A notice for the interested:

LipTrip ~My Boss Is My Heat Suppressant?!~ The new Omegaverse yuri VN by dev team SukeraSomero of OshiRabu fame, with character art by Chigusa Minori (Convenient Semi-friend, Shino and Ren) come out this week on the 22nd!

thanks for posting, this looks a+++

That does bring up the question whether I can even put it on the recommendation list however. Omegaverse is in most part not really yuri. I'm sure that at least in this game's case they avoid the hermaphrodite aspect. Oh well, maybe if someone plays it and makes a case for it we can come back to that.

Not gonna try to make you put it on the list or anything, it's your list after all. Just coming back to say played it, finished it, enjoyed it. shorter than i expected but a fun, smutty yuri romp of about 3hrs~

Not gonna try to make you put it on the list or anything, it's your list after all. Just coming back to say played it, finished it, enjoyed it. shorter than i expected but a fun, smutty yuri romp of about 3hrs~

3 hours? That is rather on brand for this studio. Oshirabu was also on the shorter side. Even moreso its sequel.

I do have to be clear about this though, I don't consider it my list. This is a collaborative effort. That's why I add games to the list that I haven't played myself as long as the poster can make their own recommendation for it. I generally trust people to judge VNs well enough to tell me if they fit the loose criteria of the list. Believe me, if this was my list, Yurinate! would never have made it in. ^^;

Keeping in mind that the devs went out of their way to make sure it's not futanari or any of the other... extremes of the Omegaverse I suppose it is only fair to consider this game a proper yuri title. Albeit one I will never touch.
I will add it to the list. However due to the uncertainties of this particular universe I will still take the precaution of putting it into the "Majorly Yuri content" category. I hope that's not too petty of me.

To show my goodwill I want to make clear that talking about Omegaverse content isn't a problem at all. Even more uh... characteristic examples of it could technically be put into the "Yuri adjacent" category. It is rather barren since its inception anyway. Not an awful lot of imposed bisexual narratives or futanari VNs going around in these circles.

I have encountered Stray Gods, although I didn't find the time to play it yet. I had the impression it was mostly a mystery game with musical elements. If you vouch for the yuri routes in it then I can put it on the list. As usual, I need someone to make an actual recommendation post for things I didn't personally play.
So if you could give a short summary of the game and why you like it that would be splendid!

To address your impression first, there is a murder mystery, but as a part of the narrative. The game is choose-your-own-adventure on the casual side and the characters take care of the investigation for the player. This results in the main plotline being mostly linear (which may disappoint those who get into it for the mystery aspect), though with some temporary branching between key plot points, and certain choices and outcomes of the songs influence the ending you get, whether it's romantic, and the fate of the characters you meet along the way.

The gist of the story is that Greek gods - who call themselves idols - live hidden between mortals in modern times. A muse dies and as you're the last person who's seen her alive and her powers have gone to you, the gods decide you're guilty until proven innocent and want you dead, but you're given a chance to find who's the actual killer.

What it's truly about is moving on a trail of clues being an excuse to meet broken characters, and in the process acting as their musical counselor by singing modular magic songs (as a muse you can compel anyone to sing what's in their hearts), which are a treat if you're into musicals. The talky parts often set the ground for the sung parts.

ROMANCE
There are four main characters that help you throughout and that you can romance (two female, two male). You get closer to them by siding with them when given the option and selecting dedicated flirting dialogue whenever it appears, which culminates in confirming you love each other. You also learn more about them and how they feel through normal interactions and what they sing about. It won't get more intimate than sharing a kiss and pouring each other's feelings out (it's not a long game in the first place - about 6 hours on average for the first playthrough and the replayability comes from trying out other romances and iterating on the songs), but it'll be emotional and each of them has their own love song.

The female love interests are your roommate-bandmate-childhood bestie Freddie (she's voiced by Janina Gavankar, and you can recognize her in the screenshots by her green hat), and Persephone, the cynical queen of the underworld and the goddess of spring (the one with red buzz cut hair and a black kimono gown, and the voice of Mary Elizabeth McGlynn). The latter counts as an age gap romance.

Freddie is the choice if you want a more touching story, with somebody who will support you in every way she can; Persephone's story is darker, and she isn't fond of showing affection (she's more likely to bump heads with you), but it's not devoid of it either. As a plus, both their stories hit harder than the male options.

There's also trickster Pan (Khary Payton singing playful/scheming stuff) and pessimistic surfer dude Apollo (Troy Baker being a huge bag of sad) - even without considering them for romance you can choose to get help from the one that doesn't conflict with the romance you're going for (it'll be clear who's incompatible with whom).

Ah, and the protragonist, Grace, is a rocker girl voiced by Laura Bailey. You choose a personality trait for her at the start (charming, kickass, clever), which unlocks some dialogue options. I don't remember the exact effect it has on the songs, but picking green-red-blue options within the songs isn't trait-restricted.

SONGS
You've got several shorter songs without much interactivity, and then there are the big ones. Those have segments where you're prompted to choose how the song will flow, and after an intro they branch out into several different versions where the song changes in a major way. The outcome of such songs, the segments you get, or a specific line in the lyrics, change with the previous choices within the song, and sometimes also external factors like a character being present there with you, or a choice made elsewhere.

Despite that, it's not overly restrictive if you're not interested in the intricacies of putting together ideal songs - or getting to certain bonus segments - and you can get by by doubling down on a single personality style or selecting options that make sense.

I recommend checking out the songs on youtube (getting lured into a musical because of a song is perfectly normal in my book). There are choice compilations for each song put together by various players, but the safer option are the official soundtracks on Austin Wintory's channel (there's four of them, three colour ones for the personalities + composer's choice pantheon version that mixes up the choices; they're don't show everything, but tracks there are sorted in order of appearance and without visuals so avoiding spoilers is easier).

Alternatively, here are my suggestions:
~Trailer-tier spoilers (a linear introductory song) - The Chorus Is In Accord
~Trailer-tier spoilers (the first major song, with Freddie singing some parts) - I Can Teach You, Lost Girls version of it with all charming choices, and Time to Play version with clever choices
~Minor spoilers - Persephone's first song (charming with mixed choices)
~Spoilers for Persephone - an attempt at flirting with Persephone (kickass Grace flavor)
~Mid-story spoilers (one character's story and lore on the gods) but it's one of my favourites - The Ritual (full-on kickass version)

@Akaii
I can't say I ever wanted to hear Laura Bailey or Troy Baker sing, but the game certainly seems lovely. I'll add it to the list.

I do have to be clear about this though, I don't consider it my list. This is a collaborative effort. That's why I add games to the list that I haven't played myself as long as the poster can make their own recommendation for it. I generally trust people to judge VNs well enough to tell me if they fit the loose criteria of the list. Believe me, if this was my list, Yurinate! would never have made it in. ^^;

Keeping in mind that the devs went out of their way to make sure it's not futanari or any of the other... extremes of the Omegaverse I suppose it is only fair to consider this game a proper yuri title. Albeit one I will never touch.
I will add it to the list. However due to the uncertainties of this particular universe I will still take the precaution of putting it into the "Majorly Yuri content" category. I hope that's not too petty of me.

To show my goodwill I want to make clear that talking about Omegaverse content isn't a problem at all. Even more uh... characteristic examples of it could technically be put into the "Yuri adjacent" category. It is rather barren since its inception anyway. Not an awful lot of imposed bisexual narratives or futanari VNs going around in these circles.

Why would that VN be only "majorly yuri" instead of just "yuri". You seem to have some strong preconceptions about omegaverse stuff, but especially for Japanese works whenever the concept comes up you can basically just read it as "what if human sex pheromones were real for some people". I've never once read one with a caste system or breeding based on the ABO subtypes, it's such a relatively tame concept that there's even Chinese ABO comics published on Bilibili, lol. It's come a long way from Supernatural fanfics about werewolves going into heat.
Dynasty has already (rightly) established that physical variation on the girls involved does not negate something being yuri as long as those girls have gay feelings. So what about that VN is not yuri?

Why would that VN be only "majorly yuri" instead of just "yuri". You seem to have some strong preconceptions about omegaverse stuff, but especially for Japanese works whenever the concept comes up you can basically just read it as "what if human sex pheromones were real for some people". I've never once read one with a caste system or breeding based on the ABO subtypes, it's such a relatively tame concept that there's even Chinese ABO comics published on Bilibili, lol. It's come a long way from Supernatural fanfics about werewolves going into heat.
Dynasty has already (rightly) established that physical variation on the girls involved does not negate something being yuri as long as those girls have gay feelings. So what about that VN is not yuri?

Whether you can even call anything in the Omegaverse the equivalent to a human woman is debatable. Alphas, Betas, Omegas, all of these are basically mutants. It certainly depends on the writer how far they are willing to take these concepts, but suffice it to say that futanari is not considered yuri, even on Dynasty. That is why the futanari and yuri tag are not used in tandem, no matter how gay the girls feelings may be. If hermaphrodites by principle are not treated as female, then they are not ellegible for yuri. I'm simply taking the function of these tags to their logical extreme.
From what I can see this VN does not go into any detail on the specifics, so I suppose it is all up to the reader. In that case I would prefer to be on the safer side of things. That is all.

The list is first and foremost trying to cater to the widest audience possible. This means it goes from purists to players who are fine with anything. Having these distinctions helps everyone sort out what is what. It's not to devalue the contents, it is compartmentalization. I want people of every opinion to be able to understand what they see and choose accordingly. Let's not forget that they are still within the yuri category anyway.

Recommendations, reviews and discussions such as this can help people get a better picture of what they are dealing with, which is exactly why I only put things I didn't play on the list if someone makes a recommendation post. This automatically means things I may not be partial to, such as Omegaverse, still get a fair shake from those who are.

So this is an unexpected update to an older VN... Without a Voice was updated to the 2.0 version and now includes full voice acting for the characters! This is a VN I already made a recommendation post for here. It's a short but impactful work that had me in its thrall for a while years back.
The new voice acting is very theater, but it does indeed fit the tone of the story. Of course it is completely optional.

Actual new releases include Sakura Isekai Adventure, another short VN in a long line of Winged Cloud releases. A lot of them are het, but the studio also releases quite a few yuri works, including this. It is not uncommon to hear the claim that Sakura VNs are the fast food of the VN industry. And I agree. Fast food can be quite tasty nonetheless.
I think there will be a general recommendation post just on Winged Cloud releases down the line. In the worst case by me.

For the Touhou minded folks out there, I can (maybe) recommend this new release featuring Patchouli x Alice. I fear I'm not deep enough into Gensokyo lore to know if this is a fan favorite pairing. It's a point and click game more than a VN, but the lines blur these days.

Finally a short yuri mystery VN that is absolutely free. I couldn't remember it's title for the life of me, so thank copy-paste! Zeitz Machz √Rhapsody

---

I want to do a proper recommendation post again soon, but I'm still contemplating which VNs to pick.

Today's date marks the 10th FLOWERS anniversary. While Innocent Grey don't have any plans for official celebratory events, the upcoming release of the latest drama CD titled “The Flower Language of Gloriosa” seems to be a way for the studio to complete yet another revolution of the upward spiral that is FLOWERS. Thankfully, this doesn't appear to be the end, if Shimizu-sensei's comment on Twitter is anything to go by. The drama CD in question will simply serve as the closing chapter in the eponymous “Flower Language” audio drama tetralogy.

UPDATE: yuri goddesses have actually blessed this wretched reality with a Flowers concert that will take place next year

(Rant time.
Unfortunately, I can imagine that most of this rings hollow to people who can't understand spoken Japanese, as nothing indicates that any of the drama CDs will ever get official English releases. Honestly, if the simple fact that JAST USA couldn't be bothered with fixing glaring editing errors in the VNs they've already published (which made me go “fine, I will do it myself” out of sheer frustration) and the state in which Hiver was originally released indicate their current attitude towards FLOWERS even remotely, then the idea of them releasing any of the “supplementary” media appears to be a pipe dream. While fan translations do exist, they come out at a glacial pace for reasons all too obvious. We (aka the nebulous “active English-speaking part of the FLOWERS community”) could definitely use more people, but so far we haven't come up with any sensible head-hunting strategies besides screaming into the void aimlessly, so to speak.)

last edited at Apr 18, 2024 5:55AM

The drama CD in question will simply serve as the closing chapter in the eponymous “Flower Language” audio drama tetralogy.

It would certainly be nice if someone could at least make a summary of these, even if not a line by line translation. Just like the other supplementary material (in particular the artbook), these are basically essential pieces of info for people who care about the post-game.

UPDATE: yuri goddesses have actually blessed this wretched reality with a Flowers concert that will take place next year

I love anything MANYO touches, so I look forward to it.

(Rant time.
Unfortunately, I can imagine that most of this rings hollow to people who can't understand spoken Japanese, as nothing indicates that any of the drama CDs will ever get official English releases.

They did not even bother translating the voice actress commentary that was already in the games. I don't blame the translators of course. They got paid peanuts.

Translators aren't at fault here, that much is obvious. They do only what they were paid for. Frankly, Meru should be hailed as a hero for saving EN FLOWERS from being thrown into pits of hell after that fiasco with the original Printemps translation. So I if were to blame anyone for anything, I would point fingers at the JAST's higher-ups. There were a few telltale signs that I interpret as them slowly losing all interest in trying to promote FLOWERS in the West. (Unsurprisingly, the Chinese-speaking part of the community is much, much more active.)

I guess that having a tl;dr of some sort wouldn't hurt, and yet I don't think that any kind of mechanistic summarization, no matter how detailed, would do these audio dramas any real justice. Some of them are up to 2,5-3 hours long, so it takes some effort to just parse and transcribe them. Overall, there exist full translations for Voiee Lactee (from Les Quatre Saisons) and for the Automne one, a significant portion of Snow White, and a bunch of small chunks from the other ones. Hopefully, there'll be more by the end of this year, but no guarantees.

last edited at Apr 22, 2024 6:46AM

FLOWERS: Fuyu-hen was one big disappointment! Well, Aki-hen was already a borefest with the most uninteresting mysteries in the series. And even Yuzuriha's true lesbianism couldn't save me from boredom. But the grande finale in Fuyu-hen just wasn't worth the wait. Some will say "“It's not the destination, it's the journey that matters", but still :(

last edited at Apr 22, 2024 12:01PM

If I remember correctly @h3x rated Automne worse than Printemps, no? That is certainly... an opinion.

@icipher

after that fiasco with the original Printemps translation

I have only played Printemps years later, so I wasn't even aware of this scandal in the initial release. What exactly was the damage?

last edited at Apr 22, 2024 2:50PM

Personally I don't think Hiver deserve the amount of flak it seems to get. While certainly not without flaws and far from perfect, it's definitely not a disappointing disaster either.

last edited at Apr 22, 2024 3:25PM

If I remember correctly @h3x rated Automne worse than Printemps, no? That is certainly... an opinion.

Yep :D Printemps was a good start of the series.

last edited at Apr 22, 2024 5:25PM

Personally I don't think Hiver deserve the amount of flak it seems to get. While certainly not without flaws and far from perfect, it's definitely not a disappointing disaster either.

In retrospect when looking through this thread it may appear like I'm on the negative side when it concerns Hiver, but I really do believe it's an amazing VN. I more or less agree with some people saying the mystery's resolution was lacking, but that wouldn't destroy all the emotional pay-off and character work it provides.

If I remember correctly @h3x rated Automne worse than Printemps, no? That is certainly... an opinion.

Yep :D Printemps was a good start of the series.

No offense, but the writing in Printemps is the weakest in the series by far. The writer clearly still didn't find their footing yet and the conclusion is unfathomably forced. While I understand that subjetive emotions will influence enjoyment a lot, it is also a fact that the majority of the fanbase considers Autumone the best written of the 4.

Your grievance with Automne seems to be with its mystery aspect, but that is by far its least important part. And even then, I'd consider these mysteries far more logically sound and interesting than Printemps', which all boiled down to forced character drama that in the end didn't really make any sense. The twins' plan in Printemps was basically non-existent. The mystery was written around the superficial idea of a Bloody Mary curse, but without actually giving the resolution any thought. All the deduction segments in Printemps require leaps of logic and brute forcing on the player's part too.

Even the long term mystery set-ups in Printemps make little sense. The game very clearly portrayed Mayuri's choice to leave as a result of the new rule of getting separated or expelled for romantic relationships between roommates. That is what triggered the whole situation. But it is never brought up again and this new rule doesn't exist in the sequels. Suoh immediately giving up on Mayuri the second she finds that message is beyond forced.
Mayuri's actions in Printemps don't make sense with Hiver's resolution but they are even more frustrating if you only played Printemps. It certainly left me infuriated to the point of nearly dropping the series right there.
The other long term set up without pay-off is Yuzuriha being attacked so the game could have some mystery that blames Mayuri for a crime. It is not actually resolved properly in Printemps and never gets a proper resolution anywhere else either.

Automne's strength lies in its character writing. It is by far the most thoughtful and self-contained in the series, with a very definitive conclusion that feels like the proper pay-off to a meticulously set-up arc. Even the alternate outcome where Yuzuriha dates Ringo has more depth than the usual tacked on alternate endings. Though admittedly the canonical twincest is a bit too tropey for my liking...

last edited at Apr 23, 2024 5:37AM

Alright it's time to get weird, sorry?
While checking uh cough websites yuri tags I saw a baby fetish one and noticed it was short length so I gave it a shot.
Can I call you mommy? ~Till I become your baby~
Welp, it's what it says on the title, I'm sure you're all familiar with this kink if you've been in the internet long enough, I don't think I need to go far into that.
The game itself is as odd as it sounds, the premise is that the MC needs money for college, so instead of gay for pay she baby for pay? It IS yuri if you stick to it. And sticking to it is the hard part, I was expecting a lot of kinky seggs, but they kinda play it "straight" about the baby play thing for the most part.
There is one sex scene which determines the ending, ending 1 is even weirder than what came before and it has some extremely dark implications as the MC loses her identity completely. Ending 2 is a bit better and you get the full context on the "mom" thing, they seem to end up in a relationship of sorts? It's just weird.
I don't regret reading it, but kind hard to recommend due to the nature of it and how both endings are left to interpretation.

TL; DR: Mommy play, watersports galore, power dynamic. Takes about an hour to complete.

I have only played Printemps years later, so I wasn't even aware of this scandal in the initial release. What exactly was the damage?

Examples are in chronological order: 1, 2, 3.
While I do have certain criticisms towards the English translation after extensively comparing it to the source and to a different translation, they are so ridiculously miniscule that they pretty much don't matter in the grand scheme of things.

PS. I must warn everyone in this thread that grading any of the FLOWERS volumes individually is tantamount to church schism. Insurrection will not be tolerated.

last edited at Apr 24, 2024 6:18AM

@Rye
Never apologize for sharing knowledge. Rather we should thank you for your service in the trenches of the obscure and questionable.
As you suggest yourself, though, it doesn't sound like much of a recommendation, so I'd rather not put it on the list. For those interested your post will still give a proper evaluation of course

@icipher

Examples are in chronological order

OH my... If I had played that Demo I would have probably written it off myself. But who am I fooling? I'd still have played all of them even with a subpar translation.
I suppose all our thanks should go to dedicated fans that pulled through where corporations won't.

grading any of the FLOWERS volumes individually is tantamount to church schism

Hah. I am not fond of numerical ratings anyway. I do absolutely judge and analyse every volume of a novel series individually. It is important to take in a long series both on the micro and macro level in my opinion.

last edited at Apr 24, 2024 5:15PM

Good news everyone!
UsoNatsu just got its first voice drama as a DLC on Steam. Completely translated naturally!
Let's support the devs so we get more quality yuri VNs like this in the future.

PS: I added more VNs to the list as usual.

---

The Steam summer sale started and almost every single VN on the recommendation list that is available on Steam is on sale. Grab all you can!

last edited at Jun 27, 2024 5:00PM

I'm glad UsoNatsu seems to be pretty successful bc they just announced a manga adaptation of it today~ Serialization starts in the October issue of Yuri Hime and will be drawn by Rococo.

https://x.com/LYCORIS_info/status/1813592295301939575

I'm glad UsoNatsu seems to be pretty successful bc they just announced a manga adaptation of it today~ Serialization starts in the October issue of Yuri Hime and will be drawn by Rococo.

https://x.com/LYCORIS_info/status/1813592295301939575

Good thing we all bought that voice drama to show interest.
Joking aside, I hope it will be a successful run. Unless it wants to deviate from the source materal we already know the outcome, but it will be nice to see those scenes play out in artistic form instead of just words and single CGs.

last edited at Jul 18, 2024 8:48AM

So Lilja and Natsuka: Painting Lies came out last week. I finished it the other day and was positively surprised, didn't expect smth this introspective from Frontwing of all studios.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2840900/Lilja_and_Natsuka_Painting_Lies/

So Lilja and Natsuka: Painting Lies came out last week. I finished it the other day and was positively surprised, didn't expect smth this introspective from Frontwing of all studios.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2840900/Lilja_and_Natsuka_Painting_Lies/

Unfortunately the main pairing did not go anywhere in the end. I appreciate the explicit yuri side-pairings at least. Still somewhat baffling, unless they have planned a sequel already.

However the author is... well I don't know if calling this artistic range is appropiate. More like a completely different entity. I'm all for second chances though, so it's better to see an author of this kind redeem himself I suppose.

So Lilja and Natsuka: Painting Lies came out last week. I finished it the other day and was positively surprised, didn't expect smth this introspective from Frontwing of all studios.

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2840900/Lilja_and_Natsuka_Painting_Lies/

Unfortunately the main pairing did not go anywhere in the end. I appreciate the explicit yuri side-pairings at least. Still somewhat baffling, unless they have planned a sequel already.

Not sure what you mean by that, they're as gay and together as can be. Maybe you missed their kissing at the christmas party?