friendsim^2 and befriendus

Friendsim 2 is on thin ice because of the stunning lack of Maplehoof content but it DOES have Bubsy the Bobcat so I can respect that

Befriendus doesn't currently have any Bubsy the Bobcat references so that kinda sucks, but it DOES have Maplehoof so that's pretty cool.

REAL ANSWER for Friendsim 2, which is the game I was responsible for coordinating/directing/writing a lot of:

Depends on what you mean by "good" - if you mean technical production quality, I'd say we've exceeded Friendsim and Pesterquest - we do a lot more varied things with the game format, have more "stuff" in the game, and do some fun and funky stuff with meta-narrative towards the end. I also like to think that the quality of the art, writing, music, etc. is all quite good. The goal was always to make something that felt like a real sequel, made to the same standards of production.

Plot-wise, our game takes place after Pesterquest and assumes that everything from Friendsim and Pesterquest happened, and you're now starting in the locked timeline. So basically, it's a timeline that's parallel to what's happening in Hiveswap, with some major changes.

In terms of "being in character" that's a really fuzzy target. Our game takes place about 5 years after the events of Friendsim, so some of the characters have gone through some major life changes. We fleshed out some of the characters in new directions and took a complete plot-relevant left-turn with one of them from later in the game. Personally, as the game's lead writer, I tried to capture the essential elements of the characters to make them feel like they made sense as older, more experienced versions of the characters. I think that MSPAR's characterization throughout is pretty true to the original Friendsim and PQ - barring the standard "this was written by different people and is therefore slightly different" disclaimers. We also tried to make the world feel like it makes sense per the Friendsim/PQ canon with what little info we actually get in canon about Alternia.

Whether or not you LIKE it will kinda depend on what you're looking for in the game. Reception has been mostly positive, but some people aren't fans of the directions we took certain things (which is fine). We basically picked a narrative direction and committed to it, and if you don't like the kind of themes we chose to draw out that's chill and fine.

IMHO - play the prologue and volume 1 and see how you feel about it. I think it's a strong start to the game and if you find the general tone of the writing to your liking, you'll probably enjoy the rest. It'll probably take you an hour or two to get through so if you dislike it, not much skin off your back.

Does either game have Scooby-Doo?

We don't, but there's still time for Befriendus!

I'd play Friendsim^2 for the overabundance of Doc Scratch supplementary material, but it has voice acting and that's scared me away from watching its trailers on numerous occasions.

If the voice acting isn't your jam, you can absolutely mute it and the game should still work as intended.

these are free games! you should play them and decide for yourself :-)

Friendsim 2: The quality/price ratio is theoretically infinite!

now we just need Friendsim^3: This time its feltsonal, where we romance befriend all of the felt members to Damara's dismay