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LIP! Lewd Idol Project Vol. 2 – Review

Our beloved idols return—this time with one more member! Meet the cute but bold gamer, Yuki!

LIP! Lewd Idol Project Vol. 2 is the newest entry of Toffer Team‘s Lewd Idol Project series, and is a direct sequel to the first volume, which I reviewed here! Volume 2 has an average playtime of around 4-5 hours, which makes it the longest entry in the series so far.

You can check out the game here if you’re interested—it’s selling for just $6.99!

https://twitter.com/TofferTeam/status/1603479517942669320

So, you ask, what is this volume about?

Kairi is a young, innocent, cheerful girl whose gotta dream…to become the most famous idol ever!

Now that Kairi’s managed to make her first photo shoot as a Lewd Idol a success—well, enough of a success to pay for some nice vacations and eradicate Ranko’s debts, at least—it’s time for Ranko to give Kairi her official LIP uniform! 

But the world of adult entertainment never rests, and now the two girls have a new mission—to find their second member!

Enter Yuki. The smart, mysterious gamer is a woman of few words, and doesn’t seem to have much interest in the idol world, but she does seem to have a genuine interest in one girl in particular…Kairi.

With this in mind, our protagonist and her Lewd Producer will do their best to convince Yuki to jump on board!

Note: As always, I’ll be using the CAWPILE system to rate the game—each category will receive a score from 1 to 10, with the entire game receiving a score of 1 to 5. Do bear in mind that I’ll adapt the system in order to fit visual novels as a medium.

Characters & Voice Acting – 6

In the first volume, we focused on Kairi-chan and her introduction to the lewd idol world, while exploring her relationship with Ranko, her new manager. This time, we get a new (gamer) girl–Yuki!

She is your typical kuudere; however, whenever she’s with Kairi-chan, we get to see a new, bolder side to her. I enjoyed their dynamic, but I feel like Kairi always ends up being portrayed as the dumber, more naïve version of the two. In the next entry in the series, I’d love to see some development of Yuki and Ranko’s relationship too!

We get some new voicelines for Yuki (VA: Nana), but my ability to enjoy the lines really suffered because of the…not so great…audio quality. Her voice is really cute too, so it’s a real shame.

Art – 8

Oh boy, oh boy! I’ve gotta say, the level of improvement between the first and second volumes is really something! The shading and all the details, especially—just, whoa. The change is most notable in the CGs, but even Yuki’s sprite is on another level.

Honestly, I really enjoyed looking at everything in the gallery afterwards.

Atmosphere/Setting & Soundtrack – 6

The setting is, like in the prequel, the bright and always lively Akihabara. Everything is exciting and full of action, and the overall feel of the game reflects that.

The soundtrack is the same as last time as well, which is understandable, since the whole atmosphere and general storyline feels very similar. You know, with the whole ‘let’s be a lewd idol’ plot.

Writing – 6.5

Nice reference to Kindan no Ketsuzoku, heh.

While the writing isn’t on par with most story-focused VNs I’ve read, I did notice a level of improvement from the last entry in the series. If you compare it to most other nukige, it’s pretty good!

It’s possible they were only able to do this because the main story was already well-established, but even Yuki, a brand-new character, did not feel completely one-dimensional.

Even nukige can’t escape exploitation, it seems…

Plot – 7

She’s so adorable, aaahh!

The game kicks off with a recap of the hottest scenes from both previous entries–just in case you forgot what happened! 😉

One of the complaints I had for the first volume of the series was that storyline felt rushed and that nothing really happened besides sex. So much so that if I said I was just there for the plot, I would have sounded disengenous.

Volume 2 turns the plot up a little more, and I found myself genuinely appreciating all the additional content outside of the sex scenes. Don’t worry, though—we still get plenty of fun and games. It’s just that in this volume, we get to see Kairi start advancing into the lewd idol world too. We get to see her add a new member to her group and have a blast at some spicy photoshoots. We might even, perhaps, get to see her release her first single…

On top of all that, we get the chance to learn about Ranko’s unfortunate past in the idol industry. I feel like she’d be such a great idol if she got the chance!

Same, Yuki, same….

Finally, we get a glimpse of Kanako, who appears to be the heroine for Volume 3. She appears to be a tsundere gang leader who also happens to be a member of a rock band, so expect some hot action!

Mechanics & Gameplay – 7

It’s super fun!

First of all, we get a new font–it’s easier to read and makes the visuals much cuter! The main thing I want to talk about here, though, is the most important mechanic of a VN’s gameplay—choices.

In Volume 1, we got the “lovemeter,” a scoring mechanism where the score didn’t matter one bit, since the game only had a single ending.

Then, in Hot Springs and Beach Episodes, we finally got different endings–these ended up primarily affecting how much action you were able to see during your playthrough.

In this entry, we get a mix of both. We have even more choices, plus two separate meters, one for each heroine. Filling those meters will determine how many intimate scenes you’ll have with Yuki and Ranko, but it doesn’t affect the overall flow of the story nor its narrative.

In addition, we still have our typical UFO-catcher and gacha minigames from the previous volume. We even get a new minigame, one that’ll be entertaining for any dedicated otaku or gamer—a stripping quiz! Prepare to test your knowledge as you watch the girls slowly undress!

Enjoyment – 7.5

This volume was definitely better than the first one, and I can’t wait to cover whatever Toffer Team decides to bring out next for this series! Be it another side story or the next main title, I’m sure I’ll have a good time. I’ll give this a score of 3/5–to be fair, this is almost a 4.


You can buy the game on Steam and Denpasoft.

fujoneko

Weird little gremlin who likes all the fucked up stuff; if a story doesn't leave you in shambles, what's even the point? Functional fujoshi, at your service.

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