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

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.

Now & Then: v0.26.0 (Completed)

Review: 6/10 (Includes Spoilers)

Firstly. This is probably the most torn about a review I have ever been. The game is good and the story is really fleshed out with decent dialogue (for the most part) and a lot of characterization for everyone. It however, falls flat for me once you enter the school.

I went with Carol as my main LI and at the start of the game I would say the game weaves story and romance together. You decide to explore a relationship with eachother and have a nice montage of you fucking to show you getting closer/more comfortable with eachother.

Shortly after this you find another survivor and have to move into a school and from that point there is a DRASTIC shift with the game, and we go into HARD story mode. This is where the game starts to drift off for me. You become more disconnected from the characters even though the plot is advancing. Therefore more disconnected from the plot and game as a whole.

Common intimacy is the biggest problem (or lack thereof). Carol is meant to be deeply in love with you and you barely touch eachother. To clarify: I am not talking about sex here, sex is the least of the problems. Where's the hugging, holding hands, kissing, cuddling, reassuring your partner in the middle of the fucking apocalypse. I'm not asking for her to be clingy either, just a natural amount. You get the occasional "love you" and that's it. Any physical contact such as hugging 9/10 times leads to a sex scene and It's just not how people act. It drags me out of the story so much.

Intimacy-only aside, It messes with the believability of the story. You and Carol/the gang are going through so much together so wouldn't your physical reactions towards eachother grow? Just as their relationship is meant to but no... It just doesn't. You could take the romance tag out and all romance options and just tell me this is a game where you have to survive with your friends and I would have believed it. Infact it would make it a better game because I'd be under no pretenses that there would be any romance.

It honestly baffles me how I seem to be the minority here. How does this not bother other people? Maybe it's because I was wanting and expecting romance as a primary thing whereas others weren't? It's just so jarring. That's not to say there's no good moments which inspire romance, there are. It's just so sparse and doesn't evolve past a bit of dialogue that it basically doesn't exist. The LI's are just good friends that you fuck.

Conclusion:
-
I'll wrap this up because I don't want to ramble. I could say so much more on this though. I powered through from the school all the way to the Marshand house to see if the game gets better once MC is settled in, but it doesn't. I didn't gain attachment to any LI due to previously stated info and it just annoyed me more that I should be attached to them, because the story is decent, dev just fumbled it with the natural feeling of relationships and how couples act with eachother. Especially new couples.

Models and "graphics" are dated (This doesn't help but isn't the route of the problem)

Music is fine, some nice atmospheric backing tracks but nothing mindblowing.

Animations are a bit jank at the start, but get better as the game goes on and the tit physics have always been good

If you want a decent survival story with LIGHT relationships set in a post pandemic apocalyptic world then this aint bad.

IF however, you wanted something deeper where you can form an attachment to the LI's whilst surviving in this world, skip this one. Maybe It's my jaded brain again, but there's no "falling in love with a character" here and playing this story together. A real shame, I wish I could enjoy the story on it's own but once I expected it and saw it wasn't there, it rubbed me the wrong way.

It is a well written story with great characters. Even though the model looks good the animation can be a little little boring specially when you have the option to change the angle of view most of the time it's just a really random and weird view that you get, it was really disappointing in that regard. Nevertheless, because of the great story the game had a really good time playing it.

I played this months ago and still care about it enough to write a review about it.

Now and Then has some very nice highs interrupted by its lows, which become abundant after halfway. The pacing is not as tight anymore.

I am not convinced by any of the girls that they would want to stay with Jack in his harem. Carol. 100%. Naomi. 80%. Believable since she loves Carol as a sister and she is a teenage virgin girl after all. Alice. 5% chance. After knowing that her daughter is having sex with the same man, the chances of her continuing to pursue a relationship with Jack is miniscule, unless she is fucked in her mind. You can't just justify it by saying "well, the world is not the same anymore. No. No. And No. The feelings of a parent towards their child are primal and don't change just because there are no more good men available. If your daughter is having a relationship with the guy you are interested in, you drop him out of your options. Period. Sydney. Kind of. But no way would Carol be okay with it. Which teenage girl would just be willing to share her dearly loved boyfriend to a random stranger woman? It's ridiculous. And Carol is shown to be fiercely protective anyway, being the leader of the harem, so to speak. I get what the dev was going for. A nice filling of roles with Carol being queen, Alice being caregiver, Naomi being the fun woman of the harem, and Sydney being the misfit, all making sacrifices of their time by sharing their man, in return for being loved by the strong wise kind man being Jack, but to get there, it requires so much suspension of disbelief, that I can't enjoy the result. .

The main problem with this game is that it is too long. In the later part of the game, there are just too many events and characters which I don't care enough to warrant them being in the game.

But the first part of the game is so well done, with the natural conversation between Jack and Carol and the atmosphere of the zombie world (Clearly the author has put a lot of thought into crafting the world) , that I would still give a 3.5/5.

This was really good. I rate 4 stars because I didn't like the part you were force to have a relationship and even have sex with his daughter even though only she is just adopted daughter. I know this is porn but I would really like a decision myself on who to pursue and not too. But overall though story is great and I really like the idea of surviving an apocalyptic events scenarios.

Fantastic VN that checks so many good game boxes. It`s have balanced drama, stunning various characters, interesting twists, somehow plausible plot.

Fairly old graphics didn`t spoils fun and arousal, cause characters so lovable. I think, that variety of kinks are somehow shallow and maybe wanted for more happy ending for some girls. But storywise i think this game is 11 out of 10. Trully recomended.

I was browsing trough the reviews to see if i was the only one that doesn't really like this game I see lot of positive reviews But this is just not my thing Renders are great story is just boring Instead of focusing on surviving it seems to focus more on mc and the two girls having nothing but sex with every chanche they get
No bugs

Well written, beautiful models and relatable characters, good animation, and decent voicing (though several characters have basically the same moaning track, but I know it's hard to provide that kind of material).
I can't wait for the next finished project from the dev.

I came for the lewds but in a short while I didn't care about them at all.
I loved the story, the characters and their interactions, it got me hooked up and I couldn't play anything else untill i finished it.
Higly recommended but as an actual engaging story with good characters and good writing.

The only things I would change: it would be better if every girl had her own peculiar voice or none at all. Also, I would have enjoyed more focus on anal sex.

In my opinion Now & Then is kind of a polygamous parody of The Last of Us. I sometimes forgot that this is an adult game because of how good the game is.

(+) The game has one of the most polished and engaging stories in the category of adult games. The post-apocalyptic setting combined with the survival theme and love conquest can really hook you up immediately, and some of the stakes and encounters are dangerous, sudden, and painful that the world the characters live in feels more than just a fictional creation. The story is also very very long (25 chapters) so it does make you feel you are watching a TV series except it's a porn
(+) Character arcs are all very convincing. You can see the growth of most characters, especially the de facto dual heroines Carol and Naomi, from start to finish, and sometimes I cannot help but feel proud of them. MC is both charming and responsible when it comes to protect thegirls, and every LI has her own reason to fall in love with him, so it doesn't like cheap whores that throw themselves to the male protagonist, even though some might feel the girls in this game might be particularly horny, but it is ultimately a porn game, what do you expect?
(+) The point system is very fun to engage, and even though I only play harem route that makes every girl happy, the ending variations (especially threesomes) are still fun to watch. From the walkthrough guide you can literally make every LI heartbroken, but I'm still a civilized being so I never want to do that
(-) Visual is not good... Like, 99.99% not good. It's the very reason that I don't want to give the game a 5/5 rating because some of the visuals are so awful that they legitimately hurt my eyes, especially before the latter chapters of the game. The character models are... somewhat ok but still meh. The lighting is ill-balanced. It is not even a very old game! If you want a fap game, this is clearly not for you.

Overall a very good game. If the game can get a remaster update it will be my dream come true.

This story was compelling and the LI's had a legit reason for falling for the MC. It was well written and I could not stop playing it. Give this one a try if you don't mind binging the game cause once you start playing you will have trouble stopping too!!!

That's the rare game, especially of an adult genre, when you are feeling empty inside after finishing it.

(+) Very touching story of Love, with great apocalypse/survival setting.
(+) Good enough writing, nice soundtrack though not all tracks I liked.
(+) Likeable MC, truly lovable girls with nice believable personalities and realistic body types.
(+) Good amount of choises, from minor to life changing. No forced relationships, you can make some really bitter/heart breaking choises, if you really want it...
(+) Very long, finished game, with lots of ending variations.
(+-) Sex scenes are nice enough, somewhat repeatable though. There are some glitches and lighting problems quite often.

Visuals are not perfect, not bad but with some problems, not quite fappable game overall (not intended for fapping... playstyle, if that's your reason ing to play it), and some minor things that I'm not even mentioned can't force Me to give this game (cause of Story and characters mostly) less then 5/5
I Will surely spend one more week (at least) to play it again in future!

Well, what do we have here. The setting of a global pandemic with "zombies" and bandits around. I won't lie, before I started playing I was already skeptical because I'm not a fan of that kind of story. But this game was able to exceed all my expectations, and this is to say the least.
Initially, I just wrote a huge review, but then I realized that it would not be a review, but a detailed retelling of the entire plot. Therefore, I will limit myself to mentioning the pros and cons of this game.

PROS:

• Interesting and intriguing from the first minutes story. I especially liked the presentation of this story in the form of Polaroid pictures and smooth transitions between the "now" and "then".
• Very interesting and not annoying characters with different personalities, especially the main character. Not all games have such a responsible, prudent and interesting main character.
• Smooth and pleasant animations, although this is not new for games on this engine.
• Tension could be more, but I'm happy with the amount that the game provided me.
• Well-written text.
• The music is quite pleasant and does not distract from the game process.
• A small moment that not all games use - moans during sex scenes. They are of course looped and will be repeated from scene to scene, but this did not annoy me at all.

NEUTRALS:

• Game duration. I wanted to include it to the benefits of the game, but a lot of the events don't affect the story at all and they were added just to make the game even longer, which isn't always a good thing.
• I can't believe that I'm going to write this down somewhere else besides the pluses of the game - the sex scene. There were too many of them. With a fairly limited cast of characters, many scenes felt too repetitive and boring. To be honest, after the story arc at school, in most of the scenes I just pressed "skip" because I was tired of them.
• Camera angles. Their mere existence is good, but the vast majority of them were not the most necessary and too repetitive, namely, the change of shots for pussy. And this is not an exaggeration, probably in 70% of cases when choosing "change angle" you will be shown just a close-up of a pussy.
• A way of presenting really intense moments, as it was in the story-arc at school. Namely, under what circumstances the bandits discovered the presence of people in the school. This particular moment disappointed me a little, because it could have been done much more logically and more interestingly. I won't say that there are many of these moments, but nevertheless.
• Endings. The very existence of different endings is already good, especially with pregnancy moments. Although to say that they disappointed me - to say nothing. But as they say, my expectations are my problems. I have nothing against sex scenes, but when the endings are just full of these scenes instead of some kind of timeskip and a more detailed description of the future of all the characters - it's a little disappointing. Yes, some moments from the future life of the characters are shown in the endings, but this is far from enough. Perhaps I got this feeling because of the extremely large number of sex scenes and I was hoping that at least the endings would be a little different.

CONS:

• Endless conversations about how hard it is for everyone and who had to go through what to survive. Seriously, it was mentioned so often that at one point it became seriously annoying.
• Another rather annoying moment, part of which I included in the neutral moment. Extremely horny girls. Absolutely always. It doesn't really matter how sad or stressful the situation is. Interaction with characters when they are alone with the MC in 95% of cases will end in sex.
• Graphical issues at the beginning and towards the middle of the game. More specifically, lighting. It is so unstable and strange that it sometimes caused laughter. At some point, you either don’t see what’s on the screen at all, or the lighting is so strong and distorted that you get the feeling that the characters have a completely different body color, hair, etc. and this affects not only the characters or part of their body, but the entire room and the screen as a whole. I'm not sure if I described it correctly, but you will understand what I'm talking about if you have already played this game or when you start playing it.

To sum it up, I would rate it 4.5 stars, rounding up to 5 due to the fact that this game is really well made, has a lot of content, interesting story and the fact that the game is complete.
I can safely say that I recommend this game to anyone who has not played it yet.