Alright, confession time: I am a huge Cinderella fan. Huge. I have a boatload of Cinderella books and movies; I would be legitimately surprised to run across a retelling I haven’t at least heard of. So, when I learned that Dark Parables 5 was going to feature Cinderella, I grabbed the biggest stick I could find and started brandishing it at anyone who mentioned they might want to do this review instead of me.

Sorry about those stitches, Tracy, but it had to be done. This is my favorite fairytale done in one of my favorite game series. If anyone’s going to see if Dark Parables: The Final Cinderella makes the cut, it’s going to be me.

Right away, I was impressed with the twist on the tale. In Dark Parables: The Final Cinderella, an evil witch known as Godmother is searching for the legendary Cinderella, a girl with a pure heart and soul.

Godmother’s MO is to find a girl who might be Cinderella and then cast a spell on her. If the girl turns out to not be the one Godmother was searching for, the girl turns to glass. Our task is to find a way to break the spell on the glass girls and to discover the true Cinderella before Godmother does. Kind of epic, right?

I was also immediately captivated by the beauty of Dark Parables: The Final Cinderella. The whole thing looked like a painting, and I even liked the animation. The voice acting was also quite impressive, especially Katherine (whom I’m betting is Cinderella) and Godmother.

Godmother was evil without sounding unhinged (I love a good bad guy) and Katherine was both delicate and strong. She was afraid, but still determined to save her step-sister, who had been turned to glass. It’s so easy to make a character like Cinderella too soft and easily taken advantage of, but, in Katherine, I found my favorite Cinderella: the kind who, when push comes to shove, is stronger than you were expecting.

I was a little let down by the puzzles, which were beautiful to behold but simple enough to be almost insulting. Lots of same-old-same-old as well (I’m really starting to hate rearranging picture pieces).

I was playing on Casual Mode, but I really can’t see how those puzzles could be made more difficult. I mean, there’s only so many ways to arrange a painting. And for the puzzle below you literally just click around the scene until you find the glass slippers. How’re you gonna spice that one up?

The hidden object areas were a little more impressive, mostly because they weren’t just about collecting massive amounts of useless crap. Instead, the pieces you collect all come together to make an item that goes into your inventory and is useful later.

I love a hidden object area that makes me feel as though it’s an important part of gameplay. It’s not all perfect, though, because some of the areas are repeated and I haaaaate having to redo an area. It just seems lazy to me. Still, at least they were visually appealing.

In all, I really enjoyed Dark Parables: The Final Cinderella. It was an interesting twist on a classic fairy tale and a worthy addition to the Dark Parables collection.

I loved the bad guy and was impressed with Cinderella, who gets captured only because she was busy saving my hide. As with any game, there were parts I didn’t care for (specifically the super simple puzzles and repeating hidden object areas), but those small hiccups weren’t anywhere near enough to distract me from this beautiful world.

If you’re a big Cinderella fan or a big Dark Parables fan or if, like me, you love them both, then do yourself a favor and give Dark Parables: The Final Cinderella a try. I’m betting you’ll be glad you did.