Midnight Cinderella

Midnight Cinderella is an otome from Cybird that I'd actually tried a while back and gave up on, but have picked up again after someone on the board in Reddit recommended I try a different route. But let me start over.

This is by the same developer that produces Ikemen Sengoku and like our favourite warlords from the Sengoku period, this one also features a plethora of handsome guys. However, this one is set in a made up fantasy fairy-tale like world. You're a teacher and a commoner but through a very bizarre (!) tradition in the kingdom of Wisteria, you are chosen to be the new princess elect who will succeed the ailing king. It's not a job you were looking out for, even though you went to the royal palace on the choosing day (you went for one of your students -- searching for some possibly magical flower in the garden that you don't find and never seems to come up again in the story). You've got to learn how to do princess-y things and pick your prince consort to help you rule the land.

You are woefully unprepared for this task.

I had high hopes in this one as it is also from Cybird and their writing is generally pretty decent (see the heretofore mentioned warlords...) and the MC is a teacher with a kind heart. She was, however, rather monumentally annoying and dense in the first route I tried. Alyn. He's a knight. He's handsome (he's the one in the lower left corner of the picture). And you put them together and...bleh. I thought he'd be the safe route. I mean, a princess and a knight, right? Instead it's nothing but frustration for no good purpose and unrequited pining and whining and grandstanding. I wanted to whack both of them upside the head. Sure, romance can be hard and it shouldn't come out of nowhere but here it was more like treading water in pudding. And after awhile you just wanted both of them to drown already and put you out of your misery.

I got maybe 60% of the way through his route and finally ditched it when she spent most of a chapter with dialogue like this: "Um..." and "Oh!" and "..."

Pity. He was the most attractive one as far as I was concerned.

But, anyway, someone convinced me to pick it up again when they told me he was one of the most frustrating routes and that a good route to try was for Nico.

To be honest, I would never have picked him out myself. He's got pink hair. I hate pink. He looks like a confection. And he's the MC's attendant. Which, seriously, what? What princess has a MALE attendant to do her hair and help her get dressed and make her tea? Um, NONE? But, okay. Whatever. They had to fit this frothy sparkly boy with fey eyes in there somehow. Anyway.

I'm currently in Part 5 of 12, so nearly half way there. And, yes, it's definitely better than the Alyn route. I haven't wanted to kill her nearly as much, though she's still so incredibly weak-willed and tentative. I don't see how this girl could ever be a successful leader of a country. She's barely got a spine most of the time. The MC in Ikemen Sengoku is SO MUCH BETTER. How are these the same writers? Different team, maybe? But when comparing this version of the MC to the one in Alyn's route, she's definitely the winner. Of course, it was a low bar. It's a shame though -- the set up really provides an opportunity to create a strong MC--leader of a whole frickin' country, yo--but they decided to go another way.

There's more intrigue-y bits and danger here -- Nico's obviously hiding something behind his crumpet serving skills and he's got ties to a neighbouring country that the MC figures out fairly quickly BUT she chooses NOT to ask him about it. See what I mean? She's a crappy world leader. And Nico's got a bit of a hard edge underneath his kawaii-ness. This comic someone drew sums it up pretty well.

So, I think I'll finish his route though I'm taking my time. One of the bad things about these Cybird games is that they go really slow. And I mean that in a literal sense. The words type out across the page and you can't really hurry it along much. It's literally slow to read and takes lots of clicks/taps. And it's the standard 5 tickets a day thing and princess lessons and dressing up an avatar and them trying really, really hard to get you to buy these ridiculously priced packs of dress up clothes for your avatar. Most of which are pink. Because, you know, princesses.

I'm not here for the dress up game. Just FYI.

I might try Sid's route next based on this recommendation though I don't normally go for guys that look like they will be assholes. I just want to see the MC actually do something instead of being the one that things are done to. She needs a LOT of saving in Nico's route.