VN Ren'Py Friends in Need [Ch. 9 v0.59b] [NeonGhosts]

[schinoize]

Spoiler: lmao this came out of nowhere

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[sagerock820]

I played through the new update, which has apparently jumped up to Chapter 8. I'm too much of a goody-two-shoes to notice the lack of dark-patch content, and overall I thought it was pretty good. That said, I am worried this game is growing too large for its own good: we spend a lot of time further developing Brittani, and jumpstarting Risa regardless of whether we shot her down, and as a result we barely have time to scratch the surface with Alex and Pepper. Oh, and we introduce four brand new characters as well.

I love nearly all the material we get, but I just don't see how the game can juggle this many balls in a satisfying manner. There just aren't enough hours in the day. At best, we'll get a lots of tasty snacks that never have the momentum to grow into anything larger. At worst we'll get frustrated as it takes literal years for the specific girl's content we're waiting for to update. I'd be thrilled to be proven wrong, but IMHO this game needs to reign in what we already have, much less continue to add more.

As for the specifics on what we got this time:

Spoiler: Chapter 8 - Random Thoughts

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tl;dr Good content, but with so many irons in the fire it can be tough waiting for your favorites to get their time in the spotlight.

Yeah, I'm aching for some more Gabby content.

 

[Joshy92]

Every time I think of what Brent put Nicki through I want to kick his arse.
How could he treat a perfect angel like her that way?

You better sleep with one eye open Brent.

 

[Dessolos]

Brent ass kicking aside i'm honestly scared for Nicki i get a bad gut feeling Brent is going to find Nicki and try to do something. If that happens well guy might just end up in jail for Murder. No one touches my Nicki.

 

[Zerackon]

This game was so much more than i expected at first, got really invested in the story, love how level headed and adult you can make MC if you want.

However, me being mainly into voyeur urination, found this game tagged with "urination" on another site, played through the version i have, and i gotta know, is there a good guy way to watch any girls pee? (or is it even in the game at all, it's not tagged in this post)

 

[SlapE]

This game was so much more than i expected at first, got really invested in the story, love how level headed and adult you can make MC if you want.

However, me being mainly into voyeur urination, found this game tagged with "urination" on another site, played through the version i have, and i gotta know, is there a good guy way to watch any girls pee? (or is it even in the game at all, it's not tagged in this post)

No I don't think there's any urination content on any of the good guy paths, or at least none that I can recall. This isn't to say there won't be such content on these paths in the future.

Also the thread is tagged with Urination at the top of the page, just not in the genre section on the front page.

 

[Joshy92]

Oh, I would totally let the girls pee on me.

 

[Zerackon]

Oh, I would totally let the girls pee on me.

Same, or have them pee all over my floor, or any number of places, especially if i'm rich and video game cleaning doesn't really take any effort.

 

[darlic]

This always makes me so sad, why do the bad guy paths always offer the most interesting content? I get it's easier but it doesn't take that much to introduce them also in a more romantic/consensual situation

 

[MilesEdgeworth]

would you let the girl kiss you with some other dudes urine on their lips?

 

[soprano31]

would you let the girl kiss you with some other dudes urine on their lips?

 

[Joshy92]

would you let the girl kiss you with some other dudes urine on their lips?

No way.
That is too far even for me.

 

[NewTricks]

No way.
That is too far even for me.

Urine luck. That probably will never make it into this VN... although Bad Guy might make her gargle his pee just for a laugh.

 

[ename144]

I believe what you two want would be out of character for good Guy and even for evil rapist Guy.
The former is all about helping people in need with a more personal touch without making a spectacle out of it (unlike those influencers), while the latter would jump at the opportunity to sink his claws at Risa, which her addiction plus having to own him money would do.

I disagree, at least as far as the "good" path is concerned: buying drugs for Risa is the opposite of helping her. She needs to kick the habit, and enabling her merely forestalls that. *If* the MC wants to help Risa (and the mere fact that he's a good guy doesn't automatically mean he's willing to go to the mattresses for every sob story), he should focus on keeping her alive long enough to want help. Getting her the hell away from this drug den would be a good start on that.

Sadly, that's not what happened.

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tldr; I'm sick and my brain's melting, so I rambled a bit about storytelling, comic books, and invincible AVN heroes.

View attachment 3246083

I appreciate your crusade against the boring invincible AVN protagonist, but I think you really shot yourself in the foot with the Risa situation. There's no way a man worried about his mortality would agree to accompany a girl he dislikes into a drug den to finance her habit. This is the most invincible-AVN-hero thing the MC has ever done, regardless of how angsty he gets about Lucien down the line.

I think Lucien was the photographer who was taking risqué pics of Ashe when she was younger and his scars are from when her dad beat the living shit out of him. It was from one of the short stories that NG posted a while back.

The photographer in that story was named "Byron." It's possible he was Lucien using a fake name, but that seems needlessly convoluted. I'm assuming Lucien is a new character, although it's a very weird choice leverage an unknown entity into a cliffhanger.

IMHO, the whole Risa excursion was handled disastrously. I'm not being hyperbolic when I say it's easily the worst part of the game.

 

[NeonGhosts]

I played through the new update [of Friends Indeed, specifically], which has apparently jumped up to Chapter 8. I'm too much of a goody-two-shoes to notice the lack of dark-patch content, and overall I thought it was pretty good. That said, I am worried this game is growing too large for its own good: we spend a lot of time further developing Brittani, and jumpstarting Risa regardless of whether we shot her down, and as a result we barely have time to scratch the surface with Alex and Pepper. Oh, and we introduce four brand new characters as well.

I love nearly all the material we get, but I just don't see how the game can juggle this many balls in a satisfying manner. There just aren't enough hours in the day. At best, we'll get a lots of tasty snacks that never have the momentum to grow into anything larger. At worst we'll get frustrated as it takes literal years for the specific girl's content we're waiting for to update. I'd be thrilled to be proven wrong, but IMHO this game needs to reign in what we already have, much less continue to add more.

As for the specifics on what we got this time:

Spoiler: Chapter 8 - Random Thoughts

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tl;dr Good content, but with so many irons in the fire it can be tough waiting for your favorites to get their time in the spotlight.

EDIT:

Spoiler: Friends In Need v0.57 Addendum

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I appreciate the detailed review! That said, I'd file a lot of your critiques under simple difference of opinion/story preferences. Everyone has their thoughts about what the game should be, or where it should go. Everyone has their favorite characters. Everyone's someone's least favorite character, until I write a scene that makes the reader go, "Oh wait, I love them now."

The Lucien plot is what it is. Some people have had reactions that I consider a bit strange, i.e. "I'm feeling cucked by this guy," and I don't get that at all -- but okay. How much you like or dislike his plotline will probably vary based on how much you prefer a slice of life adventure versus something a little more focused and dramatic. But, I've been nudging things into place for this plotline to eventually pay off, since the beginning.

And I get it, there's a lot of balls in the air, and not everyone gets their time in the sun. I've said this before, but as the game progresses, I think a lot of this stuff gets easier to handle, not harder. As characters get their routes more or less locked in, and major sex scenes are finished for the love interests, there's just.. Less for me to juggle. As of now, a few of the love interests routes are more or less locked in. A few characters have had big, complex sex scenes, and won't need another. And if you squint, I think you can see the plotlines more or less coming together.

I'll just do a quick, top-of-my-head recap of what's going on with all the characters.

Spoiler

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[dudeipoop]

I appreciate the detailed review! That said, I'd file a lot of your critiques under simple difference of opinion/story preferences. Everyone has their thoughts about what the game should be, or where it should go. Everyone has their favorite characters. Everyone's someone's least favorite character, until I write a scene that makes the reader go, "Oh wait, I love them now."

The Lucien plot is what it is. Some people have had reactions that I consider a bit strange, i.e. "I'm feeling cucked by this guy," and I don't get that at all -- but okay. How much you like or dislike his plotline will probably vary based on how much you prefer a slice of life adventure versus something a little more focused and dramatic. But, I've been nudging things into place for this plotline to eventually pay off, since the beginning.

And I get it, there's a lot of balls in the air, and not everyone gets their time in the sun. I've said this before, but as the game progresses, I think a lot of this stuff gets easier to handle, not harder. As characters get their routes more or less locked in, and major sex scenes are finished for the love interests, there's just.. Less for me to juggle. As of now, a few of the love interests routes are more or less locked in. A few characters have had big, complex sex scenes, and won't need another. And if you squint, I think you can see the plotlines more or less coming together.

I'll just do a quick, top-of-my-head recap of what's going on with all the characters.

Spoiler

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probably been asked, and i know people hate the question, but i'll ask question. Do you have a timeframe for the next update?

 

[NeonGhosts]

probably been asked, and i know people hate the question, but i'll ask question. Do you have a timeframe for the next update?

I want to get it out by the end of February, but that may be a bit ambitious. Most of the scenes should move pretty fast, but there’s three or four sex scenes in here, and those always take a long time.

 

[Dessolos]

oh damn I didn't even expect an estimated timeline to be that soon even if you have no delays I was expecting like April or May but then again it did feel like this update was cut in 1/2 or something as it was shorter than expected.

 

[Master of Puppets]

I appreciate the detailed review! That said, I'd file a lot of your critiques under simple difference of opinion/story preferences. Everyone has their thoughts about what the game should be, or where it should go. Everyone has their favorite characters. Everyone's someone's least favorite character, until I write a scene that makes the reader go, "Oh wait, I love them now."

The Lucien plot is what it is. Some people have had reactions that I consider a bit strange, i.e. "I'm feeling cucked by this guy," and I don't get that at all -- but okay. How much you like or dislike his plotline will probably vary based on how much you prefer a slice of life adventure versus something a little more focused and dramatic. But, I've been nudging things into place for this plotline to eventually pay off, since the beginning.

And I get it, there's a lot of balls in the air, and not everyone gets their time in the sun. I've said this before, but as the game progresses, I think a lot of this stuff gets easier to handle, not harder. As characters get their routes more or less locked in, and major sex scenes are finished for the love interests, there's just.. Less for me to juggle. As of now, a few of the love interests routes are more or less locked in. A few characters have had big, complex sex scenes, and won't need another. And if you squint, I think you can see the plotlines more or less coming together.

I'll just do a quick, top-of-my-head recap of what's going on with all the characters.

Spoiler

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I can't quite put my finger on it, but something about this post makes it sound to me like you're saying the game is almost over. Is that so or am I just imagining it?

 

[Karmadive]

I can't quite put my finger on it, but something about this post makes it sound to me like you're saying the game is almost over. Is that so or am I just imagining it?

I don't think he's indicating the story is almost over. I think it's more it's starting to get into the main plotline he was heading towards with the main story conflict. Up to this point it was kinda progressing as a slice of life novel with no main plot pushing it forward beyond meeting new people.

Now I think he's presenting the Dramatic turn that pushes the story forward that a lot of stories introduce only after meeting all of the main cast.