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

This is the best game I have played by far!! Keep up the great story, I love the Harem. Characters are all complex and richly emotive. I can't wait for more of this story!
I am surprised by how much I am enjoying the story, I thought at first that the time jumps might be annoying, but I find I like the back stories just as much. Congratulations on a truly remarkable journey!

Interesting Story, great athmosphere, good but not too long build up, good scenes, interesting characters, enough content... I love this game!
This Game deserves 5 Stars! Im very much looking forward to what new content will bring

Love everything about this sofar.

the setting is good and believable, characters are good and have depth. they also look good. (if interested in the animated lewd-scenes. also some of the best i have seen.)

Might be considered a slowburn to most on here, but picks up fast.

Would recommend greatly, also use headphones... haha

This game is one of my favorite game here.
Great points in this game :
1. Relay great and detailed story.
2. Character development is really detailed and great.
3. Bonding between character is beautiful.
4. Overall animation is good.
5. Chemistry between character is really great.
6. Deep dive into every character.
7. Realist approach to environment.
personally I enjoyed the game and for me character, story and character bonding was greatly explained and I loved it.
There is so much I can talk about but game is breathtakingly awesome. I didn't get bored in conversation of character.

Ah, I wish I could give this one four and a half stars. Won't let me, so there you go. But anyway, I enjoyed the game, had a lot of fun.

Do not go into this game expecting The Walking Dead levels of doom and gloom. The setting is nice, it is relevant, but it doesn't overwhelm the tone of this game - that tone being an enjoyable harem ride.

Not a fan of protagonists with hidden faces. I don't know what game started that annoying trend but it's dumb. We watch movies and TV shows - nobody's face is erased like they are in this style of game. Please stop doing it devs, it just sets up really weird framing for all the visuals. It's completely unnecessary. I can handle the protagonist not looking like me, or not looking exactly how I think he should look.

Lewd scenes are really nice. Plentiful. Appropriate. Story-driven.

Characters are sympathetic and entertaining. The writing is more than serviceable.

The protag is... well he can be a bit verbose. There's also a nagging trend I've seen in even the better VN's... it's like... holy crap... you ask for consent far too many times. When people get in the mood, they get going. They don't talk it to death. I know it's a VN, but... less talking when things get steamy and the girls don't have to give consent so much before things get rockin'. This is a nitpick by the way. In other words, the problem isn't that bad, it's just a little annoying.

More nitpicks to follow. First, please, people who are in danger from zombies and bandits, stop standing in plain view on balconies or on rooftops. Act like you don't want to be seen. I was also going to complain about the gas-guzzling mode of transport in a phase where gas is a precious, precious resource. But that sorta gets addressed. I won't spoil it.

I also don't understand why the MC would pick the 2nd location they chose to live in. At all. Why? How could he possibly expect to secure such a large facility with so many entrances and exits? That was... yeah that didn't make any sense. Nitpick, it didn't ruin the story.

Anyway, looking forward to more of the story. Hope it keeps its tone and doesn't move towards Walking Dead levels of carnage and doom. That's good for Walking Dead. Would be a drastic and un-needed change in tone for this game.

Version: 0.21.0
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Summary:

Unique coming of age story in an apocalyptic environment, with a focus on character development over bigger periods of time. While story and narration are done beautifully in this apocalytic tale, the pornographical aspects come far too short and the game begins to loose its fascination, excitement and touch.
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Taking a closer look:

Gameplay
This harem game beeing a ren'py visual novel features a gameplay as expected, the only interactions beeing the few choices the player is confronted with. These choices can lead to a dead end, small differences in scenes and adult content but have no greater impact on the story and the game beeing a harem game (at least until now).
On the technical side of things everything is running smoothely.
As there is no significant upside or downside in this section it will remain neutral (+/-).

Content
Atm this game got a lot of story and sexual content in store for you. There is a gallery and all technical features and options that are needed.
There is an abundant number of renders and animations in proportion to the words written.
This section will be rated positively (+).

Art
While the renders aren't qualitywise the most elaborated, the characters (especially the female main character) look unique. The sexscenes feature some interesting physics in their animations (tits bouncing etc.). Still there are negative aspects such as the renders beeing a bit blurred and grainy. On the other hand there are nice flashback and intros that are implemented very nicely using different creative solutions. Especially the character design is done very well from an artistic perspective and it is really fascinating to watch the female main character as she bedcomes older.
This section will be rated positively (+).

Story
The story is narrated quite nicely, featuring some humor and charme. While the main background of the story features a very standard apocalyptic tale it stays exciting for most of the time. This is mostly due to the focus of the story on character development and relationships, which is one of the most interesting things this story has to tell, at least in the beginning.
Sadly this quality of the game shifts for the worse later on - with the growing length of the story, the upcoming events and occurences, especially the adult ones, feel more and more predictable and vanilla. The "harem" is becoming too obvious and easy to achieve and there is no excitement left, as it was in the beginning with the female main character and her struggle. Interesting aspects such as jealousy and corruption, or life matters (such as the coming of age story at the beginning) do not matter any longer and the conquest of each female heart feels generic and unexciting. Sadly the game raised its bar where high at the beginning only to let it fall later on.
Still this aspect feels like one of the strengths of this game and I will rate it slightly positive (+).

Adult and pornographical aspects
First things first; it is not the amount of sexual scenes that is the problem - its about the execution.
This one feels like the real weakness of this game. And as we are talking about adult games it is sad to see that this topic hasnt become or at least stayed in the focus of development.
Most of the scenes featuring adult content feel very much the same, be it with whomever. All the female characters behave very, very similar in bed and even scenes that should be more exciting (for example scenes where the MC and one LI are fucking out in the open) just dont do it. And that has not to do anything with the art. The game misses three key aspects that make up a good adult scene:

1. The build up (which was quite good in the beginning with the female MC teasing and corrupting the mc due to her "sexual awakening")
2. The tension (there is no excitement in fucking out in the open when everybody who sees you is okay with it anyway) and
3. The variances in the way the scenes play out (different responses and behavior of the sexual partners, etc.)

Due to these reasons this topic will be rated negatively (-).

Development progress
Updates come very regular and feature a whole lot of content. The devs seems to communicate with his community on a regular base.
This section is rated positive (+).
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Final conclusion:
The size of the different sections represents its impact. The colors represent wether the impact is positive, negative or neutral.
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Gameplay (+/-)
Content (++)
Art (+)
Story (+)
Adult (-)
Development (++)
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Recommendation?
Yes, get the game, as the first playthrough is quite exciting. But dont get too excited.

Fap you very much?
Mhh... there will be some material for you, but it just doesnt stick along for a very long time.

Future sight:
Dev has some potential, just dont know whether this potential shines again while working on this game. Maybe in the next but we will see.

Last words:
A great game for playing once but nothing for forever. Gets cold quite fast and gets thinner with each spread of butter

It's just such a fucking perfect game - a great plot, very good dialogues, the girls are amazing, a very good MC, the relationship with the girls is very well written, the animation of the sex scenes is simply perfect and the music with sounds during the sex scenes perfectly complement each other. This is one of the best games here

excellent VN, brilliant story .. I don't prefer honey select, but this VN is so good I'm still rating it 5 stars

The characters feel like real people. There's lots of suspense about what will come next.

Found this by accident and totally blew me away. Story is flawless. Easily one of the best written here. Like the girls. Decent animations. But that story, just pulled me in like nothing I've encountered in quite a damn while. THIS is how you write a proper story. Other devs take note.

Definitely one of the best novels I've had the pleasure of playing. The pace is really great, it gets immersive and investing. Rating this 5 stars as of chapter 20. Keep up the awesome work Dev, can't wait to see this project to the end.

Im mad at he beggining cause it throws at you like 10 minutes of exposition, and a big part of that is absolutely pointless like, the people who left the neighbourhood, and how you use their houses as storage. Everything could be like 3 sentences:
There was a virus outbreak (no need fr you to tell me how you are a genious and bough provisions way beore anybody, or to tell me how internet died, you are vaguely explaing why anyway, and its so boring adn tiring that most likely iam gonna disconnect and aunderstand even less.)

My "wife" died and a friend asked me to adopt a girl. Those 2 sentences are more or less the first 10 minutes of exposition that could be told little by little, maybe in conversations or something. Thre is not internet, what will you do besides talking, there is plenty of time to fit all that info in a more tolerable way.

Well better actual character development and sex scenes make up for this.

The game goes pretty smoth after that ton of exposition and buils up well, proving that all that was unnecessary, he is talking about it all the time.
MAybe there is a bit of a sudden change and the girl turns into a horny demon kind of fast.
Everythig gos quite well until thye star having sex. before that the game is using custom renders and poses i guess, and makeout scenes are quite realistic and hot. Once they start having sex it turns into a fuckfest and sex scenes become mostly animations. Those are already done by the engine, but they reaaaally suck, they are predictable and boring and repetitive. The stuff before was quite good actually.
When they star getting sex it also gets interrupted and another character comes, and this puts and end to it. LAter the "scenery" changes, the moment they leave, the game turns into a mindless fuckfest, character development gets locked inside a vault and never used again. The mc just takes turns to fuck everyone constantly, with the same default animations.
Some people is aknowledging the fact that you are fucking others, but there is never a " change of approach" (forget about threesomes).
Lesbian scenes are default boring as hell.

I will have to give it 3 stars, because of that first part in the first house, the game there its a 4 stars, and after that, its just monotony with nothing really exciting in the horizon.

The christmas and halloween, i really dont know why this dev loses time making those, they are not even erotic, there is nothing there.

One of the few games worthy of a real donation. I would have bought a game this good for the same price as many other games out there easily. Made my "buy" today and it was well worth it!

I love the characters and the dialogue is wonderful. The art is a bit different, but interestingly attractive - I like it very much. The story is amazing, and the mood and pacing established by the art and writing are phenomenal! At least to me.

I highly recommend this title. The appearance of updates is quite regular and timely, which shows a dedication by its developers sorely lacking in other VN titles.

Keep up the good work, and thank you to the crew who built this gem.

ABSOLUTELY top class story and character arcs.

Yes it's fairly slow build up but trust me so worth the time. The characters are what really set this game apart and ahead of so many other games.
Then there is the way the story is build but mostly how the sentences are structured.

I love the HS sex animations in most HS games and in this its exactly same type of thing , yet its erotic, sexy yet never sleazy. I'm sure if it had DAZ graphics there would be more support? I am however surprised at how little support this dev is getting.

Honestly I think with the devs next game he's going to up the level of VN making and it scares me as a dev myself as it means we all will have to up our game.

Now and then is perfectly made, perfectly balanced and once it grabs you by the nut sack it doesn't let go. Definitely worth the play time and support time.

Excellent work Dev!

Although I unfortunately started this VN very late, I was immediately drawn into the story and the world and could hardly stop. (Stupid job in real life)

In a nutshell, so far (Chaper19) it´s a very exciting, engaging story that I really can't wait to see continue!

The story is built around believable and interesting characters, the MC is absolutely likeable and fortunately not an instant superhero. But rather a normal person who grows from the situation and his experiences and changes accordingly. Just like the main characters go through a development. Through the clever and never boring flashbacks, you learn practically everything about the development of the world that is necessary to understand, the reactions and behavior of the characters. Thanks to the inner dialogues, you also realize that the characters are just people doing their best. Yes, they too make mistakes or simply make less than optimal decisions, which I guess each of us should know...

Of course, I could criticize the graphics superficially and some animations for their messy transitions or angles.
But in the overall package this is really complaining on an unnecessarily high level!
The experience of the story, the believable environment just compensate for all these little things!
It's not a polished AAA product, but a damn good book with an emotional content. That's why I was much more excited by the emotional values when experiencing the story, rather than drooling or ranting about technical things or incredibly detailed renderings.
Whereby I have to say that both the pictures and the animated sex scenes absolutely fit the respective mood and were very, very stimulating for me Thanks at this point also to the "dubbing" of these scenes, or the background music / sound effects in general.


(And a special thank you for the pubic hair and "moisture details" -> That makes my personal naughty quirks very happy).

This probably the first one where I've just read it all the way through without a break. I've enjoyed this over many more zombie related content out there. Now and Then actually has characters that feel real and have a history.

It's been an excellent ride.

0.19
Summary:
The game talks about a Zed-19 virus outbreak with collapsed society by turning people into infected and breaking the working order of society as a whole. You the MC were better prepared than others and choose to outsit the pandemic in your apartment with your adopted daughter.
One thing comes to another and you getting into a relationship with her, her best friend, and other characters, as you try to survive against bandits infected and hunger.

Extraordinary aspects of the game:
The story is just fucking amazing, the mechanic of jumping flashbacks to the past is so good gives you a better connection to the characters and the world as a whole.

What is good:
The music, the realistic world, the somewhat realistic characters.

What is bad:
The animation and sex scenes, too many weird angles because of trying to hide the MC face. Vanilla sex positions. Not anatomically correct animations, such as fully opened hands with rarely happens in real life(usually happens to retards), no micro-movements in animation, some animation has little physics getting fucked but hands stay completely still. Some unbelievable choices of characters.

Simple gestures as just a hug or a kiss almost always end in a sex scene, that is how the MC had sex with the third character because of a hug, I know it’s the apocalypse and shit but still.

What can be made better:

My opinion:
The game is amazing, if you remove all the sex scenes and just leave the game as it is it still will be playable and really fucking great. It’s quite sad that some of the sex scenes aren’t that great but there are still some good ones and as the chapters go they are getting better. The game is so good to miss, just grab it I am sure you like it.

If you want more reviews/recommendation check out my list [Link]

All the advantages of the game have already been listed before
I will only note a decent and very punctual author who releases an update every month, at the same time.
This is a quality that many other developers lack.

A great take on the post-apocalypse genre. Gritty and dramatic at moments and touchingly tender in others. The characters are well written and the ero scenes are well made and about as realistic as they can be. Definitely looking forward to more.

Extremely repetitive in terms of character writing. When characters talk to each other they are constantly repeating the same thing within the same conversation, and with inner monologues they are repeating everything that happened up until that point, there is a lot of pointless text to be honest, and i just had to skip through most of them.
The basic premise is pretty ok, and the girls look great too, thing are happening pretty slow though. Overall its worth a try.

After downloading and playing the latest upgrade I thought about one thing, how easy it was to get on playing after some time and some (a lot of) other games between last playing. That say a lot about this game, it feels so natural to just go on.

I love the thoughts behind this game, how easy mankind can leave civilization if something happens. (Reminds me of the theme behind Lord of the Flies.) It's so easy to say you wouldn't do stuff like that. Just think about what happened with the starving survivors of the accident in the Andes (Alive). You can say "I would never eat a human", but I'm certain most would do after enough time without food.

So here's the dilemma is an other, but still it's a situation were you don't know how you would act. I really love that and I would probably act as the MC. It's a story well told and the animations are good. I like that the MC is a really good person by heart even if he can do the violence when so needed.

The fap is really good but still I'm here for the story. (More true than that I read Playboy* for the short stories. Even if some SF there was really great.)

So, all and all, I'm glad that I've found this gem. Keep up the good work.

*
My blood runs cold
My memory has just been sold
My angel is the centerfold