Strange games: Cinderella Life, a girls RPG

A couple of weeks ago I wrote an article about the female role in video gaming. (Read the article here) I discussed the way a lot of games still don’t have a playable female character, but rather treat it like an extra feature. And the fact that the lady heroines tend to battle in their bikini instead of sturdy battle gear. Of course it’s not always as bad as that, but judging by the feedback that I got, most of you, men and women, agreed that it’s strange that the gaming industry is still less inclined to listen to the part of their audience that is almost 50% nowadays.

Aside from all of this I must say that ever since I got into Japanese gaming I’ve seen info on games that would never have found their way to Nintendo consoles here in the West. And some of the Vita games are even worse. I don’t want to give them publicity, so I won’t even mention them by name. No, I want to talk about games that are peculiar and strange to us, and the sort that the Western public wouldn’t embrace. Some time ago I wrote about New Love Plus, (here) where guys can have their virtual girlfriend. A solid game, and I can imagine that it has a lot of devoted fans. I just don’t see it storming the Western market. And a couple of weeks ago I made a review for Japanese3DS.com about Cinderellife, which is marketed as a girls RPG in Japan.

I was rather curious about that game, I had expected that it would be an RPG where the battling maybe had to do with what is generally viewed as “girls things”, more like battling with fashion accessories or make up, shooting with your lipstick or such. No, just kidding. I don’t know what I expected, but certainly not this: the game revolved around girls who worked in a castle and all wanted to be the best hostess around. Level 5 hurried to emphasize in their marketing that the game was made by an all female staff. And of course, there’s a reason for that: you immediately get a bad taste in your mouth, reading about the plot. Not that I had to worry: there was nothing untoward in the game-play. You sit down together with the guy of your choice, and then the game begins. First, he gives you clues about which drink he would like, and you have to pick the right one for him. After that you get five rounds of questions that pop up in the conversion. It’s your job to give him to most pleasing answer, trying to chose the right food for him, gracefully accepting his compliment with the right response. He tells you about his life or where he is from, and every time you have to chose the answer out of three possible answers that he will like best. For that, you are awarded points, and the goal of course is to get as many points as possible.

As you level up, you earn more and more money, which you use during the day to buy a more beautiful gown, change you hair or accessories. But still, a game about girls that had to make sure the guys they dated with were happy about their time conversing with them, sounds very strange to my ears. And I should imagine it’s a game that won’t make it to the Western market either. The dress up and the make up sessions would of course go over well with their target audience (teenage girls) but I don’t think it’s the role model you want to promote! If you are interested in reading the review, you will find it here.