Archive for the Yuri Visual Novel Category


Star Sword Nemesis

February 13th, 2026

Title art for Star Sword Nemesis. On the left a girl in a jersey jacket and short skirt floats upside down, holding an enormous sword. An older woman, with white streaks in black hair looks askance. On the right a series of concentric circles, with a round blou dot on the other circle and he title of the game.by Ashley Payne, Okazu Staff Writer

Star Sword Nemesis, a new novella from Christine Love, wears its robot anime influences on its supremely fashionable sleeves. You might think that a novel where on the ninth page someone puts up a slide that consists solely of the sentence: “GIANT ROBOTS MAKE YOU STUPID.” would be more of a subversion but no, this story is doing what I have been asking for: make a robot story for the lesbians.

Our heroine Eris is struck with a profoundly relatable problem. Her instructor Halley is so cool and competent Eris’s crush on her is making it hard to focus on their lessons on wielding Star Sword Nemesis. Having a crush on Halley is a profoundly foolish idea, not just because Halley is Eris’ instructor, as Halley was an enemy combatant until a few months ago.

This results in the irresistible force of “I can fix her” meeting the immovable object of “This is the real world kid”. What is truly impressive is that it chooses very different points of tension than you might be expecting if you were familiar with kissing books. It has great fun indulging in the expected peaks of confession and heartbreak and then pushing past them with a refreshing resolution that spins the story forward. The momentum really shifts up at the halfway point, becoming almost impossible to put down.

While the core of the story is Eris rushing headlong into what appears to be obvious betrayal, it is entwined with some of the most impressive sci-fi world building I have had the pleasure to read in a while. We learn about the semi-untopian society of the Trans-Neptunians both directly, with Eris talking with her friends and in the moments when Eris and Halley miss-communicate. It really reminded me of the brief moments in an Ian M. Banks Culture novel. Only here the Trans-Neptunians are not an idealised, post scarcity society, but a small collective holding on to their ideals in the face of direct hostility from the Earth Sphere.

Star Sword Nemesis is only one hundred and fifty-eight pages but it is broken up with wonderful art from Max Schwartz, who illiterates key events light novel style. Only we get more art per page in Star Sword Nemesis in delightful colour too. Frankly, comparing Star Sword Nemesis to a fun light novel is the ideal comparison. It is short, straightforward, has a powerful sense of its world and characters and has a denouement better than most novels.

Ratings:

Art: 10
Story: 7
Characters: 8
Service: 10
Yuri: 10
LGBTQ+: 10

Overall: 9

I know for most of the people who read this blog Star Sword Nemesis is barely an afternoon’s reading and it is well worth one afternoon.





Yuri Visual Novel Demo Mini-reviews: Irene, The Window and Lock & Key

October 31st, 2025

The Fall In Love Fest on Steam concluded last month, but our team has two more demos for you to enjoy, by our crack Yuri VN team of Eleanor and Ashley.

Eleanor

Title card for Irene, The Window, Next to a blue wall, blonde woman looks at us as she lays on a pillow.Irene, The Window is an interesting take on reconnecting with an old college friend. Irene suddenly contacts you after many years of absence and you become close again while she’s in the hospital for some unknown condition. The main thing I liked about this game is that in between each “day” the game encourages you to go offline for a couple of minutes and do something like make a cup of tea. There’s also plenty of dialogue options to choose from so there’s many ways the story can go. 

Given that this is only a demo, the scenery doesn’t change much but the art is perfectly pleasant to look at, the background music is fine and there’s enough of a mystery around Irene that I want to know what her full story is. The dialogue is good apart from a couple of small typos. 

 

Ashley

Title card for Lock & Key. A caped woman with short hair holds hands with a girl in a green dress, surrounded by other characters from the game.The demo for Lock & Key: A Magical Girl Mystery has been available since 2022 but on the thirtieth of September 2025 the full game is now out and part of the Fall in Love Fest so now is a great time to see if this magical girl mystery is interesting to you.

Lock & Key is narrated by Sherri Cohen, a former magical girl now a private eye. In this world magical girls lose their powers when they turn thirty and Sherri only has one more year to take advantage of her clairvoyance to help people in need as a detective.

Sherri is not helping people alone though she has her amazing wife Kealey helping her. Kealey has adapted to post magical girl life even better than Sherri. Kealey uses her shapeshifting ability to steal the valuables of the rich and terrible. As Sherri is the narrator for the entire demo it is fantastic to be in her head while Kealey is around and be treated to a constant barrage of a woman’s admiration for her wife. It’s easily what I want to read more of in the full game.

But that’s not everything that Sherri and Kealey are going to be dealing with. In a demo that takes under an hour we have about four separate plot threads dropped on us.

Sherri and Kealey are trying to make the best of their last year with magical abilities both for themselves and the world at large. For Sherri this includes hunting down a serial killer terrorising Chicago.

But our married duo also have their former teammate Nina arriving for a month looking to catch up and remember a lost mutual teammate.

But that’s not all! Sherri and Kealey stumble on brand new magical girl Ruby “Nightshade” Thompson. Ruby’s powerful but she clearly has a thing or two to learn about teamwork and community. Perhaps the two veteran magical girls can show her the benefit of learning from others?

The Lock & Key demo is an impressive example of an advertisement. A swift introduction to a novel that now, three years later, I am interested in reading the continuation of. Married, magical, PI. yuri is an underserved genre.

 





Yuri Visual Novel Demo Mini-reviews: Comet Angel and Distant Oceanic Getaway

September 8th, 2025

Staff writers Eleanor and Ashley take a look at the demos for two upcoming visual novels that are participating in the Fall in Love Fest on Steam.

Eleanor takes a look at Comet Angel, described by the developer as “A sci-fi yuri visual novel with puzzle elements that tells the story of two teenage girls going through an emotional journey of self-discovery after they make the world’s first alien encounter.” while Ashley takes a look at Distant Oceanic Gateway, described as “The cruise ship’s horns blast. You’re going to be spending the next 10 days aboard the Distant Oceanic Cruise, a luxury vacation for sapphics only! Play as Maeve (customizable name), a heartbroken soul determined to move on from a cheating ex. There are only seven other single sapphics on board— could one possibly be your soulmate? Only time will tell!”

Eleanor

Key image for Comet Angel Yuri Visual Novel by Cross Couloir. Two women stand back to back looking longingly up at a night sky as a comet passes overhead.Comet Angel is a childhood friends-to-lovers scifi story, which I enjoyed the demo of enough that I’m going to play the rest when it comes out.

The demo lets you play the first two chapters, and the puzzle element gives a little bit of interest to the standard visual novel gameplay. The voice acting is pleasant as well, as is the soundtrack. My one gripe is that the dialogue can be a bit corny in places, it feels like it was written by someone who’s just learned what a simile is and is now trying to cram them EVERYWHERE, but the story and the characters make up for it.

The teenage girls actually act like teenage girls, with all the overdramatic angst that brings and there’s definitely more to find out about all 3 of them, Faerie the alien included.

Recommended if you like a scifi story with a human touch.The Comet Angel demo is available on Steam or from developer Cross Couloir, and will be out in full on October 28.

 

Screenshot #1

 

Ashley

A woman with hair cut below her ears, wearing a blue button-down blouse cuffs rolled up below her elbow, leans on a wooden railing, her cheek in one hand on a ship's deck. The wind plays through her hair.I would say that three games with the same setting makes a sub genre. Distant Oceanic Getaway is the third game that I have seen and the third game I have written about for Okazu that focuses on a lesbian’s fun adventures on a cruise ship. (Ashley has previously reviewed Ladykiller in a Bind and Sapphism Gensou for Okazu) 

Distant Oceanic Getaway bucks tradition right away with a second person narration and for good reason. The main character Maeve is highly customisable. You can choose both a name and fully any pronoun you want for Maeve depending on what situation.

 

Not only that but Maeve also has six different personality variables that you can tweak at the start and across the game with your choices. Changing what decisions might be available to pick when the time comes.

But after playing the demo for Distant Oceanic Getaway I am not surprised that the developers, Red bean Taiyaki, are okay with tracking so many independent variables. Aside from Maeve’s own personal stats there are relationship values with all six heroines that are kindly visually noted when we make a decision. That’s something we all would expect from this game, but what really made me sit up are the traits you can give Maeve. By making relevant choices you can give Maeve really specific aspects that allow her to be as unique as the heroines you will be pursuing.

Said heroines are a delight however in the demo we only have three days to get to know everyone and things seem to be just starting. I will say that the sprites for everyone are fun for live 2D style sprites. They are not filled with unnecessary or frivolous movements that you might be expecting from sprites like these.

But with only three days it is hard to know what to make of all the heroines. But what is good is that following the sapphic cruse tradition you are mostly in full control of what scenes you see during the day and who you talk to. When you do talk to your chosen character even if you don’t have a big scene with them you have the time to try out all sorts of interactions branching into dating game territory as well.

Red bean Taiyaki has said they are aiming for ten days of events in the full version of Distant Oceanic Getaway. While that sounds like a delightful full vacation to take with such a wonderful cast with ten days of all these variables and stats, the programmer in me more wants to see how Red bean Taiyaki plans to organise everything so that the game can work. 

Distant Oceanic Getaway demo is available on Steam or from developer Red bean Taiyaki with a 2025 projected date for the full VN.

 

 





Tied by your Red

August 15th, 2025

Black and white illustration of a young woman and a beast, a red ribbon floats lightly in the air in front of them.by Ashley P, Guest Reviewer

If there is one fabulous uniting factor for all fans of romance it is the fantasy of being swept away by a cold steely noble who eventually warms to your plucky sensible charms. We’re looking at a yuri visual novel Tied by your Red; but you can find this sort of setting everywhere.

Tied by your Red follows Erica (although sometimes it is Erika) who has been betrothed to the stoic Duke Louise. While Louise was thought by Erica to be a scary, cruel Duke who kills her brides without a second thought it turns out that in fact that Louise is just a slightly awkward romantic lead who is a perfect dashing partner to the more skittish Erica.

Other than our two romantic leads in Louise’s mansion there is only one other person staying with them, Maiden, who is the only member of domestic staff. Not only that but there are unusual rules about leaving the residence, and everyone must be in their own room before midnight. At midnight Erica is occasionally awakened by sounds of something outside her chamber door.

Putting all this together makes it very clear what kind of story we are getting and it is refreshing to see this genre in a visual novel. A visual novel with fantastic sprite direction. Characters pace around the screen and move and appear in ways that add to their character. The only downside is Erica’s actual sprites, she is never shown to be anything less than marginally terrified. Which makes sense for a majority of the game but once her and Louise’s relationship gets going and everything is revealed Erica still looks seconds from bolting from the room.

This becomes even more noticeable when you complete Erica’s story and have the ability to re-read the story from first Louise’s and then Maiden’s point of view. It is weird to see Louise’s internal narration talk so kindly about Erica but then her sprite looks close to tears. It makes Louise seem unusually detached from the women we are told she has fallen for.

The only downside is that there are some unusual word choices, line breaks and even untranslated lines in the English version. This is not really a deal-breaker for me but this is something anyone looking to buy this game should know. Examples below.

Tied by your Red is the fun pulpy romance that I can always have more of so I hope those few missing lines can be patched out because otherwise it is a quick fun time.

Ratings: 

Art – 8
Story – 7
Characters – 6
Service – 2
Yuri – 8

Overall – 7

 

 





Without A Voice

July 9th, 2025

On a diamond shaped background with a tree, blooming with dark red flowers, two young women stand back to back, one a pale skinned dark-haired girl in black, her hand to her chest, the other a dark skinned blonde in red and white. Behind and above them is a brow skinned person with short pale hair with a drawn bow, pointing directly at us.by Pawel Cybula, Guest Writer

Without a Voice is a short visual novel that was originally written in 2016 for Yuri Game Jam. The creators, L³ – Laiska, Lorelei and Laniessa (now known as Adirosa) – missed the deadline but continued developing the project, first making a complete game, then running a successful Kickstarter for physical copies and the enhanced Blooming Edition, and finally bringing it to consoles now. So it was quite a journey, one I was happy to follow as WaV is maybe my most beloved VN, and its recent console release gave me a much-appreciated excuse to commit myself to writing this piece.

The story, loosely based on “The Little Mermaid,” introduces Cassidy – an apparently clueless princess in exile living alone in a small hut in the middle of a forest, her only link with the outside world through correspondence with her twin brother, Alexander (now the king), whom she loves and trusts wholeheartedly. Elowen, a mysterious beauty encountered during daily chores, is the other protagonist and in fact a wisteria tree (which in the language of flowers represents timeless, devoted, even obsessive love) given a human form. Her tragic past hinted at, she does not excel at conveying her emotions (being the title character, the one “without a voice”), but she feels irresistibly drawn to Cassidy… and vice versa.

As their relationship grows, you shape Cassidy’s thoughts and responses, thus affecting three hidden variables – Knowledge, Delusion and Understanding – which determine the final outcome. It is worth mentioning that the VN is very linear and your choices change just a few lines of text until the final chapter, which takes a different form depending on what decisions you have made. And it is not an easy task to ensure Cassidy and Elowen’s happiness as there are six bad endings and only two happy ones.

One interesting thing is the fact that making choices is not about gaining affection points with Elowen but molding Cassidy’s world outlook and consequently her feelings towards the melancholic tree spirit and the absent brother. However, it does not mean that Elowen plays any less important role – she is a powerful and charismatic presence and sometimes truly steals the show. By the way, there is a fantastic boon for those who participated in the Kickstarter campaign and obtained a physical copy: a printed prequel short story that fleshes Elowen out even more.

When it comes to the endings, each of them is very moving and has its own CG. The two good endings and two of the six bad ones also get epilogues with extra art added in the Blooming Edition. On a more personal note, I’ve read many VNs that conclude in a way I love, but “Together, We Are Eternal” is my favorite happy ending ever, period.

Without a Voice looks pretty. It is quite common for sprites and CGs to be of high quality these days, even in smaller games, but WaV can also be praised for its background art, which consists of very cleverly painted over and edited stock photos and shows how to achieve impressive results on a tiny budget. The music adds to the atmosphere and makes for enjoyable listening even separate from the game. However, it is the voice acting that makes the protagonists shine, the contrast between Cassidy’s chirpiness and the languid quality to Elowen’s aura, as well as moments of emotional intensity, skillfully underlined without falling into caricature. To top it all off, the visually appealing UI is well-integrated, reducing the amount of visuals hidden.

Still, it is the story that won my heart. It takes only about an hour to read through the whole thing, but even in such a short time the budding relationship is portrayed so convincingly that you cannot help but root for the girls. Granted, it’s a fairy tale, but as it is the case with all good fairy tales, there is a relevance to it. The undertones of loneliness and alienation (Elowen) and being controlled and rejected for one’s sexuality (Cassidy) add depth to the seemingly simple story and encourage replaying the game and checking out all the possible paths, epilogues and extra material, like for example the hidden poem you may discover after completing all endings.

I have to admit that I am probably one of the most biased people to review this game as I adore it so much. To my excuse, I dare say the developers must have felt similar about their project. It might be a small game but it has a big heart and I only hope more people will have fun accompanying Cassidy and Elowen on their amazing journey.

Ratings:

Art – 8 Low-budget but it is obvious that really talented people worked on it.
Story – 9 It is a beautiful story, hopeful or tragic, depending on your ending. My only complaint is that I would love it to be longer.
Characters – 9 My favorite yuri couple. Again, the length of the VN does not allow to fully flesh them out, hence I have to deduct one point.
Service – 1 Two CGs show kisses, one the protagonists sharing a bed, yet it is all very chaste.

Yuri – 10 From the get-go, you know they are made for each other.

Overall – 9 objectively, 10 subjectively.