Review: Olympia Soiree

Game: Olympia Soiree

Developer: Idea Factory

Publisher: Aksys Games

Platform: Nintendo Switch

Year: 2021

As everyone who knows me knows, I love otome games. They’re an underrated and often female lead genre, with passionate teams of women developing characters and stories for these games. I recently got my hands on some newer Aksys releases, which I hope to play in time before they release new titles later this year. The first of these that I finished was Olympia Soiree, which I’ll be talking about today!

This picture of Olympia and Akaza really doesn’t do their dynamic justice, but I still love it! Source: Aksys

Olympia Soiree was released towards the end of 2021 for the Nintendo Switch, and tells the story of Olympia, the only woman left of her clan that was born on the fictional Tennyo Island. She is now living on the neighbouring Tenguu Island, where “colour classes” reign supreme; every person’s standing in society is determined by the colour traits they are born with. Every person has different colour traits, and Olympia sits at the top of the chain with her pure white hair and Tennyo features. This makes her something of a celebrity among the Island locals, and she is given a special task on her 18th birthday; find a husband within one year, and continue her Tennyo bloodline!

After 8 intro chapters, the player is given the choice between 6 love interests, with 2 of them locked until the player has progressed further: Yosuga, Tokisada, Kuroba and Riku, with Himuka locked until the previous 4 routes are finished and poster boy Akaza locked until Himuka’s route is also complete.

This review will contain spoilers, as well as mentions of assault.

In a game about colours, making the main characters colourful and eye-catching is a must! From left to right: Yosuga, Himuka, Akaza, Olympia, Riku, Tokisada and Kuroba. Source: Aksys

What I Liked:

What hit me as soon as the opening credits played is that the music in this game is gorgeous, along with the artwork. The soundtrack uses traditional Japanese instruments, which I thought was really cool! The voice actors also all did an amazing job; I especially liked Yoshitsugu Matsuoka’s performance as Akaza, and Yuma Uchida as Yosuga. As well as this, the characters wear mostly traditional Japanese clothing and carry weapons such as katanas, which really tie into the theme of Japanese culture and mythology that you see throughout. The characters on the island worship Japanese deities such as the sun goddess Amaterasu. The islands themselves are also made by the god Hiruko, who I looked up and found was a real Japanese deity! I love to learn new things while playing games.

I loved Olympia herself, as well as the majority of the love interest characters. Olympia starts out as silent and doll-like, very reminiscent of Code: Realize‘s Cardia Beckford. Once she leaves the mansion she’s been secluded in for the majority of her life and starts her letter delivering service, you really see her come out of her shell and become passionate about the Island, which I loved. I enjoyed Olympia’s dynamic with Himuka, Kuroba and Akaza especially, and thought she made a really good pair with each of them. They also have a great friendship amongst themselves, which is always nice to see! There’s also great character development from Riku, who starts out in the prologue as a bit of an a-hole and then becomes a lot more tolerable throughout his route, learning from his mistakes and discovering the world outside of his thin worldview. It did kinda suck that this was only in his own route, and in other routes I had to put up with insufferable prologue Riku for the rest of the game.

I love an otome cast that has something for every kind of player, and Olympia Soiree definitely ticks that box. Source: Idea Factory

A minor thing that made a lot of difference for me is that the character sprites in this game are more dynamic than previous otome titles I’ve played, with mouth movements, blinking, different outfits and different poses. Olympia also has multiple outfits and facial expressions, a definite turn away from otome games of the past where a heroine wouldn’t even have a face. These minor details really makes the characters feel more alive. I always loved that in 2011’s Amnesia Memories they had sprites that blinked and moved their mouths in different ways depending on their expression, and was kinda bummed out when I saw later titles didn’t feature this. I really hope it stays for future otome titles!

What I Didn’t Like:

There’s no nice way to put this: the majority of the side characters in this game are awful people. There are a couple of nice characters that Olympia doesn’t date, but they are very few and far between. Of course, this isn’t necessarily a bad thing; you always need a villain to get in the way of the main character’s relationship, but some of these guys made my blood boil. Seeing their faces made me angry. The worst offender for me was Kanan, the slimy island journalist who spreads nasty rumours about Olympia through his newspaper. There is nothing redeeming about him, and the fact that there are OlySoi fans who find him attractive or like him is a mystery to me (no offence if that’s you).

Kanan (left) and his friend Nagusa (right) are genuinely some of the worst people I have ever seen in an otome game. Source: Aksys

Also relating to these side characters is that poor Olympia goes through just about every bad thing that can happen to a person in different routes, including physical assault, sexual assault, verbal abuse, death of loved ones and discrimination, and that’s probably not naming everything. And she often has flashbacks about it, which you have to read multiple times over every route. I’m someone who doesn’t mind a bit of drama or angst in my otome games (one of my favourites is Café Enchante, a game famous for deceiving people with its fluffy looks) but when a sexual assault scene goes on for a few minutes and is fully illustrated with a CG, I’m not having fun anymore. It was a genuinely anxiety inducing experience, and something I didn’t want to have to deal with outside of a bad ending.

Kuroba’s dynamic with Olympia was great, but his route was not. After Olympia is sexually assaulted by Kanan’s equally gross friend Nagusa, she returns to Kuroba who then tries to make advances on her to… prove she’s his, I guess? I’ve seen similar things in otome games before, and I’ve never liked it. The worst part is that you play Akaza’s route later, and he always respects Olympia’s boundaries. So they do know how to make a respectful male character, but decided against it when writing Kuroba’s route? I don’t get it.

Closing Thoughts:

Olympia Soiree is a pretty good choice for those of you who like a lot of action in your otome titles. It’s beautiful looking, has plenty of original lore and will have you on the edge of your seat the entire time. It’s definitely not something for those who want something nice and light-hearted, though; be prepared to read lengthy descriptions of basically anything bad that can happen to a woman.

Rating: 7.5/10

Have you played Olympia Soiree? Let me know your thoughts below!