Thoughts on Katagiri's (Olympia Soiree, Tengoku Struggle etc.) Writing?

[usagi-k]

just wanted to know what most people on here feel about their style and their typical tropes in writing ^^ personally what drew me in for the games mentioned above was satoi's artstyle however i have seen some people feel so strongly against ktgr's writing that they consider it a waste of satoi's art to be used in those stories.

i personally did not mind the oppressive nature of the lis or side characters in olympia soiree (the society itself is colorist so ofc im expecting them to be misogynist as well) but the direction the story went in for kuroba's storyline did bother me quite a bit as i felt that most of those events wouldve been better suited for a bad end and overall just felt like a very cheap conflict considering there's a lot more you couldve explored for kuroba's character? in general there are often times where i feel that they create these high stakes and genuinely uncomfortable scenarios but for whatever reason do not explore them fully which left me feeling confused as to why it was written into the story in the first place? either you commit to writing something dark but when you only half-ass it im left feeling as if it was done only for shock value rather than something explorative about deeper topic.

contrary to olympia soiree i genuinely felt annoyed by the writing in tengoku struggle :( i was suggested this game as if it was a misandrist vs five misogynists plot and instead i got none of that ??? imo the only li who's actually a misogynistic WITH an understandable reason for his behavior was yona whereas the others acted like a piece of shit to rin for no actual reason or conflict ? hating her for being a hell guardian wouldve made a lot more sense to me but it was never framed that and honestly the fact that kiku has a sister but still was so dismissive towards rin annoyed me greatly like no wonder she doesnt want to come back to you bro. there's also goemon who in the beginning was part of the gang saying "oh we're going to get rough with you" segment (what i consider to be the screenshotted/shared scene from early game) but then he's consistently very nice to her and honestly has no reason at all to be antagonistic to rin so why frame him like that at the start and even if you did for whatever reason atleast make it consistent. maybe the game was recommended to me with wrong tagline description because i went into it expecting something else but was met with really confusing character inconsistencies. ive also heard there is a dissonance in how they localized the game vs the actual dialogue (unsure how true that is) so maybe it felt more like that in jpn but they toned it down for en.

i would like to mention i dont think misogyny is ok if theres a reason for it and i also do get that most people would not want to date guys that are actually oppressive to women but then why frame the story like that? if you wanna write a scenario like that then it should be fully on that side instead of pulling back midway incase it gets too dark or too uncomfortable

i liked olympia as a heroine so i wont talk much about her - she felt idealistic and naive at times but overall i found her to be a sweet girl who was honestly quite aware of her privilege (similar to hinagiku from uchronia i'd say) HOWEVER i did not like rin and her writing at all TT how do you have a mc who uses a whip and even utilises it in her sprite but give her zero combat ability (despite her being a really good hell guardian) and be someone who's a misandrist but barely ever hits the guys or utilises her powers to stop them from going to far. her writing also did not feel misandrist at all to me in any way it genuinely just felt like she's an unexperienced girl who has never really interacted with men who arent her father or ono - so having her be someone who hates men and what they stand for but being so weak in front of them just left a bad taste in my mouth TT

sorry for how long this is but tldr i dont like how the writing sets up for an interesting topic that is generally uncomfortable in nature but almost always falls flat as it didnt fully commit to what was happening in the scene / what was expected of the character which ends up feeling very hollow and disappointing for me.

my final stance would be something neutral as i wouldnt avoid a game just because theyre the scenario writer however if you really enjoy katagiri's writing or really despise it do let me your thoughts as well since i'd love to hear everyone's opinion on how they perceived the writing.

if youve played nil admirai please please share your thoughts on how the writing for that game is i'd love to know!

 

[woodypei]

I haven't played Tengoku Struggle so I cannot comment on that, but I really enjoyed Katagiri's writing style in Olympia Soiree and Nil Ado. The world building is amazing, and I find the way she describes things quite poetic. I appreciate how both games balance romance and plot pretty well. I don't mind fiction that is uncomfortable in nature, as I feel like not everything has to be rainbows and sunshines. I appreciate that Olympia Soiree approaches a lot of hard topics like systemic societal problems. Especially in the sequel, Katagiri was able to build on this and have the characters grow. To me, the characters under Katagiri, especially in the Olympia Soiree universe are particularly fleshed out and vivid.
Nil Ado was also really solid! It has the signature poetic writing style she has, but I definitely felt like it wasn't as impactful compared to Olympia Soiree. The main theme also doesn't seem as deep.
Katagiri also wrote Senjou no Waltz, which I also played a few routes but haven't finished. I played it in English so can't comment on the writing style in Japanese, but it doesn't have the uncomfortable nature in Olympia Soiree that you dislike from the routes that I have played, and I haven't heard anything misogynistic about it.

 

[usagi-k]

Especially in the sequel, Katagiri was able to build on this and have the characters grow. To me, the characters under Katagiri, especially in the Olympia Soiree universe are particularly fleshed out and vivid.

ive heard generally positive things about the sequel too especially in regards to yosuga and kuroba's development so i do plan on picking it up if it gets a localization (ive also heard kanan gets an ending from one of the routes which im interested in :D)

i think it is mostly tengoku struggle which caused me to agree on the grievances ive seen about her style but i do still think olysoi shouldve been a bit more darker (alot of the actions by most people in the game definitely warranted for them to get murdered lol) as it wouldve felt more impactful to the message of change the story was trying to drive forward

i wanted to get senjou no waltz since i was happy to see an older title get localized but i have heard little to nothing from people about it in the en circle so it never ended up grabbing my attention :(

 

[woodypei]

ive heard generally positive things about the sequel too especially in regards to yosuga and kuroba's development so i do plan on picking it up if it gets a localization (ive also heard kanan gets an ending from one of the routes which im interested in :D)

i think it is mostly tengoku struggle which caused me to agree on the grievances ive seen about her style but i do still think olysoi shouldve been a bit more darker (alot of the actions by most people in the game definitely warranted for them to get murdered lol) as it wouldve felt more impactful to the message of change the story was trying to drive forward

i wanted to get senjou no waltz since i was happy to see an older title get localized but i have heard little to nothing from people about it in the en circle so it never ended up grabbing my attention :(

Yes! I rly didn't care for Kuroba in the first game, but his development in the sequel was great. It went deep on his backstory and it rly helped me understand him as a character a lot better. I really enjoy the central theme of his route too. Thanks to the sequel, Kuroba rose the rankings a lot for me haha. If you are a fan of Kanan, besides the ending with him, I feel like there are other good Kanan scenes throughout the game here and there. I love Kanan too, and took a lot of screen recordings haha.

Yeah...I feel like Senjou no Waltz was definitely enjoyable when I played it, but I feel like it lacks depth compared to a lot of other otome games available. So it seems a bit forgettable in the midst of everything. It has a strong protagonist and strong female characters if anything though.