Sympathy Kiss ~ Overall thoughts

Published by: Design factory Co/ otomate (JP)
ENG: Idea factory
Available for: Nintendo switch (Eng/Jp)

 

Hello!

I guess this is first time when I immediately start playing new game. Even though it took me a long time to finish this. But usually it takes me while when I want to start the just released game. But my motivation for Varibari & Virche have been kinda low so Sympathy Kiss seemed like this nice and relaxing game to play. 

Summary from Sympathy Kiss english page

About a year has passed since you started your new job as a designer at Estario, a mobile app company.

Just as you were finally getting used to your job and the routines that came along with it...​

You were suddenly asked to switch departments and join the product team for a failing app that's slated to be discontinued.

Switching into this new role, you find yourself surrounded by some of the most highly qualified (and highly eccentric) men Estario employs.

To add to this new work challenge, you even have to pair up with one of them!

You and your idiosyncratic partner will be working together to revamp the app and get it back on track. This is all so new to you, and things are moving so fast... Will you be able to handle it?

And who knows, maybe by the end of the project, you'll find yourself with more than you could've ever imagined...

The boys

Overall thoughts: 

I probably will write this a little bit differently than usually. I will not write much about the route and I guess I just write my overall feeling about this game so this blog post might be a lot shorter than usually.

Sorry about that!

So usually I don't start new games when those are released but something about Sympathy Kiss made me want to play it. When Otomate first time announced PV for the game I was immediately interested in it because usually we don't get games where is "adult work life" setting. So the theme also made me interested to see what type of slice of life game this is. 

Of course first I was a little bit unsure about the self-insert side in the game. Because I don't like to self-insert that much in otome games and I like to follow MC story and what is going to happen to them. So I was a little bit unsure how this self-insert side is going to "bother" me while playing it.  

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My first impression for the game was very positive and I really enjoyed the slice of life & office work theme. There was a lot humor moments and also " I can relate to this" type of moments lol. While playing the prologue all the characters seemed very likable even though Nori was only one which made me feel a little bit hmm about him. 

Like always I end up to follow some walkthrough guides and I followed this order:

Mitsuki ~ Minato ~ Kobase ~ Rokuro ~ Secret character 1 ~ Nori ~ Secret character 2 and Usui

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I was wondering how to write about the routes then realized it's probably easier for me just write overall opinion for the game even though they have different type of settings etc. but then also most of those were kinda similar lol. 

So most of the routes have this "office romance" setting which you can expect from the game theme but then last 4 routes doesn't really have those or should I say couple of them have. 

With the first three routes I still had a lot interest for the game and I wonder if the reason was because Minato & Kobase were characters which I was most interested in this game. But after finishing Kobase route and continuing to Rokuro route I started feel bored and it took me very long time to even finish the route. Not sure if the reason was the same type of cliche bullshit type of "drama" over and over again. This game have a lot of those very cliche k-drama and j-drama type of things. Which I still enjoyed sometimes but the also it was very tiring. And it ended up to be this guessing game "which type of cliche this route have".

After finally finishing Rokuro route I was wondering how I will keep my motivation to finish this game when I still had 4 routes to finish. 
Well it was finally time for the secret character 1.

This was the route which got me motivated to continue this game again!

Secret character 1 route actually ended up to be my favourite route and I was kinda sad how fast I played it but those secret routes ended up to be shorter than "main boys". 

Well after first secret route it was time for Nori and I actually got bored again...urgh. Also his route setting kinda reminded me from Kimi wa petto series. 

Two last routes I played kinda fast and I felt so relieved that I finally finished this game which sometimes felt like mission impossible for me lol. 

Final thoughs:

Soooooooo...

Overall this was nice game but not the best. First I enjoyed this game a lot but after like 3 routes I started to get bored like I said before. But then those two secret character routes got my motivation back and I ended up to like those two routes a lot. 

In the end the self-insert part didn't bother me that much during the game. Of course first it felt kinda weird/confusing when you tried to figure out if the MC was actually talking to the boys or if she was thinking some of the lines. 

I guess there is not really anything special to say about the story. It's very typical slice of life, office romance type of story. I mean I didn't mind it to be like that but then with all j-drama cliches it sometimes felt so boring/annoying. Some routes also felt very rushed or felt like the writer tried to make those long with just adding some random shit which made it just feel boring/long-winded. 

My top 3 routes ended up to be secret character 1, Minato & Kobase. Secret character one because I liked the character a lot and the route had some good spice ufufufu. Minato is second one because he ended up to be the best boy from the start to finish so of course I liked his route a lot even though it wasn't really that special but because I like him as character a lot I ended up to like his route too lol. 

And well Kobase is last one because his route was this one big cliche guilty pleasure mess. He really screamed like this "perfect husband" type of character. And I'm not going to lie that I didn't like it.....I liked it a lot but then it really ended up to be this guilty pleasure side for me. Like knowing how cliche it was etc. 

And my honorable mention goes to secret character 2....for some reason my heart just melted for this character. Not sure why....maybe it's becuase my own age and the setting etc. lmao. BUT there was couple of moments which made me question myself sometimes but oh well lol. 

Then with other four boys....oh boy.

SO

I kinda liked them as character BUT then their routes were kinda meh. 

With Rokuro yeah I liked his prince side kind of but then I just felt super annoyed in his route and in the end I just wanted his route to be over. 

Mitsuki felt like this one good male friend what you have and I liked his humorous and teasing side but then his route were okay. And he was very likable in other routes too but then hmmh I don't know. 

Ah then Nori....

I really wanted to like him and he was very cute etc. but then also he felt very clingy and annoying. Kinda this adult child sometimes LMAO. His route was again,okay like other ones too. 

Final route which I played was Usui. 

First I kinda liked him and his route a lot but then more I played it I started to have this mixed feeling and really wasn't sure anymore. Maybe the age difference made me question a lot of things but then again I know there is probably situations like this in real life too so who I'm to judge etc. I also found it funny how "pushy" the MC was in this route and felt like Usui was kinda "under the heel" LMAO. 

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I guess my final thoughts is:

It was nice/ok game and there was some enjoyable moments but then also it's not masterpiece or best game ever. It's one of those "I need something nice and easy to play" type of games. Where you don't need to think much about the story and just follow it and see where it goes. 

My fav boys list ended up to be like this:

Minato, Secret character 1, Secret charcter 2, Kobase, Mitsuki, Usui, Nori & Rokuro.

I think last 3 boys are kinda in the same place on my list. Yeah I liked them but then I was also a little bit unsure.