VN - Ren'Py - Saving My Childhood Friend [v0.0.3] [LiQiyeDev]

[v0.0.3]

Well, I waited a few updates and then gave it a shot. Gonna have to be real. It's really bad, which is a shame since the main girl is a unique model that looks great.

First of all, the writing leave a lot to be desired. It reads as if it's a highlight reel of the day. It just zooms through, having a few lines of interactions before jumping to the next point in time. It rarely stops and explores a scene thoroughly. And what conversations they end up having is robotic and seems to be just there to have some dialogues rather than building up anything or exploring character dynamics.

It doesn't even make sense at times. The English is poor and the writing so convoluted that I don't even understand the situation they are in. MC is living with her cus he is a broke ass, but is she living in her own place that she needs to pay rent in? Or is it a family home? Did her parents "move away," leaving their estate to her? But MC and her talk about the "economic times" making it hard for both of them to afford rent. Also, why does she talk about her parents struggling with their own "rent?" Why does MC offer to cover her parents rent? Where are they staying? Are they financially struggling? But didn't the very short childhood flashback at the intro suggest that MC's family is poor and the girl's family is rich? None of this makes any sense. I mean, yeah, I'm fixating on a couple throwaway lines that the dev probably didn't even think about when writing, but that kind of shows the lack of attention to detail in the writing.

That's a lot of words to say that the writing is very flat. But that's nothing out of the ordinary. We can still have an average 3* game if it manages not to mess up everything else. Alas, the very amateur way this is coded will absolutely lead to problems. There are some variables like lust/love/etc, but the game doesn't actually track choices.

For example, there is the Aunty asking MC is he wants to come inside for some sexy times. If you pick the choice to decline, it comically just cuts everything immediately and skips to the MC in his car driving back from Aunty's place. But of course, the game doesn't track this choice so the very next morning, the MC monologues about things that supposedly happened at Aunty's place.

Not only that, but later on interactions with other girls like the workplace sluts don't even let you chose (Not to mention how dumb it was that two slender thots are working in construction for some reason). At best, the dev can try to navigate routes based on the love or corrption status of the childhood friend, but everything else is gonna be a mess. And that's a very risky proposition for a supposed harem vs NTR game. If there is a game that will be shoddily coded and bleed the routes into each other, it's probably this one.

And finally, this is one of those games that probably calls up the animation video but never closes it and just loads another animation on top or soemthing. Every new animation within a scene will progressively lag the program. Maybe it's not an issue on stronger rigs, but my laptop didn't appreciate it.

The game has good potential. I like the game's design and premise.
I like the characters and their personalities.
Render-wise, the game looks fine. It's standard for the engine used, but that's fine. The characters look interesting enough and have some facial expressions; they don't look too stiff.
There are grammar and misspelling issues, but they are very minor and can be corrected easily.
I already like this game and will keep following its development.

Promising start, really good art and decent animations, the main LI model is gorgeous.
Few writing and punctuation mistakes at the start of the game that can be fixed, so it doesn't lower the rating.
Based on the choices you make, you can either play a vanila or an NTR path.
Looking forward to future updates, good luck to the Dev!!

I suppose there is nothing standout-bad about this, but it's not a game I will continue with. I can see plenty here that will appeal to the right people.

The MC grosses me out his sleazy outfit and look which for some reason get soooooo much focus is horrible, but he is also pretty much a loser. He stares at his dick when he masturbates and looks at his feet if he 'accidentally' sees nudity. What the hell man?

The LI models dont impress me because they have alien proportions, which look horrible and have clothes that dont sit in even a nearly realistic fashion, just so the can show of the grotesque figures

Despite me saying he clearly looks like a sleaze,absolute strangers throw themselves at him because they have no thought processes, which is to say, the writing doesnt seem to have motivations

Lastly the eyes are absolutely messed up, they always look like the cat in the sad cat meme.

That's a lot of negatives BUT, it still rates as average as it seem these are features present in many games this year, so ymmv