VN - Ren'Py - Friends in Need [Mini-Sode: Blue Valentine] [NeonGhosts]

I am surprised to find this game so... Nuanced. Mind you I've only played the dark path so it's what I'll be reviewing.

When games try to portray rape they usually overdo it, playing up the antagonist to comical or way too brutal levels. But in this game the MC is much more balanced. There's introspection and method to his actions. The girls fear and show layers of hate for their rapist but at some level they also blame themselves, that's a difficult thing to get right.

The story feels alive, as if we're following the MC living out days of his unusual life. What's weird about it is that it DOESN'T feel artificial, and that makes it all the more exciting to play it.

The dev does a good job of depicting atmosphere and personalities that are nuanced and complicated - just like real people. 5/5 would recommend.

Review for 0.22 version:

Great game I really enjoyed with rare fetish of "rape with blackmail" and "nonconsensual humiliation" from male POV. There are other games with the same theme - but they are much worse IMO. They are either just too brutal and lies more in pure rape territory or they try to whitewash the deed too much making the victim enjoy it or be very casual about it. I like this game shows more psychological side of relations between victim and rapist and not shy to feature girls fear, anger, shame and contempt towards protagonist.
With that said I strongly recommend to drop spending time and efforts on vanilla/decent guy path altogether. There are lot of games with such approach anyway - who are doing it much better because its their main focus. With such dark story and protagonist personality this path turns to something very artificial and making you cringe instead of enjoying it. I believe every person should do only what they excel at - and the author really shines making evil path.
Focus on only one side will make the progress much faster - and the story more consistent and believable - without need to squeeze in various events to the same global route. The less is the more as they say.
Also I really like focus on POV type of CGs instead of showing protagonist there. It's more immersive this way. What I don't like though is trend to make the only character with questionable age - as much ugly and old-looking as possible. Why the so-called teenager is looking like 25+ y.o. junkie? Disgusting. If you are going so far as making "customizeable age" characters - don't make it wear tattoos, piercings and shaven hairstyles, pls. It's not what people who likes such characters are looking for.

While it is still a little early to give this an honest review, I have to say I was surprised at this one.

To be fair, the renders and artwork are just okay. They are a bit grainy and uninspired. It does look like the dev is doing some custom locations which I applaud, but they are just kind of meh. I appreciate the effort and the hard work, but there is little to like with the renders. Some of the renders of the girls are just not good, especially the expressions, which is usually a sign of over modification.

The writing, however, is really pretty good. It is a very unique story for the adult VN genre and the choices the MC have a clear impact on the flavor of the story. Some may think it is too wordy, but for me any more, these adult vns have to have a good story and this one has it. All the characters have some depth and they are all very different.

I am looking forward to seeing how this story progresses. Solid start and worth a playthru.

A surprisingly well written game.

A whole spectre of playing around the financial freedom, domination and inequality - you are a suddenly wealthy man (for a well written reason), and can either abuse your power (directly rapey or more of coercion), or use it for good and fluffy relationship. A compelling set of characters react appropriately.

Every bit of dialogue is used later (if information is given to player, it will be relevant), characters that are introduced in the dialogue become relevant and appear next update, the most interesting and distant love interest (little sister now in a high school) is established from the start and slowly introduced in every update bit by bit, keeping player engaged and waiting for it.

Renders are fairly decent, hopefully developer will get better with practise.

I had a blast with this VN. it does let you shape the main character as a noble hero or a darker, cruel figure,sadistic villain. The choices are meaningful, and the girls are gorgeous and each one have a unique personality.

From an objective standpoint I'd give this game a 3 and a half star. The renders are good, the writing pretty good. From a subjective standpoint I'd give it a 1, so I settled on 3.

My reasoning:
I tried to play this game as a kind person, rather than an asshole/actual rapist. Typically that's how I like to play these types of games, if given the choice. I'm not above being the bad guy or anything, but I appreciate the opportunity to be the good guy when given.

This game just feels like it gives lip-service to being a kind person, but actually wants you to be evil. Pretty much every love interest in the game that I've come across so far (I have not finished the latest version's content, just had to put down the game about halfway through), every LI feels like a perfectly written character for an asshole/rapist to corrupt or bend to their will. They do NOT feel like a character that a kind philanthropist would pursue.

That's all fine and dandy if that's how you want to play. But don't offer the other option if you're unwilling to change the love interests. It leads to issues of the player feeling like "Wait, why am I being kind again to these people, when it's obvious their stories were made to be heavily exploited by a rich asshole, not helped by a kind one?"

I guess the most obvious example is Nikki. You're friends, she's dumb and lets her boyfriend get her into debt, and comes to the MC to ask for help. You're given three choices: 1. Just give her the money, no strings attached. 2. Ask her to prostitute herself. 3. Actually just rape her.
While I didn't click on option three because, well, gross tbh, I did try both the other options. And they end exactly the same. With the same consequences for the character. Even if you give her the money she still has sex with you, and still afterwards says she's going back to her deadbeat boyfriend.
And then she comes back later, tatted up after, again, letting her boyfriend ruin her life. And she's the first love interest (which most who play these games will agree is the "most important" love interest). She's the first love interest, and despite whatever 'choices' you made, she still fucks her life up in some unspecified manor. Listen, it's a porn game. It's not that deep. If I wanted to see that story, I'd go watch Forest fucking Gump.

Let the guys who want to be assholes be assholes. Reward them for their assholetry by having more fucked up stuff happen, be my guest. But if I guy wants to have a fantasy where he can just be kind and have loving relationships... don't punish him, maybe?

Again, I wanted to be fair in my review, because it's pretty obvious to me that this game is not made for the 'good' fantasy, just not made for me. And that's fine, just wish it wasn't advertised that way.

Review as of Version 0.22

Pleasantly surprised !

Writing was well done compare to many games out there. Nothing groundbreaking, just competently put together enough to care about characters and the story. Mc was given plausible enough scenarios that didn't break the immersion of the story. (And the Male Domination Tag was on point)

Renders were average. and No animation.

there were some notable bad cases where facial expressions look like someone pull the facial rig sliders to its maximum(not talking about the euphoric facial expression - Ahegao here ). Also one of the sunrise scenery looks like apocalypse(bad lighting IMO) .

Choices
Meaningful choices with differing outcome. Thanks to good writing each action seems to be presented in way that align with the Mc Character personality. both choices are presented as MC's inner monologue and present a true Devils advocate on each counter argue both choices. I've seen it many other games have done this inner-monologue- counter argument -Tip before picking a choice. But it seems here it was done better and more in more organic manner.

Hoping the Dev would keep this writing standard and improve upon the graphics more.

This one is turning into a surprisingly good game.

To be more precise, the first version was okayish. The dev made few mistakes with exaggerated facial expressions, the renders were a bit on the low quality side and there was a lack of Ren'py customization. However, I liked the replayability with a different level of bastardness and the writing was entertaining on each path.
The game was short nonetheless, thus soon forgotten...

Here appeared the v0.22, which added some significant routes choices for the next girls and fleshed out dialogs and relationships. A nice thing here is that MC can totally miss all opportunities by being too nice, which adds a bit of realism. It reminds me of the first dating sim apps, only with option to be a complete asshole.

The facial expression exaggeration issue is common for novice dev, and could be fixed in further releases. I remember some good games doing so. Let's hope for the best. This game definitively needs to be followed. (Nice cliffhanger, by the way!)

Good start for the game keep up the good work. Has lots of kinks so read tags, Not too many games do this type of style and that's sad the characters don't look bad by any means either can't wait to see what comes of this.

Surprisingly good.

Graphics: I really like the choice of models (in particular Nikki and Gabby; the blonde and the milf were less interesting). Facial expressions were a bit ..unfortunate.. from time to time in the beginning, but that seems to have become much better.

The writing is actually quite good, and the story is fine (nothing truly spectacular, but a lot better than I assumed from the short description).

You can play as a reasonably kind (and somewhat dominant) MC, but you also have the option to be a rather disgusing asshole. Somehow this setup appeals to me (this may be a bit hypocrite/pathetic, but what can I do): Knowing that the "dark" options exist kind of makes me feel more satisfied about choosing the other one; it makes the predicament of the LI(s) more pressing, it gives a notion of power (which can be nice even if you do not abuse it too much)

I was positively surprised by this.
The art is okay, the body types of the ladies are really diverse.
Writing is fine, not extraordinary, but it gets the job done and done well.

What I really enjoyed about this is the options, though. The dev does a great job of using mostly the same pics and renders to tell very different stories.

You can be a completely horrible rapist monster, a calculating mofo, or you can be sweet and gentle. And the great thing is, you still get what you want, no matter how you play it.
So many games make it either be a jerk, either be just going for sex or being sweet and romantic, this game does it all in one go and in a way that is fucking impressive.

I've checked out all paths, just to be sure about that, even though I clearly want to go the nice and charming route all the way, but the other parts are hot in their own right (you know, rape as a fantasy in a game, it's not fucking real life, some wieners tend to forget that isn't the same).

If the updates come regularly and considering how the story might develop and how the other characters will be and how much the already introduced girls still play a part, I can easy see this going to a five, but so far it is a very well-deserved four-star rating.

Great work, keep it up!

Excellent, great writing, great renders and story.
I love the dark themes and the fact that the devs doesn't shy away from rape and the likes.
There seems to be some good incest coming out way as well with the MC's sister that should join the cast next, and she might be not be prepared for what's coming to her xD.
Anyways I enjoyed my time on the game, I just wished there was more content, right now you have a night with 2 girls, and some side action with a third.

I am beginning to like this game a lot. There are a few things I have issues with other than that it is a good game.

The Pros:

• Impactful choices
• Good writing
  Good character design
• Good pacing

Between good and bad:

• The renders (The renders are pretty average)
• The story is relatively simple but not stupid

The cons:

• The models look pretty ugly in most cases (Including MC)
• They make weird expressions a lot of the time.
• No use of sound effects or music

This is an exciting game because of the branches this game provides. You can be evil to get what you want, or you can get creative to get what you want most. But it has a few cons that this game comes up with. I would say it was an exciting experience.

It's a good start so far. The writing is good, and the animation is high quality. I think this has the potential to be a great game. The female facial expressions need work though, as they are excessively animated when Nikki is on the couch and looking at the MC. I was not a fan of the Ahegao face; I know it's a big thing in anime, but it completely removed me from the moment. I also wish the game had sound (background, sound effects like door knocking, moaning, etc).

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.