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

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.

the renders are good, they get better further into the game after chapter 1. some of the scenes are really well staged and have composition qualities of a particularly striking photograph. i like the agency of having different paths to treat the girls in different ways. not that i think i'll work up the nerve to actually treat nicki or gabby badly; they are sweet and have had their share of troubles. this game gets what modern media often gets so wrong (galadriel in rings of power, or rey in star wars) the main character doesn't need to be perfect at everything or a badass warrior. the main character could just be nice and help people. that makes them very likeable. the main character in this formerly had a mediocre job at a supermarket, and then uses his money to help those who need and deserve it. this makes him very relatable and likeable, in turn we root for him and get emotionally invested in the story. then because of that investment we are more likely to give the benefit of the doubt for little issues or flaws that may come up. it can be that simple. this isn't a perfect game, but i like it much more than a lot of games that may be "technically" better. a deserved five stars.

An actual game that isn't afraid to go into the rape territory and actually makes me feel like my fucked up actions may have consequences. Really blew my mind that I can be as evil as I wanna, or as good as I want.

That´s really a good game.

You play a guy that suddenly become millionaire. You can play as a more-o- less nice guy (who like it rough, but nice guy nevertheless), an asshole or, if you install the patch and is your cup of tea, as an asshole who deserves jail.

The 3rd option it´s too extreme for my tastes, but hey, it´s not forced...

The sex scenes are hot, and the author make a decent job of keeping the suspension of disbelieve working., and the game have a decent amount of branching.

The only but is the lacking of music. Something I hope it will be mended in futures updates

This game is really enjoyable so far, definitely like the whole premise and way the storytelling has played out. The variety of different choices from sweet to extreme is great. I've find myself going back through to try different paths between updates, which I don't typically do for what it's worth.

I actually enjoyed this more than I expected . I wish the chapters were longer but that's my only real complaint. The renders and writing weren't bad and I will continue following this game. Give it a try.

Hey,

The game is great, my favorite aspect is how the MC is physically dominant in sex.
No bounding, no tying and not restraining movement... Not using tools or devices...
He just bend them and have his way with them as he wants.

Unfortunately there's a lot of dark themed games that just stop after a few releases or simply change to a lighter theme after a while.
I like a lot of romance VNs too, but if I may say anything is: your game is great man, please keep doing what you're doing and please continue to let us be the bad guy.

We see the evil win quite a lot in fiction, it's ironic how the evil can never prevail if the main character is the bad guy.

While the first chapter visually wasn't very impressive, lacking in quality such as proper facial expressions and minimal, empty set pieces the further ones improved noticeably and I imagine will continue to do so.

The writing though is consistently good from the start, with characters behaving in a believable manner with some of the better-written dialogue I have read in these types of games. As well as having a number of progression choices for each character, from romance and corruption to plain evil all of which are completely optional.

If the quality of the game will continue to improve or at least stay on the same level writing-wise it's definitely worth playing and watching for future releases.

P.S. I recommend Installing the taboo patch as without it the game is cut in content, even if the kinks in it aren't for you.

This game is great. It has a pretty good amount of choices that matter. You can be an asshole, just a regular porn game pervert, or nice guy. The dialog changes depending on your choices too. Has good dark content with the patch. Pretty good looking characters, animation, etc.

Good games tend to have good renders. But great games have something more, be it advanced game mechanics or a good story. This one had the latter. Great writing, good characters, choices that actually matter.

I don't know how this one will evolve into, but what we have here right now at 3.1, is a gem.

This might be the most well written game I've ever played on F95! Excellent renders as well. No grinding or any time wasting stuff so far. I'm looking forward to the future of this game and any others that the developer makes.

For Ch3.1. Played the good route. Any time I ventured into the bad side...I backed out or went to a prior save. Things on the bad, or dark route are ...well rather dark, aggressive or being a shitty human, so I stayed away from that.

The good route had lots of content, and very enjoyable and lots of sex scenes as well.

Very well written, only a couple of typos. English is very good, normal sensible conversations.

Characters are very likeable, and real world situations. Its a fun romp with you as the MC getting a bunch of money, and well enjoying life but starting to help people, or exploit them.

Four stars as its just in the beginning, decent playtime for chap 3.

Hope the Dev keeps it up, well worth the download.

I was hesitant to try this one. The description sounded a bit iffy. But there were enough reviews mentioning the quality of the writing that I thought I would give it go.

I am glad I did.

The main thing to understand about "Friends in Need" is NeonGhosts can actually write dialogue, and he is capable of maintaining a character's voice. I think this is the most important element of all adult visual novels.

Every adult visual novel essentially boils down to conversations with different characters. This is what holds the series of images together. If the conversations are boring or poorly written then eventually every VN fails.

Sometimes really good stories or really good visuals can for a time compensate for poorly written characters and conversations, but sooner or latter they wear out their welcome.

"Friends in Need" doesn't have this problem. It is well written, and so far all the characters have had distinct voices and the conversations that I had with them were all interesting and believable.

In my opinion, this is pretty rare in adult visual novels. So I give this 5 stars on that alone.

In some ways, the way the game is set up is like a series of almost unrelated vignettes. The first and second chapter could be short stand alone games. In the third chapter things do start to get tied together, and by the end it is clear that there is an actual story that is being told here.

As the player you have a lot of control of how these vignettes play out. A lot. You can be a complete asshole or you can be a fairly nice guy (while still being the MC of a porn game). You can mix and match quite a lot. You aren't stuck on rails once you go down a path. There is a lot of nuance for you to experience.

However, I simple was not able to go down the darkest path in most instances because the characters are well written and mostly believable, which means there are repercussions for your choices. In some adult visual novels I have no problem being an asshole, but most of those are far more mired in porn logic than "Friends in Need." In this case the repercussions of some of the choices were too realistic for my tastes... at least for the dark path.

I think the semi-nice guy path was actually more impactful because I actually knew I could choose to be a total asshole. Also, I say "semi-nice guy" path because this path isn't some white knight path devoid of lust and hot sex. There is still plenty of sex, plus I find sex scenes to be more titillating when the characters actually want to have sex with me.

So I am really only reviewing the nicer path. I tried out some of the darker choices, but in almost every instance the outcome of these scenes was a bit too much for me. Ultimately, that is a compliment to the construction of those scenes. All the dark scenes I tried out were just as well written and fairly realistic, but that realism made me roll back to less dark choices.

There were also some "nice guy" choices that are actually too nice guy, even to the point where the women you are engaged with are a bit confused by your choices. I would role back from those in most cases as it was clear that these routes were for people that wanted to have nothing to do with certain characters.

Also, there are a bunch of times when you have several different chances to engage or disengage.

With that said, like all adult visual novels the writer is telling a story. A player's choices can only have so much impact on the story. So the global impact of your choices is limited by the reality of the visual novel format.

In the end I would recommend "Friends In Need" to anyone that wants to experience an interactive story in a porn fantasy that is well written.

Definitely worth checking out.