In conclusion, I had a blast playing Sympathy Kiss, and I can’t wait to dive back in to reach other endings. This Otome game has given me yet another fictional man to love, and for that, I highly recommend it.

Sympathy Kiss probably won’t knock anyone’s socks off, but sometimes it’s nice to get a game that colors inside the lines with a fair amount of skill. The office setting and highly grounded plotline work as a useful anchor for the often unusual characters you’ll be meeting, and with a total of eight routes to play through there is bound to be a favorite dude here for anyone’s tastes. Its greatest strength is also its greatest weakness; it’s a very ordinary visual novel in just about every regard. Come in with those expectations, and you’ll find this a decent enough treat.

The inclusion of some of otome’s more worn-out tropes made it fall a little flat. There is the bad boy who stalks and drugs you and changes his ways through the power of love. I get that it’s a fantasy, but I think these storylines should be put to bed, along with some other bombastic but less problematic ones. A lesser point is that Akari doesn’t have a face, something I always found creepy. I want sweet romantic stories in my slice of life without feeling someone’s life is at risk.