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

Honestly, one of the few games that makes me happy whenever I see it on the latest update page. The more of these 'games' I play, the more nitpicky I become... yet this one somehow didn't lose me.

Visuals: 5/5 ⭐
The character's design is so good; every LI was unique and has a realistic body. The scenes look good, although sadly nothing is animated.

Story: 4/5 ⭐
As far as porn logic stories go, this one is fine; the game starts off with you being filthy rich due to some crypto luck to insane limits. The MC has no chance to struggle or have a hard time with any choice, leaving you picking the choices knowing there will be 'almost' no consequences. Choices range from happily patting LI's head and giving her money to whacko BDSM out of nowhere and getting away with it... brings the bad out of you, lmao.

Gameplay: 6/5 ⭐
This is this game's best feature. It's a simple VN, but unlike many others, choices have a consequence in the story. The way you act with an LI on the first meeting will affect your relationship going forward, and the more your moral compass is fucked, some of the nice choices will disappear. Even the nice path and the bad path sort of split at certain points depending on certain choices...

My favorite thing is the number of choices there are for each interaction; it's not just a good/bad choice or interested/uninterested. If you want to see all scenes, you obviously will need multiple saves.

Sounds: 0/5 ⭐
Sadly, none... this game would have been 10 times better with sounds since it's already missing animations; any music or moaning sounds would've made the scenes more immersive, but alas, an argument can be made to play music or sound on a different app...

Overall excellent game; if I had to nitpick, my biggest criticism would be the lack of sounds/music and the increasing amount of LI. I hope more focus will be on who we already have.

Phenominal. I have played heart-warming games and dark games before, but this game is of warmth and darkness. (You can choose how much you want of each, although the themes are more inclined darker ones). The OP banner can mislead someone into thinking this game would have too many characters without actual "character" in them, but by the end of the latest update (v0.71) I found myself being able to link every face with a story, a trait, and a kink. My only problem is that I have to rely on the walkthrough to ensure I am on the story path I desire to be in.

There are miracles in this world. One of them is the fact that a story about a loser guy who gains wealth and gives himself a sex-fuelled power-trip can be so mature.

Usually, when a writer tries to explore something serious in adult VNs, it comes at the expense of some things we appreciate. First thing to go is, usually, flexibility. It is difficult to tell a meaningful story, juggling ten branching story-lines. The seconds thing to be left behind is, well, sexual encounters. It is no small feat to integrate choices and consequences with telling something meaningful, and it is twice as hard to put a lot of sex in it, while not breaking the general dynamics.

Here we do not sacrifice neither. And this fact is a miracle and another testament to the proficiency of the developer.

The game offers roughly three distinct relationship paths for each girl, with some choices having lasting consequences (at least seemingly; while we're deep in the game, it hasn't unfolded yet). Those paths can be roughly labelled as: a good path, a taboo dark path (install the patch for it), and a middle ground.

The 'good' path is surprisingly touching, especially considering the protagonist's potential for exploiting his newfound shit-ass wealth with women down on their luck. Some moments verge on creepy, but this is strangely fucking mild, given that we play an AVN. Then, there is a taboo path which gives most of rapey games on F95 a run for their money. It is dark. Given the rules of this site I can't compare it with particular games in this review, but I will say that it is almost as dark and sadistic as a famous game about a mental case coming home (still, three times less silly) or a well-beloved title about the eyes-wide-open-shit happening in bordello where women debase themselves for money. I think you know these ones.

I have no idea how someone can be so compelling in writing the darkest possible scenarios as well as something good-natured and even noble for the very same characters.

Now I will tell something personal. I decided to play "Friends in Need" for the dark path. I enjoy maledom, and I like when it is harsh. It is not my sole fetish, but is is a strong one. Sometimes I feel bad afterwards, but such stuff gives me genuine kicks. I can't quite understand it. I despise violence in life. I kinda get the appeal of gore videos and extreme stuff like that, but when I see actual, living people suffer, I always try to help them, almost on an instinctual level.

So, I was preparing for a shamefull wank when unpacking "Friends in Need". But very soon I found out that in this game I simply can't go down the darkest routes. I have too much sympathy for the characters. When I understood it, I, with a sign, decided to play this game with two hands. "I kinda find the story enjoyable, so let's play it like that, paying no mind to the sex scenes", and all that jazz.

And, oh boy, was I mistaken. When I was five-to-six hours deep in this game, I unexpectedly realised something about myself. The deal is that I'm a pleasing person, but I can't please everyone. This happened in my family, this happened later in life. I feel that some misogynistic streaks that characterise my sex-life (to be frank, mostly my wank-life, because those are the things I'm ashamed of) are driven by this feeling of not being good enough for women.

Strangely enough, this game gave me a feeling of finally being good enough, and feeling power in being noble, and feeling good about being generous. Have I experienced something like that in my real life? Sure, but when you play a tightly wirtten AVN, it is more evident.

And the fact that I'm still so damn horny for the girls in this game, including the ones that I didn't find compelling before I learned more about them, is so fucking unexpected.

For that alone 'Friends in Need' is one of the most profound narrative experiences in my life. It's not like I'm gonna change something radically just because of that, but I understood something about myself - and this knowledge will surely stay.

How the fuck did that happen?!

I didnt finish the game because the characters are getting more an more boring. Dont wanna know their awful life after them all, its not very interesting the whole story, some characters look off, dont know why, And Nicki sucks the most.

Although no game is 'perfect', in the land of the blind, the one eye man is king, and Friends In Need does so much that other games don't that it deserves some praise. Before getting into the good, let me start with the bad.

The lack of animations and audio is a big bummer. It probably saves the dev a lot of time, but it could enhance the experience. The lack of a gallery is also a shortcoming. I remember a mod created that added a gallery, but don't know how often it's updated or if it's maintained.

Okay, moving on to the good, as for the basics, this game is well put together wrt to scenes, lighting, etc. The LI models are gorgeous and none of them look 'stock', a problem I see in a lot of AVNs, and that includes the male characters. So many games phone it in for even the MC, it's just disappointing.

Also, this is one of the best branching AVN's I've seen. If you add the patch, it enables a bunch of darker routes and the variation of what path you can take for each character is really amazing. Having the ability to get kinky with Ashe as a boyfriend, all the way to using and breaking her provides an outstanding range of choice. This also applies to a bunch of different LI's too. This is a double-edged sword though, so as the dev adds more branches, the more complex the game will get and the harder it will be for them add new content.

Branching aside, the story is well written and deals with realistic themes of wealth access and how people can use and abuse people when they have the money (and power) to do so.

All I can say is I'm looking forward to how this game develops.

One of my Favorite AVN i've played in a while, Good writing and it feels as though decisions have an impact but not so much that it ruins what you have. If you have not given this game a try i would highly recommend it as it has everything I could want in a story!

Well taught out paths and characters, that seem to provide options for a variety of tastes. Feels like attentions has been paid to the flow of the game where no illogical jumps happen. Be the knight in shining armor or delve into your dark side, it's all in there. I like the wide range of character types and feel like there isn't a hard bias in the game. One of my personal favorites.

Found this game using the dark themes but when i started playing it, the story was actually decent enough that you will start to immerse yourself in it and care for the characters. Also while the premise of the mc getting lucky millionaire might seem boring but the story actually branches out in interesting way.

I'll start with the only thing that I really liked about this game: renders. Yes, sometimes there's weird expressions or bad lighting, but overall the quality is pretty good and consistent.

Now for the cons.
The main cast is too big. Seriously, how many girls are there? 10? 12? It's clearly visible that author tries to focus on each one of them, but due to their sheer amount he has to limit himself and after all these years of working on the project he's still yet to meaningfully unfold the plot. There's a reason why most major titles only focus on 5-6 girls. Quality beats quantity.

The main selling point of this title is dark/corruption paths. Aside from them, there really is nothing outstanding about it. Generic characters are featured in generic interactions leading to generic outcomes through generic dialogues. There's a bunch of other games on this site that either tell a better story or do it in a much more creative way.

Conclusion: if you're not into rape/blackmail, don't bother downloading this game.

P.S. Sorry for bad English.

Still playing this game, but needed to stop to write this review.

Admittedly, I picked this game up because it seemed like it would be 'darker,' and that I could do whatever I wanted without remorse. And it is. For the most part, you can make the choices you want to. No matter how cruel or dark.

That said, where this game is surprising me is where it's making me choose to not make the cruel / dark choices. I believe the biggest success of this game has been in making me care about the characters. They're well-written, the dialogues hit the right spot, and the game is the perfect mix of moving the scenes along without being too wordy, while still also being able to develop the characters and make you care.

You will not be disappointed if you pick this game up. Definitely one of my all-time-favorites.

A solid AVN that really stands out for its realistic dramatised story and how much freedom it gives the player. The characters feel genuine, which makes it easy to get drawn into the story. The choices you make actually matter and let you play the game the way you want, which is a big plus IMO.

I'd say it's a 4.5 instead of a 5 solely because of the lack of animations, but the scenes I got were satisfying anyway, because of the characters and the way you can choose to treat them (I've been sticking to the good guy/leaning towards dom when it doesn't mean being a dick to people).
The premise of the game wasn't super interesting to me when I first read it, I imagined the execution would boil down to throwing money at the ladies' problems and getting some action in exchange, but it goes deeper than that. You get a whole bunch of people in shitty situations; sometimes, it's about the choices they made, sometimes it's about circumstances they didn't really have any control of; and then there's you, with the ability to help, but (I'm talking only from the "good" route perspective, which is what I tend to pick) your help comes through giving people means to pick themselves up. It kinda got me emotional at times, there are characters that I really want to rise above the shit they're submerged into. Hell, I don't think I fucked even half of the ladies you currently can, because I don't want the sex to feel like a payment for my help (that and the game appears to be taking a more realistic approach to how relationships work, so yeah, sticking your dick on every available lady may affect your chances at landing a long term relationship, or maybe not, it's currently unclear from my experience).
The writing has been great, even some annoying/"evil" people like Jamie or Brent get some "villain's backstory", to the point where you don't really forgive them but understand that maybe they were well intentioned dumb fucks, and at least in my case that made me want to give them some pep talk and try to push them into a better direction. Does that mean every bad guy will get fixed? Probably not, people can choose to be evil, and while the game gives us the chance to be good, it hasn't forced me to be stupid (looking at you, Lucien and Brittani's mom).
Tl,dr: game's great, I'm invested in a bunch of characters, a fair share of "let me fix her" (in a good way, I believe), Nicki is best girl (Nickizilla may or may not be threatening me)

TLDR: Gets a bit preachy on topics relating to trans people and the police.

I was contemplating whether this should be a 4 or a 5 star. But after finishing the recent update I'm pretty sure this is a 4 star.

It gets a lot of things right. The story is okay, the dialog is okay, the facial expressions are good. But.. there are no animations and no sound effects. It's especially noticeable in the x scene with Risa. Where MC gets on top of her in the missionary position. But MC and Risa are both spread out like a star fish. It honestly looks like when you take 2 toy figures and press them into each other. If you're not going to have animations you HAVE to make sure that at least the posing of characters is right.

The other reason I can't give this a 5 star is because of the preachy nature in which this game adresses trans people and the police. Like I get it, people make games and want to convey their own thoughts on certain issues. But if the Issue demands more attention than the game itself it stops being a game (that is fun).

There is another game (which I can't name for rule reasons). That game has a MC that is a self proclaimed alpha male (see my reviews). And it's so incredibly preachy about topics the developer cares about that it literally messes up the game. The dev purposely put in less flattering Li's. Forced LGBT interactions and other non sense. Even had the MC's dad be santa clause (I kid you not).

Anyway, it's a reminder of how a game can go from good to completely dog shit. And luckily friends in need is not dog shit. But I hope they don't get too preachy which would make it dog shit.

For example, the police station scene. Where you attack the police officer and the police officer puts his knee on MC's neck. Really dude? And then you have Gabby the black character say "He can't breathe!". What point are you trying to make here dev? I really don't get it.

4/5.

I love how the author of this game allows the player to get aggressive in all the right ways. It's up to you where you go with it (within reasonable boundaries). This is one of my favorite games for that reason.
The story is ok... its a guy with money who has a lot of girls around him that need financial support, and how they earn it is up to you. This isn't going to keep you around primarily for the plot twists. That said it's more than good enough, and the action scenes are very good.
Highly recommended.

My personal favorite game on this site. It's very very "complete" - like there's no aspect in which it's weak.

I think to be a great porn game you've gotta at bare minimum have the following:
Hot sex scenes - check
Great story - check
Interesting, varied characters and body types - check

The best games on this site - Pale Carnations, DIK, Broken Dreamers, Acting Lessons, they all have these qualities.

What are some of the things that set this game apart? One, the writing. Thoughtful, funny, poignant at times. It's not well-written "for a porn game", it's one of the few that is well-written period. The characters are believable - they sometimes hew to (in broad strokes) certain cliches or archetypes, and other times subvert them - but overall they have complex and realistic backstories that shape them into the character they are today. You get the sense that they could be "real" people. Some stories/games go way too hard into character stereotypes, others make the opposite mistake of being obsessed with subverting them such that they become predictable and caricatures all the same. This one gets that balance right. The MC is also neither a god (well he's great in bed but hey it's a fantasy sex game you gotta have that at least) nor a wimp, he's a dynamic character with strengths and flaws, who takes initiative in the world around him. Super cool.

And then sometimes games that are well-written don't actually have great visuals. Thankfully, no disappointment there either. The characters are hot, in different ways, and there's a good mix of both kinky and more vanilla sex options.

The morality "system" is interesting too. In general you have three options - help the character / be nice / have sweet, consentual sex, hurt the character / be mean / commit violence, or neutral kinda dismiss the character. But being one way to one character doesn't lock you into also being that way to other characters - you have agency. And then your actions feel like they have weighty consequences. Not to spoil things but basically, yeah, choices you make in this world matter, characters if you're mean to them reveal how you hurt them and make you feel bad for it, etc.

And then the overall power fantasy is pure fun. Think of all the pussy you could be getting if you struck it uber rich hodling some shitcoin. Think of all the fun and exciting ways you could get it - by either helping damsels in distress and getting them to fuck you in exchange, or by hurting damsels in distress and using your money to get away with it. This game lets you live out those power fantasies without judgement but with realism. It's great.

Submitting a review after the update with mainly Mason and Gabby because there is way too much negativity in the discussions. NeonGhosts has plans, and plots need to be moved forward. Not every update can be all Ashe and Viola. (That said, I would love some more Ashe and Viola)

Thanks for creating a game of such complex branching, NeonGhosts. It's a great feat that there are so many choices that affect future scenes (and even a patch for more choices) and give foreshadowing without breaking the game's flow. It's really special compared to the more simpler kinetic-novel-like games on f95zone, and honestly you work pretty fast for the amount of content per update.

Rating: 4/5 (Rounded up from 3.5/5) for v0.60c

Friends in Need offers a strong self-insert experience centered around moral choices, letting players decide if they want to be a compassionate philanthropist who supports love interests or a menace of a millionaire who manipulates and ruins lives. If you're in the mood for a morally flexible power trip, this game will likely scratch that itch.

Character development for the LIs still feels a bit surface-level, though it clearly shows promise for deeper exploration in future updates, depending on the developer’s direction.

Pros:

• Engaging experiences of impactful moral choices
• Varied intimate scenes, despite some limitations

Cons:

• No sound design (no music nor character voices during sex scenes)
• No animations, as there's no animated tags either; we got simple loops of 1-4 still images, making sex scenes quite repetitive
• No built-in tracking menu to show choices impact, requiring players to use mods like Universal RenPy Mod to view point-based and branching path effects

While this AVN has room for improvement, it’s a well-executed game that delivers on the promise of a choice-driven experience. Definitely worth checking out if you’re after an AVN with meaningful moral options.

Usually I don't do reviews. Hell this is my first review for a game on F95zone, but I've just been playing through this game, and I am entranced

Content wise, the animations aren't revolutionary and are rather standard. But it more than makes up for this with its amazingly detailed characters. They feel unique and there is a very large and diverse cast of characters. Moreover, I'm not sure what it is about them, but you find yourself actually getting emotionally involved with the character's stories

And its main selling point is it's outstanding story, the mc is a reasonable person and you can easily see yourself in his place, the choices allow you to decide what kind of person you want the mc to be and as I've already said, the characters feel like actual people.

This is definitely my new favourite game, and I hope that it continues development. As I am now completely emotionally hooked, hoping I still a lot of content left

I usually do reviews with introduction, stars and final evaluation, but because it is not finished I will dedicate a small temporary review to it.


Friends in Need takes you into a simple plot but that engages thanks to its characters, and that does not stop presenting new situations at every moment with a more than correct timing, never reaching saturation or boredom.

The only downside, as I've read in other reviews: the lack of animations. It is greatly missed, although they could always be added at any time.

PS: I'm going to found a religion where we pray to Ashe.

I like this one. A lot.

Let's get its weakest trait out of the way: the animations. Yeah, they're nothing to write home about. But the character models are great, some of them even beautiful. And most of all, the writing is rock-solid. It's gripping. It's intelligent. It's witty.
Me likes.

Most interestingly -- well, to me; your mileage may vary...
I only played this because there was a "taboo content" patch. Because fuck vanilla, or rather, not. And I'd set out to play what might be referred to as a "dark" path. And well, color me surprised with a fucking rainbow flag, I found myself veering from that path and being drawn to niceties for how much I grew to like (some of) the characters. Britanni (with an 'i') comes to mind. The more I saw of her, the more I enjoyed her and the more I wanted to see. She wasn't the only one, although probably the most prominent. If that's not good writing, I don't know what is. With others, on the other hand, I had no trouble being dark and I very much enjoyed the author's creativity in that dimension. Big thumbs up there.

Like a virgin at her first gang bang, what worries me however is the size of the thing. We haven't seen anything of the MC's sister yet, but there's already a ton of content and a corresponding ton of threads, most of which are still loose. It will take a gargantuan effort to spin them to maturity and then tie them. And anything but tying them would be disappointing. I've gone out of my way and avoided taking advantage of certain situations out of concern for the repercussions my MC would face. I'd be pissed if I found out I passed on a nut for naught.