[Switch] Olympia Soiree – Review

Title: オランピアソワレ
Developer:  Otomate
Release Date: 16th April 2020
Age Rating: 17+
Length: ~30 Hours
Links: Official Site, VNDB

The setting of this tale is a mysterious pair of islands, Tenguu & Tennyo which were supposedly founded by someone called Hiruko who washed up on the islands many, many years ago. In this land, hierarchy and privilege are based on your “Colour” – that is, the colour of your soul.

The highest ranking colours all possess special properties:

• Blue – Possess the Power of “Punishment”
• Yellow – Possess the Ability to Hear Hiruko’s Judgements
• Red – Possess Land & Blood that has been Cursed

Offspring between these colours has produced the secondary class of colours – purple, green, orange, etc… They are permitted to live on the main island but must not have romantic relations with people belonging to the upper ranking colours.

There are, unfortunately, some offspring who end up as a muddled mix of colours that cannot be claimed by one single clan. These people are thrown into “Yomi” – an underground settlement deep beneath Tenguu island where they live their days in poverty without ever seeing sunlight.

There are two other special colours, Black & White. Black is called an “unnatural” colour and is the most hated of all the colours, with all members of this clan being forced to live in Yomi. The White colour is a very unsual one, with only women possessing this colour. These secretive ladies lived exclusively on Tennyo island and have the job of performing special ceremonies for the Goddess Amaterasu in order to keep the sun shining on the islands.

After an unfortunate incident a number of years ago, the young Olympia became the only White left on either island. In order to protect her, she was taken under the care of the Yellow clan and has mainly been locked up in their mansion for most of her life. On the day of her 18th birthday, after performing one of her ceremonies, she meets the young Red man Akaza. He tells Olympia that, in order to preserve the White lineage, she must find herself a husband within the year & being such an usual colour, she can choose a man of any colour. However, if she can’t then he will “take responsobility” for it and marry her himself. These cold words enrage Olympia so she sets her sights on hopefully finding a man who will love her for who she is, not for her colour…

Characters

Olympia

Being the final “White” on the islands, Olympia is treated with both curiosity and fear – a bit like a living deity. Her real name is Byakuya but she uses “Olympia” almost as a stage name. She has some fond memories of living with her mother on Tennyo Island but ever since the incident that killed her clan, she’s been stuck living with the head of the Yellow Clan, a man that she hates. Having been locked away for much of her life, Olympia struggles to understand the reaonings behind the Caste systems on the island and often commits cultural faux pas. She’s determined to find a man simply because she doesn’t want Akaza to marry her out of pity. Olympia also has a white pet mouse(??) called Daifuku, who she takes around with her.

Akaza (CV Matsuoka Yoshitsugu)

Akaza is the young man tipped to be the next leader of the “Red” clan. He currently works as the chief archivist on the island as part of a civic organisation. He’s a very serious young man but sometimes lacks interpersonal skills. Akaza is seen as a progressive because he doesn’t believe in the strict caste of the island and wishes to change it any way he can. Despite Olympia’s cold behaviour towards him, he’s always willing to lend her a helping hand.

Kuroba (CV Sugita Tomokazu)

Kuroba is a Doctor who works alongside Akaza. In fact, it was Akaza that brought him into the organisation as he had spent his childhood in Yomi due to being from the “Black” clan. He’s currently researching various vaccinations and treatments for a specific disease that has been plaguing the islands. Kuroba is a complete and utter flirt, never plassing up the opportunity to tease Olympia when he sees her. Due to his research, he spends a lot of time in Yomi so has become good friends with Yosuga.

Rikuu (CV Shimazaki Nobunaga)

Rikuu is from the Blue clan and is a candidate to become their future leader. He’s a member of the guards that patrol Yomi and just cannot get his head around why Olympia would want to spend her time down there as he looks down upon those who live in Yomi. As a member of the Blue clan, Rikuu possesses the power of “punishment”. He’s essentially a Kuudere. He’s deadly with a sword but also surprisingly good at dancing.

Yosuga (CV Uchida Yuuma)

Yosuga is a resident of Yomi for reasons he prefers to keep to himself but he is technically a member of the “Purple” clan. He runs a bath-house that specialises in offering treatments to improve skin and health, making it a popular spot to visit in Yomi. Yosuga claims to have the ability to tell fortunes and also makes a mean cup of tea. He’s fairly flirtatious and becomes a good friend to Olympia but claims that she shouldn’t consider him as a husband candidate as he is prohibited from getting married.

Amakusa Shirou Tokisada (CV Uemura Yuuto)

Tokisada washed up on the islands from the strange land of “Japan” and is called a “Marebito”. He ended up joining the Green clan as per protocol. He is a frequent visitor of Yosuga’s bath-house and loves nothing more than having an ice-cream after a relaxing soak. He’s a cheerful and friendly young man. Despite being too young to marry by the island’s rules, he falls head over heels for Olympia and wants her to consider him as a viable husband candidate. Tokisada also owns a white mouse called Paris, whom is Daifuku’s brother.

Himuka (CV Horie Shun)

Himuka is a strange young man who is better known as the Funeral Director. His “job” is to “pay respect” to those who have died by using his power of “punishment” to turn them into crystals. He works in Yomi mainly but is free to go above ground and lives on the far side of the island all alone. Himuka is incredibly shy and anxious around others but dvelops a strange obsession with Olympia and follows her around to try and speak to her.

Artwork

Character design and artwork for this game was handled by Satoi, whom I’m sure most people know for her work on games such as Diabolik Lovers & Ozmafia.

Sound

Opening: Tatoe Tomo ni
Ending: Dare Yori mo
Ending: Hitokoto
All songs by Ena

This game features 24 BGM tracks.

System

The title screen actually changes depending on the time of day, because I tend to play games in the afternoon/evening I never really saw the morning one though 😦

After you finish the common route/prologue, you’re given the choice of which route you want to play. Himuka & Akaza’s routes are locked at the beginning. After finishing the first four routes, Himuka’s route unlocks. Once you’ve finished Himuka’s route, Akaza’s route unlocks.

My Thoughts

Given that I enjoyed this team’s previous title Nil Admirari no Tenbin, it’s no surprise that I was looking forward to this game and pre-ordered a shop set. With beautiful artwork and an intriguing setting, surely the game had a lot going for it?

My problems with Nil Admirari were mainly that the game under-used its setting and the character routes were slightly underwhelming, focusing more on smut than plot. Thankfully, Olympia Soiree improves on these ascpects and is more of a well-rounded experience.

As expected given the team working on this, the romance is a bit more smutty than your usual Otomate game (there’s a reason why it’s cero D 😉 ) and these scenes were generally fairly well-written with some meaning behind them. There were some unpleasant scenes in the bad endings though so if rape or dubcon is not your thing then I’d recommend avoiding these (it is limited to the bad endings though!).

If world-building is something that attracts you to games then look no further than this title – the Islands and its Colour Caste system were super intricate, unique and well-explained. I particularly enjoyed the way that you as a reader learn slightly more with each route you read, to give an overall deep understanding of just how rich this fictional setting is. I found it really interesting also how the two locked routes relate more to the “past” of the islands, whereas the others relate to the “present”.

The game does feature elements of Japanese mythology sprinkled about also but, thankfully, it’s the pretty basic stuff. Therefore, the game’s reading level is above-average but probably not into the “difficult” category.

Now to speak about the characters. Olympia was a decent enough heroine, I feel like she was perhaps a little meek but that was likely due to her upbringing and being almost afraid of who she is. She did have a personality though and could be bemusing at times. (I also love her relationship with Daifuku!)

Akaza is just not my type unfortunately. I guess he’s probably classed as a kuudere? He seems a bit too nice for that though. His route was locked more for the way it relates to the overall story rather than Akaza himself (if that makes sense?). I still enjoyed it a lot though and it cleared a lot of things up.

Kuroba is another character who is not my type. Flirtatious characters are hard to write in a way that I like and unfortunately Kuroba is just too aggressive for me lol. His route was interesting in the way that it focused on current medical problems faced by the island and its effect. I wasn’t the biggest fan of the romance in this route though.

Rikuu is yet another character who wasn’t for me (I promise there were characters I did like in this game!) and is another kuudere???? He’s hard to like at first because of his prejudice towards Yomi and its people (who we as the reader are generally shown in a positive manner). He does have a cute side (that one scene with Daifuku!!!!!) and develops as a character for sure. His route focuses a lot on the Blue clan and its practices which was interesting for sure since they seem to be the most “powerful” clan.

At first, I was worried that Yosuga would be too flirtatious but he actually just becomes a good ally to Olympia for most of the game. His route was one of the kind that I’m weak for so I enjoyed it very much. Whilst his route mostly focuses on what happened to land him in Yomi, it actually has little bits of information concerning other routes too which was surprising but good. He’s a sweet boy who’s too hard on himself!

Tokisada was one of the characters I knew I was going to like. From the very first meeting with him when he decides to call Olympia “Onee-san” I knew I’d be hooked. He’s just so cute but has a more mature side that shows up occasionally. His route focuses on the pressures he feels to live up to the other “Marebito” and do something to change the island in a positive way. Interestingly, Tokisada is the only main character from one of the secondary level of colours on the mainland, which offers a different perspective on the caste system.

Himuka was the other character that I just knew would be my type. His shyness and adorable personality were a winning combo and I found his interactions with Olympia equal parts cute and hilarious. His route is arguably one of the most important in explaining a lot of what’s going on. I was kinda surprised that it wasn’t actually the final route but in my eyes it’s the true route (I’m very bias though). My only complaint about this route was that Himuka’s smutty scene felt the shortest, which was unfair!

This game features an ~extensive~ cast of side-characters, with all of them playing their part in the story. I think the writers did a good job of keeping track of them and giving them all unique personalities and backstories. I liked many of them including the animatronic main Camelia and the friendly orphan Asuha. My hands-down favourite would be Kaina, the young man sentenced to a life of hard labour for loving the wrong person. I truly wish that he could have a route in the game but I guess it wouldn’t make much sense, just let me cry over this screenshot though:

Kaina ” This is just a what-if, but perhaps if our fates played out differently and I was to become the next leader of the “Yellow”, I wonder if you’d have ended up being my bride? “

As expected of Satoi, the artwork was generally of a high standard. The sprites were especially nice. The CGs were perhaps of slightly variable quality, with some seeming a little “zoomed in” (similar problem as Charade Maniacs). That being said, it was still better than most games. The backgrounds were also worth mentioning as being incredibly beautiful.

The music in the game was good but nothing particularly stand out. I do like the opening song though.

Voice acting was of an incredibly high standard. The cast assembled are a little different that Otomate’s usual line-up but I think they all did a great job. Honestly I was really impressed by Horie Shun! I wish he were in more games…

The system ran fine, perhaps a tiny bit laggy? I’ve noticed that other Otomate Switch titles had the same problem though so perhaps they just need to tighten up their programming. The aesthetic of the game was incredibly nice though and this carried through to the system.

Final Thoughts

My Score: 9/10

Overall, this was an incredibly well-done game with a great balance of romance and plot. The game manages to utilise its interesting cast of characters and wonderful setting to the max and improves on pretty much all aspects of the team’s previous game. If you like games that focus on world-building in a unique setting then this would be right up your alley.

I genuinely don’t have much to complain about with this title, except perhaps the game’s forced playthrough order but that’s a relatively minor detail and the game is still and enjoyable read that was well worth the wait!

Character Ranking:

Himuka > Tokisada > Yosuga >>>>>>>>> Akaza > Rikuu > Kuroba

Thanks for reading!