The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily developed by One or Eight and Alliance Arts, then published by Alliance Arts is a turn-based strategy game focused on utilizing the upcoming genre in manhwa and manga focused on narratives on villainesses. Overall, when players first set foot into the game, it shows its anime-inspired roots in how it presents itself through its character designs and storytelling. However, one major note to take away is that while the game’s soundtrack may be limited in some respects, it fits the atmosphere it is trying to present and is something to behold. As for the gameplay, it is just your simple turn-based strategy with a few twists to make it completely unique as a whole.
The art style is quite something, and while a little sketchy, for those who have a background in art, it can be that the art style still tells a lot about a character. As for the person in charge of the art, it was mostly stemming from a well-known Japanese artist that goes by Rolua. The art can only be described as beautifully done, and Roula has mastered the usage of tones to give each character a unique design as a whole.
Moreover, aside from the character designs, the map itself is well detailed and offers players who enjoy that pixelated look to enjoy it thoroughly and provides players a glimpse as to what the world is like.
Aside from the art style, the game’s narrative structure focuses on the villainess genre that has grown in popularity in recent years, with the focus being on a strong female lead with some undesirable traits that players will need to overlook, as the player is essentially playing the villain in this game, albeit with some surprising twists. Plus, with the game being voice acted, it elevates the experience to a higher level and changes the pace of the narrative as a whole. This allows the players to truly hear how the characters feel and get a better grasp of their character traits
The music is done by U2 Akiyama, well known for his music in Touhou games, and those familiar with his works will recognize some key notes he likes to use in composing soundtracks. While the game has a quite limited soundtrack, the music itself is quite good and demonstrates how good U2 Akiyama is by changing even small components of a song, either by changing the tempo or instruments in use. This allows for certain music tracks to not feel to repetitive and still keep their emotional impact for when they are needed for key moments.
The game uses a turn-based strategy to move units around the map, with the focus being unit placements. This will allow the player to defend key points and use them to farm enemies to level up, as certain spots are key chokepoints like in any war. As for how the game separates itself from other strategy games, players will need to capture certain special characters with the game’s most unique feature.
The game’s most unique feature is the streaming ability from the airship, allowing players to utilize various abilities to either capture commanders or hamper the movements of the enemy. As for how strong some of these abilities are, they differ based upon the player’s ability to navigate their troops but overall can be tide turners. With some outright stalling of the enemy movements to even disrupting the enemy lines of transportation.
However, it is up to the player to use the streaming abilities to their full effect and control the flow of the battlefield. There is also a downside to the airship, as it requires energy to maintain and can leave the player feeling vulnerable in some specific scenarios, resulting in a game over. In regards to game over, since this game is turn-based, there is a turn-by-turn auto-save that allows the player to fix mistakes they have made previously on top of manual saving.
Overall, it is an enjoyable experience and quite the departure from traditional turn-based strategy games, and with its unique art style and narrative, it will be apparent as to what will occur. The art style is quite astounding and inspirational for artists, and not just the art but also the music, as it conveys the right emotions necessary to not be too repetitive. This is all thanks to Roula and U2 Akiyama for making the art and music present in the game. As for the overall direction of the game, it is by a person named Masked D, someone with very little information available, so it is possible it is just a pen name, but overall, the narrative feels solid and so do the characters. This leaves The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily a solid 9/10 especially for new gamers who are fans of anime but are finding it challenging to find a strategy game based around the subject matter.
The Great Villainess: Strategy of Lily launches tomorrow, July 24, for PC via Steam.
Related: Reviews by Kyle Manila
I would describe myself when interacting with games as a strategist with a pension for stealth and loud explosions.
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