Cinders

Truly one of the most whelming games I've ever played. To be fair to Cinders, it's a visually gorgeous game (especially the backgrounds), and the art still holds up very well over a decade after the game's release. But the writing just doesn't match up to it at all. It's rarely outright terrible, but instead thoroughly mediocre almost the whole time. The whole thing reads like an outline of the events that happen; characters outright state their actions and motivations constantly, removing almost all tension from the story, which combined with the clunky prose and awkward branch merging just makes Cinders an utter slog to read. I can't even say that it aged badly, because frankly, there were plenty of much better-written visual novels available in English in 2012. This was released a few months after the full release of Katawa Shoujo, and Digital: A Love Story was released in 2010 and is much shorter with few graphics at all, but it's a far more compelling read than this. And that's not even getting into all the quality VNs we've gotten since then. Aside from the art, Cinders' major selling point is its choice density: it has a lot of choices, all of which affect your progress t…

A unique fairly short VN jam-packed with impactful choices that allow you to create your own "Cinderella." Very replayable. Additionally, the art-style and OST are so distinct and moody. However, while this game succeeds at being a Cinderella sandbox, the character writing is so mediocre. Especially if you're looking for a romance story, don't play this. The romance is very short and entirely underdeveloped. The stepsisters are a highlight but in general, the characters are all pretty bland and forgettable (more plot devices then anything).

Not for me. Based on the description/videos, I was excited for the "break the story any way you want" thing, the promise of an adult game/story where choices actually matter (and really shape the story). For me, I felt that it was *way* too much just clicking of dialogue/story that I had no control over, it was extremely repetitive, melodramtic, and very thin/not great writing. I didn't personally enjoy the art style, but I could easily set that aside if everything was really good or even as expected/promised. I think this is definitely suited towards a much younger audience who would probably enjoy it more than I did. As well, the choices seem that they - at best - barely matter, and they feel very few and far between. I found I was trying to speedrun to the end just to see how it *would* end, and I was very frustrated when pretty much the entire ball, I either could make basically no choices or the choices I had available had absolutely nothing to do with anything I had done up to that point. I don't want to be extremely harsh, but in the end, I did feel like I really wasted my time here - I am just clearly the audience for this, which is too bad, because it does seem like a co…

Such a gem of a game, the art and storytelling is fantastic! <3

If you want a Cinderella retelling, trying Cinderella Phenomenon, which is free, has beautiful visuals, a good plot, and lovable characters. I'm kind of going on a review spree right now, and although I don't want to hurt the creators or anything, even five years later I still remember how unimpressed I was with this VN.

fun sweet visual novel with some replayability. actually looking for something similar now that i've finished it. time is inaccurate, its more like 8 hours