Playing the Tsundere -- Cinderella Phenomenon
Entry posted by Mr Poltroon
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Like all other Otome games I've played, this game has an ongoing mystery and a plot, and so I'd actually recommend the following route order:
- Rod
- Karma
- Rumpel
- Fritz (locked at start)
- Waltz (locked at start)
Turns out this is also the order the developers recommend. Such a shame I only noticed this today, after having already played it.
Common Route (Light Spoilers):
One idea I've always found interesting is the idea of having a Tsundere be a protagonist. Not those cheap Tsunderes who are only violent to hide their embarrassment. I mean the real Tsunderes who, for one reason or another, have a distaste for people and are generally verbally or physically aggressive towards most others. Do not take 'Tsundere' to be a degrading term that marks the protagonist as a simple 2D cut-out with no real personality. A person may be a Tsundere for any number of reasons. That is what 'depth' is. Her motivations, desires and thoughts are what makes her a character, and not simply the way she acts.
Lucette is called 'Ice Princess' by the denizens of her Kingdom, due to her icy cold heart. That should give you an idea of what kind of protagonist we're dealing with. Because of this protagonist, however, the story was truly unique to read through. It is not often that one gets to see the inner workings of a Tsundere, and I was astonished by how mean she was to everybody, and how selfish she seemed. Towards the start of the game, I quite disliked Lucette, but it's interesting to note this dynamic: Seeing a Tsundere from the outside makes me want to gain her trust, become her friend, melt her cold interior. But seeing her from inside her own head? Knowing her thoughts and thought processes? More often than not I was sad or mad at her. How could she be so... not good?
Regardless, this common route also contained most of the funnier moments of the game. It's always interesting to see Lucette dishing out the sass and verbal abuse, and she even has worthy rivals in the sarcasm department. There's also something quite charming about a Princess struggling with a broom.
A number of characters are introduced during the common route.
Parfait is an incredibly powerful person that, unfortunately, overworks herself to no end, and this is reflected in her sprite, being the most sickly-looking character in the cast. I actually really like that they were able to convey this tidbit through the character sprite. She is a very good person, which makes it all the more hilarious when her honesty lets slip certain scathing comments about people.
Delora is perhaps Lucette's only true rival in vitriol, though perhaps without any real ill-intent. Capable, witty, and, most infuriatingly of all, generally right.
Waltz is a young boy that does puppet shows in the streets, gathering tips in the process. Also known as resident nice guy.
Karma is a person whose narcissism is immense, comparable only to their apparent laziness.
Rod is Lucette's step-brother, who has generally avoided interacting with her.
Fritz is Lucette's personal knight and perhaps the only person she doesn't actively degrade. What a feat.
Rumpel is an amnesiac. He is also an unparalleled flirt. One of the main sources of comedy in this story.
(From here on, spoilers in spoilers, silly)
Rod's Route:
Rod's route is the route which least delves into the real intrigue of the story. For this reason, it is the recommended route to start with.
In this route, Lucette ends up working at the castle, as a maid. She believes that undoing the 'evil' she did towards her family will give her the three good deeds she needs.
Well... pretty much.
We quickly find out how intense Rod truly is, and I liked this personality of his. He doesn't mince his words and is upfront about everything... while simultaneously contradicting himself so frequently. He was always so determined in his actions and decisions. At the start, Rod truly believed that Lucette was irredeemable and that her absence made his family much happier. Over time, though, Lucette's exposure to her ever-cheerful but nevertheless troubled step-sister made them become real friends, and alleviate Emelaigne's concerns.
As a side note, I believe this had actually relatively little to do with Lucette herself. I'm sure that if just about anyone else were appointed to be Emelaigne's personal maid, and they didn't actively shy away from her, they would have served just as well to make Emelaigne happy.
This route, as should be no surprise, focuses on Lucette's family; those she used to scorn and refused to open her heart to. By staying with them, and truly learning how much they care for others with very little to gain from showing such care, Lucette learns that they are genuine in their feelings. By seeing how her step-sister, the one who she had always assumed to be vying for the throne, was truly troubled by her role as the Crown Princess, Lucette learns that her family had no ill-intentions in being kind to her, and regretted having rejected them.
I loved this, of course. From the moment I started this VN seeing how Lucette made up with her family was one of my most anticipated moments, and I was not disappointed. They're all such good folks.
Rod is one of two characters I didn't actually care to romance. Whilst his shyness was cute, as well as the interactions with his plushie, I didn't feel that they had a romantic bond as much as a familiar one, and the 'incest' didn't do much for me, either.
Mythros shows up in this route, and I liked how his actual motive was left hanging. If at the point I played this route I didn't already know what he wanted, this might have been a pretty good tease for the mystery.
I just feel bad for the writer. Writing 'Emelaigne' so many times must have been hard.
Karma's Route:
In this route we're given some pieces of the puzzle, but are left mostly in the dark.
Karma has an interesting personality. Sometimes he looks like he's seducing the protagonist, other times he's pushing her away. He may only be cross-dressing, but he's got those mood swings down pat.
He is one of the love interests who I felt had proper chemistry with our protagonist, due to how similar they were. This noble is unused to labour, so avoids it all costs. His personality is not exactly the epitome of virtue, and the circumstances behind his curse are similar to the princess'.
Since I'm a sucker for Beauty and the Beast I was also a sucker for this route. No surprise there. The revelation caught me off-guard, though. Guess I missed the blatant foreshadowing.
Like Rod's, this route also focuses on certain side characters, and, also like Rod's, these are some of my favourites: The exiled knights.
Since I liked their personalities I liked knowing more about them. I'm also astonished they went ahead and made them into a couple. Visual Novels don't do nearly enough of that. Are the writers afraid creating couples other than with the protagonist will shatter all the players dreams? Thank you for daring, writers. Immensely satisfying.
Also, Lucette learns how to use a sword. Cooool.
This route also focuses more on Alcaster, and herein lies another strength of the story: It's like playing a randomized match. You never quite know how things will turn out. Will Mythos come out on top? Alcaster? They seem like equally possible possibilities.
Rumpel's Route:
This route throws all the pieces at our face and then doesn't do anything with them. It's great for teasing stuff, I guess.
For the love of god, don't start with this one.
Rumpel's route is my first route, and may be because of that my favourite of the bunch. All the mysteries, Lucette's character growth, the plot, everything hit me at once. More importantly, Rumpel's a sweetheart.
He's the character I think has the most chemistry with Lucette, mostly to how dissimilar they are to one another. Whereas Rumpel doomed himself by being too nice, Lucette was the polar opposite. This makes them both fit to learn from each other: Lucette learning how to do good, Rumpel learning how to care for himself. Seeing them help each other, as two non-combatants, is the sweetest thing.
Despite spoiling more things, it's also more disconnected than other routes. Rumpel's story had nothing to do with anything, but it makes for a great mystery, trying to figure out the truth behind our Chevalier.
We also learn Mythos' motive this time around. Oooh, tease.
My favourite romance in the whole Visual Novel.
Fritz's Route:
I really like knights. There's something about servitude and dedication... Wait, that doesn't sound good for a healthy relationship.
I hope you weren't a fan of Varg, because he got shafted. ...I think? Didn't actually read the bad end.
This route focuses on Varg. And not enough on Fritz. Who is Varg.
I didn't like Varg and I liked Fritz a lot, so I kept wishing that Fritz would open his eyes to reality and kick Varg's arse. Lucette didn't trust Fritz enough, either.
Yes. I'm pouting in this route because I liked Fritz a lot but he was a spineless idiot most of the time. He looked like a VN protagonist, only pulling out a cool moment towards the end.
But I liked Fritz a lot, so I also liked this route. The end.
Okay. It was also pretty cool to see Lucette's mother and to see Lucette dawn on the realisation that she wasn't as nice as she remembered. It's also among the worst endings for everybody. Sucks to be everyone else, I guess.
Waltz's Route:
The culmination of everything. Highly recommended that you read all else first. It will definitely better your experience.
Waltz's route is perhaps the most interesting, in the way that it builds on the foundation of what the previous routes have laid out. Lucette does not fall into any of the traps she does in other routes: She doesn't leave her allies, they tell her the truth early on, she doesn't believe Mythos, she doesn't believe her Mother, she manages to help Waltz with his curse, etc.
And yet things still go wrong sometimes. Still, I wasn't a fan. Despite being supposedly weaker, Lucette's mother in the route was just as troublesome and killed just about as much as when she had her full power in Fritz's route. Unfair.
I also didn't buy into Waltz's and Lucette's relationship. I'm all for they being friends, though.
But the story is good enough to circumvent that, and finding out the final pieces of the puzzle is pretty interesting.
Cinderella Phenomenon's greatest feat is perhaps how the story forms a coherent whole. It is a story of stories, and in each of those stories different characters are given the spotlight. This makes it so that, by the end of the entire experience, you have had an opportunity to know everyone, and bond with everyone. Each route is as if a chessboard were laid out with only slightly a different arrangement of the pieces, and we, once again, watch the game slowly play out. At the start, we don't know anything about the other pieces or the board. But as we play through the routes we start learning where the other pieces are, and what they are. We become capable of telling in which direction the game is going, but we have precious little control over it. Lucette may be the protagonist, but we do not truly command her.
It's precisely this feeling of wanting to unravel the mysteries that could become a weakness. I failed to follow the recommended route order and started with Rumpel. Unfortunately for me, Rumpel's route reveals far more of the setting than the other two routes available at the start. While this made Rumpel's route extremely satisfying as my initial experience, it is now hard for me to tell if starting with Rod's route would have made the overall experience more satisfying.
As I said, though, each route tries to tackle different characters and turns of events, meaning that even if you know a lot about the overall mystery, there's always little mysteries and backstory to find in each route that you'll come across in no other.
But I'll be honest. The main reason I read this story, as with most others I read, was for the romance. This game delivered.
Because Lucette is a Tsundere, these are some of my favourite romance stories: melting the ice queen. With cute and kissing CGs to go with them, each romantic interest had a dynamic with our protagonist. I felt some had more chemistry with her, but that is likely just me and others would think differently. The romance is not always the focus, but it is there, and it makes me happy.
And so, by mixing all of the events together, by knowing everybody's stories and ambitions we can choose the perfect story for ourselves. Who did she end up with? With whom did she interact? None of the events is necessarily stuck to any one route, and the possibilities are limitless. If you're willing to, you can imagine your own perfect world, in which you decide what Lucette and those around her did, and how the events unfolded.
If I were to come up with a negative, then it'd be that the choices have no rhyme or reason to them. I didn't even notice I had made the wrong choices until suddenly everything was dead and I got an achievement for it. Thankfully, they have a system specifically for preventing this, so you don't have to consult external guides to get a good ending, and it can even be quite interesting to see how dialogue changes depending on your choice.
Speaking of negatives, the Common Route is an essential component of the story. What this means is that your first route will be better specifically because you can better judge the main character's character growth. Once you finish the first route, if you skip the common route, you'll have 'forgotten' how Lucette was at the start of story, and her growth as a character won't be as vivid and heart-warming in future routes.
P.S. I've had this post sitting as a blog Draft for over a week. Only know did I get to finish leaving a few spoiler comments (You can probably tell which ones by how much I don't remember any more).
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