VN - Ren'Py - Nothing Is Forever [v0.7.3] [MrSilverLust]

Nothing Is Forever ...

Probably one of, if not the most memorable Visual Novels I have played thus far, as far as characters and writing goes this is easily top tier. While there can be a lot of grammatical and spelling errors here and there (pretty much used to it at this point) it is VERY evident the developer has a knack for writing fleshed out, unique, memorable characters full of depth. I will explain why.

- I remember all of the characters names. Every single one, even the other male characters, and I only played through once. It is very rare I will remember every single character and their name in a VN, especially after my first play through. That's just how memorable they are because of the quality of writing. Each character is super distinctive. The dialogue is super realistic and natural, and during the sexy scenes the writing alone got me "excited". The developer goes out of his way to make the sexual scenes super steamy with really hot, and a lot of the times erotic dialogue. Far better than a lot of what other Visual Novels do.

- I love how the MC isn't the only damn male in the universe in this game. He has a couple guy friends, some of the love interests also have boyfriends. are engaged etc as well as the guy friends also having girlfriends of their own (that become paths for the MC too, of course) This makes the world, and writing in general far more immersive. Too many Visual Novels where the MC is literally the only male in the world and in the love interests world. You can literally cuck one of your best friends in this game. Haven't really seen any other Visual Novel do anything like that. The amount of unique paths you can take or decline is really impressive.

-The kinks and traits system is awesome. Feels like you are playing an actual RPG. Super immersive, and the system has a lot of depth and options to it. Pretty much has every archetype for every sort of player. This is awesome.

Now I will get to the girls.

- EMMA
Emma is personally an amazing route to me. The love/hate dynamic has always been one of my most favorite types of romances. The constant banter, arguments, hot and cold kind of interactions Emma has with the MC is really nice. I don't much like romance paths where everything feels so easy and is smooth sailing for the MC. Emma's path feels super realistic and immersive, because she feels like a real person. I was pretty much hooked to this VN straight away because of Emma. I really love these types of relationships. Keeps you on your toes, and is exciting due to it's unpredictable and volatile nature.

DEB -
While I don't really care for her route sexually, as I am not a submissive I do like her character. Her and the MC also have a nice and believable chemistry and dynamic. I can kind of see why her relationship is failing with Carl however. There is femdom, and there is sadism. It seems her kinks falls more on the sadism side than domination if I am being honest. I am not super familiar with how femdom works because again, it's not my kink but not letting your sexual partner cum/orgasm seems pretty sadistic. Especially telling them not to cum for 2 whole weeks after jerking them off close to orgasm...that's sadistic, not dominant as far as I am concerned. With male domination, the girl almost always gets pleasure too so I find this really odd. It's not for me personally. People who are in to sadism/femdom will love it however.


JEN

Jen becomes the MC's psychiatric patient, is a competitive chess player and is a sweetheart. While I absolutely despise Chess and pretty much skipped through all of the chess segments (sorry dev, nothing personal) I really like Jen as a character. I love her submissive nature as a fan of male domination too. Overall, another really nice route for the MC (even if she is the one he should be avoiding the most morally, logically and professionally)

-BRI

Bri seems nice and is sexy, but she hasn't really had an awful lot of time with the MC compared to some of the other girls so it's still too early to say much about her yet. I am definitely excited to see more of her though hopefully, doesn't feel like she has had much involvement yet.

- LEA
If you like turning shy and quiet girls in to slutty exhibitionists, look no further! Lea is great and a lot of fun, don't have too much more to comment about her though.

-KIM
oh fuck yeah.... call me a piece of shit all you want, but its so rare you get the opportunity to cuck one of the MC's friends in these games with his slutty girlfriend, but you can definitely do it here and I am excited to see what comes from it. It is a bit disappointing that you can't seemingly pursue her unless you don't snitch on her. The other angle, where she potentially seduces the MC in to it could have been nice with the whole antagonist angle you get from her if you snitch on her to Pete. Either way. I am a massive fan, I love cold hearted baddies like her. Sue me. Sorry Pete.

-OLIVIA
Olivia is another girl who happens to be in an open relationship with another one of the MC's best buddies Jamie. She's another girl who hasn't had much interaction with the MC as of yet, but I like her too. As someone who has a relative suffering from Huntington's Disease, her story about her mother suffering and unfortunately passing from it resonated with me quite deeply. Props to the developer for raising awareness of Huntingtons, even if it's in an AVN. "Pale Carnations" also did this and it's always nice to see real life disabilities/illnesses/conditions brought to light in any form of media.

Last thing I will touch on is the renders and presentation. Sure, the renders aren't really up to todays standards and could initially put people off, but the writing really does make up for them and I also think they have their own unique charm. After visiting the developers Patreon and seeing that he is working on a "mid range laptop" makes this all the more understandable. He is definitely doing the best with his hardware limitations, so nothing but respect for that. You're doing an amazing job MrSilverLust.

Overall, I highly recommend Nothing Is Forever to people who love well written and fleshed out, memorable characters and stories that dig deeper than just another standard "teenage MC banging his entire family" story.

Superb work, MrSilverLust. Best of luck, I am eager to continue this amazing journey.

If you're looking for a quick fap game then this isn't for you. If you want a fun slice of life type of game with different kinks, a fun story then i highly recommend it. It takes time but plenty of choice and consquence. Looking forward to banging my mates manipulative GF and putting her in her place.

One of the best games on the site, great renders, great diversity in characters, lots of different kinks available and the ability to pick and choose based on your preferences, intelligent writing throughout and some dope references (bojack gang).

Amazing game! What a nice discovery it has been.
I have mixed feelings on the visual aspect of it. On one hand I appreciate the composition, on the other the chosen filter isn't really good IMO. Character design could have also been a bit better, but it's good enough. Posing is still very stiff but it's just a matter of getting better with DAZ, I guess, I know nothing about it.
The story is interesting and it was really immersive for me, it resonates a lot with my own experience in many ways. Dialogues feel natural and I appreciated the choice of having them fading away. Characters are all interesting and well fleshed out. There are a lot of interesting kinks to explore and I hope they will be flashed out more in the future, lewd stuff is still on the scarce side but there is a ton of content so far. Keep up the good work.

Far and away the best story and kink driven game on this site, if you value true, grounded realism. The way the characters interact is true to life and the dialogue and story is not rushed in the name of getting to the next plot point. The only "unrealistic" part is that there are all of these things happening to this one person, and all the girls are super attractive. But it's a game after all.

The modeling of the character's internal experience with the five different internal "personalities" is both funny and a clever literary device that belongs in a highbrow novel not in some smutty sex story - I feel almost spoiled that it has been included so well.

Emma path is for me the hottest, I haven't explored Deb/Kim but it seems like if you're into a different set of kinks you have your bases covered there as well.

This was the literally best VN i was ever played/read.

The writing was way above the other hundreds of i've played. The psychological analyzes of other characters or even your character depending on your decisions, being able to play it in your way and having pleasure regardless of your kinks, story and characther development and many other aspects of the game was perfect. They are all so perfect that you dive into the story and you start to feel great -and you're enjoying it too much when it comes to sexy parts- so you don't care at all about the graphics, which is the only average part of the game.

And the game was really special for me, sometimes I saw some of the thoughts I am having while the character was questioning himself. Or there was criticism or advice that really fit modern life. This was really a job -or should i say art maybe- that made by a person or people who know what they are doing.

MUST PLAY!(If you are just wanting to have a quick wank, just save this gem for a time when you have more time.)

This game is actually good the only reason i don't give a 5 star is that i feel it's restricting the player to only one woman also the skill pointw without a cheat engine restricts you even more as many options gets grey(unselected)

Pros
Good story 5/5
Good models 5/5
Interesting mini games 5/5

Cons
Skill points that restricts the players option
Non harem game=less sex content

In this game, there are a lot of things I like very much.

First, there is music and sound, and it's not some random shit all over the place; the music matches the scenes, as are the sounds. very good point in my eyes.

Second, the girls are diverse but not too many of them (i never understood the principle of games with more than 10 girls who are bland) and each of them has a diverse vibe and gives a different feeling to the player.

Third, the statistics thing may be a very good thing, or not. That is hard to judge at this point of the game, because only some stats are called for. It can either turn in a "all stats give something at some point with a best predetermined order" or a "some stat is never used in the game". From what i saw, some stats do came into play a lot more than others... it remains to be seen. It's probably the weakest point of the game because I do not think the dev will have enough scope of the game to provide with multiple iterations for each stats for each girl, so it will become a kind of "for this girl, take that stat, for that other one, those, at those moments in the game to not miss any content". However I appreciate the idea but like previously said, I think it will fail because of "single dev" and little scope of the game as an AVN from a single dev.

The story is quite interesting, but will be hard for those who are not "right"/"fine" in their live. So it's not a game for everyone.

This is probably the game with the most "depth" I have played on F95.
All the characters felt different and had their own personality, not a single person felt generic.
Even though this game could be considered "slow", but I thoroughly enjoyed it and would recommend it to anyone who wants a good story instead of instant gratification.
The new chapter 4 update is incredible, many of the story lines are starting to entangle and a climax could be coming in the next update.
Personally I cannot wait for more Emma and Jen.

This is the best game on the site for me.

I am a sub, in to Femdom and there is some fantastic Femdom scenes here. However if you aren't in to Femdom there are some fantastic vanilla scenes too.

The beauty of this game is the people in it all feel realistic and very different from one another. The developing relationship between the MC andthe love interests is amazing to watch and the decisions feel meaningful.

The writing is really good and the story is well thoughtout.

This is the first review I have written purely because this game is so much better than it's peers.

Delighted to see all the well-deserved reviews, and laughing my ass off at the reviewer who thinks they're paid for. Otherwise I'm not going to repeat what a bunch of other reviewers have already said about this game. I'll be looking forward to the next chapter, seeing what happens to these characters next, and hoping the game goes on long enough to get another chance at Jen after the two years are up.

Well its good slice of life not my cup of tea but others like it. Far too much mundane dialogue . Also why the dick wilting talks with male friends with rugged features. Do not want thanks.
We can choose different paths. But in reality because the choices are shown what they do i just pick one (for example manly) and go with it.
Maybe make the choice invisible? add a bit of mystery
for replay.

Love the deep dialogues and introspection, in general all the psychological part of the game, definitely one of the best and more engaging I've played. The skill system is also amazing, there must be a lot of work behind it

I will write honestly: this game deserves much more attention! Only 44 pages in a thread? This is a masterpiece!
Let's start with game design. There is a player in the menu, a phone inside the game, a full RPG leveling system with perks. This looks very familiar. The creator clearly took lessons from DrPinkCake, but some ideas went further. For example pumping and perks - they are deeper and more complex. We have 4 character lines (Soyboy, Alpha, Honest and Cunning) By getting points in each dialogue behavior you can unlock perks that unlock sexy kinks. I liked this system.
The plot and characters are interesting, this is one of the few games in which you do not skip dialogue, and the characters seem to be ordinary living people, and not a collective image of stereotypes.
A separate plus for hand-drawn renderings, it is clear that the developer is trying and loves his work. As I progress through the game, I realize that every decision will have consequences in the future, and I feel that there may be a shock at the level of Acting Lessons. The theme of psychology and personality analysis of girls, their kinks is just fire. The developer also brings us the idea - we are all perverts to some extent and this is normal.
The music fits perfectly with the atmosphere of the game.
On version 0.4.1 I see that MrSilverList is a rising star in the development of erotic VN. Whoever has the financial means, I recommend to subscribe to his Patreon, he deserves it.

Truly excellent game.

Good and intelligent writing, solid (slice-of-life-type) story, interesting relatable and likable LIs and MC, good selection of models, good camera angles/renders. The black lines in the art seemed weird in the beginning, but I got used to it quickly, and found the visuals actually quite stunning.

I know little about psychology, but usually VNs with a psychologist are painfully stupid. Here, it is pleasantly done with some (rather well known but still entertaining) pices of evo-psych etc thrown in.

I am less than moderately interested in chess but still found the descriptions of the games and the mild riddles entertaining (and not too hard). If you dislike chess you can skip most of that, I think.

None of the usual lewd game illnesses such as as the magic horsecock that induces multiple orgasms on sight, etc

Listen, here's how you know this game has the characterization down. I still remember every character's name. On this site, that is quite rare. But these characters are so well constructed, so meticulously observed, that they leave their mark on your consciousness. That's real talent there.

I also enjoy how you aren't railroaded into things you might not like. Don't like a particular kink? Don't take the perk! It's as simple as that.

I also like how the MC is neither a superhero chad, nor a bumbling idiot. He's as well characterized as any of the others in this game.

Can't wait for the next installment. I think this game may well become a masterpiece.

I'm not one to think a writer has to have a good amount of RL experience to be able to write good fiction about a subject. It sure helps but not absolutely necessary if the writer is good. Sadly, this means the genre of "dating sims", is either dominated by horrible writers or incels. Or both (likely). Which is why it took me a while to try this. It's also why it immediately stood out to me, from the first couple lines of dialogue.

It's pretty obvious that this dev knows how to write about intimate interactions in a realistic way. Flirting lines that make sense, female characters who act like actual characters and a protag you can actually buy as one who's...getting pussy. The last part alone is enough to put this way above an average dating sim. Playing through it, you don't get the feeling you are looking at the world through an incel's eyes. Which is what most protags in these games feel like to me.

It has a point system that allows you to somewhat RP your character. It also has a fun gameplay mechanic that allows you to figure out kinks for more spicy interactions. It's obvious that this dev, not only can write believable "dating game", but also knows how to treat kink play in this kind of fiction. In most games it's rather superficial and obviously written by people who don't even understand the kinks. Not in this one.

You still need some suspension of disbelief, it's erotic fiction after all. I mean, it's not likely an RL professional psychologist would risk recommending sexual exhibitionism as a kind of therapy, even to a friend. Actually you never know, that field is known to have some real freaks in the sheets. But the important part is, it's written in a believable manner. And that's all you can ask from a game on here, devs need to strike a balance between realistic and exciting.

I'm really glad I gave this a try, despite my distaste for the genre. It's a hidden gem and I hope it gets the attention it deserves.

Based on the (as yet) unfinished v0.3.2

My usual disclaimers when writing reviews on here are that A. I am here for the "plot" not the plot and B. I am very picky with visual novels and think broadly they can be very subpar. So, take both of those into consideration for my review when thinking about this game.

Pros

• Unique-ish looks and aesthetic – It feels like in NIF the renders all go for realistic-looking models and proportions but also deliberately avoid the photo-realistic style that many games go for. There is an element of that Borderlands-style cartoon-y black lines around characters, for example. Personally, I like this, I think it makes the game stand out and despite not going for full photo-realism, it still looks great and the girls are all fucking HOT.
• Kinky and fucking sexy – The game basically sells itself as going hard on kinks in every direction. Cheating, domination, submission, roughness, gentleness, there’s something here for everyone. It still feels relatively early in the day for the story, so many aspects of it haven’t been explored yet, but if all of the things it suggests it might include get involved at some point, then by the end it’s going to be catering to a HELL of a lot of kinks, including some super niche ones. And you 100% pick and choose which you go for.
• 11/10 writing – Easily the game’s biggest selling point. It feels incredibly well-written. The overall story and set-up takes very little suspension of disbelief to get on board with. The plot is extremely slice-of-life, but honestly that’s a huge selling point for some games like this. Just in general on a broad scale it simply feels inherently believable. It’s not just the broad strokes though, dialogue feels extremely natural, it will linger in some scenes where it should, it skips a lot of the pointless filler that many other games would feel they have to include. It has no qualms skipping time, which actually gives even the early chapters a sensation of progress and momentum. It also isn’t 100% serious all the time and I actually laughed at least once (which, in H-games is rare, trust me).
• Exceptional characters – Along with the above, each character feels unique and like they are ACTUAL people. They all have their own motivations, character traits and flaws. This is doubly true for the main character. He is tormented by past mistakes, guilt and depression, but in a way that simply feels totally genuine and simply real. Like I said, it’s early days here, but I actually think I might put the characterisation of this game up there with some of the all time greats of this site.
• Feels like a reasonably realistic portrayal of kink lifestyle – Along with the great writing comes a surprisingly nuanced approach to the kinkiness. It doesn’t exactly shy away from going into “fantasy” territory, but it never feels like it suddenly becomes ridiculous. Thus far it’s felt hot but also like the fantasies could genuinely happen. The focus on the psychology behind the kink is also pretty cool and interesting as well.
• Interesting mechanics approach – A couple of things here which I actually think might be the best mechanical elements I’ve seen in any VN. Specifically, there are 4 traits within the game and any decision/dialogue choice you make gives you points in one of those traits. The more points you put into each trait the more your character leans toward that because you have the option of learning “skills” in that trait which you can use in sex. This is, frankly, awesome and a brilliant approach. The game ALSO outright tells you if you are on a particular route (or not as the case may be) and I’m gonna tell you straight up: that’s amazing. The feeling of KNOWING what I am/am not missing is actually brilliant and means I don’t feel like I need to be checking a walkthrough constantly to find out if I have missed stuff. I actually feel like the way this is done is potentially somewhat revolutionary for the genre.

Mehs

• Realism leading to (likely) lack of harem route – So, as stated, the game feels exceptionally believable and like it could genuinely happen. The downside of this is that it means that it becomes very clear to the player that while early on you get to go around fucking multiple girls, at some point you ARE going to have to make a decision and pick one of them and lose others. While I get the appeal of reality in H-games, I always will lean more towards preference for sexual fantasy and so will be disappointed when the game eventually does start requiring those decisions.
• Just slightly shy of enough sexual content for the fapping – Pretty straightforward. There have been 3 chapters so far and 3 or 4 major sexual scenes with a few smaller teasing ones here and there. They are genuinely scalding hot and the wrapping around them is entertaining enough that it gets a pass from me, but if it were up to me I’d prefer just slightly more sexual stuff. But hey ho, that’s not what the game wants to be.
• My girl Deb almost certainly won’t be dominated properly in any scenes – Just… Godamn, she’s the hottest one and she only wants submissive guys? You bastard MrSilverLust… You bastard!

Cons

• Self-loathing is a tad overdone – As previously stated, the MC is tormented by past mistakes, guilt over his previous actions and terrified of repeating them. This leads to several internal monologues throughout the game where the MC will just lambast himself for his stupidity, for how much of an awful person he is and so-on and so-on. It feels like a pretty good rendition of depression, fitting in with what I said before about the realism of the game. However, this very realism makes these scenes genuinely difficult to get through and when they become increasingly regular during the early stages of chapter 2 it means that the whole game just drags and becomes more like an overly gratuitous display of self-loathing, rather than anything more enjoyable to play.
• Self-loathing also means some routes feel genuinely scummy – This section will necessitate spoilers unfortunately: essentially one of the central focuses of the game is the relationship between the MC and his new female client at his new sports therapy practice. During the early chapters of the game their relationship grows, and it is obviously teased that they are attracted to each other. During this time it is also regularly driven home both by the MC’s internal monologue, by reminders of his past and also by other characters that a therapist sleeping with their client is basically an absolutely shitty thing to do. One particular interaction with the in-game Dean of Psychology really nails this home when she says that it means the girl is essentially paying the MC to sleep with her. In a fantasy porn game this would simply be for added taboo spice and would be swiftly ignored. Here though, the writers are aiming for realism, and that means that if you do decide to progress with this girl’s route it feels like you are GENUINELY being a shitty person. And as someone who usually tries to take the “good guy” route in RPGs, this fucking sucks and actually somewhat ruins the vast majority of their later interactions.

There are a number of very highly rated games on F95 which insist they are slow-burn romances. They often include very little (or in some cases basically NO) sexual content and then every single review will say, in my opinion often wrongly: “well clearly because there’s no sex and it takes forever for anything to happen, this is one of those games which is instead well-written”.

And I often think that actually the writing in them is really just generally not that great…

NIF is, in my opinion, potentially one of the absolute best examples of writing I have seen on F95, bar none. And it does this without sacrificing in the sexy department. Despite the serious nature of much of the stuff it deals with and the level of maturity and grace it displays in dealing with these things, the game also isn’t afraid to get just fucking kinky and smutty. It’s a fine balancing act between getting the porn fantasy right and keeping the story grounded in reality, and thus far MrSilverLust has totally succeeded in that.

Obviously one big result of that is that it feels like there’s just sliiiiightly too little sexual content for a neanderthal like me, but even then it’s not skimping on the good stuff and so I was kept happy. Plus, the writing around it was good enough to keep me engaged. Like I say, the dev isn’t afraid to skip time and doesn’t include the billions of lines of pointless filler dialogue and scenes which don’t actually add anything to the story that far too many devs feel they have to include in order to demonstrate a relationship growing.

It’s not just a good story, it’s got good pacing, interesting events, conflict and drama which don’t feel like they could be solved in about 2 minutes of discussion by the main characters. There’s stakes, small scale stakes, but which fit the slice-of-life style. It is, quite simply, G U D.

I know that saying the mechanics are “revolutionary” might seem a bit ridiculous, but honestly I can’t think of many VNs which actually quite simply “work” so well. Normally I feel I have to either have a walkthrough open (so I don’t miss the routes that I want) or VNs will make decisions so painfully easy to follow you might as well not need to make them. Here the decisions seem largely to do with roleplaying, but then BY roleyplaying you gain access to skills which give you the option of unlocking sex scenes you might miss through dialogue choices. It’s actually quite simply genuinely great and a system that I actually think a lot of people could learn from.

And you’re gonna want those sex scenes cause OH boy are they fap-worthy. Just… Mmmmhm *chefs kiss* it’s fucking hot my guys. The scene where you bull another dude was a bit rough though, not gonna lie.

As I’ve said though, the real biggest bummer about the game is that the realism and talent displayed in the writing somewhat makes it that much harder to treat NIF as a porn game. The characters feel like actual people and so when you do something to get a steamy sex scene, you might actually be thinking “well, this is a shitty thing for a human to do” rather than enjoying the sexy sex. This in my mind is the single largest hurdle the game has. At the moment it feels like the balancing act is teetering too far towards realism and so any time there’s a sex scene it will almost feel like the dev is chastising you for having a monke brain and going after the sexy stuff… In a porn game!

This is inevitably one of the biggest issues I think some writers have to contend with on here. If you lean too far into reality it ruins the “fantasy” of the whole thing because it starts feeling too real and too little like a sexy fantasy. And when that happens I have to admit that my interest starts to wane because I don’t really want to play a game where I want to see sexy things and then feel bad for having done that!

Maybe this is just more indicative of my own style of play, in any game, not just VNs, but I simply dislike making choices that could be considered “bad”. I always like having the option of making the “right” choice. And when in a PORN game the choice is between the “right” choice and the PORN I AM HERE FOR then it starts causing a bit of cognitive dissonance.

Despite this complaint, I genuinely think NIF has the potential to be one of the absolute best games on this site. If nothing else, it is at the very least currently criminally underrated and underplayed and deserves much more attention.

Saw this game a year ago, but for some reason never got to playing back then. Now I have tried it... not to upset all the glowing reviews, I must say that my initial impression of this game paints it as a painful normie simulator. Normie music, normie friends, normie conversations. The game is indeed psychologically deep, however - it made me appreciate my loneliness much more. And the locations are so IRL - bar, gym, therapist office, ew.

But yeah, a piece of constructive criticism - try to make your game interesting from the beginning, I'm bored out of my mind. (And no, I don't mean intercourse, ew.)

Updates! What I have realised about this game is that it... pulls me out of its own story, in a way. Let's say - I start playing, cock in hand, finger hovering over Print Screen, and then - and then I start therapy. And I start thinking. And go to Reddit to check up on balding cancer patients, replying to them all in my mind according to my woldview.

In a word, this game is definitely high-IQ, high-funny, and just high on the spectrum. And it's artsy to hell and back, but in an almost good way. For sure deserves 5 stars, not a joke.

Cant remember the last time I was this impressed by any game, let alone a dating sim. First off, you can tell the creator did their homework. Even in things non sexual like chess matches, the attention to detail is phenomenal. In addition the characters and interactions feel real and authentic. And the whole rpg point system between the different character traits/ inner voices is brilliant. I feel like was actually made by a psychologist thats picking apart my brain and making me question what I truly value with each choice I make. And of course I have to mention how well the steamy scenes are done. It feels like every kink so far has absolutely been nailed. And as someone who's into feet, I gotta give praise to that awesome foot worship scene that included foot smelling, a seemingly forgotten fetish in a world that so often reduced footplay to just footjobs. And the psychoanalysis of the kinks just heightens the experience so much and adds so much depth where other games tend to feel corny and shallow. Even kinks that im not usually into are so hot because the psychology behind them is so fleshed out that I feel just as turned on as the character experiencing their fetish. The effort and attention to detail that have gone into making this game are apparent and I cant wait for more. So far this game is easily a 10/10 and one of my fave games of all time.