NekoPara Vol. 3 (PC) Review

A POV scene where the protagonist gazes upon two of his neko cuties while helping them out with their personal hygiene, and the text underneath is this: "I'm being hugged by master as he clips my nails, this is the best, meow!" If that sounds cute and/or sexually arousing to you, and if 5+ hours more of this thing feels like a dream, then NEKOPARA Vol. 3: My Parents Hate Me Edition (just kidding) is the perfect kinetic visual novel for you.

It's somewhat longer, slightly naughtier at times, and instead of focusing more on only a couple of cat girls, the long-term fan will actually get a chance to taste them all (yuk!), albeit in somewhat smaller doses. Furthermore, typical of the developer, it all looks pretty good, cute, and vibrantly colourful; the E-Mote system is even better than before, especially when it comes to… 3D characters, such as the busty and pervy Cinnamon; the voice acting is decent-to-good; and, generally, fans will have a blast.

What if you are not a fan, though? What if you are just willing to try this out, and look at it as objectively as possible? Well, for starters, it's surprisingly long for what's on offer, which is nekos doing neko stuff. Secondly, while a supposed blend of romance and comedy, you won't really laugh here, as the shenanigans of the girls are mostly cute, not funny - even less so than the previous ones, in fact. As for the "romance," well… meh - just a couple of scenes that show a little more skin than usual, and that's it.

If someone were to judge this solely on its erotic "qualities," it would still be hard to be positive about it. First, because it's a piece of fetish that just relies on the existence of nekos instead of cleverly written naughty dialogues or suggestive scenes and situations, and, second, because it's hard to get… excited with characters that look like children. In fact, Coconut remains the only character that won't ignite any feelings of awkwardness amongst non-fans, because, despite her cuteness, she feels… adult.

In conclusion, yours truly tried to show "mercy" in the previous instalments, yet the same won't happen here. NEKOPARA Vol.3 is an extremely long and boring visual novel that can be described as a mix of YouTube cat videos and porn, but one that lacks the fun of the first, and the… err, powers of arousal of the second. Moreover, while pretty much the same game all over again, it's less funny, and - gasp! - even less cute than the previous episodes.