VN - Ren'Py - Friends in Need [Ch. 9 v0.60c] [NeonGhosts]

Deserving of a 5-star rating as one of the few games here, Friends in Need has excellent, relatively mature, storytelling, excellent renders and excellent animation. The storytelling becomes ever so slightly long in the tooth from time to time but nothing problematic.
Generally, very well made and well-written, with a lot of nice scenes.

A bit too preachy but otherwise good. Maybe three star.

Strange bits:
The MC is ~30 and having sex with a really young looking teen. (you define her age) He keeps telling her to keep it a secret from her parents otherwise they wouldn't be able to keep having sex.
It gets too preachy about the lgbtqa+ charity. (Since he's rich he donates to different charities). The second time they're talking about this org it kept going on about how wonderful it is and so forth seemingly ramming it down your throat a bit too much. Doesn't do that w other charities asking for money, that I saw. But maybe it does later...I dunno as I deleted it.

The game really tries to 'force' Nikki on you. I thought she was gross and wanted to get rid of her but there wasn't an option for that.

The graphics are not fancy however they are really good. The colors are somewhat muted which is very nice and goes well with the game.
The girls all look good but for some reason several of them have their hair really tall on one sid of their head and no/very little hair on the other side. Otherwise the rest of the graphics/backgrounds fit right in.

It's been out for ~ a year and a half and had 6 updates, I think, so that seems ok. At least you don't have to wait a year or wonder if they abandoned it.
Like I said, I'd rather given it 2.5 stars if possible, maybe 3.

It could not hold me. The start with some choices is nice, but that was all. The Sexscenes were boring, and the story was not good. It is sometimes really confusing and some things just don't make sense.
For me it got boring, so I just made it halfway through. I had hoped for more...

review as of v.0.39

This is nice. Really nice. I will admit, after the first sex scene, I expected this game to be kind of a throwaway power fantasy. Buuut I was wrong.

The writing is pretty good. Some parts of the story felt like unnecessary filler, but those were few and far between. For the most part, it was an interesting read that I didn't want to skip.

While it does feel a little linear at times, there are 2 distinct routes that you can mix and match between characters and treat them however you want. And what's nice is - both routes are equally satisfying, none of them feels tacked on, so no matter what you prefer, I think you'll enjoy yourself.

The characters are better than I expected. Most of the ones I didn't like at a first glance grew on me (Ashe and Brit specifically, but I guess Pepper too, although she certainly was more interesting on a con route), and great characters were great throughout (Gabby and Mason are the absolute best and I want more of them).
The only one that didn't grow on me at all was Nicki. In fact, not only did I dislike her more, the more her story progressed, but I think her design past the first encounter was a severe downgrade, which didn't help her case.

And I really hope there will be some Wren content in the future. She seems awesome.

The render quality speaks for itself, the girls are, for the most part, gorgeous and unique.

Other than that... despite a relatively low version number, there is more content than I expected, which is a plus. But at the same time some girls feel a little more neglected than the others, and there are clearly more to come, so I hope quality doesn't suffer because of quantity, and the dev has a plan about where this is going.

Nevertheless, despite my minor nitpicks, I think this game is an easy 5, and I'm looking forward to more.

Amazing, things are complicated, there is power fantasy but not too much, each character has real emotions that if you are empathetic to, you will learn to know where they will generally lie. There is consequences but not too much to feel like you cannot have fun. The writing and character development for this game is phenomenal and I might say even the best I've seen. A must play if you're a sucker for story, romance, and of course having a bit of a harem.

Version 0.39
One playthrough took about 8 hours. In this time I only played one possible option. With each girl you have multiple routes so there might be some replayability ( personally I found the way I wanted to interact with them so I will probably not )
The story is well written, enjoyable and the characters feelunique. The renders are also clear.
I didn't notice any music which I don't mind usally I turn it off anyway.

So, would want to give it a 5 but I can't. The renders are amazing, the story is really good and it feels great to play the good guy in this one. The problem to me is how big the cast is. I love 95% of the girls and they look great and all the thing is they are just too many and have no idea how the dev will finish them all without having a feeling like one girl has way more content.

Went back and forth on 4 or 5 stars, settled on 5 since my complaint is limited to the darker content that some may not even be interested in.

As a wise man once said "With great power comes great fuckability". Our hero is a sad sack who luckboxes his way into millions, but success that comes to easily doesn't bring satisfaction. It brings beggars. In walks the one person he cared about, and she's begging for money....

We get to choose the reactions, we get to choose how to take out our frustrations, on the characters we meet. There's three ways to go if you have the totally unofficial patch attached. Which you should. You sick fuck. You can be kind and help people, you can exploit people for favours, or you can just force it because you're a rich local celebrity and nobody can stop you. These moments of choice radically change the way a scene unfolds, and with future consequence. Even the dialogue in the build up will occasionally change what you can do, or how a character might react to what you do.

The scenes, whichever path you go for, have some great renders, different and realistic body types and aesthetics (I really appreciate that in a game, not everyone needs to be giganto-titted athletes), and good sex. The love interests so far come through as unique characters, another massive plus. The dialogue throughout the game is pretty damn solid. Few clunky lines or misspellings.

Onto my criticism: the relationships have branching paths but much of the in-between dialogue is shared across different lines you took. Sometimes that creates the feeling that the person you're talking to has forgotten what you've done. You've exploited, humiliated, and shown utter contempt for someone, and then they're just sharing casual banter with you. I'm sure it's not easy to change that but it does break the immersion now and then.

The biggest praise I can give is that my first run I went full on criminal at the beginning, and then with the next character, and then the next, and then I actually found one sympathetic enough I just took care of them. It's great when the writing actually leads you to make a decision not only on the smut you want to see but on how you actually want to approach them based on how they're written. Minor spoilers about that character (a trans one):


The patch certainly gives you access to some heavy hitting stuff, and as someone who enjoys the darker side of psychological torment it's a real good thing. Still, I was surprised how good the other routes were on my second run.

Great game.

The dark/bad path is recommended, the good path is kind of boring IMO.
The main character Nicki is great, so incredibly hot when she comes cawling back with her new washed out druggie chick" look

Side characters are also really compelling.
The blonde from alley and the African American girl are fun little side quests that push the story forward.

Can't wait to see what updates bring next for this agme!

I dropped this game so fast, from the very first choices, the dev didn't give us any choices at all, we simply were forced to give her and her boyfriend money, you can say she somehow blackmailed MC knowing he's a good person and would agree to help them, it just the [how] to give her the cash, either out of kindness or straight rape her, to me this is simply bullshit , if we had the choice to say yes or no to giving them money, perhaps I would have given this game a chance,
and if the dev did this on the very first important choice of the game which is supposed to hook us the players to their game, I imagine the rest of will be the same,
I know many will disagree with me, but this is my opinion.

The start was way too dense. I know from the description of the game that the man was poor then boom and he's rich. I don't need to read again the same thing I just red in the description but now ingame for half hour.
But after that weight is dropped from the way, the game just keeps getting better and better.
MC can be totally nice and friendly or can be a serial rapist, you decide. The writer planned every encounter with the girls for both paths very nicely.
Waiting for more updates from this game.

Hands down to one of the best porn games on this site! The game has a rough start, the model faces look a bit odd but you can tell the dev is getting better day by day because the girls later on just look amazing with really smooth expressions and sex scenes. There are also a lot of paths to explore from love, corrupting or even raping, and the details of each path is top-notch. I hope that the author wouldn't scatter over too many girls and only focus on stories of the main ones.

Good game.. love story.. love sex in the game.. graphic is good model is good.. love Choice MC get to pick and outcome.. not simping beta MC like this game because of that! keep it up Game DEV end of month i drop a month support in subscribestar! thank you!

I was very, very surprised at how much I enjoyed the game's writing. Models are great and varied, posing is fine, but animation is non-existent for those who care a lot about that.

But the writing is where things really shine. The girls are all multilayered, dimensional and just not what they seem at first. They have their quirks, secrets and flaws, even if some are unexplored as of now. Really enjoying it and I can't recommend this enough.

I enjoy the romance paths more, but the rougher stuff is interesting as well, but if there was no choice, this def wouldn't be a game for me. But since there is, and its well implemented, loving it.

Beware, its still early, relatively, and maybe things will go off the rails later. But so far, great ride.

The game was so good that I managed to play it in one sitting until the end. The game offers a good amount of choices, and you can play either as a good guy or a really sadistic guy. Personally, I played as a good guy. The graphics were okay and improved as the game progressed. I'm eagerly looking forward to the new update!

a genuinely well written game, with an engaging story that you dont wanna skip through, a multitude of different choices and paths, that directly change how the game pans out, and how those around you react to you. you can either be decent and honorable, or be a dark minded R*pist with a sadistic mindset. i went 90percent good path, andf it fit very well. very indepth and interesting characters you come across with their own sets of stories. not once did i feel like button mashing to getting to the lewd scenes either. a genuinely decent fun game, and this will be on my watch list.

the lewd scenes are alright. one-few scenes are decently animated, then you mostly either get none animated (but with art to update as the scenes does, or robotic animations) now thats the only flaw, if this had smooth and detailed animations, which i know this engine is capable of, then it would be a full 5 stars.

wishlist: Femboys/traps. male-female trans individuals you can lewd. there is one trans person, a female-male, which is unique as you dont often see that in games, decent character too. however i would like abit more variety in character models, than just female partners. even trans females. decent animations, more anal/ass content.

but other than that. decent game, pick it up.

Friends in Needs is a great game that has so much content and all of it feels like its a main story. NeonGhosts is able to make so many potential paths but none feel like they are just there to fill a gap or make pointless content as a filler. The story development is great and he has written characters in a way that some have a cult following and some have hardcore haters... I feel like that is proof of a well written story/character, being was able to create something that creates strong emotions in both directions. I cannot wait to enjoy this scenic road Neon is taking us on.

I never imagined I'd be so absorbed in this story like I am right now.
The Premise frankly didn't seem all that interesting, and I wasn't in it for the quick fix, so my expectations were low.
But Lets just say, this game simply blew me away. Rarely I've seen adult games have SO MUCH DEPTH in their characters, having Real choices and yet also having a protagonist to root for.
The story develops with the plot the more you get to know these characters, and through the visuals are lovely, its that inner depth that really makes one feel connected to the story.
The Story is naughty when it needs to be, but it doesn't just rely on that, you can feel just as good being friendly to someone.
I really hope the devs continue to do this justice and continues in a slow burn pace to really explore character relationships. I'm simply blown away by this. Excellent! Also, Nicki's the best.

the relation with nicki is too real and too close to home, i spent more time feeling depressed than horny.

but it's a good story with well written character that just make you want to keep playing to know what's gonna happen next

Found it and loved it.
I'm always a fan when you can go completely nuts and you aren't forced into a certain path, or even worse a game over.
I like it kinky and I like it hard, and here you can really go all out. Either way, if you rape the shit out of them or if you play it romanticaly, the writing and the characters are both great.
And the scenes are different enough that it really is worth it to replay this more than once.

I can't say mutch about the update cycle, but I hope this game will go on for some time more, and I can't wait to went back to it in a few month.