****** - Verified Buyer
4.5
I'll start right off by saying that I didn't expect to like this game. I'm generally drawn to darker otome stories. When I started playing Cupid Parasite, initially I had some trouble warming up to it because of the ridiculous plot elements-- but once I got over that, I can honestly say I really LOVED this game.If you're the kind of person to take characters and the plots VERY seriously... this game is going to throw you for a loop. It takes some getting used to! I played this game right after Olympia Soiree and that probably made the "culture shock" of this game even more pronounced for me. This game is a ROMCOM, and it's really important to keep that in mind. If you know there's no way you'd enjoy a romcom, this game isn't for you.PROS:- I liked ALL the characters, every route I found myself going "awwww!!" multiple times even for the characters that I expected to hate or weren't my "type".- The overall plot / hints woven into each route is actually very compelling, though I strongly recommend playing in a certain order to enjoy it fully because some routes would actually ruin the feel of others if played in the wrong order.- The music is so catchy! And in English, which I didn't expect.- The right amount of drama, romance and cuteness.- The voice acting and art are VERY good!- Mythology elements!CONS:- UI feels laggy and it's not intuitive, but it's ok once you figure it out.- The names of the characters are so blah. Shelby Snail? Allan Melville? Eww.- You might find yourself really, really not liking the love interests at first. I honestly hated them at first.- Some of the translations are pointlessly incorrect. For example, you can HEAR them say English words but the translation will have different words. (IE: Hiiiiii becomes Heya, My Honey becomes My Darling. WHY?)- Typos are sprinkled in- Some of the voiced dialogue is in this really stilted English, but this fortunately was only for things like news broadcasts and not for the main characters.- Playing the routes in the wrong order could make certain plots a lot less compelling.- The names of shops / brands / celebrities are pointlessly changed in ways that are still recognizable but weird, and I didn't really understand the point. Like insta was instergrimm, Starbucks was something like StarBoughs-- the game does this for.. EVERYTHING. It was excessive or I probably wouldn't have noticed.HIT OR MISS (up to you if it's a pro or con)- For most of the characters/stories, the bad ends are actually not "bad". Some of them are just ridiculous. There were a couple bad ends I'd even say were actually pretty good, just not "as happy" as the happy ends.- A lot of the humor in the game is because of the super exaggerated "quirks" of the love interests or things that are just sort of random.- The game reveals some key details of the plot in the common route, which I'm not used to but actually enjoyed. There will be things you know all along even though the female lead might take a while to learn them herself.The play order I recommend:Ryuki > Shelby > Gill > Raul > Allan > Secret Character**To be fair you actually have to play the secret character last, the game makes you play all the other characters first. Raul and Allan unlock after the first playthrough, but I still recommend this order regardless because of spoilers.I actually played Shelby first, then Ryuki, but otherwise this is the order I played. After playing the game I think Ryuki should have been first, just in terms of slowly revealing elements of the plot and preserving the intended tone/feel of each story.
