Operation Backlog Completion 2026

Cupid Parasite: Sweet & Spicy Darling is a Fun Fandisc Follow-Up

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Feb 182026
 

Switch box art for Cupid Parasite: Sweet & Spicy DarlingFor Valentine’s Day last Saturday, I finally pulled Cupid Parasite: Sweet & Spicy Darling out of my backlog.

Back in 2022, I played and absolutely loved Cupid Parasite, an otome game in which the main character is literally Cupid and takes human form to prove she can help humans find love without her powers.

It is one of the funniest otome games I’ve ever played, and I loved the characters. I was thrilled when the fandisc, Sweet & Spicy Darling, was confirmed for localization.

(As a reminder, a fandisc is sort of like a sequel, but with lower stakes. I usually view it as a game to let the characters enjoy their happy endings.)

So, how does the fandisc hold up?

It’s not as funny as the main Cupid Parasite, but it’s still a wild ride with a lot of amusing and outrageous moments. Each of the six love interests has a story that takes place after his route from the original game, with various new conflicts the couples experience now that they’re together. Meanwhile, instead of standard good/bad endings, this fandisc uses a gimmick that’s in the title: each character has a sweet ending, a spicy ending, and a sweet & spicy ending, along with a couple others for certain characters.

The sweet & spicy endings are basically the best endings, the sweet endings are self-explanatory from the name (with the exception of Allan’s, whose sweet ending I found to be pretty sad), and the spicy endings are… insane.

Some were tamer than others, but most of the spicy endings had me once again asking, just like I did with the original Cupid Parasite, “Are you allowed to do this in a T-rated game?” One character even had an additional “bad spicy end” that’s actually locked behind multiple warnings before you’re allowed to see it. I’ve gotten the impression that some fans dislike how wild the spicy endings can get, but I found it to be fun. You really never know what might happen.

In addition to these six routes, there’s also a new love interest with a route of his own, one mini-route for a supporting character, and a small tease of what a route with the first game’s main antagonist could be like.

I found the new love interest to be quite likeable, a fine addition to the cast, and the mini-routes just left me hoping we actually do get a second fandisc that expands them into full routes. The biggest surprise for me was that I didn’t enjoy Allan’s route as much as I expected it to, mainly because it had more angst than I usually expect from a fandisc but also because Lynette’s attitude felt a little weird in this route at times.

Click for Sweet & Spicy Darling Allan Route spoilers
Lynette has become a demon so she can be with her incubus husband… and this is the route where she’s going to worry that sex doesn’t have value if they can’t have children? I understand the idea coming up because they’re not human, but it felt bizarrely out of place with the incubus context.

Overall, however, I enjoyed all the routes, even those of my less-preferred characters.

Some parts of Cupid Parasite: Sweet & Spicy Darling are pretty wild, but I enjoyed playing it, and I’d love to see a second fandisc someday. It was a perfect game for Valentine’s Day.

If you’ve played Cupid Parasite: Sweet & Spicy Darling, what did you think of it?

Detective Instinct: Farewell, My Beloved is a Great Indie Mystery Game

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Jan 192026
 

I’d been following news about the indie game Detective Instinct: Farewell, My Beloved for quite a while ahead of its launch, because it looks like my sort of game.

It came out near the end of November for PC and Switch, and when it recently went on sale, I decided to check it out.

You play as a young man on a college trip with your classmate and professor. On the train ride home, your classmate encounters a mysterious woman who soon vanishes without a trace – and everyone else on board claims she was never there. Disturbed by the incident, she comes to you, and the two of you team up to find the truth.

Now, I’m pretty sure Detective Instinct first came to my attention because of Ace Attorney, but it’s much closer in style to the Famicom Detective Club games. You have a menu from which you pick your actions, like talking to characters, inspecting things in the background, etc.

The first thing that stood out to me when I started playing was how high-quality it is. The character sprites especially, with their little animations as they talk, make it feel very polished.

It’s fairly straightforward, and I’d say it’s better to view it as less of an adventure game and more of a visual novel that occasionally quizzes you. There are a few moments when you need to decide what to do or solve a puzzle, but the majority of the game is spend simply talking to people to advance the story.

I found the story to be enjoyable, with enough little twists in the mystery to keep me wondering until near the end. There are also some nice funny moments, including a few optional ones, that had me smiling.

Overall, playing Detective Instinct left me with one thing: the hope that the developer will make a sequel, maybe with more involved detective gameplay this time around.

Either way, if you enjoy mysteries and the Famicom Detective Club style of gameplay, Detective Instinct: Farewell, My Beloved is worth checking out!

Iwakura Aria – A Strange, Beautiful Visual Novel

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Jan 122026
 

Near the end of 2024, PQube announced that they’d be publishing Iwakura Aria, a visual novel that caught my attention for how hauntingly beautiful it looked.

(And because the trailer had House in Fata Morgana vibes.)

Anyway, Iwakura Aria came out last year, and I eventually picked it up and played it as my first game of 2026.

Set in 1966 Japan, it follows a girl named Ichiko who gets a job as a maid working at the strange Iwakura mansion, where she’s quickly enchanted by the owner’s beautiful daughter, Aria. The story focuses on two main things: the blossoming romance between Ichiko and Aria, and the mysterious hints of disturbing secrets in the mansion.

It’s a visual novel, with choices that sometimes lead to different endings, but this is handled in a straightforward way. Choices either keep you on the main path or lead immediately to an early ending.

There’s also a slight gameplay element in that as Ichiko does her work as a maid, you can choose different rooms to visit for short scenes. Some are required, but the optional ones are worth checking for extra dialogue and sometimes hints about the story. I always visited each room twice to make sure I’d seen everything.

One thing that stands out the most to me about Iwakura Aria is the art. It’s beautiful. Only a handful of characters have sprites, and I wish there were more CGs, but it also sometimes uses black-and-white panels to present scenes, which I really liked the style of. Ichiko is also an artist and sometimes sketches things she sees, which I just wish they had done more with. My only real criticism of the visual presentation is that the font is tiny. That took a little getting used to.

The story gets fairly dark at times, although it also has a lot of lighthearted moments. The romance never completely convinced me, but the characters are likeable and I cared enough about them to root for their happiness in face of the increasingly dark events of the game.

It took me about 12 hours to beat, and I wish it had been longer, because I think some aspects of the story could have benefited from being fleshed out more and given greater attention. A handful of side stories unlocked as you play wrap up the remaining loose ends, but they’re so short they barely feel even like short stories, only a few paragraphs each, and they imply a final dark twist that I’m baffled was hidden away in side stories like this.

Click for major Iwakura Aria spoilers
To be clear, this is a romance. The true ending has Ichiko and Aria happy together and safe at last.

………and then the side stories strongly imply Aria is Ichiko’s mother and neither of them knew.

(I’ve seen plenty of visual novel routes that appear to be incest until the characters turn out not to be related, but this might be the first time I’ve seen one do it the other way around.)

I can’t even be too upset about it, because the audacity has me laughing. Why would you write a twist like that and only imply it through the side stories? It’s a bizarre twist to include in the first place, and hiding it away makes it even weirder. It almost feels like it was meant as a last-minute sucker punch so the game wouldn’t have a fully happy ending.

So that left me with mixed feelings on the ending and just generally asking, “But why?”

Bizarre though that was, I did enjoy the story after all.

Since I brought it up earlier, I’ll finish by returning to the comparisons between Iwakura Aria and The House in Fata Morgana. Overall, they are two very different visual novels. There were definitely a few moments and themes that made me think they must have been inspired by Fata Morgana (including one big similarity, but even that is fundamentally different), but for the most part the tone and approach are quite distinct. While they have some parallels, I wouldn’t go into it trying to make any 1:1 comparisons.

Overall, I’m happy I played Iwakura Aria. It’s a beautiful visual novel, and despite some strange decisions with the story, I enjoyed my time with it.

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