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

I think the greatest credit I can give to this game is that it felt like a great game with porn, rather than a pornographic game.

The writing was well plotted, and the character development (advancing even during sex scene) was excellent. You do feel these characters, including the MC himself, maturing and evolving through the traumatic events.

And it's amazing how many branching points there're in this game, which all do lead to some consequence.

Couldn't be better. Story, characters, animations... all amazing. It feels real, and it feels human. What would life be like in a zombie apocalypse and you were the only man around that wasn't a bandit or zombie? What if you were surrounded by the women who care most about you and they were finally free to explore their feelings for you?

Review for v0.99.0

Overall, really enjoyed it! This game by far has one of the most mature, grounded and pertinent story from any AVN i've played.

DISCLAIMER: I will try as much as i can to avoid spoilers, so you can really enjoy it on your own if you try it out. However, you should be warned that it may contain some minor spoilery stuff.

The story

This is by far the highlight of this game. It has an excellent design, with many story arcs that start and finish together extremely well, without feeling too long nor too short. The characters all feel so damn great, mostly because they act realistically to the ordeals, problems and fears that they encounter during their journey. The story doesn't pull punches as well, and doesn't shy away from presenting fucked-up situations and actually morally challenging decisions the MC or some of the other characters must make, which takes you to the edge of your seat since you don't know if the choices you will make net the character or story in a positive light.

There is also a lot of continuity for the main story. Choices you made early on may very well matter latter, or be remembered in some way.

Also, it feels so good to have an MC which isn't a huge raging asshole or hyper-horny guy (There is a little bit of the latter, but really not detrimental), but rather an actual intelligent being, trying to be careful, protect his loved ones and make due with what he has.

The story is pretty detailed, with firearms not being just "A pistol" or "a shotgun" (most of the time) but a USP, an Ithaca 37, a M1 Garand, a SCAR-H, etc... The car aren't just wrecked, they have a broken axle, or no battery, etc... All of this without going too much into it unnecessarily.

Finally, the game has plenty of content on it's own. With many different dialogues, a few branching points and a focus on a relatively small amount of characters, the story progression is definitely up my alley. You don't have 40 different romanceable girls to track, and you can mostly easily choose who exactly you want to romance. I say mostly because Carol (The "main" girl) is kinda maybe forced on you a bit, although i'm fairly sure the player can choose to ignore her if they want to, but i haven't tried it out.

With all of this, it's easily a 20-25+ hours for the main story.

Graphics:

This is where the game gets a bit more iffy.

While the visuals are certainly better than average, and it's clear that a lot of efforts has been put to avoid using (too much) generic environments, characters and such, at the end of the day, it's a HoneySelect level of visuals and animations. Which means there are a lot of limitations to the dev as to what they can animate, pose and integrate into a scene. This is inevitable and really not the fault of the dev, but rather a necessary decision which at the end of the day, doesn't really impact the game all that much as the visuals are mostly there to better convey the story, and not the reverse.

So if you don't mind seeing the same HoneySelect style in terms of characters and animations (As well as the PS2 level blood splatters and such), you can really easily look over that and enjoy the story anyway.

This choice also means you'll get much more story and content out of it usually, since the dev can re-use a lot of the stuff from HoneySelect and concentrate on actually adding content rather than creating new assets from scratch.

Characters:

This is where most of the minor spoiler stuff is. So i'll put a spoiler marker for it, but keep in mind i've kept relatively light.


Sex Stuff:

Again, this is where things may be a bit more on the downside, at least in my opinion. But i genuinely feel like this is much more related to the fact the game re-use sex animations from HoneySelect, which i've already seen plenty of times before, from other lewd games and HoneySelect itself. So take this with a grain of salt.

If you don't mind that, while there's actually plenty of sex scenes with a lot of different characters in the game. And i believe they are quite evenly distributed so you should be able to get plenty of good times if you decide to ignore some of the girls.

They are well animated, with the typical overexaggerated boob physics and wiggle you can expect from HoneySelect. You get different views, positions angles and whatnot. You often get to select an alternative position or camera angle.

However, they tended to be a bit repetitive to my liking and has a "more of the same" feel to them. Again, i feel like this is tied to HoneySelect animations.

Gameplay:

The gameplay in itself if very simple, and some would say (including me) that's typical from VN story-focused games like this one. You have a mix of unimportant, minor choices along with a few, critical ones that are all biased to gather relationships points or cater the nerve level of the girls. As usual, with this type of gameplay, you HAVE TO pick the right choices in order to progress the story or characters so you're never truly free to make the choices you want to make. If you want to actually see sex stuff and such, that is.

There is however a good care for the major, branching points in the game, which is mostly related to if you are interested in romancing the girls or not

Considering the game is actually complete, and was so in March 2022 (0.26), this means the dev was able to achieve a pretty long relatively linear story in only two years. The 0.99 version (that i played) is mostly a extended "Director's Cut" which adds a bunch of bonus scenes and other minor stuff and was added a year later while also working on a second game.

So the delivery schedule of Kinderfeld from ILSProductions is stellar for sure. This clearly indicate a good amount of pre-production work was made, with schedules and deadlines being handled professionally. This is extremely rare in the AVN genre and definitely worth mentioning and commending.

Overall, this is an excellent game for it's story, characters and twists. If you don't mind the somewhat lengthy dialogues and slow burn, you are in for a treat.

A very well done story with a lot of thought put in to it by the dev. The characters are all interesting, compelling, and as real as they could be for a porn game. They all actually act like reasonably believable humans, there is basically never just straight porn logic where everyone is fucking for no reason. (Though of course its stretched a bit as I don't think most people would be fucking 5x a day in a zombie outbreak or be creating large harems).

One of the best AVN I played as of yet. I would say it's on the same level of BADIK and Eternum if you enjoy those games.

First off, the game is very story-focused and the author puts a lot of thought of a "WHAT IF" zombie apocalypse scenario. Honestly, I was thinking of giving it up at first cause I wasn't sure if I wanted to go along with it cause it was a while for any sex scenes but it does pop out a bunch later on. A little too much to the point where it goes against the earlier plot of the story where it's hinting that a pregnancy would be terrible in the apocalypse.

Pros:
-Great Writing
-QOL of life features and scene replays to go through the story
-Great models
-Characters are unique and have their own quirks
-Harem

Cons
-Sometimes it feels that everyone is throwing themselves onto the character and there is no other male characters in the story that are involved in the everyday life other than the sheriff
-It cycles the same girl noises for the characters during scenes so that can be offputting, but not a big issue.

I would highly recommend playing through this game once, and you are not pigeon holed into a single girl ending.

This a real great Novel! damn i ended to miss Naomi and carol!! Devs characterized all the NPC so well, with the high peek about carol and Naomi..ahhh expecially naomi..i loved her attitude, her crassy comment and humor so much...sex scenes are maybe the less interesting...being all so much equal to themselves..but the whole story and drama was fantastic...the only thing i missed is that in my playthrough i can't have a 3some..NPC spoke about it more than once , but at the end i can't get the scene..maybe i will replay this gem again in the future. can't wait to see if devs will get us another VN masterpiece lkike this one.

More of these long games plz. Im getting tired of those 30 min. max of content.
I like the female cast a lot here, it would´ve been hotter if Carol was the MC´s actual daughter tho....Just sayin.
I like the zombie aspect of it, there aren´t that many porn games with this type of approach surprisingly

Another fantastic story peppered with porn. I'm not sure why I'm surprised anymore to come across actual decent narratives when playing these games, but it's a welcome surprise.

The setting was nice and ground, the story focus and constant state of danger and chaos was realistic and impactful, and the real gut-punch moments did a great job of counter-balancing the sex so the story never felt too floaty. Overall, the story is pretty good.

The characters were also nicely believable, especially Naomi. Not to say the other girls weren't real enough, but sometimes they felt sorta...niche in a corny way. However Naomi had actual real growth, from the flashbacks to the present to her relationship with her mom. I really enjoyed her arc.

There were some pretty glaring problems with the game, however. First off, while it's nice to have "voices", it's not so nice when those "voices" are just the same high-pitched female orgasm done over and over and over with every girl. Quite annoying, really, especially when the sound isn't TIED to the voices volume option and you have to basically turn off all sound to get rid of it. I guess I'm saying it's not needed, and it will get on your nerves very fast.

Also, some of the coding is a bit wonky. Some of the choices I made with the girls didn't really seem to matter. Both Hana and Sydney, who I rejected to focus on the main girls, kept referencing when we had sex, and I was literally forced into a sex scene with Sydney. Also the Epilogue was just fucked straight-up. All the girls were there and all the choices were like I had basically roped every girl into sex at every opportunity. I also REALLY did not like having to sit through eeeeevery girl's long-ass sex scenes just to get to the actual story of what happened with them. I honestly cut it off after just two because it was taking so long, which is kinda a bummer....but I was tired of fast-clicking through all the annoying orgasm sound effects and 'keep going' scenes. I know that's probably a funny thing to complain about in a porn game but...honestly, the porn was the least impressive part of this game. It's just the same scene over and over and over with the same sounds over and over and over.

STILL....this is a great story, and since most people coming to this are doing so for the lewd aspect that should just be a cherry on top. The renders are nice, if repetitive, and the girls are great, if a bit shoe-horned in. Overall, a worthy expenditure of my time.

Fantastic story, didn't want it to end. I don't love the Honey Select graphics, but the characters rise far above worrying about skin texture. The sex is hot and emotionally convincing, and I truly appreciate that you don't have to lie to the girls or pretend they're stupid and don't know what's going on.

Alright, this game here... Wow. First of all, I don't bother writing many reviews. For one, I'm a dev also and it doesn't feel right to review the work of my colleagues. But damn...

Let's start with the only 'con' this game has... graphics (mainly posing of characters and facial expressions). Having worked in HS and HS2 myself, I know what can be done. And there are just too many places where hands could have been posed better. Guns aren't always held with a straight pointy finger (not to mention, sometimes the pointy finger hand pose isn't changed for the next scene). At other times, poses are just, I don't know how else to say it but... weird. Or don't really fit the dialogue very well. But, this is just me, as a dev, noticing those little things I've learned to try to watch out for in my own work. For visual novels, facial expressions are arguably the most important part of it, especially in an emotional scene. Sometimes, for example, a character might have a surprised expression when the scene calls for a sad one. However, I want to point out that these really are just minor issues in light of this amazing story.

I hate zombie stories. Really. I mean, come on... Walking Dead, Resident Evil (1, 2, 3, 4, 5... 11, 13!??) and so many others. The first thing I thought when I ran across this game was that it would just be more of the same. Wrong. Now & Then is very original, even if it can't escape some of the usual 'zombie story' tropes. The moment the world changed, I was helplessly locked in. I could NOT stop pushing forward to see what happens next. And this thing is super long. I spent hours at a time on this and it still took me about a week (in between working on my own stuff and full time job). Amazingly, as long as it is, the filesize for the download is surprisingly small considering. So don't let that dissuade you.

Rarely do you play these things and really truly feel something for the characters. I'm not even sure if I accomplish that feat in my own games. The story is so well written (even though the use of "of late" in sentences is just weird to me), it is really hard to find an issue outside a VERY few tiny spelling mishaps/typos. But these characters, each and every one of them have LIFE. And the choices your character is given to make in situations dealing with them blessfully gives you options some games like this miss out on. The MC is not a jerk or an idiot whose nose erupts and gushes blood at the sight of a nipple. He's a normal, stand-up guy that has a heart and a conscience. He is, for the most part, a gentleman. And isn't 'instantly' the hero. He grows into his heroic role. When he had to make some hard choices or do something terrible, I felt it with him. I LOVE that the writer did this with the MC.

The common things you see in 'zombie' stories are mostly all there and most things you would expect to happen, do pretty much happen. Bandits, infected, etc... it's all there. However, your choices while navigating this part of the adventure will usually lead to victory, even if there is a bit of pain involved. I only noticed maybe a couple of choices that had me backing up and rechoosing. The writer does an extremely commendable job making it feel realistic, while also letting you 'win' the situation at hand. So, while some bad situations might be resolved fairly quickly, it doesn't feel like it was that way.

There is one other extremely minor flaw that I know some others will (and have) mentioned. Boy this is a wordy vn! Yeah, I have to admit that on a few situations where it showed some stuff from the past (then), I did control click through some of it. Now, writer if you're reading this, don't get mad at me. I only did that because I was to anxious to stay on the main arc and see what happens next. Generally, I love to read already, so I didn't skip but maybe 2 of those 'then' scenes. In hindsight, after playing to the end, I want to replay it again and not skip anything at all.

Finally, sex scenes. Someone else mentioned in their review that sex scenes go too fast later in the game. I didn't find that to be the case at all (no idea what that person was talking about). Admittedly, beyond chapter (I don't know) 14? I tabbed through most of the sex scenes. Yes, they are done very well in my opinion. They are sexy and the animations are well done all the way through. Not to mention, there are a LOT of them (depending on how you choose your path). But, beyond a certain point, I was here for the story and how our little crew would deal with situations. To me, that was the most fun part of it... what's going to happen and how will they deal with it. It can go full harem for those harem fans. Or you can focus on a couple or one (at least it looks like you can, I stuck to the harem route simply to see as much of the story as possible).

This is long, I'm sorry. Regardless of my feelings about the posing and graphics... I still give this 5 stars, and would go more than that if I could. If the dev decided to come back and redo the graphics in this thing in HS2 with some better posing, I'd be all in and would probably patron to see that. So, if you're there dev, hint hint! Though, knowing how much work goes into this (from my own experience), I doubt that will happen. Still, this VN deserves a place in the top of any VN fan's list. Simply fantastic. Thanks for all the hard work on this, Dev. Well done sir!

One of the best adult visual novels. A zombie apocalypse happens and it's treated with good realism. You play a guy whose wife died years ago and you adopted a girl (Carol) to help fill that missing piece in your life. And over the years you were a good father figure, and now she's 18. People are just trying to survive, including you and Carol. She is a woman with her own thoughts and feelings, she has a well-defined personality all throughout the game. It's very good.

Now & Then has a very compelling narrative and interesting characters. It was great to see how choices I made altered dialogue and subplots. I almost dropped the game in the first few minutes because I was disappointed by the use of real photos with filters layered over them, but this is infrequent throughout the game, and I'm so glad I stuck around.

Loved this game but it sort of ruined me for others. The game was well thought out, had wonderful renders, and kept the player enticed from beginning to end.

My only complaint? Wish the author would make another one. LOL!

Now&Then is a VN set in a zombie-postapocalyptic timeline "now" which develops its characters further by making flashbacks to "then". An approach with finesse in a literary sense.
The first thing I found interesting was the fact that the novel was written in purely 1st person POV in early chapters. Although pacing was a bit stale and dull, I thought to myself dev goes for realism etc. so I continued to read. Then harem started to expand and narration shifted to 3rd person omnipotent POV. It was that moment the novel lost its charm on me. The novel had to become more exciting but it did not. The tension of unknown had been lifted by that change, so zombie apocalypse setting just became a decor to justify a formation of harem, nothing more. You can't keep the tension up if you feed the readers all the details and information. Sometimes LESS IS MORE. The writing became more and more bloated. My hand slipped to skip button more frequently.
I know this game is all about the relationship build-up by dialogue and flashbacks but I didn't find it appealing sorry. Slow pacing and constant daily small talks which serve little purpose for the reader are a bit too much for me. Feels like watching a reality show, survival aspects are toned down.
Visually the game is average. Honey select renders, not much appealing to look at tbh. It fails to give that apocalypse vibe too. I'm turned off by anime sex moans but if that's your thing then it is good, fap away.

Summary: Lots of non-impactful reading, slow pacing, anime sex moans, Ok scenes, pseudo-incest, softcore survival, vanilla sex... If you are into these go for it.

The story is decent, basically the walking dead as a porn game.

The renders are great, love Honey Select.

The audio is decent, it's nice that some sound effects are used throughout the story to make it more immersive and some generic moans are always better than silence.

The animations aren't the best but it's still more enjoyable than still images.

The amount of content is insane, probably one of the longest western VNs I've ever read.

I cant say i didnt enjoy the game. But choices of this game makes me sick . It feels like you are foeced to femdom ,its not femdom of course . As a vn enjoyer i felt playing genshin impact ,there's choices but it doesnt matter . Your lover will cut her hair ,you cant say anything about that . You are forced to say its good . What im saying ,you cant have negative point . Other than that great writing and story that you can play if you dont care about not having multiple options and cant create your personality .

Here be the bullet points:

Compelling relationships? N&T's got it.

Sexy art? N&T's got it.

Smooth animations? N&T's got it.

Hot sex scenes? The best! Simply the best!

Easily some of the best writing for an adult VN. Do yourself a favor and give this one a gander, you will not regret it.

Its a masterpiece

Zombie apocalypse and you need to survive with your adopted daughter. Sexy stuff ensues. Very wholesome story even with all the blood and gore+death around. It is also very linear every once in a while there is a choice which is basically just whether you want to be a strong leader guy or nice leader guy, but I dont even know if it makes a difference

Sex scenes are also animated, and there are quite many of them. So, your sexually frustrated daughter wants to suck your schlong and you let her as you do. 100% a must play game if you like degen visual novels

A post-apocalyptic setting--whether it involves zombies or not--works extremely well for an AVN, in that it allows the author to explore outside the conventions imposed by modernity. Unfortunately, this game makes little use of that freedom, delivering a mundane story, where the most boundary-pushing moment is when the characters are forced to relieve themselves outside of a restroom.

I found it a tedious slog to reach the ending, as there is a lot of unexciting text. I get it that being forced to hide in a building for long periods of time, with nothing to do but pace around and occasionally fuck, would be really boring. The author did a great job of conveying that. The MC wakes, takes a piss, drinks coffee, makes breakfast, patrols around to check the windows and doors, takes another piss, engages in some vapid chit-chat and/or fucks one of the girls, makes dinner, takes a last patrol and piss, goes to sleep. Then he does it again the next day, and the next, and the next.... This monotony is occasionally interrupted by a bit of action, after which the chit-chat will be even more vapid than usual for awhile. More often the glacial pace halts entirely, and we are forced to endure a flashback to pre-apocalypse times when things were even less exciting. I think the game would be more compelling with 90% of the text--and all of the flashbacks--removed.

One area where the game shines is in the programming: the web of choices and consequences is very well put together. If the author learned how to light his scenes, and partnered with someone who could write a compelling story, he could produce a first-class work.

I would cautiously recommend this game, with the caveat that most of the dialog can be safely skipped.

As I fired up the game and saw 0.26 (I forgot that it was "completed") I thought it would be short, it turns out to be the number of episodes, a very pleasant surprise.

I do not know exactly how much time it took me, but I think it was around 10h if not better, the more I am positively surprised.

The characters in the game great, I really liked the fact that I had a choice with which girls I can enter into a relationship because Alice I was not interested at all.

Cool story with a cool ending, well maybe with a small extension I would like to see, but it certainly will not affect the rating of this work.

I had a good time, even at times the story raised my blood pressure, as if I had grown close to the characters and didn't want to see them get hurt.

Highest possible rating. And I'm off to see if you've written more games, if so, I'll definitely play.
Thank you, I really enjoyed myself.