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

[DiTo]

Sneak Peek of the Week! 5/10/25

Hey, folks! Hope you're all doing well this week! I'm going to keep it short and snappy, since I've had a busy day and need to go crawl into bed soon. But, I'm making good progress on re-integrating the new Chapter 1 with the later chapters, and in the next few days I expect to finish up the rendering I needed to do for the new "connective tissue" between the new Chapter 1, and Chapter 2. That'll free me to get back to Chapter 11's rendering, which I'm quite looking forward to.

I'll leave you with your regular sneak peek at the script ahead! But as always, take care of yourselves, and thank you for your support!

 

[soldano]

I hadn't been able to play the remake until now, and I don't know what you think, but:

- The art is infinitely better. That was to be expected anyway.
- Guy's relationship with Nicki is much better explained. And his SIMP side is delved into.
- The whole Brent thing is also much better developed, and how Guy finds out about the Kobolt thing. Not that it was something super necessary, since it was already understood, but now it's better explained from the start.

However:

- Since Nicki is no longer a golddigger, the story has completely changed. The story with Nicki really doesn't make any sense to me anymore. I mean, yes, the story could have a new meaning. But the old one has gone down the drain. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I don't like it. For me, that plot is no longer interesting. It's simply the story of a stupid SIMP and a flawless Mary Sue. In a way, it reminds me of Murakami's novels, where the women are perfect beings and the male protagonists are always in some kind of crisis. Anyway, for me, Nicki is now a cardboard cutout. A piece of scenery and little else. Could some people like that? Maybe, of course. But I find it quite off-putting, to be honest.

 

[Joshy92]

Anyone else think about this scene sometimes?

Spoiler

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Her calling me daddy during the sex scene was so fucking hot, I hope she does it again.

 

[Ragnar]

I hadn't been able to play the remake until now, and I don't know what you think, but:

- The art is infinitely better. That was to be expected anyway.
- Guy's relationship with Nicki is much better explained. And his SIMP side is delved into.
- The whole Brent thing is also much better developed, and how Guy finds out about the Kobolt thing. Not that it was something super necessary, since it was already understood, but now it's better explained from the start.

However:

- Since Nicki is no longer a golddigger, the story has completely changed. The story with Nicki really doesn't make any sense to me anymore. I mean, yes, the story could have a new meaning. But the old one has gone down the drain. That's not necessarily a bad thing, but I don't like it. For me, that plot is no longer interesting. It's simply the story of a stupid SIMP and a flawless Mary Sue. In a way, it reminds me of Murakami's novels, where the women are perfect beings and the male protagonists are always in some kind of crisis. Anyway, for me, Nicki is now a cardboard cutout. A piece of scenery and little else. Could some people like that? Maybe, of course. But I find it quite off-putting, to be honest.

Nicki's gold digging tendencies were up to debate in the original, but you're right, that's now out of the window.
Now she's just a perfect friend and Guy acts like an asshole ghosting her because he won the loterry.

 

[soldano]

One thing I find curious about all this is that the Nicki haters won in the end. Most of the criticism was that Nicki was a gold digger (or a rewording of that).
Now, I guess a patch won't be necessary to remove her from the game.

 

[Alfius]

Nicki's gold digging tendencies were up to debate in the original, but you're right, that's now out of the window.
Now she's just a perfect friend and Guy acts like an asshole ghosting her because he won the loterry.

I have not played the new version yet, but it would be a disappointment if Nikki did not mess up like she did in the original. The idea of someone messing up and owning up to their faults and coming back is exactly what made Nikki, Nikki for me. That's why she was my favourite character. She messed up sticking to an asshole BF and degrading herself asking the MC for money for her BF's shitty choices. Then her redemption arc was her best bit. Coming full circle back to the MC that now has to forgive and build a relationship with her again.

In any case... like I said, I have not played it yet, so maybe I'm jumping the gun. But it would be sad if it's true.

 

[NewTricks]

I have not played the new version yet, but it would be a disappointment if Nikki did not mess up like she did in the original. The idea of someone messing up and owning up to their faults and coming back is exactly what made Nikki, Nikki for me. That's why she was my favourite character. She messed up sticking to an asshole BF and degrading herself asking the MC for money for her BF's shitty choices. Then her redemption arc was her best bit. Coming full circle back to the MC that now has to forgive and build a relationship with her again.

In any case... like I said, I have not played it yet, so maybe I'm jumping the gun. But it would be sad if it's true.

The changes in chapter one didn't change any of the mistakes that Nicki is going to make subsequently. The one big factor that I believe was removed is that it changes Brent asking Nicki to work at a strip club where she is asked to also perform sex work instead of asking her to exploit her relationship with Guy. This makes Brent markedly worse in my opinion. It also gives more options to both help and mistreat Nicki, which may color how her subsequent actions are perceived, but doesn't change them. So in short I don't think that you will be disappointed. Nicki may be in a worse situation than in the original first chapter but the overall arc of her story seems to be intact. If anything, the changes to Nicki's story seem to be aimed at integrating her story with some of the other storylines.

 

[estrada777]

This remake is also a rename. The game is called: Friends Indeed

 

[DogSwordWhychm]

This remake is also a rename. The game is called: Friends Indeed

View attachment 4830537

No, Friends Indeed is the version without the dark path.

 

[prpa]

This remake is also a rename. The game is called: Friends Indeed

View attachment 4830537

Friends Indeed: Patreon version
Friends In Need: Uncensored SubscribeStar version

 

[DefaultNK]

Here are my unsolicited thoughts on the chapter one remake. Note that I only play the dark routes in this game, so my perspective is going to be heavily skewed based on that.

Spoiler: Nitpicking about the Intro

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Spoiler: The good/love route

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Spoiler: The dark route

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Spoiler: A few possible tweaks

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Spoiler: Positive feedback

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tl;dr, the graphics are way better and

You must be registered to see the links

 

[NeonGhosts]

Forrrrr what it's worth, the changes to the story in Chapter 1 weren't designed to make Nicki more likable. It was only about aligning her with the version of her I began writing from Chapter 3 and on. In the original Chapter 1, I wrote Nicki as more of a casual work friend, for kind of a weird reason: Brent. I originally envisioned Brent as way more of an obvious abuser, who was always trying to bully his girlfriend into making a LonelyFans, and generally treating her like garbage. So, that type of guy probably wouldn't let his girlfriend hang out with another dude all the time, yeah?

But, with Chapter 3, I began to write Nicki like way more of a good friend, who was really familiar with Guy's various tics and idiosyncrasies. Mainly because that gave me a way to offer a window into Guy's personality (before and after his windfall), for the player. And it gave me a character who could always be around to bounce dialogue off of, in a friendly/familiar patter.

Now, with Guy and Nicki being really good friends, that raised the question of why jealous and abusive Brent would let Nicki hang out with another man. The answer being that Guy was such a limp noodle, Brent wasn't really that intimidated by him. So, that partially informed how I presented Guy in this one. I also just wanted Guy to have a big glow-up in Chapter 2, instead of just getting a haircut.

I don't really see how the arc of the story is fundamentally different, from the initial Chapter 1. It ends with Nicki having taken money from Guy, to sort out Brent's mess. Brent will fuck her over again. Nicki and Brent will split up and Nicki will go off to try to A) hide from unsavory loan-sharks B) solve her problem without involving the player.

One thing I've been trying to do is not lean quite so heavily on Guy's inner monologues, and instead let the dialogue speak for him. That allows the player (in my estimation) to decide if Guy's being earnest, lying, etc. and avoids tilting the player's perception one way or another. But originally there was a line, when Nicki explained her financial troubles, to the effect of, "Lane warned you about this. Suddenly you have a little money, and old friends come crawling out of the woodwork with a bunch of sob stories. But that's not Nicki -- right?"

Ultimately, it just felt like I was doing a bit too much, so I cut it. May've been a mistake, in retrospect!

 

[Sparhawker]

Here's an unofficial PDF walkthrough for those who might like one. Possibly contains errors; further updates unfortunately not guaranteed.

Two editions:
15th edition, covering the non-reworked game.
17th edition, covering the reworked Chapter 1.

hmm, well, it's complicated and just found a three option question that's not listed. The bit with Ashe before the jacuzzi about threesome or not, seems it sets some variable for later in the game but isn't even mentioned (not that I can find anyway)...oh well

 

[Pixillin']

Forrrrr what it's worth, the changes to the story in Chapter 1 weren't designed to make Nicki more likable. It was only about aligning her with the version of her I began writing from Chapter 3 and on. In the original Chapter 1, I wrote Nicki as more of a casual work friend, for kind of a weird reason: Brent. I originally envisioned Brent as way more of an obvious abuser, who was always trying to bully his girlfriend into making a LonelyFans, and generally treating her like garbage. So, that type of guy probably wouldn't let his girlfriend hang out with another dude all the time, yeah?

But, with Chapter 3, I began to write Nicki like way more of a good friend, who was really familiar with Guy's various tics and idiosyncrasies. Mainly because that gave me a way to offer a window into Guy's personality (before and after his windfall), for the player. And it gave me a character who could always be around to bounce dialogue off of, in a friendly/familiar patter.

Now, with Guy and Nicki being really good friends, that raised the question of why jealous and abusive Brent would let Nicki hang out with another man. The answer being that Guy was such a limp noodle, Brent wasn't really that intimidated by him. So, that partially informed how I presented Guy in this one. I also just wanted Guy to have a big glow-up in Chapter 2, instead of just getting a haircut.

I don't really see how the arc of the story is fundamentally different, from the initial Chapter 1. It ends with Nicki having taken money from Guy, to sort out Brent's mess. Brent will fuck her over again. Nicki and Brent will split up and Nicki will go off to try to A) hide from unsavory loan-sharks B) solve her problem without involving the player.

One thing I've been trying to do is not lean quite so heavily on Guy's inner monologues, and instead let the dialogue speak for him. That allows the player (in my estimation) to decide if Guy's being earnest, lying, etc. and avoids tilting the player's perception one way or another. But originally there was a line, when Nicki explained her financial troubles, to the effect of, "Lane warned you about this. Suddenly you have a little money, and old friends come crawling out of the woodwork with a bunch of sob stories. But that's not Nicki -- right?"

Ultimately, it just felt like I was doing a bit too much, so I cut it. May've been a mistake, in retrospect!

Honestly the new version didn't change anything much for me, except that I feel less need to defend my reactions to Nicky on forums. I've always liked Nicky, never felt that $20k was much of an ask at Guy's level of wealth and the thing I disliked the most about Nicky's time away was that she didn't feel comfortable coming back and asking for help.

 

[ffive]

I don't really see how the arc of the story is fundamentally different, from the initial Chapter 1. It ends with Nicki having taken money from Guy, to sort out Brent's mess. Brent will fuck her over again. Nicki and Brent will split up and Nicki will go off to try to A) hide from unsavory loan-sharks B) solve her problem without involving the player.

I don't think it's so much the plot arc, but what people are saying: that with Nicki being explicitly Guy's closest bestest friend forever as opposed to more of a maybe just a co-worker who is potentially mainly seeking him out because she is in trouble but otherwise doesn't care about Guy all that much... it's far more difficult to justify Guy's dark path behavior towards his evident bff, especially when she doesn't even really ask for his help so it can't be pretended that she's seeking to take advantage of him. Plus the whole ghosting Nicki on all routes thing, that happens even if you don't go the dark path.

The story arc is not different, but Guy's character in this arc is (and thus maybe also coloring him different for the rest of the game) is.

 

[cuzimhavingagoodtime]

slightly confused. Last I played was just plain 0.39 (yes I know it was a long time ago).
So the 'remake' is remaking the whole thing from scratch...I don't see the point as it was great as it was.
Question....if/when a chapter 2 comes out is there a continuation from ONLY the remake version or will it continue from the original chapter one....or will it just be a fresh start?

You should be confused because you didn't read back far enough or do a search.
Had you done either you might of learned that there is no plan to do a full remake.
As stated by the Dev themself there was only a plan to rework Chapter 1 which they did.
They will be tweeks to the rest to aline with Chapter one but no full reworks.

thanks, not sure that answers the question but after the trolling from that other guy I am just going to play this bit and give up on this...I can do without trolling like that when I COULDN'T find what I needed by searching....I mean how do I even find an answer to all those questions I had.

You just walked into class a little late and got scolded by the professor lol. Seriously, though, you would need to read pretty far back to find what's up because Neon has been talking about redoing the first chapter for something like two years and for those two years people have been stumbling in and asking "why are you remaking the game" and we all have been shouting "HE ISN'T REMAKING THE GAME JUST THE FUCKING CHAPTER!"

I will point out that my Dev Updates are always free on my blogs, if you'd like to follow along for free and know what's up with the game's status. >_>

This is like, a comedy bit to me.

So I'll try and start off on the right foot here by saying I'm a longtime fan of the game and I want it to get the players it deserves. The writing is excellent, the visuals are good, I am fairly certain there is no other game on the site with this level of commitment to player choice. top 1% of f95 for sure. So I'm coming from a place of constructive criticism here. Let me direct your attention to the first page of this thread.

This is bar none the worst f95 splash page I have ever seen. I'm pretty confident in saying it's the worst one that exists.


OK skip past the picture and the summary. those are fine. But these fucking downloads. How is this mess supposed to be understood to a newcomer who saw your nice picture and interesting introduction paragraph and now wants to play the game.

It's insanity to the point of comedy they way people in this thread act like it's a poor newbie's fault they're confused because they should have just figured out everything on their own. People are aware asking noob questions is rude and annoying, People would *Rather* just figure it out on their own, and the evil perfection of this 'information' page punishes them for trying. Go on a journey with me, lets put ourselves in the shoes of these prospective new players


So the four named versions of the game are Patreon, Vanilla, Remake subscribestar, and remake Friends Indeed Patreon, and then one more that doesn't have a label, only a chapter count. the unamned is the largest version with 11 chapters, Vanilla seems to have 8, the two remakes have just one, and the Patreon version is mysteriously not apparently available at all. It's just mentioned in the dropdown box labeled "About The Vanilla Version" which is probably the where someone hoping to understand all these various versions will click on first, hoping for an explanation, but learn only
"The Vanilla Version is the Patreon version with all non Patreon confirming content removed"

But that's not nothing, things are maybe a little clearer once you understand that the Patreon version is evidently the version that had to be removed from Patreon for it's Patreon-unnaceptable content, and the Vanilla version is the one that gets distributed on Patreon, because the Patreon version isn't allowed on Patreon. So that's cleared up.

A newcomer who doesn't want to be annoying and ask in the thread, trying to make sense of all this nonsense, will probably assume that once he's read all the various labels and the gone through the 9 various dropdown boxes he will understand what version he is supposed to be download. His faith in the dev will be betrayed, instead of answers there is only questions. questions like

1.
Why is "the patch" by itself in a dropdown instead of grouped with the other fanmods.

2.
"Ok, so when they say "Patreon version", is that
a) shorthand to refer to the Remake Friends Indeed Patreon version
b) or is it referring to the unamend version-Since we have a version with a name but no download links, and a separate one with just the links that's left unamned-they fit together I can;t prove it but I *feel it*
c) actually just yet another version distinct from both of those, not allowed to be downloaded for some unknowable reason.


2. What the fuck is a "Nikki removal mod"



SO HEY, NEONGHOSTS!

All my respect and love man. But like. Just fucking explain the basics in the intro post itself. This will serve you far far better than chiding people for failing to caught up on reading your devlog, which they don't know exists.

 

[Pixillin']

This is like, a comedy bit to me.

So I'll try and start off on the right foot here by saying I'm a longtime fan of the game and I want it to get the players it deserves. The writing is excellent, the visuals are good, I am fairly certain there is no other game on the site with this level of commitment to player choice. top 1% of f95 for sure. So I'm coming from a place of constructive criticism here. Let me direct your attention to the first page of this thread.

This is bar none the worst f95 splash page I have ever seen. I'm pretty confident in saying it's the worst one that exists.


OK skip past the picture and the summary. those are fine. But these fucking downloads. How is this mess supposed to be understood to a newcomer who saw your nice picture and interesting introduction paragraph and now wants to play the game.

It's insanity to the point of comedy they way people in this thread act like it's a poor newbie's fault they're confused because they should have just figured out everything on their own. People are aware asking noob questions is rude and annoying, People would *Rather* just figure it out on their own, and the evil perfection of this 'information' page punishes them for trying. Go on a journey with me, lets put ourselves in the shoes of these prospective new players


So the four named versions of the game are Patreon, Vanilla, Remake subscribestar, and remake Friends Indeed Patreon, and then one more that doesn't have a label, only a chapter count. the unamned is the largest version with 11 chapters, Vanilla seems to have 8, the two remakes have just one, and the Patreon version is mysteriously not apparently available at all. It's just mentioned in the dropdown box labeled "About The Vanilla Version" which is probably the where someone hoping to understand all these various versions will click on first, hoping for an explanation, but learn only
"The Vanilla Version is the Patreon version with all non Patreon confirming content removed"

But that's not nothing, things are maybe a little clearer once you understand that the Patreon version is evidently the version that had to be removed from Patreon for it's Patreon-unnaceptable content, and the Vanilla version is the one that gets distributed on Patreon, because the Patreon version isn't allowed on Patreon. So that's cleared up.

A newcomer who doesn't want to be annoying and ask in the thread, trying to make sense of all this nonsense, will probably assume that once he's read all the various labels and the gone through the 9 various dropdown boxes he will understand what version he is supposed to be download. His faith in the dev will be betrayed, instead of answers there is only questions. questions like

1.
Why is "the patch" by itself in a dropdown instead of grouped with the other fanmods.

2.
"Ok, so when they say "Patreon version", is that
a) shorthand to refer to the Remake Friends Indeed Patreon version
b) or is it referring to the unamend version-Since we have a version with a name but no download links, and a separate one with just the links that's left unamned-they fit together I can;t prove it but I *feel it*
c) actually just yet another version distinct from both of those, not allowed to be downloaded for some unknowable reason.


2. What the fuck is a "Nikki removal mod"



SO HEY, NEONGHOSTS!

All my respect and love man. But like. Just fucking explain the basics in the intro post itself. This will serve you far far better than chiding people for failing to caught up on reading your devlog, which they don't know exists.

It should all be fine shortly - at least I assume that once Neon gets finished integrating the new Chapter 1 with the old Chapters 2-11 there won't be any need to post the standalone Chapter 1s anymore and he's currently finishing that up.

 

[Ragnar]

I don't really see how the arc of the story is fundamentally different, from the initial Chapter 1. It ends with Nicki having taken money from Guy, to sort out Brent's mess. Brent will fuck her over again. Nicki and Brent will split up and Nicki will go off to try to A) hide from unsavory loan-sharks B) solve her problem without involving the player.

If you're playing vanilla route changes are great bc GuyxNicki relationship is more fleshed out now.

But for Corruption and specially for Dark path changes are big.

- Corruption: Why would a dude like Guy exploit his relationship with Nicki? Until that point he was so worried about losing her friendship that he even told her to date Brent

- Dark path: The dark path doesn't make any sense now. In the original there was a trigger to go full psycho, Nicki doing Brent bid and asking for a cut of Guy's crypto earnings.
You deleted that with the remake.

 

[cuzimhavingagoodtime]

It should all be fine shortly - at least I assume that once Neon gets finished integrating the new Chapter 1 with the old Chapters 2-11 there won't be any need to post the standalone Chapter 1s anymore and he's currently finishing that up.

two minds here. Yeah I wasn't considering this, and I guess I do mildly regret my tone. I would maybe have been less of a confrotational dick if I had known the logic was "this is fine since it's just temporary" instead of "this is fine, there's nothing wrong with this"

But. Still. It's not a well-thought out decision to allow this to be a problem for multiple months. like for the couple months the page looks like this estimate 50% of curious new people who clicked on the game interested and would normally have downloaded it instead get frustrated and move on.

Like preventing that has to be worth half an hour of work writing explanations for how to play the game these months. I guess I don't know that for sure, I don't know the exact numbers Neon is working with for how much he cares about an f95 download. but like c'mon.


I just think it's not easy just how crazy hostile this shit is to a newcomer if you've been a regular in this thread doing character analysis for the last 5 years, so you already know what everything means. And then get mad about the people trying to figure out basic shit in the thread like it's their fault.

 

[NeonGhosts]

I just think it's not easy just how crazy hostile this shit is to a newcomer if you've been a regular in this thread doing character analysis for the last 5 years, so you already know what everything means. And then get mad about the people trying to figure out basic shit in the thread like it's their fault.

I agree! But.. I don’t control the first page. I’ve tried removing the Friends Indeed content, the links to my Patreon, my superfluous stuff that’s since been added to the game (save naming patch, etc.) but my attempts have been denied.

I’m trying to get the mini-sodes and Nicki removal joke/mod integrated with the main game, so that will at least (hopefully) allow some of that to be streamlined.