VN - Ren'Py - Beyond Tomorrow [Ch.2] [Dream Games]

Beyond Tomorrow [Ch.2] -
First things first – the main menu music is an absolute masterpiece.

The tones, the atmosphere, the deep beats laced with melancholy and a soft female voice... It pulls you in immediately.
It’s honestly a shame that the same level of audio quality isn’t consistent throughout the rest of the game – the volume mixing later on can straight up be an audio jumpscare.


The game itself is... a strange blend of quality, slowburn, and emotional weight.

The story isn’t bad, but it often feels like a collage of scenes orbiting around the main axis: Mom = cancer = everyone’s broken.
its pretty early to tell because only Chapter 2 is out. but i have good feeling about this.
It’s not pure depression fuel, but it definitely sets a dark, grounded tone early on.
The rest plays out in a slice-of-life style – apologies between siblings, random childhood flashbacks (which usually made me doze off), or casual events stitched together.


There’s also a lingering “secret” that literally everyone seems to know... except for you as the MC.
Frustrating? A bit. But it does build tension, even if you’re stuck feeling out of the loop.


The storytelling is slow, but believable – the characters act like actual people and (mostly) don’t make idiotic decisions. Still, sometimes it just feels dragged out for the sake of runtime.


Characters? Beautifully rendered.

Yes, some aren’t romancable (Olivia, I’m looking at you), and yes – the dev knows this hurts and does it anyway.
But there’s purpose behind it. Not every character is written to fall into the MC’s lap.
And that’s actually kind of refreshing... even if it stings.


Visually? Absolute cinema.

God rays, cinematic shots, perfect lighting, camera angles – some scenes look better than AAA cutscenes.
And if you’ve played a certain VN that starts with “S” and ends in “Gone,” you’ll instantly feel the same moody visual aesthetic here – which I love.
Still, I don’t want to fall into the rabbit hole of thinking every dark room with god rays = SG .
I’m just saying this style works, and I wish more visual novels leaned into it.


You can tell the dev gave this real effort.


TL;DR

✅ Stunning presentation (music, visuals, storytelling)
✅ Mature and emotionally heavy tone
✅ Believable and vulnerable characters
❌ Slow pacing, lots of “quiet” scenes
❌ MC is the only one left in the dark – can feel unfair
❌ Inconsistent audio mixing
❌ MC looks like your average tatted-up gigachad, which might feel cliché if this isn’t your first VN – but credit where it’s due, even he has depth.


Beyond Tomorrow is like a long, rainy car ride – slow, heavy, but it has something meaningful inside.
If you’re not looking for instant gratification and you’re into grounded slowburns where “life just happens,” then this might be exactly what you need.

A short-ish review from me for a change.

Mainly because...there really isn't much to say about this...uhm.. VN.

There's zero action.
I've seen mentioned of "LI" in a few reviews. But I struggle to see ANY LI's in this VN so far. Like, there's no obvious flirting or (romantic) feelings between *any* characters.
Sure there's a few girls and a couple of "milfs". But nothing screams that they are, or will be LI.

The two (in MY opinion) hottest ladies in the game, will NEVER EVER be involved with the MC in a 'lewd' way.
And that is his mom, and sister.
Yes, this VN will according to the dev, never, ever, have incest.
That's fine, it's not everyone's cup of tea, I get that.
But;
1. Those that DO prefer that "tag", should forget about this VN completely.
2. Even if you are a "hater" of that particular tag, you wouldn't actually have to 'romance' your family you know. So people need to stop the whining about "oh no another incest/ntr/harem/whatever game". Just avoid if the game allows you to avoid it. Can you romance your sister in a game but you are a big hater of incest? Well what if the game allows you to make a choice to NOT go down that path with her? Should people that like that kink, be without it because someone who hates it started whining - whinging about something that's *optional*.

Either way, point 3. As I said, the other problem with no 'family fun' is that as I said, in *my* opinon the 2 most attractive ladies are the mom and sis. And knowing we wont *ever* (unless we (hopfully) get someone else to work on this VN) get to see anything between the MC and them.
Also, the mom is sadly only hot in flashbacks, as she's a cancer patient, chemo, bald, sick, possibly/probably dying.
Which leaves just the sister. And she's...well a lesbian apparently. Or at least Bi.
So right out the gate, the game shot itself in the foot as far as I'm concerned.

Sure some of the other girls/ladies are nice. But you're as of Chapter 2, not even CLOSE to anything 'naughty' with *ANYONE*

This is literally the oppositve of an Adult VN.
In total, as of Chapter 2, you'll see a couple of tits maybe 3-4 times, and a naked butt twice. Not a single pussy or dick in the game.
Goes without saying, there's obviously no banging. I think at most we have maybe 2 or 3 HUG scenes. That's it.

It seems this VN tries to just be sad, and dramatic. But failing at it miserably.
It doesn't have tons of nudity or sex scenes to 'save' it from being one of the most boring VN's EVER MADE.

Again, I do NOT rate this low because the anti-incest route this dev is going for. There's tons of VN's in my 'library' that isn't even close to that tag.
But again, when the (again, imo) most interesting girl in the ENTIRE VN, is your sister, and you'll never ever get it on with her - it's pretty doomed I say.

The dev can remake this game fifty times more if he wants, apparently it won't make it better.

In fact, it was actually better prior to the remake. IIRC there was at least SOME romance in the previous version.
Now, now you can be glad if you even see a effing boob.

The story, is just not going anywhere. Dunno if there's even a story, or enough of it to classify it as such. It's like some soap opera BS you watch on TV, with a slice of life sprinkled on top.
Drama here, drama there.

Also, I noticed something weird, between the moments I fall asleep playing this pile of dung, the boob sizes seems to change on the ladies from scene to scene. The few times you actually get to see naked boobs, they seem to be this size now, then next time you see them, they've grown - or shrunk.
Like wth?


Well, guess this wasn't so short after all.

Bottom line is, dont be fooled by the pretty renders and somewhat decent looking ladies in the screenshots - the "game" is extremely uninteresting and borderline boring.

I remember back when this VN came out for the first time, I was actually impressed, and had high hopes for this one. Couple of years later, we're only at chapter 2, and we're not even remotely close to any action, be it proper action, or naughty action. There's just nothing going on.
MC and his sis were on bad terms at the get-go. Mommy dearest is in the hospital, cancer treatment. Sister's lesbian lover has left and is gone (for now anyways).
Like... yaaawn.

Not every VN needs to have sex scenes every 5 minutes, definitely not. But this one has, well none, but at least the story is good enough then to carry it? Nope. Also..what effing story? lol


Save yourself the time and annoyance, as of now, this VN isn't worth anyone's time.

I definitely wouldnt give this a 1-star rating, as it's decently written, and render quality is good.
But it lacks...well everything else. Not interesting. No naughty stuff. Not even anything romantic. No kissing even. The dev is generous enough to throw a couple of naked boobs at us, maybe 4 or so times in what feels like hours of boring gameplay. Heck, even IF the dev *promised* the MC will get to bang his sister eventually - it still wouldn't save this VN.
By the time the next update rolls out, which is probably a year or two from now, we'll most likely once again be treated to manufactured and silly 'drama' with zero action and zero lewd stuff.

Heck, take a gander at the top of the page, for the "tags" in this game, there's not even vaginal sex. As I said, nothing lewd in this game. Who knows if there ever will be, I would assume, but probably not until chapter 4-5, which probably wont be done until 2030 or later. I do NOT rate games based on development time, but if I did, this one is an easy , EASY -1 star, yes *minus* one star. The amount of time this dev takes to push out an update, not including the HIGH risk of him making another fifty remakes before chapter 3 even, with this little actual content, is just scary. There's tons of renders, so there's content if you look at it THAT way. But do NOT expect to get even a tiny glimpse of lewdness in this one as of now. And do NOT expect a story that captivates you and makes you beg for the next chapter. You are literally better off watching some horrible soap opera from some foreign country. Trust me, you'll enjoy that more than this VN.


I suggest you move on and skip this one. But if you STILL decide to waste time on this - well suit yourself.

2 stars, not a star more or less for this sleeping pill.

I will probably update/revise my review after chapter 4, *IF* there's any major changes to my opinion. But it's more likely we wont ever see chapter 4, because either the dev gave up, or he's busy remaking the game again, again, and again. Sadly this dev's remakes is a bad thing, it literally makes the game worse. Before the remake, we had at least some sort of romance and something 'happening'. (prior to the remake, we had at least a "fingering" scene as far as I can remember. It happened at a weird point in the 'story' though, so the dev decided to completely remove it from the game, instead of just moving it to another day (in-game). I seriously question if this dev knows what he's doing.
And I'm not even sure I'll bother with chapter 3 even, let alone chapter 4. I tell ya, this VN is pretty, but that is all it has going for it. You're better off playing just about any other VN. Or extract the images out of this game and look at them, just don't waste your time actually "playing" this sleeping pill.

Ch 2 review.
This was decent when it first came out. Beautiful renders, ok writing, some sexy LIs but was already leaning toward overly dramatic. I didn't even bother with the rework a year later. I thought now with ch2 I'd give it a go but wow, this is now a soap opera with an excess of women with multiple dramatic story lines but zero action. Taking out Sam as the gf in the rework was a mistake. Could have given the option to dump her for the people who felt forced but now the MC has no relationships just a bunch of women with drama going on around him. Also, the double drama and half the content with the sister when she's not even a possible LI makes this either a FMC story or at least a multiple protag story. This reminds me of the other guy's story with beautiful LIs but a eunuch mc, just not nearly as good a story or character building imo.
Also, feels like a lot of choices are meaningless. If not, we're given very little feedback as to what their consequences will be in the future.

Despite the beautiful renders, I just wasted several hours of my life watching something more boring than Days of Our Lives.

It would be a great game if it was a game but it's more like a telenovela about some miserable people talking about their feelings. And don't get me wrong, I like a little character development but this goes for sooooo long that I just decided to just quit. The worst part is that it will probably turn out to be a mindless harem game and then all these feelings won't matter at all.
I have to give credit for the great renders though, I could see their feelings in their faces which, I guess, is the main point of the game...

Only good thing about this game is renders and some level of story (some)

Anything else is mess and misleading. This game is not about MC but about Olivia. It is leasbo game with FMC and nothing more. Nothing is wrong with it but you should be marketed what it is and not what it is not. But instead dev decided to mislead people. Telling us that it is Male leads hardship story. Well it is not. After playing it soon you realize Olivia has more screen time then MC. More story then MC. More Drama then MC. Only reason why we have Male "MC" is to mislead people for getting into game. Had I known its FMC lesbo drama I would not have bothered downloading this game.

Is this good game? No.
Has it good story? kinda if it had been about MC
Are renders good? Yes for what is worth, renders and character models are very good.
Should you play it? unless you are into FMC I wound not recommend

Let me start off by saying that I'm extremely disappointed in the dev for the rework. A story loses its purity when the dev goes back to change aspects of a story that people complain about versus telling the story that he/she wants to tell. In the previous version Sam was already the MCs GF. The type of gf that most men would consider a "ride or die". She's a wonderfully crafted character but of course people were bitching because "this feels forced and I don't like it". It was a cowardly move in my opinion.

With that being said this still has a potential to be one of the greats. The story is fresh and the renders are exquisite. The environment is beautiful and the soundtrack is fucking phenomenal. I'm a huge fan of stories with emotional writing especially with a bit of mystery which this one is loaded with. I definitely look forward to the future of this one. I wanted to give it 5 stars but I couldn't because of my previous rant above.

Giving this a 5 solely for the purpose of two reasons.

Grade A Writing. The Writing is so good I almost feel bad reading because it's almost like I'm watching someone elses life unfold as an outsider. All the private details, intimate, deep, dark, and depressing things, the ups and downs, the memories. It almost feels like a window into the soul. It's kind of crazy but its genuinely just so well done.

Grade A Renders. The Render quality is absolutely, out of this world. Everything is so crisp and clean, looks gorgeous. The environment has so much detail, the characters are so beautiful and well made, the characters even look mostly authentic (the males moreso than the females) but we always want beautiful girls, so I cant complain. Just an additional plus. Hell even the sister and sasha are beauties. Most of the models seem a bit molded off one another, but eh, its a good mold either way.

Theres a lot to read, a lot of chapters, world building, story, etc. I really enjoy it. It doesn't even feel like an AVN at times. In my opinion, this is what quality looks like. Animations, intimate scenes, etc. thats all just a bonus. I'd never put them under a scoring system because it just doesn't feel fair, animations are hard so all in all thats where I stand.

See where this one goes but as of chapter 2, definitely a 5 star in the works.

I can understand the bad reviews as they're looking for something a bit spicier, but if you're looking for something to genuinely read and enjoy that isn't pretentiously written and has some spice to it. This is a good option. The sister being a bit of a secondary main character also isn't my biggest cup of tea, but it makes sense in the grand scheme. The story is deep moreso than it is just perverse so that may turn alot of people off. I enjoy these kinds of stories personally though. I've read alot of smut equivalents, sometimes a good novel is worthwhile. I feel like the 1-2 star reviews are unfair, granted if you dont enjoy it, thats totally fair but rating it so extremely low for how high quality it is, is a huge disservice to the author.

A beautifully rendered AVN with an emotional story. the lewd part is practically non existent but if and when it will be good due to the high level of the graphics. The story is a bit slow but rather deep so it is not for everyone but i dig it.

+ renders, top notch
+ game has gallery
+ nice menu song, generally music is very good and relaxing
+ girl models
+ few funny moments. Especially one with Sarah

- no lewd scenes
- MC sister is not a LI and never will be. That means she is completely useless, but dev decided to force her as a little second protagonist and we must play and see all her lesbo-nonsense drama.. ugh.. total shit
- forced lesbo stuff.. another ugh..
- relationship development is poorly done. No romantic moments, no tension. Absolutely nothing. Cmon….
- story is boring, also too much drama
- there is some choices but they are irrelevant
- MC with bland personality, few times he behave like imbecile. Thankfully he is not a total loser.. there is still hope for him

I feel bored playing this game, almost hit alt + f4 at some point, but wanted to see if something changes and become more interesting, well.. that didn't happen. 2 stars for now

Lets start on a high note: Everything in this game is beautiful. The renders, music choices, and weirdly all the characters. Doesn't seem to matter since our MC is a fucking eunuch, but I digress.

The story is mom has the spicey flu and its basically wrecked all the relationships around. Brother becomes the emotional punching bag for literally everyone and while every female prefaces every criticism with "I know this situation isn't totally your fault but......" makes me feel like every conversation becomes walking around the point for a year before we get there. There are scenes that add literally nothing to any of the stories being told here. Slow burn yada yada.

There is also no sex in this game. I don't mean no intercourse. I mean no sex. There's no flirting like there may be sex. There's no hint any of these characters even enjoy sex. This dude is around nothing but hot women....ffs his best friend is a hot woman and his excuse is he doesn't want to ruin their friendship. It's hinted she likes him but you wouldn't guess it with how just grating she is towards him. She also just thinks its normal to sleep naked with his lesbian sister. The one time the best friend's mom makes a pass at him he's fucking confused by it. Like I said, the dude is a fucking eunuch.

Lets point out this game's main problem. Over writing. Half of these conversations do not move the plot forward and serve no narrative purpose. I'd call it pretentious if it were poorly written but its not. Its just kinda the same conversations over and over until they get to the point and the scene can finally end. The lack of sex would even make sense for a slow burn but in this state I can name every possible love interest, but god do they not act like they are interested. The dev clearly has the drive to make a great narrative. The problem is the conversations wear thin really fast without one of two narrative payoffs: sex or plot point resolution. I mean ffs this dude treats his mother the exact same as he treats all of the females in this game.

The VN has a great set up but no follow through as of yet. Which is a problem when everything is dragging like a high school play. Gotta light a fire under this one and pronto.

I don't really want to shit on the devs work here, but I'm afraid I kinda have to. The game is just... extremely bland and cliche. It hits almost every cliche bullet possible. The cancer that affects the parent, the estranged siblings that will inevitably be fixed, the sisters best friend that hovers around the MC, the troublemaker MC in his youth but with a good heart, etc etc. Even the graphics are extremely cliche and generic. The girls look really similar, they all have the same color skin tone, and same styles. The crop top with piercings look and some hair dye. Even the MC looks generic, its the same dudebro looking guy with a few tattoos. I don't want to be overly harsh here, but this game takes no steps out of the comfort zone at all. It's very boring and bland. There's also basically no sexual content at all aside from seeing a few generic boobs here and there.

If you are brand new to VN's or you are extremely vanilla and just want a really laid back generic chill experience then maybe you will enjoy this, but for those who want to experience something a little refreshing or new then I'm afraid you won't find it here.

Just some hot models talking on and on about uninterestig shit. Because the models are above average, great work there.

The story is boring and bloated. Drama can add deep to a story but if everything and everyone is surounded by drama what's the point? On the other hand we have the word count, the writing is oververbose. You can tell the same story with half the text in the game.

Remakes. Yep, this is another victim of ""perfectionism"" that ended being worse than previous iterations. If something isn't broken don't touch it.

If you're looking to live vicariously through some overdramatic story this may be for you.
If you're looking for some stories with sexy action avoid this game for now.

Tl;dr: Too much blah blah drama blah blah drama and too little action.

Ch. 1. From what I understand, it's a rework?

I swear, this is the first time I drop an AVN because it's… boring. No, it isn't bad in any sense, but it's boring!

As porn:
the MC meets a number of pretty girls and we see some of their tits, but his relationship with them doesn't go anywhere and he tells his friend that he isn't into dating right now. Considering what his mother's going through, it's entirely justified in-story. Okay, no porn for now, story it is.

As story:
Aaaand this is when we get into a trap.
1) The MC doesn't get any task he has to complete, but a task for the MC is something vital to hook the player if there's no porn. At this moment in the story, nothing really depends on him. The mother most likely dies, but even if she doesn't, there's no way for him to influence that. Not only do the players have to wait for an update, but the MC has to sit on his ass doing almost nothing. He just... lives, and that's boring. This happens because...
2) The devs really chose a weak point in the story to start the game. If they used the moment where the sister just had her epic conflict with the mother and the Mom first got into the hospital, it'd be much better. We'd get a bit used to their prior lives, and the mother-daughter conflict would mean much more for us as we'd see it in real time. Right now, I don't give a shit about the sister and her ex, because the Mom is dying from cancer! If I learned about the sister's drama first, I would actually care. Besides, that was the moment when a lot really depended on the MC, he had something to do! The tension of "get Mom to the hospital ASAP" could make for a decent action scene! But instead, we start at the moment where the MC's done all he could and just... waits.
3) I don't like the brother (MC) and the sister to begin with. The Sis used to be a sweet girl, but she is now an entitled brat. The Bro does his best now, but he was a jerk growing up.
4) Specific girl: Sam. I hear that she used to be the MC's pre-determined GF, but the players' outrage made the dev change that. Well, it was a bad decision: we lose the only realistic source of porn at this point in story, AND Sam turns out to be so deep in friendzone she's never realistically getting out of there, which ruins her as a LI. I think she understands it herself as she's right now going to sleep topless in a room with a known lesbian who's just off a bad breakup; is she onto something?

So, no porn, the MC does nothing (as there's no task for him to do or an intrigue he can actually solve), and he and his sister aren't really likeable. Nothing grabs my attention. Too bad, as the visuals are good (the video fragments are particularly nice), and the writing isn't bad. But the story and characters are boring, and that settles it.

AVN devs! Don't throw porn away! People like different stories while everyone likes porn, so, by throwing porn away, you take unnecessary risks!

the game itself is very cool and very pleasant, the plot is interesting, the atmosphere of the plot plus the musical atmosphere and all in one, the straight mental and emotional story of the game was very cool and pleasant, it was all a version of the game for me personally

This gets a star because the renders are high quality, but otherwise it's a swing and a miss. Hard pass.

Writing is long and cliché, and dialogue is very clunky overall. Lots of people talking about things that happened or are happening without you actually seeing them happen. https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ShowDontTell And when they do talk, conversation doesn't sound natural at all.

Choices are entirely irrelevant, they might as well not exist

There are no lewd scenes other than a couple of boobs which really have no reason for existing

I think the dev is too high on their own supply. Writing something *long* isn't a substitute for writing something *interesting*

SPOILERS

If you really wanted to explore the theme of dealing with terminal diseases and how it affects families, then *show* that happening to this family. Instead we go from mom being perfectly healthy, flash forward a decade and she has stage 4 cancer. Dad is only shown in some black-and-white memory type renders. I don't care about MC. I don't care about Olivia. I don't care about anyone. You haven't *made* me care.

I suggest taking up a course on creative writing and critiquing a few existing novels to understand what's missing here. Great work on the renders and lighting, but those two alone do not a great game make.

You could argue it's early days and the dev is going for a "story-first AVN", but if that's the case, why is everyone other than the token friend a super hot female? Why are most girls automatically smitten by the MC? Why should I believe it???

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/ClicheStorm
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TasteTheRainbow
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/TattooAsCharacterType

Story wise: 3/5
I think there is a lot of potential for this game but in my opinion there is a lot of pitfalls that the developer needs to navigate in order to avoid cliches. Traumas like cancer and partner abuse are tragic but tragedy isn't new in this genre, of visual novels, so I am more kin on how the author will tell his story on it.

Animation: 3/5
Animation needs work but I can see the there is a real talent in the developer's ability to direct a scene. The intro was by the far the best part of the game, and with the game being so small, it's concerning but with time maybe other parts of the game will shine.

Renders: 3.5/5
It is nice to see more variety in the girls, who I assume will be potential love interests. But I had a hard time distinguishing the differences between Olivia and Samantha at times. It was a nice touch in detail on how similar Olivia looks like to her mother, but if incest is not intended to be a focus (which I am unbiased on) remove her from the banner as it can be confusing to your consumers.

TLDR: Story needs to break away from clichés. No NSFW content yet. The introduction was incredible. Potentially good game.

Great story. Cant wait to see what happens. Lost a good hour for chapter one alone. This is one that will be up there with the best as long as they keep to the story. Definitely worth your time. Great art and animations. Looking forward to the story and the extras

This review is based on the reworked version of Beyond Tomorrow, Chapter 1.

This is one of the rare games where you see the developer genuinely concerned with writing a good plot and creating amazing visuals. Lewds and porn will definitely be integrated into this game, but at the right time, not forced just because this is an AVN. The MC in this game is really well-made, likeable, and is growing through the hardships life presents to him.

The LIs are beautiful and I already have my favorite, but I am sure Chapter 2 will introduce 2 or 3 more of them. My only critique is that the most beautiful model is the MC's sister, but beauty is subjective and each person has their own preference.

In short, excellent renders and story, and good LIs. Worth your time to play!

As of the first chapter:
- VN has very good amount of scenes.
- Good writing and good flow between scenes.
- Good characters. To early to say if they will be great.
- Hot models, good angles and great visuals overall.
So why is it a 4? because for the amount of scenes it has, it should have at least 1 "spicy scene". I would understand a no full-on sex scene for the first chapter. But to not have a single "spicy scene" at all? That is blueballing. So it is a solid 4.

A successful start! Beautiful models, a calm pace in keeping with the theme, lots of hopes for future episodes and a very atmospheric overall picture. The highlight for me personally was the moment with Cece. My heart leapt for joy!