The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily Review Summary

Charming characters and branching endings stand out, but shallow turn-based combat, tedious pacing, and optimization problems make this strategy game a slog.

Likeable and charming characters: Many reviewers praised the cast as distinct, loveable, and full of charm, with engaging dynamics. Characters are frequently described as well written and entertaining.

Interesting and fun story: Reviewers repeatedly call the story interesting, fun, and charming. Some note that it is a bit crazy but still engaging and worth experiencing.

Beautiful and unique art style: The art style is widely praised as beautiful, unique, and charming. Many reviewers find it visually appealing and distinctive.

Overall enjoyable and well-made game: Players consistently describe the game as good, well-rounded, and engaging overall. It is seen as a high-quality experience that is fun to play.

Excellent character design and visuals: Character designs are praised as excellent, diverse, and attractive. Visuals are described as great and visually incredible.

Gameplay is a tedious slog: A common complaint is that the gameplay drags and becomes unbearably slow, turning into a repetitive grind. This tiring pacing significantly hurts the overall experience.

Lacks strategic depth: Many reviewers say the gameplay lacks meaningful strategy, with shallow mechanics that don't feel like a true strategy game. It underdelivers on its genre promise.

Poor overall gameplay quality: Players widely describe the gameplay as bad, rough, unbalanced, and lacking fun. Many feel the game is simply not enjoyable to play as a strategy experience.

Unreasonable difficulty spikes: Difficulty is often seen as unfairly high, with steep spikes that feel unreasonable. Players report frustration on higher difficulty settings.

High late-game enemy levels: Enemies in the late game are significantly higher level than the player cap of 40, and often more numerous. This creates an unfair difficulty wall.

Turn-based strategy combat core: The game is fundamentally a turn-based strategy RPG with grid-based combat, where turn order and positioning are central. Many reviewers highlight the tactical depth and quick battles.

Multiple endings and branching paths: The game features several endings (including happy, bad, demon lord, and massacre endings) determined by player choices and routes. Branching story paths add replay value.

Multiple difficulty settings available: Players can choose between Strategy Mode (hard) and Easy Mode, and switch anytime. This allows both newcomers and veterans to enjoy the game.

Three-turn battle limit: Combat encounters are designed to last only three turns, creating fast-paced and puzzle-like battles. This unique constraint forces efficient tactics.

Character synergy and unique skills: Each recruitable character has distinct abilities and skills that can be combined for powerful synergies. Understanding these combinations is key to success.

Widespread optimization complaints: Many players report the game is poorly optimized, with issues ranging from lag and stuttering to crashes and high resource usage. This is a recurring theme across multiple clusters, indicating a systemic problem.

High CPU and RAM usage: The game demands significant CPU and RAM resources, leading to high temperatures, crashes, and overall system strain. Players note high CPU usage and low GPU usage, suggesting poor optimization.

Demanding even on moderate PCs: The game is strangely demanding, heavily taxing systems and causing computers to chug. Minimum specs are considered dubious, and recommended specs should be heeded.

Frequent crashes: Players report frequent crashes, especially during loading, bond stories, and story skipping, as well as on high-end computers. This severely impacts the gameplay experience.

Startup and black screen issues: Some players experience a black screen or blank screen upon launching the game, sometimes lasting over half an hour. One fix involves setting display resolution to 1920x1080 and scaling to 100%.

Mixed Recommendation Sentiment: Some clusters contain positive recommendations while others contain negative recommendations. The positive clusters are generally more enthusiastic, while the negative ones focus on gameplay issues.

Strategy Game Appeal: Many positive recommendations come from players who enjoy strategy games, including turn-based and JRPG hybrids. This suggests the game successfully appeals to strategy enthusiasts.

Yuri Content Mixed Reception: Some players recommend the game for its yuri content, while others warn that yuri fans might be disappointed due to the presence of other content types. This indicates a split in the yuri community.

Price Concerns and Discounts: Several clusters mention that the game is not worth full price and recommend waiting for a discount of 50% or more. This is a common theme among negative recommendations.

Difficulty and Easy Mode: Players often recommend playing on easy difficulty, especially for those interested in the story or new to strategy games. Easy mode makes the game more accessible and enjoyable.

Community fair range: $15.00 - $25.00.

Game completion: 30.0h.

Story completion: 27.5h.

Endgame: 15.0h.

Strategy of Lily's reported time-to-fun profile is mostly 'clicks after': early battles and the first act are often tedious or sluggish, but the midgame opens up tactical freedom and a 'one more turn' flow. Some players find it immediately addictive, so the experience is not unanimous.

Friction: Early battles feel limited in options and monotonous.; Sluggish early pacing.; The first act can feel too tedious to enjoy without forcing effort.; Difficulty spikes can require grinding or maxing units.; Repetitive combat across dozens of fights.; Save-scumming or reloading is often needed to undo bad turns..

Unlock drivers: From the midgame onward, allies gather and tactical freedom expands dramatically.; The game reaches a 'one more turn' flow once the ball rolls.; Frequent saves after each turn reduce frustration.; The save-scumming feature mitigates tedium.; Post-release patches improved comfort, late-game pacing, and load times.; Auto-battle can reduce repetitive fighting..

Tactical Strategy Veteran: Plays on strategy mode, analyzes AI movement, camps or farms when needed, uses elite units, and accepts save-scumming or trial-and-error. Motivation: To master challenging turn-based tactics and overcome hard battles through map control and optimization. Stance: buy.

Casual Anime Story Player: Plays on easy mode, focuses on story and character moments, and avoids heavy tactical optimization or grinding. Motivation: To enjoy the anime story, characters, and art in a low-stress casual experience. Stance: buy.

Yuri/GL Enthusiast: Focuses on bond and support content, pursues character routes, and tolerates strategy gameplay mainly for the yuri elements. Motivation: To see yuri and GL pairings, character bonds, and lesbian representation in a strategy RPG. Stance: sale.

In the Windows 8-11GB VRAM cohort, the game is generally reported as working well enough to recommend, with some caveats about RAM usage and optimization.

Windows 8-11GB VRAM: positive. Both included reviewers recommend the game and report playable performance with 32 GB RAM, though one notes crashes on a 16 GB system when Chrome is also open and another criticizes poor optimization and dubious minimum specs.

Steam Deck: The Steam Deck audit shows high friction across performance, stability, controls, readability, and save handling. Users report map-view framerate around 20 FPS, frequent crashes during save/load and story sequences, controller input poorly suited to handheld play, small UI requiring close viewing, and a serious save-data issue where controlled bases disappeared after loading a Steam Deck save. The game can launch and be played, but these issues place it in the Broken tier.

Multiple Endings and Routes: The game features multiple endings and routes, including a Demon Lord ending, Happy End, and death ending. Around five endings exist, with some based on companion bonding and a true ending requiring specific actions.

Playtime and Completion Time: A single playthrough takes about 15 hours, while 100% completion takes around 25-30 hours. Some reviewers mention shorter times, such as under 15 hours, but overall the game offers moderate length.

Yuri Content Expectations Versus Reality: The game's title and marketing suggest a strong yuri focus, but many reviewers find the actual yuri content minimal or tame. Some note that the game includes yuri themes and elements, but less than expected.

Pricing and Value: The game is priced slightly high at $30, but many consider it worth the price, especially when on sale. It offers great value for the price despite feeling short.

Includes Feral Yuri and Other Content: The game includes feral yuri content and other relationship types such as yaoi, BG, BL, and 4i. Some reviewers warn about these elements if they are not to the player's taste.