Reviews

• 

  kiwi

  Oct 1, 2021

  "Sexual harassment the game"? I thought I'd be okayish with that. Not that sexual harassment isn't terrible, but I was thinking of the cliché thing "oh no I want him but I'm still pushing him away while he's pushing me further". Which is in there, too! But the first few chapters MC was constantly disliking everything that happened even in her thoughts, even though I always took the "positive" answers - no sign of "I actually want this" until much later. The most terrible thing? People (LIs) keep telling me I need to wear (more) makeup!?!?!?! WHAT That's so unbelievably rude and sexist and just spreading negative vibes! And I could never be with someone so shallow, telling me I HAVE to wear makeup, and then continuing to judge how well I did my makeup! The art is pretty good, but that's really it. Also, there's an obnoxious icon thingy flashing in the corner of the chat box. Constantly. As you can see, I haven't played it a lot. I only played 4 or 5 chapters of one route and I won't continue because I want to refund it. It was more than enough time to decide that I don't like this game.
• 

  SamO

  Aug 14, 2016

  Sexual harassment the game! Do you fantasize about your work ethic being called into question because you're "plain"? Want your boss to ask when was the last time you had sex? Have someone threaten to fire you for not wearing enough make-up? Have the CEO of your company tell you to "forget about it" when you report sexual harassment to him? Then this is the game for you.
• 

  DA_GamerGal

  Sep 3, 2016

  Another otome from this developer who has clearly lost the desire to put out well-written, quality games. Again, their only saving grace is the art. Do not purchase this game at full price, for it is not worth the money.
• 

  akaisha0

  Sep 12, 2016

  Ignore my time on record, I played this on mobile before it came to Steam. This game is hilarious for all the wrong reasons. The premise is actually a decent one, but how they handle the relationships between you and these men is just beyond off-putting. I've never played a Japanese dating sim that didn't have a very dubcon feel, I expect that from their story telling style. However, this crosses that territory in to just plain creepiness and it feels totally unintentional. This game fails to understand how it comes across to a Western audience in particular. I played this game on mobile first and live blogged the entire thing and..the one thing that kept coming up was "are you sure this isn't secretly a horror game?". It would have succeeded far more as a thriller. I'm sorry but when you have three erotic scenes in one particular route and you're not even on a first name basis with the love interest by the end of the game, how am I supposed to take that? This entire office is INSANE. They are all crazy about you as if this were a frat house and they'd never actually encountered a woman before. Not only that but the way they ALL insult you and treat you as if your worth as a woman is limited to their cosmetics..it's baffling. With lines line "a goddess shouldn't ever have chapped lips, fix that" and "for someone who works for a cosmetic company you sure don't care about your appearance it's disapointing" and "I'm going to feed him like a pet, and train him to stay away from you." [in reference to a really sweet new guy wanting to have lunch with you], "Look at you using lip stick like a good girl!". Everyone in this story is emotionally abusive and manipulative. I expect that from our tsundere and glasses types, but literally, EVERYONE is like that in this story (even if they aren't a love interest). This game is baffling. Not as baffling as Secrets of Me--a game by this same company I really hope comes to Steam because you have to play it to believe it--but darn close. Nothing in this game is romantic or sweet. The only reason you should invest any money into it is a morbid curiosity of how deep the rabbit hole goes and how utterly psychotic everyone is. If you change your perception of the game and view it as a psychological thriller or a dark comedy or even a satire of this genre, you may enjoy it more, but as a romance novel it's laughably awful, insulting, and just degrading. If it were more self aware, maybe, but it clearly isn't.
• 

  d i n k y ㅇㅅㅇ

  Oct 23, 2016

  Office lovers is, a very cheap and easy otome game. It hasn't got anything unique about it, but if you love these games I'd grab it on a sale. The story is mediocre at best, which is to be expected, like with porn it seems writing is hard once you involve anything remotely sexual. Enjoyable as is thought.
• 

  nurbles

  Dec 26, 2016

  A lot of the negative reviews that I see here are because their preferences do not match the 'tone' of this particular game. TL;DR: You have to be the kind of person that 'likes these sort of characters'. I do, I love the game, totally worth it to me. *fangirls* Therefore, if you're not into 'these type of people' there's no way you're going to like this game. At all. <3 [b][u]UPDATE:[/u][/b] I had previously said that I was not sure if this game was worth the full price. I have now played [i]My Butler[/i] and [i]My Secret Pets![/i] so far as well (I have all but one of their games so I'll make my way through those as well), but anways. This is my favorite so far, each character has their own unique story line whereas the characters in the other two really don't. <3 So this game is [b]definitely worth it to me, even at full price[/b]. I mean it took me about three hours per route, which isn't too shabby. AGAIN, only if you're into that kind of thing. ^^ P.S. [i]My Secret Pets![/i] is awful, just awful. I'll be writing a review on that as soon as I can force myself to finish it... ANYWAYS, on to the review of THIS GAME. ^ - ^;;; - Yes, they're all crazy for you for some weird reason right off the bat. - Yes, they talk about how 'plain' you look but that's because you work for a cosmetics company and they therefore expect you to care more about your appearance (which actually makes sense to me). - Yes, it seems like you move ridiculously fast with each person, which can kind of be off putting, but you have to remember that it takes place over more than a couple of weeks. I gotta be honest though, it still made me feel kind of weird sometimes because of how quickly everything happened. - And yes, they're all kind of posessive, some more so than others (e.g. The whole stereotypical 'you're mine, other guys can't talk to or touch you'... which honestly kind of makes sense since all of the guys are super into you? Like, it's pretty obvious but of course the MC is dense etc etc.). But you know what? I'm totally into 'this kind of thing'. Yaaaaas. <3 Which means, I loved this game a lot! *--------*!!
• 

  ✩ Helenα ✩

  Jan 6, 2017

  I've played the prologue of this VN on mobile before. When I was going to buy the full game, the company released it on Steam. So, here I am. I hate to give this VN a thumbs down. It’s hard to find otome games in English, especially good ones. But wow, this one was… Insanely bad. The MC is the dumbest character ever created, I found myself cheering out for that one of the guys would be a psycho in disguise and would kill her off already. I think that her and her reactions were the worst thing about Office Lovers. The story disturbed me a little too; yeah, it’s a “forbidden romance” thing, I understand. But why the guys have to be so f*cking pushy and treat her like garbage? There’s always a jerk in these games, but not usually all the characters are like that?? I was expecting an average dating sim with cute guys, and I got a poorly written sexual harassment simulator instead. Yes, the art style is pretty, but that’s it! 0/10. This is my very first review that I literally give a game a total thumbs down. I don’t recommend this atrocity on a sale or even for free. But well, if you enjoy being treated like f*cking garbage and still keep chasing abusive pieces of sh*t because "you love them", this game might be for you.
• 

  Yurika

  Feb 7, 2017

  Do you like to be sexually harassed by your boss and coworkers? Do you enjoy when men gaslight you and treat you like a low class citizen? Do you enjoy when a guy attempts to rape you before even confessing his love? THEN THIS GAME IS THE GAME FOR YOU! Unfortunately, I don't enjoy either of those things and this game was absolutely god awful. The heroine is either dumb, a masochist, or both because while she seems to deny their bullshit at first, she ends up just going along with it and ~falling in luv~ with these pick up artists. I know games are not real life, but this was so insulting and degrading I'd never recommend this to anyone.
• 

  Tsubaki Hibino

  May 11, 2017

  I don't understand why this game is rated that badly! Cause of this I was sceptic at first in buying it and got surprised positive! I love that game! Played Mahiros route only so far (best end only and still need to finish the best end chapter) and take a look how long it took. Music is pretty nice, I love the Story and Character design. I can't complain at all! The lovey-dovey scenes could have last a bit longer in my opinion, but of course they could always be longer.*lol* Maybe now and then there is a grammar error, but I don't mind that. This happens and I am still able to read and understand the story without a problem, so no complain about that. Heart beating factor is high, I am not that fan of none voiced otome games, but I am happy I bought this game!
• 

  a m a n d a

  Jun 22, 2017

  It's really not that bad. If you read what the game is like, you know there will be sexual undertones and scenes but nothing too graphic; imho. This was better than My Secret Pets! But I prefer Pub Encounter more. The art is good, Music is of course repetitive- being as it's from Dogenzaka Lab. Muted that right away. I felt like each of their stories went on longer than it should have and skipped most of the drivel. So if you've exhausted all other otome outlets, this one isnt awful.
• 

  NitemareJinx

  Jun 27, 2017

  Well worth it especially for the sale price, I really enjoyed it only 2 things bothered me, one there is a cute blonde kohai that I really wish had a route, hes definitely into your MC and on the team but he has no route, also on some routes even after you get together with the guy the MC still addresses him by Mr.'Surname' like honey when your on a bed whispering sweet nothings you shouldn't address him like your boss..even if he is lmao. Besides that I thought the stories varied enough so it wasn't the same plot and words every route and each man had their own personality and though they had the same stereotypes as most Otome games the humor kept it fresh. I recommend it especially if you can get lucky like me for %80 off!.
• 

  missbutt

  Jul 1, 2017

  + Good old fashioned 60's work place sexism. + Found a husband (most important thing). - Had to leave kitchen to play. - Involved reading (made me unnatractive, wrinkles). - Gave me the vapours. 8/10 for the same work as a man.
• 

  Мизантроп

  Jul 7, 2017

  I didn't plan to write anything after finishing the game 'cause I found it very much like other Dogenzaka games I bought in a bundle. But I found so many negative reviews so I couldn't leave it as it is. Really what's wrong with your attitude? Why do you think it so bad and full with harassment? I enjoyed the game! Even laughed sometimes. I personally find all characters cute,in different ways, but still very charming and all storylines were interesting. I agree that some guys were... let it call pushy, sometimes their behaviour irritated me a bit, I even got only one best ending choosing the options I felt were right to choose in those circumstances. And it's not a problem, all possible endings were quite interesting. As for so many reproaches of harassment, men were never mean or cruel, too bossy sometimes but that was quite understandable remembering their position. I personally especially enjoyed Kaido route, and I guess he was the most sadistic type:) But it impressed me greatly when his sincere straightforward nature was compared to sweet and fake behaviour with everyone else. I'd really prefer frank even a bit rude attitude especially when he did so much for the protagonist's development. I can't help but gonna whine again about the same negative moments. 1. Full screen mode makes the picture blurred, well I mean the quality is so much worse that again I had to play it on a little screen(((( 2. A lot of mistakes in an English version But thanks for one thing which was absent in Yoshiwara games: we got even three pages to save the progress. And it's really great! Thanks a lot! Because it's nice to compare the percentages of all possible endings of all characters! So, thanks again for your game! Wish you good luck creating other visual novels! [table] [tr] [th]Find more in a [url=https://steamcommunity.com/groups/readingnook] Reading Nook [/url][/th] [/tr] [/table]
• 

  JoJoHanna

  Sep 1, 2017

  I just... what is with all the fucking sexual harrasment in this game! Not really likable guys, and they treat the MC really bad. Like this is not a good work envioment!!
• 

  Vendalu

  Nov 27, 2017

  I have to say that the Voltage office visual novels are better than this one. Every route is so slow and bland. I'm not really sure why the MC is liked by these guys and not much happens during the read through. Pretty much every route is the same first 6 chapters nothing really happens and last two chapters suddenly the MC is girlfriend to the guy of your choice and they get intimate. I dont recommend this unelss your bored and got this visual novel for cheap like $5 and under.
• 

  Bakeneko

  Apr 16, 2018

  [h1]TL;DR:[/h1] If you want to fantasize about several men sexually harassing/assaulting you at work and you don't care if the story and characters are bland - then this is your jam. If the thought makes you uncomfortable, even if they're handsome or otherwise 'your type', then absolutely do not. --- [h1]Overall Impression:[/h1] Setting aside my discomfort at the sexual harassment/assault, the game was overall fairly bland and forgettable. I rarely had any sort of flutter of, "oh, that's sweet/sexy" without it immediately being ruined for some other reason. I honestly doubt I'll remember anything about this game other than the inappropriate behavior on the behalf of all the male characters in the game. [h1]Content:[/h1] As I've said, there is sexual harassment and even assault in the workplace. The heroine seems less to fall in love with most of them than simply decide to accept their attentions to make less trouble at work. There are several heroes she seems to struggle to express any sort of romantic interest in even by the end of the game. CGs are almost always just "affectionate heads", though a few are as racy as showing the heroine's bra. The writing content goes everywhere from a hastily closed door where you're meant to assume they had sex to a short R-18 description of foreplay/assault. I don't recall any of it getting too vulgar in wording (though the action being described was certainly NSFW), though quite a few times it didn't seem like consensual sex until after it was over, at which case the heroine decided she had some sort of feeling for the hero. That may make it very uncomfortable for some readers. [h1]Translation/Editing:[/h1] For the most part, it was okay. There were quite a few grammar mistakes, but they were ones that most people may not notice. Some routes had a lot of spelling, translation, or formatting errors, but for the publisher, it's actually one of their most error-free releases. (It's still pretty bad in those routes, though.) [h1]Art/Character Design:[/h1] The style of the art is pretty nice, but it's obvious that not much effort was put into the art overall. A few of the character designs were good. Most were boring/bland. There were few poses/expressions for the heroes, almost no backgrounds/locations (which made the game feel incredibly same-y and cheap), and almost all of the CGs were just "affectionate heads" (kisses, face-touching; etc). All in all, not at all impressive and if you buy otome games for the art, I honestly wouldn't bother. [h1]The Heroine:[/h1] I would normally give her props for being a heroine with a fairly strong, defined personality. However, the writing for her was not consistent. In one route, there's a big deal about her being "childish" for not drinking black coffee. In another route, there's a scene where she says how she always drinks her coffee black. In some routes, she knows a great deal about make-up and just doesn't take the extra time to apply it. In others, she's absolutely terrible with make-up and has to be taught how to use it. Fairly minor details - but it does make her feel unimportant. About the only trait she has that is obvious and consistent is that when the love interests push themselves on her, she doesn't like it, but folds sooner or later, just to make sure not to make waves. Sometimes she calls the LIs on it being sexual harassment or saying she doesn't like it. Sometimes she is wishy-washy about it. It's very disappointing, because otherwise, she seems to be fairly assertive and competent. [h1]The Love Interests:[/h1] Every single one of them is a pushy bastard. They come on strong out of the gate and usually have their hands on her by the end of the first chapter. Sometimes up her skirt, even. There is never really a build to either party falling in love with the other - more an implication they were already obsessed with her from the start (but usually hiding it.) Most of them also are outright hostile to the idea that she might have anything worthwhile to contribute to the team and undermine her efforts rather cruelly/insult her to her face. But, hey, don't worry, they're just doing it to teach her to... something or another! Oddly, the character I thought was the sweetest was actually the one whose bio straight up says he's a sadist. And - don't get me wrong - he does all the things I complain about, but he's also the one who seems most honest about his feelings and motives and gives her the most genuine praise and support once she meets his approval. I'd definitely not say "buy the game if you like sweet sadists", but if you already wanted the game and like the type, then you know which order to play his route. The boss is the worst character, IMHO. He may be the LI I hate most out of any otome I've ever played. In his route, he uses the heroine cruelly and in every other route essentially assaults the heroine at least once, often even after knowing she's in a relationship with someone else. He is scum. [h1]Story:[/h1] Story isn't especially important. It's basically as it says on the package, "Heroine is put on a special dev team for a project for the make-up company she works for. She is paired with one of the men on the team (and falls in love)." Each hero has an entirely different make-up product they're working with and their own little fairly unimportant/not especially interesting drama. The most irritating thing about this game is how poorly transitions are done between scenes. Anywhere from seconds to weeks can pass without any further ado than a brief screen wipe and you have to scramble to figure out that time has passed at all. This can sometimes be hideously disorienting when it feels like things are building to something dramatic, only to have it pass with a brief mention of, "And so that thing that was mentioned happened and it wasn't a big deal, anyway, so this new thing that's going on..." [h1]In closing...[/h1] Bleh. Don't waste your money and even more importantly, don't waste your time unless sexual harassment in the workplace is your kink. That's essentially all of any real note to happen in the game. (And I personally didn't even find the romantic/sex scenes to be particularly interesting since they were so by-the-numbers. So even if it is your kink, it probably wouldn't satisfy.)
• 

  CountBubbleRat

  Jun 22, 2018

  WARNING: Horrifyingly every man in this game seems to be a r****t. No matter what choices you make, your character will be repeatedly assaulted by at least one man in every playthrough, no matter which character you choose to 'romance'. Claiming that the player's character secretly desires it does not make it any better for the other characters to ignore her constant pleas for them to stop. Pros: - The "best ending" tends to be the most healthy ending in at least some of the pairings (though still contains harrassment and assault). - If it wasn't for the unending tide of harrassment, assualt and forced intimacy, the game would be quite good. cons - There's a lot of creepy behaviour and straight-up harrassment and even assualt, which is hardly addressed by the characters. - There are minor mistakes in English language (eg "you" instead of "to"), but very easy to understand regardless.
• 

  wrb41977

  Jul 10, 2018

  An office romance. I believe this is one of the popular tropes in romances. This is Dogenzaka Lab's version of the same. And well... The characters are decent, though I'm beginning to notice that five seems to be the number of love interests that Dogenzaka always uses. They are different enough to be vibrant. The romances themselves are not bad, just short. And the protagonist? Well... she suffers from the usual otome-protagonist-syndrome. Worth a buy, though I suggest getting it on discount. And maybe buy the bundle if this is your type of game... when on discount.
• 

  Merulu

  Jul 20, 2018

  Questional sexual assault aside, I found this game to be very lacking in art, back-up characters, a strong and driven story, and the music was awful, I had to mute the game and submit my own. With the art, there's only 4 panels per character, and they're all extreme close-up facial shots. They probably took about 5 minutes to do in a paintship with tablet. People who purchase otome games usually know what they're getting into before they purchase then. For some reason, almost all otome games tend to have a hint of "tough to get, possessiveness" in them, but I don't recommend this game because it feels cheaply made and quite bady written. This literally is an office full of super-horny guys who like to physically and sexually harass the one employee in the building who gets to make choices in this story - lucky you! It might seem like a sexy idea? But it ain't.
• 

  Otome Gremlin

  Apr 22, 2019

  I gave this title a good review when I first played it, but since then I have played much better otomes and I see now how low my standards were. So, I'm just going to keep this short and point out the obvious flaws this game holds. Sexual harassment. So much sexual harassment. I stated before that this is common in Dogenzaka Labs games and even many other otomes, but that's not good enough to excuse it. I can't even say that it was the hot kind, because it was mostly just them being too pushy and jealous. Plus, it was accentuated by the fact that they are all sexist. I could have done without the misogyny in my romance game, but alright. I mean, it'd make sense if there was one character who acted like this, but all of them? Even the guy you can't date is sexist too, and all the faceless women in your workplace are okay with this. Your own boss is okay with this and acts exactly the same as the others, too, even though he talks about how relationships are forbidden in the group and whatnot. There are multiple occasions where one of the guys will comment on the heroine's makeup and say something disparaging, suggest that she wear more makeup, etc. I get this is the business they work in, but wtf? I'd be pissed if someone said that to my face. Also, they get jealous if she wears another guy's makeup - that is so freaking absurd? I have to give props to the heroine for still being a hard worker despite all of this and saying 'no' to the guys when she didn't want them to touch her, but of course they didn't listen anyway. Other than that, the art is nice except for a few scenes where the casual clothes looked kind of wack and the quality could be inconsistent. The soundtrack is on the same level as boring elevator music, and it randomly has moments where it just abruptly stops and goes dead silent for a while or switches to some completely different tune. The cuts were rather jarring and usually not even during 'tense' moments where it would be deemed appropriate. The translation was acceptable other than a few easily overlooked errors. Nothing else is really of note about this game, it was incredibly mediocre and all the talk about makeup and meetings were boring. I don't usually like workplace romance games, but this one seems to do it worse than most others. I would not recommend Office Lovers at full price, but it might be worth it on sale since it drops to like 3 bucks. You'd probably get more enjoyment out of the snacks that you could buy with those 3 bucks than this, though.