CUPID - A free to play Visual Novel

There are many stories about love, as well as plenty of movies and video games that ultimately resort to love as an explanation or reason for how things turn out in the end. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, but it’s awful when the plot is not solid enough. Visual novels are built around the plot, on the other hand, so it’s only reasonable to think that they can handle the subject much better.

CUPID - A free to play Visual Novel is an interactive story in which you get to listen to a sad tale of love and revenge, although it’s a lot more complicated than that. In short, you play the role of a woman trying to guide her daughter through a hard time, but you’re only a voice, not an actual physical presence. Hence, it’s more like you’re a guiding spirit instead.

The story revolves around an orphaned girl by the name of Rosa, who gets entangled in her best friend’s Catherine life. As it happens, Catherine dies, and it would appear that her fiance is to blame, or at least that what you keep telling Rosa as her mother. Your decisions affect the way Rosa approaches every situation, but that doesn’t necessarily mean you are in full control.

Because of this, Rosa can choose to ignore you if the decisions you make are always too mean or too hurtful. It takes a while to get to that point, but it’s worth noting that the characters have a tiny mind of their own, and you cannot just do your bidding as you wish. This may disappoint some players, but it makes sense from a narrative point of view.

As far as the actual gameplay is concerned, the mechanics are as straightforward as they can be, which means that all you have to do is click through the dialog and pick an option whenever you are presented with a decision. Thankfully, the graphics are very well designed, even if the backgrounds do not change very often, and some characters seem out of place.

In the end, CUPID - A free to play Visual Novel certainly has a strong story, and it’s even better that you get to influence it with your decisions. Hence, if you are a fan of the genre, this should definitely have a spot in your library.