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

I have very good feelings about this one, but at the same time a couple huge reservations. The good of it is that there's already around three hours of content despite launching less than a year ago. There aren't any obvious grammatical or spelling errors, and all the writing is quality stuff. All of the women so far are very attractive as well.

Bad part #1: Nicki cannot be avoided, and I loathe that. I personally hate this character archetype (and this sort of person IRL actually) and I want to tell her to fuck off every time. No, I don't want to rape her, I want her to leave forever. But you can't. She's forced into the game at every opportunity. There's a scene where you can choose to get a blowie from her or sex, I chose the first because I don't like her. The rest of the game assumes you fucked her and the dialogue indicates that. Why include a choice at all then?

Bad part #2: Speaking of rape, the choices lack any nuance. It's pretty much just "let her go" or "rape her." I don't want to rape anyone, that's not my kink even in a video game; I also don't want to do nothing and just be a bitch either. This was particularly egregious in the first two chapters and it does seem to be getting better with the latter two, but I really would enjoy a middle option.....you know, instead of raping people. I want to be an asshole, or at least very assertive, but yeah, raping is a bit extreme for me.

Also there's not much sex so far if you don't like Nicki or you aren't into rape. (There might be a ton of rape content for all I know, I didn't pick those options.) Actually only like, one scene. I have super high hopes for more non-rape content at least, since I did enjoy the majority of my three hours.

Friends in Need [v0.375] review

Reviewing the game with the Taboo content patch active.

This game features the most impressive choice system I've ever seen in a lewd game. Play as a white knight or as an unredeemable rapist piece of shit, or anything in-between and watch how people's responses subtly change depending on your past actions. Every conceivable path (and there's a fuckton of them) is competently written and fully fleshed out. The end result is a game with a very high replay value.

Positives:
+ Taboo content done right.
+ Juicy models.
+ Believable, well-written dialogues.
+ Extreme freedom of choice.
+ Very complex game in terms of paths/variables for all the girls and even the MC himself.

Negatives:
- "Animations" are simple pictures in a loop.
- Lacking sound design.
- I didn't like the Main Girl, Nicki, but there's no opt-out. I'm trying to make her fuck off, but no matter how horrible I am to her, she still sticks around like a bad smell! Poor girl must really be desperate...
- The "story" is just a slice-of-life tale about a guy with "Fuck you money". I would have loved to see some real drama that wasn't caused by the MC acting like a piece of shit.

All in all, if you're into the "questionable" tags this game offers, then this is one of the very best games you'll ever play. But even if that's not your thing, you can expect a competently written game with hot scenes regardless.

Strong recommend.

I love this game, this just has the right balance of what im looking for. Sure it does not have much choices in how much being an asshole you can go but it really tried to offer its best. I also loved how you can also get to play the nice guy and to read quality writing . But most importantly I love how Chapter Four: Part One ended, now that just takes the cake because the creator really tried to do character depth which in terms of how theres a lot of AVNs existing this just sets itself apart, tiring endeavor but nevertheless appreciated.

Great game - first one I've decided to support on this site after years of lurking.

The renders in the first chapter aren't so great, and the storyline feels a bit cliche at first, but it gets much better and has some of the hottest scenes on this site. It's all about this realistic fine line of consent and coercion, and if you want to be nice and loving you can do that too. The best part IMO is that the different paths show different personalities of the LIs. So when you go down one path, then try out the other, you realize that part of the reason why the LI behaves the way she does in the second path is actually explained by some dialog in the first path. It's great writing.

Also the jokes are legitimately funny.

5 Stars.

First time I felt that lack of sound wasn't disturbing for a game. Also that the sex scenes were good even without animations.
This goes to show that while animations are nice to have, it's the writing that makes the characters come to life. Too many devs think it's the other way around which ends up wasting development time and still ends up not being able to mask their inability to write convincing scenes/characters.
Then again ... they probably do that or just resort to pandering to certain groups because they don't have the writing chops this dev has. (You can always tell someone is a hack or has run out of ideas when they start pandering)

This is really good stuff right here. Like dayum this some good shit

Usually visual novels get wordy and filled with exposition and stupid pointless crap but here? Nope. Its tight, no skipping needed. The story while not anything crazy is passable. You get rich and start giving money to people. Usually ladies in trouble. Then you can romance them, OR you can sex them without romance if you know what i mean. BRILLIANT. Patched, this game is one of the best if not the best EVIL playthough visual novels around, progression from reluctance to acceptance in a great way.

And the dialogue is good as well, the characters are great. Especially Nicki, whom you can treat terribly if you so wish (ofc you do). But if you do treat her terribly the relationship still works in a messed up abusive way but still. It just works.

But yes, incredible stuff here a visual novel with actually passable dialogue and consistent characters that are not just "the asian chick" the "bimbo" but no they actually act like characters not just archetypes. A must play game for sure, especially if you like games with EVIL paths.

TW: First things first, there's some creepy shit in this game. Aside from allowing players to beat and/or rape women, you have the ability to change the age of women who look very young. I'm aware there's an argument here that it's entirely on the player whether a woman is raped or given an age below the age of consent, but I feel it's important to state this as this may be a trigger (or at least discomforting) to some.

Graphics: The art is a bit crude and freakishly posed at times.--Sometimes people have enormous mouths like Aerosmith or pose their limbs like they're in QWOP. The backgrounds are also barren at times. It's mostly in the earlier chapters, but the grocery store scenes were like watching a group of giants standing atop someone's dollhouse, with the director trying to use camera tricks to make it look like they were people inside of a grocery store.

Plot: My real beef with Friend in Need is that so much of the story content feels skeletal. Every player choice is some variation of: "I spent a day with this woman; did I woo her, rape her, or just talk to her?" Once you finish the playing out the effects of your choice, you're immediately time-jumped to your meeting with the next harem member, where you make the choice again. I wish the transitions between scenes felt more natural to establish a better flow in story.

The main character is also a walking wish fulfillment cliche all too common on this site, "Crypto made me into a playboy, so now I just take pictures of hot chicks to pass the time." It's hard to feel connected to either the plot or the character. I'd like to see one or more goals the story's pointing me towards. A conflict to overcome would be the most obvious example, but giving the main character ANY genuine passion when we're getting to know him would strengthen my connection to this story.

Eroticism: I think the undeniable strength of Friends in Need is its sexual storytelling. The author excels at building anticipation for some soft domination when you go for a consensual sex route, or just some good old fashioned love making. I'm curious to see where those routes go.

Overall, it's got issues that would stop me from recommending it to anyone looking for a good porn story in its current state, but there are some great strengths here.

I usually dont write reviews but felt like this one deserved 5 stars and a recommendation. If you like story and character driven games do yourself a favor and give this one a try.
The writing makes up for what is lacking in renders and animations.

I´ve read a few comments read the bit on the first post and i´m thinking: this is probably stupid but let´s go dark.

I was wrong. This is very good. Very very good.

Not only it has small details that make the dark parts really really dark but it also has them on the love parts. Yes, you can be good or bad with each girl. rape this one love the other; next playtrough love this one rape the other one.

The writing is excellent. Not only the characters have depth, they are very different between them. The caring or powerplay in the story bits feels fresh.. and i´ve played a few dozens of adult games.

The dark parth is really dark and the bright path is really bright.
If either of them is your cup of tea this is a great choice for you.

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