Cupid Parasite Otome Game Review
Genre
Title: Cupid Parasite
Developer: Idea Factory, Otomate
Publisher: Idea Factory Intl
Age Rating: 17+ (Cero D)
Release Date: 2 November 2021
Platform: Nintendo Switch (Amazon)
Language: English
Rating: 9/10
Cupid Parasite is a fantasy rom-com otome game based around Greek mythology as our main character (MC) is Cupid herself. As she adapts to the modern human lifestyle on earth, Cupid takes on the role of the top Bridal Advisor, determined to prove her Father wrong that humans can find love without the intervention of Cupid’s Arrow.
Synopsis from the official Website:
As Cupid Corp’s top bridal advisor, our heroine consults the city’s most in-vogue singles to make their wildest romantic dreams come true. But she has one secret which she can never share.
Her true identity is Cupid, a descendant from Celestia sent here on a heavenly mission. Our heroine has been tasked with her biggest challenge yet… handling the matchmaking, and thus the fates, of the infamous Parasite 5.
After a series of unimpressive interviews and workshops, they concoct the perfect plan.
Parasite House, a shared home created for reality TV centered around the lives
of the Parasite 5 and their romantic exploits.
Leading these hopeless men to marital bliss proves to be a Herculean task even for great Cupid herself!
Can she live up to her name and keep her identity secret at the same time?!
Find out in the most divinely unpredictable romantic comedy of the millennium! ♥
Art
The character design and the vibrant, colourful palette is just gorgeous and cute. I love how the Love Interest’s (LI) predominant colours connote their own personality (will get into detail later on). The character design is just amazing and even the sub-character designs were well done. The background artwork is much simpler in contrast to the detailed character design. Nevertheless, the simple layout with pops of bold vibrant colour matched well with the rom-com otome theme.
The artwork is by Yuuya who also worked on Cafe Enchante (2019). The UI also features cute Chibi characters and colurful fonts. Love the artwork I’ll rate it 9.5/10.
Sound
The Voice acting cast was good at portraying their character. I was pleasantly surprised by KENN’s voice as Shelby since I’m used to hearing him voice characters like Fuuto from Brothers Conflict, which goes to show the range in his voice as a professional. The deep voice portrayed Shelby’s mature vibe very well.
The opening song, “You Can’t Hurry Love” and the ending song, “Magic Hour” is arranged by The Biscats and Osamu Masaki. The music in this otome game is very versatile and each character has their own BGM which suits their theme. There is a BGM catalog featured in the game with all the songs. I like Gill’s BGM it’s melancholic and soft. Overall sound, 7/10.
- Shelby (KENN) > Limbo (Bustafellows) and Fuuto (Brothers Conflict)
- Ryuki (Junya Enoki) > Hansel (OZMAFIA!!), Yuji Idatori (Jujutsu Kaisen)
- Gill (Ryohei Kimura) > Nicola (Piofiore), Kageyuki (CollarxMalice), Kou (Diabolic Lovers)
- Raul (Taku Yashiro) > Ephraim (Fire Emblem Engage)
- Allan (Makoto Furukawa) > Kazuma (Love Pretend), Saitama (One Punch Man), Sherlock (Moriarty The Patriot)
- Peter Flage (Nobuhiko Okamoto) > Baguko (My Hero Academia), Taiga (Variable Barricade), and Yang (Piofiore)
Characters
All the LI’s have their own weird quirks! However, each character did have their endearing moments, mixed in with weird and wacky scenarios that made me laugh. The sub-characters were great too. Venus disguises herself as Catherine in her human form which was funny.
The dynamic between the guys at the Parasite 5 show in the common route was engaging too and pretty funny. They all start stripping to see who has the best body after a heated argument between Allan and Gill, which aired live while Peter is flailing around with the camera amidst the chaos haha.
Shelby Snail (VA: KENN)
Shelby is the 32 yr old CEO of Cupid Corp, a perfectionist who strives for excellence in all aspects of his life. Hence, the name Prestige Parasite. His mature personality is reflected in his blue color scheme, which connotes calmness, responsibility, and reliability.
Shelby signs himself up to the parasite list of bachelor’s incognito mode by getting his secretary to be his stand-in for him at face-to-face events. To maintain his image as a young married CEO in public, he enters into a fake marriage with the MC.
While the MC and Shelby spend more time as colleagues and spouses during their fake married life, they develop feelings and we get to see Shelby let his hair down when MC comforts him when he is vulnerable. The dynamic between MC and Shelby in terms of growth in their career and slow-burn romance (with adorable blushing Shelby) is what I really loved about this route.
Their reliance on each other and support during hardships make for a heartwarming journey. The MC’s attempts to manipulate the shadow to make it look like a real married couple’s home are some of the funny scenes in the game. The reason for Shelby’s obsession with achieving SS rank lacks depth, making the plot less compelling.
Nevertheless, the modern-day office romance and Shelby’s cute moments make for an enjoyable route, earning it a 6.8/10 rating.
Shelby's Route: 6.8/10
Ryuki F. Keisaiin (VA: Junya Enoki)
Moving on From our oldest LI to our youngest. Ryuki is the 19-year-old talented fashion designer who respects his grandmother, also a fashion designer. His colour palette is predominantly green, symbolising growth and envy. He is fixated on being the best to meet his grandma’s family brand standard and does his best to achieve this.
Ryuki has Synthesia and sees the world through a unique lens of colours. He labels people with a colour hex numbers. This talent to see colours is like a double-edged sword, as it makes it difficult for him to interact with people who don’t meet his ‘standards of beauty’.
He will also go around spraying MC with mist because he thinks her face lacks hydration. MC was not impressed. Despite this, he has a softer side, as seen on his practice date with the MC. He is good at picking out clothes and giving massages, which gives the impression that he is good at taking care of the people he cares about. I like his cute bashfulness and the way he breaks out from his shell to become softer and make subtle changes influenced by the MC as his feelings for her develops.
There was one point in the story where the green signs of jealousy takes over and he comes on a little bit strong to MC kissing her with no warning which was a red flag for me. The action could also be spurred on by the fact he is the youngest LI and he is still going through a hormonal phase of understanding what love is. Although, I think the writers could have portrayed the jealousy in a better way. Despite that one scene in Ryuki’s story, I really enjoyed seeing his character development and growth in terms of his career and relationship with the MC. The MC is also a late bloomer and realises slowly that she sees him as a man after the turning point, and loves to take care of him along with seeing him excel in his passion for fashion.
I really enjoyed his Normal ending more than Ryuki’s Happy ending, it was cute how the roles reverse and he takes care of MC, Lynette also teases him which is funny. I’ll rate his story 5.5/10.
Ryuki's Route: 5.5/10
Gill Lovecraft (VA: Ryohei Kimura)
Gill’s story was like a modern-day Shakespeare-themed rom-com, mixed with fantasy, and some transformers style action 
The Labrador-looking lad is head over heels for the MC since their college days living together.
We see how he has a one-sided love towards the MC in other routes, however, our MC is completely oblivious and thinks he likes Claris. It was nice to see their backstory on how he helped her adjust to the human world and taught her everything. There were some funny flashbacks in the bathroom too.
Gill’s colour theme is red, symbolised by his red shirt and eyes. The colour suits his personality as the Lovelorn parasite since red connotes, love, passion, and confidence.
As a car enthusiast, he gets excited talking about cars. He also loves writing and through his story we see him finding his ambition. His idea of romance is the complete opposite of Allan and they clash sometimes. MC gets confused about whether she loves him like a brother or as a man as her feelings for him start to grow.
The VA does a pretty good job of portraying Gill’s hopeless romantic personality. Through Gill’s husky, gentle, soft voice during his confession scene, we can see his passion shine 
I was shocked by his personality after they both confess, he ain’t as shy as I thought he was. Compared to Ryuki’s sharp tongue yet cute personality, Gill is very passionate and straightforward once they confess 
His story was a rollercoaster of a sci-fi, fantasy, and comedy hybrid plot. I couldn’t take his love lunacy seriously. Not one of my favourite characters in this game. I also didn’t like how the MC still loved him without question despite how weird some of his lovelorn antics were; when he was explaining to her father how much he loves her and whips out his phone showing him all the photos he took of her. Mars looked horrified which was comical.
It was also mentioned a few times in MC’s monologue that she could sense a borderline of love and lunacy in his eyes but still loved him. This route did make me laugh a lot though, making up for the weird stalker antics which take up a small amount of the story near the end. Overall I’d say 4.5/10
Gill's Route: 4.5/10
Raul Aconite (VA: Taku Yashiro)
21-year-old Sillywood actor. He specialises in action films. Raul’s manager signs him up to Cupid Corp to learn about love in order to help him with portraying romance through his acting for his next film. He is tall and mature with a friendly nature.
His predominant colour is orange which represents: adventure, warmth, and excitement. His love type is Ludus which is a playful/flirtatious type of love.
Raul is obsessed with mythology and also is part of the mythology society. The MC, was not very impressed with Raul’s casual relations he has with actresses. What’s interesting is that he sees it as another form of “exercise” and does not associate it with love in any way. He asked MC if she has ever fallen in love since she was giving him advice on love. Therefore, MC tries to see things from his perspective. I like how MC is determined in her values of love.
Despite putting herself in his shoes, she did not change her view about the value of love, but does gain an understanding of the human emotion, lust. Raul is impressed by this and wants her to teach him what love really is. I admire how MC takes her work seriously and puts in the effort to help him by giving him tips and supporting him on how to convey a romantic approach on set.
Once he gets closer to the MC he reveals his innocent child-like side. I really enjoyed Raul’s route after getting past the first few chapters and we see more of his backstory and development. Influenced by the MC, he starts to understand what love is.
He hides his own pain so people around him won’t worry. However, it was nice to see him be vulnerable around MC asking her to stay when he got injured as he didn’t want to be alone.
I really enjoyed the climax in the plot where they both face off with each other when his body is taken over by a revived being from Celestia and she tries to bring him back to his senses.
The ending scene for this was just so cute and endearing and his love and care for her through this route had a good balance of adorably sweet and spicy too. His story is my third favourite after Allan’s.
Raul's Route: 6.5/10
Allan Melville (VA: Makoto Furukawa)
Compared to Raul’s hero character arc, Allan is like an anti-hero. He is portrayed as the thieving parasite that loves to prey on taken women’s dreams. However, there’s more to him than meets the eye. I love a good angsty character route. Angsty Allan’s route was plot heavy. He is very kind and will do whatever it takes to protect the MC. This route is full of angst and I have never seen a love interest cry as much as Alan did in an Otome game 
.
Allan’s predominant colour is purple, symbolising, mystery, luxury, magical and balance between passion and calmness from the blend of blue and red to make purple.
Glimpses of his bittersweet feelings for MC can be seen in other routes where it seems like they have met before. Despite his bad reputation in other routes, his route is full of melancholy, tears, and forgotten memories, as Alan tries to make MC live a happy life no matter what.
We actually see his gentle, kind and naive nature within his route. He loves bubble tea and describes sweet flavour as sour within his vocabulary He is actually a demon and tries his best to support the MC from the side, however, his love for her is strong and he lets himself wish for more. There was a big unexpected turning point that I did not see coming which was shocking and added to the angst; loved it.
The story is very well executed as the truth behind the MC and Alan’s past is unraveled. It would have been nice if we had more of Jupiter’s pov near the end, but who knows we might get to see that in the future as an epilogue or sequel. Alan’s route was amazing and the VA did a great job depicting the crying scenes and angst. The story nicely rounds up MC’s background from how she became Cupid, to reuniting with Alan which she knew from her previous life. I loved Alan’s character arc of being an anti-hero to protect MC.
Allan's Route: 8/10
Click below to hide Sensitive Parasite review.
Secret Route - Sensitive Parasite
This story made me laugh so much but also love the LI and how sensitive and vulnerable he is able to be around the MC, but also finding comfort and joy from her presence. This route is an AU-type story and wrapped things up nicely and we see all the boys come together using their love type to save the world with Cupids Arrow.
His route was so endearing and when Peter mentioned his brother in other routes I was thinking “What brother?” It all makes sense in this route and all the plot holes are unraveled in this story. I really enjoyed this route and I don’t think I ever laughed so much from any other Otome routes. Jupiter is my favourite from Cupid Parasite and they really saved the best for last. He had the spiciest CG I was surprised. I loved the last CG, the way Jupiter’s hair is in that CG reminds me a little bit of Gojo.
Sensitive Parasite Route: 10/10
Conclusion
Cupid Parasite has been one of my favourite otome games I have played for a while. The transition from serious, emotive scenarios, smoothly moving to funny moments is just epic, and loved every second of it. Even if I did not like some of the weird actions from a few LI’s (Side-eyes Gill) the story was very funny which made it fun to play through and there were moments that surprised me as I did not predict the LI to something which was pleasantly surprising.
There is a useful skip button to skip already-read parts and skip to the next choice available, making it easy to replay to unlock other endings. The UI was great too, with excellent packed extra features such as the Files section to rewind to a scenario and the Events section to replay CG moments.
Overall, I really enjoyed this otome game and was not bored at any moment. The vibrant colours packed with rom-com scenarios and endearing characters with their own BGM theme were such a blast and it meets all the criteria for a great otome game experience. I would definitely recommend playing Cupid Parasite and would rate the overall experience a 9/10.
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