VN - Ren'Py - Completed - Now & Then [v1.00.0] [ILSProductions]

Now & Then lives up to its name, telling its story in two distinct ways: the “Now” and the “Then.”

You begin the game a few weeks after a zombie apocalypse, stuck in your apartment with your adopted daughter. Through flashbacks, you learn about your late wife, who passed away from cancer, and how, in your grief, you eventually chose to adopt a teenager in need of love and care. This pseudo-prologue sets the stage beautifully, giving you a strong emotional foundation and making the bond between you and your daughter feel meaningful and genuine.

As the story unfolds and you struggle to survive in this infected new world, more characters are introduced — some from your past, others entirely new. The group grows gradually until you reach the final roster. With each new addition, flashbacks continue to provide context, fleshing out backstories and helping you understand why each person matters. This is one of the game’s greatest strengths: its storytelling makes you actually care about the characters and worry about their fate.

Of course, it’s not perfect. Some decisions and actions taken by characters can feel questionable, leaving you wondering why they happened. Thankfully, these moments don’t derail the flow or pacing of the narrative. One thing the game does especially well is instilling a constant sense of danger. Even though you know it’s unlikely something catastrophic will happen to the main cast, the atmosphere keeps you on edge, and the tension is always present while playing.

The game also offers a wide range of choices, which can lead to premature endings if you’re reckless, or to a well-deserved happy ending — sometimes alongside one (or more) love interests you’ve built relationships with along the way.

Visually, the game presents a variety of environments and settings that keep things engaging. The character modeling might not appeal to everyone, but it’s done really well — the models are realistic to a point, attractive, and enjoyable to watch. Expressions and emotions are especially well-crafted, adding weight to the story and helping you connect with the cast. Combined with the diverse, well-animated intimate scenes, the visuals elevate the overall experience and make it more immersive.

No game is perfect, and Now & Then is no exception. But in my opinion, this one comes surprisingly close to that impossible standard of perfection.

Based on everything:

• Story → Strong emotional core with well-done flashbacks and pacing. Some decisions and character actions feel odd, but they don’t break the flow. 8.8/10
• Player Choices → Plenty of decisions that shape endings, relationships, and survival. Some paths are stronger than others, but overall they feel meaningful. 8.5/10
• Art Style → The models might not appeal to everyone, but they’re attractive and expressive, which really adds to immersion. Backgrounds and scenarios are varied and polished. 8.3/10
• Sex Scenes → Well-crafted, diverse, and supported by good animations. Not flawless, but they fit the story and elevate the experience. 8.5/10

Overall Score → 8.5/10

I'm pretty late the party on this one. I enjoyed my time with Now and Then, about 25 hours for the full playthrough if I had to guess, but I'd be lying if I said it was always smooth sailing.

First off, though, I'll lay out some positives. I liked basically all the characters, there were tense moments throughout the story that had me itching to just keep reading another chapter, and the overall concept was executed well. I enjoyed how they framed how boring the apocalypse is until it suddenly isn't boring, something I don't think I've seen many pieces of media express quite so well. I also liked the majority of the dialogue between characters and had a few good laughs and a few heartfelt moments were sprinkled in throughout.

My negative nitpicks, though, are a little too annoying to me personally to avoid talking about. First off, the third act is very good and well paced, for the most part. The third act definitely salvaged my opinion of the game which, at that point, I was only going through because I'd already gotten that far and just wanted to finish it. Act 1 and Act 2 are slow. Act 2 especially felt like it dragged on for way too long without anything of note actually happening. There were a few stressor moments, but they came and went quickly and then you were just lulled into some boring filler until the characters reached the next far more interesting set piece.

Funny little thing about me, I don't actually play lewd games or AVNs with the intent to goon, I just find them a very interesting and endearing medium to tell stories. For a lot of Now and Then, this worked in my favor, though I think I'd be correct in saying (without actually counting) that there were more lewd scenes in the last couple chapters than there were in the first two acts. That may be incorrect, but they would douse the pacing with cold water constantly. The scenes themselves were fine, and became exponentially better by around the halfway mark of the AVN, but it got to the point where I was just skipping through some of them to get to the next part of the plot.

Finally, my biggest gripe with the game, is the game's core "gimmick". Now and Then takes place primarily in "Now" where the main story is happening and you occasionally get "Then" segments that give a little context to current situations through flashbacks. For the first half of the game, this was a great narrative device to try and give a little slice of life for the characters from their lives prior to the pandemic the game is centered around. However, they become absolutely unnecessary by the end of act 2 but there seems to be at least one in every chapter that just kicks the pacing in the teeth and they don't really add anything to current events. For instance, there was a section where the characters slept in a motel and the MC had a flashback to a time where he and his adopted daughter stayed at a motel. It was maybe 4 to 8 lines of dialogue and then it went back to the present day story. It was just. . . Off putting and completely unnecessary. I got the feeling towards the end that they were only included in each episode because the author felt the gimmick was core to the game's identity.

I know I kinda tore into this one a bit but I will say that I liked it overall. It dragged in spots, sure, but it's a completed AVN with a pretty decent story with believable characters and worldbuilding and I really liked almost all the love interests. Give the game a shot if you like the art style especially knowing it does get better as the game goes on. 25 hours is just north of the sweet spot for me with most avns so I do personally think it's a touch too long, but I'm sure plenty of people will get enjoyment out of this one.

The pacing of this game is amazing. The flashbacks add so much backstory to the characters and really helps you understand them and their actions better. By the end, I was just playing this for the story.

Excellence all around. The story is uniquely compelling, the visuals are great, it hits most if not all the emotional notes.
Only wish there was a bit more to the epilogue, too often they make me feel like there's more to the story and leave you hanging.

20 - 30 hour playthrough. There's no branching routes, game is very much focused on telling a story not a game, the characters relationships and how their surroundings affect them is the main selling point.

Pros:

1. Story rich. Like duh, it's 20+ hours
2. Cute characters. Dated models but surprisingly with how many renders are in this game, and the effort to animate H scenes, I think it's fair
3. Completed story. It's got an epilogue, and the game ends off on a good note.

Cons:

1. Plots points are often ignored to introduce new ones.
   Spoiler: Spoiler

   You don't have permission to view the spoiler content. Log in or register now.
2. The lighting is terrible. I do not like how most scenes look with really harsh lighting.
3. The options where you have to choose a girl to see, locking you out of meeting other girls for the day. Hate those, just get a mod that lets you choose all the options
4. H scenes are always done 1 on 1. You're banging all of them, so why does finding somewhere private matter. It's just silly with how much you have sex and not being caught still matters at that point.

It is a good game, just don't see myself playing it again with how little changes. And in typical Zombie media fashion, we never know how or when the "infected" will end.

I've played a few zombie-setting games before. I think this was the most realistic one of them. especially the atmosphere was so good that you really feel yourself in a zombie apocalypse in the game. Although the game repeats itself a bit towards the end, it is still a successful production.

What a wonderful gem I stumbled upon. Not that I think anyone specifically reads my reviews but if they happened to see me elsewhere I am a huge fan of harem/poly romance titles that actually think about the dynamics of the people involved, and I had never really considered it before but a setting like the one here really helps both get the relationships off the ground in a way that doesn't require me to bend over backwards to suspend my disbelief but also feels as organic as something involving both the end of civilization as we currently know it could do.

The characters were cute, they all felt both real and had their own growth throughout, some that surprised me even as there were character I was expecting to not really like all based on first impressions or their relationships already established with another character, but I somehow found myself falling for them after some more time getting to know them in this new world that these characters are learning to adapt to. The music which I normally don't notice all that much was very on point in almost every scene and I never had to resort to turning on my own playlist due to anything getting repetitive so bravo, as an attention to detail part of crafting a narrative in this kind of medium I feel that goes sorely under utilized so I was very happy to see that upon further reflection.

If there was anything to possibly criticize, I suppose it may be that for all the nice erotic scenes we get, there were maybe 3 sound clips for the girls upon climax total? Which if that is your main motivation for playing I suppose that would dock some points for people, but for me it is mostly just a foot note. Some larger variety would be appreciated in any new title, but more than anything I just hope there is a new title that pays this much attention to their characters. All around I was extremely pleased and would urge anyone else to both give it a try and afterwards find your most convenient way of supporting so we can hopefully get more gems like this.

TLDR: A good game, through and through. It's the best at nothing, does some things quite well, messes up in some others. It is complete, runs well on phones, has quite a lot of content, has a fully functional scene player. Worth playing if the premise interests you. Adoptive daughter-father incest is not optional, mostly everything else is.

The Review

The game has a lot more content than I expected it to (there's 25 chapters + an epilogue). On one hand, that is because the story delves into more details about its world and has far more relationship development than you might expect, on the other hand, that is also because a lot of things are mentioned multiple times with different words throughout the story or because the game is quickly trying to connect the branching paths back into a single line so its easier to manage, so it needs you to see something that is mostly irrelevant to the path you chose, just so it can mention that later and you're aware it happened.

It is also because the game has a lot of downtime between major story moments. This was often a positive to me, since it allows relationships to develop more organically, allows us to see what the day-to-day in the apocalypse looks like, and allows tension to build up. It also gives you quite a lot of time to get h-scenes, although I wouldn't say that is this game's strongest suit. However, the downtime was overdone at points, it slowed down the pace a bit too much, and it was during these slow periods that we often had the most rehashes of information, which means that it was essentially padding to play through.

There are issues with choice pathing in this game. "Now & Then" is quite kinetic, you are choosing flavour more than substance most of the time, and that's okay, but when you are given an actual choice, that should be respected. There are moments where you reveal info to a character only for both you and them to react like its the first time you're telling them that same piece of info later (doesn't happen often, but it takes you out of your immersion when it does), and there is one major relationship (Naomi) that the game offers you to say "no" to, only for the narrator, that romantic interest, people around you, and even your own protagonist to all behave as if something is eventually going to happen/has been happening even though you said you weren't interested and never went back on your word (the game does address that this is happening, but it feels poorly integrated into the story, its done in a way that it feels more like addressing it was an afterthough, more than feeling like your choices made a real path you should pick).

The characters are quite nice here. The long length of the game and the large amount of downtime gives the narrative a lot of time to show and explore character dynamics and growth. Even characters I was uninterested in for the most part grew on me eventually, be it in a sexual or non-sexual way. I also really liked that the game does give you quite a bit of closure, exploring relationships all the way to their conclusions.

As I mentioned before, h-scenes are not the main thing this game has got going for it, in my opinion. The voice over is repetitive, and for some characters it was deplorable enough that I had to turn the sounds down to 0 (unfortunately, moaning is on the "Sounds" slider, not "Voices", so I think I might have lost some other sound details as a result of that). There's nothing wrong with the scenes, but I feel they're both a bit too predictable and have too little setup, somehow. Yeah, spontaneous sex can be hot too, but not if it's the only kind you get, you know? Dialogue during these scenes is also quite repetitive.

This game struggles a bit in terms of its identity in regards to realism. A lot of the game is rather believable, not being overly dramatic or dark like a lot of zombie apocalypse media is, but there are sequences that just feel at odds with this more grounded setting. The most egregious cases surround your protagonist and his capabilities, you are still a rather traditional porn game protagonist and that doesn't really vibe with realism. It is, still, however, far more interesting of a post-apocalypse premise to me than something like The Walking Dead, though, even if its not consistent within its own style.

Conclusion

It might feel a bit weird for me to give the game 4 stars with all the criticism and the small amount of praise I gave it, but it truly is an above-average experience in my opinion, its just that it does many things well enough to improve the experience but not well enough to merit specific praise. The failings it has also were not big or frequent enough to ruin the overall experience, especially given how long it is. This is worth playing, just don't expect something that will change your life.

Disappointment.

The main problems of this game is pacing and lack of understanding when it supposed to finally end
I mean first chapter was really good. The second had some logical flaws in the story and first symptoms of future problem that will occur with pacing but overall it was still interesting to read.

But on the third chapter I just dropped reading this . The story just evolved into "slice of life" thing where everyone fucks every 5 minutes (literally) without any plot developing or whatever. For the game that initially started as heavily story-based game just with some h-elements , it ended like your typical hentai soulless game, made by 15 y.o. guy, without any worth to read slow-paced plot in it, that exists solely just as an excuse for a bunch of animated h-scenes to happen so the author could show to his patreon subscribers that the game is not abandoned and that they should keep spend their $.

Technically speaking, there is actual "progress" of the general storyline but it's progressing so slowly and ends with nothing more than disappointment that at some point you ask yourself "why I'm even spending my lifetime on this"
At this point I was so tired to give this any more chances, I just dropped it.

This game honestly surprised me. It doesnt have the best looking style ever. But I promise it makes up for it in story and girls. All the girls are completly different and all have their own "challenges". I didnt think id enjoy this game as much but the reviews made me download it and try it. I suggest you do the same if youre even thinking about it.

A nice little story with a well-thought out universe, very human characters, and meaningful consequences for your words and actions. The sex scenes are often moments of catharsis after an intense situation, and that lends verisimilitude to both the character writing and the narrative stakes.

Clearly made with love and care, and overall accomplishes everything it seems to set out to do.

An incredibly plot-heavy game. In my playthrough of this, I was wondering what would've happened if the dev had scaled his incredible story to a triple AAA title or a book series, because this game has a lot of stories to tell.
My biggest gripe with this game is the lighting. Maybe the dev was trying to do some sort of post-apocalyptic lighting, but all the characters and colors felt unnatural, like I had some sort of colourblind filter on
I have to be honest, I skipped around the last part of the game. The story was getting too complicated and difficult for me to wrap my head around and it felt easier skipping to the sex scenes. After a while, finishing the game felt like a chore. Not saying that the game is made that way. Someone who enjoys dense plots in their porn game will for sure enjoy this. This is definitely a masterpiece if someone is just looking around for a good story.

This game is great
its sadly a zombie lewd game, which sounds 2/10
character models also looks 6/10
and choices seems non-consequential

You can fuck girls
game have a lot of content for some reasons xD
player character always fuck 1 girl at the time and they never try to get into 3some, i wonder if i choice something wrong or if thats how game is

There is a lot of sex scenes so some of them are badly animated or end in one position, but its cool
Game gets 4 stars by itself and lets add modifiers:
-1 for zombie game
+1 for completed
+1 for works well, don't choke on phone

Small minuses:
3d games looks bad
idk whats up with woman and cheating in this game, i m in relation with Carol and i was the good loyal boy 24/7 than she told me to fuck the other girl to help her lose virginity
i told her that i fucked her as she told me xD
later i just fuck things left right and center, i m not sure if i m making a choice or just enjoying the views

i will leave unexpected tip in middle of this rant: if your partner cheat on you, that is not the 1st time, its 1st time they got caught

Game don't have functional back button
YES you can save, but when choice prompt you, you can not save xD
and you don't know when game will present you with choice

i think i leave my bias in review for 5 stars..
my expectations ware low, but i saw it had the stars so decided to try it
and now i feel like a part of the tribe, by itself game is more of a 4 star

A beautiful and well written Visual Novel set in an apocalyptic era. Both the parts: the city and then the country side were written nicely. All the characters were written nicely with unique traits.

All in all a good story with organic relationship and story development

There is obviously a lot of effort put into the writing for this game and it shows. The author knows what he's doing.

However the pacing has issues towards the end, and I personally would have liked a less reserved ending with more sex and pregnancy. The game tries to cling onto its pretenses of realism a bit too much.

Review of v1.00.0

It's hard for me to review Now & Then. This is a game which makes me feel more emotions than some of the best movies. My heart breaks a little each time I finish it, simply for the knowledge that it's over.

Ultimately it's down to the fantastic writing. Not just the plot, which is gripping (despite pacing issues), but the way the characters talk, think and act all feel so natural. The character development is amazing, and the sprinkling of nostalgic pre-pandemic "Then" memories interspersed with the "Now" makes it all the more noticeable and satisfying. The overall vibe is the same better-than-real feeling I get from the best films.

The game isn't perfect. Kinderfeld does a good job with their cinematography, but nevertheless the low-poly graphics do take a bit away, especially from the character models and sex scenes. The soundtrack is actually really good, but poorly mixed, with some tracks orders of magnitude louder than others. And the sex sounds are silly, though due to my emotional connection with the characters I still find them decently hot. Except when the mc tells stupid jokes during them, but I think the quantity may have been reduced in this final version, because I remember it being more of an issue.

I have more minor gripes with the game, but they don't really matter. The fact is, Now & Then gripped my heart like a vice from the start of my first playthrough, and has never truly let go. I have played games that are hotter, have better graphics and have a better story, but nothing that makes me feel as strongly as this.

This game is a solid 5/5 stars for everyone who is prepared to forgive an AVN a few weak points so long as it makes up for them with it strengths. Despite said weak points I think this is one of the best AVNs ever due to a gripping plot and numerous excellent sex scenes (with great boob physics).

The MC is a widower who is raising an adopted daughter. When civilization breaks down due to an epidemic that resembles a zombie apocalypse, MC and his adult daughter try to survive in their little apartment in the city. The two become a couple, which turns into a mini-harem when the daughter's best friend joins them.

After a while, the situation in the city becomes unbearable and the three embark on a long and dangerous trek looking for a safe rural area suitable for long-term survival. Along the way they pick up more women for the MC's harem. They finally reach a billionaire's prepper villa, where the harem grows further.

Some plot points don't make sense, asking us to suspend disbelief on details where it really shouldn't be necessary. For example, in the real world it would be impossible for a single man (even a widower) to adopt a girl, and adoptions of children don't just happen without a trial period.

One of the women has a little son. This makes a lot of sense in terms of the narrative, but the illustrator clearly struggled with the challenge of depicting a small child.

The end is nice but feels a little weak.

• Most of "then" flashbacks are straight up boring slice-of-life padding.
• A lot of choices seem artificial and superfluous. Most often than not they don't represent roleplay or players preference, but are rather arbitrary and exist solely to give an impression of player's agency (like turn Right/Left or Rush/Take your time, etc.). Often outcomes of these are not obvious or don't make sense. A lot of braindead choices that lead to immediate gameovers.
• Lots of exposition, too much dare I say.
• Everything is "overwritten" like the unholy amount of small talk or that everyone explains past events in detail 10 times over.
• For how long the VN is it has a really modest soundtrack. There is only like 5 compositions and they get old really fast.
• MC feels like a lawnmower boomer with his constant "let's drop the formalities and get to the fucking". He also preemptively mentions like 10 times that he wouldn't judge girl's sexuality (in case they are lesbian), which if it isn't woke then I don't know what is.
• Sydney is a dick connoisseur with an "anchor" up her womb and a butt tattoo, but she also has a social anxiety?? How do these traits co-exist together?
• The side plot line of militaristic female camp that secretly kills off men ends where it starts.

I was already disengaged an hour into the novel and the only things that kept me in are the sex scenes (which are well-made but overly verbose thoughbeit) and curiosity of how this harem situation going to unwind. And I'm not impressed. For an erotic game, especially set in an apocalyptic scenario it lacks passion. Characters are very reserved and aren't willing to to be intimate unless they are secluded. There are lots of sex scenes but they are basically all the same. In a harem VN where you can "collect" up to 6 women (which I did) I haven't seen a single threesome. Not to say there aren't any but you'd probably have to use a walkthrough to get them. And that is also another downside - the need for a WT. Because most of the time there IS the best choice. Majority are tied to character progression variables and you as a player are often not certain whether you will get negative or positive points for certain actions. Sometimes pressing the matter when you're questioning somebody is a good idea, other times not so much. The endings are..... ok? Again lacking in romance and passion, or like any imagination for that matter. Quite boring like most of the novel was.

The story felt amazing for the first 1/2 or 2/3 of the game, and even very well written. But it all went downhill from there and continued on until the end in what felt like a complete slop...

My biggest gripe about the game is that the MC is forced into a sexual relationship with his adopted daughter, Carol. And by forced, I mean that you don't get a choice or say in the matter nor any way to avoid or skip it, which is pretty disappointing if you as a player feel no attraction to her at all. I would be more understanding if this were just a kinetic novel and we were merely along for the ride...

It isn't until several hours into the game that you can finally start skipping or avoiding her scenes, but then you're still stuck in this awkward relationship with her that you had no choice of in the first place. It isn't even until near the very end of the game that you can finally be given the choice for the MC to only love her as a daughter. And by then, it feels way too late.

Though there are so many choices that actually affect things, including your main love interest at the end, your actual control of events outside of choosing if you want to have sex with someone or not is next to none.

Illusion of choice... You're mostly just along for the ride. And no, you didn't call shotgun and you're probably not even in a seat. You're crammed into the trunk of the car on one hell of a bumpy road.

Now & Then....

I want to say this game deserves all the 5-star ratings, I really do... but it just doesn't. Not by a long-shot.

To start with, the graphics are really dated. They are your average HS1 graphics, and compared to HS2, barely acceptable nowadays (This isn't a place to gawk at the ladies in 4K). Still, you could find worse Daz Studio games, so there's that.

But the story - which is the supposed strength of this game - is lacking in so many areas, it quite literally caused me to start skipping through the game past the increasingly tedious middle point.

The characters repeat themselves far too many times, and the writer frustratingly endlessly reused the same exact sentences for the exact same situations. It honestly felt like time rewinded whenever that part of the dialogue was happening, because the MC and all other characters kept repeating themselves ad nauseam.

I started this game off by taking my time to read all of the dialogue, but eventually it became too mind-numbing to keep wasting time reading the exact same sentences over & over again, so I felt forced to give up and enable the "skip unread" text option, just so that the plot can move.

And while it moved ahead, I never felt like I missed a grand revelation or event. Instead, I was glad that I was still skipping, because MC literally started banging all the women introduced into the plot. Far more than I expected for such a "serious" apocalyptic story. Turned into a right harem romp instead of a survival scenario.

Frankly, I am just so frustrated how the game loses focus throughout the middle part, and it never recovers. It quite literally killed my drive to play the game properly, so if there was some deep emotional pay off for sticking through it - I wouldn't say it is worth it at all.

I... my frustration is making my hands shake. I can't keep typing anymore. This is it for my review....