Pairs

Pairs

Jellyfish Parade · 2017 · Free to Play, Indie, Simulation, Visual Novel

PC
Mostly Positive76% · 41
This game is free to play. Get it on Steam →

Screenshots

About Pairs

Pairs is a free visual novel. It was originally created for a game jam called NaNoRenO between March 1st and April 2nd. In October 2017, it was remastered with additional sprites, new dialogue and a marked lack of typos for release on Steam. Hopefully. We hope that you enjoy this version of the game!

Story:

Invaders from the stars come to conquer planet Earth, attempting to add the blue marble into it's vast network of conquered planets on their quest to rule over the known, weak universe. In an attempt to protect itself, humans around the world begin to manifest superhuman powers beyond the imagination, powers strong enough to combat their alien foes. Three generations later, the war wages on with the Naian forces showing no sign of let up....

But that is not the focus of our story.

Our story begins with four protagonists in pairs-- two couples who are dealing with largely different issues unique to their world.
  • Lek Noiya, heir to the Naian throne and a product of her violent culture, craves a human heart-- or a human's loyalty with her foot on his back.
  • James Zhang, a somewhat non-descript young man who seems a little too nonchalant about dating the daughter of Earth's sworn enemy, perhaps because he has an ulterior motive that's worth risking everything for.
  • Carmelita Brown, a superhuman trainee preparing for her life as a Certified Hero, dealing with the fact she's not sure how she feels about her decision for her best friend to become her boyfriend-- or the fact that despite it being her life passion, she's not as good as hero work as she'd like to be.
  • Ricardo Fernandez, Carmelita's fellow trainee and childhood best friend, a young man who excels at hero work but struggles with his unsure motivations for becoming a hero-- and the idea that staying by Carmelita's side is worth it when lately, she's been so cold towards him...


How will these relationships pan out?

Only time will tell in Pairs.

Features:
  • 2 distinct couple storylines with four protagonists: Noiya and James, Carmelita and Ricardo
  • 8 different endings, two for each protagonist
  • Roughly 70,000 words
  • Original Soundtrack with 7 unique tracks

What Steam players say

Recent verbatim reviews from Steam — separate from playze.io community reviews below.

Not recommended Mar 23, 2025
Pairs is not a game, it's an e-book that's been dumped on Steam masquerading as a game. As a visual/interactive novel, this doesn't feature any notable gameplay, it's just a lot of clicking through badly written dialogue that would never have been accepted or published in print, which poses the question, "How did something this badly written end up on Steam?". When someone hoping to become an author is unable to get published in print, they spend $100 and dump their high school fan-fiction onto Steam, under the guise of a game. This is your usual high school anime club dropout fan-fiction about the developers imaginary girlfriend, but the (cringey, awful) writing has the backdrop of an alien invasion, so I guess a little imagination went into something apart from the imaginary girlfriend. Not much, however, and of course this is some of the cringiest fan-fiction writing you'll ever have the displeasure of seeing if you make the mistake of downloading this tripe. Visual novels/e-books are tedious at best... imagine the best novel you ever read, be that Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy or 2001: A Space Odyssey or Twilight (if you have terrible taste in literature), but then tran…
1 found this helpful
Not recommended Oct 19, 2021
unique & nice UI but lack CG, it's the most important things in VN...
1 found this helpful
Not recommended Jan 14, 2026
It's... alright? Thing is, I hated half of it. James and Kitten are adorable and I liked their story despite the lack of resolution (that think James is secretely pursuing by dating Kitten? [spoiler]resurrecting his parents[/spoiler] ? he forgets it along the way) (he also skips hours of work per day with no consequences, but whatever) but I couldn't stand Ricardo, best friend turned boyfriend. His whining was annoying and his romance made me uncomfortable, both in his pov and Carmelita's. Them dating felt forced and the only good ending, in my eyes, was the "bad" one where [spoiler]they break up and go their separate way (I wish they'd went back to being friends, but this was the second healthiest option)[/spoiler]. She says she doesn't hate touching him, but it sure feels like she does ; and even [i]if[/i] she doesn't hate touching him - was a non-traditional route, with contactless romance, too much to ask? Also, no CGs isn't always a problem but I did miss them here, there's literally nothing visually interesting besides sprites... Not to mention the sprites, while pretty, were way too normal. "Kitten has such alien features", says James, but really she's just "pretty girl bu…
Recommended Nov 2, 2025
Игра "Pairs" - это простая, но увлекательная головоломка, которая идеально подходит для коротких перерывов или для развлечения в дороге. Механика очень понятна: нужно искать одинаковые карточки на игровом поле и убирать их. Несмотря на кажущуюся простоту, игра требует концентрации и хорошей памяти, особенно на более высоких уровнях, где количество карточек значительно увеличивается. Мне нравится минималистичный дизайн и приятное звуковое сопровождение, которые не отвлекают от игрового процесса. Игра хорошо оптимизирована и работает плавно на моем устройстве. Возможность выбора различных тем оформления карточек добавляет немного разнообразия. Единственный минус, который я могу отметить, это отсутствие каких-либо глобальных таблиц лидеров или возможностей для онлайн-соревнований с другими игроками. Это немного снижает мотивацию для долгосрочной игры, но в целом, "Pairs" - это достойная игра для тех, кто ищет что-то простое, но захватывающее для тренировки памяти. Рекомендую!
Recommended Jul 29, 2025
[h1] …
Recommended May 22, 2021
This was a unique setup for a visual novel. There are 2 couples and the player can choose which person in each couple to play as. You experience the same relationship from both sides. I completed one ending each for James and Noiya's routes. There were lots of cute and funny moments as they tried to figure out how a human/Naian relationship could work (RIP flower truck). Noiya's route had a heartbreaking line that made me walk away from my computer. I didn't see the twist in Noiya's bad end coming. Great job making me sad. Big thumbs up.

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