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

Written as of version: 0.375

This game left an impression. If you like having moral choices ig or “male domination” tag, play it till the end.

It’s true to overview and content spoiler, being focused on moral choices. However choices are mostly about having or not having sex and if having, how to have it. I think that a game “focusing largely on moral choices” should give players more freedom of decision in regard to helping or not helping sb. Ideally including the choice of gathering more information to have the ability to make informed decisions. As of now important choices of MC looks like acting mostly on the whim.

It’s also true to tags. One of the best executions of the “male domination” tag I have seen so far; on both bad and good guy paths. Even on the “kindest/softest” path MC is quite dominant both in bed and relationships; at least trying to keep control and direct everything in his chosen direction. The only crack on the execution of the “male domination” tag I can think of is lack of choice in regard to having the first sex scene. MC having sex supports the story, but it’s not needed for the story to flow the way it flows.

Graphically the game is ok. Visible exception to this is the first sex scene, and scenes around it, like expressions of characters. It could really use rework before release. As the story progresses, the graphical quality becomes overall better.

The story looks like a snowball. It starts normally and gets quicker paced along the way. MC makes quite likely not so wise decisions and goes deeper into the webs, thinking too much with his dick. For now it’s more of the suggesting forthcoming danger, giving some kind of suspense.

The characters differ both in appearance and character. The same situation is judged visible differently by different characters.

Amount of content is good for 0.375. Possibly even more with the “fan” patch. I assume that patch unlocks the already existing in-game content, which was blocked because of legal regulation in some countries, giving actual possibility to choose the third, more darker route for MC.

MC gets a lot of money and uses it to help some girls, which leads to happy sex.
... or to exploit them, which leads to not-so-happy sex.

Taboo patch highly recommended, it adds some darker stuff (violence, humiliation, incest RP), but keeps everyting optional.

+ Good consistent writing.
+ Believable story, no stupid tropes.
+ Varied girls, with plausible motivations.
+ Choices that matter (for real this time).
+ Being nice doesn't mean you are getting only boring vanilla sex.
+ Some scenes are pretty creative, with rarely seen ideas.
+ Already lot of content with frequent updates.
+ Developer seems to be a cool dude.

Mixed bag:
Despite choices and their consequences, it is rather linear (i.e. mostly the same events, but maybe played differently). Also, you might feel that some decissions are forced on you.

And some disadventages:
- No gallery.
- No animations.
- No sound.

Overall, very good.
Developer has a clear vision of what he wants to achieve and executes it well.

A bog-standard VN with remarkably solid writing. Overall it's mainly carried by the quality execution, the MC being relatable and only a little generic, and the various girls all being reasonably realistic. Those are the main ways it stands out from the crowd and the main reasons to recommend it. Anybody looking for further frills either as a story or as a game will be disappointed.

Pros:
Coherent narrative prose and dialogue, humor sprinkled throughout.
Avoids some of the more cringey tropes common to indie VNs on this site.
The love interests are actually distinct people, both in personality and looks.

Cons:
No animations, voicing, sound of any kind, or other technical niceties like a gallery or save organization.
AFAICT, the flow of the story is relatively linear although the individual character relationships vary heavily. So the "VN-ness" isn't particularly complex even though it is well-done. I will say I haven't explored all of the available routes, so take this point with a grain of salt.

EDIT:
So, my original review of FiN was posted on 1/1/2023. I'm leaving it unchanged above. Now as of 5/31/2024, with a couple more updates under its belt, I feel like there's a bit more to add.

The continued lack of any technical feature adds is really unfortunate. They generally shouldn't take precedence over adding content, if it comes down to one or the other. On the other hand, not having any audio, animations, gallery, save organizer (and no, save naming is basically worthless on its own), etc., really leaves a lot on the table.

However, the far more pressing issue is the story structure and increasing cast size. So far, the story has continued as mostly-linear, with a few events behind branching choices, and mostly independent routes for each character. This is fine when both the cast size and story scope are small enough. In my opinion, Friends in Need has already crossed that line, if only barely, and it looks like there's more characters still. This is problematic enough for a fixed story, but FiN is a VN that clearly wants to have at least 2 paths for each LI and additional story-impacting choices... It's simply not realistic to develop every character well, provide the player with quality choices, not confuse/lose the reader (or author!) among independent/interleaved storylines, etc., all at the same time.

So my criticism/advice would be as follows: the cast size and story, as of now, are still reasonable, but are clearly trending in an unsustainable direction. The dev needs to focus on progressing what is already there, rather than expanding and expanding. Moreover, the structure of the story going forward needs to be more refined - jumping between 10 different subplots, with the occasional crossing of two of them, is going to get incredibly confusing and take far too long to write.

All that said, the recent developments in Risa's story are ambitious in the right way. The quality of the writing has kept up, although the nature of the story is still the same, so fundamentally there's a lot of underlying savior complex going on.

Amazing.

Great writing, that manages to make the characters feel like actual people.

Choices, that have an actual impact. You can play as a nice guy (and don't get "punished" for it) or as a monster, the game gives you total freedom here.

No animation, but the xxx-scenes are well staged and hot AF.

Instantly one of my favorites.

Well this game is fucking incredible.

That's it. That's the review.

...

OK, fine. This game has believable writing centered around building relationships that lead up to kinky sexy time. That right there should tell you that it is head and shoulders above 99.9% this site has to offer.

Whether being controlling, an asshole, an exploiter, a good guy with a good heart, whether you build relationships to evoke feelings of love and comfort or hate and manipulation, that's exactly what this game does: evoke those feelings.

It does this through its writing primarily, but adds some of the most diverse branching in NSFW gaming.

Now, there is a but: the sex scenes are almost entire unanimated, there is literally no sound whatsoever and basically writing, branching and sexy situations makes up the entirety of the game. No extra bells and whistles, no added production value.

So why five stars? Because that's exactly it. Rather than being a glossy, mediocre mess, this game does ONE thing and it does it exceedingly well.

I wish there were more games like this and wish the developer all the best.

This game is great. I'm not into rape, so I only skittishly look at those scenes and usually stop halfway through after feeling "dirty", but I think it's impressive how the author is able to have the same character be so diametrically opposed personality-wise in different paths. In that regard, I can see how this game would have a high replay value.

Interestingly enough, when I play this game, I genuinely feel good when the protagonist does something good. In a lot of games on this site, protagonists will just do something good in exchange for sexual favors, but in this game, depending on your path, your protagonist will do something nice out of genuine concern, which may or may not be rewarded (and not just sexually). It's a breath of fresh air.

This game has become one of my top fav in a very short amount of time. Giving a little bit of everything to what the player is looking with the multiple paths for each girl so far. Making characters as likely or hateable (Brent/James) in such a short amount of time really makes the game very enjoyable. I really hope that the creator sticks with the game as it seems to be just getting started and there is so much potential!

This is probably some of the best writing I have experienced in a VN, the way the character's mannerisms and behaviors are described is just- *chef kiss*.

I wouldn't be disappointed to find this level of writing in a good/great romance novel.

If anything this might poison my future enjoyment of VN's just from shifting the Overton window of my expectations.

brilliant game. an alpha guy who you can make a good or bad dude depending on your choices. beautiful models with some very good sex scenes. engaging dialogue, broad choice of actions. balanced between sex, dialogues and events. everything you look from a good adult game

Fantastic story and scenes. This one is always a pleasure when a new release comes out. MC is dark and twisted if you like, and the women are a great mix of body types and personalities! Keep up the great work here, and thank you!

This game is one of the most well made games where you can choose different path for the girls and not be stuck in only one, you can be loving to one and degrade the other one and it works, truly a great game I recommend you play if you like the duality of loving and darker options

I started playing when the first chapter released. It was short but good, intense and kinky, which kept me interested in the project. Game has four chapters now, with plenty of content already so I think it's a good time to finally review it.

But first a few words about my feeling regarding the game dev NeonGhosts. He's been very transparent and communicative since the very beginning. Frequent dev updates on patreon, also very active in this thread and open to dialogue with the players. I feel like that's a testimony to his commitment and interest in making a good VN.

What I liked
- Meaningful choices that are well implemented. You can be a lovely dude and romance them gyals or a heartless rapist, or a mix of both. Everything is optional so if you don't wanna see something you won't see it. You can deal with each girl independently, and from what I seen in the end of the fourth chapter it does seem to have an impact on the MC.

- Renders started a bit rough, but it's been better and better with every update. Not the best quality I've seen on this site, but definitely up to the standard to create an enjoyable visual experience.

- Good girl variety both in terms of looks and background/personnality.

- Story is simple, straight to the point/sex. While I do enjoy more complex and better character/world building in VNs, they tend to take ages till the hot stuff. Friends in Need has plenty of scenes already, without feeling too rushed either.

- Game been updated fairly fast (I think?) for the amount of renders it got with each chapter.

What could be improved and my few gripes with the game

-No animations. Now that's a sensible topic because animations take more time = less frequent updates or/and less content per update. HOWEVER, dev introduced "looped frames animations" (or whatever that's called lol) where it's 2-3 renders that are repeated during a scene. I think that's a good middle ground between no animations and proper animations. I don't think it adds much work and it makes it more enjoyable overall.
I know some devs outsource the animations and maybe Dev could do the same further down the line or even when the game is finished. But yeah I'm not in his boots so that's just a suggestion.

- I feel like we getting introduced too many characters way way waaaaaaaay too fast. So far:
Nicki in chapter 1.
Gabby, her mother, the blonde and mc sister in chapter 2.
Viola and becky in chapter 3. (Not gonna count the homeless cuz I can't rememeber if it's a dude or woman lmao)
Coffee shop girl in chapter 4.

That's 8 characters already in 4 chapters.

I don't know how dev has it planned out, but I would much rather have more content with fewer girls than 1-2 scenes with 8+ . In addition I'm afraid that it dilutes the plot too much.

So yeah, overall Friends In Need is an awesome game, in my top 5 VNs atm. I really hope it lasts long and I wish Neon Ghosts best of luck in its development. He is deserving of subs and support.

New Review;

This game is AWESOME. A (potentially) dark and depraved VN where your choices actually matter! You can be either the nicest guy in the world, literally one of the lowest scumbags on Earth, or a mixture of both, at any given point. And, that's what I love. You aren't pigeon-holed into set paths, you can be a dirtbag to Ashe in one scene, and a saint to Gabby in the next. I loved that aspect.

The erotic scenes are very detailed and have great writing. Tons of non-con, but if that isn't your thing, there are other kinks to enjoy, as well.

I'm surprised to see the Dev say that some people don't like Nicki. As I find her dynamic with the MC both interesting and conflicting. And I'm BEGGING them not to alter their vision because of a vocal minority, because I really wanna see where this one goes.

5*

I've played the Chapter 4 demo which is incomplete and not on F95.


Overall, this is one of my favorite games; probably the one I spend the most time thinking about and the only one I'm financially supporting long term fwiw. The writing is absolutely top notch. The personalities of the girls are great. Visually, the girls are good. There are choices regarding your character's behavior with the game changing to a decent extent to reflect the choices made (the main story framework doesn't change a ton but there is an impressive amount of dialog differences depending on your "alignment"). If you want to play as a really evil person, that is available here. There is also subtlety such that you can be a character with an edge without being totally sadistic. On the good path, the premise is basically, "I have a charity and some of the people I help end up liking me and sleeping with me" but you're mostly just portrayed as a really good person.

-Writing-
To me this is the biggest strength of the game. It feels more like real people talking and thinking than other games. I'll give an example that I don't think will spoil too much. One of the girls is talking about her ex and she says "I don't know why it didn't mean as much to him as it did to me". It's not exactly the most original line ever but it really resonated with me. I've felt the same way and even expressed it in those exact words. There were several spots in this game like that, where I really felt the emotion with the character. Of course your mileage may vary. It might not resonate so personally with everyone but I feel confident saying you will consider this aspect a strong suit.

-Love Interests-
By my count there are twelve girls in the game or hinted at- Nicki, Ashe, Cassie, Madison, Gabby, Brittani, Carolina, Mason, Pepper, Viola, Peyton, and Alex. For me personally, that's at least getting close to too many. Some have only appeared in pictures/flashbacks or just briefly (and one might be a boy, I'm not really sure what's going on with Mason lol) so I don't know how much content is planned for them but that sort of gets at the potential problem. I think some people will have a favorite they're looking forward to spending time with and find that she doesn't end up getting much attention. Some of those are not going to be full/main love interests and I think you'll be able to tell pretty well but it's still a lot of girls to get screen time for.

Visually, the girls (and game by extension) look good. It's not like some huge-budget games where everything is super high resolution and every girl looks like a fantasy/super model. As a positive, it's more realistic. As a negative there's a bit less of a "holy shit she's hot" factor. A note on MC, I don't see him as someone all these girls would be jumping at on first glance but I think that's at least partly to reinforce the idea that him having money changes how they see him. He does however have a great looking dick- nice shape and huge but not to the point of unbelievability. I don't actually know how real-life women would feel about him but I really enjoyed imagining myself in his shoes. It's always nice for me to get to play as an actual adult rather than a "just turned 18 dipshit".

Now about the personalities of the characters and some of their individual looks. First it has to be said, Nicki is controversial. Some don't like her look, some don't like her actions. Some hate both. Since it's my review, I'll give my 2 cents. I don't really like tattoos. Gun to my head, I'd say I wish she didn't have them. But they're part of her story and they've grown on me a bit. There are definitely scenes where I look at her and think she's really beautiful. As far as her actions, it's hard to get into too much without spoilers but I'll put it this way: She does some things I don't like but I forgive her. That's why it's called FORGIVING. And MC isn't perfect either, I get that. At the current point in the story, I've forgiven her (as MC and as me the player) and I'm ready to move forward. I made this point in the discussion but I'll say it here: There's no way any game could give players every possible reaction to someone's actions. Some people want to be totally done with Nicki but she's an unavoidable part of the game. You can treat her poorly but you can't "get rid of her". If it's a deal-breaker for you that you can't respond how you would in real life or how you'd want to I think that's fine. If you can get past that I think she has a really cute personality (especially when she gets a little jealous) and more recent updates have done a good job showing the chemistry between her and MC.

If you're worried about NTR I guess this is a good place to mention it. I consider myself an NTR hater and there wasn't anything in the game that would keep me from playing/recommending it. I don't even think the debate over Nicki has really been about NTR but again your mileage may vary and if it's a concern for you I'd look through the discussion for more details.

Ashe is one that I'd say I don't always like how her face looks but in general she's very pretty. She's also tall and has big boobs and a big butt/hips. There's no denying she has an incredible body but if you prefer petite girls she might not be your cup of tea. I absolutely love her personality though. She comes off a little ditzy at first with her blonde hair and valley girl speech but she is actually really intelligent and good at her job while being super sweet and super kinky. She also seems to have by far the least baggage/drama of the main girls.

Gabby is the super petite girl with dark skin and a very distinctive hair style (shaved on one side, and dyed half white, half pink for now). She is a teenager acting out with her step mom but can be very sweet with MC. She has her own very kinky side as well.

Viola is the last one you get to have a full scene with as of the current public release. She's an adorable young Russian girl that goes to school with Gabby. English isn't her first language and her family's money situation is rough so she's quite vulnerable (well it is a game about people in vulnerable situations). She's also seems by far the most innocent of the girls so far so don't you hurt her... or at least reload if you absolutely must.

There are about 5 or 6 more you'll meet at least briefly, including my personal favorite Brittani who is Gabby's rival and who you will get to know a lot more in Chapter 4. Everyone so far seems to me to be very likable and good-looking and if you're so inclined they'll all be fun to take advantage of. There's no incest yet but it's very strongly hinted (I mean basically confirmed) that there will be with MC's much younger sister. That scenario- older (early 30's) MC and teen sister is one I've wanted to see in a game for a long time so many, many bonus points from me just for that.


-Choices-
There are a few different ways you can play your MC. Basically each encounter with a girl has a good path and an evil path and usually something in between but there's more nuance even than that. The second chapter scene with Ashe for example: You can get her to come home with you willingly, or you might threaten her job. But after threatening her you might get her to warm up to you a bit and you might not push her all the way which means she'll be a little more receptive the next time you see her. Or do you even wait to get her home before assaulting her? Or if she comes with you willingly, can you find the right balance of kinky to get all her content? Some of it isn't obvious. A lot of the scenes have these little choices that end up being referenced later even if it's just a little internal dialog. Really try out different choices and I think you'll be impressed with all the things the game keeps track of. That said, the main events pretty much all still happen. They may play out differently and MC will think about them differently but you'll still have the same charity cases to help out. You'll always take Nicki in when she needs help, you'll always invest in the bookstore and so on.

Overall I just can't recommend this game enough. Great, great writing, great love interests, and a main character who can be played a few different ways and is really fun to play as regardless of his alignment.

Friends in Need [v0.34]

Surprisingly good game. Renders quality also increased compared to the first release. I'm more of vanilla guy so played the kind and romantic routed first. I also played the evil route. Unlike the other games I like the evil route here it got more depth. Felt like watching a psycho movie. Plot is simple Mc help other peoples because he rich you can choose the route you prefer. But I'm surprised by the writing and dialogues it got depth and the scenes are great. Both routes are worth playing. In the evil route damn Mc is such a degenerate. I'm wishing MC to die in the end in the evil route. Well karma is a bitch

Dev did a good job implementing these paths. Game is worth playing. Keep up the good work dev looking forward to next updates

An easy 5 star. Really well written and well made. Sexy renders with a wide variety and extremely well polished even at this relatively early stage of development. The degradation and more extreme routes are easily avoided and the "good guy" route is genuinely sweet in places along with being packed with great content. Can't wait for more.

Tried out the game and really liked it. There are several paths you can take, nice, dark, and really dark. But the game makes the choices very clear so its difficult to accidentally end up on the wrong path.

I think the art is great and there is a large variety of characters.
Additionally the dialogue is good, not too serious or too much of a meme and its very immersive.

Graphics = Good, don't really care about that.

Gameplay = Typical VN so good.

Story = cliche kinda but at the same time not really, it seems to have a heavy stigma against sex work (like OF and porn and shit) (which is ironic coming from a game that is pretty much porn), but that may change further in, overall it is pretty interesting and a new spin on the "get rich" cliche with the character setting up a foundation to help others instead of just the people they naturally meet, my main thing is the stigma that took out most of the points it could have.

Choices = first I would like to choose if the Mc is jealous or how they feel about sex work, but besides that, this game is really good with choices, it doesn't give you a choice that doesn't have an immediate or future consequence, and so far there has been no immediate game over screens to choices that the Dev didn't want us to pick, this is the illusion of choice done right.

Extra = Overall it is a pretty good game, you can be an asshole or not, and I do wish that if you do criminal shit there is a bad ending in the future but if done it would be good to have a balance about it, it would be a pain to program but it could be rewarding, otherwise I already mentioned my caveats on the "choices" and "story" sessions and have nothing else to add, besides if the intention isn't to be portrait as I said they should look at how they write the MC's inner thoughts (I really think people should stop doing those all together), it feels like the MC cares more about the photos/videos than about the reason, like yeah being coerced into something like that is Fucked up and should be frowned upon but just doing it shouldn't.

For a game with no sounds, no music, and no animations that I took note of, this one really surprised me. It doesn't even have the best visuals, be it in fidelity, posing, lighting etc.

But it just DOES it for me. The writing is actually good, really good at times. The way the game allows you to sometimes be a little mean without shifting the MC into a monster is very welcome. (although there are REALLY mean scenes as well, if you choose them).

And the models. They aren't picture perfect by any means but they're all the more relatable, somehow. More real, at times.

I think I've actually fallen emotionally in love with Nicki, thanks a lot developer.

Really just a standout game in every way, I just want more. Sound effects, music, animation, all of that would be very nice obviously, but honeslty? None of it's strictly necessary. I'd only vote for doing more of those things if it didn't meaningfully slow down the release of the next chapters.

As someone who usually hates multiple paths and juggling saves, Friends in Need’s paths are worth it and massively enhance the experience. The dev has managed to design a lovey dovey path and an extremely fucked up rape path plausible, well thought out, and dare I say enjoyable. I haven’t had the time to also explore the blackmail/whore path, but all indications point to it would be time well spent for those into that type of content.

First, I’ll define what kind of rape and dark content I’m talking about because it is not for the faint of heart. A lot of games get rape wrong, as they more or less do some version of “press button for her to say no while the MC fucks her anyways.” In Friends in Need, the MC doesn’t just rape their body, he rapes who they are as a person by inserting himself into their lives in a way they can’t return from. I’ll leave you to discover what exactly that means.

As for the “lovey dovey” path, it is only in comparison to the others. The women MC (willingly) beds have a variety of kinks, some more hardcore than others. And sometimes it is worth exploring the path that normally leads to rape to see what else it can unlock if you don’t fully go that direction. It makes clicking on choices actually fun to mess around with. The walkthrough is only really needed if point grinding is your kink.

While some of the early renders need some work, the rest after the first sex scene steadily improve. Kind of an abrupt ending to a review, but there’s not much more I can say.

Friends in Need does what it does well and unapologetically.