I got to play this game around last month while I was
grinding to tier on UtaPri Shining Live. Lately, grinding on SL can range from
taxing to tedious, or both. To lessen the feel of that burden, I play it in front of my PC and either play a visual novel or read manga online at the same time.
Supposedly, I was to review Amnesia -Memories- because that was
the otome game that I played after Nicole, to which was the last game that I did
a review in this blog. When I finally found the motivation to write a blog
post, I found myself wanting to make a write up on Cinderella Phenomenon. I do
have to warn you that I still feel a bit lazy, so I’m just putting it out there that
the game synopsis and character descriptions are copy-pasted from this site. The
rest will be my own opinions, so yeah.
I am also going to letting you know that I will talk about some stuff that may or may not be spoilers for the reader, so (mild) Spoilers Ahead!
Synopsis:
Four years after the end of the Great War and the loss of her mother, Crown Princess Lucette of Angielle is still struggling to come to terms with her new life and step-family. Cold-hearted and bitter, Lucette fails to recognize the suffering of those around her as she is consumed by grief and resentment. But when Lucette’s life is once again turned upside down by the Fairytale Curse, she is thrown into a battle to regain her crown in a fractured kingdom where nothing is as it seems…
My Take:
Let me clarify that the order of characters and their respective routes are accorded to the
guide that I followed. Before, I would go after guys’ routes based on how I
like them at face value. Recently, I search around the internet for route order
recommendations as there was one time I nearly got spoiled with in-game events.
Ever since then, I follow guide recommendations – usually the ones I find are
spoiler-free which still allows you to enjoy unfolding of events.
In this game, the first character I would like to introduce would be Karma, and I honestly thought that
his name was kind of off for a guy’s name, but found that it's aptly justified when you play his
route. Out of all the characters, he is the most interesting for me and thus he
is my favorite out of all the available guys to go after. One of his quirky
habits is how he dresses up as a transvestite which may seem off-putting, but
trust me that there is a reason for that one.
His curse can be somewhat confusing to guess as he is rather
reluctant to say what it is, but how it unfolded was rather enjoyable. His
narcissism can be pretty hilarious and I greatly enjoyed how he flaunts his
beauty around. It’s ironically funny how he holds himself as the prettiest when he himself
dislikes being treated like a woman (and Rumpel’s initial advances for that
matter).
To be honest, I had thought that I would place him as second or
third in terms of ranking the guys. I initially had my eye on Rumpel because he
looked a lot like Ren Jinguji of UtaPri. I already was starting to like him
because of his attitude, but my heart stopped when I saw this particular CG later on his story route.
Moving on, the next character is Rumpel. If you are familiar with
Rumpelstiltskin’s fairy tale, then guessing what his curse is will be easy. He
is the oldest out of all the guys (I think) and I found his route was the least
I liked, which was disappointing. As previously stated, I liked him first
because, as already mentioned, I was playing UtaPri SL alongside playing this
game and he looked a lot like Ren Jinguji (with glasses), my favorite character
in the UtaPri franchise.
Surprisingly, Rumpel even has the same player personality that Ren
has, but sadly the character designer/story writer wasn’t able to capture the
same charm that Ren exudes. Whenever Ren
turns on his charm, I feel giddy and feel like a teenager; when Rumpel flirts,
I often cringe and sometimes want to smack him (to which Karma has the same
sentiments as I do). I know that I’m comparing him to Ren too much and I
understand that the two of them are different, but Rumpel just falls short on
this aspect for me.
Next is Rod who resembles Wolfram von Bielefeld from Kyou Kara
Maou! in a lot of ways. He is a tsundere (like Wolfram is) and has the mermaid’s
curse. I find him okay, and although I find his route cute and all, I didn’t
like his “happy” end. I know this may seem unfair, but I can’t say much about
him to be honest. His character appealed the least to me, and his saving grace
was his story route (to which the “happy” end kind of ruined).
The fourth character would be Fritz, and to this day I’m still
wondering from which anime his character design spawned from. He has the Red
Riding Hood curse and I find him very interesting character-wise. Initially
going through the first three routes mentioned above would already give you
hints on what to expect with his story route, and honestly it was fascinating
to go through – next only to Karma’s that is. I have to say, though, that his
story route is also the most devastating. There are so many deaths involved, no
matter whether you end up with the Bad or Happy ending.
Last but not least is Waltz, my second favorite, whose character
design seems like a combined version of Kaname Kuran and Zero Kiryu of Vampire
Knight (I can barely remember the plot and characters of this anime rofl). He
has the Peter Pan curse and has the best story route overall. His character and
story development have that real feeling of a “happily ever after” ending out
of all the characters that I seem to think the game developers are slightly
biased towards him – he alone has this CG with Lucette as a scene transition lol.
As for Lucette, the female protagonist, I find her quite
relatable. For the most part of the game, she is wary, cautious, and very
cynical to which I think are normal feelings of people in a general sense. I
found her reactions to strangers very normal as opposed to being kind and
inherently good as a main character. Don’t get me wrong though – I think that being kind and good is still a good formula to be a like-able main
character.
I just think that Lucette’s traits are a breath of fresh air and
she’s in quite a nice place to be for character development. Admittedly, there
were times that I was frustrated with her naivete. I do find her relatable in
some ways, but I am usually assertive when it comes to a lot of things. While
playing, I found myself frowning at her indecisiveness and other decisions, or
lack thereof.
For the game's artwork, I think it could still be improved but over-all it’s pretty good.
Personally, I have no talent when it comes to art and drawing (honestly, the
most I can do are stick figures) but the art is definitely above decent. I find
the similarities to other anime characters flattering rather than offensive.
As stated earlier I played this game while playing UtaPri Shining
Live which is a rhythm game on mobile, so I’m not able to review on the OST of
this otome game. Also, there is no voice over for the characters and their
respective dialogues for those who are wondering.
Choosing who you want to end up with is pretty simple, and it doesn’t
really require a complicated elimination process as you get to pick which character
route you want right after the prologue ends. It’s interesting in itself
because the stories of all the characters are not the same as soon as you hit
chapter one. I believe that this is the only way that the game as a whole doesn’t
go stale as you switch routes whenever you’re finished with a character.
The story routes have no branching-off multiple results depending
of the choices you make. However, the choices (usually there are two or three
for each prompt) generate different responses from characters depending on what
choice you make, and it acts like a tally on a board whether you’re going to
end up on the Happy or Bad ending. As you go through each story, you have no
way of knowing where you’re going to end up as there is no indicator of the
choices made. You’ll just have to wait and see when chapter ten (the final
chapter) comes.
Overall, this is good game to play as visual novel/otome games go.
Honestly, I was quite surprised that this is a crowd-funded FREE game on Steam.
They certainly put a lot of effort in, and, albeit the game has some room for
improvements, I sincerely have no complaints. The twist in the fairy tales were
interesting and I loved how there was little to no revelations of how each
character got their curse – it simply made me want to play the next story route
after finishing one. I have to say that the Dicesuki team knows what they’re
doing in order to come up with a visual novel/otome game like this, and I wish
them luck on their next project(s).
If you have time to play, I do recommend this game. It’s free so you
won’t lose anything ^_^
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