The Many Deaths of Lily Kosen

I've been looking for games like these lately. A blend between genuine horror and cozy camaraderie. Kinda like Corpse Party but with a more ...western influence, I guess. TMDoLK scratched that itch, but left me wanting more. Not in the sense that the presentation was poor or anything. I loved the story, and the length and execution are great. I just haven't found any more VNs like this. I actually found this game on TVTropes. Namely due to how the characters speak like how people do real life. They pause, they stutter, they backtrack and sometimes lose their train of thought. It feels pretty organic. Completely unlike some other VNs where, say, the average character can gracefully segue into flawless Shakespearean prose at the drop of a hat. As far as villains go, the one here is done well. Probably my favorite part of the game. They're an interesting combination of terrifying yet snarky. They'll usually steal the show (and possibly a life or three) every time they show up - which is balanced enough for them to be an actual threat despite not being particularly difficult to temporarily deter. Basically Chucky, but the character deaths and victories are less contrived. The stor…

The Many Deaths of Lily Kosen is by and large an enjoyable game. A horror visual novel that follows you and your friends dealing with the result of past decisions that have now spiralled out of control. It's a game I received a key for for free during the 2025 choose wisely festival, and had a blast playing it then, though there was no input from the developers for the context of my review. The primary mechanic of the game is stress, and each conversation you have with friends can lower theirs. Of course it's not just your friends stress you need to worry about, but your own as well. Of course, your friends aren't going to want to burden you with their problems, so it's not always going to be so obvious how well your friends are coping with the events of the game, and this is both the best and worst part of the game. There are moments of stress checks throughout the game, where characters will die should their stress exceed a value. While I can understand the friends stress levels being hidden, the fact that your own is as well feels more trailered to fit the gameplay, as your characters responses and reactions seem to remain constant, regardless of their own stress level. I can…

I really enjoyed this VN! The characters each had their own unique voice and personality, the art was beautiful, and the main "stress" mechanic of the game was a really cool/interesting system. Once the story got its hooks in me, it did not let go and it did not disappoint! Do yourself a favor and check this game out! :)

That fact that this doesn’t have a lot of people playing this is crazy!!! Honestly the first time playing this you got me good because I didn’t think I could die and completely start over. Making a crossover story because of how influential this game was too me.

Lured by the siren song of "mention of messed up happenings on adjacent TvTropes page" I've played The Many Deaths of Lily Kosen, or "Rirī Kōzen no Kazukazu no Shi, Mate" as it's known on the other side of the pond and found myself pleasantly surprised by the awkward charm. LK can be cleared in about two hours of steady reading, ballooning to a bit more if you get got too many times and reload compulsively to get all them scenes. LK keeps it simple with four friends dabbling with the supernatural and trying to survive the consequences of their own actions in what I'd affectionately dub an Aussie Animeland, a comfortable vaguely western haze where teenagers dressed as petrol-wielding banchos try to find their place while adults are conspicuously absent. The setting tics are more amusing than anything though I'll get *spoilers* about that later. Most of LK revolves around your friend group trying to cope with shared trauma caused by bad jokes and near death experiences. The writing is the bread and butter being compulsively eaten by our protagonist and LK takes a good crack at a relationships values system that smartly holds the numbers close to the chest. There's a loop of world …

Interesting premise and solid execution! The game loop is pretty simple - you and your friends are being haunted, and for all four of you to survive, you need to manage the stress of your entire party, including yourself. This ends up being pretty simple mechanically - talking to your party members about their problems and taking some time to yourself regularly should net you a good ending after a few gameovers, especially once you work out that [spoiler] different characters require more or less comforting than others depending on their temperament [/spoiler]. Given how dialogue-centric the game is, it's good that the characters don't just feel real, but feel like real friends. I felt bad when I got my friends killed! Absences were felt during otherwise small moments - if the character who would normally break into a house died earlier, the surviving party wait around a second too long with none of them willing to do the dirty work. The tone wasn't super consistent - the conversations with your friends are scripted to play in order, mostly unaffected by external context. This can be kind of funny - a character just died, and I immediately turned around to the other survivor and…