Sympathy Kiss

Sympathy Kiss is an enjoyable slice-of-life otome VN about working adults finding love.

With so many new otome games on the market, Sympathy Kiss stands out for being a slice-of-life office romance simulator that does an excellent job of presenting adult themes. However, where it falters is in its mixed bag of bachelors to romance and Akari’s questionable decision-making skills.

Sympathy Kiss delivers Beautiful art, mature and realistic slice of life romance,

Sympathy Kiss is a visual novel that’s got an interesting tech design backstory. With its unique setting, fun characters, and engaging story, it’s a decent visual novel, but compared to other visual novels, it’s not one I feel in love with personally, and wouldn’t be a game I’d recommend for the $49.99 USD ($69.99 CAD) AAA price-tag it comes with.

From the soft pastel colour palette and catchy title song there is a lot to love about Sympathy Kiss. The true to life and often surprising scenarios uncovered through multiple playthroughs make it an engaging addition to any visual novel enthusiast's library, although a few elements may elicit slight aversion to some audiences.

Sympathy Kiss is a pretty solid choice if the "office experience" part of this appeals to you, and the lack of a more intense or fantasy-like plot isn't a problem, as its proposal is the office slice-of-life drama. The game's art is beautiful, the music is pleasant, and I really think it very cleverly spares us from some Visual Novel protocols, which is refreshing for veteran players.

Sympathy Kiss is a simple but effective visual novel, with plenty of charming hunks to romance and a familiar office setting.

There’s nothing particularly flashy or exciting about Sympathy Kiss. As a slice-of-life narrative, being mundane is kind of the point. With that said it is incredibly well-written and designed, and while the protagonist may or may not match up with your own vision of how to behave in the workplace, the situations she deals with are often very relatable. Thanks to some exceptionally gorgeous art, solid storytelling, and some fun little systems that remind us that life isn’t meant to be all about work, it also ends up being a game of relevance today, and a reminder that the equilibrium between work and play (let alone romance) has become seriously messed up.

Sympathy Kiss has a premise that asks you what is more important. Is it having a good career or a good love life? Great artwork that has a small blemish on it due to posing the main character without their face in all shots. It also has short bite-sized routes that let you play through a lot of the routes.

It's good to see that Sympathy Kiss is strong on the technical end, it just didn't click with me. If you're a little more amenable to dealing with people at the office, you'll be able to get through it quickly and easily. I'm more of the kind who wants to interact with as few people as possible in the run of a day.