Cupid Parasite Review

I started the game and loved it within seconds, it’s over the top in every account

Setting

In the American 50s, in a city called LosYork, that is as island shaped like Marilyn Monroe, the goddess cupid works as a bridal advisor in the human world in order to prove to her father that humans don’t always need the gods help and can fall in love without the gods help too. And she sees this goal as reached, as soon as she gets the next promotion, after she already became the top bridal advisor within two years after working at Cupid Corporation, a marriage bureau.. But  for this her boss needs her to pair 5 so called “parasites” off, who seem to be unmarriable, because each of them has a problem, that makes it hard to get them to fall in love and to be loved back.

The common path is rather long, and took me about 8 hours, and I wonder why they didn’t make it shorter, but it was still enjoyable and funny.

Each character route took me about 10 hours, so it could really focus on their love developing.

Let’s take a look at those parasites – the love interests

In the order I would recommend them to play, but except to play Allan last, you can choose the order of the other 4 as you like.

1. Gil

The “broken heart” parasite, he is a freelance writer, who cant let go  of his past love, still wants to go out with her and compares everyone else to her. That is why he seems kind of sad all the time, he is shy and insecure. He is the type of guy, who only lives for his relationship and would do anything for his girlfriend. He would take care of his girlfriend, loving household chores. Be He also writes you 1 hour before the date, that he’s already there waiting, but that you shouldn’t fell stressed out though.

His story is a good route to start out with, as he used to live together with Lynette and so you see, how her first years in the human world developed. Due to this his route also has many flash back and is more about Lynette’s conflict, realising Gil’s love and understanding whether she has brotherly feeling for him or more than that.

What surprised me is, that in the end, there were some more fantasy elements thrown it, that seemed a bit absurd and over the top for me at the moment. but over the top is kind of the topic of the game…

He is voice acted by the same voice actor (Kimura Ryouhei木村 良平) as Nicola in Piofiore and can nicely convey Gil’s vulnerability and sweetness.

2. Raul

The “hobby” parasite, is a rich successful actor who only wants to get to know love, in order to become a better actor in romantic scenes. Apart from that he describes love more as fitness and doesn’t get emotionally involved with women – so he is a real player. But what he’s very emotional about is his hobby and that’s the stories of gods and mythology. As soon as he starts talking about it, what is the only topic he knows, he wont stop anymore.

His route caught me on the wrong foot, because of him being such a huge player. That lead to that I couldn’t really relate to the characters anymore, because they made decisions I wouldn’t have made. After some chapters I finally came to understand Raul a bit, but then the story started to get all in fantasy adventure, what felt so random to me and didn’t really affect the couple in their progress in their relationship and that really annoyed me. Gil’s route already had some fantasy elements, but they were rather minor. In Raul’s route it felt like almost the half route was not romantic, but a fantasy adventure, that felt pointless to me. But if you’re very into mythology and adventure with a lot of fantasy, then you might actually like Raul’s route.

His voice actor (Yashiro Taku八代 拓: Adolphe in Shuuen no Virche, Goemon in Tengoku struggle) also didn’t really do the trick for me, as he sounded so childish, like Raul’s character actually is, and I couldn’t take him serious in important scenes.

3. Ryuki

The “fashion” parasite, a successful fashion designer, who grades every person with a colour code of their colour he sees them to be. On top of that he ranks the outwards appearance of people in points from 1-100 and if you are below he certain threshold he subconsciously doesn’t even notice you! He only wants to marry, because her sister told him in order to become a better designer he needed to experience love.

He is a very cute tsun boy and his route was also very sweet

His voice actor (Enoki Jun’ya榎木 淳弥: Dill in Nekopara, Zafora in Radiant Tale) didn’t give him a too childish voice, so you could still see him as a young man.

4. Shelby

The “status” parasite. This man initially hides behind a messenger and doesn’t even attend the meetings and dates personally, because he is too busy working and only cares about marriage as a way of evaluating his status in society. But early on it becomes clear, that it’s actually the company’s president Shelby, who is hiding behind this status parasite and who has been lying about being married. He is the worst workaholic, who is rational, logical and stoic, but that doesn’t mean he’s cold hearted. As Lynette starts helping out by pretending to be his wife, he soon opens up and in my opinion those two lead the most mature relationship in this game, supporting each other mutually. As I watched their love develop and grow I kept thinking: I want my relationship to be exactly like this!

His voice actor (Oohashi Ken’ichirou大橋 賢一郎: Kei in Ken ga Kimi; Limbo in Bustafellows) also did a great job voicing a stern stoic, who also can become quite passionate. Combined with really romantic CGs I liked his romance the most and found his route to be the most sexy. There was one scene that made me get goose bumps over my whole body, so romantic was it.

5. Allan

The “stolen” parasite, he’s just the worst, as he’s is only interested in girls who are already in a relationship, because a girl was once stolen from him. He permanently gets calls either from girls or their furious boyfriends. He even owns a luxurious pillow store and want everybody to visit so he can give them sweet dreams…. That means he is just in the corporation to get to know married girls.

His route was the most tragic with the most plot twist and it really got me. I might have cried a bit and even watched the whole credits, because I needed some time to reflect on what’s happened.

His voice actor (Furukawa Makoto古川 慎: Jack in Tengoku Struggle, Crius in Even if Tempest) has a nice deep voice, that fits this seducer.

MC Lynette

As the MC is confronted with the task to set those utter weirdos up, she realises despite being cupid she doesn’t really know much about love and hasn’t experienced it herself. She is honest, outspoken and considerate. But In general she is a bit naïve, but not in a stupid annoying way, but just that she is still fairly new to the human world and inexperienced and only knows what Gil has taught her so far.  So she still is very open-minded and likes to experiment and is open to new thoughts and ideas as she gets to know those parasites and realizes she’s a cupid parasite herself!

Art

As I said – over the top.

The art style overall is loud and colourful

Starting by the UI, that just pops with colours to the soundtrack that makes you smile all the time

The voices are great.

The music is also in the 50s style where they really make use of typical styles of this era and almost every soundtrack will make you dance instead of reading and there is even one that sounds like a upbeat version of Mr. Sandman. On top of that every character has his own song and there are many voiced soundtracks, what is kinda a rare to see. I love this soundtrack to death and would listen to it in my spare time and of course start dancing, its just high quality and through and through enjoyable.

The background art is also colourful, detailed, creative, happy? Each background fits the mood of the game and the overall art style.

Same goes for the CGs. You can see which chapter has a CG and its more than half of them. Most of the CGs are quite romantic and beautifully drawn, again with popping colours and fitting the  mood of the scene. They have a nice feel of movement and detail to them and every route has at least one kiss CG and one leading to more CG…

Some of the endings also have stunning CGs so its worth at least playing the CG endings.

Overall: stunning

Tone

Quite obviously it is a romantic comedy, that made me laugh out loud many times, but could also make me squeal in cute and romantic scenes or make me blush in some mildly steamy scenes.

But Cupid being a goddess you definitely have some fantasy elements, that weren’t really relevant in neither Ryuki’s nor Shelby’s route, but a bit in Gil’s and even more in Raul’s and Allan’s route, though I loved the fantasy elements in Allan’s route the most, as they seemed the most consistent and linked to their relationship.

Likewise are almost all endings just alternative good endings or funny and sweet and there are only two endings, that are a bit sad or weird, but overall each ending is good interesting and worth the read. And due to a love capture system, flowchart and skip to next choice option those are also easily obtained.

And even the common path has three funny endings!

Learn Japanese?

Yes! If you haven’t started playing games in Japanese and are on a upper beginner level, do it with this game! It’s such a great game that will make you feel engaged-

And despite of the fantasy setting the vocabulary isn’t actually complicated at all, its purely everyday talk, with an average use of kanji.

But what really helps is that quite many words are actually written in Katakana, when they chose the “Japenglish” version of that word. And sometimes you can even watch news that are voiced in English to give you a break.

So I would say it is one of the best games to start learning Japanese with otome games, as it’s a great game with relatively easy vocabulary and no complicated grammar.

I full-heartedly recommend this game to everybody who needs a good laugh, wants a fluffy over the top silly humorous romance, with still some interesting plot in some routes, and doesn’t mind fantasy elements in their stories, and is up for some colourful joyful game.