Cinderella Phenomenon: Evermore -- No Spoiler Review
Cinderella Phenomenon: Evermore
System: PC
Price: $9.99
Voice Acting: None
ESRB Rating: No Rating, Reviewer Suggests E10 (10+)
Overall Rating: Stole 7.5/10 ♥s
Pre-Game Perception: The highly anticipated fandisk to Cinderella Phenomenon, where we get all the fluff that comes after Happily Ever After. Give me some good kiss scenes, please.
Morning-After Reflection: A fandisk that gives us choices and multiple endings (though none are bad, just better). Full of cute and the feels, it was everything I had hoped for.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This game description contains spoilers for those who have not played the original Cinderella Phenomenon storyline. Cinderella Phenomenon: Evermore is a fandisk and follows storylines that occur two years after the original game’s good endings. We highly recommend you play the original game for a full understanding of the world and characters.
Story: “Two years after the events of Cinderella Phenomenon, Crown Princess Lucette of Angielle is still learning to grow into her roles as a ruler and the Tenebrarum Bearer. After breaking her Fairytale Curse and saving her kingdom, Lucette believed she had finally gotten her fairytale ending.
It turns out true love is a lot more complicated than the fairytales make it seem. Join Lucette as she learns to navigate both life and love in a kingdom forever changed by the Fairytale Curses.”
Interest Rating: 10/10. Cinderella Phenomenon was my first PC game, and I was blown away with the concept, not to mention that it was an OELVN indie title and free. As soon as Evermore was released, I bought was gifted it right away. Besides Code: Realize, I hadn’t anticipated a fandisk as much as I did this game.
MC: At the core, Lucette is the same tsundere she was in the original game, though each route has shaped her a bit differently. The biggest change I saw in Lucette is that in two years she has grown much more mature, and so I fumbled through the first route I played being honest and caustic, while the new Lucette thinks before she speaks and keeps silent when it doesn’t help matters. It was a hard change to make to supplicate the ice princess to the whims of her LI, but I guess relationships are about give and take, so Lucette works on the giving part in this part of the game.
Like in the first game, you can change Lucette’s first name with the keyboard, and since there is no voice acting it doesn’t matter if you do, you’re not missing out on anything. And just like the first game, Lucette has a sprite by the text box and is in most of the CGs. She keeps a lot of the same spirit she had in the previous game, and depending on what route you did and are on now there are a few small details different with her personality. Also, overall she is nicer because she has learned the true value of love and friendship, and that is seen in her actions and her views on her responsibilities in each route. Character growth and all that jazz.
Likability Rating: Yu. Despite the character growth in the first game, I found this Lucette a bit subdued and the story was barely about her trials. Basically, the game wasn’t focused on Lucette so I don’t feel she made the biggest impression she could have. Still a good MC, imo.
Plot: There’s not much to say here since it is a fandisk and each route focuses on a different conflict due to having a different story to fill out from the original game. Lucette and her chosen LI are navigating a relationship after the events from Cinderella Phenomenon. You’re going to get a lot of unspoken conflict, and it really felt like the writing didn’t know what to do without an outside antagonist, so they reverted to causing issues between the couple that could have been easily solved with some communication. That’s not to say that I didn’t like the game, because I did, but there was at least one BIG issue in every route that wasn’t big at all and would have easily been fixed by not making a mountain out of a molehill. Either way, every route is different from every other one, and I enjoyed nearly all of them. There are also two endings, and an achievement for selecting all the choice options in the game, so I ran through every possibility at least once.
Replayability Rating: ★★★★☆ Each route is self-contained, so do all the dudes you want to do. I played all routes and all endings, and though I don’t think the second ending is worth getting, the achievement coaxed me on.
Love Interests: We get to return to the five fantastic hotties from the original game, since, ya’ know, you’re kinda dating them at the end of the Blessed End in Cinderella Phenomenon. At the start of the game (after a brief prologue) you can select any man you want, and they’re all men now! Little Rod grew up in the two years it has been since the original game. And Waltz the Big gets to stay Waltz the Big since the Fairytale Curses have been broken over time depending on the route you’re on.
There are two endings for each character, a Good Ending and a Best Ending, so even if you fail to fall into the swing of your romance with your chosen LI you still end up at least happy ever after, if not happiest ever after. Since you can start with whomever you wish, go that route, pick your order based on who you liked most, least, mix it up, whatever you want to do! I decided to follow the first game’s route order, partly because Rod was my least favorite in the first game so I wanted to get him out of the way, and partly because I’m terrible at figuring out who to do when given the choice with no consequences. So let’s see how the tsun on tsun action turned out, shall we?
Rod started at the bottom of my list, and it wasn’t because I didn’t like him, I just liked everyone else more. I thought the romance in the main game was cute and though a bit rushed, it made sense to me for two teenagers that were coming to terms with their emotions. I was looking forward to this route, honestly, because the taboo that was brought up at the end of the main game was intriguing to me. Since Lucette and Rod were step-siblings, they had decided to keep their romance a secret, though it also appeared that everyone in their families knew. So when we started out Rod’s route and that hadn’t changed… much.
In the first few minutes the situation is explained to us, and it really isn’t the best foot for their relationship to have taken off on. I should have known from then that it spelled doom for my interest in this route. It was exhausting for me to read, it felt like the same problem just swam around the two and it was brought up again and again but never dealt with, until finally we get to the later chapters and then they decide to stop making me suffer. This route was not for me. It took me daaaaaaays to get through it, and it’s not long enough to take days. Rod got hot though, so there is that. Two years makes a difference in a teenager’s life.
Karma Klaude brought me back to the game with a renewed desire to see what the future held for him and Lucette. What I liked most about Karma’s Klaude’s route was not only the back and forth between Lucette and him, but the fact that she calls him melodramatic so many times and that was how I described him in my original review. Karma Klaude is drama. A lot of this route was really touching, and it just felt better done than Rod’s. Not only that, but the writing did well to encapsulate the drama and I felt my chest constrict a few times. It was a sweet and heartfelt route, and I’m glad I kept with it after what I considered such a borefest from the previous route.
Going in, I already had Rumpel Chevalier as best boy from the original game, so I was ready for whatever Evermore was going to throw at me. There was no way Rumpel Chevalier could fall out of my good graces. I really loved the dynamic between Chevalier and Lucette, and the whole story was super adorable. I don’t know what was wrong with me, but for some reason this route was so sweet that I teared up three different times. It’s not sad, and it’s not dramatic, it’s just really, really sweet. If you’re worried about how Mr. Flirts-with-all manages in Evermore, let me reassure you that he only has eyes for Lucette. He’s still the same cheesy, comic relief, but also the same caring, kind man that he turned out to be in the original game.
You know how there are those that loved Fritz and his devotion? His purity? His love for Lucette? And on the other hand, you had those that loved Varg and his cunning? His lack of morals and his love for destruction, right? Well, you get a bit of both in this route! Praise be! The goodboi Fritz didn’t do it for me, and Varg was gone, so I had little faith that I’d get the same feeling from our new Fritz. But I got that feeling. Fritz probably changed the most between the two games, and I loved the feel of this route. It was tense. It was intense. I boarded the feels train and got the doki dokis. After playing Evermore, Fritz sidled on up to join Rumpel as best boy for Cinderella Phenomenon. I’ll take them both, thank you very much.
Lastly, I did Waltz the Big. Previously, Waltz had hit mid-tier in my husbando line up of these LIs, so he didn’t do too shabby even if he was the “true” route and I had stubborn prejudices against him. Fortunately, no one is the true route in this fandisk, so he wasn’t fighting against that extra grumbling from me. Unfortunately, I found his route to be lackluster and a bit repetitive from the original game. They delved into some of the story that was only touched on previously, but I was hoping for something new now that it had been two years, not something from two years ago getting rehashed for our “ever after” story. It also doesn’t help that their romance from the original game felt like too much of a gimme, and it just kind of gets brought up over and over again that that’s really the only reason they’re together. Sorry, Waltz, I’m just not that into you.
Boy Crazy Rating: 93% Though some husbandos moved around on my best boy list, I’d still husbando all of these guys. They’re great LIs, just maybe not great routes, or great romances imo.
Romance: Seeing as how Evermore is a fandisk, if the romance was lacking I would just …. I dunno, I didn’t think I would get this far because fandisks are all about the romance. So yes, you get some good stuff stuffed in here. They fill you with the feels, but there’s no actual stuffing or filling going on, if you know what I’m sayin’. Even in the routes I didn’t like, most of the story is about, or deeply involves the relationship between Lucette and her LI. Some of it is super sweet, some of it gets a little dicey, but the romance is front and center in this game about how tough navigating relationships are, especially as a princess.
Heart Palpitation Rating: A. If you make it through this game without smiling once at how cute the couple is, I have to wonder if it is me that has changed, or if you’re just colder than I am? The game gave me the feels. And it feels good.
Spice: Oh boy. I’m sure you noticed the rating suggested by me for the game, E10, so only the mildest of mild sexual references. So minor that you could blink and miss them. Yes, we get some kiss CGs, and text that describes kisses that we don’t get visuals for, but it’s such a chaste game. The only reason the original was suggested as higher of a rating (by me) was because of the violence and blood in the game. There’s no blood, and very little violence in Evermore. Back to the spice, we get a few shirtless CGs as well, but there are no man nips visible, in fact, most of the male’s chest is not visible. So it isn’t much more spicy than the previous game. I was disappoint.
Cold Shower Rating: Fail. I guess they weren’t going for people like me as the target audience because I like a little romance with my spice, and not the other way around. Don’t even bother with a fan, there’s no heat here for you.
Angst: They took a lot of the bite out of Cinderella Phenomenon since this is after the huge, life-altering plot that happened in the first game. This is kinda the clean up, and even after the clean up in some cases, since it has been two years. It’s not a completely angst-free game, but it’s about half as angsty as the previous, and that makes it fall in line with things like Obey Me! and other “mainly fluffy with some sads” games.
Drama Llama Rating: 3/10. Some days we ride the drama llama, and some days the drama llama refuses to admit it has legs and just floofs on the ground for the entire day. Today is that day.
Voice Acting: None.
Expression Rating: N/A. Nothing to hear here.
Art: The art-style has changed slightly, some might call it more polished; I think it does look like the artist has grown and improved from their previous game. Saying that, though, I would like to remind you that I did like the art before, so I really didn’t have any complaints at the style or execution, giving it 4 stars in the last review. I think we’re still in that court with Evermore. The sprites are updated, with many LIs receiving new and improved versions. Rod got hot. And I’ll say it again: Rod got hot. Along with new sprites, they added in blinking! I don’t know, I know it’s silly to be so excited about blinking, but I really like the sprites blinking because it feels more alive. We also got movement with some of the screen effects, such as falling rain, or sparkling.
I do have a few complaints, though. There were chances for new sprites to make it into the batch, with clothing changes, and we didn’t get those. We also got a few new poses, and I wasn’t a fan of all of them, or when they were coded into the story. I feel the art took more of a side-step than forward or backwards.
Still Picture Rating: ★★★★☆ Many new. Such blink. Very side-step.
CGs: I do have to say that the CGs seemed to have improved as well. In the previous game, a lot of the CGs looked very stiff, because characters and backs were drawn very straight and vertical. That has been altered to allow for more curves in the human body, as human bodies tend to do. We get a nice assortment of CGs, and there are so many moments I’d love to have as a CG that didn’t make the cut, but the ones that did were nice too. Each LI gets seven unique CGs, some with multiple alterations. For a $10 game, that’s really not bad. That’s more CGs per route than hours you’ll put into this game.
Look at this Photograph Rating: 90%. Quality and quantity. The gallery is nicely designed as well, making it easy to see your pictures for future looks of longing.
UI/Mechanics: I can’t not talk about the title screen for Evermore. Like the previous game, you get additional designs on the title as you complete routes. But besides that, Lucette blinks, and the curtain on the screen lightly billows in the breeze. It’s really gorgeous, imo. Which brings me to gushing about the new save screen for Evermore - also very awesome. So the save files get “printed” onto a roll of film at the bottom of the save page, which will show the picture of your scene that you saved. You can also delete saves, and you can save and load on the same page, so you don’t have to go through two different menus to do so. It’s just all really neat.
As for the rest of the UI/Mechanics, it’s a standard VN with go forward, go backwards, auto and skip. You also get “skip to next option”, which can save time through your second playthrough of a route. The menu is more than the basics, but doesn’t carry a lot of extras, so it is about average for what I’ve seen and expect from VNs by this point. There is a music list, so that is pretty neat. And… that’s about it.
What’s this button do? Rating: B+. New bells and whistles make the UI extra pretty. Money and time well spent for those that appreciate the design choices.
Errors: I have good news, and I have bad news; which do you want first? The good? That’s how I like to approach it, because then it doesn’t seem like I’m just coming in and complaining about how terrible something is-- unless it is terrible to me, then I don’t mind only complaining. But Evermore isn’t terrible. It’s an OELVN (original English language visual novel) so we don’t have to worry about pesky translation issues due to how epically dumb and/or complicated the English language can be. There are some issues with missing words, but nothing that drastically changes the idea of a sentence, just makes it a little confusing if your brain doesn’t fill in the missing word. Other than a great script, there were no game breaking errors, so I think we’re doing pretty good here.
Now for the bad. There is a bug with Lucette’s portrait by the textbox where she pops up and down when it isn’t her turn to be on screen. I didn’t see this at all in Rod’s route, but it started in my second route and continued through the rest of the game, no matter how many times I restarted or loaded, or anything else. I can only assume there’s a missing piece of code that causes a repeated request for Lucette’s sprite in a very specific pose, and then it gets overruled when something else is supposed to go there. It was very annoying. Having her pop up and down during a scene was really distracting for me, and made the overall experience less impactful, imo.
There’s also a point where the music resets. This happened twice, with the same track in different routes, at different times. I turn the music volume down on everything I play, because I find it entirely too loud in every game. A personal choice, I know. But that makes it very easy to tell when settings don’t function properly, like resetting the volume to full instead of where I put it. So, besides Lucette wanting to steal every scene, and twice feeling like I’d been standing next to a speaker when a band suddenly started playing, the game is pretty golden. I’m not sure if these issues are going to be patched, since they haven’t yet and it has been seven months since release. So… do with that info as you want.
Here there be Bugs Rating: Fail. Though the bugs aren’t game breaking, they’re still persistent and annoying, so I’m going to have to fail Cinderella Phenomenon: Evermore in this section. You bought a house that is in the path of Brazilian bullet ants, meaning you’re utterly infested, but the house isn’t going to fall apart on you. At least it isn’t termites, right?
Background Music: I enjoyed the BGM for Cinderella Phenomenon: Evermore. Besides the few times it reset its own volume, I thought it was all very chill when it needed to be chill, and very tense when it needed to be tense. It was a really good compilation to set the mood and feeling of the game.
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