Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Circus Reviews - Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet


I'm not normally one for creepily cutesy and shiny aesthetics, but after spotting this game on my Tumblr feed courtesy of Hanako Games, I found myself inexplicably drawn to it. After all, a nice simple game for the purposes of de-stressing is sometimes in order, and despite my dark and twisted mind, I do occasionally enjoy something a bit brighter.

Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet follows a candy maker named Syrup who despises magic despite living in a town chock full of it and subsists by running a non-magic candy shop with the help of her highly competent assistant, Pastille. One day, she enters her basement to find a candy golem girl (later given the name Gumdrop). Syrup's immediate conclusion is that the golem was made by her rival, the witch Butterscotch, and Butterscotch's cat familiar Toffee, but the candy golem doesn't seem to have any interest in spying and is oddly fixated on being friends with Syrup. Later, the titular Ultimate Sweet surfaces, and it turns out to be an actual sweet with an actual recipe, a recipe that Syrup once promised she would make for Pastille, but that may not happen since the recipe calls for magic and science together...


Syrup, Pastille, and Gumdrop, the main trio of the game, are the most well-established of the characters. Syrup is antisocial and mistrusting of others to a fault, but retains a soft spot deep down and is shown to be capable of overcoming her prejudices toward magic. Pastille is an almost insanely good assistant, possibly to compensate for the fact that Syrup is entirely incapable of running a shop on her own. Gumdrop is cheerful, naive, and endearing in her single-minded pursuit of friendship, but also has hints of not knowing what her purpose in life is. Butterscotch and Toffee have inconsistent development at times, specifically in one of the bad endings. The way that particular ending plays out feels extremely out of character, at least when compared to all the good endings. However, their friendship is touching and how they interact with Syrup is lovely as well.

The art is gorgeous, although if you aren't into that very apparent shiny cute style then it will rub you the wrong way. Most of the art is cartoony sprites, peppered with little illustrations like the one shown above, and they all work very well together. The font is kind of hard to read, being one of those that's all caps all the time. It fits well color-wise, at least, but I personally found it a bit tricky to decipher at times.


The plot is fairly simple, but ends up being quite heartwarming (provided you get one of the good endings, of course). There are ten endings, five good and five bad. A few of them feel abrupt or misplaced to me, like the aforementioned ending in which Butterscotch and Toffee's actions feel out of character, or one ending dubbed the "worst" ending that is indeed the worst, but sort of comes out of nowhere. And there is a plot twist present throughout some of the endings that isn't much of a plot twist at all; I could see it coming within the first two minutes of the game. The good endings, though, were quite nice and made me smile, even though they're all slightly bittersweet in their own ways.

So there isn't a ton of complexity here, but it's short and sweet and free (although you can choose to pay $2 to receive an artbook that includes an ending guide). The story arc ultimately evolves into Syrup's journey to open up her mind, about both magic and trusting other people, and playing against that goal will definitely net you a bad ending. It's worth it to see the good endings through, though. They'll give you a smile that's.......sweeter than candy.

(Hey, I had to do one candy pun.)


Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet is available for free download (or name your own price) at itch.io.

Final verdict: Some issues with plotting and characterization, but a fun cast of characters and an ultimately heartwarming story make Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet a treat to read.

Syrup and the Ultimate Sweet is developed by nomnomnami. The opinions expressed in this review are my own. I was not compensated in any way for this review.

EDIT: I made an incorrect remark in the comments and have addressed it in the blog post below.

http://somestrangecircus.blogspot.com/2016/01/syrup-and-ultimate-sweet-questions-and.html

11 comments:

  1. hi!! ive recently just played this vn and it was really amusing :)) im kind of oc so I tried getting all the endings huhu but I cant seem to get the last ??? ending on the list. I think its the one you called the "worst" ending... so yeah mind giving a few pointers on how to get it??? hahahhaa sorry for disturbing!!!! >.<

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    1. So you don't have a ending literally labelled "worst end"? That one you get by being really mean to everyone at every opportunity. It's been a while since I've played, but I think telling Butterscotch you hate her is involved.

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    2. yup that's it! thank you!!! I figured it out just a few hours ago hahahaha XD

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    3. Ugh... still can't get that worst end...

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    4. That's completely misleading. To get the "worst" ending you have to be NICE to Gumdrop but really mean to Butterscotch, including telling her you hate her.

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    5. If you want me to be specific, you have to go through with the Gumdrop ending until you are stuck in the cave with Butterscotch. Then you will need to tell her you hate her. This will normally cause the "Frozen" ending, but since you were really nice up until that point, Gumdrop and Pastille will come find you. You will then be brought to Treat's Cottage. There once you get through a bit of dialogue, you must continue your idea of hating Butterscotch, even at the perfect time for you two to make up. If you do that, Butterscotch will sadly walk away and it will trigger the ending scene.

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  2. hm sorry to bother but is there a pastille ending? because im not getting it :p

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    1. There is! It involves not eating Gumdrop but ditching her and helping Pastille find her... And if I remember correctly you have to be nice to Butterscotch as well and look into the crystal when given the choice.

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    2. I can't get it.can u give the detail?

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    3. The specific choices can be found in the guidebook, which you can purchase on the game's itch.io page linked at the end of the review. The commenter above you has the right general idea.

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  3. Hey! I made a mistake in an earlier comment, and have addressed it and the other comment in a blog post, since I was having trouble with the comments earlier.

    http://somestrangecircus.blogspot.com/2016/01/syrup-and-ultimate-sweet-questions-and.html

    I have figured out what issue I was having with comments, so I shouldn't have the same problem again.

    Thanks!

    ReplyDelete