Ren'Py - Straitened Times [v0.52.1] [HRelease]

What the actual fuck is this game. Horrible grind, events that never triggers and you have to keep track stupid task lists and schedules. Its a coom game for fuck sake why is the dev trying to copy god damned europa universalis. Renders are somewhat good and milfs are proper thick though.

This game is like a Gin and Tonic, it's an acquired taste. On the surface of things, It has a horrible amount of grind to it. You have to repeat scenes over and over to get to progress. The hinting system is vague and to progress you need to try each dialogue option to see everything. The animations are very basic (although getting better). The grammar is bad and the plot is ridiculous at times. If you don't have patience then this game isn't for you. If you can stick it out, there is some payoff (and it's getting better with every release).

Why keep playing it? All that grind gives you time to start imagining what might happen once you unlock the next scene. The hinting system tells you that there's a scene to unlock with a certain character, but it's up to you to figure out where. You jump around, day by day trying to find that next scene but it's never that easy. You have to keep going to school and keep your commune happy and make sure you sleep enough before you can even think about unlocking that next scene. When you do finally find the scene it's usually not that great but it opens the door to the possibility of an even kinkier scene, but you have to wait for the next update, maybe even four or five updates before you get the scene that you were waiting for. (At lease the updates are regular monthly releases.) While your waiting for the scene, something else happens. The same setup happens with other characters and you're eventually left thinking about all the twisted, kinky sexual adventures that might eventually come out of this game. Usually, the game doesn't deliver, but once it a while it does and that is what keeps you coming back for more.

In regards to the characters, for the most part they are very well done but some of the expressions are weird and overly exaggerated and the character's tongues are weird. Seriously, the character tongues are shaped like a snake's tongue or something.

The grind is horrendous. I solved the money and energy problem with simple console commands (which shouldn't even be necessary in a well-designed game). But
The biggest problem is that to progress with the women, you need to repeat some actions over and over again until you no longer want to see that woman's face anymore. And the hint system isn't complete so you'll often be left scratching your head as to what you need to do to continue the progression.
The lewd-scenes animations (when they exist) are just meh.
The grammar is very bad. Understandable, but immersion-breaking.
It's a poor game overall and in this state it's not worth playing.

I like the game's character designs, also animations could have been better.

like playing it, there's a quest log and claender to guide you and it helps a lot in this kind of games (where you can do spesific things only at spesific times).

earning money is a little hard but there's a cheat so, when this kind of games start to bore with need of earning money, if there's a cheat I use and can have better time playing game.

I am now downloading the latest version and hope dev keep doing good work.

Its not a great game. Its not bad either. The overcomplicated mechanic of relations with your "neighbours" is a bit too confusing to really like and there is as well money problem. One really big which is making this game too much of a grind for my liking. I could play hours and hours just to grind money to have to spend. I don't like the idea that I need to work as hard for money in game as in real life. I want to enjoy my time playing it and not grinding it.. thats the worst part of this game. Eternal Grind. Without cheats its a damn chore to play it.

Dropped it as soon as I saw the messy UI with miniscule text and shitty grammar. The renders don't even look that great so I can tell this isn't going to be worth playing.
P.S. You don't need to put "a" in front of every noun and you don't need to contract everything like "I am" to "I'm". It just doesn't make sense in certain contexts.

First time playing this, and I have to say it is mostly well done. I really enjoyed it until I hit a grind wall and the lack of hints. I dont know how to progress certain events at all. Pretty sure I was able to get most of the content, but some characters I have no idea.

Would give this a five star, but the phone tips are not super clear. People blame the RNG, and maybe that is probably why Im missing some content.

Firstly: this game you have grind hard, to get to certain points in the game. Which is similar to real life.
At first i counld understand the point in the game, but when i read some rewies about it. I finally understood the game. Then i started to really play and focus on the missions.
Now i am so addicted to this game, that i play it everyday after work a little to get new content. Also i decided to support him on patreon and never regretted the mistake. He is awesome, instant replies, helpfull, straight to the point if you do not know about the system at all( like me, i do not really undestand some pshycics, cause i´m into languages). In general.
If you like grinding hard at the start and reaping the rewards later, it is awesome. For me 10 out of 10 game. Keep up the good work and the balance in the game, that it has. Love it.

Hard to say what to give this game. Without the mods it would be a solid -1. The grind in this game is on par with Big Brother, dont think they get any grindyer. Played 3+ hours with $ cheat and still only got a brief peep on family.

With cheats and walkthrough I play it when I have nothing better to waste time with. Using all cheats and mods it still is more grind than most games.

Renders are slightly below average, models the same, animations (what few there are) can barely be called animations. Writing is horrible, ESL.
+1 star for amount of content and regular updates.

Play this one if you like banging your head against the wall because it feels real good when you stop.

Like it a lot a lot of content and the different system in compare to other games - i like the managemet parts in the games - you can discover more and more girls and scenes in this game with a little bit of patience its a lot of fun - looks good and has a lot of playtime

Im actually surprised with the quality of the game. Which is definitely in top 10% of Ren'Py games. Story is also quite intenteresting despite being the usual father is locked in prison/away and you as a main character need to take care of the family.

Grinding hell, the characters are plain and uninterstering, nothing really happends in the game for a long time, I don't know I at least expect the game has something good, but the only thing I like was the desing of the red head, but apart fromt that was a waste of time, at least for me.

Hidden behind the clunky and somewhat old school grindy mechanics and slightly 'off' grammar is actually a very well thought-out game with a lot of interesting features.
Some of the grind is annoying but the game seems to be a slow build-up (although everyone is at least a bit frisky to begin with but it's tricky to move from sexual banter/close contact to actual lewd stuff) that rewards patience and planning.
If you think of this game a sort of a a time/action/location economy management puzzle, and like those sort of things, it definitely has a lot of merit. Even if some of the repetitive clicking gets annoying after a while but at least, while grindy, there has actually been put thought into the balance, duration and narrative reasoning for (some of) the grind, as far as I can tell.

Good renders, Beautiful cast of characters, hot scenes. Wide variety of scenarios and routes to getting laid.

Why 2 stars then? This is pretty much the epitome of everything wrong with sandbox games. Every single staple of an awful sandbox game is here.

Micromanaging stats? Check! Grinding for money? Check! Time sensitive events? Check! Characters having overlapping events forcing you to pick one and have to wait til the next day/week? Absolutely! Payoff for hours of grind being a 1-2 picture scene until you get the the final stage? You betcha! A cryptic hint system in which you lose track of what to do next? Of Course! The bulk of lewd scenes for the first few hours are just looking at the mc's dick? Obviously!

The list goes on, you name a terrible sandbox element and this game has it in spades. Even with cheating it's such an incredible grind. I played for something in the neighborhood of 8 hours and got 54 days in and still haven't had anything more than a low effort bj scene. The only reason I even know that there are good scenes is because I downloaded a save that is on day 300(!!!!) which does unlock almost all the interactions with the girls. Even then, you are exposed to a lot more of the oppressive mechanics of the game like having to get condoms before the girls with sleep with you, like wtf?

there is a lot to love about this game but it's built on such an awful foundation that it drags everything else down with it. I can forgive the clunky UI, the engrish, and hell even the cryptic tasks but that sandbox just emphasizes all that and takes away from the large beautiful cast, good scenes, when you do finally get some action it's well made, I mean the stepmom alone is some really hot stuff.

This is an excellent game and it has a good story. I would recommend this game to everyone. With some extras like clothing change options etc. , it could be one of the greatest games ever. Also, some pregnancy content may add some extra flavour to the game.

Let's start with the good things this game has;
>steamy hot interactions especially with landlady.
>good animations.
>renders are top notch too.

And the actual problems.
>this one's hot mess and by mess I mean real fucking mess. Normal human brain can't apprehend the amount of confusion this game has to offer.
>no inbuilt walk-through or anything of sorts which will make the few thousand renders look like 15/20hr gameplay.
>sandbox is real fucking tragedy here. I played many sandbox game but this one's right up there with most excruciating sandbox mechanics of all time.
>time bound daily and compulsory chores are cherry on top.
>only way to get something outt
a this is by using cheat codes.

Final thought: i have to say this one doesn't reward the amount of hardwork you put in the game. Inbuilt walkthrough might do the trick but oh well....

I really like this game. It has a lot of possibilities to interact with a lot of hot ladys. Some nice renders and it feels quite open. Way more fun than this standard VNs. Also nice footjobs. I like the dynamic wih mom and his sister. The breaking locks mechanic to spy on the girls is also a nice addition.

I really like this VN, the sandbox isn't over done and is pretty simple, it could use some more dialogue when interacting with characters, maybe special events such as dates and hang out sessions that are more varied, I liked most of the characters but it could use more romance to instead of the gain points then randomly ask a Li to be your gf, the main story is interesting and building up slowly so thats fine

The reason I gave 4 stars is because the older sister is kinda a slut in my opinion and it just reminded me of fasders VN Life which pissed me off, you get to the point in life where you finally sleep with the sister and after she goes into a monologue of how she was a frustrated slut, in this one it's a little different but the same in Principle, the mc and older sister have sex for the first time and it's a surprise, the second time they have sex the older sister comes home drunk wanting the mc and goes straight to anal claiming she knows how to work a dick and this other crap, it just gets overused in incest games where the older sister is like this

Would I still recommend it? Yes but that kind of content if prevalent in the future will more than likely make me unsub, it's really annoying having to grind to then find out that stuff

Edit- turns out it got worse with the interacting with older sister, apparently she got around with her friend but she's never worshipped a dick like she does her brother, just makes with think she was a cum dumpster before moving to the motel and getting with the MC

Most of the other Li's- slut or slutty, like really Dev you don't need to go so far into detail about how someones a professional cocksucker or how she got around fucking before worshipping the MC, I'm Tryna get involved in a harem builder not a slut trainer

Anyway even with these things there's still no ntr or sharing and the mc is the obvious focus with everything so I'll stay subbed but seriously tone down how slutty the girls were in the past, just a suggestion not telling you what to do

Good dialogue, interactions and models. Might be confusing at start, since the game is a bit complex. But once you get into it, its not so bad and a lot to discover. The game has a bit of grind which can be skipped a bit with cheating, mostly the money situation. But as most games be careful not to trigger events that will break the game.