is a Japanese adult

visual novel A , often abbreviated as VN, is a form of digital semi-interactive fiction. Visual novels are often associated with and used in the medium of video games, but are not always labeled as such themselves. They combine a textual narrative with sta ...

developed by

Key Key or The Key may refer to: Common meanings * Key (cryptography), a piece of information that controls the operation of a cryptography algorithm * Key (lock), device used to control access to places or facilities restricted by a lock * Key (map ...

, released on June 25, 2010, for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

. ''Kud Wafter'' is Key's eighth game, along with other titles such as '' Kanon'', ''

Air The atmosphere of Earth is the layer of gases, known collectively as air, retained by Earth's gravity that surrounds the planet and forms its planetary atmosphere. The atmosphere of Earth protects life on Earth by creating pressure allowing f ...

'', and ''

Clannad Clannad () is an Irish band formed in 1970 in Gweedore, County Donegal by siblings Ciarán, Pól, and Moya Brennan and their twin uncles Noel and Pádraig Duggan. They have adopted various musical styles throughout their history, including ...

''. Key released a version of ''Kud Wafter'' without the erotic content, and the game was

ported In software engineering, porting is the process of adapting software for the purpose of achieving some form of execution in a computing environment that is different from the one that a given program (meant for such execution) was originally desi ...

to the

PlayStation Portable The PlayStation Portable (PSP) is a handheld game console developed and marketed by Sony Computer Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 12, 2004, in North America on March 24, 2005, and in PAL regions on September 1, 2005, ...

and

PlayStation Vita The PlayStation Vita (PS Vita, or Vita) is a handheld video game console developed and marketed by Sony Interactive Entertainment. It was first released in Japan on December 17, 2011, and in North America, Europe, and other international territo ...

. The story follows the lives of high school students Riki Naoe and his close friend Kudryavka Noumi as they start to see more of each other in a romantic relationship. The

gameplay Gameplay is the specific way in which players interact with a game, and in particular with video games. Gameplay is the pattern defined through the game rules, connection between player and the game, challenges and overcoming them, plot and pla ...

in ''Kud Wafter'' follows a branching plot line which offers pre-determined scenarios with courses of interaction, and focuses on the appeal of the title character Kudryavka, also known as for short. The game is a spin-off of Key's earlier game '' Little Busters!'' rated for all ages and its expanded, adult version '' Little Busters! Ecstasy''. Kudryavka appears as a heroine in both ''Little Busters!'' and ''Ecstasy''. ''Kud Wafter'' is an expansion of Kudryavka's story after the events of ''Ecstasy'' and is written by Chika Shirokiri.

Na-Ga Na-Ga is a male Japanese artist who is employed as a graphic designer and illustrator for the company Key known for such famous visual novels as '' Kanon'', ''Air'', and ''Clannad'' among others. Na-Ga has been working for Key since the productio ...

and

Itaru Hinoue is the pseudonym of a Japanese artist from Osaka, Japan, who is one of the founding members of the visual novel brand Key under VisualArt's. Hinoue's choice of her pseudonym stems from the manga ''C'' by Shō Kitagawa; the protagonist in the man ...

returned as co-art directors. The game ranked as the best-selling PC game sold in Japan for the time of its release. A

manga Manga (Japanese: 漫画 ) are comics or graphic novels originating from Japan. Most manga conform to a style developed in Japan in the late 19th century, and the form has a long prehistory in earlier Japanese art. The term ''manga'' is u ...

adaptation illustrated by Bakutendō was serialized in ASCII Media Works' ''

Dengeki G's Magazine is a Japanese magazine published by ASCII Media Works (formerly MediaWorks) and sold monthly on the thirtieth that primarily contains information on bishōjo games, but also includes an entire section on anime based on bishōjo games, and serial ...

''. A 51-minute theatrical

anime is Traditional animation, hand-drawn and computer animation, computer-generated animation originating from Japan. Outside of Japan and in English, ''anime'' refers specifically to animation produced in Japan. However, in Japan and in Japane ...

adaptation by

J.C.Staff , is a Japanese animation studio founded in January 1986 by Tomoyuki Miyata, who previously worked at Tatsunoko Production. The studio's first release was ''Yōtōden'' in 1987. They have produced several well-known anime series, such as '' Food ...

premiered on July 16, 2021.

Gameplay

''Kud Wafter'' is a

romance Romance (from Vulgar Latin , "in the Roman language", i.e., "Latin") may refer to: Common meanings * Romance (love), emotional attraction towards another person and the courtship behaviors undertaken to express the feelings * Romance languages, ...

in which the player assumes the role of Riki Naoe. Much of its

is spent on reading the story's

narrative A narrative, story, or tale is any account of a series of related events or experiences, whether nonfictional (memoir, biography, news report, documentary, travel literature, travelogue, etc.) or fictional (fairy tale, fable, legend, thriller (ge ...

and

dialogue Dialogue (sometimes spelled dialog in American English) is a written or spoken conversational exchange between two or more people, and a literary and theatrical form that depicts such an exchange. As a philosophical or didactic device, it is c ...

. ''Kud Wafter'' follows a branching plot line with multiple endings; depending on the decisions that the player makes during the game, the plot will progress in a specific direction. Throughout gameplay, the player is given multiple options to choose from, and text progression pauses at these points until a choice is made. To view all plot lines in their entirety, the player will have to replay the game multiple times and make different choices to bring the plot in an alternate direction. Throughout gameplay, there are scenes with sexual CGs depicting Riki and Kudryavka having sex. Key released a version of ''Kud Wafter'' without the erotic content.

Plot and characters

''Kud Wafters story revolves around , the male protagonist from ''Little Busters!'' and ''Little Busters! Ecstasy'', and , one of the main heroines of the same games and the title character of ''Kud Wafter''. Kudryavka has her story expanded upon than what was seen in ''Ecstasy'', which was itself an expansion on the story featured in ''Little Busters!''. ''Kud Wafter'' begins at the onset of the summer vacation after the events of the peaceful

field trip A field trip or excursion is a journey by a group of people to a place away from their normal environment. When done for students, as it happens in several school systems, it is also known as school trip in the UK, Australia, New Zealand and ...

from ''Little Busters!''. The other members of the Little Busters have returned home for the break, leaving Riki and Kudryavka to spend their vacation living at the school dormitories as they form a romantic relationship. However, the male dormitory is undergoing renovations due to a problem with the plumbing, leaving Riki without a place to stay. As Kudryavka has no roommate, she suggests to Riki that he live with her until the renovation on the male dormitory is finished, and Riki accepts. Riki and Kudryavka try to keep the other dorm members from finding out since it is against the rules for a boy and girl to share a room. Also living at the dorms is a girl named whom Kudryavka knew and was roommates with for a time in Kudryavka's home country; Yuuki is half Japanese, a quarter German and a quarter Russian. She is the president of the science club at the school and came to take part in a cultural exchange program. Every day, Yuuki is absorbed in various strange research projects and experiments and could be described as a logical genius. The head of the girl's dormitory is , the only main character other than Riki and Kudryavka to return from ''Little Busters!''. While Kanata is good friends with Kudryavka, she is concerned about Kudryavka's relationship with Riki. Kanata succeeded the previous head of the girl's dormitory, a third-year girl referred to as . Since she resigned from being the dormitory head, the dormitory rules have become somewhat more relaxed, but she still aides Kanata because Kanata inherited the position. A-chan is the president of the home economics club, which Kudryavka is a member of, and she likes interesting and strange things. A young girl named is aiming to win a

water rocket A water rocket is a type of model rocket using water as its reaction mass. The water is forced out by a pressurized gas, typically compressed air. Like all rocket engines, it operates on the principle of Newton's third law of motion. Water rock ...

competition and she becomes friends with Kudryavka and Riki while searching for a suitable plastic bottle. Shiina is a cheerful, energetic girl without a hint of shyness around strangers. Shiina has a

Welsh Corgi The Welsh Corgi ( or Corgi, plural Corgis, or occasionally the etymologically consistent Corgwn; ) is a small type of herding dog that originated in Wales. The name ''corgi'' is derived from the Welsh words and (which is mutated to ), mea ...

named Ōsumi as a pet. Her dream is to become an astronaut, but her family is against it. Her mother is a

picture book A picture book combines visual and verbal narratives in a book format, most often aimed at young children. With the narrative told primarily through text, they are distinct from comics, which do so primarily through sequential images. The images ...

author and she has an older sister, , a second-year high school student who also stays at the dormitory, even though her house is close to the school. Ui is a realist who does not really believe in achieving dreams. She is frugal with her money and works

part-time Part-time can refer to: * Part-time job, a job that has fewer hours a week than a full-time job * Part-time student, a student, usually in higher education, who takes fewer course credits than a full-time student * Part Time Part Time (styliz ...

at a family restaurant. Ui used to play

lacrosse Lacrosse is a team sport played with a lacrosse stick and a lacrosse ball. It is the oldest organized sport in North America, with its origins with the indigenous people of North America as early as the 12th century. The game was extensively ...

, but had to stop due to an injury.

Development and release

After the release of ''Little Busters! Ecstasy'' in 2008, Key decided to produce a spin-off of that game which focused on the heroine Kudryavka Noumi. The project's planning was headed by Kai, who returned to Key after he last contributed to the scenario of ''

'' released in 2004. Chika Shirokiri returned after his work on ''Little Busters!'', in which he wrote the scenario for Kudryavka. The artists

and

were the art directors and character designers, both of whom previously worked on ''Little Busters!'' for Key. Jun'ichi Shimizu composed the game's music and was supervised by

Jun Maeda is a Japanese writer and co-founder of the visual novel brand Key under Visual Arts. He is considered a pioneer of nakige visual novels, and has mainly contributed as a scenario writer, lyricist, and musical composer for the games the company ...

. ''Kud Wafter'' was released in Japan on June 25, 2010, as a limited edition version for

as a DVD. As a bonus, it came bundled with the visual novel's original soundtrack and a

game demo A game demo is a trial version of a video game that is limited to a certain time limit or a point in progress, which leads to the player buying the game if they liked it. A game demo comes in forms such as shareware, demo disc, downloadable s ...

of Key's ninth game '' Rewrite''. Takahiro Baba, the president of

VisualArt's , formerly and previously spelled in English as VisualArt's, is a Japanese publishing company which specializes in publishing and distributing visual novels for a large list of game developers. Visual Arts has developed game engines their brands ...

, the publisher of ''Kud Wafter'', announced via his

Twitter Twitter is an online social media and social networking service owned and operated by American company Twitter, Inc., on which users post and interact with 280-character-long messages known as "tweets". Registered users can post, like, and ...

account in April 2010 that 100,000 copies of ''Kud Wafter'' would be produced in its initial release. To advertise ''Kud Wafter'', Good Smile Racing took

Shinji Orito is a Japanese musical composer originally from Hyōgo, Japan working for the visual novel brand Key under VisualArt's. Before forming Key, Orito worked for another software company named Leaf where he contributed to four games. After leaving ...

's 2003

Honda Fit The Honda Fit (Japanese: ホンダ・フィット, Hepburn: ''Honda Fitto'') or Honda Jazz is a small car manufactured and marketed by Honda since 2001 and now in its fourth generation. It has a five-door hatchback body style and is considered ...

and made it into an

itasha In Japan, an is a car decorated with images of characters from anime, manga, or video games (especially ''bishōjo'' games or ''eroge''). The decorations usually involve paint schemes and stickers. The cars are seen prominently in places su ...

(a car featuring illustrations of anime-styled characters) with images of Kudryavka. The car was driven around and showcased throughout Japan between April 19 and June 26, 2010. The car was put onto the Japanese

Yahoo! Yahoo! (, styled yahoo''!'' in its logo) is an American web services provider. It is headquartered in Sunnyvale, California and operated by the namesake company Yahoo Inc., which is 90% owned by investment funds managed by Apollo Global Man ...

Auction An auction is usually a process of buying and selling goods or services by offering them up for bids, taking bids, and then selling the item to the highest bidder or buying the item from the lowest bidder. Some exceptions to this definition ex ...

website on June 25, 2010, and sold for 1,699,000

yen The is the official currency of Japan. It is the third-most traded currency in the foreign exchange market, after the United States dollar (US$) and the euro. It is also widely used as a third reserve currency after the US dollar and the e ...

after starting the auction at 1 yen. An adult version playable on Android devices was released on January 31, 2013. A fully voiced version playable as a

Blu-ray Disc The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and c ...

was released on March 29, 2013, by Asoberu! BD-Game, a brand of VisualArt's.

Prototype A prototype is an early sample, model, or release of a product built to test a concept or process. It is a term used in a variety of contexts, including semantics, design, electronics, and Software prototyping, software programming. A prototyp ...

released a

(PSP) port of the game titled ''Kud Wafter Converted Edition'' on May 9, 2013, which contains additional story events and visuals. Key released an all ages version on June 28, 2013, for Windows, and it contains the additional content in the PSP version. Prototype released a version of ''Kud Wafter Converted Edition'' ported to the

(PS Vita) on December 19, 2013.

Adaptations

Print

adaptation, illustrated by

manga artist A is a comic artist who writes and/or illustrates manga. As of 2006, about 3,000 professional manga artists were working in Japan. Most manga artists study at an art college or manga school or take on an apprenticeship with another artist be ...

Bakutendō and titled ''Kud Wafter'', was serialized between the May 2010 and February 2014 issues of ASCII Media Works' ''

''. Six ''

tankōbon is the Japanese Japanese may refer to: * Something from or related to Japan, an island country in East Asia * Japanese language, spoken mainly in Japan * Japanese people, the ethnic group that identifies with Japan through ancestry or cultur ...

'' volumes of the manga were released between February 26, 2011, and March 27, 2014. Two volumes of a manga anthology titled ''Kud Wafter Comic Anthology'' were released by

Ichijinsha is a Japanese publishing company focused on manga-related publication, including magazines and books. The company was first established in August 1992 as a limited company under the name Studio DNA whose main purpose was to edit shōnen manga. ...

between August and October 2010. An anthology of a collection of four-panel

comic strip A comic strip is a sequence of drawings, often cartoons, arranged in interrelated panels to display brief humor or form a narrative, often serialized, with text in balloons and captions. Traditionally, throughout the 20th and into the 21st ...

s titled ''Kud Wafter 4-koma Maximum'' was released by Wedge Holdings in September 2010. Harvest published ''Kud Wafter Anthology Comic'' in November 2010. Taibundo released a manga anthology titled ''Kud Wafter'' as the first volume in their Earth Star Comics line in December 2010.

Paradigm In science and philosophy, a paradigm () is a distinct set of concepts or thought patterns, including theories, research methods, postulates, and standards for what constitute legitimate contributions to a field. Etymology ''Paradigm'' comes f ...

released a novel anthology titled ''Kud Wafter Anthology: It's Kud Wafter!'' in September 2010. Harvest published a novel anthology titled ''Kud Wafter Anthology Novel'' in November 2010. ASCII Media Works published an

art book Artists' books (or book arts or book objects) are works of art that utilize the form of the book. They are often published in small editions, though they are sometimes produced as one-of-a-kind objects. Overview Artists' books have employed a ...

titled on March 10, 2011.

Anime

Key's parent company

announced they were putting together a production committee for a possible

adaptation in January 2017. VisualArt's launched a

crowdfunding Crowdfunding is the practice of funding a project or venture by raising money from a large number of people, typically via the internet. Crowdfunding is a form of crowdsourcing and alternative finance. In 2015, over was raised worldwide by crow ...

campaign on July 18, 2017, to fund the anime adaptation, and it reached its goal of ¥30 million in three days. The campaign reached its final stretch goal of ¥60 million to produce a 51-minute theatrical anime originally scheduled to premiere in September 2019 to be directed by Yoshinobu Yamakawa at

with Key having complete supervision over it. However, it was later delayed to a September 2020 release with Kentarō Suzuki replacing Yamakawa as the director. The anime's theme song is "Light a Way" sung by Suzuyu. It was delayed again to November 2020, before being delayed again to May 14, 2021. It was delayed even further to July 16, 2021, due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

Music

The visual novel has two main theme songs: the opening theme "One's Future" by Miyako Suzuta, the

voice actress Voice acting is the art of performing voice-overs to present a character or provide information to an audience. Performers are called voice actors/actresses, voice artists, dubbing artists, voice talent, voice-over artists, or voice-over talent ...

of Kudryavka, and the ending theme by

Haruka Shimotsuki is a Japanese singer and dōjin music composer known for her vocal themes in the ''Atelier Iris'' and ''Ar tonelico'' series. She also wrote the lyrics and sang the ending themes to the first two seasons of '' Rozen Maiden'' as well as the OVA ...

. An insert song also sung by Suzuta, , is featured in the game as well. The

single Single may refer to: Arts, entertainment, and media * Single (music), a song release Songs * "Single" (Natasha Bedingfield song), 2004 * "Single" (New Kids on the Block and Ne-Yo song), 2008 * "Single" (William Wei song), 2016 * "Single", by ...

of " One's Future" was released in April 2010. ''Kud Wafter''s original soundtrack was released on June 25, 2010, with the original release of the visual novel. The soundtrack contained 24 music tracks: 20

background music Background music (British English: piped music) is a mode of musical performance in which the music is not intended to be a primary focus of potential listeners, but its content, character, and volume level are deliberately chosen to affect behav ...

tracks, an

a cappella ''A cappella'' (, also , ; ) music is a performance by a singer or a singing group without instrumental accompaniment, or a piece intended to be performed in this way. The term ''a cappella'' was originally intended to differentiate between Ren ...

version of "Hoshimori Uta", a

remix A remix (or reorchestration) is a piece of media which has been altered or contorted from its original state by adding, removing, or changing pieces of the item. A song, piece of artwork, book, video, poem, or photograph can all be remixes. The o ...

of "One's Future" subtitled "Rock Band Mix", and the original versions of "Hoshikuzu" and "Hoshimori Uta". A ten-track

arrange Arrange is a mythological figure from the Australian aboriginal creation myth of the Alyawarre people for Karlu Karlu. In the myth, the figure Arrange, who is also referred to as the devil man, comes from Ayleparrarntenhe. Arrange was making a ...

album

ing music from the game titled '' Albina: Assorted Kudwaf Songs'' was released at Comiket 79 in December 2010. A remix album titled '' Deejay Busters!'', featuring tracks from ''Little Busters!'', ''Little Busters! Ecstasy'' and ''Kud Wafter'', was released in May 2011. A piano arrange album titled '' Ripresa'', which also features tracks from ''Little Busters!'', ''Ecstasy'' and ''Kud Wafter'', was released in April 2013. Each of the albums released were on Key's

record label A record label, or record company, is a brand or trademark of music recordings and music videos, or the company that owns it. Sometimes, a record label is also a publishing company that manages such brands and trademarks, coordinates the produ ...

Key Sounds Label Key Sounds Label is a Japanese independent record label formed in 2001 as a brand of the publishing company VisualArt's. Key Sounds Label was formed to catalog and release music related to visual novels produced by the brand Key, also under Visua ...

Reception

In May 2010, ''Kud Wafter'' ranked first in national PC game pre-orders in Japan. The limited edition version of ''Kud Wafter'' ranked first in terms of national sales of PC games in Japan in June 2010. In addition, ''Kud Wafter'' was reported to sell the most copies of any PC game in Japan for the first half of 2010. At some stores in Akihabara, ''Kud Wafter'' was sold at midnight the day of its release, which is cited as not happening very often for games sold in Akihabara. ''Kud Wafter'' premiered as the No. 2 game sold on Getchu.com, a major redistributor of visual novel and domestic anime products, during the month of its release, and at No. 26 in July. The game would go on to be the No. 9 game sold for the first half of 2010, and at No. 15 for the whole year. The PSP port sold 5,733 units in its first week of sales. Both the PSP and PS Vita ports were reviewed by the Japanese video game magazine ''

Famitsu formerly ''Famicom Tsūshin'', is a line of Japanese video game magazines published by Kadokawa Game Linkage (previously known as Gzbrain), a subsidiary of Kadokawa. ''Famitsu'' is published in both weekly and monthly formats as well as in the f ...

'', which gave them an overall score of 27/40.

Notes

References

External links

''Kud Wafter'' official website
* {{good article 2010 manga 2010 video games Android (operating system) games Anime postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic ASCII Media Works manga Bishōjo games Dengeki G's Magazine Drama anime and manga Eroge Films postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic J.C.Staff Japan-exclusive video games Key (company) games Manga based on video games PlayStation Portable games PlayStation Vita games Prototype (company) games Romance anime and manga Romance video games Seinen manga Single-player video games Video games developed in Japan Visual novels Windows games