When life gives you lemons… and so on. But why? I’m thinking it’s because the taste of a raw lemon is not exactly appealing. They are, after all, rather sour. Lemonade, on the other hand, is… well, ‘bittersweet’. Right? Yeah. Let’s go with that. Oh, you know what else I would describe as such? A tale involving a staircase, two female high school students, perhaps even a smidge of… Lemonade.
Of the bittersweet variety, if the panicking Ellie we’re immediately introduced to is any indication. Our protagonist is struggling, and not just a little either. Something deeply important that has been carefully planned, something that mustn’t go wrong for anything… ends up doing just that. In the worst possible way. This causes her anxiety to kick into overdrive as she is devastated by the awful turn of events.
If not for Mei’s timely arrival with some “bottled sunshine,” Ellie would likely have collapsed then and there from mental exhaustion, ending the story before it had a chance to start. Which it then does, and my, is it ever a good one. A surprising amount of ground is covered given its relatively low word count. Slowly, but surely, Ellie manages to dispel the panic-inducing emotions, and the two get to talking about what happened. At first, immediate concerns arise, like why Ellie suddenly fled the classroom, but it isn’t long before their little chat becomes a lot more personal.
Ellie tends to hold back, worried she’s taking up too much space, while Mei is almost the exact opposite, bursting with energy, goofy ideas, and happiness. In other words, if there’s some truth to the old thing about how opposites attract, then these two would make a perfect couple. They just might end up exactly that, too, although there is no guarantee.
As indicated by the title of this review, love is very much in the air. Here’s the thing, though: Lemonade has multiple endings! Two, in fact, and… neither are what I would even remotely consider a ‘bad’ ending. They are noticeably different; the point at which the story branches is perfectly chosen, and both of them are really good. Not bad. Good.
Just like the art style and visual design. It’s actually quite impressive how much time and effort was spent on not only the background but also character designs and even the user interface. Not only are a variety of different fonts and text colours utilised throughout, but then there are also seemingly minor touches like the appearance of the textbox and quite a few facial expressions for both characters. Great stuff.
Now, while the story—in no small part due to some absolute quality writing—is the highlight of the experience for me, a very close second is absolutely the fact that Mei is fully voiced and just how well it’s done. Some might be puzzled by this, wondering why Ellie isn’t also voiced. I cannot say for certain, but I believe this was intentional—to allow the reader to feel like they are Ellie in this case. If she had a voice, it would be noticeably more difficult to experience Lemonade in such a way.
It could also be that the creator figured, since Ellie is a quiet, anxious type of person, leaving her lines unvoiced would help portray her more accurately. This would also help sell Mei’s more outgoing, borderline-sparkly personality, further emphasising how opposite yet perfect the two are together. Again, I do not know what the reason is, and honestly, I feel like both make equal amounts of sense, so I’m just going to leave it at that.
This is also where I’m going to leave this review, with a recommendation that you go play this amazing visual novel right now and the hope that this won’t be the last we’ve seen of Ellie and Mei. As noted on the game’s itch.io page, “If it ever seems appropriate, maybe I’ll revisit their little world again someday…”, so who knows? Maybe someday.
For now, how about some Lemonade?
