OLYMPIA SOIREE
Olympia is the last woman of the White Clan. On her 18th birthday, she's told that she now has to find a husband to continue the bloodline, and she only has a short period to do so. If she doesn't pick, someone will be selected for her. After spending most of her life sheltered in the home of Douma -- the leader of the Yellow Clan -- she now has to navigate life on Tenguu Island and attempt to find a man with whom she wants to spend her life and also produce many more White children. Tenguu Island has a rigid class structure based on the color clan a person is born into. If they're an impure color, they're sent to live underground in Yomi with the other "muddled" colors. Olympia is the most revered color as a woman of the White Clan and is all but worshipped by the people on Tenguu, but she quickly finds she likes the people of Yomi more and wants to help elevate them out of poverty and rid Tenguu of the discriminatory class system.
Olympia doesn't know much about how to interact with other people, yet doesn't struggle as much as you'd think when she's sent out to find her husband. While she knows it's her duty to have more White children -- White women only have girls, there are no White men -- she refuses to allow someone to pick a husband for her. I respect her gumption. Despite knowing nothing about romance or love, she immediately falls in love with (most) of these men after spending some time with them. It was a little...annoying. I know that that's just the general vibe for otome games anyway because they only have so much time and text they can devote to building up a relationship, but for someone who's so hardheaded about, well, everything, you'd think she wouldn't immediately be head over heels. At the same time, it makes sense, that she only had a working relationship with her maids and avoided Douma at all costs. Any positive attention definitely would have tugged on her heartstrings, so I get it. I think it would've been better if the men had to work to win her affection, though, considering she was so gung-ho about selecting her husband.
In addition, I really really hated the real-world parallel with the color racism. I get into that more below, but I suppose my overall thought is that Japan is not the first place I'd go to when I want to have a productive and nuanced discussion about race and racism. The color class system is 100% depicted as being outdated, evil, and unnecessary, but it was...ehhhh. I just wasn't very comfortable with it. Japan hasn't properly grappled with its issues regarding the discriminatory practices aimed at Koreans and Chinese, and they're just as racist as the US and Europe -- if not more racist -- towards Black people, and other brown-skinned people. I'm not saying that only a perfect utopia that has solved racism can write a story about discrimination, but it rang hollow and the color class storyline was overshadowed by other plot points in the last two routes. It almost became a nonentity, and if you're going to write a story where the original primary issue is racism, I don't think you should drop that storyline at the end to bring up something completely relevant. That part of the storyline was vaguely hinted at throughout the game, but it made other plotlines come to a screeching halt.
Olympia Soiree was just okay to me. Beyond my issues with the color-class racism plotline, I also didn't like how it relied so heavily on shock value bad endings. The two worst ones -- in my opinion -- involve Olympia being raped, and one also involves a child. Man, I know they're villains, but the stuff they do in the routes are good enough indicators of their villainy without having to default to heinous crimes. Olympia Soiree focuses a lot more on romance than some other recent plot-heavy otome titles; which makes sense considering the inciting event is her having to find a husband. As a whole, I think it did a decent job balancing the plot vs. the romance, but I just wasn't in love with any of the characters aside from Akaza. Tokisada was my second favorite, but the other three can kick rocks. The plotlines in this otoge were interesting enough to keep me engaged, but it was a struggle sometimes when a character I disliked was starting to get too much screen time. Honestly, most of the side characters were way more interesting than the LI's. One side character in particular would've been a great replacement for Riku, my most hated LI in this game. The revelations made in Himuka and Akaza's routes were cool, but as I said it drops off several plotlines to resolve itself, which then suddenly resolves the other problems. I think my problem with it is that at the end of the day, it was trying to do too much. If it had focused on one or two of the many plotlines, it probably would've sat better with me. It also has a horrible -- and I mean downright terrible -- issue with using too many flashbacks. Occasionally something will happen and quite literally 5 minutes of playtime later they're presenting it as a flashback. Three flashbacks from Olympia's childhood come up so often that it's a running joke among players. Sometimes they would even use the same flashback within a short period. It became unbearable in certain routes.
There are genuinely only two women side characters that have sprites. Camelia works at the bathhouse Yosuga runs. She's a young teenager who immediately takes a liking to Olympia, and the two are good friends. She, of course, shows up in Yosuga's route most consistently, but she does appear in the other routes whenever they roll up to the bathhouse. She's sweet and bubbly; I thought she had a very cute relationship with Olympia and the other patrons of the bathhouse. Shura is the leader of the Blue Clan and seems to have a chip on her shoulder regarding Olympia. She's very fake with her, and doesn't seem to like her at all -- although she pretends otherwise. Olympia can tell this woman hates her guts, and she doesn't particularly like her either. Shura is a force that shows up in multiple routes but is most pronounced in Riku and Yosuga's routes. I liked her a lot as a villain! Villainous women are amazing! At first you can't quite fathom why she dislikes Olympia, but her storyline is enjoyable. Perhaps not the most #feminist backstory, but I think that for the context of the game and the culture that exists within the game, it makes sense and is understandable. You'll see that Shura has done and continues to do some seriously fucked up shit. Essentially you get two sides of the same coin here with a kind, sweet, loving genki girl, and a woman who will do anything to maintain power, even if it means some nefarious plotting has to occur.
Out of the six guys, Himuka is locked until you finish the first four, and Azaka is the poster boy/true route so he's naturally locked last. I agree with Otome Kitten's route order; although, I think you could get away with swapping Tokisada, Koruba, and Yosuga around. I think Riku should be first as he has -- as she puts it -- the most "vanilla" plotline. I do think it eases you into the storyline, and Riku's route contains the least spoilers for the other routes. I'd follow her route order as I found the game very enjoyable plot-wise using that guide. If you really like one guy more than the other and desperately want to play him sooner, at least start with Riku before wreaking havoc.
Akaza
Akaza is the director of the Kotowari, who are a neutral government organization that overlooks the various color classes of Tenguu Island. He's from the Red Clan, which is one of the three main governing clans. He takes his job seriously and is stiflingly professional with Olympia. He's the one who must ensure she finds a husband to continue the White Clan; he states very soon after speaking with her that if she can't find someone suitable, he is willing to be her husband to ensure there would be future White women. This, of course, ruffles Olympia's feathers. He's known as the "Iron Mask" because he's so stiff, emotionless, and humorless.
I was immediately intrigued by Azaka. I'm normally very indifferent to true route/poster boys, but something about him just tickled me. I think it was because despite everyone claiming he was emotionless, he was VERY funny; I think people would refer to it as "British humor" as it's very dry and sarcastic. His immediate proposal pissing off Olympia was hilarious too; he sort of constantly offers himself up as her potential husband and she just constantly rejects him, which he takes in stride. He's very kind, and while the Kotowari is supposed to be neutral, you can see at times that it's not at all; however, Akaza doesn't care about the color class system, and he's extremely supportive of Olympia's quest to allow communication between Yomi and the rest of Tenguu regardless of whose route you're one. Surprisingly, Azaka does not fall victim to poster boy syndrome! His route is VERY romantic despite being a huge plot dump. I think his relationship development was the best out of all the guys, but I'll be honest, I might just be biased. There are huge, insane revelations in his route that I think made him truly worth slogging through some of the other routes.
Honestly? Perfect balance between plot and romance -- for me, at least. His route has SOOO much plot, but the plot was actually very intricately connected to the romance, so the plot dumps throughout his route were nicely wrapped up in the romance. Akaza and Olympia are the epitome of fated lovers; so few couples have truly lived up to that trope, but these two...that's real, man. Unfortunately, he's locked behind the other guys because; truthfully, while you get info from other routes that don't appear in this, none of it compares to both Akaza as a character and his overall plot resolution.
Amakusa Shirou Tokisada
Tokisada is an Outsider -- a person who washed up on Tenguu Island and was not originally part of the color class system -- who was taken in by the Green Clan. He's a bubbly guy and immediately takes a liking to Olympia upon meeting her. He's very childlike, which was a little off-putting considering he's 17, but it's a bit of a mask for the inner turmoil he experiences. Tokisada remembers his life before washing up on Tenguu Island, and it bothers him deeply. If his name feels familiar to you, he is based on a real person in Japanese history but DO NOT look him up if you don't already know his story. The real Tokisada's backstory is imperative to the plot of Olympia Soiree's Tokisada, and you'll spoil a vast majority of the route.
Normally I'm not a huge fan of young boy/shota characters as LI's. It's not the age difference -- it's one year in this case -- but that they always play up their innocence and cutesy-ness, while also making comments about the barely older MC being an old woman. It's just the opposite of the young woman MC with older male LI, but somehow worse as the age gap is never as big. HOWEVER. Tokisada's route wasn't too bad as far as this trope goes. It has its moments, but it was nice because it meant Olympia and Tokisada start as friends rather than Olympia immediately falling for him. I like slow-burn romance -- although otome games rarely afford real slow-burn -- so it was a nice change of pace. The Outsiders are briefly discussed in the common route, and I was immediately interested in their lore. I got what I wanted from this route as far as Outsider lore goes, and it was interesting to see how Outsiders are treated. I won't consider this a spoiler as it's discussed early on, but Douma and Jigen -- the leaders for the Yellow and Red Clans, respectively -- are Outsiders, so rather than being treated as social pariahs, they're quite revered on Tenguu. Part of Tokisada's route is about him coming to terms with what it means to be an Outsider, and how he has a lot of self-loathing due to his perceived failures compared to Douma and Jigen. Tokisada's route also has a very disturbing bad end that ruffled some feathers; although I enjoyed his other bad ending, which had significantly less triggering material in it.
Tokisada's route leans slightly more plot over romance, but this is solely because he doesn't immediately jump into having a relationship with Olympia in the same way the other guys do. There's more nuance here. If you're like me and find the Outsiders to be an interesting concept, then I think you'll enjoy his route, whether you like shota characters or not. Their friendship before becoming a couple was wholesome and I felt it developed much more naturally. Tokisada was my second favorite character and route after Akaza.
Riku
Riku is a soldier and a member of the Blue Clan. He's deeply prejudiced against the people of Yomi and is intense about keeping the color class system rigidly enforced. He holds an important place within the Blue Clan as a Batsu user. Like a typical tsundere, if you crack his hard, cold, and egotistical exterior, you'll find a blushy mess of emotions inside. He's very antagonist towards Olympia wanting to visit and help the people of Yomi, and believes that someone as pure as her shouldn't be wallowing with the filth underground. He's perhaps difficult to swallow at first, as he's essentially a huge racist -- at the beginning at least.
Riku was my least favorite, mostly because I couldn't look past his intense racism. While there's a lot of silly fantasticalness in the world of Olympia Soiree, the color class system is in many ways a one-for-one recreation of real-life racism. The pure/greatest color is White and the dirtiest and most loathed color is Black? Be serious now. The people who are "multiple colors" have 3 different names and different classifications for their muddledness and are forced to live underground. Is that not just a reclassification of mulatto, quadroon, octoroon, and other bizarre racial terms that exist in the real world? Be real now. I just couldn't stomach it. Riku does change his tune by the end of his route after some interesting revelations, but it felt like one of those goofy love stories where the girl has to heal the guy's prejudices to love him. I'm sorry, but I just don't want to be with a prejudiced person in the first place!
As all tsundere routes go, once Olympia cracks him, he turns into a total nerd who's constantly blushing simply from holding hands. When I would close my eyes and pretend he wasn't the Tenguu equivalent of someone who thinks we should go back to segregating schools, his romance was cute. I would say he leans slightly more toward romance over plot, as Riku's plot is the most basic and least intense out of all the LI's. I will say I don't particularly love the reason Riku stops being a color-class racist, but it's the climax of his plot so I can't say much more.
Himuka
Himuka is a mysterious young man with a girlish figure who is Tenguu's undertaker. He uses the power of Batsu to turn their bodies and souls into Shou, which are necessary for keeping the sun alive. He's very strange and people don't know much about him. They fear his power as not many can harness Batsu, and he's a strong user. He keeps to himself but seems curious about Olympia.
I'll be honest here. When I was playing Himuka's route I took a delta-8 gummy. I have almost no memory of this man's route. I was just staring at my Switch screen pressing A and barely comprehending what was happening. I DO know that Himuka's route is the other plot dump route. There's a reason his route is locked behind the other four guys; if you played him first then you'd learn too much about the greater plot before you understood the world they exist in. You have to ease into it by learning about Tenguu Island through Riku/Tokisada/Kuroba/Yosuga first before you can play with the big dogs and understand the celestial inner workings of the overall story. And it IS celestial. As much as I'm trying to not spoil anything of importance, I'm going to spoil this because I think it can be very triggering for many people: Himuka's route is a pseudo-incest story, which won't make any sense at all until you get to his route. If incest freaks you out to any degree then you're going to want to skip Himuka and Akaza's routes. If you're intrigued and want to play the game but need more info about this TW then please feel free to reach out on Twitter, I'm happy to explain further as I at least remember this part of his route -- mostly because it shocked me out of my fugue-like state. Himuka also has the worst and most triggering ending in this game. I'm not easily triggered, but it genuinely bothered me a lot and it's one of my many complaints about this game.
For his romance, I guess it depends on what you find romantic. I would say Himuka's route had romance, but it was quite different than the other's routes -- partly because of the above-mentioned TW. Himuka is the first of the two plot dump routes, but I think Akaza's was more romantic. Himuka's wasn't bad though, it just presented itself differently; there's good reason for it though, but it's major major MAJOR spoilers so I'll leave it at that. More plot than romance in my opinion, but not so unbalanced that it was awful by any means.
Kuroba
Kuroba is a doctor and also the deputy director of the Kotowari. His color is Black, which is the lowest and most loathed of the discriminated against color classes. Even the other discriminated colors hate those who are part of the Black class. Kuroba's goal is to cure haku; a deadly disease that rots the body parts of an infected person. Since he's a doctor/deputy director for the Kotowari, he's not forced to live in Yomi like the other muddled colors, but he spends quite a bit of time there, as he's the only doctor willing to treat patients that are housed there. Kuroba is flirty and doesn't seem to take anything seriously.
His route was a bit frustrating because it relied heavily on the miscommunication trope. It's not poorly done or anything, it just would've been nice if they came up with...literally any other conflict. Kuroba flirts with Olympia, then does a 180 and acts like he doesn't care about her which upsets her. It was a little exhausting because I went in thinking the flirty character was going to be the most straightforward route! This aside, I enjoyed the plot of Kuroba's route; haku is brought up consistently throughout the other routes, but you learn some very interesting things about the disease and the ways they attempted to in the past/currently cure it. Kuroba has very strong convictions about curing haku and for VERY good reason -- beyond him being a caring doctor. A complaint that genuinely every person who played his route is that his bad ending is so wildly out of character and inconsistent that many people hate his entire route because of that bad ending.
Once they got over the annoying miscommunication hump, this route had a decent amount of romance. It maybe leaned slightly more plot-heavy which was simply because he was playing hard to get for half the route. Kuroba's plot is worth it though; it delves into a topic that is brought up so often that you're just dying to know more. I don't think he's truthfully a very good match for Olympia; he's more career-focused than anything else -- which is respectable -- and I just don't feel like they would work in the long run. I preferred him in the other guy's routes.
Yosuga
Yosuga is the most powerful person in Yomi; he runs the bathhouse Shikinjou which hosts patrons from both Yomi and people from the surface. He's seemingly gentle, but it's clear that the people of Yomi deeply respect him because he holds people in line. He has divination powers and is also a practitioner of natural medical remedies; he creates medical baths that are relaxing and healing for patrons. He's a bit melancholic and always has such a congenial smile on his face that feels fake. Yosuga is, curiously, a normal color yet is forced to live in Yomi. Why is this man of the Purple Clan stuck in hell? Well, you have to play to find out.
Yosuga's route was...eh, I mean, it wasn't bad, but it had a bizarre dubcon scene that threw me off considering one of his big character points is that he's always drinking Respect Women Juice and is a firm believer in consent. It does make sense in the context of his route, I just thought it was maybe a bit unnecessary. I didn't love how Olympia acted in Yosuga's route. While his route DOES have probably one of the best conclusions as far as the people of Yomi go, it was a bumpy ride to get there. This is the Yomi plot dump route. The core conflict here doesn't actually have to do with Yomi, technically, and instead is about the Purple Clan and how Yosuga ended up in Yomi. I liked this plotline a lot, but I didn't love Yosuga himself if that makes sense. His plot was intriguing, but as a LI he fell flat for me.
Yosuga's route is quite romantic, but once again, the dubcon scene was a bit out of nowhere. It was supposed to be played off as very romantic but I was just like...erm...okay, let's move on, please. I know some people are super into dubcon and/or noncon since fiction is a safe space to explore that kink without being put in a potentially traumatizing situation, but I wasn't a fan of how it was played off as being sexy. That soured a lot of the other romances for me because I couldn't shake that bizarre scene out of my head. All in all, decent balance between romance and plot, just not my cup of tea.
Byakuya AKA Olympia
Byakuya -- referred to as Olympia by the townspeople of Tenguu Island -- is the last of the White Clan. The White Clan was comprised entirely of women who lived on a separate, smaller island -- Tennyo Island -- and their primary job was to perform a sacred dance that would keep the sun shining. Without this dance, the world would plummet into darkness. She was kept locked up in Douma's mansion since she was a small child and she never interacted with the general public, aside from her servants. She starts the game like a doll; she doesn't know anything about the "real" world and is not very socialized. She quickly begins to learn all about the strange traditions and political games that occur on Tenguu and decisions she doesn't want to play that game herself. She becomes very self-assured and wants to fight for the rejected and hidden class of colorless people. She wants to build bridges to allow Yomi to have contact with the surface and vice versa. She's strongwilled and doesn't take no for an answer.
Olympia is...okay. I liked that she has her personality and is very compassionate, only wanting to help the people of Yomi since they've been left to rot down there. It was maybe a little unrealistic? Not that I'm looking for realism in a game about literal color racism, but I don't know how she can go from hardly having a single social contact to a serious social justice warrior (lovingly). I can set that aside for my real problem with Olympia, and it's that she falls in love FAR too easily. 20 minutes into each character's route, she's decided she's deeply in love with them. I suppose you could make an argument that she's lacked positive attention for so long that she's willing to throw herself at these men if it means she's cared for, but I thought it was stupid considering how headstrong and cut the bullshit she is about everything else. I guess I'd expect her to be more levelheaded about love, especially considering she doesn't know much about it. I appreciated the good parts of her character, but I'm overall indifferent to her. She doesn't stand out as an MC to me personally, but I think she's shackled by the plot "find your husband and give us more White Clan babies" which doesn't allow her breathing room.
Olympia Soiree is trying to do a lot at once. I enjoy convoluted plots, but this wasn't even convoluted as much as it was too many things jumbled together. Despite the abundance of plotlines, I do think the story was very engaging. I was very interested in seeing these plots resolved and became invested in a lot of the side characters. The LI's fell flat for me, but Akaza genuinely saved the game. I would play all this stupid bullshit from the beginning to experience Akaza's route for the first time again. It's one of the best fated lovers tropes I've read. I do think that because this game has so much going on, almost everyone would find something redeeming about it that they'd enjoy.
