Ren'Py - Completed - My Best Friend's Family [v1.01] [Iceridlah Games]

It's a relatively short experience that's biggest impact on me is as an example of jumping the shark, and what you shouldn't be looking for in an AVN.

I imagine part of the issue is that it was made in 2017, and as a result they had little to go off of in the AVN genre and instead would've had to compare it to erotic novels (which I doubt they actually read) and porn (which this has about the same writing skill of). The dialogue is as stilted as the modelling, and you never for a second believe these characters are anything other than cutouts to fulfill a role.

The ending where you actually sleep with one of the only actually sexual characters, the mother, is genuinely deranged. How that was an acceptable ending at all is beyond me, it's almost like they disliked their own story enough to blow a hole in it.

Not a bad game. Just wish that some of it was optional. For instance, the queer stuff. I get that some like that, and I'm not knocking them. But some of us don't go for it. If we could have had a skip option for any thing that we don't care for, that would have been best.

When I read that this game is from the same creator that made My new roommate, which I liked very much, I thought that I would enjoy this one as well. And I have enjoyed it. Good game indeed. Although it is rather short, it is pretty interesting, with all the points of view from the main characters. And quite complex: in more than one path starting a day with the wrong character will lead to lose track of said path.

Recommended.

Eh... art wise and story wise its pretty good. But this game felt really buggy trying to figure out what to do when you couldn't click characters was a nuisance. Luckily comment section helped. Couldn't tell if it was a bug or an actual mechanic that they made it like that.

The game felt fairly complicated to see everything and to get the ending you want.

Great VN/Game with multiple paths so lots of re-playability.
Characters are decent and quite realistic. A game you can jump back into again without having to go through too much of the same stuff over and over.
A big thankyou to the dev for the time and effort and I'm looking forward to your next project.

This could use a real walkthrough....
Didn't get that far with this one.
Multiple mcs was quite confusing.
But the renders were quite awesome. I'm not sure if the dev wrote a scene with Toms mom too. But it seemed like there was potential for that.

Edit:
Got through to some of the endings. The dev has some damn good stories in his head. Though the best and happiest ending to this game is having every dude focus on a single love interest. Sure you end up missing it on sex with the MC's nother and the best friends mom who ends up going psycho if you don't miss it on her. But I suppose a "happy ending" is tarnished when you sacrifice someone in order to get there.
I cannot in good conscious keep this in my "spank" folder. This will probably be the first VN/Porn game I will give up as the best outcome is way further away from my initial intention. So far away from it.

It is a good game. Maybe now I understand why the dev had everyone as an MC. But it was still confusing as heck.

the game mechanics (experiencing the same events from the point of view of different characters) is very beautiful and very interesting.

unfortunately it is the best part of the game, from a graphic point of view it is average to good, the story is very forced and playing you do not always have the feeling of controlling what happens

interesting game but I wouldn't recommend it

Review v.1.00

There are several things to like about this game.

The visuals are decent. Not mind-blowing but they certainly do their job.

The story is surprisingly good. It's a slice-of-life story and although those can be a bit boring, this one is not boring. And despite that the game is not very long and despite that the characters don't get that much screen time, they still feel deep and well-developed. You do feel for them, and given that the length of the game (rather short) I consider it impressive.

The gameplay is also pretty interesting, as you control all major characters. In fact, there is only one character in the game that you don't control.
This means that, in theory, you can fully control how things work out.

There we come to the main problem of the game: there are too many "bugs" (for lack of a better word). You make all the right choices to be on a path towards a certain character, except that you aren't because that path is somehow incompatible with another path which you are also following. Even when the paths seem not to be conflicting, the game still determines that they are and block certain paths. This is incredibly frustrating...

The second problem is that the game does not include certain paths / scenes which would be very hot and make sense in the context. E.g. threesomes in any constellation are not included. Also a harem option is not included.

It's really a pity... If the dev could revisit the game to make the different paths more easily playable and add several scenes, the game could be pretty good. But as it is now, it is mediocre, sadly enough...

Very good models, has decent animation, actual branching paths that adds to replayability, writing and story aren't bad either. Knocked down a star because it's pretty short. Really wish some more patreons for this dev . Guess that's the cruel reality , when you don't get anything out of patreon if you don't try and milk it..

When you encounter a bug(the only one I noticed) in a dialogue with Joe and Ellie , just click "ignore" for a few lines. There is either a CG missing, or filename is bad, it's nothing serious if you just skip.

After you bypass the bugs it's actually a pretty decent game. Good story and build up, just wish it was longer. Pretty decent models, I liked the sex scenes a lot. Definitely will play again in the future.

My Rating of this Game (v1.00) is:

Pros:
+ Great Renders
+ Nice Story
+ lots of different scenes
+ Long Game Play
+ Easy Playing
+Lots of choices
+Hot Milf`s
Cons:
-Difficult Gameplay

Conclusion:
The Story is nice,with all these horny people in the family,but I believe that without a walk-through it would be difficult to play this Game.
But otherwise it is Great, I also like the different POV with the Characters,
cant remember a Game where you are allowed to play each character and know what they are thinking (Great)
100% Download Material.

It has some good scenes unfortunately it has a tease scenes replay feature the shit is too complicated multiple paths with multiple premature endings I can't tell who the MC is meant to be thinking maybe Tom but it's hard to tell as you play as everyone and make choices for everyone even with using that 0.07 walkthrough I couldn't get several scenes.

Also I don't know if it's a bug or if you have to do it but if I chose not to do the gay scene the game would exit out to the main menu game over And the game has NTR it is avoidable through.


Do Not Recommend

I do not know why this great game is not being rated so well !!! being that it has scenes with a hot MILF; Incest M / S; D / D; DP hot MILF, fuck mom and sister best friend
And the best you can to follow what kind of story to follow can thus please all the fantasies of the players.

Strengths 5/6

- Has good images
- Has a mom and son story
- Has history dad and daughter
- Has history with the mother of the best friend
- Has a story with his best friend's sister

Weaknesses 1/6

- The score is fixed on the screen and when we choose to hide it in the animations, the animation stops.

Great story, great art, love the multiple character playing which is original from my experience, a couple of hours went by without me noticing. I only played one line of gameplay, but I´m confident there are more possibly down the incest line. Will have to give it a shot soon.

The story/plot is solid, artstyle/renders/animations are good, looks realistic, and the enjoyment level is high. Could probably add sounds once the game has been finished.

For me, this style is not that bad.
Some people complain about the constant changes in perspective. But i think this style is pretty good and refreshing to see.

This is one of my favorite games. I like the artwork but most of all I like the story and the way the dev respects every choice you make. If you reject one aspect of the story you'll never see a random dialogue that has nothing to do with your choice and that shows the work and the dedication of the developer. At this point I'm experimenting with different decisions and I hope that the couples created will have some interesting outcomes.

Early opinion, could be subject to change as I see more of the game.

So far I enjoy most of the writing and find the characters more believable than most. While others have groused about the branching narratives, switching characters and perspective I personally liked it.

Will definitely be keeping tabs on this game as it develops.

The following review is based off my personal experience with playing this Game/Visual Novel... I try to be as brutally honest and detailed as I can, and these are my own opinions and thoughts, from one or more play throughs... The version this review is based on is v0.02...

Originally Reviewed on 12/30/2017

This visual novel/game has a very creative and fun way of telling the story, and I actually enjoyed it so far...

The visuals of the characters are done very well, and they look like natural folks, which is refreshing... The backdrops are good as well, mostly shots of inside the best friends home...

The script has a few spelling/grammar errors, but not many... The plot is simply the day to day lives and interactions between the primary male protagonist and his best friends family... There obviously are lots of choices to be made that will effect the outcome of the story progression... And what I find very creative and unique, in this VN/game, is that you can view the story from different characters perspectives, and you can even choose the order in which you see them... I personally started with the main protagonist first each game day, then clicked on the other characters to see their view of the outcome... The story itself is not bad, and the dialogue/monologue is pretty good thus far... It is still very early into it's development cycle, so there will be lots more to come, hopefully...

I can already see several love stories possibly taking root, but my only concern is that I hope it doesn't go the in-family sex route... When the father was dancing with his daughter in the end of the current content, I was starting to get that feeling it might be teasing that sort of content, but I'm hopeful it doesn't, because that is such an over used theme... It would be refreshing to not have that sort of content in this one...

Overall, I'm liking the creative story telling method this VN/Game is going with, and I enjoyed the content thus far... I think this one shows lots of promise for a good, deep, and fun story... Bravo to the author/s so far... I look forward to re-visiting this one later into it's development...

man what a let down...

I LOVED his other game "My New Roommate"! that was an easy 5 stars to me. but this game man, just didnt do it for me. i HATED how you played different characters, it just took me out of the game/Story. didn't like the mum model and the daughter's was just "ok". didn't like the Story. and the characters and writing were again just ok but don't even come Close to the charm "My New Roommate" had. no real fappable Content in the game yet and just Overall not very sexy. and also the pacing and the time/character jumps are just weird.

v0.02: SKIP! WASTE OF TIME

REVIEW AS OF 0.05 (Apr 2018)
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The game is definitely shaping up to be a solid 4 star game. The art is functional, clear, and while it won't win any contests it definitely is not the worst. Definitely functional, same for the camera angles -- no artistic weirdness, pretty much standard lens from straight on angle with minor variations in height and zoom as needed. Nothing like the Dual Family (for example) where the shots are way more abstract and don't necessarily reflect the POV at all, merely accentuate the mood.

Here it's function first, artistic license later. However, the game is taking good advantage of the switching POVs to tell basically an everyday story. It seems to respect the player's opinions pretty solidly. I haven't bothered to test this extensively, but it seems like you can mostly ignore certain storylines if you make the effort to pick your choices.

It has now enough content that you can test the game and decide whether you like the switching POVs or not. If you don't, there is no reason to whine about it because it definitely is a core part of the game's story and the system. If you like it, then you're in luck, if not, then this is not the game for you.

For which neither the game or you can be really blamed for. Worth a shot, and afterwards worth keeping an eye out for as it does have a lot of potential.


THE OLD 0.01(or 0.02, don't remember) REVIEW:
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To be honest, this is too early to review for anyone with two brain cells to rub together, unless they found a specific thing about the game worth rating.

I'd rate this a 4 if it had more content (and a decent story), but I wouldn't rate it anything at all right now. That is, if there wasn't some idiot who had rated this 2 for no reason at all. That someone bothered to criticize this game that heavily this early in the development process seems just being an asshole for the sake of being an asshole.

This dev has finished a game, even if it was a short one (and I felt it should have had about 2 days more in it, minimum, to be truly satisfying) but it does mean he can get the job done.

The art isn't much to speak of, but as an artist, I can say this straight up about every game aside from select few (this does NOT include the Dreams of Desire, or other games using 3rd party 3D models, just so you know. Any game using 3rd party models, is not going to impress me) so I don't care about that part.

I found the fact that you can play nonlinearly from different perspectives (not only 2, but so far pretty much everyone's perspective) is pretty cool. That you can actually make choices for them is even better.

My only real hope for this game is that I could convince Joe to become celibate and take his son with him.

I know, then it would get into the fearful "1 dick to rule them all" thing that the premature reviewer before (pointlessly) complained about. But it's because I will identify with an character, and from thereon forwards I don't want to see everyone else have sex. If it happens offsceen, I don't mind. But I just don't want to see it.

It really just depends how invested you're in a character POV. I am just personally very invested in such.

That said, it's a decent start, and I hope it won't be as short as the previous game. Or have such an abrupt ending. I will edit this rating once the game has more substance to give a true rating, but I predict it'll land on solid 4, and 3 at minimum.