Olympia Soiree -- No Spoiler Review
Olympia Soiree
System: Switch
Price: $49.99
Voice Acting: Yes (Japanese)
ESRB Rating: M (17+)
Overall Rating: Stole 10/10 ♥s
Pre-Game Perception: Political marriage for the good of Olympia’s people. Maybe a party?
Morning-After Reflection: A complicated and memetastic story of love, fate, and establishing yourself as the person you want to be in life. Utterly beautiful, uncomfortable, shocking, and sweet. Literally the best love story I’ve played so far.
Story: “Her entire clan wiped out years ago, Olympia has been isolated for much of her life. Now she must travel to Tenguu Island – the only person who can perform a ritual that will restore the sun to a land enveloped in darkness. The heads of each district there (Red, Blue, Yellow) lead a society governed by rigid class structures.
Able to travel between the districts, Olympia discovers their wonders and weaknesses. She also finds an entire underground group of shunned “colorless” individuals who she becomes determined to help. If she can find a mate who will help her continue her lineage and save the world before it is destroyed, she will reveal to that special someone her heart and her true name.”
Interest Rating: 6/10. I know. I know! Look at this interest rating! I thought this game was going to be some sort of Pride and Prejudice piece of work, and (I’m sorry Jane Austin and fans) I really didn’t care for Pride and Prejudice. Aksys had really dropped the ball on Cafe Enchante localization as well, so this being the next title from them wasn’t reassuring in the least. Boy, I was not just wrong, I was the most wrong!
MC: Olympia is quite different from a lot of MCs I’ve come across. Even if I were to attempt to throw shade at her, the fact that she calls on the sun to shine would keep every shadow from touching her. She keeps that shade at bay. Don’t worry, this isn’t a big reveal, it is literally how the game starts. You’re introduced to Olympia with no prompt to change her name, and this certainly causes a lot of confusion because it’s always there, ya’ know? It’s just… it’s always the first thing the game asks when starting a new game. This is the way it works. But not in Olympia Soiree. You have to get a few chapters in before the screen prompts you to pick a first name for the MC, or you can go with Byakuya, the default name. There is a story reason for this, but also note that MC goes by Olympia for 90% of the game. Despite the name “Byakuya” showing up on the screen when she’s speaking, few people call her it. So, if you want some steamy scenes with Byakuya’s name being murmured, keep the name, but if you don’t care, changing it doesn’t do a whole lot anyways, unfortunately.
Olympia shows up as a sprite next to the text box, with her own pose changes and emotive facial changes. She also changes outfits down there too, but you only really see from the cleavage up, so it’s not a huge change. She is not voiced, but her expressions are great and easy to read, imo. I believe she is also in practically every CG, save for a few where it wouldn’t make sense for her to be in the picture, like the introduction CGs for the LIs. So probably like 90% of them, overall.
This very pale MC stands at 5’3” and weighs a whopping 101lbs. Seriously. Kinda a shame, because that’s tiny, and she certainly doesn’t act tiny, nor really look it on screen, imo. If the white as snow thing bothers you, it’s a theme in this game and isn’t going away since the whole thing is about color traits defining each person. Olympia is the last remaining White. Her skin is as white as the clothes she wears. Her hair is the same color. Her eyes are even white-ish - they have some pink in them so they’re not just white orbs. If you’re already sighing because you’re tired of the pale, tiny, delicate MC, just know you’re about to have your world rocked. Olympia is anything but delicate and as I said, she acts like she takes up not just more space, but all the space. She is my favorite MC, hands down, no question. Sorry to my other loves, Olympia is just sublime.
First, this chick is thirsty. It’s very nice to see a MC be more forward about sex, and I dig that in Olympia. Second, this woman is feisty. The way she claps back, the way she pushes her agenda, the way she speaks her mind is all so hilarious refreshing. I love her. Third, Olympia is 100% human and normal and honest and real in everything she does. She comes at people and realizes she f*cked up and stepped out of line, and acknowledges that and corrects herself. She cries. She laughs. She awkwardly navigates life and relationships and it was a journey I’m glad I was able to join her on. She grows during the game. And she doesn’t always make the best choices, but that’s what makes her feel real and complicated, she’s flawed but not to the point that it’s a trope, comedic prop, or only for plot reasons.
Likability Rating: Shu. Olympia is the queen among queens in my book. She’s well written with complexity and a raw realness that creates a MC with a strong-personality, but still relatable, imo. She literally carries the story many times.
Plot: The game synopsis actually is pretty terrible at explaining what the game is about, to be honest. I mean, if that sounds interesting to you, then that’s great! But I went in with some thoughts that were cleared up in the first ten minutes that had given me an entirely different idea about the game. So, yes, Olympia’s people were wiped out when she was young, but she has been living on Tenguu Island for over a decade, and the land isn’t really enveloped in darkness but I’m not going to get into that because you’ll learn the specifics in the game. Point is, she doesn’t just show up to bring hope to the people “now” as the snippet attempts to make you believe. She’s been there a good while.
So what is this game about? Well, to be honest, it is literally about Olympia finding a husband and getting to the baby making to keep her color class alive. I mean, you can easily sum it up as that, but there’s really so much more to the story that made it amazing to me. Each route in this game has a different plot to run congruent to Olympia’s goal of finding a husband, and each route comes from a different perspective to the point that none of them felt the same at all. And the plot doesn’t overshadow Olympia’s goals, which was awesome because I long for games where the MC doesn’t fade into the background or get lost in the LI’s conflict and resolution. There aren’t many that manage that, and I thoroughly enjoyed the ability to see both stories come to a satisfying conclusion.
Be aware though, there are triggers in this game that the ESRB page doesn’t cover, since they just cover the rated material, but not the context. There is consensual sex in this game. There is also sexual assualt in the main story of three routes. In some bad endings there is more sexual assualt. There’s classism that people mistakenly refer to as racism, but I guess when your classes are identified by the colors of your hair, eyes, skin and such then it seems like racism. There are repeating themes of death and violence against women and children. It’s a game that covers some very uncomfortable topics, but I believe they give most of them the respect they deserve to not come off callous or offhandedly mocking except when it comes to the sexual assualt. Unfortunately that isn’t resolved in any fashion. If these ideas bother you, don’t play a game that you’re going to hate, please. Give it a pass, even if it is my highest rated game on my blog.
Replayability Rating: ★★★★★ Every route is different and explores a different aspect of life while allowing Olympia to progress on her own objective. Every story feels complete, like it could be the ultimate ending to Olympia’s quest with her chosen LI. And though some endings were seriously WTF moments, I thoroughly enjoyed every different conclusion. Good stuff, man.
Love Interests: Have you ever wanted to be part of a Mature-rated Skittles fanfic? Here’s your chance! Damn, this is such a good line I should have used it for the Spice section. If you ever wanted to “taste the rainbow” you get to do that and more in Olympia Soiree. Here you have six single and sexy studs that all have their reasons for not being wedded already, and some haven’t even bedded, but that’s never really covered with most of the guys so it’s a questionable theory at best. Get down and dirty with every one of these cuties– erm, I mean, find love and romance with each one of these hot pieces of ass completely upstanding citizens. You’ll get your chance to ride grind taste experience each color and find your favorite among them.
Before we get started on introducing each amuse-bouche for your titillating pleasure, let’s cover the basics of the routes and LIs. There are six LIs for this game; four (Riku, Tokisada, Yosuga, and Kuroba) are available at the beginning, one (Himuka) becomes available once the previous four good ends have been obtained, and the last (Akaza) is available after Himuka’s good end is obtained. There is one Good Ending and two Bad Endings per route. All of these have CGs, if you’re into collecting pictures, but the bad endings are always bad. There is no question about if it is possibly just a normal ending– no. It is bad. Which I love. So if that’s not your thing, skip ‘em.
The recommended order is Riku > Tokisada > Yosuga > Kuroba > the two unlocked; but I randomed it and did a different order and really enjoyed the way the story progressed. I went with Riku > Kuroba > Tokisada > Yosuga > last two unlocked. So pick what you want, when you want, but I do think that Riku really is the best to start with (as recommended and also as my random order ended up starting with). In this review, I’m just going to throw them at you based on my random-ass order. As a note, if you want to save right before the choice screen, when Olympia says, “Well, here I go!” create a save. This is the end of the common route, and you simply pick the LI you want to pursue.
Riku of the Blue is such a pretty man. Look at that hair! I just want to brush it and braid it and– what do you mean he’s a tsundere? Can a tsundere be that pretty? As much as I don’t want to believe it, Riku is the tsundere of the group. He’s got a grump face that makes him rather adorable, and that blush! Riku and his route unlocked a new fetish of mine (like I don’t have enough) and I realized that my need for grumpy bois being flustered goes waaaaaay beyond just being at a loss of words or stammering. I need to hear them squeak. Riku, you did this to me. Take responsibility, ‘kay? But seriously, Riku is the no-nonsense member of the military that is navigating his own growth and unpacking of baggage while Olympia does the same. They’re very cute and he was my 3rd favorite boy.
Kuroba of the Black. Yeah, yeah, I get it. He’s a dark skinned character and his class is literally the Black class, and you find out very quickly that it’s the lowest color class, so surely this is all about dark-skinned people being racially profiled, right? No, not really. The lore gets into how this isn’t a correlation drawn to real world racism, but instead to a system designed around primary colors being the “purest” tiers since they were the first colors to exist, and so when you get down to black, well… literally in art it is a mixture of many pigments. It’s unfortunate that dark pigment ended up also being something the real world tends to discriminate against, but I believe in my heart of hearts that this isn’t a commentary on modern racism. Of course, I haven’t had to deal with racism in my everyday life, so this could be a big trigger for BIPOC out there that feel it hits too close to home. It’s fine if this angers you. You’re valid in being upset about upsetting things. Take a pass if you were on the fence of this game, it’s not worth it to get upset about entertainment– unless that’s your thing. Which is also fine.
Now that that super serious talk is over, let me tell you about this hunky heartthrob that will talk to you plainly in matters of sex and other uncomfortable topics. Kuroba is just :chef’s kiss: He gives everything to Olympia straight in every route, even if he does tend to tease her a lot, he doesn’t hide difficult matters from her. He’s flirty, funny, and incredibly bright. He apologizes and communicates. I fell for this man on first meeting. I just wish he had some nips, tbh. Kidding, kidding– I mean, I’m not because they didn’t give anyone nipples, but that didn’t change my thoughts on Kuroba. I dunno, I looked at Kuroba and I saw a lot of my own husband in him, and it just made the route even better for me. I guess that’s not something I should be saying right before admitting that Kuroba is #5 on my best boy list… sorry, honey, some 2D guys are just more rainbowlicious.
Tokisada of the Green is one of the shota characters of this game. Yes, one of them, which means there’s another. Thing is, Tokisada is 17 while Olympia is 18, but he acts quite young and genki despite not being all that young. I wanted to see where this easily flustered and childish character went and got something I wasn’t expecting at all. This route was way more than I could have anticipated. Also, I had already learned by this point that I have a thing for slightly younger LIs calling MC onee-san, or nee-san, which basically means big sis. Tokisada does this, and while it doesn’t hit the same as another LI from a different game (:cough:MariusOwnsMyHeart:cough:), it’s still something I enjoyed. So if you want to see two teens fall in love and navigate the weird world while trying to live up to societal expectations, this is your route. Very cute. Unfortunately, Tokisada hit last on my best boy chart, but that doesn’t mean his route was bad at all. I really loved it. I loved this entire game.
Yosuga of the… Yomi? Now, Yosuga is supposed to be a really pretty man, but I never really saw him that way. Maybe it’s just the way he was designed, or his personality. I guess he certainly has the proprietor and host personality, and oozes sensuality, but I just find that pretty men that try to exude hypermasculinity are waaaaay more my thing. In the fictional world I kind of find it adorable to be like, “Awww, honey. You tried. Sure! You can be the big bad man. I’ll pretend to believe it.” And Yosuga never really tries to be that, so I just think, “Man, you are cute. Aw, what a perfectly timed and proper response to not offend anyone.” And it’s good, it is, don’t get me wrong. Yosuga is entertaining in his own right, and his route brings about a side we don’t get to see of him in any other route and I really loved that. He’s sexy and sexy and sexy, and did I mention sexy? He’s also very cute and the biggest man-child this game has. Yosuga landed at #4 in my best boy ranking.
If you’ve accomplished all the good ends so far, Himuka becomes romanceable. … … … … Have I told you guys that I’m kinda into the dark and macabre stuff? I mean, if you’ve read my other reviews you probably have noticed I tend to like LIs that are a bit f*cked up, so there have been hints dropped. It’s not new. But let me put it plainly: I think disturbing things can be quite adorable. I laugh at death. I enjoy horror. If you give me a yandere that wants to stab me with a knife before stabbing me with his :cough: knife, I’m usually down for it. Now, Himuka doesn’t hit those creepy-stalker marks, so my example of a yandere doesn’t work here, but he’s this effeminate, shota-looking character that carries around a skull and deals with dead people. He’s known as the Undertaker. So he definitely gives off creepy-pasta vibes. Normal, well adjusted people don’t carry around skulls. He is adorable in form, and also I find the death that hangs around him also quite adorable. #SorryNotSorry I’ll take my corpse-looking cutie and keep him all to myself if you don’t want him.
All this talk about death and cuteness and I probably haven’t actually said anything about Himuka besides his looks. Which is fine, because you can’t choose to play him first, and you can’t skip him if you want to get to Akaza. You’re kinda stuck. But it’s a good place to be stuck, imo. It was a rollercoaster of a route. I laughed, I cried, I died a little inside and I hoped for the best for Olympia and Himuka. I’m in love with this awkward and quiet boy with his thigh-highs and long hair. Himuka became best boy numero dos for me. Would romance the shota again. 10/10
Finally we have Akaza of the Red. Ugh. I waited forever for this route. I romanced man after man after man to get to this absolutely perfect being that I wanted to romance first and claim forever, before I found out he’s the locked route. :sigh: It was a long road, baby, but I finally got to you. I know I just went off on this tangent about liking Himuka and having a strange fascination with the morbid, but if there’s anything that really, really, really gets to me, it’s a character that I can easily relate to. Not only does it make romancing them easy because all the answers come so naturally to me, but it’s kind of this strange sense of comfort that “I get you”, you know? And not only that, but “you get me” as well. This is Akaza to me.
Perhaps I’m looking at him through rose-colored glasses (pun intended), but I don’t see Akaza falling from my good graces for a long, long time. He knows who he is. He knows what he wants. He knows the rules and how to circumvent them, but also picks his battles and is very logical about how he approaches everything. This man was made for me. I admire him, and someday I’d like to be a fraction of the character he was written as. If you couldn’t guess, or haven’t been counting, Akaza is the best boy in my book. I have never been so sure about a LI making it on my top ten LI list as I am about Akaza. This is one true boy route I’ll gladly accept. I bleed red. #AkazaStan4Life.
Boy Crazy Rating: 100%. No, you’re not seeing things. There is not a single route in this game I wish went faster or was shorter. I liked every single one of these men and I might actually replay this game for them. They’re the best cast I’ve ever seen. Then again, I’m pretty easy to please when it comes to the bois I can date, so it isn’t that shocking.
Romance: Are you tired of chaste otome games that spend the entire 6 hour route fixing the world only to give you perhaps a kiss on the last scene and a nod in the direction that the couple is going to have some lovey-dovey time? I’m not talking teh sekz that comes in the next section I just mean some god damned romance. I’ve been playing game after game for two years and the amount of times I had to find a crumb of something romantic was ultimately sad and I’m so mad about it now that I’ve played a game that gave me TWO WHOLE CHAPTERS per route dedicated to the dating and romance of the couple in question.
I thought I was good with the feelings of romance that I got from other games. But holy crap! This is what I’ve been missing! Like, don’t get me wrong, I like plot-heavy games, and sometimes I want some horror with the dating, but I’ve never had this amount of cuteness and doki dokis in a main title, only fandisks. This is the romance game with a plot-driven story. Besides dates and getting to know each LI, there’s confessions and tears and it’s just! It makes me rabid. I’m mad now. Commercial games have never been this good with romance before.
Heart Palpitation Rating: A. I literally cannot express how much my chest swells each time I think of this game. That frozen and dead heart of mine? Gone. I’m wrapped up in the love that I found here. I don’t know how I’m going to survive any other game if I don’t get this amount of romance again.
Spice: Have you ever wanted to be part of a Mature-rated Skittles fanfic? Here’s your– Wait a second… I already used this line. People often talk about how thirsty they are when it comes to otome husbandos, and I do as well, but I’ve learned that once you pass a certain point of thirst, you’re just ravenous. This is a buffet of babes. No, seriously. There’s so much food in this game to feast on, you’re going to get full. I mean that literally and figuratively, because there is a lot of food, but also a scrumptious selection of man meat to try out. It’s still an M-rated game, so there are no scenes of peens, but there are some very– uh… descriptive scenes in this game. They do the Do. Make the whoopee and get tangled in the sheets. Am I getting through? There is sex. Not like a lot of sex, but enough that this game is probably the sexiest game I’ve played outside of 18+ games.
If you’re tired of my gushing (heh) about the hotness of this game, let me tell you what’s really under the cover (hehx2). There are CGs with sexual themes, and descriptions of the act. There are some shirtless sprites. And one very moan-tastic dialogue that I may or may not have had to listen to a few times just to be sure it was… uh… good? Suitable for fans. :nod: Something like that. So hot. There’s kissing noises, but nothing that had me cringing from the juiciness of mouth noises. There are also trigger warnings to beware of. In several routes (three) there is sexual assualt on the MC, nothing going as far as rape, but very touchy-feely if you get my drift. In two bad endings there is non-con depicted, but no descriptions of the act. However, there are CGs with these two endings, which leave little to the imagination. You’re not going to be left wondering what they were implying.
Cold Shower Rating: Pass. You’re going to need more than a cold shower after this. If you haven’t already prepared ice packs ahead of time, get you some while you play the game. Remember to take an appropriate amount of breaks to keep your heart rate from spiking. Cool down with a shower. You can make it through, I believe in you.
Angst: I always believed you couldn’t have a romantic story with a ton of angst because the big gaming companies had led me to believe that there was only so much a story could focus on that it was a give and take. You either had the angst turned up, so like 80% angst and very light on the romance, right? Or you had the romance ramped up, so like, fluffy games with 90% romance but no big plot, ya’ see? For some reason there just wasn’t a game that had both prominent parts in the story. And I mistakenly believed this was the case. No one can write a great romance story that talks about the end of the world and has heavy themes of death, or wonderful world building. And then I found Olympia Soiree.
Now, even if the plot isn’t your thing, and you don't dig the game that much, you really can’t deny that the angst in this game is very present. It is a much more serious game than I thought it would be, but also has some great comedic timing and enough light parts that you’re not just left depressed through the whole game. I did cry. A lot. This might not mean much to you, but if you’ve followed my other reviews for games that are considered the angst games in otome, I didn’t really cry for those. Yeah, I know we all have different things that hit us, and it seems mine aren’t the same as the majority of people out there that play otome, but I still cried a lot. There are a lot of heavy topics that get thrown into this game. Besides the usual angst from absent parents and death, there’s also angst from bullying, military presence, violence against “lesser” people due to the social structure, sickness and disease, and the end of the world comes up a time or two.
Drama Llama Rating: 8.5/10 The drama llama convinced us that letting it out was completely fine, nothing could possibly happen. We were foolish for believing that. Nothing good comes from taking trips with the drama llama. Unless we like the pain. Then it hurts so good.
Voice Acting: You’re in for a real treat if you have a thing for listening to Japanese seiyuu. To be honest, most of these people were not names I knew - just kind of barely, passingly, maybe heard of some of them a time or two; so I wasn’t really into the game for the names behind the characters this time around. But it boasts some big names, like Sugita Tomokazu (杉田 智和) who voices Kuroba and his talent really shines, imo. Not only is Sugita responsible for 169 characters in visual novels alone, he also does many other characters outside of VNs. As much as Kuroba wasn’t my favorite route/LI, he was my favorite second favorite to listen to. He just did so well on delivering every line in a way that I thought made sense.
And as much as I want to talk about every seiyuu and every amazing moment, I really have to keep this short and only mention a few. Tsukiyomi was voiced by Okitsu Kazuyuki (興津 和幸) who I would listen to all day. Every day. His voice was so smooth and soothing that I didn’t care what he was saying as long as he’d just say it. Read me a phone book as a bedtime story and I’ll still love that calming voice. Tsukiyomi, however, is a side character and not a dateable. And the cast for side characters was expansive in this game, I really loved all the talent we got.
But, if you want to read about me gushing about dateable characters, I have to give props to Shimazaki Nobunaga (島﨑 信長) who voiced Riku. He awoke a need in me I didn’t know existed. Thank you Shimazaki for bringing to light my new kink. Hahaha. But really, he was very cute in his delivery of lines over and over again, and that squeak he does? Yep, that’s my new fetish: grown men gasping like women. I never knew! And I can’t leave out my favorite LI, Akaza, voiced by Matsuoka Yoshitsugu (松岡 禎丞). It turns out I had heard him before, but again, just barely, and I just… I love that kinda gritty rumble he has. It fits Akaza so well. I honestly can’t wait to hear him again, because I know a few other roles he’s in in my backlog of games.
Expression Rating: Shu. The main cast is not the only talent in this game, the supporting and recurring characters are something special to behold as well. I want to name them all, but can’t, and I really enjoyed the overall feel of this game because of how amazing all the seiyuu are.
Art: The art is so, so, so pretty to me. Let’s start with the backgrounds. My first thought was, “Wow, this is detailed.” Then I got to see the next background and I thought, “Oh my… that’s… that’s really good design and detail and– just wow!” Seriously, I thought Piofiore had great art, this knocks it out of the park for me. You get a decent number of backgrounds for the game, not surprising since this is a big Otomate title. Next big art draw would be the sprite art. And man, oh man, does that just hit every box I love. The character outfits are all so different that there’s no way you could ever confuse anyone for anyone else. Seriously, if you do then you might be color blind and need a stronger prescription on top of that.
Each main character (MC + LIs) has at least two outfits. Olympia kind of has a few more because her sprite is only next to the text box, so they only had to draw ⅓ of the outfit compared to the others. Then there are numerous side characters that get sprites as well. They, unfortunately, only get one outfit each, save for one that gets a few more for some weird reason. But really, these sprites have such detail and personality and I just love it. I thought Nightshade had the best outfits in an otome, and this easily rivals Nightshade. Not to mention that small details get added or removed from outfits when they get added or removed from the character during the story. Like, that’s some great attention to detail that just pushes this score up as high as it goes.
I almost forgot to mention that they all blink and do mouth movement when speaking. I really dig the blinking, and though I’ve never cared one way or the other about mouth movement, it seems that’s the way most readers prefer sprites to act, so it’s here. I know this can also be a big draw for others. Oh! Ha! And if I had anything to say that’s not really negative but more just a note, every character has a pose that makes them look like they’re striking this pose at some point:
For real real, I don’t know what emotion they were intending to represent with this pose. It’s not really natural and it comes up at weird times. But I guess it’s memorable. I’ll never forget wondering if someone was going to throw a left hook the first time they struck that pose.
Still Picture Rating: ★★★★★ Many detail. Such sprites. Very unique.
CGs: B-E-A-U-tiful! This would have gotten a perfect score if it wasn’t for one route. I’m just chugging along through the game and loving every minute of it, then this specific route just looked… off. I do understand that sometimes character concepts or art is provided for other artists to copy the style and make the art for the game because one artist doing it all doesn’t allow for games to come out as quickly as Otomate would like them to. I think this is what happened here. It is literally the only route, and it is nearly every picture in that route that looks not quite like the others. All the angles were a bit strange and the proportions felt a bit wonky from time to time. I remember wondering if it was even the same MC because of the way it turned out in one CG.
Otherwise, this stuff is the stuff of my dreams. They’re detailed. They’re beautiful. I love the fingers and hands because I guess I have a hand fetish it seems hands are difficult for a lot of people, and that makes sense since they have so many joints and ways they can move and attempting to draw them without looking stiff is more complicated than something with, like, one joint. I don’t feel the MC grows or shrinks from CG to CG, so proportions stay consistent. And every scene is perfectly chosen to encapsulate the general feel and idea of what’s going on at the time. I can look at them and remember exactly what was being said at that time.
Look at this Photograph Rating: 95%. Nearly perfect, but one route turned out a bit “off” compared to the rest of the art. I would buy this artbook, even if it was just every CG pasted in it and nothing new. I love this work.
UI/Mechanics: Olympia Soiree is a typical visual novel in that you make choices that are weighted that will take you to your ending earned. There is no additional gameplay, but it does have a few things that might confuse those not used to these features. First, the menu is themed, so Save and Load is under History. Treasures is where you’ll find CGs and short stories. Archives houses the chapters once you’ve completed them. Second, there is an option to have the extra menu… icons(?) removed from sight that line the top left and right side of the screen while playing. Third, you don’t get to name the MC until later in the game, not super late, but later than the beginning of the game. And lastly, this is the first Switch Exclusive title I’ve played that has allowed me to pick the LI instead of answer questions and get placed with one. A neat feature as it cuts out some of the need for a walkthrough, since there are literally no choices in the common route because of this.
Otherwise, there’s nothing that could be considered strange with the UI or mechanics. I think the UI was well designed. I liked the theme of it. I thought the title screen representing the time of day you were playing in in real life was neat. There’s the appropriate amount of choices for how to customize your gaming experience, like turning off or on specific voices, adjusting text speed, etc. etc. Skip to next choice would have been nice. And when in the CG section, the bad end CGs are hidden behind the good end CG even though they are very different, for some reason. Not a fan of that. And the glossary is practically useless. It uses the same idea to define an idea, and that’s not how defining terms works.
What’s this button do? Rating: A-. Generally a well built UI and no extra mechanics to worry about. For a big company, though, I’d like some extras that aren’t yet standard in otome games (for some reason). The fact that the glossary is practically pointless knocks this down to an A-.
Errors: As far as localization and translation goes, I think this is a big win for Aksys that has been quite terrible in the past with Switch exclusive titles and localization. I’m holding my breath, waiting to see what the next big Aksys title has when it comes to localization because it’s coming out soon and Aksys’ track record is very not good. Okay, enough badmouthing them. The translation was practically spotless. There are very few extra words or missing words, and they’re easy to identify and fill in without getting stuck on the meaning of the sentence. And I say “very few” meaning a few dozen errors in total. For this game’s length, that’s pretty amazing for Aksys.
There is an achievement/CG unlock error that can be easily rectified with care. When the game has been finished, and you are going through the short stories and interviews, after you gather literally 100% of the game you’re supposed to get a completion CG. This doesn’t happen until you back out to the main title screen so the system can save the data that you unlocked when you have read all side stories. Don’t be a doofus like me and finish all twenty-something stories, then check out the CG page that was missing my CG, then go back to the side stories and try to figure out how to trigger it, then decide I must need to relaunch the application (because this was a PlayStation issue with achievements in the past) and do so by home screening and closing the software. Only to log back in and see the game never saved the data that I had read all 20-something stories and thus I had to go through all 20-something stories all over again. I figured it out, but seriously, it was annoying to do it a second time.
Here there be Bugs Rating: Pass. Since there’s literally one bug that I encountered, I’m giving this game a Pass. Annoying as it was, it was partially my fault for not making sure the system autosaved. You will only find the usual suspects here, a few creepy crawlies and nothing else. Enjoy that new game feel.
Background Music: Please place your call on hold while I spill some tea that you’re not going to believe. I didn’t really like Olympia Soiree’s music. For real real, not for play play. Yes, I have this BGM OST thing where I love so many OSTs that I actually buy and collect them. I have an entire playlist dedicated to OSTs and other lyricless music. But I got the Olympia Soiree OST and put it in and really didn’t care for any of it. Then while I was playing the game, it was okay but not something I thought really did anything for the game. I’m not sure what it was about the BGM that I didn’t dig this time around, but it was subpar in general for me. Know anyone that wants an OST?
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