Cupid Parasite: Sweet And Spicy Darling Review

After trying out Amnesia Later x Crowd, I was very interested to see what type of add-on content they could add to the Cupid Parasite game in that same vein. Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling is similar but more than what Later x Crowd gave us.

Game Name: Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling
Platform(s): Nintendo Switch (Reviewed)
Developer(s): Idea Factory/ Design Factory
Publisher(s): Idea Factory International
Release Date: May 28th, 2024
Price: $49.99

Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling leaves off where Cupid Parasite ended. You are Cupid, and your five advisees, known as the parasites, have either finished and left the Cupid Corp program or are currently your true love. You can select any of the love interests in the first game to see their epilogue or you can dismiss all of them in favor of a new parasite, the destiny parasite.

The Good

Right off the bat, you get three different choices laid at your feet when you fire up Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling. One choice is to choose a parasite from the first game and go through an adventure with them as a newly married couple. Luckily before you get to Chapter 1 you will get a whole explanation as to the relationship between your character, Cupid, and them. It does a great job of showing you both perspectives and how they fell in love. Each character gets one of these in their after stories. It isn’t necessary to play the first game but I would strongly encourage it.

One of the routes in the first game is when you choose none of the five parasites to romance and they all leave the Cupid Corp program. The second choice in Sweet and Spicy Darling is going after a new love interest, Merenice Levin, also known as the Destiny Parasite. Merenice Levin is a fortune teller who gets bored of knowing how things end, so he gets interested once he meets Cupid since he can not see her fortune. Honestly, Merenice has such an interesting premise as a character and he is written and voiced well.

The third choice won’t let you select anything until you finish one of the routes in the first mode. Once you finish one of the character’s after-wedding routes, you get to select up to three different short stories that relate to that particular love interest. This game expands a lot on the characters and their pasts. Not just the love interests but other characters that surround Cupid.

I love the way the flow chart looks in this game. Each chapter is represented by a donut. The choices are shown through forks in the route. If you select a specific choice, you can see how it connects away from the other plots in the game. In the After stories with the love interests of the first game, there is a gauge for Spicy and Sweet. The best endings are usually achieved by having a balance between these two.

They went all in on making Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling a more mature Otome game. Now that you have begun with an already chosen love interest, there are a lot more areas that you and your partner can develop, not just emotionally but sexually.

The art for the CG scenes and overall is beautiful. Each character is visually unique and distinct. There is a lot of emotion you can grab from some of these artworks. They also have a good view of dynamic art when it is used in a fun way.

The Bad

The part of Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling that probably annoyed me the most was the menu designs. When selections came up in the game, I sometimes wouldn’t even notice there was a choice to be made. They blend in with the artwork so well that you weren’t sure if something was a cursor or just a background detail. When I paused even the pause menu was all over the place.

I hate comparing this game to its predecessor but in this case, I think it makes sense. Cupid Parasite lets us have a lot of moments with your character, Cupid and we get to see a lot more of her strengths and reasonings for why she does what she wants. We get a small glimpse of that in this game, but overall, most of her desires are overtaken by her love interests in this game. Lynette was one of the big highlights of Cupid Parasite and how she wanted to live her life to spite her father’s best wishes. Cupid Parasite Sweet and Spicy Darling have reduced her motivations and desires in an attempt to give more of the game’s story over to the men in her life. I think this is more of a nitpick on my part with how often I play Otome games but I love having main characters that diversify themselves from the competition. Cupid did that a lot in the first game. Not as much in this one.

The Verdict

Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling truly lives up to its name. It has a lot of spicy moments in the game. It gives you a lot more time and experience with the main cast of Cupid Parasite, but it also gives you a fantastic addition to Merenice in the game. My favorite parasite was Shelby in the first game and having competition with Merenice was something I was not expecting. They did a fantastic job with the newly added parasite and how his worldview could change. I loved my time with the game but also would not recommend this game unless you played the original Cupid Parasite.

Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling will be available on May 28th, 2024 on Nintendo Switch.

Review Disclosure Statement: Cupid Parasite: Sweet and Spicy Darling was provided to us by Idea Factory International for review purposes. For more information on how we review video games and other media/technology, please review our Review Guideline/Scoring Policy.

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