Best Friend Forever
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Critics Recommend
Best Friend Forever Trailers
Critic Reviews for Best Friend Forever
Best Friend Forever is an admirable hybrid of two seemingly disparate genres, but both sides of the game suffer from a lack of variety as a result.
From a purely visual novel standpoint, the game is entertaining and well-written, but it fails to make use of the one thing that makes it unique. It has the love it needs, but it will need more training before it can truly be called a "good boy."
Ultimately, what I’m getting at is that Best Friend Forever plays like it’s two games inhabiting the same space that only briefly come into contact with one another.
Best Friend Forever has an enjoyable, light-hearted storyline, for an easy relaxed gaming session. Dating Sims can be very hit or miss, and despite being short and having some unfortunate dialogue, I would very much consider this one a hit. The "adopt, don't shop" message, as well as the inclusion of dog breeds that are considered unpopular only added my enjoyment of the game. Oh, and yes, you can pet the dog.
Honestly, Best Friend Forever feels like it's having a constant identity crisis. Mechanically and story-wise, everything feels incredibly disjointed.
For any queer person who loves dogs, millennial who loves dogs, or actual dog masquerading as a human, Best Friend Forever is a wholesome, cathartic experience.
Despite various glitches that are being fixed in updates, overall Best Friend Forever is an accurate take on what life can be like both in the dating scene, and when bringing up a dog. For players who are not dog owners it is an eye-opener to how intense and hands-on having a dog is, with a lot to think about and juggle what aspects of training get priority. All the characters seem available to date, none are cookie-cutter ones as each has complex aspects to their lives which are realistic. Replayability is high with so many romance options available, and learning how to improve stats better to achieve better grades from the adoption centre provides hours of gameplay to be had.
Best Friend Forever offers a fairly generic visual novel, with the only hook being one that fails to do anything truly interesting. The management mechanics are the lightest, most fleeting portions of the game, where you're bogged down with a rough control scheme that is quite frustrating. Even with the positives in inclusivity, too many shortcomings make this feel like it was built to be vanilla and given the toppings way later on.
