Ren'Py - My Best Friend's Daughter [S2 Ep. 7] [CeLaVie Group]

I feel bad to deliver a one star rating here, but I need to for two reasons:

• I want to warn everyone giving this game a try and clarify what is to be expected, and
• maybe I can give the developer some not so subtle hints how to improve (but I doubt that, since similar feedback didn't help so far)

The reason I feel bad is that this could actually be worth a much higher rating. The visuals for example are decent and happen to tick off the marks for me. Simply said, I love these girls. The story has potential, too.

But overall this game is the biggest disappointment of all, simply because it does not deliver upon the expectations.

The main reason for that is that the gameplay is the absolute worst, leaving me frustrated and even angry. The endless repetitions don't add anything to the story and are just futile. The hints are helpful but don't improve the experience at all.
I tried for hours and hours, but sometimes events seems to be triggered by chance. Other times you have to wait for several in-game days for the right conditions to re-appear, which means repeating the same scenes over and over again. And then some.
When I decided to ease the pain by skipping days, I found that the game doesn't allow to progress the story to new episodes any longer once you skipped anything. Seriously? This is just bullshit to implement a function that is actually useful due to fight the grind, but then punish users to use it.
At episode 5 I quit as I cannot bear it any longer.

Verdict:
Ah, what a shame. This could be so good with gourgeous models, but no, it is just frustrating. I cannot enjoy this game at all due to its mechanics. My time is too precious to endure the pain this developer assumes to be necessary for the players of his/her game. Damn.

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RENDERS/LIGHTING:
All the lighting is the same, in all renders. everything is full exposure, there's no context, no composition, no subtlety. It sounds very lazy, someone with photography knowledge could make a HUGE improvement in this game.

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CHARACTERS:
The 3 main girls look the same to me. One is emo, one has short hair, one has long hair.

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PLOT:
3 Girls and A-Lucky-Guy locked in a room. Lazy

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UI:
IT HURTS my eyes. Not that it is bad.... cause it is. But because they complicated the simple (don't know if this statement makes sense in english, in pt-br it does). e.g., to see the game's attributes (the girl's love points, horny points, shyness..) you have to:
Click on an image (that could've had it's alpha removed)
Then on a button and
Then read each attribute line one at a time.
If these attributes were written on the screen all the time (in a corner) it would've been 100000% better

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GENERAL THOUGHTS:
I think this game needs 2 persons:
A programmer: to fix the game's bugs and UI.
A photographer/designer: someone who understands the importance of correct and specific lighting.

It's ok to be a bad game... but it doesn't have to be this crap

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(TOO COLORFUL/DIDN'T READ):
LAZY AT BEST

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0.5/10

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Version I played for this review: Ep.8.51

Good:
- Nice renders

Neutral:
- Story

Bad:
- Gameplay
- No variety (main girls)
- unnecessary "DRM"

I have nothing much to say about the renders or the story (which isn't the best, but also not the worst I've encountered in a porn game)...

First thing I've to say is that the game isn't grindy at all (you can do basically every episode in around 1 week) but to do that you've to exactly play as the dev imagined how his/her game has to be played. If you fail to do that the grind can become horrible (some scenes are only available on certain days on certain places) and if you fail again it takes another week... (some scenes even block other scenes out if you progress to fast)

Next thing is I can't focus on the scenes themselves, because the "a button in the top left can popup" mechanic ruins them for me. If you fail to choose the correct character or the fly during the scenes you basically can't progress further. Even worse is that you can't skip scenes you've already seen because if you didn't choose the right action you may loose some stat points. This point could be easily changed by switching from those buttons to normal dialogue options. (It feels to me like the dev wants to punish the player for using the skip button...)

There's no indication in which area the girls are currently, so unless you know their time schedule (which changes depending on the progress in the story) from the top of your head you're fucked and have to search every place at all times during every day. This could be easily solved by showing icons of the girls on the map.

The game itself misses a proper hint system. There're some hints in the gallery, but after a scene is unlocked the hint isn't available anymore (so if a new game is started the player either has to delete the persistent file or must play without any hints at all)
Some of the hints are so vague that it isn't clear at all what to do without trying everything everywhere or using a walkthrough. (Or by reading the game's code like I've done it... ^^)

There's not much variety for the main girls, all of them blonde, nearly the same boob size, same skin color. Get's kinda boring in the long run (there're a few side girls but there isn't that much content with them)

The version I played had some kind of "DRM" to prevent people from playing the game before the public release is out. (Unless you're a patreon of course) It's easy to disable by using the console or by modifying one script, but it's really not necessary to add something like that in a game which uses an open source engine.

Conclusion:
If the gameplay changes here and there a little this game could be ranked much higher, but unless it changes I've to rank it this low...

Renders: 4/5
Story: 3/5
Girls(Variety): 2/5
Gameplay: 1/5

Beautiful pictures, no animation up to chapter 7, but great ones from ch 8. The grind is slightly heavier than average but workable. Minor program issues overall but probably because the game is still work in progress. Great work though & getting better every chapter.

Now that the game has a builtin hint system it's become way more playable and I don't mind the grind as long as I know that I'm making progress.

The girls are very cute and the slow corruption aspect works great. They don't bother with long dialogue and stick to what's good about these types of games.

My biggest problem so far is that it's still somewhat buggy to progress to the next season and there's some inconsistency in being able to trigger events from older episodes don't fit with how far you've progressed.

I've attempted to work my way through this game as best I can, but the direction and design of the overall game that has been released so far is laughably bad. There's an unnatural amount of grind with very little pay, and no direction to help you find out what you may actually need to be doing to progress. The story presented is...subpar at the best of times, and far, far worse at the lowest.

He has attempted to add in a shoddy kind of walkthrough guide that can point you in the right direction, but it doesn't help as much as he claimed, where you still end up stuck trying to figure out what to do next for way longer then you ever should have to.

There's also this rather annoying "Fly" feature he's added, and there's very little instruction on how it works. During simple scenes, and for only brief moments, a tiny fly with appear in the top corner that you can click to get a different perspective on a situation. A situation which usually leads to very little that your imagination didn't already fill in for you before clicking the fly.

Truthfully, this game is just bad. There's no other way to put it. Anyone reading these reviews before playing this game should stay far, far away. There are many more games around that are much more worth your time and effort then this game.

As per usual Patreons are being milked for more than half a year before it even gets anywhere in addition to that the grind is utterly absurd the simple fact that i have to do some things 10+ times just in order to advance the ''story'' is beyond anything ive played and ive played some really shitty games at times but this one takes the cake for grindfest. Id say if you wanna play it wait atleast until theres some actual action aka another half year of milking patreons.

I am new to f95zone and AVNs and Discord. I really enjoy the models and the slow reveals of their bodies. The game has a lot of grind, but since I love the models, it is OK for me. My only issue has been caused by the anti-pirating measures, because I am unable to figure out how to take a clean save file and use it, despite a lot of help from the Dev. I respect the Devs need for anti-pirating measures. If I were able to overcome my inability to use clean saves, I would gladly give this 5 stars.
EDIT: The Dev has changed the anti-piracy measures enough so that I do not have to rely on clean saves. Therefore, I am changing my rating to 5 stars. There are multiple help avenues, both in game and with walkthroughs provided for each Episode. Since I wrote this review, the Dev has made each episode easier to work though, and added animation. The sex scenes are hot, as are the models.

Some of the renders are decent.
It has some potential but it's serisou ly marred by the bad aspects.

Bad:
Horribly grindy
stat system is infuriating, help system is either not helpful or not working
Renders are decidedly on the lolita side of things

Some aspect of the grind system reminds me of decisions I once made as a beginner in programming that seemed amusing or a good idea at the time that infuriated others.
The intense stat grind is going to piss off a lot of people, couple that with what seems to be a decay function of the stats, there is no way to lessen or bypass the dumb grind/repetition system.

Although I like the idea behind the game, it gets really annoying to have to do the fly thing before you can move on. It would be nice if you could override this somehow, or are least would get a good explanation on how to get success. If this keeps bothering me, I might just throw this away.

This game is a bit different. Much like the previous one, Room for Rent, was a bit different.

To me this game is good in the way that a strip tease can be good. It withholds the "reward" in a way that I find very pleasant, as it keeps me excited. I don't get to fuck all the girls in the first hour of playing the game, but I gradually get to see more of them throughout the game.

Some times I see more of the girls through "accidents", and other times it's because I'm spying on them. At the same time, as the game moves, the girls get more and more daring, put on more and more skimpy clothes, etc. And they accept more and more pervertedness from "me", the MC.

And in pretty much ALL of the scenes there are some very hot and very beautifully rendered girls.

For me this keeps me excited through playing each update of the game.
The game isn't bugged down in a ton of boring text in-between the exciting scenes. What little story there is happens (mostly) through the exciting scenes.

But the game isn't perfect. It's some times hard do know what to do next in order to progress. But the game includes a hint system to help with this now.

The other annoying part is the "spying fly" part.

I think going into this game with the right expectations is key.
Give it a shot if you haven't.
Unless you hated Room for Rent.

I gave this one a go mainly because of the renders. The overall setting seemed a bit cliche but again, wanted to see what the fuss was about.
The visuals are decent and alluring, but the sporadic and probably random moments they occur are something to take in account of.
The mechanics of the "game" are probably the most repetitive out of every renpy content released in the last 4 or 5 years and the implemented hint system does nothing to try and provide a clear pathway towards what's next in the story. The stats system from within the game has some meaning to it in terms of how likely the character is willing to allow the player to interact with her, but just otherwise resets if the save file is edited and it seems there isn't even a way to tamper with the game and force it to progress forward.

This one is a wretched experience and you'd have a more rewarding time watching concrete or paint dry.

Very frustrating game. It seems to punish the player rather than properly offer up a challenge. It would be better as a straight-up VN at this point, given how many people are having trouble even progressing through the story. It's a shame really, because the models are seriously hot, but I won't bother with this game anymore unless there is a major revamp to the game mechanics.

This dev put out yet another grind-fest with buggy progression that even the in game hints system can't save. It is a completionist's nightmare as the hint will tell you to show up at a certain place at a certain time to unlock an image and the girl won't be there. I rarely delete a game I've started but this would be the exception. I suggest avoiding.

Great game, very nice girls. fun story. can get a bit tedious but only a little. however its taking an age for the main guy to stick his dick in anything so my biggest problem is there's no sex and we're on episode 6. come on man!

To make it very clear for everyone who are about to download this game, This game is in no way a grindfest as most of the other reviews have insisted. However, If you choose to not read the dialogue and just randomly skip through it, You WILL be heavily punished. This game is what I would call a linear sandbox.. You dont have to repeat any scenes to progress further. An ingame day is divided into 24 hours and every scene is locked behind a certain time and 9 locations, So If you're not attentive enough or just skipped the text, you will never be at the right place/right time and instead grind 24 unwanted scenes day after day.. If you're still lost theres also a help section that tells you the time and location of locked scenes.

With that taken care of, the renders are pretty decent and lewd scenes are okay. Story is non-existent. and the girls feel like they're programmed with the setting " in descending order" when it comes to wearing clothes, like they'll be wearing granny panties ( not actually, just for ref) in the beginning and eventually keep getting skimpier.

A sandbox game in which you can't proceed when you did things out of order.

Don't let the pictures fool you, without a walkthrough this is unplayable. I can skip (which didn't work for me in Episode 5) or scream, the endresult will always be the same.

By the way, extra grindy without reward. As some have already posted: you can get laid faster in real life.

Four areas:
Story: It's alittle hoaky, but engaging. The story itself is not repetative and the chapter format, no doubt sculpted by the need for patreon releases, usually puts a solid period on events w/ a decent segway into the next chapter. The characters are pretty intereasting w/ the common theme of "dumb blond" that's oddly made more diverse than the normal stereo type.
Quality: Lookin at 4k versions man. The technical rigor is here too. No clipping that I observed, the characters are moved naturally and just work. I know sometimes artists try to make assests do things that they just don't want to do.
Originality: Good luck identifying these assets Fan-Artists! Lookin at atleast 6 different unique products going into each character I'd say, atleast.
Engageability: It can get alittle repetative, but only if as a player, you don't READ THE STORY and get lost. It will happily let you click around and redo events blindly until ya finally click on the time/location that you were told to go too like an hour ago but didn't listen. /facepalm... "Guilty".

All in all a worthy couple of hours spent.

Quick episode 2 review:
The worst part of a game is having the need of reviewing it early. I just played the other game fromm this dev and gave him a chance for his selection of women, hoping to see the good things about the other one, a lttle more explored and amplified here, but, so far the concept reboots itself here, an endless grind to basically see nothing, and its worst that its predecessor.

You could expect at least some decent script, but it is just not there, so its like the last one, recylced dialogues, recycled theme, recycled "shy" mechanics, and the same thing where a scene happens but its a thing that doesnt influence the actual "reward tier". Its something that happens but it doesnt serve as trigger for anything.
So far this one has this very same issue of the previous one in that department, elevated to the ether level.

The pretext of "this is not a game for a quick fap" can be valid, but in this type of game, the more work you demand the higher the reward should be.
The work required to reach any content at all, seems to be out of this World, its really unlikely that it will reward with the same measure, lets see. Please be better, please be better, please please.

But as many other games where nothing happens, this also gives you a fanservice mechanism, THE FLY. Other games use dreams, or powers to imagine naked girls. If you played more than 20 games you can predict how this is gonna play out, and it does not look good.

After finishing 6 episode, veredict is: NOT WORTH IT. Why?

The firs 2 episodes can be a reall hell, if things go smooth for you you can coplete it in 30 minutes, and episodes 3 and 4 are smiliar, if things go smoothly. At this point, if everything went well for you, you may be satisfied with the pace, i got that feeling but later in a third playthrough.
But this is the best case scenerio, cause if things go wrong and you find bugs, the grind may become a torture, and, once you reach episode , if you got the patience rom the Gods, you will see there is no progress, and dialogue is not even a core component, you will find yourself regretting all the time lost.

Maybe in episode 10 dev will delay less all those things that are almost happening but allows them slightly for fanservice/paycheck. So I expect this game to be sort of worth around christmas 2021, maybe february 2022 if the dev loses time with halloween and Christmas cashgrab specials.

Seriously dont play it, bookmark it, and wait next for year.
EDIT EPISODE 8:

The lack of action got solved in this couple of episodes, but sex scenes once seen, kind of lose all the efect cause they are really lacking. 5 frames and some "i love you" dont make up for the really bad posing, it is really bad, like they were done in a hurry.
Kudos for the fast update but, a morepolished work would be better.
Also this episode for me was easy to complete, others were a struggle.

There is more action so, an issue solved gives one point, maybe the devs improve their work in the future.

FinalEdit:
After episode 10 or so, you start noticing an obvious decline in quality. The game was not peak technolgical advace , but you start seeing that the Dev is only caring about releasing stuff wiht the poorest quality, like he is not even trying to make it decent. The sex is a repetition of one on one sex scenes with one or 2 exceptions of a threesome. The gma tries NTR but doesn't go anywhere with it, even if it was to go somewhere the quality is attrotocious.
And as the final touch the dev puts his plot twist in the end, which makes the character stupid, since it would be the 1st or second time he is cheated. Also the twist is unnecessary and only leaves questions, so it actually made the writing wrost for the sake of....what exactly?

In the end the game becomesa an abopmination, and on top of it it adds another nightmare of subgame about grinding unknown and random events. Will she also be an actress this time who will be actually 40?

I would give it a 0

Good pacing and images (up to V6).

Some inadvertent humor: "Did you sleep well?" "I spent very well... also I almost got raped"...

Some of the hint system is a bit wonky/off, buy you have the ability to skip episodes. Some of the prereqs aren't shown.