Cinders is MoaCube’s retelling of Cinderella, a classic fairytale I’m sure we all know. But far from being obsessed with attending the ball and marrying the prince, this visual novel asks its players two thought-provoking questions: how do you define independence, and what are you willing to do to get it?
ROUND-UP:
REVIEW-UP:
We recently had the opportunity to talk to Tom Grochowiak from MoaCube and he kindly answered our questions on Cinders. When asked how the development team formed and why they decided to make this title, he told us: “MoaCube was born when me and Graciana, our artist, were stuck in traffic and had way too much time to talk. We worked for the same company, Codeminion, and pondered the idea of making a fairtytale visual novel of a similar quality to the games we did for our employer. When months later we found ourselves without a job and decided to go indie, this seemed like the natural choice for our first project.”
I was instantly attracted to one of Cinders’ screenshots whilst trawling through Steam Greenlight one morning. It was an image of a lake, with blue bells flowering around the water and god rays streaming down through the trees, and it reminded me of a jigsaw puzzle that I’d completed with my grandmother when I was very young. I reached out to Grochowiak to ask if he’d mind telling us a little more about the project and he generously gave us his time, along with a review copy of the game.
This is the image that initially attracted me to Cinders.
Let me start off by saying that I use the term ‘game’ very loosely here, because Cinders is in fact a visual novel. I can count the number of these I’ve picked up over the years on just one hand; I love the story side of such titles but, where I’m typically an adventure gamer, I usually get a twitchy finger if I can’t start clicking on things in the environment and solving puzzles. But the visual style of MoaCube’s project was enough to persuade me to give it a go and I have to say that I wasn’t disappointed.
Described as a ‘mature take on a classic fairytale’ on the Steam Greenlight page, the basic components of the Cinderella story we all know are there. Take an orphaned child of noble descent; throw in a dominant stepmother and a couple of bickering stepsisters; add a masquerade ball and a princely love interest; and finally, include a fairy godmother for a sprinkling of magic. But that’s where the similarities end. As Grochowiak said in his interview with us: “We hated how Cinderella in this original story is a very passive character and thought it’s a good basis for a story about growing up and learning to take responsibility for your life.”
In this contemporary re-telling, the heroine – who goes by the name of ‘Cinders’ – is a headstrong young woman who’s a lot feistier than the protagonist you probably remember from your childhood. She still acts as a servant to her step-family but she actively plans to do something to improve her situation and decides to take matters into her own hands. The stepsisters here are conventionally beautiful rather than ugly but there are spiteful aspects to their personalities; one because she fails to live up to her matriarch’s expectations and the other because she feels that she’s one of life’s losers. All three women take their anger out on Cinders but this time however, the way she reacts to the situation is entirely up to the player.
As this is a visual novel, gameplay here is reduced to a matter of clicking on an option whenever the story presents you with a decision. This may sound simple but when you consider that Cinders contains 120 decision points, three-hundred options to choose from and multiple endings with different variants, it’s obvious how much hard work MoaCube put into the project.
There are over three-hundred options to choose from – which will you pick?
The direction of the story and Cinders’ character development is entirely dependent on your decisions and even those choices which initially seem minor will affect your playthrough in some way. It really feels as if you’re affecting her future when selecting an option rather than just moving the story on to the next scene, and there were a number of times where I had to pause for a moment to reflect on the kind of person I wanted my heroine to be before proceeding with my choice.
The most interesting decisions for me were the ones where Cinders has to react to her stepsisters Sophia and Gloria: does she sympathise with them, try and placate them, or does she rebel against their imposed authority? Such conversations revealed a lot about these characters and it was hard not to feel sorry for them after learning the reasons why they act the way they do. The same is true of Lady Carmosa, the stepmother; she does indeed make our heroine’s life difficult but there are hidden motives for her behaviour, and whether she is truly wicked is something of a debate.
Lady Carmosa may seem wicked, but she does have motives for her actions.
And this is one of the great things about Cinders: nobody in the cast in perfect, not even Cinders herself. They all have a number of flaws and regardless of how virtuous or villainous they may initially seem, they’re not without their redeeming qualities. For example, Perrault, the striking Captain of the Guard, obviously has a heart of gold but he’s sometimes blinded by his loyalty and is all too eager to resolve a situation with his sword. There’s something human about every single character, each has a story to tell and secrets to reveal, and this makes the plot all the more poignant when it concludes.
While I absolutely loved the way the female characters were written, I wasn’t as keen on the male characters. There are three main men in Cinders and unfortunately it feels as if they each fall into a ‘lover’ stereotype: the bit-of-rough Captain of the Guard; the charming prince in his castle; and the childhood friend who seems to have had a crush on Cinders for a very long time. Tobias, the latter, is the exception but I’m also not entirely sure I believe that Perrault and Prince Basile could become besotted with our heroine after so few meetings. This just came across as being too much like your typical fairytale, although maybe that’s because I’m an ice queen who doesn’t believe in love at first sight.
The male characters tend to fall into ‘lover’ stereotypes.
For those who are now worrying that the headstrong, feisty Cinders I described above will go weak at the knees in the presence of one handsome man or another: fear not. It’s entirely possible for her to find the love of her life but the game’s focus isn’t on romance and our heroine isn’t defined by her romantic relationships. During my first playthrough I wanted her to be independent and the storyline ended with Cinders leaving town on her own. Yes there’s a prince, and yes there’s a ball, but these are given to the player as options; additionally, our heroine’s motives for wanting to go to the masquerade in the first place are varied and not ones players may have initially considered.
As I’ve said above, the thing that initially attracted me to Cinders on Steam Greenlight was the gorgeous visuals. The scenery backdrops looks like something out of a children’s book (although the story itself is too mature for a younger audience) and contain very subtle animations; sunflowers blowing in a breeze, and a fire crackling in the hearth for example. The character portraits work extremely well against these and I loved the way each was introduced in a paper-cut-out style; I particularly liked the contrasts between the two opposite godmother figures, Madam Ghedde and The Fairy. Add to these points a lovely menu screen featuring Cinders herself and you’ve got yourself one beautiful looking game.
Characters are introduced in an attractive paper-cut-out style.
The music stands up to the visuals and is something suited to a ballet version of Cinderella, and the background noise over the top of the tracks adds to the atmosphere. For example, when visiting the inn you’ll hear the sound of moving tankards, murmurs of conversation and the clattering of plates being cleared away; and if you take a walk by the lake, you’ll experience the chirping of birds in the trees. During my first playthrough I wondered whether voice-acting would add something additional but on subsequent attempts I realised I didn’t actually miss it. It’s possible that including voices for the characters would have taken something away from Cinders’ fairytale book charm.
I’ve now played through the title several times and I still haven’t uncovered everything there is to see. There is a ton of replay value here: four possible endings each have a number of possible variations and players will keep coming back to find out what happens when they make a different choice. For example, the ‘Fairytale Ending’ will see our heroine upon a throne but, depending on her previous actions, she could be an evil queen with a supernatural adviser or one who’s kind as well as intelligent. The game lets players make as many saves as they wish so you can do so right before making a choice, therefore enabling you to replay from certain points and see what the alternative outcomes are.
MoaCube’s gem deserves a big thumbs-up on Steam Greenlight.
As I said at the start of this review, I’m not the biggest fans of visual novels as I prefer the involvement of an adventure game. But Cinders had me hooked from the start and I think it’s extremely likely that I’ll go back to it again in the future. Rather than forcing strict morals on the reader as is the case for traditional fairytales, MoaCube’s gem gives the player reason to think: what lengths would you go to in order to secure your independence, and how do you define freedom?
I can’t wait to see what this development team has up their sleeves next. In the meantime, make sure you head over to the Steam Greenlight page to give Cinders a big thumbs-up – and check out the demo available from the MoaCube website.
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