VN - Ren'Py - Friends in Need [Ch.10 v0.71] [NeonGhosts]

This game is really good. The writing is great, and I really like how dark you can get. I wasn't crazy about the girl's face at times - her mouth in particular looked strange to me. But obviously that's subjective.

This game has potential, but could definitely use some polishing.

The amount of content is understandably limited, as this is an early release, so there's only maybe 10-15 minutes of game time. That said, the strengths and weaknesses of the game are already apparent.

PRO:
The writing is good, and the dialogues are better than most games you'll find here. The premise of the story is interesting and plausible. There is some witty and humorous banter, and its obvious that this dev is a strong writer. I expect the story to be well-developed and engaging in future releases.

CON:
The rendering is not good. The only female character is attractive enough, but the MC is somewhat odd-looking. The posing/body shapes and positions of all the characters are often really awkward, and the facial expressions range from slightly awkward to frightening, and are off-putting at a number of points.

I also found the MC to be a bit creepy for my tastes, but that is obviously extremely subjective. I'm not going to knock a game for not 100% fitting into my own personal preferences/kinks.

Ultimately, I could see this becoming a really excellent VN, but the characters/rendering need a lot of improvement.

It is early, but this game already has signs of greatness. The writing combined with proof of early sex scenes makes this game stand out when compared to other games.

Pros:
Sex scenes are neither rushed nor too drawn out
At least so far the characters/models seem hot and realistic based on their storylines
References are made to other good games on F95 which should hopefully be a good indication of future updates.
Great blackmail/humiliation scene so far for people interested in that

Cons:
Not many cons early on as this is a review of v0.1. The only thing that I wasn't too fond of was that in the first sex scene (a little bit of a SPOILER ahead), the main character agreed to pay the entire debt at once. It seems like he might have wasted an opportunity to draw it out over time to receive more out of the love interest/victim, but I'm interested to see what the developer comes up with next as I'm sure there are other options to continue should he decide to have future scenes with her.

It will be interesting to see how the game branches out to other characters or if it also continues with the first love interest/victim or not. This is one of the few games on F95 that I will be really looking forward to for future updates.

This is a strong 4 star with the potential to be a stellar 5 once the story gets rolling and the dev works a tiny bit on stuff like facial expressions.

The main reason being that story feels very real. Usually 99% of ren'py novels, even those who call themselves slice-of-life, have some really far-fetched premise and all. But this one... the story as well as the MC, are actually very relatable. And I say that despite the guy becoming super rich.

You can tell the dev is actually an adult who is working and understands the merit of money or lack thereof as well as the worth of friendship in your late twenties and thirties.

Which makes it that much harder to abuse your friendship by blackmailing your friend in exchange for a simple fucktoy. It really hits hard and feels wrong... I guess that taboo and "this is so wrong!" aspect is why it feels so good at the same time!

But though I'm a big fan of cnc, this one actually has a very interesting love route as well so far with the option of some actual cnc alternatives if you like it more kinky. So if you like cnc, you no longer have to pick the asshole route, you just tell your girl that you like it rougher and reap the benefits of it but keep the friendship!
That said you don't want to push her too far consent-wise. Which again tells me that the dev knows what they're talking about: Yes, consent can be withdrawn mid-sex for literally any reason.
And also yes, it's very hot in a game to ignore that consent and take what you want by totally disregarding your partner's feelings! The dev makes that very clear as early as the disclaimer and doesn't pull some reason out of his ass concerning why the MC's actions are justified and he's still the good guy. You know what kinds of games I'm talking about. This doesn't seem to be one of them and I'm happy about it.

Fuck it, I've convinced myself. 5 stars because this game, albeit an early alpha, does lots of things right that so many other games get wrong.
This has the potential to become one of the best ren'py novels I have played so far!
I hope this will have a decent development speed, a good escalation of events and overall a common thread. There have been many games that started with an interesting premise, but it was clear that the dev had no idea where to go and the story and got stuck with same-y sex scenes that get repetitive because there's no progression in the story. But I have high hopes give the two characters we've seen so far.

Edit: Go play with the extended patch for the darker choices. I guess it's a patreon thing.

Really did like the game so far, I enjoy darker content, calling her a whore, smacking her, and giving her some dick in her mouth she clearly needed, niiiiiiiice. Maybe the biggest advantage of games is doing what you wouldn't want to do to someone you liked IRL or see done to someone in porn who's consent you can't be sure of. So drawn or rendered content that offends SJW's and virtue signalers on here? You've got my money on your donations page. Take my money, take it!

Why 3 then?

Well one star off because I don't like to give brand new games 5, simple as that.

The other star... Single. Choice. Clicks.
Why?!?!
Don't stop the narrative to make a player click what has only one choice. Don't break immersion for no reason like that. It's bad VN design.

But I suspect as this game develops I'll be back to raise that ranking. If the dev can show they're not gonna bail or backtrack on content to complainers it'll be 4 for sure. If they fix the constant braking of their narrative for one choiceless click, there's a 5 in here somewhere.

Really impressed with the game even at this early stage. Writing is really good and I like the multiple choices - even after choosing to be kind you can change to evil halfway in.

Keep up the good work and please don't give in to the crybabies that get offended by a videogame. Be strong.

Well, I'm going to edit my review. The previous review was only based on the base game, which is pretty poor. However, the extended version of the game is something else. Indeed, there is gameplay beyond choosing between a single option (something that does not happen in the base game). In the extended version, you can decide to be bad, really bad, and take it out on your crush.
The renders could be better, but they are acceptable.
The gameplay in the extended version is sufficient for this type of game. Which adds up, since complex gameplay is counterproductive in an adult game. Like this is perfect.
And the story now is much more interesting. In the base version you only have one path, and it's a boring path. In the extended version you have many more options, from taking advantage of the situation, to being really abusive. I have chosen to be as bad and despicable as possible, humiliating my crush as much as I can. But other people might prefer another way, which is fine.

A good game, but always keeping in mind that you have to play the extended version.

The rape tag is misleading, at least currently. It's all consensual. No matter what you choose. (Informed that you need the taboo patch for that part)

That aside, it's a cute little story at the moment.

Sex is ok. Decent renders, if slightly creepy expressions.
A lot of words to describe what is going on.

Very short story. Maybe 5 to 10 minutes or so.

I don't usually review games THIS early in their development cycle, but it's also pretty rare to see such a self-assured and excellent debut. The renders were great, the paths were well developed, and I already like the MC...a great start. If I want to nit-pick there were a lot of reused renders on the couch, but hey, it's a .01...I get it.

Keep up the amazing work NeonGhosts, if you can build on this start, you could have something special here.

Review as v0.1
Wonderful start. Love the idea and the beginning of the story. Has a good basis and a lovely first girl. Look forward to seeing where this goes!!!

Story 4.5/5 off to a great start
Graphics 5/5
Characters 5/5 Beautiful so far!

absolutely brilliant - the dialogue and relationships between the characters is excellent, both well thought out and entirely realistic and the lewd elements are HOT! Very much looking forward to updates.

What a start! Congratulations! Three paths, a couple similar but distinct. I'm a big fan of non-con and I'd love to see what other humiliations are at hand for the lady and other girls in the future. I really hope a few of them end up in non-con, humiliating, day-to-day slavery for them. Very very few games, if any, have that.