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

Surprisingly detailed and immersive experience.

Absolutely loved the characters! Every one of them had their distinct and lovable personalities!

All of them had something to offer in this simple tale of hardship and perseverence. In the order of my personal preference:

Carol: Brave and Loyal
Hana: Unsocial and Pessimistic
Naomi: Flirty and Fun loving
Alice: Mature and Motherly
Sydney: Cautious and Pragmatic
Julie: Protective and Determined

Thank you for letting us enjoy this gem!

One playthrough completed. Planning making a few different decisions in the late-game to see how other heroines turn out if picked as the main lover. Also, another playthrough to witness certain unlocked H-scenes.

Summary: Now and Then is one of the more grounded AVN experiences out there. While there are other titles featuring dystopian or apocalyptic scenarios, they tend to be more bombastic about the way they handle things. In Now and Then however, we find ourselves following the cast, a pair and then gradually a group of average “commoners”, who aren’t at the forefront of dealing with some major plot in relation to the downfall of society. Instead, we are just along for the ride, as the characters try to hunker down and survive, day by day. There isn’t really any major narrative going on, with focus instead being on the way relationships and characters themselves change/adapt over time, to the situation at hand. Now and Then also tries for a more realistic approach on how to make a harem without resorting to non-logic, magic or other shenanigans to justify said harem. N&T is a little unique in the sense that the endings are set up in a ranked harem system, with one heroine becoming the main lover.
As for the actual story that we do get, N&T is split up into 25 chapters and the epilogue. Each chapter having been whatever was added with the individual updates. Additionally, the 25 chapters can be sorted into 3 acts, based on whatever location the characters live in at the time. I would say that there are 2 chapters (16 + 17) that are mostly transitional between act 2 and 3 and doesn’t fit into either. Other things to note is that the first few chapters feel, or simply are, shorter than the rest, which also makes act 1 the shortest. Act 1 is also my personal favorite. More time is spent detailing the actual survival part of the post-apocalyptic existence, undoubtedly helped by the cast being small at that point. I came to grow attached to the apartment they lived in, and it hurt inside when they left it behind, wise as the decisions to do so might have been. Act 1 was however a bit weaker on some technical aspects and h scenes were maybe a little too scarce, even if it made sense in the context of a relationship developing realistically. The later acts had their own weaknesses. Act 2 felt very samey and boring outside one specific event. The transitional chapters felt a bit wasted in some ways and had several factors that challenged the my suspension of disbelief. Act 3 suffered from suddenly having a larger cast, with each character seemingly being mandated to have at least 1 h-scene each in each chapter, at least from chapter 21 onwards. Kinda broke the pacing of the main plot, that was otherwise experiencing a resurgence in tension and excitement following the relative boredom of act 2.
Also: Sydney >Carol=Hana>Naomi=Alice=Julie.

Pros:
- Pretty good variety in H scene music. Well, ok, not that much variety, but the 3-4 music pieces used are well suited for the job.
- H-scenes frequently had separate animations for climaxes and especially PIV entry. A nice little touch that you don’t always see.
- A simple plot that focuses on the depiction of the atmosphere and the mundane day to day events of a small group of normie survivors.
- I personally felt that all the girls brought something unique to the table and made for interesting characters.
- Some really great character development, especially Carol and Naomi change a lot and very naturally over the months that we follow them. The epilogue expands a bit further on this.
- Good grammar, decent vocabulary, no awkward or faulty English phrases that i noticed.
- The flashback “Then” moments are a nice feature and used to great effect when needed or just to flesh out the story a bit.
- In terms of animation and art assets, N&T arguably manages to make the actual penetretion part (clipping in general, distortion of the female parts, etc.) of H-scenes look as good as is possible within the constraints of the HS engine.

Mehs and hit/miss:
- Fairly spicy but natural sounding dialogue for H scenes early on. Nothing being rushed, the tension gets to really build up and each scene so far feels novel. There are a few exceptions. Carols and Naomis first time each, both having longer build-ups, and higher excitement levels and a realistic depiction of pain and blood associated with virginity. As the story progresses, this Pro becomes less significant. The H-scene dialogue gets more repetitive, the constant references to MC’s wang size becomes tedious. Same with the seemingly never failing comments about the volume of the loads he shoots. This becomes especially noticeable in the end game with the too-frequent h-scenes. So i dumb it down to MEH.
- Despite the length of N&T, number of H scenes and number of heroines, there is only really 1 threesome H-event with Naomi and 3 options for who the second girl will be.
- Sound effects during H scenes? Guess I made this note referring to the same 2 moaning/whining sound being used for the female climaxes. Fortunately you can lower the volume of these separately from the background music. Maybe it was the moans being stock Japanese voice effects that annoyed me?
- Climax animations were decent in terms of twitching, but also a bit….glitchy/stuttering. At least the transition into the following still frame was a little janky, but nothing too bad really.
- For the most part, Good, but simple animations, even early on. Boobs however are quite a bit on the floppy/liquid side, not nearly firm enough in the way the move around. Sometimes it's comical, other times straight up off-putting.
- *Sigh*, another AVN where MC is once again in the upper end of the wang size category, just like in 95% of the medium/genre. And i will never refrain from complaining about it.
- Speaking of MC being really good looking (which I put in Cons), how is he this big and muscular looking? Didn’t he have a job in marketing where he sat down in a chair most of the time? Often working from home. Never noticed any mention of him having a gym membership pre-apocalypse or doing other types of exercise, except during the school arc, and even then, only for a week or so before they moved on.
- You sometimes get the impression that sex scenes are added due to the requirement that each chapter must have pretty much one for each character, except for the first 5 chapters.
- MC rides a bicycle for 1+ hour into town, to have a conversation that is only a few sentences long, then calls it a day and heads straight back? Nah fam, you actually want to acquire some info while you are there.
- Now and Then kinda has the unofficial condition that you need to be okay with Carol and to a lesser extend Naomi, being involved romantically with them throughout the story. While I didn’t experience it myself, I have heard that the story just falls apart and the dialogue stops making any sense if you reject her (Carol) or both. Romancing them more discreetly and focusing on the girls that joins later is fortunately possible.

Cons:
- Lacking quality of lighting. Especially in early chapters, but persistent throughout. Other than some scenes where everything looks as if lit from all angles, you have hair and eye colors that can be very inconsistent. Sydney’s hair looks almost looks bioluminescently orange during well-lit scenes (sunlight).
- Starting with act 3, the tense weight of the post-apocalyptic setting kinda wafts away in the wind. The raider/looter gang is the only thing keeping things maintaining the atmosphere of of a dangerous world. A negative example would be how the narrative seemingly forgets or handwaves the food situation away. At the Marshhand house, dinner is made for weeks on end with no mentioning of establishing a food production of their own, acquiring edibles from the town or foraging/hunting/scavenging in the surrounding woodlands. Sure, there were vague mentions of a the house having a stockpile, but of what exactly is in this stockpile. 5+ characters eating daily full meals will add up eventually.
- Generally speaking, art assets looks dated, and low quality in the early chapters. The cheapness dissapates somewhat, but the age of HS1 still shows.
- Using the alleged great looks of MC as a major proponent in how relationships come to be and develop, but refraining from ever showing MC’s face and even then, rarely even his head from behind or any total or half total body shots. That’s a hard buy indeed, even though I know that HS1, especially unmodded, doesn’t have many, if any, even decently looking male character assets. An example being how 2D anime haircuts looks in 3D form, yuck.
- Didn’t really get the logic of “a couple infected are holding up in the courtyard at our apartment complex. We need to completely relocate”. I’m sure you could find other ways to exit the apartment complex. Or maybe lure them away one by one and eliminate them silently?
- As another comment I read somewhere mentioned, keeping a car that is inefficient in terms of fuel consumption, has little passenger/baggage capacity, as well as being noisy, during the apocalypse is very unwise. MC should at least have attempted to find keys for the other vehicles in the nearby parking lots or parking cellar. That, or attempt to hotwire. It was rather obvious that they held onto the gas guzzler because it was going to be a plot device. Which is ok I guess, but MC not really trying to find a better alternative was BS.
- Just a lacking sense of logic at times. Not getting dressed when woken up by the infected nearby? Why expose yourself like that? Shooting a gun inside a hallway of an apartment complex shouldn’t alert any infected outside to your exact location. It feels like the infected have the hearing of the aliens from that survival horror movie. Later (school alleyway), it is speculated that the infecteds hearing ability decays rapidly past a certain point after infection. Contradictory much.
- This might tie in a little bit with the barrage of H-scenes in the endgame, but MC started to feeling increasingly like your generic AVN whiteknight gary stu. The sappier dialogue leading up to most H-scenes was a key part of this. It felt like he started to get laid way more than I myself wanted him to. I lost touch with him much the same way I did in another AVN I reviewed a while ago.

Still a 4/5 because it is able to keep a simple narrative going and we actually get to see the end as this is a finished title. Solid characters and character developement as well. Only 2 major gripes (transition chapters and MC turning whiteknight). The other weaknesses can be overlooked as long as you don't experience them back to back.

The renders are decent though, maybe a little dated? I found the lighting was a bit weird at times.

Story is your run-of-the-mill generic post-apocalypse zombie survival scenario (walking dead, 28 days later etc) The narration drags on pointlessly long at times. We get it, MC is horny wants some action, no need for an entire wall of text to explain that.

Also mid-game tone shift was strange, considering how the VN starts off on a rather serious tone and ends up just becoming a romp-fest. Some consistency would've been nice. Ending felt pretty rushed too.

Player choices were relatively limited but I guess that's to be expected in a VN.

I'd say give it a go if you really like the honey-select art style and you have a LOT of time to burn.

Solid Story, minimal grammar issues (they seem to bug me more than they should overall, not just in this avn). Characters are loveable, and a few times where someone started cutting onions in my immediate vicinity.

The story was pretty good. Some aspects of it are what you would expect from a zombie apocalypse, such as the break down of social morals and such. It's appreciated that the MC wasn't grooming the girls, but for the main ones there were feelings that weren't acted on before the world ended.

This game was more story driven than just a romp in the hay, which combined with writing I actually wanted to read, was welcome. The story was pretty well constructed and didn't really feel like it was meandering just to introduce more girls.

What an absolute gem of a game. The setup is nothing special, but the day to day business of living in a zombie apocalypse is very well done. Mixing in the constant flashbacks gives the world and characters immense depth and makes you love them even more.
Later on I also felt it turned a little too much into a fuckfest, but honestly, what else would you expect from a harem with horny teens? The situation itself already is highly unrealistic, so who cares.
Renders and animations are what you'd expect from HS1, but they're completely fine and never jarring. Music is chosen smartly, connecting some to the flashbacks, so you always know when you're seeing past events.

Overall just a straight up must-play if you like story driven AVNs with loveable characters and don't mind the scenario of the adopted daughter beign an LI, which contrary to what some people claim here, is not done in a creepy way at all. The MC never initialized the intimacy, on the contrary, he refuses to give in to Carol at first, telling her it can't and won't happen. It all develops very organically and consentually.

Great game, although it's disappointing that there wasn't a true harem ending (You do come pretty close).

Plot: 4.5/5

Questionable decisions from the MC and girls. You've got rapist bandits running around and the girls are wearing a bikini on a rooftop where any bandit could potentially see *SPOILER ALERT* bandits saw them and attacked. I understand that it was done to advance the story but the carelessness was aggravating.


Characters: 5/5

Sex Scenes: 5/5
ALOT of high quality sex scenes

Final Note:
Use the walkthrough mod if you want to get as close to a harem ending as possible. Near the end of the game you'll have a choice to talk to 2 LI's, and I believe that this determines which one becomes a sex friend (With muted feelings).

Might be wrong on that, but I ended up with a 5 girl harem and a sex friend (Who is exclusive to MC and has muted feelings for him).

I'd check out the long ass PDF walkthrough too for the ending you want, I didn't because the game already took 12 hours with me skipping sex scenes (ALot of them), no way I'd replay it, no matter how good it is.

The VN started with a very high potential. The build up was really nice and the dev managed to capture the story setting pretty well. The slick transition between flashback and present in the essence of 'Now and Then' was great. But things went downhill pretty fast.

• Suddenly this game turned into a fuck fest. MC drilling every hole around which was such an anti-buildup. Funnier was the justification provided for this harem - which made no sense. I wouldn't have been bothered if the game started off with an indication of such sorts. It was more dissapointing as I was hoping this will go strong with an actual story.
• The dialogues became cornier, disjoined and forced. The relatibility factor just went away.
• This supposedly entire hierarchy of girls was lame. Again, the dialogues patting on this hierarchy were laughable.
• H scenes are okay! Animation is crisp. But almost no variations. Every girl has the same sound effect and the frames for every scene are almost identical.
• The lighting is very weird. Too much of Orange - my god. Even though I am not a super fan of HS models, but I have played games where HS models are pleasing to look at. This game sucks at that.
• The ending was rushed.

Pretty dissapointed with the game. Started strong but went off the rail after chapter two. 2/5 for the animation and the physics of the movements.

Wow, this is a massive bait and switch.

The renders / graphics / animations are overall excellent. Most of the LIs are fit and attractive. There are occasional typos and issues with the script that seem a bit odd considering it's marked 'complete' but they are not too common. But there is a really creepy agenda being pushed under the surface here, and it disturbs me way more than games I have seen on here with arguably much darker themes.

The beginning of the game is quite well done, the story starts out excellent and pulls you right in. You will be hanging on every word... at first. Early on there is a scene where the MC chooses not to assist a person in trouble, and it really sets the tone that this is a fucked up post-apocalyptic world.

Unfortunately, everything starts to change for the worse shortly after. It becomes apparent very quickly that the real goal of this "game" is to serve the player a heaping pile of contradictory woke / liberal propaganda. The authors go to great pains to work the word 'binary' into the dialogue several times in a really contrived manner, in an attempt to reprogram the player's mind to accept that binary = bad. By the 3rd or 4th time they found another awkward way to stuff "binary" into a sentence, I found myself rolling my eyes.

There is a lot of sanctimonious pushing of liberal feminist ideology, like the MC constantly droning on about how he can't be pushing "puritanical" views on a teenage girl (puritanical is another word they excessively inject into the dialogue like 500x.) This is wild when you get further in the game and the narrator goes to great pains to convince you that somehow, a dude in his 30s fucking his adopted teenage daughter and blowing loads down her throat is somehow taking the moral high road. Apparently, telling a teenage girl not to wear extremely revealing clothes to school is bad, but her legal guardian fucking her is somehow OK. ...Did they forget they started out by heavily advocating for women's rights and autonomy? The hypocrisy is staggering.

Even though Carol "wants to" have a relationship with the MC, it is still wrong because of the massive inequality in the power dynamic. This is a much older male, preying on a vulnerable girl, who has severe abandonment issues from the trauma of being bounced around the foster care system for over a decade before she met the MC.

Catering to a particular kink or taboo subject is not inherently bad. There are plenty of adult games that involve things reasonable people would never do in real life - like corruption, blackmail, even rape. However, other games I have seen that deal with those topics do so in a way that makes it quite clear the MC is doing something bad. What deeply disturbs me about this game is the fact that the dialogue and story goes to great pains to try to convince the player that in fact society is wrong for considering it "bad" for a LEGAL GUARDIAN to take advantage of his freaking adopted daughter. It is really creepy how they actually try to spin this into a positive thing. The dialogue and story text that deals with this just repeatedly keeps trying to make the case that there is no logical reason why they cannot enter into a sexual relationship, and that it's just society being outdated and "conservative."

The dialogue when they start getting intimate is terrible and cringey, and implausible to say the least. It includes gems like the MC asking if he has her permission to kiss her, after he already got her wasted, came in her mouth, and fingered her the night before.

If you just click your way through the game, the renders and animations are top notch. However, if you actually stop to pay attention to the text beware - after the intro it just completely tanks in quality and repeatedly tries to brainwash you.

cringe af. 4chan chad type of MC acting like they are an adult caring about gender equality when they are in fact projecting their cringeworthy opinions throughout the entire story. they aren't even good at survival. the renders are good, but buried underneath a shitload of cringeworthy content.

I put this off for a really long while, like half a year. Then, I finally picked it up two weeks ago. This is definitely a feel good AVN. There's a lot of time dedicated to flashbacks to show the contrast of better times in contrast to how the main cast copes with the apocalypse in the "now". Personally, I found the only real main cast to be the MC, Carol, and Naomi. They have the most fleshed out personalities and time spent on screen.

The sounds/music is alright, they suit the tone of the story. The visuals are just okay, if you're looking for something insanely sexy, you might be able to get your rocks off, but these models are somewhat old. There are lots of dialogue/choices that change how characters perceive you and affect future chapters. (For example, depending on how affectionate you are to certain characters, they're either absent or present in the final act of the game).

The main girls, for me, were Carol and Naomi. Sydney as well. The three characters you're introduced to the earliest. Everyone else doesn't have enough time dedicated to them or their story moments were spread thin. You also have the most H-scenes with them.

The dialogue/story is okay. You're a dad trying to keep the people he loves alive - be it your adoptive daughter, her best friend, or some other people you meet. I love the flashback moments and you get a lot of these early on. However, the game uses them less and less in the 2nd and 3rd acts of the VN. For me, these were the stronger points of the game, they're also why Carol and Naomi are the best LIs to me. They have the most history with the main character and it's pretty interesting and fun to see how their dynamic was in the past.

Overall, 4 out of 5. I took a point away since the story starts to stagnate in the latter half - too many characters to flesh out/ revolve romance system around.

This game is so ridiculously overrated.

The main protagonist is the most boring, shallow, paper-thin stereotype you can find. All of the female characters feel like they're the same person with 1 flanderized trait to separate them. None of the character interactions feel believable, the dialogue is pretty bad. The writing itself is simply too poor to sell the plot.

I also despise how the harem was integrated into this game. You can fuck basically everyone and anyone but right at the last second depending on some internal metric of like points you have to choose a "main lover". A complete cop out. Either make an entirely character based game, or a harem game, but do not make this terrible mix of neither-this-nor-that with too many compromises.

Just bad.

This is definitely one of the best game of this genre. The story is very long, not necessarily a bad thing because of its immersive atmosphere and the characters can be charming as well as diverse.
There are plenty to like about this game, but since the ratings of this game is very high, mostly five stars, I don't think I have much more to say about it.
There is one flaw that I would like to mention, which is the characters' developments. Sure, they grow and change, but mostly just until the middle point of the game, and then they just do what you expect them to do. They kind of become boring. Their time is also reduced for other new characters.
All in all, a good game, has it ups and downs. I give it a 4/5

This is really a great game! It's overall a very wholesome story following the journey of a man and his adopted daughter during a zombie like pandemic. The game however focuses less on zombies and more about the dark human struggle of finding yourself in a lawless reality.

The characters are well written, each feeling unique I their own right. The character models are pretty good. (Gotta take a little jab at the hair on some of them)

The sex scenes are alright, little animations and some basic repeating moaning sounds during the event. It would be nice to see a few different ones as all the girls use the same sounds, but that's s little nit picky considering the rest of the game. It's certainly not very kink heavy just basic good old fashion fucking.

The world building is done pretty well in this game, nothing too crazy but a solid foundation for the story to take place, and on that remains consistent throughout the VN.

Sound design is pretty basic but overall a solid passing grade imo. Could use a little bit of diversity in terms of characters and event having the same repeating noises as mentioned above but it's still better than many vns I have seen.

The flashbacks added a nice touch that personally allowed e to get a little more attached to the characters, bring them to life a bit. I found myself caring quite a bit more for Carol and Naomi as more of the backstop was explored. Normally I find flashbacks can be jarring and take you out of the moment, I think they were well done here and instead of distracting from the story enhance it.

Where this game really stands out however is the writing. By far some of the best writing I've found in VNs. An intricate story, with a world that feels lived in, and some amazing character interactions that leave a warm fuzzy feeling. The game is a true feel good type of game. A love story through and through and well crafted.

I had some issues with the pacing I'm chapter 3 as I felt things were a little too slow, but they picked up for the finale.

Overall the game is really great, worthy of being on any top AVN list. The creator did a great job, especially in regards to writing and I would highly recommend those we are looking for a story heavy experience and not just mindless sex scenes to give this game a try. I think you will not be disappointed.

Holy shit, what a ride. The story was incredible, and the characters were fantastic. I can look past all the grammatical errors. I wish I could see what happened to these characters a few years later. But I love what we got! I feel sentimental finishing the story in a way that I haven't about other games on this platform.

One of, if not the best, zombie survival game coupled with a loving harem and excellent writing. Great sounds too. I recommend playing with a walkthrough though because some of the choices can be bait and switch (which I hate) so having a walkthrough to guarantee your choices actually are what you wanted is essential in a game like this. Your actions have big effects throughout the whole game so walkthrough up.

A tale of survival and love that continues to reign supreme in its genre....

Warning: It's long and at times quite mundane. You won't finish it in one setting so don't try burning yourself off too soon cuz it takes some time to actually fall in love with them even if lewds come easy for some characters. Take your time to finish this beauty.

Pros:

1. MC is a really good person
2. Long and finished (bonus scenes, multiple endings, alternative scenes etc.)
3. Music is nicely chosen along with sfx for background and environment sounds
4. Renders are above average considering when it started the development
5. Writing is really decent with alot of popculture references to movies, songs etc.
6. Story shows the bland nature of apocalypse where days just become mundane without access to resources like TV, music etc.
7. Characters are plenty with their own personality.
8. Tons of lewds and almost all are optional.
9. Sometimes it got awfully boring and mundane but I think that was the whole point since it's not always chaotic in real life.
10. Love the twists and suspense on some chapters.

Cons:

1. Sfx for adult sounds could have used a bit of variation

Verdict: A must play for people that enjoy completed titles. It has multiple endings and really good themes. It gets a bit mundane at time but don't let that push you away as it only fuels the immersion of such times. Took me a week to burn thru everything.

To me this game is a 4/5. The story is great and love the setting it feel gritty and nice. The main problem is the sex. It is boring. Like played the whole game for the story and never came. Like some scene are good but they all are the same.

Tbh, with the setting you don't have much room but fuck it was boring.

Story wise it was alright the best part is the start and at the end it fals a bit apart.

For some reason I skipped playing this game but kept occasionally
coming upon it on F95zone, and finally decided to give it a
try and play it.

The pictures, moving graphic images, music,
sound effects, give this a very real feel. The art is really nice, it has a
gritty feel to it and it looks like a real apocalypse has happened.
I'm amazed at how life like the bodies of the women look, the curves
look so natural on them, Carol and Naomi look amazing IMO.

The story is also really good, which follows the main character
Jack whose wife has died and he ends up adopting Carol which
slowly develops in relationship until they finally become lovers in
the middle of the apocalypse, they have to deal with infected
humans and crazy bandits.

I'm giving the game 5 stars.

A good game! I love the characters and how well though out the zombie apocalypse was. Wasn't too fond of a quiet ending with no details on the CMZ etc. but was content with it nonetheless.

1 thing I absolutely hated was the MCs character design. Bro looked too ugly. And how is he maintaining his glasses?