VN - Ren'Py - Best Friends [Ch.10.1] [Faenon]

the story is boring and uninteresting, there are no real choices, there is nothing really good here... if you want a story that makes sense or at least makes reasonable suspention of disbelief, this is NOT the game/KN for you, well maybe if you are a faggot/gay...

The Dev says that Best Friends is almost complete. I have enjoyed this story about a boy transitioning to a girl. The story really works, and the graphics are excellent. This is a true buddy-buddy story. In fact, you can play as one of the buddies or the other!

If you like it, please support the solo Dev like I have.

It seems the game is more of a platform for pushing transgender-related messaging than a sincere effort to create an engaging narrative. The characters are underdeveloped, the conversations feel unoriginal, and the limited sex scenes that are shown are both unexciting and overly brief.

If you like a story with a start and an end (hopefully, so far this thing seems well laid out) with reasonable people at reasonable situations, this is what the docter ordered. Its not a harem collect-a-thon noahs ark wackdoodle-story where you plonk every possible female in every possible way in every possible location - a rarity. Its a lovely slow burn that is not slow and I geniunely didnt feel it to have any filler.

I like the time jumps, smaller exposition scenes, the fact that it isnt day based, the characters dont have insane proportions, the often overused uni setting here works great as a backdrop for the characters to interact with their peers and develop themselves, the progression of the characters is logical and reasonable, there arent any obvious super villains- just people, the sex scenes are long enough and not unnecesarily over-the-top. And I really appreciate that the story has a feeling of it being planned with a start and an end. I like the Vicky character- she is not the enemy (atleast so far), she is just a girl who seems to really like/love the male MC, and is scared of the female MC stealing him away. Vicky is a great opposing female character to the female MC, because is jus the epitome of what a classic female is.
This VN is a rarity, as too often they just degenerate into degen-group-orgies. This is a lovely kinetic (thankfully) story where things make sense and the characters arent retards.

What I`m not a fan of - the animations objectively seem to be based mostly on a one dimensional vector of movement making them wooden, but hey, I like that they are there and arent overplayed.
And I just prefer bigger areolas on women, purely my opinion maaaan

This is great. I have no idea what some poster keeps on spamming everywhere that the progression of attraction between the two characters is unnatural. What a load bollocks. The story is well though out, the obstacles are natural and interesting to see how the MC`s work around them.

Also, I have sent monies to the dev as these type of VN`s are very rare.

So first off, I actually really like the premise of this game. The relationship between the two main characters kind of remind me of Chiaki and Mondo from the first Danganronpa game (before Mondo bashed Chiakis head in with a dumbell). The renders are also... okay. There were times I noticed the lighting changed between shots but I forgive that sort of thing if its not constant.

Now for the glaring issues. I want to apologize in advanced with the first one because its going to sound sexist and theres no way around it. This game is clearly written by a woman. Now I'm not trying to give the impression that that's a bad thing. In fact, some of my favorite works of fiction were written by women. However, there are sometimes glaring differences between the way men and women write that both genders must fight against. For example, male writers tend to blast through information (like dialogue) and will overly explain a situation (exposition), where female authors do the oppisite. Female authors will care less about the situation itself (exposition), and will focus heavily on the information presented (dialogue). If you want a better explanation watch Dave Chappells comedy special on how men vs women tell stories.

Now obviously this isn't a cut and dry rule at all and there are situations where this is totally not true, but stereotypes exist for a reason. Now having said all that, the dialogue (which there is a metric ton of), reads like a long text message conversation between two girls. There are even smiley faces at the end of some sentences like texts. This game is also preachy and gives a pass to whatever the second main character does, even when they are in the wrong.

This could be best VN if you could have choices.
The story is very good .
It make you waiting for more , and it could be alot better by chosing your actions.
I am waiting for next update hoping more into this story.

Wholesome story in which a transgender character is not just a fap NPC but actually one of two equal protagonists. Allowing players to play as both Michael and Emma allows for replays and seeing the story unfold from two different sides.

Graphics could be better but that's just nitpicking at this point. I'm excited to see this story play out

Sparse of anything. Clunky dialogue and not much sex. Slow burn is an understatement. Barely any character and I never get how people praise mediocrity. Its not bad because of what its trying to say, its bad because theres no bones. Its like having a song with a semi catchy hook, but the rest is a slog. I'm sure with some time the dev will develop into more, but currently its hook is trans content I guess without much of the content. I'm mean its better than screaming "I'm non binary!!" at a player, but this kinetic novel is lacking something to grab you and keep you reading. It feels like its directed at a very singular group and sadly I'm not it.

Edit for 6.1: I think I know what my issue is with this. It's melodrama to the max. Why have Michael date Elly if she's just gonna leave for America a scene later? Why have Emma claim she doesn't like men while shoving a dildo up her ass and constantly wanting to bang her best friend who is a dude. Of course that best friend is straight.......OR IS HE?!?!? Oh look now both of them are in a weird blowjob scene with another trans person. I'm waiting for the obvious "I'm not gay if I fuck you because you're a woman now!" path this is taking and boy is it taking a long af detour to get there. It's written like a weird BBC coming of age queer drama if you only focused on two characters. I mean of course our trans character can pass. Of course she has basically a trans fairy god mother who transforms her. Of course her best friend is not only a handsome chad, but he's "one of the good ones" which means he's also secretly into trans women. Of course her parents and friends are all super progressive and accepting. Of course they would room her and her handsome bf in the same room at Uni. Of course there will always be something to keep them both perpetually single. It is a trans fairy tale in the simplest sense with everything that would make it complicated conveniently working out and dragged out with little bits of porn in there.

Such a nice story. Vibes are so positive. It's so refreshing... and very realistic. I like it a lot.
This is a real VN with no choices. You'll have to accept it and be (as) confident (as i'm) with the author's direction.

I rarely have an opportunity to play a game where MC is friends with trans girls with the possibility of romance in this direction, so I found this title interesting. Just like the author said right after the game starts - there are no choices for now, the story is linear, and you can just click through it reading the dialogs, which are interesting, realistic, and well-written in my opinion.

It's not and will never be a typical fap game where sex scenes happens as often as you take a breath, but it does not mean the game lacks them now or will in the future. It's just the author tries to make this game a bit more real life like rather than create another one from the category called "Fap a few times and move on".

If any of you likes adult story focused games with good writing and with adequate amount of sex, but also isn't bothered by trans female theme, I recommend it. 5/5 for now.

Really liking it so far, love the characters and chemistry between then.
The only problem i see is how the dialogue feels kind of robotic, no emotions in the delivery. There are no pauses, things like that, don't really know how to explain clearly. Other than that it looks promising.
Will be waiting for more.

Short Review of Version Ch.3

Pros:
- GUI (Clean and simple, but... see Cons for the rest)
- Graphics (Decent renders, some lighting issues here and there, nothing experience won't correct)
- Posing (It got better as we progressed, hoping the progression continues)
- Writing (The absolute best feature of this title, no excessive frills, but very pleasant to read)
- Story (I have a lot to say about that, but, this is a "short review")

Cons:
- GUI (Found myself needing to use the H key or the Scroll Wheel click several times, needs an option to remove the gray background & use a border on the text instead)
- Photography (This includes the lighting and the posing, but also the positioning of the Cameras, it is not terrible, but needs some work. Tip: Shadows are your friends, use them to enhance your shots)
- The 2 POV. (Didn't even bother with one of them)

Conclusion:

Quite enjoyable read, very well written. Some of the initial posing is too stiff, gets better, but still needs improving. Lighting causes some overexposure here and there, overall needs polish and experience in the photography.
GUI needs work on the options, either a background removal and adoption of borders on the text, or, some opacity controls. This also comes into play in the Posing and Photography, if you know you are going to have a background covering the bottom of the screen, you need to pose the actors accordingly, camera angles help.

Rating: 4/5 - The small issues with renders don't detract from a rather good experience and Story.
Recommended if you are interested in the Theme. NOT appropriate if you aren't interested in the subject.

Review for [v0.2]
I don't want to be too critical, as this is clearly a personal project, so I'm gonna try and be as constructive as possible.

First off, calling this the "first 2 chapters" is pretty misleading. This is one chapter. There's a VERY minor introduction that just establishes what the AVN even is, and then the first chapter feels like a prologue to what the main story will be. It's essentially backstory, with flashbacks to more backstory. As a result, it isn't very engaging, just establishes the relationships.

As previously mentioned, this is clearly a personal project, as it feels like the dev is using the trans MC in this story (you can pick their name) to speak to us about living as a trans person, rather than having an actual character. The proof of this is shown by the fact that we don't really know anything about the cis MC besides the fact he's doing computer science, he likes video games, and likes women. That's it. For the part of the story that should be about setting up the characters, it doesn't actually...set anything up. What does how the trans MC discovering themselves actually add to the narrative being told? What does the confrontation between the two MCs over the university change actually do for us?

The big issue is that writers for these types of stories is you need to pick one of two driving forces: characters, or narrative. This has neither. Going to college isn't powerful enough to hook a reader because...it's plain, frankly. So that leaves characters, but as previously stated, there's really nothing there. Hopefully that will change over time, but right now, that's all it is: hope.

Onto the visuals, there isn't much to write home about. They're serviceable, it makes sense that an amateur dev wouldn't make something that looks incredible, it meets the expectations well. Obviously there's an expectation that the more the dev works on their project, the better they'll get, so I don't see any concerns at the moment.

Overall, I understand that there's a deep personal connection to the AVN, however I want to review it as an AVN on it's own, not being propped up by pure emotion. There's potential for it to pick back up and become a truly enjoyable experience, and I hope that's achieved, but at the moment it isn't there.

Story so far really good. It is a slow burn so if you want alot of sex, this wouldn´t be a suited one. The content are abit niche.

If you are ok or like trans content give the game a go. If you have a issue with it then better to look for another game.

Disclaimer I probably bias as the story seems to be replicating some parts of my life lol.

Story so far is great only played Michael's side so far was easy choice since its my name too, it looks like there will be some replay ability to see both sides of the story.

As of now there is no sexual content on Michael's path not sure about Jon's/Emma's but I was hooked on it none the less very promising and exciting to see where this goes.

Renders are good, glad its Football not soccer, also screw mackem's