322 | finally starting cinderella evermore!

[straightforwardly]

I’ve finally, finally begun playing Cinderella Phenomenon Evermore! It’s been a thousand years… (of me saying that “I’ll play it soon!!” and then failing to do so). Honestly, I almost failed again, in that when I sat down Saturday evening with the intent to play it, I found myself fretting over whether I was in the “right mood” to play it, if that would damage my enjoyment & whether I should wait for a better time, etc… but then I told myself that if I kept waiting for the “perfect” time to play this, I’d never get around to playing it at all.

So I went for it, and I’m very glad that I did, because I’m having a great time! So far, I’ve done Karma, Rod, and Rumpel’s route, in that order. My thoughts on each of the routes below!

Karma
Ofc, I had to start off with my fave’s route. I had a great time with this one all the way through—playing it with the most delighted smile on my face the whole time. I think my only real criticism is that Lucette looked strange in some of the CGs, particularly the one where Klaude gifts her the necklace and the one where they’re in bed together.

And—this applies to the game as a whole—I’m not really a fan of Lucette’s new hairstyle? Yes, I’m a long hair enthusiast, but she had such a lovely way of doing her hair in the original game, that switching over to long hair worn loosely feels much more dull. I did also mourn the loss of Klaude’s long hair, but was relieved when it was revealed that it wasn’t a deliberate choice on his part—not just because I liked the long hair, but also because I wasn’t wild about the implications of the crossdressing prince couple getting more gender normative hair styles after getting together.

But otherwise, so happy with the Klaude/Lucette content we got. <3 Also, there were femdom implications, yess!! She pins him down TWICE, with Klaude making suggestive comments about it <3 <3 <3 And also confirmation that they’re already regularly banging, which, yeah, checks out for these two <3

And while there was, sadly, no appearance being made by Miss Karma, Klaude does say that she was his favorite disguise. (And in the process, reveals that she’s not the only fake identity he’s had—that he used to disguise himself to sneak out of the castle in the days before he was cursed.)

I love that we get so much more worldbuilding for Brugantia! And I love the premise used for this route’s central conflict—that both Klaude and Lucette were heirs to their country’s thrones, and that by choosing to be with Lucette, Klaude is giving up on the throne and role he’d been raised for. It’s the type of situation that’s bound to raise some messy & complicated feelings, even if it’s his own choice & something he’s fully willing to do, and I really liked that the game was willing to dive into that! I also loved the dynamic between him and Lance, with all of its complexities and layers—a very well-crafted sibling dynamic, imo.

I also spent this whole route wondering if I was imagining the Emelaigne/Lance hints, until I got the good ending and went, “yeah, no, definitely not imagining it!” Though I’d vaguely assumed that it was something specific to this route, because I’d (falsely) assumed that Lance wouldn’t show up in the other routes. It’s interesting that, in this route, Lance and Emelaigne end up having to struggle with the same social taboo that Rod/Lucette deal with in their route.

Other small details I liked: that Lucette brought Mr. Broom to the castle with her <3, her friendship with Waltz and the aside about how she’d regained her memories about him, Waltz being the one to teach her how to use the magic she unlocked at the end of her route

Also, Rod and Lucette’s dynamic here felt oddly shippy at times?? I’d always intended on doing Rod’s route second, but that got me extra excited about it.

Rod
…Unfortunately, this route ended up not really doing it for me. I was pretty excited going into this one because of the potential for drama and angst… and was almost immediately deflated by how the relationship reveal (or, at least, their family finding out) happened during the timeskip, and that apparently everyone took it very well. Considering that Klaude’s good ending in this game pretty much confirms that there’s a social taboo even for siblings-by-marriage, I would’ve expected a little bit more drama on that front!

But my biggest issue with this route was that I went into it liking Rod/Lucette and walked out feeling like it actually demonstrated all the ways in which they don’t work as a couple. The original game had a little of this as well, in that Rod is the LI who understands Lucette the least—to quote myself back when I originally played the original game:

I think the only thing that didn’t entirely work for me was how Rod’s changing opinion of her was handled. I liked their relationship, and I liked watching them grow closer, but so much of it was predicated on Rod seeing how she changed. Which, is true! Lucette does change, does grow to be more open and to believe in the kindness of others—but at no point does the route deal with him understanding why she acted the way she did before.

He has very little idea of what Lucette went through under her mother, and rather than his seeing Lucette’s journey as her slowly peeling away her mother’s teaching and uncovering the goodness that was already there within her, it feels more like he’s seeing it as her growing from a terrible person into a good one. He’s the LI who starts off with the worst opinion of her (for good reason!), and I just feel like the route would have been more satisfying if it had been about both of them figuring out that there was more to the other’s side than they realized, rather than it just being about Lucette realizing that and Rod remarking on how “she’s changed”.

That lack of understanding was very much mirrored in Evermore, in that throughout the entire route they struggled to have an actual communicative relationship, and even by the end, I don’t feel like they ever resolved that! Like—yes, there were also some communication issues in Klaude’s route, but it’s also made clear there that it was meant to be a rough patch in their relationship—something which was not the norm for the two of them—a problem that is acknowledged, and worked through together.

But with Rod/Lucette, their relationship during both the timeskip and during Evermore seems to be nothing but communication issues, and specifically Rod not communicating with Lucette or understanding why this frustrates and hurts her. He makes the wish to become a commoner without telling her what he was planning beforehand, makes the decision to move to Brugantia without consulting her, doesn’t tell her when he’s coming back, spends the whole route telling her he’s planning & preparing for their future but refuses to give any details, only for this to culminate in him springing a public proposal on her (despite the fact that BOTH OF THEM stated earlier in this very same game that NEITHER OF THEM like crowds and attention????) It feels like Lucette spends most of the route feeling unhappy and worrying, and it’s like… no…. proposing marriage is not a bandage for that problem. It’s kind of famously the opposite of that, actually.

Also, I actually kind of hated the best ending for this route; the good ending felt much more sincere and true to the characters.

This is very negative, so I will add that there were things that I liked about this route! The reunion hug between Rod and Lucette was very cute—in general, I enjoyed the focus on hugs in this route. I also loved all the new lore about fairies and wishes; it fits in so perfectly with the previously established worldbuilding in a way that makes it feel mildly surprising that it hadn’t been in the original game.

Though, probably my favorite aspect was the dynamic between Lucette and her father, and all the little details about how they’re working on fixing their relationship. Also—and this applies to the game as a whole so far—I really really like how Lucette gets to have a rich personal life, not focusing merely on her relationship with the LI of whichever route you’re on, but also her varied dynamics with the other NPCs and LIs!

And I also like how those relationships are subtly different between the routes I’ve played so far. Like Lucette calling Genaro “Father” in Rod’s route, but not feeling quite comfortable with that yet in Klaude’s route, or how in this route Waltz is still a teacher and friend, but she doesn’t seem to have unlocked her memories of their childhood friendship. Or how she gets along with Jurien and Garlan in all the routes, but is particularly close to them in Klaude’s. And so on.

Rumpel / Chevalier
It probably says something about my biases that I feel so comfortable switching between “Karma” and “Klaude” when talking about him, but actually keep forgetting that Rumpel’s name is actually Chevalier…

Anyways. I kind of dreading going into this one, considering how much I dislike Rumpel, but although I’m still not a fan of him, and still don’t like Rumpel/Lucette… this route was actually kind of great? And arguably the best written of the three I’ve played so far?? Me sitting here feeling like, between the original game locking the character exploration I was most fascinated by (Lucette unpacking her feelings about the mother she loved turning out to be someone so terrible) in Rumpel’s route and this game packing in all of this great story and lore in Rumpel’s route… I truly must be cursed in some way, lol.

But truly, this was great. I loved all of Sinna stuff—getting to know him as a character, the development of his dynamic with Lucette and how they relate to one another in their dual roles as bearers—loved the Delora dynamics (and how it mirrors the relationship development Lucette had with her in Fritz’s route in the main game, loved the exploration of grief in relationship to Parfait*, loved the examination of Lucette’s continuing struggles with her mother’s memory, loved getting more backstory details about Parfait and Hildyr’s dynamic…

*...though I’d actually forgotten that she’d died, lol whoops; I only played Rumpel’s route once, and don’t actually remember anything about how things played out at the end there.

And Rumpel’s conflict in this route really works and makes so much sense! I also enjoyed how there’s clear parallels with Klaude’s conflicts in his route. Both of them are struggling with how having a future with Lucette necessitates giving up on the life they always thought they'd have—or, at least, having it take a different form. The precise shape of those conflicts are different—they're very much going through reversed journeys to one another—but in a way that works really well as a callback to how their routes existed in parallel with one another in the original game. And for Rumpel specifically, I found his struggles—dealing with moving from being a doctor helping the common people to a royal physician who will one day marry the future queen, and how that conflicts with the life he'd envisioned and prepared for before—genuinely understandable and sympathetic.

In short: very well-written route, and surprisingly very very enjoyable to play through despite me not caring about Rumpel or the featured ship. Also, not to harp on this too much, but unlike in Rod's route, it at least sold me on Rumpel/Lucette being a functioning relationship, even if it’s still one I don’t particularly care for

ALSO FRITZ LIVES AND I FEEL SO BAD FOR HIM. He seems so melancholy in all his scenes in this route, poor bby ;_;

And that’s where I am now! I intend on playing Fritz’s route next, and then finishing up with Waltz.