This is hands down one of the best otome games ever. And that it's free is mind blowing! Everything about the story, world-building, characters, graphics is amazing. Each route is vastly different so it doesn't feel repetitive at all, and you get to know more about different minor characters in each route. The characters grow, especially the MC, and everyone from minor characters to the MC and love interests are likable. The story is gripping and emotional (I was crying during multiple routes), and for someone who dislikes "bad endings", I even liked those. Even the good endings will make you cry. I will say Rumple's route felt the weakest (wasn't overly fond of him). Karma's was my favorite! And Varg deserved better.

You play as Lucette, crown princess of Angielle (great kingdom name!). She is not a well-loved princess though, as the villagers know her as the Ice Princess. She never smiles, hardly leaves her room, and is generally pessimistic. Who can blame her though, after her mother died four years ago during the Great War, and she’s never been close to her father, King Genaro.

Angielle is plagued by the Fairytale Curse which seems to be affecting more and more people lately, until it finally reaches Lucette. I’m sure you can guess which tale she’s cursed to live out. But it’s not the Cinderella we’re accustomed to. There’s no need for Lucette to infiltrate a royal ball and marry the prince. Her journey goes into the deeper themes of the story, so that she can learn a lesson about how she treats others.

Of course, being an otome game, there is a strong romance element with five eligible bachelors. Rod is Lucette’s step-brother who speaks through an enchanted stuffed rabbit. Fritz is her personal guard. Waltz is a boy she meets doing magic in the streets. Miss Karma is rumored to be a fairy. Finally, Rumpel who is also cursed and has no memories, including his name.

Cinderella Phenomenon does take on a bit of an adventure tone toward the end as Lucette and her friends plan to take back the kingdom from evil! Or die trying.

Visuals

Cinderella Phenomenon is gorgeous! I loved every single background and there’s a ton of them. We don’t stay in one location for too long, although we do revisit the same places throughout the story. It keeps moving so the scenes never felt stale. I also loved the character designs. Everyone has their own look and are easy to keep track of and tell apart. Parfait was by far my favorite!

The only thing I don’t like about Cinderella Phenomenon is how the “unimportant” characters have no faces. It’s quite distracting and a bit ugly against the beautiful backgrounds. I can understand saving resources by making them featureless…I don’t know. I didn’t like it.

Another small annoyance was how the scene would shake when characters were startled or taken aback. It is a nice touch, but it was used quite liberally. Way too often to be effective.

Sound Effects + Music

I love the background music in Cinderella Phenomenon. They’re mostly soothing piano and guitar tracks, and some are really great. I found myself leaving the game running the background when I wasn’t playing just to have the soundtrack going. Which is saying a lot, since I don’t generally like background noise.

The game does open with a catchy original theme song as well. That was fun and got me excited for what was to come!

There are other sound effects sprinkled through to add some depth. They’re pretty standard, nothing special to note.

Gameplay + Controls

Cinderella Phenomenon is a visual novel with no extra gameplay mechanics. You make decisions as the game progresses to get one of ten different endings. There’s a good and bad end for each of the five potential love interests. Simply click the decision you want, press enter to progress text.

There is an option for “Right Choice Indicator” which tells you if you’ve chosen the correct option to get a good ending. I turned it off, because I wanted to just play and be surprised. In fact, my first time through the story ended with a Bad End. Oops. I also wasn’t necessarily going for a good ending. I just went with the option that felt right to me in the moment.

I’m not really familiar with how visual novels calculate their endings, and I’m sure it varies. But after some exploring in game and continuously getting Karma’s Bad End, I consulted a guide to see what was required for the Good End. Apparently, you have to make ALL of the right choices. I had gotten 11 of 21, which is pretty terrible. Don’t let anyone tell you that visual novels are “easy.”

Replayability

Given that Cinderella Phenomenon has ten different endings, you’ll have many hours of play time to reach them all. Ten full playthroughs for a free game is impressive. My first full playthrough took about 4.5 hours, after which I immediately started popping into my saves to make different choices to find that Good End! It’s much harder than I anticipated to get a happy ending for Lucette!

So far I’ve gotten both endings for Karma. The bad end all on my own, and the good end using a guide. I think for the other routes I’ll turn the indicator on to help me out, because I do want to get the full stories!

Overall

I really enjoyed my time with Cinderella Phenomenon. It’s not the most original story, since fairy tale retellings and reimaginings are quite popular (at least in novels). But I found myself drawn to Lucette’s melting icy exterior, as well as the guys. I wanted to see her save her kingdom from the Fairytale Curse!

I'm amazed this game was completely free. Being my first otome game, I wasn't sure what to except but this blew me out of the water. The graphics were amazing. The background music wasn't distracting or out of place. I really loved the "curse" twist on the fairy tales I grew up reading. And finally, if not most importantly, the characters were all really great. The heroine had progressive steps to change that wasn't abrupt and off-putting and I felt myself growing to care of her more and more with each route I completed. I love how each route also included different stories (i.e. Rod's route got me to love Emelaigne and Karma's had me rooting for our favourite knights).

Overall I really enjoyed each route, but it's quite clear Waltz is meant to be canon. I played in the recommended order and I think that worked out great. Waltz should be last as his route tied up just about all of the loose ends of the other routes. Every single happy ending does come with its own fair share of tragedy or sadness though. The skip function was easy to use in order to get all of the bad endings and they were perfectly heartbreaking in each version. If I had to nitpick, I would have liked to have some voice acting.

✔️ Tested on Steam Deck, it works fine (20/11/2022). You'll need touchscreen for menu and choices, and 'A' button for advancing text. Also Steam button + 'X' shortcut will be needed to get the keyboard out and write the protagonist's name.

This is a decent example of how otomes can have an interesting and smart female protagonist without ruining the story or the genre itself. I'm still surprised this game is free; the music choice sounds really good and fits the scenes, the art is peculiar but beautiful (all the character designs including secondary ones look soooo good) and the story is actually engaging!

"The moment I became cursed might be the first moment I started truly living."

Cinderella Phenomenon is an otome visual novel game.
It's a well-written story with five potential love interests with good and bad endings for each.
It is definitely one of the best free to play visual novel games out here on steam.

The game is so well written. Each ending brings more snippets of the whole big picture,
and some are quite emotional and will get you weeping if you are someone who cries easily,
I know I shed a few tears for sure.

It's absolutely a must have game for all visual novel enjoyers,
and with the amazing price of totally FREE, I can't recommend this game enough.
Play it, play it, PLAY IT!

adoro a ideia, o fato da heroine ser uma arrombada filha da puta e o processo dela perceber o quão abusiva era a relação com a mãe (e claro, o crescimento dela como pessoa). os garotos... meh. fritz e waltz são os que mais apelaram pra mim, apesar de eu achar o waltz um pouco Namorado Mágico demais (o que é irônico pra um jogo transbordando magia). rod é fofo mas o desgosto plausível dele pela heroine me fez sentir rejeitada, e nem vou me dar ao trabalho de falar dos outros garotos. também não gosto muito da arte.

Ś𝔩𝔦𝔠𝔷𝔫𝔦𝔲𝔱𝔨𝔞 𝔡𝔞𝔯𝔪𝔬𝔴𝔞 𝔤𝔯𝔞 𝔒𝔱𝔬𝔪𝔢

Cinderella Phenomenon jest jednym z tych tytułów, które śmiało można polecić fanom Visual Novel.

Podczas gry wcielamy się w bohaterkę o imieniu Lucette,
chłodną i oszczędną w życzliwość księżniczkę królestwa Angielle.
Już na początku historii zostaje rzucona na nas baśniowa klątwa,
wskutek czego pamięć o nas zostaje wymazana.
Schronienie znajdujemy w Marchen, prostej knajpie,
która jak się później okazuje, jest domem dla ludzi z owymi baśniowymi klątwami.
Od teraz razem z wybranym przez nas chłopakiem, mamy za zadanie przełamać naszą klątwę
i pomóc partnerowi zaniechać swojej, co przez nadciągające wydarzenia nie będzie prostym zadaniem.


+ na plus
- Oprawa graficzna.
Bardzo dobrze zrobione tła, cieszące oko arty, ładny design postaci.
- Muzyka.
Przyjemna dla ucha, dobrze dopasowana między momentami.
- Fabuła.
Zdecydowanie oryginalna, wciągająca i co najważniejsze ma sens.
- Cena
No, w końcu jest darmowa.


- na minus
- Powtarzalność.
Pomimo tego, że bohaterowie różnią się od siebie, ścieżki są podobne.
Mamy tutaj dużo tych samych dialogów i scen.
Kiedy chce się przejść ścieżkę każdego dżentelmena i zdobyć wszystkie osiągnięcia,
gra zaczyna się robić nudna.


Podsumowując, bardzo dobry tytuł, wizualnie, fabularnie jak i dźwiękowo.
Kiedy ktoś nudzi się robiąc 100% na grze,
idzie mu z pomocą magiczny przycisk ,,skip" i leci się po samych wyborach.
Bardzo serdecznie zachęcam do gry, zaznaczając, że jest za darmo.

Now this is a type of game I'd never thought I'd play. It's an Otome, a visual novel where you get to pick which hunky boy you want to romance. In this case you play as a bratty princess who is cursed so no one remembers who she is, with the exception of other cursed victims. All of the characters are based off of a classic fairy tale character, in a Once Upon a Time sort of way. In all there are five different men you can make out with, but some of the options are... not great. Your initial choices are the cringy Casanova type, a holier-than-thou narcissist, or your step-brother; and your step-brother is honestly the best of the three. The story is actually pretty fleshed out, especially for the two unlockable characters, but you do end up playing it start to finish five different times, once for each dude, which can get repetitive. Given that the romance is the big draw to this game, it's unfortunate that I just don't believe she'd ever fall for some of these suitors, however this game is pretty well done, and most importantly free, so I would recommend giving it a look.