System: Change
Launch date: February 27, 2024
Developer: Thought Manufacturing facility
Writer: Thought Manufacturing facility
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 she or he comes residence within the night. Rinse and repeat. Her job is one which may very well be achieved by principally 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 12 months, her work life (and, in fact, her private life) is instantly turned upside-down when she is recruited as a part of a small workforce 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 position is unsure, and her new colleagues are strangers. In Sympathy Kiss, a brand new otome title from Thought Manufacturing facility, 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 way in which are most likely not what most individuals would do in her scenario, but it surely’s actually 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 usually discover the opening hours will be troublesome to get by way of. Pacing within the frequent route (the occasions shared between all characters earlier than the paths diverge to concentrate on people) will be fairly tough, because it tries to each introduce you to the solid sufficient to type 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 identify will be modified in the event you so want) you’re an abnormal workplace employee thrust into a brand new position that you’ll determine the course of for your self, and your colleagues are folks it’s possible you’ll be passingly accustomed to however who’re finally strangers to you. The sport is offered in a relatable trend that’s nearly solely true to actual life, and so there isn’t a must 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 it’s possible you’ll not have heard earlier than, however are on no account 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 attainable, by no means lingering for too lengthy on them even once they’re truly being mentioned.
With out this must familiarize your self with a wierd new world or study an exhaustively convoluted set of latest phrases, you’re free to dive straight in and focus your consideration on the solid. That core solid of affection pursuits is the only focus of the sport, and though their personalities all fall into some solely 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 primarily based on their first impressions. The cheerful and pleasant Mitsuki Saotome, for 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 advanced 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 will be fairly enlightening as their view of occasions is commonly utterly completely 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 essentially the most half however surprisingly compelling regardless of this, or maybe even due to it: the issues the characters have are straightforward to narrate to and sympathize with, and Sympathy Kiss dives into some emotionally potent matters which might be dealt with with a shocking 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 offered right here may very effectively mirror your individual experiences at instances, and I discovered it straightforward to narrate to Akari specifically as somebody comparatively inexperienced surrounded by individuals who (no less than at first look) are extra assured and succesful than her.
With that stated, 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, moderately than truly talking within the first individual. 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 approach to disguise her face, and the truth that she doesn’t have a personality portrait) however it might make for some awkward and one-sided conversations because the characters on-screen react to what she has stated with out you truly attending to see that dialogue. Given the power of the writing and the way Akari’s anxieties about her efficiency within the office are sometimes introduced entrance and middle 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 decisions so that you can make within the sport, though the vast majority 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 usually be famous for future dialogue; for instance, you possibly can react positively or negatively to a dialogue about siblings to point whether or not you have got a sibling your self. It doesn’t considerably affect the course the story takes, however does add a pleasant private contact to interrupt up the extra scripted dialogue. You’ll additionally sometimes be given a selection of two minor dialogue decisions, each as regular textual content and through the RiNG app in your telephone; 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 monitor will normally start to play softly within the background, and also you’ll be offered with 4 dialogue decisions. Two of those will relate to the “Work” ending whereas the opposite two will relate to the “Love” ending, and usually one in all every will fill the corresponding meter and convey you nearer to the result you need. Luckily the sport makes it very straightforward so that you can manipulate the circumstances to your liking: the “Love Catch” system (which will be disabled in the event you’d choose to play by way of blind) will point out with a blue or pink flower which route your selection pertains to, and checking the Standing possibility from the menu will present if that selection has had an affect or not.
This isn’t an unusual characteristic in otome titles, but it surely’s executed notably effectively right here and it makes getting the ending that you really want a lot simpler to perform with no need to resort to conserving a number of save recordsdata at every important junction. On the absolute most you’ll must reload thrice to test the affect of every selection, though it’s normally pretty apparent which one to decide on for a specific end result. When you’ve accomplished a personality’s route you’re additionally in a position 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 straightforward 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, reducing down on time you’d have in any other case spent re-reading issues. This all makes seeing every part 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 in the event you’re choosing the Work route. Even in the event you choose all the decisions equivalent to Work, you’ll nonetheless find yourself going by way 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 whenever 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 applicable to omit these scenes for one thing extra platonic than romantic, to make your decisions really feel extra impactful. Though the Work endings don’t really feel just like the customary unhealthy 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 also be a bit shorter than the usual, lasting round three hours apiece and a average studying velocity, though I didn’t discover this to be a detriment to the standard of the writing or the narrative pacing.
Sympathy Kiss’ presentation is sort of trendy, and though among the menu textual content is a bit exhausting 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 straightforward to learn, though some further fonts would have been a welcome inclusion. The animated character portraits and static CGs, illustrated by Fujirito (who additionally labored on Lover Fake) are all eye-catching and superbly offered, with essentially the most outlandish factor about them being the hair coloration decisions for among the characters. The sport is totally voice-acted in Japanese, with character portraits synced to the voices, and with greater than sufficient completely different facial expressions to match, though only a few completely different poses, which may make proceedings really feel a bit lifeless at instances. 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 brief route construction and acquainted settings that don’t require you to wade by way of pages and pages of jargon to know what’s going on make Sympathy Kiss a really perfect place to begin for individuals 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 are actually completely working from residence Sympathy Kiss can really feel nearly nostalgic at instances, which provides to its appeal, and what it lacks in drama it greater than makes up for in emotional depth. The selection between Work and Love may have been made extra significant from further dialogue – or on the very least, omission of the romance scenes in the event you opted for the previous – and it falls prey to some cliche dialogue at instances, however is nonetheless a strong visible novel that explores some extremely relatable and fascinating themes in a method that many will be capable to respect.
Sympathy Kiss copy offered by the writer for the needs of this evaluate.