VN - Ren'Py - Best Friends [Ch.4.5] [Faenon]

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.

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