I was hesitant to try this one. The description sounded a bit iffy. But there were enough reviews mentioning the quality of the writing that I thought I would give it go.
I am glad I did.
The main thing to understand about "Friends in Need" is NeonGhosts can actually write dialogue, and he is capable of maintaining a character's voice. I think this is the most important element of all adult visual novels.
Every adult visual novel essentially boils down to conversations with different characters. This is what holds the series of images together. If the conversations are boring or poorly written then eventually every VN fails.
Sometimes really good stories or really good visuals can for a time compensate for poorly written characters and conversations, but sooner or latter they wear out their welcome.
"Friends in Need" doesn't have this problem. It is well written, and so far all the characters have had distinct voices and the conversations that I had with them were all interesting and believable.
In my opinion, this is pretty rare in adult visual novels. So I give this 5 stars on that alone.
In some ways, the way the game is set up is like a series of almost unrelated vignettes. The first and second chapter could be short stand alone games. In the third chapter things do start to get tied together, and by the end it is clear that there is an actual story that is being told here.
As the player you have a lot of control of how these vignettes play out. A lot. You can be a complete asshole or you can be a fairly nice guy (while still being the MC of a porn game). You can mix and match quite a lot. You aren't stuck on rails once you go down a path. There is a lot of nuance for you to experience.
However, I simple was not able to go down the darkest path in most instances because the characters are well written and mostly believable, which means there are repercussions for your choices. In some adult visual novels I have no problem being an asshole, but most of those are far more mired in porn logic than "Friends in Need." In this case the repercussions of some of the choices were too realistic for my tastes... at least for the dark path.
I think the semi-nice guy path was actually more impactful because I actually knew I could choose to be a total asshole. Also, I say "semi-nice guy" path because this path isn't some white knight path devoid of lust and hot sex. There is still plenty of sex, plus I find sex scenes to be more titillating when the characters actually want to have sex with me.
So I am really only reviewing the nicer path. I tried out some of the darker choices, but in almost every instance the outcome of these scenes was a bit too much for me. Ultimately, that is a compliment to the construction of those scenes. All the dark scenes I tried out were just as well written and fairly realistic, but that realism made me roll back to less dark choices.
There were also some "nice guy" choices that are actually too nice guy, even to the point where the women you are engaged with are a bit confused by your choices. I would role back from those in most cases as it was clear that these routes were for people that wanted to have nothing to do with certain characters.
Also, there are a bunch of times when you have several different chances to engage or disengage.
With that said, like all adult visual novels the writer is telling a story. A player's choices can only have so much impact on the story. So the global impact of your choices is limited by the reality of the visual novel format.
In the end I would recommend "Friends In Need" to anyone that wants to experience an interactive story in a porn fantasy that is well written.
Definitely worth checking out.
I am glad I did.
The main thing to understand about "Friends in Need" is NeonGhosts can actually write dialogue, and he is capable of maintaining a character's voice. I think this is the most important element of all adult visual novels.
Every adult visual novel essentially boils down to conversations with different characters. This is what holds the series of images together. If the conversations are boring or poorly written then eventually every VN fails.
Sometimes really good stories or really good visuals can for a time compensate for poorly written characters and conversations, but sooner or latter they wear out their welcome.
"Friends in Need" doesn't have this problem. It is well written, and so far all the characters have had distinct voices and the conversations that I had with them were all interesting and believable.
In my opinion, this is pretty rare in adult visual novels. So I give this 5 stars on that alone.
In some ways, the way the game is set up is like a series of almost unrelated vignettes. The first and second chapter could be short stand alone games. In the third chapter things do start to get tied together, and by the end it is clear that there is an actual story that is being told here.
As the player you have a lot of control of how these vignettes play out. A lot. You can be a complete asshole or you can be a fairly nice guy (while still being the MC of a porn game). You can mix and match quite a lot. You aren't stuck on rails once you go down a path. There is a lot of nuance for you to experience.
However, I simple was not able to go down the darkest path in most instances because the characters are well written and mostly believable, which means there are repercussions for your choices. In some adult visual novels I have no problem being an asshole, but most of those are far more mired in porn logic than "Friends in Need." In this case the repercussions of some of the choices were too realistic for my tastes... at least for the dark path.
I think the semi-nice guy path was actually more impactful because I actually knew I could choose to be a total asshole. Also, I say "semi-nice guy" path because this path isn't some white knight path devoid of lust and hot sex. There is still plenty of sex, plus I find sex scenes to be more titillating when the characters actually want to have sex with me.
So I am really only reviewing the nicer path. I tried out some of the darker choices, but in almost every instance the outcome of these scenes was a bit too much for me. Ultimately, that is a compliment to the construction of those scenes. All the dark scenes I tried out were just as well written and fairly realistic, but that realism made me roll back to less dark choices.
There were also some "nice guy" choices that are actually too nice guy, even to the point where the women you are engaged with are a bit confused by your choices. I would role back from those in most cases as it was clear that these routes were for people that wanted to have nothing to do with certain characters.
Also, there are a bunch of times when you have several different chances to engage or disengage.
With that said, like all adult visual novels the writer is telling a story. A player's choices can only have so much impact on the story. So the global impact of your choices is limited by the reality of the visual novel format.
In the end I would recommend "Friends In Need" to anyone that wants to experience an interactive story in a porn fantasy that is well written.
Definitely worth checking out.