I’m finally back with a quick review on Cupid Parasite. I hope to write up a succinct review of the otome game for those who want to read my thoughts and are debating trying out the game themselves. So without further ado, let’s get to the review.

[Warning: There will be light spoilers. This means I won’t reveal major spoilers with one exception (concerning the love types). Proceed at own risk]

I. Story

Cupid Parasite Visual
Lynette (centered) with love interests, Allan (left) and Gill (right).

The story follows our protagonist Lynette Mirror, a bridal advisor, who works at the top matchmaking company, Cupid Corporation, in the heart of Los York. She is the best at what she does and is on track to get a promotion to be the top bridal advisor in the company as long as she successfully matches the troublesome Parasite 5 – a group of men with such irredeemable qualities that everyone has given up on them.

But Lynette has a secret. She’s the real deal Cupid of myth and even without using her powers, she’s risen to the top of her company and she’s going to do her best to matchmake the Parasite 5 or fall in love trying.

II. Gameplay Mechanics

There isn’t much to report on tricky gameplay mechanics like in my Collar x Malice review (which was a doozy). The main gimmick of Cupid Parasite is to watch out for the Love Match Test you’re required to do towards the beginning of the Prologue/Common Route. The Love Test is a little quiz you’ll have to take each time you play a route. There are 6 love types. And yes, if you’ve been paying attention you’ll notice that is one love type more than the (Parasite) 5 mentioned above. What could this mean??

6 Love Types, 6 love interests? Agape (Gill), Eros (Ryuki), Mania (Allan), Ludus (Raul), Pragma (Shelby), and Storge (???).

It is important to note that you MUST match the love type of the love interest you’re pursuing to get the best ending. If you’re a different love type than you’ll most likely receive a “bad” end. Personally, I didn’t find the bad ends in Cupid Parasite to be that awful…at least the ones I got.

The game isn’t overly serious or emotionally scarring either. It’s more on the light-hearted side so if you’re one to not normally seek out bad endings, I’d say try it out with Cupid Parasite. I promise your heart won’t hurt…that much…depending on the love interest.

III. The Love Interests

Case Number 1. Gill Lovecraft
The Lovelorn Parasite, Gill Lovecraft.

This boy kind of gets a bad rap. People either love him, hate him, or don’t care for him. I would suspect most of that comes from just how lovestruck this boy is when it comes to Lynette. It comes across as a bit endearing at first, if not a quite pitiful especially considering how obvious his crush is to everyone BUT Lynette, but his lovelorn ways may tire you out even before you reach his route.

I won’t lie, while I don’t mind Gill as a friend, I never became quite attached to him. He did catch my eye on the box art and I found him cute. When I started his route, I had hopes he’s lovelorn sickness would be addressed properly and cured and to be honest, it was. In the beginning of his route, it was bad and I felt for Lynette.

Yet, once Gill becomes more focused on his dreams of being a writer for a favorite car magazine of his along with some self-reflection and outside guidance, he gradually gets better. I mean, his feelings for Lynette remained as fervent as ever throughout the route. I honestly feel like he gets to bad of a reputation but I also understand that some people feel repelled from being gushed over incessantly like that.

Thankfully, he never becomes a stalker, but I must admit the candid photos of Lynette were not quite it, my man. On the other hand, he did make a DIY transformer out of his car and then fought Mars, the GOD OF WAR with it, so let’s give him that at least.

Okay, maybe he actually is a stalker.
Case Number 2: Shelby Snail
The Prestige Parasite, Shelby Snail.

Ah, the CEO of Cupid Corporation himself needs a wife despite having a wife who doesn’t really exist. Yeah, this route was pretty chill until it wasn’t. In Shelby’s route, Lynette ends up pretending to be Shelby’s wife so it’s the whole “They’re pretending to date but will inevitably fall in love for real” trope you sometimes see in rom-coms, but this time it’s actually done pretty well.

Shelby wasn’t my favorite but he was a pretty entertaining guy. He’s also the oldest bachelor here at the grand old age of 32. I know, old, right?? On a serious note, he still felt more like my boss than someone I personally would be romantically interested in. Still, the more intimate scenes were pretty well done in my opinion and the romance between him and Lynette was believable. But boy, does the route escalate and take a 180 towards the end in a good way. But poor Owen.

Case Number 3. Raul Aconite
The Obsessed Parasite, Raul Aconite.

The star actor from Sillywood, Raul Aconite actually wasn’t too bad honestly. I thought he would be worse given his whole obsession with mythology but even there it was a major factor to consider when going through his route, you learn there is more substance than that when it comes to Raul. Indeed, you could say he even carries within him a different persona than you’re used to.

Jokes aside, that part of Raul I just referenced was definitely the highlight of his route and sort of my my jaw drop when it occurred. Right when Lynette and Raul confessed their love to each other too (my goodness).

Other than that, Raul’s route also made me think about how others view love in contrast to how viewed love, specifically when it comes to relationships and flings. As someone who would never do flings or one night stands, Raul’s route was a bit of an eye-opener as to why some people do. It was definitely a perspective that was new to me but easily understandable.

Case Number 4. Ryuki F. Keisaiin
The Glamour Parasite, Ryuki F. Keisaiin

Okay, I did a whole Ryuki Appreciation Post a while back so if you want more of my thoughts on our little rude fashion designer, then check that post out. It’s a bit of a read but I wanted to gush a bit about him.

See, Ryuki was my first route and the route I was the most wary of considering that this boy seemed all about physical appearances and as someone with 0, zero, zilch, nada confidence in herself or her looks, I can’t lie when I thought Ryuki’s route was going to hit me hard and possibly be a bit triggering. However, I was wrong.

Similar to Raul’s route, I learned a lot about Ryuki and why he was the way he was along with coming to a full understanding of his standards of beauty and the actual criteria of what makes him rank people the way he does. It’s still not the greatest thing but you can’t quite hate him for it once you realize his past and background.

Being the youngest love interest, I thought I wouldn’t like Ryuki the way I did but he’s honestly one of my favorites in this game. He also has a cute side I kind of wasn’t expecting along with a rather possessive side that whiplashed me and seeing all that was pretty endearing in its own way (or maybe that’s just me).

Look at that face.
Case Number 5. Allan Melville
The Thieving Parasite, Allan Melville.

Oh Jesus Christ, whoever wrote Cupid Parasite was clearly an Allan stan because I feel I can say even objectively that they went harder on his route than the others (with the possible exception of the next route). Like, if you didn’t really like Allan and his womanizing ways in the prologue, well never fear because it’ll feel like a lie once you’re done with his route.

Just know this: Everything he does is for Lynette. Everything.

You think I exaggerate but just play his route and you’ll come to understand. If you want to just go ahead and find out what I mean, I wrote up an appreciation post on Allan here.

I feel I’d be hardpressed to find someone who outright just continues to look down or snub Allan after doing his route. At least, I’d like to think so. I appreciated the grand reveal, the writing style, the story/plot for Allan – everything.

And you’ll definitely walk away feeling more angst towards the gods of Celestia if you weren’t already. But speaking of gods…

Secret Route
The Sensitive Parasite, Peter Flage.

The secret route of the game is the god of gods himself, Jupiter. Although, you may better know him as Peter Flage, the assistant director of Parasite House who couldn’t tell the right side up of a camera and the man who is terrible with woman. Odd, that. Given the amount of Jupiter x “insert random human woman here” stories, you’d think he’d be better with the ladies. But even that is explained in his route.

Now, you can only do Peter’s route once you good end everyone else including Allan. Allan’s route almost feels terrible to come out of if you’re going straight to Jupiter’s route and I know some of you out there can’t look past Jupiter’s actions in Allan’s route or the fact that he is, y’know, one of those terrible gods in Celestia who sucks. But me? I found Peter to be my favorite among favorites.

Heck, I even wrote up an appreciation post for him, too.

I guess when it came to Peter’s personality, I just meshed better with it than Allan. As the accurately titled, “Sensitive Parasite,” Peter turned out to be related in a lot more ways than I thought. He’s not good with women (I’m not good with people. Period.), he jumps at the slightest noise/danger, he’s a bit of a coward (let’s be real), BUT he does try his best.

That’s one thing I had to appreciate about his character was that he always tried his best to do what he could in the capacity that he could. Yet, his overly cautious nature and the shadows of the past were causing him to hold himself back until he gets hit with Lynette’s arrow, falls in love with her and starts to slowly become a new man, uh, god.

Plus, he’s Chii and I loved Chii before I realized he was Jupiter. But in retrospect, Chii does some questionable actions once you realize that was Jupiter the whole time.

IV. The Music

The Biscats who provide the opening and ending songs to CupiPari.

I had to add a short extra section highlighting the music in this game. I’m still new to the otome world so my experience is little but I have to say that Cupid Parasite has my favorite soundtrack in an otome game right now. I really loved the OST and added the opening and ending song to my J-pop playlist. The band is called The Biscats – look them up!

My favorite theme is Lynette’s “Top Bridal Advisor.”

It’s a bop, what can I say?

V. Extra Thoughts

I don’t really have many more thoughts about Cupid Parasite to be honest. It was definitely an experience that I thoroughly enjoyed and loved the counterbalance it served for me as one who was also playing Collar x Malice, a more intense and stress-driven otome (I swear to God it was torture sometimes).

I would highly recommend this game if you’re looking for a more laidback comedic experience with storyline and themes that still make you think and contemplate love in different ways. It’s also a plus if you’re a myth buff similar to Raul because for me, one of the draws to the game was the Greek/Roman mythology theme. Hey, I was a Percy Jackson reader back in the day.

However, I wouldn’t recommend this game if none of that sounds appealing. Considering comedy is subjective, Cupid Parasite may not be that pleasing to play through if you’re the type that goes for more serious or darker themed games. There are also some questionable moments in Cupid Parasite that gave me pause as well (namely one scene towards the end of Jupiter’s route that had me a bit floored).

This was not quite it, but at the same time it’s connected. If you know you know.

All in all, I would highly recommend this game in general. Plus, there’s a fandisk coming out next year in Japan and hopefully will reach our international shores within the next couple of years or so. But for me, I can’t wait and will probably import it as soon as my wallet allows me to.

I mean, seriously, look at these teaser images for the fandisk, Sweet and Spicy Darling:

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