Ren'Py - Straitened Times [v0.65] [HRelease]

Pros:

1. Fairly interesting premise and storyline.
2. Relatively interesting and attractive models used; especially the milfy characters.
3. The sandbox and character's schedule/calendar elements are actually kind of interesting and unlike how they're implemented in similar games actually encourage you to pay attention to what you're doing and when without being completely dumb.
4. Good pacing with making the MC work at getting with characters, while not endlessly blue-balling the player***

The Cons:

1. ***That last item about pacing is only true IF you use cheats or console commands. In it's natural state, the game is massively grindy. The money cheat alone is a requirement unless you want carpal tunnel just endlessly working shifts at a job while juggling everything else, just to slightly advance the plot. It's mean to make the player pace themselves, but it works too well. Later, more well-paying jobs don't really offset that unholy grind early on.
2. There are a LOT of characters and side-plots, and although there is an in-game hint system and relationship tracker, trying to figure out exactly what triggers which events feels like it requires a spreadsheet to keep track of.
3. Because the point 2, it's pretty hard to tell when you've reached the end of content for a specific love interest, vs haven't hit the right trigger to continue their story or relationship.
4. There are some minor typos and writing issues, but honestly they aren't that bad.

I want to give it four stars, I really do, but the fact that cheats are basically required in order to make the game bearable is a pretty major drawback. Definitely worth checking out. Just be ready with your console commands.

I want to start off by saying that I do think this has potential to be one of the best games on the site. The incest/corruption is on par with the best that you can find. Lots of characters you will want to bang, and scenes are pretty hot, once you can unlock them. And therein lies the issue that forced me to take a couple stars off. The grind. The unspeakable grind. Combine that with hints/objectives that are difficult to read and not much help, it can be difficult to play. An example, I went about six hours without a single lewd interaction because I was just grinding every day against the time management and money management. If this were a VN or a sandbox with more story/less grind then it would be rate 5 out of 5 easily.

I thought this was abandoned . Waiting for new updates.
Amazing character and animations. Slow update is boring.
Need scene list. Don't know what else stuff are pending while playing.
I think dev should have got these suggestions earlier too but saying it again.

Amazing game ! A real sandbox ! Very hard to have sex at the begining and I like that because in other game you have no effort to have sex... Here in this game you have to discuss a lot, gain trust etc....

A quick review of release 35.2 ...

1st, the story so far is well done. I like where it seems to be going and I like the characters. The thing with the the sisters is good. The pieces with the teachers are going well, and the step family. I'm waiting to see how much further this goes and if anything new pops up. I'd like to see the girls in the mall be part of the harem groups, but hey. Can't have everything.

2nd, the game play. The game play is ok. Someone made a walkthrough that takes you step by step ... and even following it step by step you don't get the same options at time that he got. I use this to say that the game is a little grindy and confusing at times. Sometimes overly so and sometimes It's just fine. That could be levelled out a little bit so that some things don't take 500 visits to trigger something. Sometimes it seems like on one save you get something easily, and the next save the same event takes a long time to trigger. Could be me, but that's how it feels.

lastly, the characters. I, personally, like all of the characters save for the store owner. Though I'm not a fan of her smoking during every event. But that's more a me thing than a game problem. The rest of the characters are pretty good, not overly curvy and not unrealistic. I like the paths each one is going down and how they work. I'd love to see more variety in the scenes, but that could come down the road.

Overall, I think this is a great game. The dev seems to be keeping the updates fairly regular, and adding more than just one second of play. It's a little grindy, so if you have no patience, this isn't the game for you. If you like lots of family play, (step family, half sisters, real mom and sisters, aunt, and even a neighbor who is LIKE family.) this is the game for you. Keep it up.

It's really hard to rate this one. On one hand, the story's pretty decent. Grammar could use some work, but is acceptable. The whole "not a family" veil vanishes astonishingly quick, giving way to strong incest and corruption themes.

Now, I think the problem is NOT the grind, NOT the RNG, and NOT the unintuitive, often confusing guide ... whatever thing that was slapped there to 'help' progress. There are games with grind, or with RNG, or with a weak quest log/guide/whatever that work well nonetheless.

The problem is a combination of all three.

Say you are stuck, you don't know what you need to do because the guide doesn't tell you properly. Then by some miracle you manage to find out what (a notable one is using single bed), but the event might not fire because RNG. And if the event does fire, you need to grind it a couple times before you go back to step one.

Thankfully there are mods to circumvent this, but the base game itself gets a 3.5--rounded down.

This game was kinda hard to get into , but once I understood the sandbox systems, and rollback became available(it was a slog to "discuss interests" and keep relationships up before that), it really opens up. Hint system is enough to not warrant a separate walkthrough, but it's spread across a few lists(like tasks, progress, investigations tabs), so you need a while to get used to it.
Money is real cockblocker at the start, but once you get to Lil's workplace, plus modelling gigs, and it becomes way easier. Don't forget to ask for salary raise after every 10 days.
Once you "unlock" most of the girls, main problem becomes time management - you need to adjust for schedules, if you want to progress multiple threads at once and not just grind days waiting next time slot for specific event. If you can manage that, sandbox is pretty tolerable and doesn't feel grindy or forced - just people going about their daily lives and having work-leisure schedules.

What really sold me on this game is decent incest writing(a bit of slow burn and corruption, especially with mother), big variety of unique models and personalities/characters(and not just in game, but compared to lot of other DAZ3D games), hot (though a bit short) sex scenes , and small UI thing where people have quick status overview and change poses to react to player on hover over. I thought it was kinda cute, and not a lot of sandbox games do this.

The main "investigation plot" can go either way, as it's pretty bare so far, so this game would be more interesting for those who don't mind "slice of life" style, rather than more detective stories.

Overall, this feels like it has good programming, writing, and render bones, and that's all you really need for great title. Worth checking out, as it already has lot of content

The game is a pretty bad sandbox. It doesn't really tell you how to progress with a character. All the game tells you is vague "there can be more opportunities with a character at/during *name of a location/event*". That's it. And because of this I'm sure most of you who will try the game will spend hours doing the same things over and over hoping to get a new scene until you start to think that the game got softlocked. On top of that the game is quite grindy too and has terrible UI.
I had enough of this game. 2 stars just for the hot milf mom that allows the MC, her son, to fuck her in front of his teacher.

excellent game with great mechanics and a good story.
Only lazy and horny players will say the grind is way too much.
Money can be earned easily in a casino, which doesn't even use time.
What I only dislike about this game is that there's no in-game walkthrough.

Pros: Renders, story, and animation are good.
Cons: No in-game walkthrough on how to activate the quest

Truly a great game!
Art is not on some top tier level like other games I shall not mention here but it's truly well done.

The buildup is great. A lot of scenes and naughty stuff !
The story is great and exceeds my expectations when it comes to incest stuff.
The only downside in my opinion is that the system itself can be a bit tedious to work around.
Ex : Aunt > Catch her at 11AM on a certain day, ask her to stay at the motel, repeat each day you want to progress with her...
Also the fact that sometimes you're a bit lost and don't know what to do to progress, but it has so much content, you eventually stumble upon something !

Truly one of the best game I've played, I can only hope this dev will feed this game with a lot of content and do more in the same spirit, either way, I'll always be one of his followers !

The game is good.

Only lazy ass says the grring is way to much lol. I guess they didn't play Foot of the Mountains, fuck that game.

Grrinding is easy, you just have to do the main tasks like 3 and those 3 will get you good terrms with the girls and eventually you'll get the scenes, as all the games you just have to make the girrls happy.

Renderrs arre good, the best scene arre animated so is excelent.

The most imprressive of this game is the way you corrrrupt those ladys.
Shit, it feels naturral and takes time but in 4-5 hours i got mom scenes and some sisterrs too, in just that you fucking suck with this games and you think is cause of the grrind.

Man Of The House is proud of this game, shit, i'll say that this game may be betterr that Man of the House.

If you are a Man of the House, Dreams of Desire and Milf City'fan... this game is for you my person wich gender i won't say cause you are free to choose.

I have to agree with @TheDonnyl . This would have made a great VN. Sexy characters, sexy build up, pretty good story, etc. But omg the grind... I played this game for hours WITH cheats and didn't see anywhere near all of the scenes I wanted to. The game even has a great UI and questlog and it's still difficult to get things moving. This game should be called Blueballs Times...

Excellent game, loved the gameplay and the characters design, no stupid blueballing if I remember well, if i'm mistaking then no worries you will be rewarded for your patience

I'm now waiting for further updates

The game itself is pretty good. The animations are good and the story is interesting but it just takes soooooo long to get to the scenes and its also so tedious. And I didnt even play the "real" game. I played with all the guides and walkthroughs and cheats that I could find. It would be a 5/5 if it was a VN but sadly it isnt.

best game i have ever played on this website.

Great characters which require build up but not to a grindy length.

I found it very replayable often restarting and not getting too bored, I enjoy the consistent updates aswell.

If you like slow burn grindy games this is for you.

Pros:
- Good Characters
- Good Story
- Great Scenes

Cons:
- Grindy to a fault
- Couldn't imagine playing this without cheats.
- I like the menus and infographics this game gives you, but good luck reading that when jerking off.

this is the best game i have ever played. The female characters are built really well. Rarely does mc have two families, mother and stepmother. a great idea. The plot is well built by the developer, not too rambling, nor too rushed, giving me a sense of excitement when playing. It's a bit unfortunate why female characters don't react more aggressively when they find out that mc is having sex with other relatives. The opening couldn't have been better. What could be better than watching pregnant girls and all of them having sex with mc. hope the developer can show us more interesting things in the coming parts. A lot of middle-aged women, why not a teenage girl next. it will make me feel more excited.

God Game, deserves GOTY, it´s a little bit complicated because you don´t have a in-game guide and you need to descover everything by yourself.
I downloaded this game a few months ago and i don regret it, beautiful characthers with realistic body.

I like everything about this game, the girls are hot the MC has to work to clap those cheeks andwhen he gets some action it's worth the wait cuz it's animated and very good looking. Keep up the good work mate.

I get it, the models are good, the tags are good.

But none of that actually matters if the game never gets anywhere. This even seems like it's made by some decently competent people and yet I've been playing for hours and hours, with basic cheats enabled, and there hasn't been a single full-on sex scene.

Extreme grindfest, and even with the most detailed "quest log" in any game I've seen on f95, I genuinely don't know what to do half the time. And that's coming from someone who usually likes complex games.

Please, save your time and play literally anything else.