VN - Ren'Py - Friends in Need [S1 v0.85c] [NeonGhosts]

[SPOILER ALERT]

"Friends in Need"? To me, it's more like "Fatherless Women in Need".

Jeez, the whole story is just kinda depressing to be honest. What's up with too many women in this game making bad decisions after bad decisions or caught a pretty bad luck? from all of the LIs, Ashleigh is probably the only one who has a relatively stable life. She has a nice home, a nice family (I really like her parents), a decent job, and nice racks. While the others are basically..... yeah I don't want to talk about it, go see for yourself.

Nicki particularly, hits almost too close to home. She was such a nice girl, but only in three months she made a lot of bad decisions. She could've just moved with me and be a nice couple but nah... she was too stupid for that. Now I get it why the dev has this "Nicki removal patch". I thought it was just a little joke from him but when I got through Nicki's story, I sighed so hard that I just punched my own desk (no, this is not a made up story, it did happen). Good job NeonGhosts, you made a character that almost look like someone that I used to know. If you ask me, no luckily she didn't sell her out unlike Nicki, in fact she became a doctor.

One particular problem that I have with this game is that the MC sometimes doesn't have enough courage to say a big motherfucking NO to some people who asking for his help. Just because I'm rich and also a famous philantrophist, it doesn't mean that everyone needs to be helped. For example, Risa asking you to take her home because she has "car problems" so she needs a ride. But it turns out she tricked you by driving her into a drug den because she is a drug addict. If I were the MC, I would've kicked her out from my car and called DEA/FBI afterward. I will never ever spend a penny for a junkie.

I haven't try the "dark path" yet because I am a nice guy. But seriously, I feel like that's probably the proper way to play this game because some of the women are shameless.

Three stars for now. I might add another star in the future, or keep it that way or perhaps lose it. Depends on how the dev handles it.

Overall a decent AVN where choice matters, and you can shape your relationships with the love interests how you like.

+ Plot is simple, but effective for the story
+ Good models and renders, with believable personalities
+ Good selection of relationship types (romance, benefits, domination, exploitation, etc)
+ Not a wide range of body types, but the girls are attractive
+ Only a few kinks, but the relationship types allow for some deviation
+ High re-playability factor to experience different relationship types with the love interests
+ Writing and grammar is good without a lot of distracting issues

+/- Not quite enough sex scenes or opportunities for them with each love interest for my liking. What's there is okay, but more would be better.

- Short AVN, 0.60c has perhaps 12-14 hours worth of content total
- No built-in walkthrough or hints, and no explanation of how choices affect relationships or the Darkness stat (and no way to track any of it)
- No music or sound effects
- Animations are extremely rare, short, and low in quality (sometimes just render flips between two screens)
- Love Interests are added slowly, and you have a fairly linear way of getting together with them (no choice, just whether or not it happens on a certain day)
- In 2 years and 3 months of development, it seems like progress is moving slowly to end up with ~12-14 hours of content. To put it in perspective, that's roughly 1 minute of gameplay developed per day, 7 minutes per week, or a half hour in a month.

Friends in Need ends up a 3.2 or 3.3 rating from me. Unsure why it has such a high rating on F95 for reasons listed above - it definitely has promise, but just as many shortcomings. If the developer would re-double their efforts and address them along with more frequent content, it'd end up a 4.5 or higher due to it's strengths. But it isn't there yet..

Maybe the best, most relatable writing I've ever seen in a game - keep it up!
The dialogue is great, the characters real and believable, and seemingly lots of choices that actually matter as you progress!

This game's vocabulary is excellent! This coupled with the interactions, choices, and ramifications can make this game a potential masterpiece. With future updates, the story can only get better and evolve into one of my top games on this platform. Keep in mind to not take it too far and end it as early as possible, as most games on f95 tend to get abandoned because of the sheer work needed to go into them and the burnout of developers working on a single project for multiple games. Keep up the good work and remember to keep it fresh!

Excellent game. I was a little worried in chapter 1 because the writing didn't really grip me and some of the facial animation looked a bit weird, but seriously, every chapter got better and better. By chapter 4 it was clear this was a masterpiece.

The characters are all interesting and unique, both in their designs and their personalities. But the real stars of the show are the MC and Nikki. The MC is a genuinely swell dude with great writing to back it up, and Nikki is a great match for him. Really the entire game could just be these two but the side characters bring lots of charm and life to the world.

Highly recommend.

Excellent opening premise for a game which is fully supported by brilliant writing and a varied cast. Visuals are good and choices feel impactful. The ending for Chapter 9 was eery with the MC feeling like he was in waay over his head, can't wait for next release. Easily one of my favourite games on this site.

Some of the recent reviews are pretty weird. Like yes, indeed, this is at its core a Visual Novel, and thus the choices won't be super impactful. Yes there is some polish to do to make this less immersion-breaking (like currently, how having a giant bruise on MC's face will provoke no reaction from strangers and LIs alike past the few scenes for it, even once the magical make up disappear), and yes it would be nice to have some background music, but cmon....

Honestly if you don't take it for what it isn't, and if you like a well written story and characters, I fail to see why you wouldn't like this game. Both the MC and the LIs have a personality, they don't simply fall in some kind of harem slots nor (yet) bloat the storylines too much, and the modest plots advance at a decent pace that feels natural.

I do find the premise, or at least its handling original. Not the simple "I was nobody now I'm in a power fantasy mode" but the way it translate as a "playboy+decent human being simulator" do hit the "actually, helping others people is a nice power fantasy if it's well written" button. Also feels like doing the asshole choices in this game is, I think, both a way to appeal to people who have these kinks and to remind people that this is not a very fullfilling to do.

Don't misunderstand me, in the absolute I much like prefer games that offer me depth of choices and consequences to them, but I also understand that time and ressources aren't infinite, and I prefer one well written line going far and fast than a metric ton of paths and 20 slides for each every updates.

Would definitely recommend the game. Writing is good, girls are hot, hop along for the ride!

(Also Britanni and Vicki best girls by far)

Story 2/5
Let me start of by saying choices dosent matter other then when it comes to relationships but even then it might not matter, like even if you rape a girl she will still come back to MC and live with him, work for him.....its truely that idiotic.

The start dosent really make much sense to me, MC gets lucky and get millions so he never has to worry about money again, then a friend comes to a visit who he had a crush on but shes always been in a relationship, so they are just friends, you then learn shes in need of money and that her boyfriend send her to MCs place to beg for money since he somehow knows MC is rich, i mean fair enough.

But the choices your given is absoultly idiotic sorry, shes supposed to be a friend and you get the option to abuse her by rape or just pay her for sex or to be nice...where on earth is the option to send her ass back to her idiot boyfriend without a single dime? and why the fuck does MC pay both her debt and her boyfriend? who MC dosent even like? i get helping her but the boyfriend? why? and ofc all 3 choices will end up in some kind of sexual scene without you having any choice other then what and how it will happen, im just not a fan of shit being forced on the players, atleast you can stop it with "only" a BJ if you pick the right choices, so yeah not the best start.

And when MC takes back Nicki who left him for 3 months to fuck her own life up instend of going to MC i just lost all respect for the game, he should have trown her ass out the door or give her the last money she needed and tell her to fuck off and stay away from him....giving her yet another chance makes MC feels submissive and extremly brainless and ofc he shows the idiotic cringy side of lusting for her yet again even though he should hate her, it really just makes for a shitty story nothing else, he even lets her stay in hes home with him....such a vanilla and boring thing, he even offers her a freaking job theres just no getting rid of the bitch.

And on a side note even if you freaking rape Nicki she will still come back to MC? how is that for a kinetic story....who the fuck would go back to her rapist.

Also story fucks up and ignore the choices you make, if you do nothing with Gabby MC still acts like hes in huge trubble when Maddison calls him? all he did was give Gabby a hug when he left? and MC acts like he raped the girl or something saying "fuck me" all the time and thinking "its nothing to worry about" or "this is bad..." its just waaaaay off point and makes 0 sense when all you ever did was hug the girl???? then she tells MC she understands that MC was just a little drunk? and that she dident tell Maddison? i mean what the fuck? tell her what? that she hugged him?

And whats with the Brittani and calander shit? i already turned her down after photo session and then later MC thinks about how to connect with Brittani and learn more about her? why? whats the point? story makes less and less sense.

Also dont get the constant Tt dialog? pops up alllll the freaking time?

And explain why MC also desides to help out a bitch on drugs? dosent MC know the word no? and why no choices to the player? i mean MC has a shitload to lose if he get cought doing drug deals but he fucking goes with the drug whore and pays for her drugs? i mean sorry game just to way to stupid, if she atleast had told him what why she needs he help first it could make a little more sense but him freely walking in to do a drug deal knowing nothing is idiotic.

Girls 3/5
There are some the look ok but none are really great, there is some diversity in builds which is good but thats about it

Animations and sex scenes 1/5
Not an animated game so loses alot on that alone, sex scenes are pretty short, bland and just boring really.

Music 0/5
Silent game which is always more boring.

Choices 2/5
When story ignores choices it makes for a shit story, when things are forced it adds to being a shitty story and add the kinetic main storyline where you can rape someone and still end up with her? it just makes little sense.

Not sure why or how this got rated so highly it just dosent make sense when it has no animations no music and a cringy creep MC on top of that and a story that fails over and over and simply just stops making any sense.

"Friends in Need" is a captivating visual novel (VN) that masterfully combines elements of drama, romance, and the thrill of unexpected fortune. The story follows our main character (MC) whose impulsive and drunken decision leads him to invest his entire life savings into a seemingly doomed cryptocurrency. This reckless gamble leaves him financially devastated, but years later, the crypto unexpectedly skyrockets in value, catapulting him into a world of unimaginable wealth. With his newfound riches, the MC embarks on a journey of redemption and benevolence. He invests in various ventures and, most notably, establishes a charity aimed at helping those in need. True to the nature of an Adult VN, many of these individuals in need turn out to be beautiful women who could become potential love interests or even form a harem. The game offers two distinct paths: a love path filled with heartwarming moments and a dark path that delves into more controversial choices, which might be too intense for some players.

One of the most critical aspects of any visual novel for me is the cast of characters. If the cast is too large or filled with irrelevant side characters, it's an automatic one-star deduction in my rating. Truth be told, "Friends in Need" does feature a fairly large cast, but I'm willing to make an exception in this case. The characters don't feel like mere side notes because the game isn't structured as a branching story. Instead, it's composed of multiple linear, uniform stories centered around each love interest. "Friends in Need" is not a single core story about the MC. Instead, it unfolds as various parallel narratives of helpless friends (or potential love interests) where the MC plays a crucial role. The MC moves from one story to another, acting either as their knight in shining armor on the love path or taking advantage of their vulnerable state on the dark path. This structure keeps each character's story focused and relevant, making the large cast feel integral to the overall experience.

The game boasts a solid visual presentation, with high-quality renders that bring scenes to life with subtle detail. The writing maintains a good balance between emotional depth and engaging dialogue, keeping players invested in the characters' journeys. Character designs are well-crafted, each with distinct features that add to their appeal without being overly flashy.

Friends in Need Ch 09 v0.59b

Here is a game tip. If you don't like having name saves forced on you (there is no option to toggle them off), follow these instructions. Go to the /game folder and delete screens.rpy and screens.rpyc. Then go to the following link and download the older version of this game. Copy the screens.rpy from the older version of this game and put it in your /game folder. Restart the game.
https://f95zone.to/threads/friends-in-need-ch-9-v0-59b-neonghosts.112500/post-12637232

Pro - The grammar and spelling and writing seem to be good.

Pro - There is a lot of content. Currently nine chapters, but the chapters aren't short.

Pro - There are a lot of different, good looking women and sexual situations.

Con - There was one girl that I wasn't attracted to (the black midget girl), but I was forced to talk to, engage, hang out with, kiss or hug, and meet her a lot. I feel like the "not interested" option didn't work on her at all, because I was forced to keep interacting with her often and for long periods of time and it was like the developer kept pushing her on me.

Con - Even though the females look okay, every model and asset in this game makes this game look like it was made 5-10 years ago. Currently, a lot of devs use Genesis 8, 8.1, and 9 models, but this game felt older generation like Genesis 3 (but might not be). The renders are good, but for some reason I feel like they could have used more polish and depth to make the characters and setting seem and feel more real.

Pro - Even though the renders aren't outstanding they are pretty good. Not grainy looking.

Pro - There are a lot of choices which made the game more interactive and fun. Some games only have single choices, too many choices, or very boring and pointless choices. Thankfully, this game's choices weren't like that.

Pro - You can pretty much creampie any female (but there is no pregnancy).

To me, this is a solid average game. It's not bad/terrible and it's not great/wonderful. Hence the three star rating. Hopefully the developer will fix the script so that name saves can be toggled off. But even if he did, I would still rate this game three stars.

+Nice renders specially ashe and brittani
-An over ambitious story about how a wimpy loser gets multimillionare but he still is a wimpy loser second guessing every action and on the dark patch being a rapey douche bag who still has to bow down to some random asshole drugdealer and pimp. the entire premise of this game is mc being a sugar daddy without any of the benefits lmao
- a lot of LIS but the game is not good enough for additional playtroughs
In a story about a dude with unlimited money you would think there would be some options to get an assertive mc but these are avns that we are talking about so instead mc will still be the same loser but now there is this super bad guy that he will have to fight. dev REALLY wants you to play Risa story and see a girl getting fucking dpd before you can choose to help her or RAPE HER. i mean what the fuck
-the dark path is the way the dev will introduce NTR and sharing to the story.
-Unnecesary versions and a mess on what version you are actually on.
Hard pass

A story/game that goes faster than it actually should.

Story - 3/10 The premise being you become rich and suddenly become a white knight ( or a rich prick ), to all these characters that you engage with.
Not exactly a new plot, and this one does it in a way that is makes the story go faster than it actually should. On the whole you meet a new down on their luck ( or needing help) character, every game day. Really every day that is a bit much, makes the introduction to the characters to fast and very predictable. Not to mention two dimensional, "oh i need help and will trade it for sex" , is the whole story in a nutshell. The puns and jokes are not very humorous, could be much better.

Originality - 2/10 There are dozens of similar story lines.

Renders - 5/10 Graphically average could be better.

Animations - 2/10 There are very few animations in the game, the usual two second looping sex animations. Next to nothing with regards to realism or seduction, as well as kissing , one kiss then a hop on.. bam.. squirt and done, so common it's boring.
When it comes to adult story/games, animations and story make the whole game, very few devs put much into either of these, this one is not any different. If it actually had better sex scenes in it the improvement would be vast, It doesn't and is just below average.

Grammar - 7/10 Not bad, really could use a going over since there are spelling mistakes and some parts that need rewording.

Not all that memorable a story/game and doesn't have much of an emotional connection. Which pretty much means it's easily forgettable, and not something that will make players really impatient for the next content update. It just doesn't do it.

I was pleasantly surprised by this game and it is executed well overall. The story is good and the writing is excellent. The graphics and character models are superb and lifelike. The personalities and character development of the cast is excellent.

I do have a few minor complaints with the game.

The cast is too large IMO. It will take forever to bring an in-depth conclusion to each character unless most of them get treated like side characters. I would have preferred a smaller cast with more focus. Sometimes I forget about half the characters because I haven't had a scene with them for a while.

The MC is rich but he often lacks intelligence and wisdom. I would have handled some situations way differently. For example, I would have never allowed a boyfriend to be with a model during a photo shoot. It's just asking for trouble. I would rather send the model away then do a shoot with her boyfriend present. If the boyfriend insists on being present, the model loses the job.

It's kind of hard to swallow the bad choices that Nicki makes throughout the game. She is supposed to be one of the game's main love interests but most of her choices are dumber than shit. It makes it hard for me to want a relationship with Nicki based on her stupid choices. I only did one playthrough of the game and was mostly a good guy (with some grey area) and looking back I should have taken the evil route with Nicki. She's too stupid to be anything other than three holes to fuck.

Still, these are all minor complaints and the game is brilliant overall. The writing and characters really set the game apart from so many others! The character models are also well done so it's a win win for me.

Only a few sex scenes are animated but to be honest they don't need to be with how well they are done with just renders and writing.

There is lots of content to play through which is a big plus.

There is also a lot of mystery in the game as far as choices go. It is unclear how many of your choices will lead which I really like.

Aside from a few minor complaints the game is one of the best on this site. I highly recommend it and encourage others to give it a try!

Easily one of the best AVNs I've played. The CG is Daz based, but it's easily in the top 5% of Daz CG.

The real standout is the writing, and the variety and quantity of choices. The character writing is exceptional by the standards of AVNs. The characters are generally likable, and when they're not likable they're still interesting and wll written. The game does a good job of making the adult elements relatively plausible while still keeping a satisfying ratio of pornographic and non-porn scenes.

This game handles its dubcon elements with finesse, striking exactly the right balance between portraying the situations seriously, while avoiding the worst sorts of grim consequences that could realistically result from these scenarios. Unlike in some games, I feel like I can tell that the creator is writing dark pornographic fiction, rather than something they aspire to act out in real life (except maybe in roleplay).

I feel like the dubcon "route" is the strongest (the game doesn't actually have strict routes), but the noncon and more vanilla choices are well handled too. If you don't hate all Daz art and enjoy AVNs, this one is definitely worth trying.

Best VN I've played, possibly ever. So many options and paths. Writing is exemplary. Hope this continues for a long time to come, and I'll be supporting this Dev throughout any and all future projects!

i really like this style of games and its choice structure (similar to Banking on Bella, Personal Assistant, Regional Manager, and Desert Stalker) I wish there were more games like this but it feels like there are only the games I named above with the same style I'll be looking forward to updates this is arguably my favorite game

I'm a fan! It's decently written, the renders are good and I appreciate most any game that gives you the chance to be kind of a piece of shit. Not that I avail myself of the option often, but it's always nice to have choices.

I though it was just a generic storyline but man. This is one of the best Ive played. Beautifully written.

Author perfectly nailed each character arcs. It aint even generic harem. All character feels alive. Like they actually have depth. Hoping for more. This easily comes to my top 5 best AVN ive played.

Same level quality of the top games out there such as Eternum, Desert Stalker, Being a DIK, Fresh Women, College Kings and all. Id say. This developer have what it takes to be one of the best.

It's a story where we decide how money can affect the main character after he becomes rich. The idea is good but the execution is terrible. There is neither sound nor animation in the game. The gameplay consists only of unnecessary endless dialogues. The developer has made the game very boring by extending even a simple event that can be explained with a single line with pages of text and same scenes. The renders also look extremely bad. That's why the game doesn't offer anything interesting or seducer. The illusion of choices that was tried to be created in the story was very weak. Because the game doesn't even really let you choose. Even if you try to be evil, in some scenes the main character makes the exact opposite decisions on his own. For me, it was a disappointing game that I couldn't understand why it got so many positive reviews.

I don't like it at all. The girls aren't interesting to me, and not great looking, and the sex scenes are bleh.
There's drama and stuff, but it's divorced from any real plot, so it falls flat.
Plus, some of the drama comes from the protagonist just being stupid as fuck.
I know humor is subjective, but I didn't see the humor other people have talked about.