(The scores are considering the norm of bishoujo games) Kana - Little Sister is a good game. A really good game. However, it also isn't a game for everyone. Why? Put quite simply, the issues it deals with are simply too sensitive for some people to deal with. Among the issues that Kana deals with are sex (there's hentai content), forbidden love, and death. Make no mistake -- Kana takes the issues it presents and doesn't pull any punches with them. In some ways, this is a very good thing. It makes the tale decidedly more powerful from the norm. Kana - Little Sister won't merely take you through it's story and have you briefly consider it's themes and issues once you're finished. The game has a much stronger message than that. For many (myself included), Kana is a game with enough power behind it to bring them to tears. I consider myself a fairly sensitive guy, but I honestly can't recall a work of fiction that's brought me to tears. Sure, I've gotten teary-eyed plenty of times, but to actually cry? No, sir. Well...Kana managed it the first time I completed the game. Kana is terribly touching. Why? Well, In my opinion, it's all because Kana is so real. Okay, so it's obvious that I really like the game. So what's it about? What makes it so special? And if it's so great, why isn't it more popular? It isn't as if this is a game that reaches the ears of the majority. Well, it's easiest to begin with the latter. The reason Kana - Little Sister is liable to reach only a small audience is due to a couple of things, not the least of which being marketing for the game. Kana is promoted as a tale where you, the older brother of a girl named Kana, ultimately fall in love with your sister. The final line on the back of the box is something like, "your sister depends on you; how far are you willing to go?" ...Yeah. Maybe it's just me, but promoting an incestual theme does NOT really make me want to plop down my money for it. In fact, if that was all I had seen of the game up until that point, I'd probably just have turned away in disgust. But things aren't as they seem (thankfully). Before I'm branded a sicko, I don't think I'm going to get anyone mad at me by assuring you that there's a convenient plot-twist in the game whereupon it turns out that Kana is adopted. Incestual complications averted. Previously, while I wanted to play the game due to reviews citing how touching a tale it was, I didn't want to get it because the implied incestual theme seemed a bit much. However, upon finding out that wasn't really the case, it made my decision to buy the game a bit easier. But there's one other problem relating to how accessible the game might be to a general audience. Being that it is an 18+ bishoujo game, it contains erotic hentai content. I don't really have a problem with that, but at the same time, it's really quite unnecessary since Kana is such a good story. I still say that if you want to watch porn, just get some porn. It really isn't necessary to stick it in things outside of that realm. Wrestling is a good example of this. I used to really like wrestling, but it seems like half the show now is just braindead chicks running around with a string over their boobs. Sorry, but that doesn't really do anything for me. I watch wrestling to see a good, psychological match, and I want to play a game like Kana to be told a good story. It just really frustrates me because if I want to tell people about the game, I'll inevitably come off as some kind of disturbed pervert. But either way, I still will stand by the fact that Kana is a very solid game (though it's really more of a visual novel than a game), albeit with some rather unnecessary eroticism. In fact, a couple of the erotic scenes seem out of place in the game. There are maybe two or three scenes that seem a natural fit for what's going on, but others just seem to be thrown in for the sake of saying that the game has more perverted content to appease those who would buy it just to look at animated boobs. Frankly, I wish there was an H-free version of the game so that I could sing it's praises without feeling meek. There was to be a Japanese release of the game for the Xbox that would omit the H-content, but that has since been cancelled due to poor support of the Xbox in Japan. Anyway, now that I've gotten my huge disclaimer out of the way citing that the game isn't for everyone, let's focus on what makes Kana great -- the plot...or rather, what comes of the plot. You are Takamichi Todo, the older brother of your "little sister", Kana Todo. Kana suffers from chronic renal insufficency, and it is because of this that she spends more time in a hospital than she does at home. In the beginning, both Kana and Taka are only children, and Taka hates Kana because he feels that she steals his parents' attention from him. Being that she is ill, his parents always tend to Kana first. In a nutshell, an incident occurs in these younger years that forces Taka to realize just how frail Kana really is, and that she is not the evil attention-stealing devil that he previous imagined her to be. There are 6 endings to Kana, and while I won't spoil any of them, I will say that all of them carry substantial emotional weight. One of the key elements of the game is the music. The game simply wouldn't have quite the same emotional impact without the tunes that churn along with the game. I'm quite fond of the soundtrack (the game itself can be played as an audio CD in any CD player), and not simply because I relate the each tune to at least one memorable scene. The soundtrack is really quite good, consisting of many peaceful and melancholy tracks. There isn't much bounce to Kana's soundtrack, so it's something good to listen to while you're getting sleepy, too. Of course, the graphics of the game only consist of still CG images. The quality of these CGs are really great. Kana's design may seem a bit strange to many at first, but it is likely to quickly grow on you as you're sucked into the characters. The CGs are darkened and white text tells the story atop the CG images as the game continues. You simply right-click to clear away the text and restore the full luster of the CG's color, free to view it without anything obscuring your view. Like most games of it's sort, Kana doesn't really have any gameplay to speak of. You simply choose between one action or another at certain key branches in the story, and according to how you react, the story unfolds. You simply replay it after finishing, choosing different things to try to get other endings. Thankfully, Kana has an option to speed through all previously read dialogue, so replaying through old content isn't a real chore. So, how to sum this all up? Kana is an absolute must-play game for anyone who can get past the implied incestual theme (even though that's untrue and just a rather disturbing gimmick) and the H-content. Also, as if it isn't obvious at this point, it's a real tear-jerker, so it's not somewhere to look for a lighthearted gaming experience. Kana is a tale that, in all likelihood, will not have you forget it's protangonist for a long, long time. Kana is a tale to make you think. Kana isn't a "18+ erotic bishoujo game," but a truly inspirational story that is unfortunate enough to be coated with two major faux pas. Anyone who is open-minded enough to give it a try is in for some real rewards, but those who would rather shy away from it can avoid the negative stigma that it's brand of game is bound to carry.
Kana: Little Sister is a chose your own adventure story. If you got past that first sentence you are one step closer to being blown away by this game. I will first state the only issue I have with this game, it is short,... Read Full Review
I don't remember how I came upon this game. I wasn't looking for adult games but I think I heard someone mention it in the review of another game I was looking at. After a quick search I learned Kana Little Sister had ... Read Full Review
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