Ren'Py - My Girlfriend's Friends [v1.5B] [Kyle Mercury]

Should be renamed to "My Girlfriend's Friends, Family, & Other Unrelated People".

Game starts off strong - it has six main characters who cover quite a wide base of types. Your girl's the bubbly airhead, there's the girl who's a main protagonist of a romance novel, there's the shy antisocial gamer girl, the princess type girl, the sporty type girl, and the childhood friend. These are all the "main" girls you can get.

Then, it starts going downhill. Your girl's mother and sister come into the equation. Sure, I guess they can be considered her friends, by loose definition of the world. Then the princess girl's maid..? Okay, I guess, since at least she's in the scene? Then the gamer girl's roommate?! Then three completely unrelated women who just hate the heroine-type girl and don't even know our GF at all?! And some other girls who are so irrelevant I don't even remember where the fuck they spawned from or why?!

The game runs on a route system, which means you can't get every girl on your first run; it's got a time based issue where you can only really progress a single girl's relationship all the way through, so you need multiple playthroughs. Then, there's the fact the game is still developing - there's simply not enough content currently existing of the main girls to justify all these other add-ons. Then, there's the fact that they're simply... just not relevant to the fucking game. We went from 6 girls to around 13?, which is over double. This is not a harem system either, so they're exclusive to eachother, or dependant of a single route. It's simply scope screep. Nothing warrants this.

The game itself? Riddled with bugs. Sprites that stay on screen, weird navigation, tons of weird little bugs around where to go and what to do and who to talk to. Not a good time. Artwork? Inconsistent from what we can see in previews, though finished scenes in game do look fairly good - but then again why come back if the style is gonna be different. Actual story? Gone off the rails as mentioned earlier. Each girl has her own contained storyline but because of the time based system and of how early everything is it's hard to even call anything in this game a "story". There's a few highlight moments, but nothing that would justify me telling you to read it. The overarching story, if you can even call it that, is just uninteresting group dynamics. Music? Hah.

Pair that to the fact that the updates never come out, and that the game is 4 years old and we've basically not gotten past the prologue (game has basically 1-2 scenes for each main chick), and I can safely say the game will never be completed. Which means even if I liked it better, I still wouldn't be able to recommend it in good faith; the content is sparse with each girl and the project's probably gonna be abandoned.

Good concept, God awful execution.

Game is pretty good not gonna lie , good animation, good dialogue, ok story , just a excuse to ruck everything that moves , variety of fetishes a bit extreme some times but not that far thanks God ,
now the bad :content is scarce and even has a time limit that makes the already scarce content even more also has a bad habit to introduce shenanigans to stop mc from fucking someone like random friend appears , girlfriend appears that gets boring pretty fast also having to have a thousand saves to keep scenes to rewatch them is annoying for a game this convoluted a gallery would be more than necessary.

[v1.5B]

A game about the MC cheating on his girlfriend.

You could say there are a lot of games that feature the male MC cheating, but how many of them actually focuses on this theme instead of it being just an incidental thing that gets brushed aside or entirely ignored? Not that many.

So yea, there is definitely a niche, and this game does a pretty good job of delivering.

It's a work in progress, so you won't get to the juiciest bits yet. The scenes that are in the current version are pretty hot though.

As for the writing and art, not much to complain about there. It manages to be quite immorally stimulating while still being light hearted. It's a tough balance, imo, but they pull it off.

Man. This game is all about the writing. The characters are very attractive, and simple three shot animations are gratefully available, but the interactions with the characters, the excellent erotic writing, is where this game really shines. Very hard to put down. Having to pick and choose girls on which to concentrate only makes replays desirable. If I had extra money I would give to this developer. Just truly excellent work.

At the time of review, the prologue and chapter 1 seem to be 100% complete and chapter 2 somewhere around 40-60% complete.

Basically, the game is satisfactory and creates potential, which, however, is still completely in the future.

The premise of the game is to either be a loyal boyfriend or lose yourself in the girlfriends. The concept of not building a harem was clearly formulated by the dev from the start.

The girlfriends are subject to clichés, which you either like or don't like. But the clichés are beautifully worked out.

Each girlfriend has two possible routes (except Emily), which are "romantic" or "naughty". Generally a nice concept, but in my opinion the naughty side in particular is way over the top.

Through the girlfriends, "side chicks" from their lives are added.

Pros:
In my opinion, the art style is very well done and speaks for itself. As of now, there are already animations that also shows potential.

Potential but not easy to assess:
Story: As described above, you determine the story yourself. How good it is, however, cannot be estimated at 1.5B. In Chapter 2, however, there are simply still "romantic" or "naughty" routes missing in various LIs. So it's currently a bit choppy to follow.

Coding: All over the place You always have bugs that confuse you (bad) or at least make you laugh (sprite bugs). Ok for the beta imo, but it should never be like that in the finished game...

Cons:
Communication: Communication is a mean disaster. Postings keep happening on the discord (sometimes), but both patreon and the itch.io page are dealing with long periods of silence. This has to be improved, but it is certainly also due to the biggest problem, namely the...

Project management: In my opinion, this is where the greatest problem lies in the project. I feel like there isn't really a "release" concept.

1.5a was released in JULY 2022. It was quite buggy and on August 2nd they promised to fix the game with 1.5B ("On a side note, I'm currently still bug fixing and if I fix a significant enough amount of them that I feel like I should re-release the build again I may do so, I really dropped the ball on the bugs this time around and I apologize for that." Kyle patreon post).

In December (16th) it was then said that 1.5B will no longer appear in 2022, but that attempts will be made at the end of January.

January (31th) "needed a little more time" Turning out little means end of May (28th).

That's a big uff.

I like the inital concept of this game but I have a few irks with it. At base this is a decent game with time management being the main gameplay aspect. Quite a few problems crop up afterwards though.

• The girl development is extremely quick for no good reason. I guess they are horny and starved for attention for them to talk to the guy 3 times to suddenly want to jump his bone.
• art is inconsistent. I know that development is rough with artists being based in awkward positions because of the war but It irks me that there seems to be 3 different art styles that all change portion/visuals for the characters depending on the scene you watch.
• Each Patch is slow and tiny. Looking at his patreon alone, he said that this release was delayed by 4 months because of UI issues. Looking at the UI, there is barely any change and the content of we were given in the last 6-9 months (maybe longer) since the last update was litterally 2 scenes? and bit of changeup with chapter 1.

It just feels like this game has become a cash grab at this point and as someone who use to support it. Not happy with how much its progressed since I last saw it.

This game isn't good. Not if you're looking for proper lewd scenes, that is.
If you're into cheating where any kind of lewd act = cheating then you're probably going to love this, but if you're into cheating that involves actual H scenes, with, you know, the MC going into another girl that isn't your gf then you're going to hate this.

It drags on and on and on and on without any major sex scenes happening between you or the available girls. And keep in mind, I'm someone who loves cheating games. I also don't mind slow burn, as long as it leads to SOMETHING. I just can't stand games teasing you over and over again with the same "uh oh! we got caught! better luck next time in the next update that's coming after 6 months!" cliches. I'm sick and tired of it.

If you want some basic (albeit very well drawn) lewd scenes with other girls, go for it. If you want actual cheating where you bone other girls, skip this, This game has been in development for I don't even know how many years now and the dev refuses to give anything substantial. It's so fucking tiring. I keep following this game with each "major" update and it's disappointment every time.

Later down the line we're definitely going to get substantial content, but considering this game's been up since 2020 and all you do is get BJ's from girls then I really, genuinely cannot be bothered.

One of the best in this genre of sandbox town full of different types of girl.

All of the main friends are differentiated in the writing making each path interesting. Side characters add even more variety.

The gameplay isn't monotonous like a lot of these sandboxes are. Cuts past the minigames and money making stuff in other games and right into the interesting interactions with the women in the game.

That's not even mentioning the art which also provides some good diversity. Only critique I would have is that none of them have pubic hair so far, which is very minor but in my eyes that is the only thing holding back the game's variety. Something like the mom or the arcade girls having full bushes, the class president having a trimmed bush, and the blonde popular girls having a landing strip etc etc.

Overall excellent work, especially only 1 and a half chapters in at the time of this writing. Will be interesting to follow this game as it develops.

This is an unfinished game, but what is there is great, so I think it's 4/5 so far. The finished product could easily be 5/5.

++Great dialogue.
++Great use of tropes.
+Good art
+Many characters

--Buggy and difficult to navigate at the moment.

As of 1.5, im very excited for what's to come. My main concern is how they'll balance the array of characters in the game but, I don't mind if they treat a few like side characters and the some like mobs just for the sake of variety.

Pros....
1 a lot of different girls to choose from
2 very nice art work for sprites and sex scenes
3 the dialoge is very nice and I dont feel the need to ever skip through the dialogue
4 the fetch quest style gameplay never gets in the way of the story or the lewd scenes

Love it. Definitely a major kink of mine so it's great to see someone write it so well. Great characters as well. I look forward to seeing it develop but it felt like a lot of content considering it's just the start of it.

Great game with a lot of content, some minor bugs though. Sometimes characters stay in your screen when they seem to be in a location that they shouldnt. Overall I really like this game and hope to see more

Wow, this game is a gem in the rough!

The scenes are so hot! if I had to rate the game honestly as it is now I would give it 3 stars out of 5 because it has no sounds, but the drawing and story is so good that the author deserves to make his game more known, get more patreons and finish developing it as it deserves.

The game is kind of bad, the art is fine even though i'm not a big fan of it, on other hand the sandbox is very unnecessary and i don't see the point of it.

But the biggest minus of the game i'd say it's the writing, it's pretty bad, very mediocre which makes me avoiding it playing it.

This is honestly 5/5 game in all aspects, but the current state prevents me from rating it like that.
Pros:
- basically everything is great...
Cons:
- ...assuming you like the cheating theme
Stuff that needs to be fixed:
- time limits
- bugs
- navigation/UI - just add some kind of marker where and who is or a way to skip time period without going back and forth through locations back to the room
- more content (duh)

Overall an amazing game everywhere except coding/game design where it's mediocre. 4/5 definitely worth playing.

The time limit fucking ruins it.
Not only that but if you progress too far with Charlotte you literally cannot complete the phone quest for Mia because she isn't in the library anymore which then locks the arcade, the mall and the park because you try to search for the fucking phone every time.
Done with this game until these are fixed, this had so much potential but it's just so buggy, what a waste.

Good game overall with incredible art.The only problem is the lack of content for some characters(like Ava and mia sister) and some bugs but all of this will change in the future.I will keep an eye on this game and other futur games from the dev

Simplistic in nature, the game sets out with it attempts to do - to create a atmosphere of the MC flirting and cheating on his girlfriend with her friends.

I dislike sandbox games but the experience was pleasant enough, it works like all other sandboxes - pick girl, grind her story for sex. The journey there was satisfying with the characters - while obviously attracted to MC with little reason - being nuanced enough. They often go into internal monologue mode which grants an important glimpse in their state of mind.

It's not a deep game but it's not trying to be one either. It's just straight up fun charming the panties off the girlfriends friends.

I like the concept, it has a decent enough story. Nothing spectacular, and the girls are pretty damn open to you cheating with them despite dating their friend.

The art is good (but a bit inconsistent like some scenes look great and other look like it was very hastily drawn and lacking in details and shading).

Biggest downside and major annoyance is how buggy it is. Sometimes options can become unavailable because choosing that option randomly teleports you to an entirely different area where you interact with an entirely different character (girlfriend's mom needing help in the kitchen). Or if you'd like to visit the arcade you might notice it mentioning something about what a big house this is (as if you clicked the mansion which is right next to the arcade).

I'd wait for the devs to figure out the bugs before trying this, unless you're really appealed by the art.