Lingua Fleur: Lily

Review with accompanying screenshots and video at Sinical Network

https://www.sinicalanimenetwork.com/post/2019/04/29/lingua-fleur-lily-review

I recently got a key of this game for free from Narrator. Lingua Fleur: Lily is a kinetic slice of life visual novel with yuri themes by Narrator and STORIA.  This novel features two female university students Yuyi Wu （吴羽仪）and Yile Lin （林以乐）who attend the same courses in university together. Yuyi is extremely introverted and hardly got along with anyone throughout in her life and has always disliked sports. Yile is an energetic and optimistic girl who excels in volleyball, yet she is poor in her studies and fashion sense. Through their personality differences and matching strengths and weaknesses, Yuyi and Yile decide to learn from each other and know each other better.

As a slice of life kinetic visual novel, it has an interesting storyline where it starts with the two main characters working out a deal to learn different things from each other. As the story develops and they get to know each other better, the characters will have different events occur in their lives where they will learn to appreciate each other better. The voice acting and background music by Oli Jan and Sorato help to highlight the various feelings both characters feel towards each other and on events in their lives. The game also has a variety of great and cute artwork in the sprites and CGs.

One minor complaint I have is that one scene in the visual novel is showing a basketball hoop instead of a volleyball court or net in a volleyball game. After reading the free short comic that is available online in a recent announcement, I would have also liked to see the game expand more on the relationship between Yuyi and Sis tutor. The first DLC Diary1 continues with Yile and Yuyi's lives together in their new apartment as a comedy drama, and there is a reference to Narrator's earlier work Koi Musubi.

After spending around 4 hours to read and listen to the storyline in the game, comic and DLC, Lingua Fleur: Lily is a cute and enjoyable slice of life visual novel with yuri themes that does not contain any fanservice among two girls in a modern Chinese setting. It has a decent open-ended ending for the additional storyline content that are planned to be released in future. At the same time, the ending in the game which may feel unfinished, together with the game's lack of trading cards at the time of this review means it's also fine to wait until more content is released or when the game is discounted further.

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There aren't many achievements with this one, but I have to say I really enjoyed the story between Yuyi and Yile. It was sometimes quite complicated and definitely challenging for both characters to navigate their differences. Overall, it’s a fantastic visual novel and a really good read.

Check out my full review on YuriMother.Tumblr.com

A significant part of my job is knowing the details of the goings-on in the world of yuri. It, therefore, shames me to admit that I almost missed out on the visual novel Lingua Fleur: Lily as I was completely unaware of it until Taiwanese studios Narrator and Storia, the game’s developers and publishers, messaged me. Thank the great goddess of yuri that they did, because I would have regretted missing this experience.

Lingua Fleur: Lily is a short kinetic visual novel set in a university told from the perspective of student Yuyi, the protagonist. Yuyi is a quiet and introverted student, hardly interacting with her classmates and having no close friends. Her isolated circumstances change when she is paired with the outgoing Yile, the deuteragonist of the story, during physical education. Slowly Yile beings to befriend Yuyi, helping her to come out of her shell and be truthful about her identity and difficult past.

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The more emotional scenes are powerful and my favorite parts of the game. Thanks to not only a solid script but because they are so realistic and relatable. Yuyi’s struggles to articulate her identity to Yile will easily resonate with experiences of queer readers. I will not spoil the ending but it appropriately matches the somber tone of the story and is simultaneously hopeful and saddening.

I did have a few issues with the game. Some of these complaints are small, a few typos, a few places where the word choice could have been a bit better (is my English teacher side showing?). I also found what I can only assume to have been a mistake due to negligence where name cards such as “female student” and “male student” were still written in Chinese rather than being translated like the others. Additionally, while the English translation is mostly excellent there were a few terms that did not work as a direct translation into the language, such as “Sis Tutor.”

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The soundtrack of Lingua Fleur proves that a score does not have to be bombastic and overly complex to be successful. Indeed, the music was one of the highlights of my experience. Oli Jan and Sorane created twelve original tracks for the visual novel each of which I adored as I played through. Often they employ just a simple melody and maybe a few delicate strings or woodwinds, creating an excellent somber and soft backdrop that perfectly complimented the game. I was greatly enjoying it right up until the finale when I fell in love.

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Lingua Fleur: Lily is an imperfect but meaningful journey. It does not conform to the genre standers of destined lovers and soulmates but is rather a gentle and ordinary story of healing, grief, and friendship. While it lacks artistic polish and jaw-dropping prose the emotion and humanism of the game reverberate within me. Lingua Fleur is a lovely, simple, and bittersweet experience.

I also appreciate that Narrator and Storia have promised new content for the game in the form of DLC. Lingua Fleur: Lily is available now on Steam in English and Chinese.

Ratings:
Story – 7
Characters – 6
Art – 4
Voice – 6
Music – 10
LGBTQ – 5
Lewdness – 0
Final – 6

Full Review on Yurimother.tumblr.com