Cinderella Phenomenon

Fairy tale retellings are a popular plot point in a huge variety of games, books, and movies. It’s been done so often in so many different ways, it seems unlikely that yet another retelling could be fresh and different. Cinderella Phenomenon manages it however, in a visual novel based off of fairy tales.

If you’ve played developer Dicesuki’s other game, Locked Heart, you’ll know that retelling fairy tales is a favorite for them. This time instead of a horror however, they’re striking out for love. Despite being another retelling however, this visual romance still manages to be unique.

An interesting main

The first thing you may notice about the game when you start playing is your character’s attitude. In many romances, there’s at least once cold-hearted character your goal is to somehow that out. In Cinderella Phenomenon, the cold-hearted character is a female—and also it’s you.

Your goal in the game isn’t just to romance one of the datable characters, but also to thaw out yourself. This makes an interesting dynamic to the game.

Artwork

Visual novels need to have some pretty impressive artwork, because that’s essentially the point of the game. Cinderella Phenomenon takes our breath away with highly detailed backgrounds, rich characters, and a generally beautiful environment. The developers were great about taking suggestions from Locked Heart and using it to improve this game, and it really shows.

The Story

In short, the main storyline focuses on the balance and power of faeries, and the curses they can bring. You’ll see many familiar curses from different faerie tales, all of which are credited to Grimms faerie tales. A tiny flaw in this is that two of the faerie tales actually aren’t from Grimm at all.

The main character, Lucette, is placed under a curse and must find a way to break her curse while also romancing one of the datable characters. Although the graphics are not as good, Reflections ~Dreams and Reality~ has a similar fantasy feel to it.

Not very natural progression

The one flaw of this game is that you don’t drift towards a specific partner naturally. Instead, you choose the partner who you plan to date at the beginning of the game. You then go through the quest to break your curse while also helping them break theirs, and hopefully finding love along the way.

This isn’t necessarily a drawback if you don’t care about such things, but a more natural progression would have been a bit more enjoyable. Not all of the characters are as rich and deep as they could be. A few characters feel very flat, while others have more detailed personalities.

Pros:

• Great artwork
• An interesting story

Cons:

• No natural romance