Red Lilies is yuri horror visual novel by indie developer ButterflyLatte of KrispyCat.
A young woman named Irene has been accepted at Lady Lilianne’s Academy For Proper Young Women, a finishing school where young women learn the ways of etiquette and charm. On her first day, all seems well; Irene is placed under the wing of an upperclassman, Lucy, and meets four schoolmates, all of whom take an interest in her. And on the first day, it seems that her school days will be bright…
Until the next morning, when Lucy is found dead and drained of blood.
The demo
was released in October 2022, covering pre-route content. A KickStarter to fund the game was launched in April of 2023, and reached the stretch goal of allowing Irene to pursue Lucy.
The full game was released August 29, 2025.
This visual novel provides examples of:
- Ambiguous Situation:
- Lugoci’s interest in Irene. Is he really intent on having her as a bride? Or is he seeking to make a new fledgling? A combination of both?
- Everything surrounding Miss Cooper’s deal with Lugoci is shrouded in mystery. Why did she start feeding girls to him, and how long ago did it start? How many girls have died over the years? How has she been able to avoid suspicion? None of this is conclusively answered.
- Art-Style Dissonance: The girls look very cute, and wouldn’t be out of place in a moe yuri game… but they’re in a horror story. The game’s page makes sure to inform viewers that it is not meant for kids.
- Back from the Dead: Lucy returns to life - in a manner of speaking, being a vampire.
- Batter Up!:
- In her route, Maggie takes to arming herself with a cricket bat, practicing her swings at night and intending on bludgeoning whoever is responsible for the deaths.
- In Hazel’s route, the pair can borrow Maggie’s bat, which Irene uses to knock a bat (actually Lugoci) away from Hazel.
- Beautiful Dreamer:
- In Amanda’s route, Irene ventures into the gardens to find Amanda napping beneath a tree. Irene notes how peaceful and cute she looks, and chooses not to wake her.
- In Maggie’s route, Irene finds Maggie asleep in Ilya’s office, and is struck by her beauty.
- Bilingual Bonus: Ilya has his class read a French poem which does not get translated, and as such is best understood by French-speakers.
- Cassandra Truth: No matter how the girls plead that it wasn’t an animal that killed Lucy, nor is it a coincidence that more deaths are following, Miss Cooper refuses to believe them. It’s because she’s actually in on the whole thing.
- Closed Circle: The entire game takes place within the school, as the girls are too far away from cities and have no safe way of leaving.
- Content Warning: The game warns that it is a horror game and features death and bloody imagery.
- Contrived Clumsiness: Iona, normally very poised and put-together, drops several dishes in the middle of the dining room all of a sudden. It’s implied to have been a deliberate maneuver to redirect Miss Cooper’s attention to herself, as she was yelling at Irene.
- Daywalking Vampire: Both Master Lugoci and Lucy are able to move about in the daytime, though Lugoci shelters under an umbrella while he’s outside. Lucy explains in her route that she feels stronger at night, but isn’t actually hurt by sunlight.
- Dean Bitterman: Miss Cooper is stern and no-nonsense when we meet her, threatens the girls with expulsion if they keep asking about Lucy’s death, and has been giving her students to Lugoci for years. Several endings also strongly imply she physically abused the maid staff.
- Dies Wide Open: Lucy’s body is found with her eyes still open, complete with Wide Eyes and Shrunken Irises.
- Does This Remind You of Anything?: Lugoci’s fixation on Irene in Lucy’s route, spending time alone in his room with her, inviting her back to his country with him, and biting her both during said room visits and in her sleep are very reminiscent of grooming.
- Empty Eyes: Amanda develops blank eyes in her route, shown when she’s painting one of her vampire visions or when Lucy possesses her.
- English Rose: Discussed; the girls are attending Lady Lilianne’s in order to become these, with Hazel in particular being extra determined to be the model of a ‘proper lady.’
- Establishing Character Moment:
- Camelia is first seen in the library, sitting away from the other girls, reading Carmilla.
- Maggie and Hazel are introduced demanding an argument between them be settled; the argument is due to Maggie wanting to play ball but coming dangerously close to Hazel’s tea party.
- Amanda is introduced clinging to Iona’s arm and childishly asking for a particular silverware.
- Foreshadowing: Camelia is shown reading Carmilla in her introduction, the Trope Codifier for lesbian vampires. Doubles as an Inspiration Nod.
- Girls Love Stuffed Animals: Hazel is shown to have tea parties with her collection of teddy bears.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Amanda has blonde hair and is easily the most innocent and kind of the quartet. Lucy has blonde hair as well, but speaking with Iona reveals she may not be as kind and sweet as she initially comes across.
- Have a Gay Old Time: Camelia uses "queer" in its older meaning, "strange," to describe herself.
- How They Treat the Help:
- Irene thanks Iona, the maid, for her service. However, Lucy admonishes her and tells her a lady does not acknowledge the staff. In several routes, Lucy expresses regret for this, admitting she wanted to remain friends with Iona but felt she couldn’t due to societal expectations.
- Miss Cooper largely ignores the maid staff, but on several occasions is shown verbally abusing Iona. In several endings it’s implied she physically abused them as well.
- How We Got Here: The game opens with Irene hiding in her room, while someone pounds on the door and demands she come out to talk. From there, we go back to more peaceful times of her arrival at the school.
- Inspiration Nod:
- Camelia is first seen reading Carmilla, the Ur-Example of Lesbian Vampire.
- The main vampire’s name is Vladimir Lugoci, a double nod to Dracula.
- Several lines from the original Dracula novel appear in the game.My God, I know the date of my death!
- Let the Past Burn: In Maggie’s endings, the school burns to the ground.
- Multiple Endings: There are eleven endings to obtain in the full game, two for every girl but Lucy, who has three.
- Nice, Mean, and In-Between: The three visible classmates Elizabeth, Polly, and Charlotte. Arrogant and nosy Elizabeth is Mean, meek and gentle Polly is Nice, and Charlotte, who depending on the route can remain gentle or becomes a paranoid wreck, is In Between.
- Nightmare Fetishist:
- Camelia is introduced reading Carmilla, and it’s well-known in the school that she knows many scary stories. This may apply to the other girls, too, as they ask Camelia to tell them one.
- Irene mentions reading a book by "Shelley," likely referring to Mary Shelley, aka, the author of Frankenstein. In Camelia’s route, she deliberately asks for a scary story.
- Nightmare Fuel Coloring Book: In Amanda’s route, Irene takes a peek at her sketchbook, and is horrified to see pages of dead, broken girls.
- Our Vampires Are Different: Vampires here have red eyes, gray or white hair, can fly, turn into mist, and need to be invited into a building. Being bitten or drinking their blood also allows the victim to see through the vampire’s eyes.
- Queer Flowers: The game title references lilies and lily imagery is featured prominently in some of the promo art. Irene also describes the flower vases containing violets - which also have sapphic symbolism.
- Riches to Rags: In Iona’s backstory; she describes how she was once a student herself, but her family fell upon hard times and she was unable to continue funding her education. She had no choice but to become a maid.
- The Storyteller: Camelia is known to tell scary stories to her classmates. She explains that she learned many of them from her grandfather, who also told her about vampires.
- Tsundere: Hazel frequently gets frustrated with her peers, but at the same time she has moments of clear fondness for the other girls. Notably, she does not push Amanda away when the other girl latches onto her in fear.
- Vampire Bites Suck: Victims who aren’t killed immediately have painful holes in their neck that bruise easily, the bites reopen and gush blood when the victim is stressed, and they’re generally tired and ill. When Irene is bitten by Lugoci in Lucy’s route, she notes a sharp pain in her neck and the feeling of ice piercing her.
- Wham Shot: Lucy’s dead body lying in blood-stained sheets solidifies the moment when the game goes from romance to horror-romance.
- Yuri Genre: The game is solidly classified as yuri, with the promise that Irene can romance one of the five girls she befriends on her first day. In addition, some of the girls are shown to be clingy or affectionate with one another - Maggie and Hazel in particular.