System: Change
Launch date: February 27, 2024
Developer: Thought Manufacturing unit
Writer: Thought Manufacturing unit
Akari Amasawa is somebody that I’m positive loads of us can relate to: she wakes up within the morning, she goes to work after breakfast, and he or she comes dwelling within the night. Rinse and repeat. Her job is one which might be executed by mainly anybody, and her life is unremarkable. However actually, what else are you able to anticipate? That’s simply life. However even unremarkable circumstances can change, and for Akari, who has been with IT firm Estario Corp. as a designer for nearly a yr, her work life (and, after all, her private life) is instantly turned upside-down when she is recruited as a part of a small staff to avoid wasting one of many firm’s founding apps, which has been shedding momentum as it’s pushed out by the competitors. Her new function is unsure, and her new colleagues are strangers. In Sympathy Kiss, a brand new otome title from Thought Manufacturing unit, you’ll be becoming a member of her on her journey to navigate the perilous trenches of labor, romance, and life. The alternatives you’ll make alongside the best way are most likely not what most individuals would do in her scenario, nevertheless it’s definitely a pleasant break from the stressors of on a regular basis life.
At the same time as an avid reader of otome visible novels, I typically discover the opening hours could be troublesome to get by means of. Pacing within the frequent route (the occasions shared between all characters earlier than the paths diverge to give attention to people) could be fairly tough, because it tries to each introduce you to the forged sufficient to kind an attachment to them whereas concurrently bombarding you with technical jargon regarding its fantasy setting so that you simply’ll have some body of reference for the occasions to come back. Breaking from that established norm, I discovered Sympathy Kiss to be remarkably refreshing as a result of it has completely none of those pacing points in its opening prologue.
As Akari (whose title could be modified for those who so want) you might be an atypical workplace employee thrust into a brand new function that you’ll determine the path of for your self, and your colleagues are individuals you could be passingly accustomed to however who’re in the end strangers to you. The sport is introduced in a relatable style that’s nearly fully true to actual life, and so there isn’t any have to bombard you with new phrases to frantically search for within the dictionary each few sentences. This characteristic is used very sparingly, having a meager 62 entries unfold out throughout particular person routes, and are extra a degree of reference for characters, or particular jargon you could not have heard earlier than, however are not at all important to understanding the setting or story. On the contrary, the sport appears as decided to omit the particular particulars of the work the characters do as doable, by no means lingering for too lengthy on them even after they’re truly being mentioned.
With out this have to familiarize your self with an odd new world or be taught an exhaustively convoluted set of latest phrases, you’re free to dive straight in and focus your consideration on the forged. That core forged of affection pursuits is the only real focus of the sport, and though their personalities all fall into some fully anticipated stereotypes, and the dialogue can vary from cliche to downright disturbing when the romance heats up, I discovered all of them to be surprisingly nuanced and possessing hidden depths that I didn’t anticipate them to have based mostly on their first impressions. The cheerful and pleasant Mitsuki Saotome, as an example, is definitely one thing of a closed-off perfectionist, resulting in some very tense exchanges over the course of his route that utterly contradict how he presents himself within the prologue, and he turns into a way more complicated character over the course of his six episode story. In between episodes you’ll get the chance to discover an occasion from their perspective as effectively, which could be fairly enlightening as their view of occasions is usually utterly totally different from Akari’s.
This added degree of complexity makes the love pursuits really feel much more alive as characters, and it had me extra invested of their private struggles. It’s all fairly low-stakes drama for probably the most half however unusually compelling regardless of this, or maybe even due to it: the issues the characters have are simple to narrate to and sympathize with, and Sympathy Kiss dives into some emotionally potent matters which might be dealt with with a stunning degree of depth and sensitivity, together with workplace-related stress and nervousness, burnout, and extra sophisticated workplace politics and battle. For those who’ve ever labored in an workplace atmosphere earlier than, numerous what’s introduced right here might very effectively mirror your personal experiences at occasions, and I discovered it simple to narrate to Akari specifically as somebody comparatively inexperienced surrounded by individuals who (at the very least at first look) are extra assured and succesful than her.
With that mentioned, Akari is sadly fairly underwhelming in the case of her character improvement and development, and though the story unfolds from her perspective and also you get an inside view of her thought course of, she solely ever describes issues, relatively than truly talking within the first particular person. The concept right here is for the participant to place themselves in her sneakers (that is exacerbated even additional by the in-game CGs, which exit of their option to cover her face, and the truth that she doesn’t have a personality portrait) however it could possibly make for some awkward and one-sided conversations because the characters on-screen react to what she has mentioned with out you truly attending to see that dialogue. Given the energy of the writing and the way Akari’s anxieties about her efficiency within the office are sometimes introduced entrance and heart within the narrative, it might have been good to have her as a extra developed and totally realized character.
Sympathy Kiss options branching pathways and a number of endings, and as you would possibly anticipate there are numerous selections so that you can make within the sport, though nearly all of these are extra within the nature of taste textual content that personalize the expertise. With the Emotion Choose system you’ll be given the selection between two emoji to react to one thing in dialog, and your response will typically be famous for future dialogue; for instance, you’ll be able to react positively or negatively to a dialogue about siblings to point whether or not you will have a sibling your self. It doesn’t considerably affect the path the story takes, however does add a pleasant private contact to interrupt up the extra scripted dialogue. You’ll additionally often be given a alternative of two minor dialogue selections, each as regular textual content and by way of the RiNG app in your cellphone; Akari has a keenness for utilizing emoji as responses that I discovered to be fairly endearing.
The pivotal story moments which come as soon as per episode are extra clearly telegraphed. A vocal observe will normally start to play softly within the background, and also you’ll be introduced with 4 dialogue selections. Two of those will relate to the “Work” ending whereas the opposite two will relate to the “Love” ending, and usually certainly one of every will fill the corresponding meter and produce you nearer to the result you want. Thankfully the sport makes it very simple so that you can manipulate the circumstances to your liking: the “Love Catch” system (which could be disabled for those who’d favor to play by means of blind) will point out with a blue or pink flower which route your alternative pertains to, and checking the Standing choice from the menu will present if that alternative has had an affect or not.
This isn’t an unusual characteristic in otome titles, nevertheless it’s executed significantly effectively right here and it makes getting the ending that you really want a lot simpler to perform without having to resort to holding a number of save recordsdata at every vital junction. On the absolute most you’ll have to reload thrice to examine the affect of every alternative, though it’s normally pretty apparent which one to decide on for a specific final result. When you’ve accomplished a personality’s route you might be additionally ready to return to any episode in that story from the menu, adjusting each the Work and Love meters to excessive or low, making it very simple to get the opposite endings. The sport additionally has two skip capabilities (one for learn textual content, and one for all textual content) that can assist you particularly pinpoint dialogue you missed, slicing down on time you’d have in any other case spent re-reading issues. This all makes seeing every thing that Sympathy Kiss has to supply a really speedy and nice expertise.
Sadly the important thing story beats don’t change a lot no matter your solutions, which may make the romance parts really feel fairly incongruous for those who’re choosing the Work route. Even for those who choose the entire selections comparable to Work, you’ll nonetheless find yourself going by means of the steamier scenes, and most of the time choosing the Work route will omit smaller particulars of the romance between Akari and the chosen love curiosity because the dialogue takes a much less private tone, which may make it really feel all of the extra jarring if you’re instantly thrown headfirst right into a heated second that doesn’t actually make a lot sense inside that context. With such a transparent distinction between Work and Love, I felt that it might have been extra acceptable to omit these scenes for one thing extra platonic than romantic, to make your selections really feel extra impactful. Though the Work endings don’t really feel just like the customary dangerous endings which might be a staple of the style, they didn’t really feel as satisfying as pursuing the Love endings, and this weakens their general affect. Every route can be just a little shorter than the usual, lasting round three hours apiece and a reasonable studying pace, though I didn’t discover this to be a detriment to the standard of the writing or the narrative pacing.
Sympathy Kiss ’ presentation is kind of fashionable, and though among the menu textual content is just a little laborious to learn, being squished right into a small house or in an in any other case illegible font, the in-game textual content is straightforward and cleanly highlighted towards a white background, making simple to learn, though some extra fonts would have been a welcome inclusion. The animated character portraits and static CGs, illustrated by Fujirito (who additionally labored on Lover Faux) are all eye-catching and fantastically introduced, with probably the most outlandish factor about them being the hair colour selections for among the characters. The sport is totally voice-acted in Japanese, with character portraits synced to the voices, and with greater than sufficient totally different facial expressions to match, though only a few totally different poses, which may make proceedings really feel just a little lifeless at occasions. I did discover the odd grammar error sprinkled all through throughout my playthrough, however these have been fortunately few and much between and the localization of the textual content is of an general top quality.
The Verdict
The quick route construction and acquainted settings that don’t require you to wade by means of pages and pages of jargon to know what’s going on make Sympathy Kiss an excellent place to begin for many who have by no means learn an otome title earlier than, and a very good palette cleanser for followers of the style who need a extra digestible expertise, or only a change of tempo. In a post-pandemic atmosphere the place many people at the moment are completely working from dwelling Sympathy Kiss can really feel nearly nostalgic at occasions, which provides to its allure, and what it lacks in drama it greater than makes up for in emotional depth. The selection between Work and Love might have been made extra significant from extra dialogue – or on the very least, omission of the romance scenes for those who opted for the previous – and it falls prey to some cliche dialogue at occasions, however is nonetheless a strong visible novel that explores some extremely relatable and attention-grabbing themes in a method that many will have the ability to respect.
Sympathy Kiss copy supplied by the writer for the needs of this evaluate.