Cinders is a visual novel game made by... some european guys (Their names say Polish to me though I am unsure) that is based on Cinderella, and it's fucking incredible.

So, in the titular Cinderella, she was a waif of a character that lived under a house with her two cruel stepsiblings and her stepmother who was also terrible. She didn't do anything to help herself, rather the mystical fairy godmother came and told her to get yours at the ball, yadda yadda, boring shit. It's a fairy tale, sure, but she's barely even a character, she's fucking boring and passive and terrible.

So in Cinders (that is also her name in the game, they never actually say Cinderella), she's a character written rather differently; one who reads lots of books (admittedly her library isn't all that big), one who snarks, one who wants leave her terrible situation and isn't afraid to gain the upper hand on Lady Carmosa to do so. It's not even just Cinders, either; all of the other family members have characterization to rationalize why they act the way they do; it made me sympathetic to the rest of her family (even Carmosa). There are other characters, and all of them are mad well written; the prince has an agenda, there's a "witch" in town who's very wise, captain of the guard is noble to a fault... Just great all across the board.

It's also a visual novel with choice, and there's a shitload of choice in the game; someone on another forum said this was fantasy Alpha Protocol without the shooting bits, and that's pretty accurate. The first task you're given by Lady Carmosa is to go into town and pay 200 sovereigns to a merchant, a merchant whom Cinders likes and is friends with. Now, once you get there, you can press him on why she's paying him 200 sovereigns, or not. You can haggle to bring the price down. If you do so, you can either return home with the extra money or get drunk and eating at the inn. Returning the money makes Carmosa like you better, but you get to meet the captain of the guard if you go into the inn. All of this sounds fairly basic, but most of your choices all come together towards the end. Best part is you can tell the fairies to fuck off

The art style is a little strange; I like it, but I can definitely see how some might not. It's not anime inspired, however, it's got a very rustic European artstyle. The music is also nice and light hearted.

I've only played once so far, but it was so well written... it's price also might be a little steep (it is in fact a lot steep) but if you're interested, I heartily recommend it. It's also not very long (my first playthrough... probably 4-5 hours? it was late at night so I can't remember very well) but there's lots of replayability; there are 4 endings, and so many more variations on those endings...