VN - Ren'Py - Friends in Need [Ch.11 v0.72] [NeonGhosts]

I think this is an excellent game overall.

The story is quite concentrated to the point it feels rushed but considering it would take a lot of effort to make the story longer and would delay the releases and story progression, I think it is a perfectly good compromise. There is so much a one person/small team can do.

One thing I really think could be improved is to make sure not all (abusable) characters are perfectly likable people in very difficult situations. I really wanted a not completely asshole character with some blackmail/exploitation and it really is difficult not to be complete asshole if all the characters are like innocent wounded puppies.

[v0.39]

The game is a bit of a mixed bag. Some of the characters are interesting and unique, while others are redundant and boring. Some of the women are beautiful, while others are bland. Some scenes are well written with lots of choices, others are frustratingly awful.

You can make some drastically different choices on how to treat the women in the game, but then you are forced back onto the main path which often doesn't fit with the choices you just made. It can be very difficult to care about the characters because of how ridiculous they are. The main character is forced to act like a brainless stereotype in several scenes, and the girl with the most screentime is painfully stupid.

All thing considered, it's a clear case of quantity over quality. Everything is stretched too thin from having too many characters and too many different fetishes to focus on building proper paths for anyone, let alone everyone.

This was a very enjoyable game, the choices matter, and the characters are actually likeable. I played it more times - once being the good guy, and the other time as the bad guy, or, essentially, a total douchebag. Although a combination of the two is also possible. I think that both are quite believable in terms of the dialogue and the characterization. I like the fact that not every female character immediately jumps onto MC. Plus, the dark topics are very well written, I've noticed that some devs avoid these types of things sometimes.
Also, the female characters are varied, IMO, some are better looking, while others didn't really attract my attention.

The backstory isn't really inspired, but the played section makes great use of it. The characters are pretty well designed. Choices have a big impact on which part of the scenes you can experience, so make sure to complete as you first would like to, and then start again using the skip (ctrl) key to fast forward through to the un-experienced content. Fetishes are great and they are what the tags are.

The best writing in any porn vn I've ever played. I can't overstate how well written this is.

I'm usually into the harder/rougher routes in these kinds of games because they are generally more interesting. This game made me go the opposite direction. The love interests are too well written. They all feel like real people. When a character is written well, you want them to be happy, you want them to succeed.

There is light path and a dark path in this game. I consider the light path to be cannon, and the dark path to be something going on only in the main character's head.

I really can't overstate how well written I think this game is. Everything is perfect.

The only thing I worry about is having too many love interests. But right now, I think it is fine. I care about every character.

To be honest, Friends in Need has surprised me a lot, in the best ways possible. I played v 0.39 and the first thing that got me is the writing on the game, it's way above what's usual in the genre and it makes you care about the characters. And the characters are great as well, each with their own personalities and projects, goals and such. It's mostly a slow burn with some exeptions, though, so don't expect to be fapping to it all the time as it takes its time to develop its story, characters, plot and make you feel immersed in it. If you want an optimal route you might want to play with the walkthrough because, though most of the times the consequences of the choices are rather clear, that is not always the case.

Render quality is pretty high, though there are a large number of childish characters which is something I'm not into. Animations are decent, but not the greatest around. Music does its job well and I haven't found any bugs or continuity issues in my playthrough.

So, all in all, a very recommendable game, surely worth your time if you're looking for something more than the generic quick fap game.

Well verry good game unlike many other porn games. Good content In every updates there's always something exciting going on, which worth the wait (even though sometimes it might depend on your choose path ). It has also a respectable amount of renders each update I mean you will not finish a update less than 20 minutes even if you rush. Each girls is well design and beautifully different never saw one model from this game to any other games i played since 2017 so that's a good point. And even its not very important for me, the story is good at least the scenes are well introduced and very well written.

Anyway if I have to keep something: Thanks there are No Milk IT !! And almost every model he made are world class beautiful there won't be this syndrome of a develloper that focus on a less beautiful or less popular girls for years or will take 8 years before having a little flirt with the best girls. You normally won't be disappointed by this game peace

It's a good game that enable an extremely dark path but one thing the dev needs to take a bit more slow is the amount of possible women.

Like there's so many of them and we got one more this new update.
The top women in this AVN are Viola on the top with Brittani at the two followed by Ash.
Story is a bit mild if I might say. I like how the art however experiments with angles/perspectives and isn't so plain/generic.
4/5

[v 0.39 ]

+ Reasonably believable story;

+ Excellent storywriting and good mastery of English;

+ Choices matter -- but basically for most characters you can have 2-3 paths: romance, blackmail, violence.

+ No magical powers, quite reasonable limitation to more or less real world.

A must for somebody interested in the subject tags.

Might have too many LI options, which means that for each update there will be either very gradual corruption/blakcmail path or only some characters will be advanced.

There are things that somebody might dislike and there perhaps are some bugs or limited logic, but by and large, one of the best.

[v0.39]

Brilliant game, I loved playing it. The story and dialogue are very well written and engaging and don't bore you out like with the majority of the games you find here.

I like the fact that all the choices actually change the behavior of the protagonist and other characters but don't lock you out of the content (apart from the ones that can't fit into the narrative for obvious reasons). It has something for everyone, I for example am playing the romance paths and I find all the characters very lovable and well characterized.

Regarding the sex stuff, the romance path is pretty vanilla for the most part so far, it's not the bad kind of vanilla sex as the scenes are great in my opinion but I would love to see some more spiciness in the future.

If I have to make some negative remarks, I'd begin with the need of remaking the whole first chapter (renders are sub-par compared to the subsequent chapters, it's a normal thing as the dev keeps on learning and improving but this may put some players off during their first playthrough, I personally would put some kind of disclaimer right at the start of the game to let players know that the quality is higher starting chapter 2).
Then there is the multi-path aspect, as I said it's good they give lots of customization to the player, but I'm afraid things will get out of hand rather quickly with time, with some side stories and characters ending up neglected.
Lastly, some choices are not that clear on what the outcome will be. This forced me to save scum a couple of times. If possible I would like to have an integrated walkthrough in the game so I can play more freely and enjoy it even more.

So far, this game has proven to be great and fun to play, I absolutely recommend it.

This is a choices matter game. In a good way. Lota of different paths, multiple levels of "relationships" with all the characters which makes multiple playthroughs very entertaining. Really appreciate the darker themes, not something we see often done this well

PROS
- Diverse & unique set of characters. I can tell there is some level of customization goin on. He's not using the base Daz model like many other games do.
- Man, the characters are set up so well. I really like most of them. Dev did a pretty good job with getting us to care about them.
- Renders are okay. I'm personally here for story so idc as much about artstyle. As long as there is no pixilation or grainy renders then that's a plus
- Gabby
- This isn't your typical clone harem game where all the characters are jumping the MC's bone as soon as they see him. Girls have issues, girls could get jealous of other LIs, and MC is not perfect. Good balance of realism/fantasy.
- Our choices matter! nice to see some variations to the outcomes depending on dialogue choices. You can be an asshole that uses his wealth to take advantage of women or be a white knight. I like being a white knight cause I'm already an asshole in real life.

CONS
- No sound effects or music.
- Think he is on course to do the classic mistake of introducing an excessive number of LIs to point its untenable to manage them all, not to mention the variables. I personally just prefer quality over quantity. The more characters you introduce, the less dedication each one will get.
- Think there is an overuse of the 'damsel in distress' trope. LI needs help -> MC proceeds to help LI -> LI falls in love with MC for helping her. Then again, perhaps this is the whole point of the plot I guess? Rich MC uses connections/wealth to help people.

Turns into a decent VN, if you can get through chapter 1. I can understand the hate for Nikki. Aieee!

Writing and dialogue is great, even if the story is pretty cliché.
Renders are good and get better as the chapters progress.

Recommended, if you can stick with it past the awful start.

(Version Reviewed: v0.39)

Friends in Need is a wonderful AVN. I enjoy the premise of the game as it's fairly grounded in reality. Our MC is a wealthy man with means to prey on the less fortunate. We can decided how he approaches the task. He can be charming and seduce the women, lewd and bribe the women or rough and force himself upon the women. It's nice that several options are provided and the dialogues and renders even change based on our approach. I feel the renders look good. The LIs are reasonably well fleshed out and several of them are very likable. The game can certainly improve with respect to animations and music, but apart from that I do not have any complaints.

Overall - 9/10. The game keeps improving each update.

This is the best power fantasy VN I have played on this website.
Story is well written, and immersive. Pacing is great. The characters feel like they are their own people. Lots of choice that feels impactful, and numerous paths that are worth exploring. Dark choices actually make you feel bad, in a good way. Renders look decent. Characters look unique and varied. Game-play is simple and straightforward, no annoying mechanics or game overs. Reasonable amount of content for how long the game has been worked on.

One of the GOAT games on this site for me. Nothing else out there really nails the feeling of blackmail/rape/coercion quite like this one. So often games will either lean too hard into the "hardcore" stuff and lose all sense of realism, or be too timid to go there in the first place. This one straddles that line perfectly, and the result is absolutely amazing.

Wow really wow, I really enjoyed this, rarely MC's character is so likable, most of time MCs depicted selfish , immature and childish ,this is remarkable point for story , interactions with characters are designed very well , there is plenty of determining options given to player to shape MC,
this is absolutely brilliant .
Story that doesn't follow familiar routines always refreshing, new characters that are tangible , being sincere helps we engage with story rapidly and care about what happening to characters , this rarely happens but when it does happen is glorious to see.
I love Friends in Need , splendid job really.

This is legit the first well written game that made me feel like a evil bastard and I loved it. Some of the best writing and characterization I have ever seen. THE king of power fantasies on this site.

Really loving where the story is going and the different branching paths. I love playing as the bad guy and the good guy, and when a dev actually has the courage to write a decent bad guy storyline. Keep up the good work.

Review of Version 0.375

Really good game. The story is unique and well written. Not a lot of extraneous exposition, just what is needed to advance the story. Not a lot of typos or grammatical errors.

Art is good, some is excellent and the author is supposedly upgrading the first chapters.

Updates have been slow but anything worthwhile is worth waiting for. The author is active and gives regular comments on Patreon so it is being worked on.

The real strength of the game are the two different routes the player can take. You can be a complete jerk, brutalizing, blackmailing and assaulting your way through the game -or- you can be altruistic and helpful. You can also choose a combination of the two. I have played the altruistic route completely and the content is well done. I have dabbled with the 'evil' route and what I have played is just as good.

There are games with better stories or better writing but altogether, this game is well worth playing.