Ren'Py - Straitened Times [v0.55.0] [HRelease]

Good graphics and nice concept. Very little variety in game play, i.e. it grinds. Developer seems to have confused the two, game play does not equal grind and vice a versa, IMHO. Knowledge increase on topics is not linear, in other words if I spend the three points on one topic and three point on another they do not equal. In addition the values decay over time, in addition graphs only give a rudimentary feed back to knowledge level yet hints are specific, get 30% to talk. better system IMHO would be is to allow the MC to talk on the subject but award no points or negative points as obviously he does not know what he is talking about.

To tell my opinion for the story, dialogues, models, render quality and scenes is pointless. The reason? The game design and game mechanics are terrible. Unfortunately this game has EXTREME GRINDING and on top of that the story / events are very bad organized without any useful guide. Personally I don't mind some grinding but within reason. Roaming around every day, spending hours doing again and again the same things or initiate the same dialogues with the various NPCs blindly just to check if there is some progress is crazy. And there is also the possibility to miss something. At least if there was a guide / walkthrough to tell you what you must do and how many times (for repeatable events) to progress with the main story and the individual events it could make the game playable. But there is no such thing. There is just a scrappy task page with bad design and errors that confuses you more that it helps you. It just mention some repetitive events that you already know.

Some times I wonder if devs actually play their games or not. If the dev doesn't reduce the grinding significantly and make a good organized guide the game is not playable for me. But I doubt it because it doesn't have to do about knowledge or experience. It is a matter of choice. I don't know why some devs design and organize their games like that. Maybe some people like it. But for me is 1 star. It could be a good idea such games to get a new tag like "excessive grinding without guide". In that case I wouldn't bother to download it and the game would have 1 negative review less.

It could be a nice idea but it needs a better development.
The grind is too high and it's very easy to lose interest. Renders are acceptable but could be improved. I gave it a try and I waited some updates to see some improvements but for now unsatisfactory.

Grind is heavy and I don't like the "interests" thing at all as a way to grind, but overall it's the lewd game with the most potential for me.
Definitely going to support the author on Patreon next month.

I'm rating based on version 0.5.1.

The best thing of the game is the main milf, the other 2 girls are really pretty too but not as hot and I really like the few naughty scenes.

At this point of the game there is no enough content to make the insane grind worth it. You'll just be repeating a lot of actions that feel like a chore and get too little reward.

May be when there is more content you'll unlock more scenes just by accident and that can make the playing more enjoyable.

This game is like playing Carmen San Diego but with porn on it. Even with a lot more content I think the dev should do something about the game system, simplify the 'misions', even the UI is confusing.

With more scenes and a little simplification the game has the potential for a solid 4 stars game, but it's a long way...

This game is fantastic!

What I love: few charecters. it not big, not small - just ideal. You can develop you relationship by 1in the speed what you want and easy to focus.
Small area. Yes, I realy like it. Сoncentrated and understandable environment, easy 2 learn. Love it.
Beatiful characters and good plot.

What i don't like: i want more events, situation, the explore their relationships more deeply and more plot ofc.

Tnx to author and gl!

Although i do agree that this game needs better instructions i do think that the it would be in a good place if you know what to work towards.

What really shines here is the function that if the girls(3) stay together in a room to long they will get frustrated with each other , so every few weeks you have to switch the girl that sleeps in your room. This is fun managing mechanic with thought behind it tying it to the story.

There is a bit of a problem with the game which is the grind it's like a 3/5 with no cheats and easily a 5/5 with cheats.

This is a very hard to rate game, as it has many faults but it's still a very hot game.
The first fault is the grindiness followed by the lack of instructions making it hard for you to know what to do at first.
For exemple it took me a few hundred in game days to understand how to get my first job, which is probably something like 2 or 3 hours of gameplay.
I kept trying the phone's function "find a job" without success while all I had to do was go to the diner and speek to the owner (a dude, which is why I never spoke to him before). That's kind of confusing... How was I suposed that the very visible option "to find a job" is basically useless to find a job at the beginning...

And that's the thing, you need to speak to EVERYONE, and grind their affection (and for some lust too) to unlock more things elsewhere.
The good thing is that the girls are hot and that the scenes are hot as well... once you reach them.
There aren't many scenes but progress is slow which is a good thing, this makes just masturbating in front of your mom as she look at you that much hotter since you had to really work for it.
But this is not for everyone. I would definitively rate this badly if the rewards weren't good enough. But they are... So I give it a 4 out of 5 .

Decent concept but a terrible execution thus far. Could this be an excellent game? Absolutely, there are things implemented that I really enjoy (like the little popup alerts that quickly fade away). In it's current state it is nearly unplayable, for me at least. There are a plethora of errors and bugs that cause a forced rollback and abandonment of a course of action, there is seemingly no way to initiate certain activities regardless of the relationship levels, etc...

I do hope that this gets the traction and work it needs. If so, it had the potential to be good. If not... well, it's a DJ Khaled then... "and another one".

I loved that game. It's been a long time since I got so horny with a game. It has a lot of replays, it's true, but the female character models are not the same as in other games, and the erotic scenes are very suggestive.

My Rating for (V0.3.3 ) is:

Pros:
+ Good Graphics
+ Nice Story

Cons:
- Confusing Game Play

Conclusion:
Very nice graphics, but that was it for me, I believe the Dev put a lot of work and heart into the game, but either I,m dumb or I just don`t get it, I know that Im supposed to find out what happend to my dad, but where do I start?, yeah it tells me the tasks to do,but how to do it`?, I sure don`t know, was stuck in the school after seeing visiting the Principle and was it,just dropped it.


Last Words:
If it was less stuff to do ,and a little easier I believe you could have alot of fun here,but for me it just to tough.

Story- 4/5
Renders-3.5/5
Dialogue- 4/5
GUI-3/5 ( Not so important for me)

Actually good open-world sandbox style game , People complain about grinding but grinding is what makes a game more ... Realistic? .. In its early stages game is time-consuming and very enjoyable.. with several little scenes in it and big perspectives in future .. Renders could have been better but they are still OK..

Sad to see such a technically ambitious game turn out to be so bad.

I have little to add about the game besides what other reviewers have already said. Perhaps the insane levels of grindiness, overwhelming UI, absolute lack of guidance, and the lack of actual content will improve with more updates, but it doesn't seem like it. Which is honestly a shame - would really love for this game to succeed.

Ok, there are a few problems I have with this game.
There are the obvious ones:
a few bugs here and there (watch 18+ tv with sis, fap, oh now you're the other sis? lol what)
Poor english every now and then or typos etc.

Then there is the lack of content. This is the real issue. There is not enough reward for time spent. Not in the form of tease, sexual content, story content, or dialogue.
What this game has a lot of is mechanic content. A whole lot of clicking and repetition without reward.

I used money cheats to speed things up and after an hour I'm giving up. Good attempt at making a game but this is way too much game and not enough story.

I rode the hamster wheel, and I'm done with it.

Pros:
A pretty decent UI
Decent writing quality

Cons:
Average at best women
Quest system has the user run around like a chicken with its head cut off
No real progress made after a few weeks of in-game gameplay

Your two "sisters" get jobs, and you are given a clue as to where they are working, and you are given a quest to talk to them about their new jobs. But I got no conversation choices about their jobs. After 3 weeks of sharing a room with your "mother", including exercising, and cuddling for a minimum of 2hrs each night watching TV, the most you have accomplished is you sometimes see her boobs when she puts her sports bra on in the morning. And so far, school servers pretty much zero purpose except a time sink.

Maybe it will improve in time, and maybe a walkthrough besides the in-game format of one will make it easier to follow. For now, I'm putting this one on Ignore.

The game is good! The characters are very beautiful!
some things need to be improved, such as: game interface and objectives must be more understandable!
If these factors are improved it will be 5 stars.
it's a good place to start!
I recommend it to everybody