Warning:
This page contains a few minor spoilers for Kana: Little
Sister. Your overall experience playing the game will
not be affected if you read the following page, but you
will become aware of some minor details for the game
ahead of time.
Being
interested in Japanese games like I am, one day I was
browsing the Internet for any interesting games to play.
Then one of the games caught my eye; Kana: Little
Sister. The game's art and storyline grabbed my
attention, as well as the reviews written by those who
had played it. The game seemed promising, so I
decided to give it a go. I had played a few other bishoujo games
before, and the common element lacking from most of them
was a really good story. I was hoping that I would
enjoy playing it, but I didn't want to set my
expectations too high. Boy, I was in for a surprise.
Kana: Little Sister is a
very deep and emotional game. It's more of an
interactive novel that you read than an actual game.
But as you read through the story, you are given a list
of choices at certain points of the game. The choices
that you make influence the story and effect the outcome
of the game. There are 6 endings total, including a
short epilogue that you can read once you have met a
certain condition in the game.
You start off as a young boy named Taka Todo, age 10. The game never says where it takes place, but I
assume it to be somewhere in Japan. You live with your
father, your mother, and your little sister, Kana, age 8. However, your younger
sister is not well. She has a life-threatening disease that prevents her
from living a normal life. She has chronic renal failure, an incurable
disease. She mostly spends her time at the hospital
being treated, constantly missing school. As you can imagine, she doesn't
have many friends. In fact, she doesn't have any friends at all.
You would think that as her older
brother, Taka would want to take care of her. But
Taka thinks differently. He hates Kana because of
the attention that she gets from their parents.
Kana is physically very weak and fragile, and has to be
taken care of carefully. Kana's weakness is
another reason that Taka despises her. But his
parents tell him to be strong and to take care of Kana.
Of course, Taka doesn't want to.
Taka is always picking on Kana, so his father has to constantly discipline
him with the back of his hand. This only causes Taka to hate Kana even
more. He takes every opportunity he can to treat Kana cruelly when his
parents' backs are turned. However, after a certain event in the game, Taka's feelings for Kana
change. He realizes just how delicate Kana really is. He becomes a loving brother that only wants to take care of his
younger sister.
As you progress through the game, you get to influence Kana through the
choices that you make as the two of you turn from kids to young adults.
It is a good idea to create a new save at each decision
in case you wish to go back and choose a different
action. These choices are crucial to the health and well-being of Kana, who is
constantly battling her seemingly incurable disease. Could there really be
a cure that can save Kana? Is there anything
that Taka can do to save his little sister? Or will all of his efforts be
for nothing?
There are a number of other characters that you will interact with as well.
There's Yumi Kashima, Taka's classmate, Miki Kondo, the nurse who primarily
takes care of Kana at the hospital, Yuta Ito, one of Kana's classmates, as well
as a few others. I won't go into detail about each of them, but they all have a large impact on
Taka and Kana's lives. You can always go to
G-Collections to read the short biographies for the different characters.
You should also visit Kana's Left
Kidney, the ultimate Kana: Little Sister fan site, which includes a more
in-depth look at each of the characters in the game.
The game's art style is done well. I wouldn't
say that the style is unique or anything, but I was pleased at how
everything looked. Even though KLS may becoming a little outdated,
it's still enjoyable. Although a few of the
images seem to misrepresent Taka and Kana's current age, the rest are nicely
drawn. The character's emotions are easily conveyed through the
different CG's and character models. Plus, Kana is just so darn cute!
The game does not have Japanese voices in it, but the
soundtrack is great. The CD actually contains both game data and the soundtrack. You
can even put the CD in a CD player and listen to the different tracks from the
game. This means you can rip the soundtrack straight from the game to your
computer as well. And you'll have good reason to rip the soundtrack.
The music in the game is just fantastic. The main theme is called Shiroi Kisetsu,
which translates to "The White Season". There are two other
vocals tracks as well. All three of them sound awesome, and the main theme
sets the stage perfectly for the game. The rest of the music are
instrumentals that help set the mood of the different scenes. You can
download the main theme from
G-Collections (just scroll down towards the bottom for the link).
You can also buy the
Kana Imouto Special Sound Album from
Amazon.com. It includes new music tracks, as well as slight remixes to
some of the original tracks from the game. A definite MUST for any Kana
Fan.
You can purchase Kana: Little Sister from a
number of different websites, but I bought mine from
J-List. They are very
responsive, and it didn't take long for my copy of the game to arrive at my
house. There is a wide selection of other bishoujo games you can purchase
there as well, including game reviews and character bios.
Kana... Okaeri! (outdated info)
Takayashiki
Development created Kana... Okaeri!, a PC remake of Kana: Little Sister.
It includes new CG's and character models, as well as voices for
all of the main characters. There were plans to also make
Kana... Okaeri! for the Xbox, but as far as I know those plans have
been scrapped. Unfortunately, the PC version of the game
is in Japanese, and I highly doubt that it will be translated to
English any time soon. You could always try using
Oh! Text Hooker
to play it if you
ever got a hold of it, though. Or better yet, you could try using
Anime Games Text Hooker instead. I couldn't get Oh!
Text Hooker to work properly with Kana... Okaeri!, but Anime Games
Text Hooker worked perfectly. There's no official
translation for Kana... Okaeri!, but AGTH makes it somewhat
possible to play it. Want to learn more? Head over
to my Troubleshooting
page for details on getting started in the right direction.
Kana ~ Little Sister PSP
This is a placeholder for now.
Kana ~ Little Sister was just released for the PSP.
It's a little pricey at $68.00, though. The core of the
game is the same, but there are various changes and additions.
I'll update this with info when I found out more about it.
