 |
|
|---|---|
| Title | Lilium x Triangle |
| Developer | Petite Pajamas |
| Publisher | JAST USA |
| Release Date | February 14th, 2019 |
| Genre | Yuri Eroge Visual Novel |
| Platform | PC |
| Age Rating | 18+ Adults Only |
| Official Website | |
Author’s Note: Lilium x Triangle is an Yuri Eroge Visual Novel that is 18+ and for Adults Only. The review is potentially NSFW, although steps are taken to prevent that. But all associated links are definitely NSFW and 18+. The content of the Visual Novel is entirely Yuri (Girl on Girl), but is quite vanilla beyond that premise.
Lilium x Triangle represents the first short Nukige and first exclusively Yuri Visual Novel that I have reviewed for the site. But that is not to say that it’s my first experience playing either. In fact, short Nukige can feel like a really nice palette cleanser after a long and involved Visual Novel (much the way a short indie game can after a long AAA experience). The interesting part of this particular story is the mixture between Yuri sensibilities and Nukige style. The latter represents a Visual Novel that is entirely focused on the sex. But the former tends to be either focused on cuteness or focused on drama. It ends up working out quite well for Lilium x Triangle that it just focuses on the cute side of Yuri but has the sex focus you are expecting. The only things that were really cut out were a long build up story and any sort of real drama.
The story premise for the game is extremely slight, even compared to other examples of this Visual Novel sub-genre. There are really only about 3 lines of exposition informing you of any particular backstory. Haruka is a Succubus who was discovered by two sisters while she was very weak. They nursed her back to health and so Haruka decided to come to Earth and stay with them from then on. It does not really explore why Haruka was weak, but it does mention that she grows weaker if she doesn’t suck the energy out of humans for long enough. This plot device isn’t really used for much of anything other than passing reference. It also doesn’t explain why the two sisters are living alone in a very nice apartment while they are going to school. But as you would expect with a Nukige, that does not really matter that much. What is important is that a love triangle has formed where Haruka has to decide which sister she wants to be with romantically.
The older sister is your basic stereotypical blonde airhead that is super popular and very gentle, but needs to be taken care of by those around her so she doesn’t get into too much trouble. That being said, for such a short story it’s not so bad to have some very common character archetypes. And since this is meant to be a drama free story, having such a good-natured love interest without any major skeletons in her closet is a nice idea. She is a bit aloof and hard to read, but once she and Haruka establish a relationship she can be open to pretty much anything. So that makes her a nice change of pace from some of the more prudish examples of the stereotype in other Visual Novels. As you would expect with the airhead older sister, she depends on her younger sister to take care of her.
As you might expect from a younger sister who has to take care of her ditz older sister, Sana is a bit of a tsundere. But, like with her older sister, there is not meant to be any real drama here. So while she can be a bit of a hard case at times, she is not nearly so bratty of a tsundere to make things too difficult. In fact, no matter which direction you take the story, she is always the first one to confess her love. But that also fits her personality. Sana is not always consistent (not that any real human is either), but her headstrong nature is a distinct aspect of her personality. Thankfully even if Haruka chooses to not return her romantic affections she still is completely okay with it.
If this all sounds super gentle and not much like other Nukige, then that is very much the point. It’s not that there isn’t explicit sex, there are 3 scenes per couple. Also they were able to remove (almost) all of the mosaic censorship. But the standard styles of Yuri stories still apply here, as well as the conventions of Romance Novels. I should probably define that for people who are not quite so aware of what the romance conventions are. When you write a Romance Novel, you are allowed to call male genitalia pretty much anything that you like, however you are never allowed to use crude terminology for female genitalia. Even describing the sex will usually only involve that word or “making love”. Also, almost all sex is entirely vanilla with maybe some light bondage at most. When you make an Adult Romance Novel, however, you can start to use the more explicit terms, you can use a little less vanilla sex, and (even though it’s still rare) you can call women’s genitalia more descriptive things. In this story, it leans far more to the Romance Novel side of the spectrum than the Adult Romance Novel side. And that may put off some people who are just looking for a standard Nukige, or it could potentially attract others.
The character designs are pretty average, and the art design overall is just good. It’s not great, but it does get better during special scenes (like the one above). I would say the voice work suffers a little more than the art, but that may also be personal taste. Sana is mostly good, as is Haruka, but Yuuna is bit overboard on how airy she sounds. There are no real sound effects in the game, even during the sex scenes, but the dialogue during those scenes is okay, if a bit lacking in variety or surprises. The music is probably a little better than either the art or the voice work is, but there is not a large array of songs (as you would expect from a short Nukige). The only real issue I had with any of the artistic choices were that the story is a bit boring and they missed a few frames when they removed the mosaic censorship. However, missing those small bits still made for a much better experience than if they had chosen to release it fully censored.
This is a very simple Visual Novel to just download and play. There are choices to make, but only a couple of them, and it’s quite obvious where they are leading. The story is extremely short, at just over an hour each and around 3 hours overall, but you get what was advertised as well. It’s just a short, sweet, and sexy story of Yuri love where you have two girls to choose from. The game is only $11.99, so realistically it’s difficult to argue about it being a bargain. If you are at all interested in a gentle (but still pervy) story about these girls ,then that is a low barrier of entry. And for me it will not be extremely memorable, but just a fun experience to smile about.
| Review Score | |
|---|---|
| Overall |    |
Review Copy Provided By The Publisher
