Ren'Py - Family Trouble [v0.9.34] [Goth Girl Games]

Alright, so...I want to start this by saying I should like this game, at least in theory. But, I don't.
It's a harem game, has a variety of love interests, hits some of my personal fetishes, and isn't too hard on the eyes.
That being said, I did not enjoy my time playing this game. Let's talk about why.
-It can't decide if it's a VN or an actual game: It has more gameplay elements than a simple "hold ctrl to get to the sexy bits" VN, but it's not fleshed out enough to make it actually fun or satisfying to play
-A lot of sex scenes feel disconnected from the game itself. As another reviewer mentioned, it feels more like many scenes were added simply to say the game has "X fetish" rather than as a natural evolution of the story
-The MC is pure cringe. Like, this is what a 14 year old would think a "cool badass dude" would be. It honestly feels like a caricature, but is played out like it's supposed to be unironic. Also, his appearance is just fucking ridiculous
-The writing is just...bad. Like, okay, there are some decent parts, but overall, a lot of the dialogue had me scratching my head as to how it made it past the proofreading stage
Overall, I applaud the dev for working hard, but I just can't give this game a positive review in its current state.

The reviewer saying there are only three LIs so far has... not got very far. I love this. I cheat the stats - even then, by the way, you won't always win the sporadic combats. But it doesn't matter (if you have saved). For hot dialogue, hot LIs, harem and maledom vibe, this has few rivals. I subscribed to unlock the locked content, and it was worth it. Though you'd want to be into sissification to enjoy it (the LIs not the MC!).

The visuals are rough and ready, and perhaps it's a bit annoying that the updates switch between new content and remastering old stuff. There are hours of content all the same, way more than others which have taken the same time to develop.

The story, well - what do you expect? It's a ridiculous mess of teacher-school, violent-magic fantasy, and 'family' relationships (not obvious to begin with, though in theory you don't need a patch). You haven't come here for Henry James.

The VN is entertaining, and the English is fully readable with no grammatical or spelling mistakes, which is not very common in this genre. It shows the care the developer took in delivering a quality product.

This story is a slow burn—very, very slow. I can't say it's anything original, as it features the same family clichés that can be found in many other VNs out there. It's a kinetic novel with good renders, but not much change in scenery—basically, everything happens at the beach house.

It's not my favorite style of story development. I don't mind the slow burn, but this one borders on nonsense with its very heavy tease and denial, and character development that moves one step forward and three steps back. This becomes very frustrating if you play more than one chapter at a time, as it becomes repetitive. You can expect a sudden cool-off as soon as things start to heat up, over and over again. It feels like there's a lot of filler for very little story.

The characters are fine so far—there are only three. The two women actually have their own personalities, which is what you'd expect when reading a novel. The biggest problem is the male character, who is completely irrelevant. He's just there to justify the slow-burn development of the story.

I would recommend this VN. As I said before, it's entertaining if you play each update as it comes out, but if you're like me and prefer to wait for a few updates before returning to a game, I wouldn't recommend doing so with this one.

this game is completely nonsensical, but is genuinely fucking hilarious. it makes absolutely no sense and things just happen all the time. i have played it over like four times now, and i'm just about to play it again.

if you can ignore the plot (or lack thereof), the game is pretty nice. graphics fairly dated, sure, but the guy is fucking jacked as shit, and the girls are all improbably hot.

the sandbox is annoying, though.

really like all the girl, it have cute face, big boobs and big ass. really like it. Easy to play too, need more improvement but overral its all good

but dont like the story, feel weird for the story. for now only 3 star

It's kind of like a weird fever dream of a game. It's as if the dev has overall ideas/plot point but doesn't understand how to translate that into a coherent story. Or maybe it's like a messy facsimile of a game.

It's just back-to-back ... to-back-to-back characters one after another with no real build-up. It doesn't help that scenes and renders aren't that great either.

I'm also just incredibly confused about the relationships between the MC and everyone else. Also I don't really think the stats are explained and you just sort have to infer things beyond the basic, "It lets you do this". Which just further supports my impression of a fever dream. The story's just so loosely put together that instead of saying, "What the fuck was that and why?" it's more like "(blank stare) Uh ..." like there's just too many things that don't make sense.

I'm not usually one to complain about copious scenes and lack of a story but this feels like it'd work better as some kind of slideshow video than an actual game with a story to play. But it is a game so I can't really give this a higher rating unfortunately.

Edit:
And I don't mean this to disparage the dev. It's just ... you've gotta understand that part of why at least I (and maybe other people) play these kinds of games is either for the story (regarding AVNs) or because it feels like a game where you're "rewarded" with the scenes. If it doesn't really feel like a different experience separate from just looking up images/videos yourself then what's the point? It just ends up being, "Beat it ... but with extra steps that aren't that enjoyable". I'm not going to lie and say I only play these games for those aspects because that's just not true. But without those aspects ... why bother playing anything?

The more story-centric AVNs are usually for building tension between characters, telling a story that keeps you interested or captures a certain essence , or simply making the player like your characters.

The kind of "game" games are also fun for me. Build up your stats, unlock rewards, etc. Although, that's probably an unpopular opinion. Still, they have their place. Like when a dev can't write for shit but is creative enough to structure those scenes around a game.

its not a full game review , this is only v0.9.20 , is there an update or edit to this review in the future if the game is completed ? yea , maybe

i love this game , great story , style , characters , sex contents , im not seeing much flaws to talk about here to be honest , even the sex scenes here are one of the best

However , the choices are confusing some times & you may miss some good scenes because of it .. and the quest locations list also a bit complicated .. its like a place within a place within a street within a city ,, and even when you choose the short cut style , it's still gonna act like sandbox , it doesn't take you directly to the events as it says .. and that's pretty much it , other than that , its amazing game

favorite girls : Nina - Pandora - Cassandra - Tina - Anna - Hel - Emanuelle - Erika - Mori - Isobel - Kiko - Ravenna - Suu - Akina - Luna - Akui - Lara - Bastet - Kissa - Rissa - Rochelle - Bahati - Lexi - Manon - Celine - Claire
im glad they exist in the game , they earned the 5 stars , i love them

however ( Keren - Yagiri - Dorothy - Kurt - Fanny - Sam - Yumiko - Claudia - Esther - Female Thug ) they are OK .. just OK , but not a favorite ..
i can say that the best of them are ( Keren - Claudia - Kurt - Fanny - Thug girl - Sam ) but i still prefer Sam in the older version way way more than the remake one

i dislike : Maria - Kara - Tonya - Gogo
i wont feel bad if they were removed from the game .. Tonya is so skinny - Gogo has a very masculine body - Kara is Nasty & always want to piss her self - Marie looks like A zombie skeleton .
bottom line , make them chubbier , less masculine & remove the pissing stuff .. its gross & a huge turn off .. i cannot believe i prefer Kurt more than them , even though im not into dudes , but at least he is chubby , feminine & doesn't need a toilet every time after fucking .

there are many girls in the game that didn't have any sex scenes yet ,, ( Bastet - Akina - Lara - Suu - Yagiri - Bahati - Emanuelle - Rochelle - Dorothy - Marie - Claudia - Akui - Esther - Gogo - Sam - Mayumi - Manon - Celine - Claire - Tonya ) .. but i wont call them unfuckable yet , since the game is in progress & still not been completed , so , hopefully they all will have it in the future updates or when its all done , and i believe that will be the case , since the Dev added all their names in the quest list already , otherwise , its gonna be a huge disappointing mistake , i still hop i wont regret the 5 stars , unfuckable characters are my kryptonite

in Conclusion :

-----------BAD-----------OK-------------GOOD--------------EXCELLENT
STORY :

SEXY GIRLS :

GRAPHICS :

SIDE CHARACTERS :

SEX CONTENT :

SEX SCENES :

GLITCHES :

CHOICES :

CONVERSATIONS :

TYPOS :

DIFFICULTY :

CONTROLS :

.................................................................................................................
NOTE: by the way .. i noticed some people complaining about how rude the MC is with girls some time , and called him a loser for that , well , since most of the girls are rude with guys any way , why no body called them losers ? i don't see why the MC has to be a nice simp all the time ,, that's what a loser really is , just treat them as they treat you , regardless of their gender

i also noticed some complains about the typos & grammars , im not a native English speaker my self , yet i didn't struggle with reading & understanding the meaning of the conversations , so , if i can do it , then the English speakers will understand these conversations even more easier than me .. so , complaining about that is just a nitpicking & its not helping .. that's how i see it .

So, what can I say about this game ? When I first jumped into 'Family Trouble', it honestly felt like I was back in my childhood, playing The Sims for hours on end. But what really caught my attention was the storytelling. The way the main character stays true to their personality makes everything feel so much more real. The game has a fantastic mix of scenes that cater to all kinds of tastes—there’s definitely something for everyone! Overall, I really believe in this project and have no doubt that the visuals will improve to match the quality of the story in the future.

I'm a close relative of the developer, and I'm not sure if this is allowed by the f95 rules. If not, feel free to remove my post.

First, I want to clarify that I’m also a patron on SubscribeStar.

The game currently has several issues, like ground textures that sometimes look really bad, images with inconsistent aspect ratios (likely due to problems with the Second Life camera), music that doesn't loop correctly, clipping, no 4K renders, and a few other problems.

However, I’m willing to support the project and overlook these flaws because I know they are temporary. I’ve been following the development from the beginning, back when she didn’t have any editors, and the game was written in English that was difficult to understand.

The game has improved significantly since version 0.4, which is when I started backing the project about 7 months ago.

She mentioned on Patreon recently that the 1.0 version will be a remaster where all of these issues will be addressed. Right now, she’s focused on creating new content.

If you compare the old renders or writing with the content at the end of Chapter 1, you’ll see how much the game has developed.

This game is pretty bad

So you start from most optimal path prologue
With bunch of non-choices
Than you go into free play that is so bad game recommend cheating thru it by selecting characters
Some of them require like 14 day skips

Game have very cringy vibe around itself
You play as gangbanger without gang...
Naturally ladies are not ugly but uncanny
One of them is how author think trans girls looks like...basically thicc girl with cock

Sex scenes are often done to check boxes
1 peg, 1 femdom, 1 anal.....its tag aimed sex scenes with none of the preps or alterations to scenes themselves outside of cum in x or y

I think game is a bit dishonest and disgusting in that regard
Animations are pretty good, basic but i have very low standards after some choices

Honestly this game is quite awful im not sure if this will get better in the future, currently you might regret even trying it
There is no changes to any girl dress or hairstyle to make and your character get comical scars but also keep looking the same

Awesome game, lots of choices and possibilities. It's fun to not play as an underdog for a change, and i really like the diversity.
I can't wait to see what this develops into!

I like the feeling of open world, and the story is very comical.

Cheers to the dev!

Interesting game not sure why there seems to be people with issues other then then being IGN Staff? yes that one that had trouble getting out of that game.
Those that are used to novels and story based game should find it fine for a work that is still being worked on. I am sure they will take constructive feedback if honest issues are raised.

A bit confused by this one.


I would say the game is pretty good after finally getting around to it, but also the main character is so creeper and unlikable it's jarring at times.

I don't love playing the "generic loser" but this is just playing as a full blown a-hole that is rude to everyone with no reason to be most of the time, and racist to boot (First thing he says to an Asian character is a comment about "Aren't you Asians supposed to be good at math" lol wtf is that?

I don't mind the renders and animations as much as some not 10/10 but not 1/10 either.

Story is average, and really that's all it needs to be.

The main character, I have to point this out, is so unlikable and just like some "alpha male" fantasy simulator at times that it genuinely is eye rolling. Even for a hentai/porn game the main character is creepy about needing to internal monologue about every woman in the most creeper way. being excessively rude to every female character, the way he treats non-Caucasian woman is super cringe.

It's a 4+ game that is dragged down pretty hard by a horrible main character that feels more like the random jerk guy you cheer against in every other hentai/porn game.

I am baffled by the high star rating and I will be objective, not just chuck my opinion around because I got offended or whatever.

The renders are pretty terrible, changing aspect ratios, body parts that just don't look remotely right and a host of other issues. There's an anus at one point, which doesn't really look anything like one, not quite sure what it looks like to be honest but not an anus, and far too much time and attention is paid to it for it to not look like one, it's just painful.

The writing is awful, sadly. It makes no sense and needs a proof reader desperately. It's comical so has at least that going for it but it's comical in the way that 'Enter the Ninja' is comical. So yeah, no story to speak of or any kind of believable or even cleverly written dialogue.

I have made a few runs on this game and it's overall great, story its fun if you don't take it too seriously and there is variety of scenes and girls to interact with, the game is still in Development but those working on it are really open to the critics and listen to their community
And me being trans its good to find a game that has trans characters in it

This is horribly written, can barely understand shit. The renders feel lazy, not much effort was put into them thats for sure.
Then this suffers from trying to do too much and trying to appeal to everyone which leads it to be a huge mess that is mostly a waste of time

Review of 0.9.8

Stopped after about 20 mins. Couldn't get past how terrible the written part is. Shame, because the concept could be fun, and some of the models look good, but the bare minimum this needs is a native English speaker proofreading and doing some basic style editing.

Genuinely not trying to offend anyone, but it's always a shame when you look forward to exploring a fun world, and then just get cockblocked by a lack of understanding how characters talk.

Have made a few runs on this game and it's overall nice, the story is fun if you don't take it too seriously and there is variety of scenes and girls to interact with, the game is still in developpement but those working on it are really open to the critics and listen to their community

Review made based in the v0.9.7.
When I saw this game with 4.3 of 5 rating, I expected something of great quality.
I am giving two stars for the iniciative of making a visual novel with Second Life as a base and the casting of characters (quantity and diversity).

The dialogue is terrible, either in content as in the writing itself. It's like a twelve-year old fantasy of how to interact with girls.
The songs doesn't loop alright (like the intro song) where it stops and restarts abruptly.
There is too much dialogue per render ratio, like in the beggining at the cafeteria (almost feels like a text-based game).
The story is all over the place. Really. It makes no sense at all.

Well... Trying to be constructive, I would recommend asap the hiring of a writer and maybe a second pair of eyes, that can advise and help the already existing game looks more natural.