conflicts with the rest of the staff and A22 took over in his place.
- After Misha's death it would be revealed that Shizune could read lips and understood what Hisao had been saying the entire time.
- The infamous Misha "comfort" scene was meant to happen in the middle of Act 3, not near the end, and in Shizune's house right after Misha confesses her affections for Shizune. It wouldn't lead to a Bad End - in fact, you could still get Shizune's Good End if you went on with it - however both Misha and Hisao would act more guilty in many scenes.
- Misha's reason for going to Yamaku, despite not being disabled, differs between the final and alpha versions. In the final product she wanted to be a sign language teacher. In the alpha she wanted to escape bullying due to being gay and used sign language as an excuse, but began taking it seriously after meeting Shizune.
- Misha was originally conceived to be as bland and uninteresting as possible, so that players wouldn't miss her if she was pushed aside during Shizune's path. The revelation that she used to be more plain in appearance, before dyeing her hair pink and styling it in the characteristic drills, may be a nod to the old concept.
- In earlier scripts Shizune's father had some more ableist views towards Shizune, such as how he won't give her the family business because she is disabled and thus is inferior to her younger brother Hideaki. Here are the kinds of things◊ Jigoro says◊ in the pre-release (in regards to Misha). This is another example from the pre-release◊. It is also explained in the pre-release that he won't give her the family business because she is disabled and by default inferior to Hideaki. In the pre-release he was still a giant jackass, but he was also actually right on things... mostly regarding Misha. In short: Jigoro went from a Jerk with a Heart of Jerk to a Jerk with a Heart of Gold (and also became the Villainy-Free Villain of his daughter's route).
- An earlier version of Shizune's theme, "The Student Council", sounds completely different from the final version.
Other
- Kenji was considered as a Gay Option but his route was never implemented, and instead was reduced to the near-immediate and darkly funny Act 1 Bad Ending, in which Hisao, unable to find a date, spends the night with Kenji before drunkenly falling to his death.
- Kenji and Yuuko are confirmed to be dating in the earlier script. In the final product it's somewhat implied they were each others exes but it's never stated.
- Earlier versions of "Nocturne", "Raindrop and Puddles", and "Shadow Of The Truth" exist.
- The beta version of the song "Moment Of Decision" had electronic elements.
- Early bad ends past Act 1 would have involved Hisao dying, but they were ultimately removed because the writers felt that having to come up with convenient accidents for each death would feel too much like an Ass Pull. Hanako's writer wryly notes that he reconsidered killing off Hisao in Hanako's bad endings because he believed that the thought of a life without Hanako worked better as a Fate Worse than Death.
- Misha having her own route was seriously proposed at least once, though according to Aura it was never really up for debate.
